The Cold Window Guide to Chinese Internet Literature, Part 2
Authors and academics recommend the best novels for new readers
Welcome back to the Cold Window Newsletter. This is the second of three installments of the Cold Window Guide to Internet Literature, featuring Chinese internet novel recommendations from experts all over the world. Today’s installment covers recommendations from webnovel authors and researchers.
Directory: Introduction // Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 (in progress)
Zhuo Ming
Zhuo Ming 琢明, currently completing her graduate studies in Chinese, is a veteran webnovel reader and fanfiction writer. Recommendations translated from Chinese by A.R.
A veritable feast at eight volumes long, the 《鬼吹灯》 Ghost Blows Out the Light series1 by 天下霸唱 Tian Xia Ba Chang is the foundational masterpiece of the Chinese tomb-raiding genre. The three-person team of Hu Bayi, Fatty Wang, and Shirley Yang travel deep into forgotten deserts and snowy mountains, delving into ancient caves and secret chambers, using the occult arts of feng shui to uncover the secrets of a thousand-year-old plot. The author throws folk mythology, the specialized argot of wuxia stories, and hard-core adventure beats into the mix, producing a highly original narrative voice that brings to mind the style of an oral storyteller. Even as he remains highly faithful to the story’s historical background, he also excels at conjuring the fear and trembling that we might feel in the face of a totally unknown civilization. Any Western readers who want to learn more about Chinese people’s complex feelings toward feng shui and “ancestral culture,” or who want to seek out the Eastern counterpart of Raiders of the Lost Ark, simply have to start here!
天下霸唱《鬼吹灯》
Ghost Blows Out the Light by Tian Xia Ba Chang
Serialized from 2006 (536 chapters)
Official Chinese text not available online // Translation information at Novel Updates
Next is 《一银币一磅的恶魔》 One Silver Coin for a Pound of Demon by 星河蛋挞 selstarry. What is art? This is art. A priest x demon danmei (boys’ love) romance, told in the second person, following a branching narrative structure with one canonical “happy ending” and five achingly beautiful “bad endings.” The characterization and worldbuilding are top-tier, the plot sweeps irresistibly toward the conclusion, the pacing is superb, and, most of all, the intricate writing style is enough to make readers want to sink into the story. Just reading the beginning was enough to make me lose track of day and night. I’m tempted to call the experience a mini-Enlightenment. I suspect that Western readers will connect with the story it tells even more than I did.
星河蛋挞《一银币一磅的恶魔》
One Silver Coin for a Pound of Demon by selstarry
Serialized 2016 (41 chapters)
Official Chinese text not available online // Translation information at Novel Updates
Can I admit something? Reading 《穿到明朝考科举》Transmigrating to the Ming Dynasty’s Imperial Examination by 五色龙章 Wu Se Long Zhang, I got the sense that this author genuinely, truly wanted to teach me how to write an imperial examination essay. The Ming dynasty was a highly romantic period of Chinese history, and that romanticism is expressed in full color through the author’s meticulous textual research, flowing prose, and extensive bibliographies. This novel is the gold standard for readable historical fiction danmei “academy novels” (emphasis on the “academy) (this is a term I made up, by the way). I would go so far as to describe its style as elegantly literary. My only worry is that it might be too challenging a read. Are there really readers and translators out there who are willing to brave its obscure vocabulary and abstruse passages of classical prose?
五色龙章《穿到明朝考科举》
Transmigrating to the Ming Dynasty’s Imperial Examination by Wu Se Long Zhang
Serialized from 2017 (314 chapters)
Original Chinese at JJWCX // Translation information at Novel Updates
Lina Qu
Lina Qu is an assistant professor of Chinese at Michigan State University. Her research interests focus on modern Chinese women’s cultural practices from print to social media and various genres of food media in East Asian popular culture.
For online crime fiction, I’d like to recommend the 高智商犯罪 High-IQ Crime mystery series by 紫金陈 Zi Jin Chen, which comprises four novels: 《逻辑王子的演绎》 The Deduction of the Logic Prince, 《化工女王的逆袭》 The Counterattack of the Queen of Chemistry, 《物理老师的时空诡计》 The Physics Teacher’s Temporal Scheme, and 《死亡代言人》 The Spokesperson of Death. Originally serialized on Tianya Forum in 2012, this mystery series showcases the revival of Chinese genre fiction in the internet age. All the four novels interweave astonishingly complex murder schemes and unsettling social exposé. Without glorifying vigilant justice, the series illuminates how crimes are incubated within a society deeply entangled in structural violence and bureaucratic corruption.
