Peking University and ten other universities have launched a national competition for emerging writers in universities, exploring the "post wave" of online literature creation | Writers | Peking University

On June 11th, the "Character in Youth" National College Emerging Writers Selection Competition for Starting Reading under the Reading Group was launched at Peking University. Du Xiaoqin, Director of the Chinese Department at Peking University, said that the department has always been concerned about the development of online literature. "The younger generation of contemporary China is participating in the creation and reading of online literature with unprecedented enthusiasm and vitality. As an emerging literary style, online literature has created a way of writing, reading, and dissemination that is different from traditional literature... We hope to work together to provide a better environment and more support for the original creation of online literature."

Stimulating the Interest and Potential of Campus Network Literature Creation

According to the "2022 Research Report on the Development of Chinese Online Literature" by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the creation of online literature in China has shown obvious intergenerational replacement characteristics. Young writers born in the 1990s have become the backbone of creation, while those born in the 2000s have become the new main force in online literature creation.

This competition was jointly launched by Starting Point Reading, Peking University Network Literature Research Center, Shandong University Network Literature Research Center, Central South University Network Literature Research Institute, Anhui University Network Literature Research Center, Capital Normal University Network Literature and Culture Research Center, Hangzhou Normal University Network Literature Research Center and Network Literature Criticism Research Institute, and Nanjing Normal University World Literature and Chinese Original Literature Research and Publishing Center. It was specially launched by the School of Literature and Journalism of Sichuan University, the School of Journalism and Communication of Jilin University, the School of Humanities of Nanchang University, and the Sichuan International Communication Center, aiming to stimulate the interest and potential of campus groups in network literature creation, and explore more excellent "afterwaves" of network literature creation.

"The main readers of online literature are young people, which requires most creators to resonate with young people." Yang Chen, vice president and editor-in-chief of the Reading Group, said, "We can see that 80% of the platinum writers of online literature have started their writing careers before the age of 30, and about 26% of the writers started writing before the age of 22, which is the age before they graduated from college. What's more, 77% of this group of young people have become famous before the age of 25."

The competition features both original and innovative tracks, and the secondary creation book list includes a series of classic online IPs such as "Ghost Blows Out the Lamp", "Celebrating the Year of the Yu", and "Full time Expert". It is reported that works with over 3000 words can be submitted, and a maximum of 66000 yuan per person bonus and other incentives are also set.

At the event, Qidian Reading announced the opening of the "Qidian Campus Library" to college students. As the first functional area tailored for campus users, Qidian Reading has introduced a massive library of genuine books, including classic online articles and published books such as "Celebrating the New Year", "Eternal Thoughts", "The Night", and "Selected Days", for free borrowing by college students.

"This is just the beginning. In the future, we will also launch a campus creation center in the 'Starting Point Campus Library', hoping to provide a new and integrated digital content platform experience for college students," said Mei Renjie, General Manager of the Starting Point Product Department of Yuewen Group

Top Ten Universities Discuss Network Literature Together

The Forum on Innovative Writing in Online Literature was held on the same day. In recent years, online literature has shown a trend of rising as the main force of Z generation readers and writers, and has become a hot topic in contemporary literary research due to its structural impact on literary production relations. In this context, continuous exploration and cultivation of high-quality young creators, continuous stimulation of the digital reading enthusiasm of Generation Z, further deepening of research achievements in online literature, and injecting new momentum into the high-quality development of online literature have become consensus among all parties to promote the prosperity of online literature culture.

He Hong, a researcher at the Network Literature Center of the Chinese Writers Association, said: "since the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, network literature has formed a new literary style with a new attitude and the combination of literature and the Internet. It is also a new literary ecology, which has greatly changed the state of the whole literature." Ouyang Youquan, dean of the Institute of Network Literature at Central South University, said that post -95 and post -00 writers are the hope for the future of Chinese network literature. Xu Miaomiao, director of the Network Literature and Art Research Center of Capital Normal University, believes: "Network literature has always been a home of youth ...... It is this youth and individual, unchanged and constant created the vigorous vitality of network literature."

At the same time, the second annual "Online Youth List" sponsored by the Yangtze River Network Literature Review Center and Nanjing Publishing Group's "Youth" magazine was officially released. 14 selected works, including "This Game is Too Real", "Wei Jin Gan Fan Ren", "My Cell Prison", "Dao Weiwei Immortal", "Unscientific Beast Control", and "Please Young Master Slay Demons", were selected and included in the list.

It is reported that Qidian Reading will hold a series of online literature carnival activities at Peking University. The pen of Hu Wei, a reader and author of "Dao Gui Yi Xian", was invited to share his creative experience.