CWN#7.5: Internet genres redux

13 Ways of Looking at Chinese Internet Literature (#5-6)

Welcome back to the Cold Window Newsletter. This issue: more ways of looking at Chinese internet literature. For the month of July, I’m setting aside literary fiction to focus entirely on a deep dive into internet genres, and in this issue we’ll dive straight into the vortex with a rough guide to the genres themselves. In case you need a refresher, I began this series with some thoughts on internet novels and Western publishing back in May. Take a look:

CWN#6: 13 ways of looking at Chinese internet literature // Chronicles of the small-town South

Thirteen ways of looking at Chinese internet literature: Genres redux (#5-6)

Last week, I tried to give a high-level overview of how to talk about Chinese internet literature genres and why they matter. This week, it’s time to look at the genres themselves.

Many discussions of internet genres, both in Chinese and English, are content to present them as lists of story types all in a row, like a menu authors choose from when they sit down to write. But if we’re going to try to understand what makes Chinese internet literature appealing, that approach feels seriously insufficient to me. Like I said last week, genre is about not just the existing tropes you pull into your novel, but also the ways you satisfy and surprise your readers. Making them hungry for more, while leaving room for new combinations, new genres, to arise.

So, below, I’m going to offer two different taxonomies of genre. The first categorizes novels based on the tools they use to achieve that satisfied, addicted feeling; the second is rooted in important works from internet literature history and the genres they helped bring into being. That may not be quite enough to capture the whole vast range of this literature, but it’s a start.

Way #5: as a taxonomy of story forms

My favorite approach to genre classification comes from 王玉玊 Wang Yusu in her book 《编码新世界》 Coding a New World. Wang proposes that the most recent generation of internet literature has been heavily shaped by cross-fertilization with animation, comics, and, most of all, games. I think her taxonomy is so good that I don’t want to get in the way. Instead, I’ll just translate portions below so that she can walk you through it herself.

《编码新世界——游戏化向度的网络文学》(Coding a New World: The Gamified Turn in Internet Literature, 2021)

Typical works of internet literature published within the current digital/artificial ecosystem include the following six basic types.

1. Leveling-up and system stories. These stories all show the clear influence of the questing and leveling-up structures from online games. The protagonist is required to constantly accept and complete quests, receive rewards, increase in strength, and accept new quests in a cyclical process that forms the main structure of the story. In systemless leveling-up stories 升级文, the protagonist’s motivation to achieve their goal—whether it is to ascend to immortality or to conquer the earth—ultimately comes from their own desires. […] More recently, the system story 系统文 genre portrays it as thoroughly natural for protagonists to be controlled by their systems. Not only does the external system assist the protagonist in the form of money, cheat codes, etc., it also supplies the protagonist’s entire life purpose.

2. Slice-of-life and pampering stories. Slice-of-life 日常向 stories pose a challenge to the traditional narrative impulse. They are no longer invested in telling complex stories featuring exposition, development, climax, and resolution. Instead, they revolve around highly aestheticized depictions of daily life. [...] Around 2013, the pampering story 甜宠文 trend rose to prominence within female-oriented internet literature, and it soon became the sole guiding model for emotional development within female-oriented novels. Strictly speaking, the intimate relationship between the male and female leads in a pampering story is not love but rather soulmateship 羁绊: as a perfect pair fated by heaven to be together, the two characters adore each other, understand each other perfectly, and trust each other unquestioningly. No third party ever butts in; no conflicts or misunderstandings ever arise.

3. Infinite flow and rapid transmigration. These stories incorporate worldbuilding elements of many different genres in rapid succession. In one chapter the protagonist might be operating a mech suit in a sci-fi world, while in the next he might become entangled in a power struggle between families in a historical setting. [...] In infinite flow 无限流 stories, the logic of the original world and the parallel “copy-worlds,” particularly mystery-solving elements in decoding this logic, become a primary reason for reading the story. Why does the protagonist keep appearing in different worlds? What does the overworld actually want from him? What secrets and traps are hiding from him in the copy-worlds? [...] Rapid transmigration 快穿 is a subgenre of infinite flow oriented toward female readers. The pleasure of these stories comes primarily from the subversion of genre. In a typical rapid-transmigration story, each of the parallel worlds comes pre-loaded with the conventions and tropes of an existing internet literature genre. The protagonist forges a new path by breaking the genre rules of each successive world, all while mocking the irrationality of the original tropes.