紫金陈《逻辑王子的演绎》
The Deduction of the Logic Prince by Zi Jin Chen
Serialized 2012-2017 (295 chapters)
Original Chinese at Qidian // No English translation
For online culinary fiction, I’d like to recommend 《美食供应商》 Gourmet Food Supplier by 会做菜的猫 Hui Zuo Cai De Mao. This feel-good fiction, serialized on Qidian in 2016, unapologetically celebrates high-quality food as food to the soul. While the depiction of food porn is clearly influenced by popular food media such as culinary manga, the fiction takes readers to taste regional specialty food across China.
会做菜的猫《美食供应商》
Gourmet Food Supplier by Hui Zuo Cai De Mao
Serialized 2016-2021 (2794 chapters)
Original Chinese at Qidian // English translation at Webnovel
Shao Yanjun
Shao Yanjun is a Professor of Chinese at Peking University and one of the founding scholars of Chinese internet literature research. Recommendations translated from Chinese by A.R.
猫腻 Mao Ni is one of China’s most classic internet authors, and 《将夜》 Jiang Ye is his most mature work. It is also the work that firmly established the Chinese character of the “Eastern fantasy” genre, by then years in the making. The novel’s characters are based on the disciples of Confucius, and it discusses the differing paths of Western and Eastern culture, among other profound topics.
猫腻《将夜》
Nightfall by Mao Ni
Serialized 2011-2014 (1118 chapters)
Original Chinese at Qidian // Translation information at Novel Updates
Priest is the most outstanding writer on Jinjiang Wenxuecheng, China’s premier female-oriented novel platform. She is also the writer on the platform who has won the most mainstream acclaim. 《默读》 Silent Reading is her defining novel, a hybrid work of danmei and procedural fiction. Its sections are named after the protagonists from The Red and the Black, Lolita, Macbeth, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Dostoevsky’s Demons, and they delve deep into the psychological motivations of criminals. A good pick for Western readers.
Priest《默读》
Silent Reading by Priest
Serialized 2016-2017 (189 chapters)
Original Chinese at JJWCX // English translation from Seven Seas
《十日终焉》Ten-Day Ultimatum by 杀虫队队员 Sha Chong Dui Dui Yuan is the single Chinese internet novel that has won the most widespread attention in recent years. Its reputation in the academic world is very strong, and it has won many awards, earning it a reputation as a masterpiece of “gamified realism.” The novel is an insightful take on contemporary life in China. The surface plot is a mind-twisting suspense story about a group of people trapped killing each other in a game, who eventually find the means to break free and escape. But at a deeper level, the story is about searching for justice in a world where you’ve lost confidence in the rules. In the depth of its allegory, it’s comparable to 1984.
杀虫队队员《十日终焉》
Ten Day Ultimatum by Sha Chong Dui Dui Yuan
Serialized 2022-2024 (1496 chapters)
Original Chinese at Fanqie // Translation information at Novel Updates
Yi Bei
Yi Bei 伊贝 is a tarot reader and contracted author at Jinjiang Wenxuecheng. She has been writing full-time for four years and has published webnovels including 《不记年》 Year Unknown,《太平旧梦》An Old Dream of Taiping, and 《阿莱》 Alai. Recommendations translated from Chinese by A.R.
The protagonist of 《无心法师》 The Heartless Mage by 尼罗 Ni Luo is immortal. He has no heart and is adept at capturing demons and ghosts, which is why he’s known as “Heartless.” The story takes place in 1920. As the chaos of secessionist warlords brings unspeakable suffering for the ordinary people, Heartless wakes up from a deep sleep. He dresses up as a monk and heads to Wen County, where he meets the female lead, Crescent. From there, they make a living catching demons, tying their fates together.
The story is made up of several episodes stitched together, after which Heartless collects their memories and sinks into another long sleep. When he awakens, heaven and earth have changed utterly, as though all that had happened before was merely a dream.
This is a book of strange tales. Much like Pu Songling’s Strange Tales from Liaozhai, it uses stories about monsters to write about human nature. The story is eccentric and ever-shifting, which makes it highly engrossing. A good entry point for readers who like fantasy stories.
