What are Chinese Web Novels?
Chinese web novels are serialized works of fiction that authors release chapter‑by‑chapter on large online platforms such as Qidian (起点), and Jinjiang Literature City (JJWXC/晋江文学城). Written in contemporary vernacular, they span an enormous range of genres—fantasy, historical, romance, science‑fiction, slice of life, and more—and rely on reader feedback and micropayments for revenue, so pacing, cliff‑hangers, and community interaction shape the narrative. Successful titles are frequently adapted into printed books, manhua (comics), dramas, or games, making the web‑novel ecosystem a primary incubator for China’s popular culture industries.
What is Danmei?
Danmei (耽美, lit. “indulging in beauty”) is a subgenre within Chinese webfiction and broader media that centers male–male romantic and/or erotic relationships. Influenced by Japanese BL (Boy’s Love)/yaoi yet rooted in local literary traditions, danmei narratives mix melodramatic romance with genre conventions such as xianxia fantasy, historical intrigue, or modern workplace drama. Although primarily written by and for women, its readership is increasingly diverse, and hit danmei novels have spurred major animation, live‑action, and merchandise franchises while navigating shifting state regulations on LGBTQ+ representation.
Jinjiang Literature City
Jinjiang Literature City(晋江文学城) is one of China’s leading websites for original webnovels and hosts and enormous library of works, from romance and fantasy to historical fiction. Notably it is also home to a large number of danmei fiction.
Founded in 1998, the site is home to a passionate community. The majority of it’s users are women from late teens to early 30’s who posses the three highs (三高), high income, high education and high social status.
Jinjiang has built a “reader-oriented” platform, where writing is a collaborative experience. This is achieved through a robust and lively comment and liking system, which has created a space where users can express a wide variety of opinions, leading to a culture of creativity and an organic body of works, that are constantly changing.
Importantly for our research, in 2007, after a slew of legal issues, Jinjiang decided to transition to a VIP system, where readers pay to access the next few chapters of their favorite works, and generally to monetarily support the author (Feng, Have Mouse 50). This mirrors the for profit publishing market in China, and indeed, some authors have been able to make a living off of Jinjiang, especially if their stories make the jump to traditional print media, or adaptations.
Digital capital is rapidly growing, and has become a huge part of the modern social and monetary economy and the for profit nature of Jinjiang, shows how datification and digital labor have become increasingly influential in a global economy. The low-stakes entry of Jinjiang, as well as the potential for financial compensation, has not only shaped the way that web-fiction is produced, but has also had far-reaching implications for China’s literature market as a whole.
Datafication
Digital labor theory explains fan activity as more than “participation”: it is labor that creates value for platforms, publishers, and media industries. Drawing on feminist and Marxist distinctions between productive and reproductive labor, this framework treats fandom as a site where unpaid affect, care, and creativity are organized, measured, and monetized through platform metrics (views, rankings, engagement, circulation).
Mediating Labor
“Data fans” (shuju fen) coordinate streaming, posting, voting, and purchasing to increase visibility, rankings, and commercial value. This is affective labor (emotion, loyalty, attachment) converted into platform metrics and market proof.
Affective / Market Labor
“Data fans” (shuju fen) coordinate streaming, posting, voting, and purchasing to increase visibility, rankings, and commercial value. This is affective labor (emotion, loyalty, attachment) converted into platform metrics and market proof.
Transformative Labor
Fanfic writers, fan artists, and meta writers expand and reinterpret MXTX’s texts, especially where adaptations censor queer content. This includes erotic labor (shipping, fanfiction, desire-driven creation) and reproductive labor (archiving, tagging, onboarding, moderation) that preserve subcultural meaning and community continuity.
Key Terms, Tropes, and Conventions
Xianxia and Wuxia: Chinese webnovels have their own commonly used settings and tropes. Particularly common for non-modern settings are wuxia (武俠) and xianxia (仙侠) settings. Wuxia settings are fairly grounded in comparison to xianxia, but tend to center around martial artists with fantastical abilities, who are often embroiled in complicated feuds. xianxia is a step up from wuxia, as wuxia characters tend to be, at least somewhat, susceptible to the limits of the human body and the world they inhabit tends to be similar to Earth. In xianxia, however, characters have the ability to ascend to godhood, and they inhabit a world filled with wonder, including mythical creatures and strange, magical peoples. All three of MXTX’s novels take place in xianxia settings.
Cultivation: Both Wuxia and Xianxia novels tend towards Cultivation magic, though on completely different scales. The concept of cultivation is based loosely on traditional Daoist, and sometimes Buddhist, practices. In Wuxia, cultivation typically involves strenuous practice of physical martial arts, including a lot of horse stance (squatting) and swordsmanship practice. Xianxia also tends to include physical martial arts, especially as a cultivator begins their practice. However, as a character continues practice, and gets the basics down, cultivation becomes a much more mental and spiritual practice. The main difference in this case between Xianxia and Wuxia is the upper ceiling of cultivation. While Xianxia cultivators will always gain the ability to fly, move to other realms of existence, and often command subspaces, the most a Wuxia character will likely be able to achieve is super-speed, and the ability to leap around using Qinggong (轻功, lit. lightness skill)
Fanfiction/Transformative works: Transformative works encapsulates all works made by fans that transform or extend an original work of fiction. This includes, fanfiction, cosplay, fanart, and similar activities.
Fanfiction is one form of transformative works, that involves writing new fiction based on an already established series. These works are published completly for free (as you legally cannot make money off of transformative labor). Popular Western sites that host fanfiction are, wattpad, fanfiction.net, and the most popular Archive of Our Own (AO3).
AO3 in particular is a bastion for fans. Created and hosted by the nonprofit Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), AO3 is a completly fan run and volunteer organized archive. It is known for its extensive tagging system, and for being open to any content. The goal of AO3 is stated to be to archive fanworks and defend the legitiamacy of fandom, and preserve its history.
Transmigration Fiction: Transmigration is a genre of web-fiction wherein the protagonist is transported into the body of another person or even a different themselves. This manifests in a plethora of ways. The protagonist might be dropped into the body of a historical figure, or a character from their favorite book or show.
In these stories, the protagonist usually uses their unique knowledge, from either the future, or from reading the source material to change the outcome of the original plot. There is a strong element of escapism in these works, as they imagine a typical person being transported into a magical new life, escaping the humdrum of modern society.
Transmigration also easily allows readers to project onto the protagonist and mirrors the reader’s experience of reading. Not only are some transmigrated protagonists, such as Shen Qingqiu, literally web fiction readers, but their “normal” lives before being transported, tend to reflect the lives of readers. Therefore, many transmigrated protagonists have lived the life of an overworked office worker or student prior to their magical transportation, reflecting the readership of webnovels.
System Fiction: A genre often closely related to transmigration fiction, System fiction is a sub-Genre in which a video-game like Operation System guides the protagonist. In SVSSS this system acts like a video game hub, giving Shen Qingqiu quests, information, and counting “satisfaction” points for the protagonist. System fiction often goes hand in hand with romance, as fulfilling goals is directly reflected with rewards and success.
However, despite system fiction’s god-like operating system, it is underpinned with fears of a postmodern society. The system that can be giving and rewarding, also can remove your rewards as soon as you gain them (Feng, System 208). The system is not always benevolent, in fact it can be downright malicious, controlling the protagonist. Even worse, it can be as cold and distant as the society it embodies.