(Let me cut in for a second to say that this Reddit post also does a fantastic job of explaining infinite flow to the uninitiated.)

《无限恐怖》(Terror Infinity by zhttty, 2007), one of the progenitors of the infinite flow 无限流 genre

4. Rants and memes. Works of internet literature centered around internet humor 玩梗 can broadly be separated into three types. The first is deeply embedded in popular internet culture and references as many memes as quickly as possible. New memes are incorporated into the story as soon as they become popular online. The second type creatively finds new humor in old memes, keeping the reader’s interest with original and unexpected rants. The third kind specializes in creating new memes. [...] But wherever there are punchlines, there must also be ranting 吐槽. Whether the complaining about the jokes is done by the protagonist or is left to the reader, there must always be space left for a reaction to the punchline.

5. Headcanons and outline stories. Headcanon 脑洞 fragments (under 140 characters in length) and outline stories 大纲文 (thousands to tens of thousands of characters) can often be found on social media platforms like Weibo and LOFTER 乐乎. These works start from a specific ship, plot, meme, or worldbuilding concept to tell a story in extremely simple language with extremely few specific details. Any information unrelated to the central focus is excised.

6. Fanfiction stories 同人文. While fan communities of a particular piece of media often insist on the primacy of canon 官设 story elements, [...] it is fanon 公设 (i.e., fan-made) story elements that form the real creative basis for fanfiction. Of course, fanon is never static, but rather is in a constant state of flux. Different fans might have wildly different interpretations of a certain element of fanon. Still, in an active fan community, fanon should form a basic shared “database” understood by all members. It creates a digital environment exclusive to members of the fan community in which storytelling can take place.

Way #6: as a constantly evolving genre history

Of course, there’s a much more conventional set of genre terms that fans and platforms usually use to describe internet novels. As overlapping and vaguely-defined as they sometimes are, it’s worth taking a tour of these conventional genres, passing by some examples of influential novels in each genre along the way.

Don’t treat this as a reading list—I haven’t read most of what’s on here myself. I’ll also admit that the coverage of female-oriented fiction 女性向 below is far from complete, both because I’ve read less of it and because its historical importance is often understated in the Chinese sources I rely on for this series. So just think of this as a meandering, somewhat random stroll through genre history.¹ Hopefully some proper reading lists, curated by myself and other fans based on what we actually love to read, will follow.

A note on links: in this and future issues, the Chinese title of each novel will lead to the original text,² and the English title will lead to the officially licensed translation if it exists, or to the fan-maintained Novel Updates page if not.³

Beginnings

The actual starting point of Chinese internet literature is of some debate, but it’s generally accepted that it has roots in early experiments in serialized fiction on Taiwanese bulletin boards. 《悟空传》, a landmark Journey to the West fanfiction, is one of the earliest works that still reads like a modern internet novel.

• 罗森《风姿物语》(The Shape of the Wind by Luo Sen, 1997)

• 痞子蔡《第一次的親密接觸》(The First Intimate Contact by Pi Zi Cai, 1998)

• 今何在《悟空传》(The Legend of Wukong by Jin Hezai, 2000）(xianxia)

Qihuan 奇幻

So-called “Western-style fantasy,” defined by elements like magic, orcs, dwarves, etc. This genre generated massively popular novels during the 2000s, including some some of the first internet genres to gain officially licensed translations in English. Subgenres include D&D, sword-and-sorcery, and steampunk.

• 我吃西红柿《盘龙》 (Coiling Dragon by I Eat Tomatoes, 2008)

Cultivation 修仙 and xianxia 仙侠

Outgrowths of older Chinese wuxia and supernatural novels, mixed with elements of Western and Japanese fantasy stories. At their core, these stories follow a protagonist training to ascend to immortality. There’s no precise boundary between the two terms, but “xianxia” is often understood to refer to cultivation stories taking place in historical or mythical Chinese settings, while “cultivation” is a broader category that could also take place in modern or science-fictional settings.