尼罗《无心法师》
The Heartless Mage by Ni Luo
Published 2015 (249 chapters)
Official Chinese text not available online // Translation information at Novel Updates
《他的劫》 His Misfortune by 尼罗 Ni Luo is a danmei novel set in China’s Republican era. The story takes the “greed,” “ill will,” “ignorance,” “love,” “hate,” and “unwanted encounters” of its various characters as its point of departure. In an age of chaos, without law and order to restrain it, the dark side of human nature tends to become magnified. No matter what it is you’ve done, you’ll always pay the price for your desires and your choices in the end.
Every romantic pairing in the book is heartbreaking. Just as the reader is emotionally reeling, the author delivers this message through the voice of a character: Set aside your sorrows, and ten thousand leagues of cloudless skies will open before you.
Even when you have exhausted all of the many changes of human life, everything ultimately is subject to its fate.
尼罗《他的劫》
His Misfortune by Ni Luo
Serialized 2012 (179 chapters)
Official Chinese text not available online // Not translated
In 《逐玉》 Chasing Jade by 团子来袭 Tuan Zi Li Xi, after the protagonist’s parents both die, it’s a brave, strong, and clever female pig-butcher who happens to rescue him from danger. From here, their lives are tied together, each for their own reasons. The story’s setting imitates the Song dynasty. The beacons of war burn on all sides; battles rage without end. The story begins from the perspective of simple city-dwellers and gradually extends to the imperial court, eventually becoming entangled with an unsolved case from sixteen years before. As they search for the truth of this case, the male and female protagonists’ feelings for each other start to heat up. A book with both bitterness and sweetness.
Historical romances like this are quite popular right now. A television series of the same name is also currently coming out. There couldn’t be a better place to start if you want to read internet fiction.
团子来袭《逐玉》
Chasing Jade by Tuan Zi Lai Xi
Serialized 2023 (164 chapters)
Original Chinese at JJWCX // Translation information at Novel Updates
Michel Hockx
Michel Hockx is professor of Chinese literature at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Internet Literature in China (Columbia, 2015) and, most recently, of Literature and Censorship in Modern China (Routledge, 2026).
黑蓝 Heilan (Black and Blue) started as a short-lived print journal in Nanjing in the 1990s, but soon after the turn of the millenium regrouped as an online home (www.heilan.com) for aspiring avant-garde fiction writers. Led by 陈卫 Chen Wei and inspired by the French nouveau roman and other similar approaches, the group championed a type of writing that emphasizes experimental technique and pure aesthetic value, unaffected by any real-world considerations. Over time, Black and Blue nurtured a substantial community of like-minded writers from all over China. With impressive dedication, they put together a monthly webzine that came out without fail and without delay every single month from January 2003 to May 2015. The group generally keeps its distance from the official world of print publishing, but some collections of their work did appear in print at different times, including in the Heilan wencong 黑蓝文丛 (Black and Blue Series), published with Shanghai People’s Publishing House around 2007. Although the website is now no longer actively maintained, it remains in existence and includes an archive of all that was posted on their forums over the years. The core members of the group also maintain an official account on WeChat.
Cathy Yue Wang
Cathy Yue Wang is a lecturer at Shanghai Normal University. Her research focuses on children’s and young adult literature and Chinese online literature.
When I think of lesser-known works, I am especially drawn to two kinds of writing. One is works published outside the major mainstream platforms such as Qidian or Jinjiang. The other is works from roughly 2003 to 2014. During that period, internet literature had not yet become commercialized to the extent it later did, nor was it as heavily censored as it became after around 2014. For me, that earlier moment contains many fascinating and diverse experiments that are well worth revisiting.
I am more familiar with female-oriented (女频or女性向) internet fiction, so my recommendations are mostly drawn from that broad category. Of course, this category includes many different subgenres, such as heterosexual romance (BG), danmei (boys’ love), baihe (girls’ love), and no-CP fiction. I have tried to include as many of these subgenres as possible. I have the impression that since 《魔道祖师》 Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation and its adaptation 《陈情令》 The Untamed, danmei has attracted significant attention. Danmei is, of course, wonderful, and I am a fan of it myself. Even so, I do not think the other subgenres should be overshadowed by it. Below are a few works that I personally like. They may not all be truly “lesser-known,” but they are the ones that come to my mind in this context.
《人间流放者》An Exile Among Humanity by 星河蛋挞 selstarry (F/M) is a disturbing story set in an Alpha/Beta/Omega universe, with a female Alpha and a male Omega at its center. I especially love its darkness, its radical reversal of conventional gender hierarchy, and its dystopian world. It is also very short by the standards of online fiction. A hidden gem. It didn’t get published on commercial websites such as Qidian and Jinjiang.
