The Production of the Chinese Internet Literature Websites

Title：The Research on the Mainstream Production Mechanisms of the Chinese Internet Literature Websites: Focusing on the RongShuXia and the QiDian Chinese Net（中国网络文学的主流生产机制：以“榕树下”和“起点中文网”为中心的讨论）

Author：

SoYoung KIM (金昭英)

PhD 2014 Dissertation      

Abstract：

In China, unlike in most of countries in the world, the on-line literature has been prosperous, and a large number of on-line literature writers, readers, works and websites have already emerged. It is no doubt that the on-line literature has changed and will continuously change the Chinese culture and literature. In order to understand the details of the Chinese online literature and literary production mechanism, I chose and searched two well-known large-scale literary websites: RongShuXia and QiDian Chinese Network. I believe that the observation and the comparison of these two sites will help us understand the birth, the current status and the historical changes of the Chinese large-scale literature websites. Also it will help us understand the changes of the literary production and reproduction process which are happened online.

In the first and the second chapters, I discuss the literary production and transmission mode of the RongShuXia. Many users and operators of the RongShuXia share this belief: literature should have the freedom of expression and press. And literature should also be equal, which means, between authors or between authors and readers there should be no levels. With the belief, RongShuXia, sometimes revolting against and sometimes having admiration for “traditional literature”, has made efforts to find the new mechanism of the literary production and its own identity for on-line literature. However, it was only in the internal website that RongShuXia made an effort to have non-commercial and “belles-lettres” image. In off-line, it took the perspective of cultural industry and pursued the large scale of its size. But the contradiction and complication were soon emerged under the pursuit of the two different values. The RongShuXia tried to find a sustainable way to create a stable mechanism of on-line literature production with its two goals- remaining its “belles-lettres” image and having its ideal size, but the effort has been failed. The RongShuXia and Bertelsmann agreed to be merged, and the new CEO, Mr. Jinbo LU decided to enter the print market through the consulting company, RongShuXia Culture Information Consulting Co. Ltd and ended up giving up on the development of its website.

In the third and the fourth chapters, the literary production mode of the QiDian Chinese network is discussed. One can say that the Qidian Chinese network was begun from one of the problems which RongShuXia failed to solve. The problem was to secure a stable and steady source of income to maintain the literary website and to develop the unique operation mode for long-term. In order to solve this problem, The QiDian Chinese network took a way of the capital appreciation such as including the VIP charging of reading-system, various types of novels, many kinds of charts, the writer-management system, and full copyright operation and so on. It can be said that it is absolutely a commercial way. The QiDian Chinese network does not pursue the "belles-lettres" image like RongShuXia does. Instead, the QiDian Chinese network has only tried to operate its system, make its mechanism of cultural industry more perfect and make its influence more powerful. Thus, there was neither contradiction nor complication inside the QiDian Chinese network. In such literary website, authors and readers and their relationship have become totally different. Now, the identity of the literary workers and consumers seems to be changed. And with the "full copyright operation" of the QiDian Chinese network, the role of the literature has also gradually changed. The literature has been converted into a material for other media, and become a part of the cultural industry.