• 萧鼎《诛仙》 (Zhu Xian by Xiao Ding, 2003）

• 忘语《凡人修仙传》 (A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality by Wang Yu, 2008)

• 墨香铜臭《天官赐福》 (Heaven Official’s Blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, 2017)

Xuanhuan 玄幻

Also called “Eastern-style fantasy” to differentiate it from qihuan. This is an extremely broad category of fantasy stories that place a heavy emphasis on original worldbuilding and creative leveling-up systems. Many infinite flow 无限流 stories fit into this category. More recently, the success of 《诡秘之主》 has sparked a trend of xuanhuan novels inspired by the Cthulhu mythos 克苏鲁.

• 唐家三少《斗罗大陆》(Lands of Battle by Tang Jia San Shao, 2008)

• 爱潜水的乌贼《诡秘之主》 (Lord of Mysteries by Cuttlefish That Loves Diving, 2018)

• 西子续《死亡万花筒》(Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zi Xu, 2018)

Tomb-raiding 盗墓

Suspenseful archaeology-adventure stories borrowing heavily from traditional Chinese culture. You don’t hear too much about this genre lately, but its early classics remain some of the defining works of Chinese internet literature.

• 天下霸唱《鬼吹灯》 (Ghost Blows Out the Light by Ruler Under Heaven, 2005)

• 南派三叔《盗墓笔记》 (The Grave Robbers’ Chronicles by Nan Pai San Shu, 2006)

History 历史 and historical romance 古代言情

The male-oriented side of historical novels includes plenty of influential transmigration, military, and alternate history stories, but it’s the female-oriented historical romance side that is most vibrant and has had the biggest impact on pop culture. Subgenres of historical romance include palace intrigue 宫斗 and feuding family 宅斗 stories, usually starting with a transmigration. There’s also field-tilling literature 种田文, a more relaxed subgenre in which the transmigrated protagonist ekes out a life (and romance) within a traditional farming or merchant society.

• 桐华《步步惊心》(Surprises with Every Step by Tong Hua, 2005)

• 当年明月《明朝那些事儿》(Those Ming Things by Yesteryear’s Moon, 2006)

• 流潋紫《后宫·甄嬛传》(Empresses in the Palace by Liu Lian Zi, 2006)

Urban romance 都市言情

Romance stories that take place in modern settings, not history. In addition to the evergreen campus romance 校园言情, other subgenres like “domineering CEO” 霸总 and “high-ranking cadre” 高干 have all had their turns in the spotlight. (霸总文 are predominantly male-female stories, while 高干文 was a subgenre of mostly male-male romance that was wiped off the major novel platforms during a 2014 censorship campaign).

• 匪我思存《佳期如梦》(The Girl in Blue by Fei Wo Si Cun, 2006)

• 辛夷坞《致我们终将逝去的青春》(So Young by Xin Yi Wu, 2007)

Danmei 耽美

Danmei, the internationally beloved genre of male-male romance stories written by and for women that I discussed at the beginning of this series, can overlap with just about any of the genres I’ve listed above. Historical transmigration, sci-fi, and infinite flow all have their own danmei canons. I’m following the example of many scholars and web literature platforms before me by giving them their own section, so as to reflect their independent development and fanbase.

• 墨香铜臭《天官赐福》 (Heaven Official’s Blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, above)

• priest《杀破狼》 (Stars of Chaos by Priest, 2015）

• 西子续《死亡万花筒》(Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zi Xu, above)

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That’s it for this month’s internet genre deep dive. Next time: a return to literary fiction for a special issue on the best short fiction collections of the year so far. Thanks for reading!

1. *For this section, I’m indebted to 《网络文学经典选读》(2016), edited by 邵燕君, among other more recent sources. But it’s impossible, and misguided, to make a fixed canon of internet novels; the only true classics are the ones fans choose themselves.

2. Unless the Chinese original has been delisted from the major internet novel platforms, which does happen. A lot.

3. I won’t link directly to unlicensed fan translations, but they’re very easy to locate using Novel Updates if that’s your preferred way to read.