Who is changing "Jinjiang Literature"

2017 can be regarded as a watershed year for online literature. Before 2017, there was a golden age of flourishing literature, while after 2017, the age of readers has gradually become younger. This article expresses the nostalgia for the golden age of online literature, and also reminds us that online literature is in a period of decline. The whole article is thought-provoking and is recommended for anyone who cares about the development of online literature.

Online literature has changed. Where did it change from?

The channels have changed. Online articles have become ubiquitous, even on short video platforms, with some specific videos, maybe about cutting soap, maybe about washing carpets. All short videos with cyber entertainment can be accompanied by audio novels to relieve boredom, resulting in the same type of video becoming a bit dry once it is not accompanied by online articles.

The content has changed. It seems like just yesterday, infinite flow and original danmei were still the hottest themes, but it seems that overnight, these types of genres can no longer be found in Jinjiang's hot recommendations. In contrast, the pure love VIP gold list has "He said I'm not worthy", "The rich and powerful son went viral after the variety show", "The fake young master woke up and everyone was burned to death"...

Jinjiang is no longer Jinjiang, Qidian is no longer Qidian, and the distinctions between platforms have disappeared. However, for readers, it has become so difficult to find a good article on the contemporary Internet.

1. Each generation has its own “literature”

As one of the basic infrastructures of online literature, Jinjiang actually does not have many opportunities to show up in an environment where readers often choose to follow a popular author or a popular IP.

The most recent time, Jinjiang Literature City itself was on the hot search, but the topic was #Jinjiang Literature 17-year watershed#, which stayed on the hot search all the way and even once reached the second place in the hot search.

Some netizens shared the novels they had read on Jinjiang Literature City before 2017. As a qualified Internet "GAI geek", after reading this long list of screenshots, kk found that although he had not read every one of them, at least 80% of them were familiar to him and he could even tell the general plot.

Novels after 2017 have become unfamiliar. Not only KK feels this way, but the overwhelming number of comments in the comment section are almost unanimous: Jinjiang novels are getting worse and worse.

Taking 2017 as the dividing line, online literature can be divided into the pre-online literature era and the post-online literature era. Before 2017, it was "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and "Do You Know It Should Be Green, Fat, Red and Thin", and the countless excellent original works of the stranded Dangai 101; after 2017, it became "The Age of Great Heroes", "Half-Demon Si Teng" and "The Genius Basic Law".

Until now, the representative works of Jinjiang literature are "Black Moonlight Holds the BE Script", "Full-level Green Tea Dresses as a Little Cutie", and "Understanding Wife Fans". There are only countless big men in the Beijing circle, aloof movie emperors and cool cheongsam beauties.

The level of the articles before and after is quite inconsistent, and netizens began to make up for it - the readers have changed.

It is not impossible. For example, the original novel of You Are My Human Fireworks, A City Waiting for You, was first published in 2017. The Douban short review area of ​​the first published book also focused on "love spanning ten years", "realistic expression under the setting of firefighters and doctors", "the struggle of the male and female protagonists trapped in the family" and so on.

But when the timeline moves to around 2022, the comments section has become "disrespectful of the profession", "the heroine becomes a vassal of the hero", "too idealistic", etc. In other words, contemporary readers are no longer satisfied with just seeing expressions of love in romantic literature/dramas, but place their hopes for the realization of personal ideals and personal expression in the storyline.

The question is, is it just the readers' taste in books that has changed?

In the 2015 TV series “The Love of Sheng Xiao Mo”, Zhao Mosheng donated all the money left by her father after she learned that it was embezzled. Zhao Mosheng is not a strong character, but she is still independent. After many years of Jinjiang IP being adapted into TV series, from “domineering CEO” to “female lead”, there are still female leads like “You Are My Human Fireworks” with the fragrance of “love brain”.

Even if the readership is fluid, the “big IP label” generated by the different readerships is also fluid.

However, as another generation of online literature readers gradually moves from campus to society, the reading requirements of contemporary readers will only become higher and higher. But when you open Jinjiang, the top of the list is still the shocking campus literature with "pinching waists and red eyes".

It’s really hard to comment.

2. The era of online literature involution

So, is it because the downstream film and television adaptations have in turn affected the online literature creation market?

Not entirely. The fact that "literature" in the post-online literature era cannot beat previous works is not just a simple stereotype. It applies not only to the reputation of novels, but also to the reputation of adapted dramas.

Unlike the summer movie season when many "great-sounding" movies emerged, the winners and losers of this summer's film and television dramas are very clear. The costume dramas "Chang Xiang Si" and "Lotus Tower" have been competing for who will be the final winner.

