The Experience And Reflection Of A Post-90s Generation Online Author

20 years on from its conception in 1998,Chinese online literature has already entered a stage of stable development in which it has become comprehensively commercialized.From the end of 2014 to December 2015;users of Chinese online literature increased by 2.89 million,with the total number of users topping 297 million,making up 43.1 per cent of total internet users.In an age of emerging new media,online literature has already become a normal mode of cultural consumption.In 2013 I registered to become an author on the online literature website ’Jinjiang Online City.’ After almost four years of writing I have already written works totaling over 2.5 million words and have signed contracts to have 9 novels published.This thesis employs an ethnographical approach,exploring the writing experiences of the individual as an author in the context of the progressive development of online literature,combined with reflections on the past,present and future of the online literature industry.This thesis takes time as its vertical axis and realization and reflection as its horizontal axis.Through the interweaving of these two axes,I reflect upon the various totality of experiences and realizations that have accompanied my journey as an author,moving from my initiation into literature,my first associations with e-reading,my attempts to participate in the creation of online literature,to the time when I formally become an online writer.Written from the perspective of a Post-90s generation author,this thesis provides a new approach to the research of online literature studies.Whilst exploring the writing experience,I also take up the position of an author and reflect upon phenomenon that exist in the industry such as trends in popular themes and’hot adaptations,’ as well as analyzing the future prospects of online literature.Having developed up to its present condition,online literature is beginning to move towards standardization and looks to have good future prospects.However authors,readers,websites,national institutions and laws and regulations all have deficiencies that require urgent attention.The development of online literature is occurring in tandem with the the growth in the internet and encompasses all its properties,with the most important being the elimination of old institutions and the emergence of a decentralized environment.Throughout my four year journey through online literature,even as it as been an experience of using the internet,so to has it been an experience in which online literature has taken down the fortifications surrounding traditional modes of writing and reading.This has been a process in which online literature and the traditional publishing industry have complimented each other,and a process in which online literature and traditional literature have both merged together.Throughout this journey,I have been but one small drop in the ocean of online authors,my own personal development intricately intertwined with the development of this revolutionary mass mode of dissemination.I am fortunate to have participated in the disruptive revolution that the internet has brought about in reading,living and cultural consumption.