星河蛋挞《人间流放者》
An Exile Among Humanity by selstarry
Serialized 2017 (24 chapters)
Official Chinese version not available online // English translation at Archive of Our Own
《十年》 Ten Years by 暗夜流光 An Ye Liu Guang (M/M) is an early danmei classic from 2001 to 2003, originally serialized on Lucifer, an early women-oriented website. Compared with the later Jinjiang Literature City, Lucifer had a stronger sense of community, was less commercialized, and allowed for a bolder and more diverse range of writing. Novels like this also felt less standardized and less formulaic than much later online fiction. The novel stands out for its more realistic and less romanticized portrayal of a gay love story. Its author, sadly, passed away due to illness, and remains one of the earlier generation of danmei writers.
暗夜流光《十年》
Ten Years by An Ye Liu Guang
Serialized 2001-2003 (10 chapters)
Original Chinese at JJWCX // Translation information at Novel Updates
《帮我拍拍》 Pat Me Please by 七小皇叔 Qi Xiao Huang Shu (F/F) is a baihe story from Changpei, another women-oriented website. The main storyline follows the rekindled relationship between two female protagonists: Yu Zhou, an online fiction writer, and Su Chang, a female voice actor for audio dramas. A third important character is Xiang Wan, the daughter of a chancellor who travels from the ancient past into the modern world. What I especially like about this novel is its nuanced portrayal of intimacy between women, including both friendship and love, as well as its depiction of women’s growth. It is written with great delicacy.
七小皇叔《帮我拍拍》
Pat Me Please by Qi Xiao Huang Shu
Serialized 2022 (99 chapters)
Original Chinese at Changpei // Translation information at Novel Updates
《清穿日常》 Time Travel to the Daily Life of the Qing Dynasty by 多木木多 Duo Mu Mu Duo (M/F) is quite well known because of its television adaptation, New Life Begins, though the drama differs greatly from the original. Duo Mu Mu Duo is a highly prolific author on Jinjiang Literature City. Her novels are sustained by dense detail and the texture of everyday life, with a deep attentiveness to the many dimensions of women’s worlds. Her novels carry something of the flavor of classical Chinese fiction, which I love. But she has written so much, and many of her works are so long, that I sometimes feel I will never be able to read them all.
多木木多《清穿日常》
Time Travel to the Daily Life of the Qing Dynasty by Duo Mu Mu Duo
Serialized from 2015 (514 chapters)
Original Chinese at JJWCX // No English translation
Priest is famous, perhaps even too famous. An extraordinary writer, she has produced a number of hugely popular danmei as well as heterosexual romance novels. But 《桥头楼上》 End of the Bridge, Top of the Tower (no CP), a newer work, feels quite different: it leans more toward suspense and mystery, and it is exceptionally sharp in its attention to women’s lived experiences.
Priest《桥头楼上》
End of the Bridge, Top of the Tower by Priest
Serialized in 2022 (31 chapters)
Zhang Xiaoyun
Zhang Xiaoyun, currently completing her graduate study at Peking University, is a novelist and member of the Beijing Writers’ Association.
《明月何皎皎》 How Bright the Glistening Moon by 乐韫 Yue Yun is a deeply moving generational family novel. It recounts the vicissitudes of business and fate spanning forty years in the lives of two families in Xi’an. In so doing, it brings to life a vivid group portrait of the women in these families and illustrates the rapid pace of development in the four decades since China’s Reform and Opening Up. Overall, it’s a readable and touching period piece. For international readers, it’ll offer a glimpse into how Chinese family members relate to one another and maintain their love for one another. The novel has already been adapted into a radio drama and collected many positive reviews from readers.
乐韫《明月何皎皎》
How Bright the Glistening Moon by Yue Yun
Serialized 2022-2023 (30 chapters)
Original Chinese at Douban Reads // Not translated
That’s it for Part 2. More reading recommendations to come in the final installment, this time from professional translators and workers at web literature platforms. Thanks for reading.
Directory: Introduction // Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 (in progress)
While Tian Xia Ba Chang and Ni Luo’s novels no longer have official serialized online versions, the complete Chinese text can still be easily located via Baidu. This is true for most older webnovels that have been taken down by their original host platforms.
I love that Shao Yanjun recommended Silent Reading, but just so anglophone readers know: the Seven Seas translation seems to be based on the censored simplified mainland print edition, so a not-insignificant amount of text is missing. Thank you for these two posts!