"Longing" has been a hit since its premiere, setting a new record for Tencent Video's 2023 drama series, with a market share of 30% in the popular list of Yunhe data statistics; and "Lotus Tower" is closely behind, with a maximum market share of 28.9%. Coincidentally, the original texts adapted from these two dramas also happen to belong to the same era - Tong Hua's "Longing" and Teng Ping's "Auspicious Pattern Lotus Tower", which can almost be regarded as the same period.

Ancient Chinese novels can rely on their past success and the IP accumulated over the years to continue to consolidate the "reputation" of Jinjiang's productions. But what about modern Chinese novels?

Also in the summer season, the contemporary adaptations of "Secretly Cannot Be Hidden" and "My Human Fireworks" seem to be at the other extreme. The works themselves have popularity and traffic, but they are more controversial. Both works are adapted from works completed in 2017 and 2019. The former was rated as a low-age romance, and the latter was criticized from all angles.

Indeed, for authors, Jinjiang is still the best platform for novel creation. The accumulation of predecessors has laid a solid foundation for Jinjiang. As early as 2021, the total number of works in Jinjiang exceeded 3.8 million.

But for the author, this glory is not necessarily his own.

At present, if a work wants to become an IP, it needs to go through more sophisticated operations. Take the Jinjiang fairy tale Jiu Lu Fei Xiang, who steadily produces several TV dramas every year, for example. This year's "Heart Guarding", "Long Night Embers" and "Seven Times of Auspiciousness" are all her original novels, and her novels, from the setting of the characters to the arrangement of the plot, can be said to be born for adaptation. But to be such an author, you need to accumulate a large number of works.

For the new generation of authors, it means an end to the rolling and a big step forward. First of all, the number of words, a netizen revealed that when he wrote in Jinjiang, it was normal to update 10,000 words a day.

Secondly, in order to get closer to the market, new authors often choose to learn from the works ranked high on the VIP list. A large number of online novels such as "He said I'm not worthy", "Going to a variety show with the son of a wealthy family became popular", and "The fake young master woke up and everyone was burned to death" have sprung up like mushrooms after rain and covered the entire Jinjiang Literature City.

The question is, can we still find “literature” in such a literary city?

3. The sequelae of oral literature

It is obviously becoming increasingly difficult for readers.

The number of authors and works is increasing, but good works are as hard to find as finding a needle in a haystack.

The topic #Jinjiang Literature 17-Year Watershed# sets the dividing point of Jinjiang’s changes in 2017, perhaps due to the Internet Cleaning Campaign that began in 2017.

From 2017 to 2019, Jinjiang Literature underwent multiple rounds of rectification. According to a report by Southern Metropolis Daily at the time, in May 2019, online works such as "The Unrepentant Man" and "Diary of the Cultivation of a Monster" published on Jinjiang Literature City's website were found to be suspected of spreading obscene and pornographic content.

After the relevant departments ordered rectification according to law, "Jinjiang Literature City" immediately shut down the "Oriental Fiction Column" under the Ancient Pure Love Channel, and its derivative "Oriental Fantasy Column" under the Pure Love Channel, and stopped updating the original sub-station for 15 days. Less than two months later, the platform was once again completely suspended for rectification.

Closing down, rectifying, reopening, and warning again... Under high pressure, perhaps to solve the problem once and for all, Jinjiang launched a new banned word system, transforming itself from "no description below the neck" to creating oral literature.

The good thing is that the highly sensitive banned words finally allowed Jinjiang to get rid of the continuous rectification and resume high-frequency production, but some things have changed permanently. With a series of restrictions such as locking articles and word usage, the time came to 2020, and the online literature world finally changed quietly.

After 2020, the online literature that went viral became "low-brow" romance novels such as "Can't Hide Secretly" and "Difficult to Please". Although danmei-themed works such as "Welcome to the Nightmare Live Room" and "I Become a God in the Infinite Game" have good reputations, they cannot be compared with the popularity of high-reputation works of the same period in the same year.

The new "masterpiece" seems to be widely circulated only among the younger generation of readers and fails to gain recognition from older readers.

Finally, under the topic of #Jinjiang Literature 17-year watershed#, old readers reminisced about the golden age of Jinjiang, the era when Priest, Wu Zhe, Huai Shang, Mu Suli, Tang Jiuqing, and Mo Bao Fei Bao were popular.

At the same time, with the rise of a new generation of authors, the types of Jinjiang online literature have returned to the major mainstream types such as sweet literature, refreshing literature, wealthy families, entertainment circles, infinite flow, and quick wear. Compared with the flourishing of all kinds of literature in the golden age, isn't this a step backward?

Online literature has reached this point today not because of a certain platform change or the popularity of a certain genre. It’s just that for Jinjiang, as more and more authors who have been recognized for film and television adaptations stop writing and are replaced by new generations, the best times have indeed passed quietly.

Author: Xiang Xiang;

Source public account: Wenyu Talk (ID: wenyuTalk0506), records the ups and downs and changes of big entertainment, and respects all reasonable and legal free expressions.