Transmedia fictions are stories that are typically disseminated across at least two different media platforms. The different modes of consumption each contribute something different to the overall story world (Jenkins, 2008, pp. 97–98). Frequently, these kinds of texts evolve into whole franchises, incorporating whole story universes, such as Star Wars (Jenkins, 2008). In China, web fiction, much of which might be considered transmedia fiction, has developed over more than two decades. Web fiction generally refers to works of literature that are mainly written to be accessed via the Internet. In China, wǎngwén, which can be literally translated as “web literature”, is primarily user-generated fiction in various genres, such as science fiction, that is commonly “serialized on online platforms where users write, publish, read, and interact with each other”, with them being “typically curated according to genres, subgenres, and gender orientations” (Zhao, 2022).
As noted above, as Chinese online novel websites have evolved, it has become commonplace for novels to be serialized. More than this, they are also often played as audiobooks. Many readers have come to prefer to listen to each serialization of the novel with friends or family, rather than reading it by themselves (Li, 2016). As a result, many websites enable the consumption of novels in a fashion more akin to a series of podcasts (Guo, 2022). On top of this, many of the novels available on the websites have been adapted into comics, movies, TV series, games, etc., and co-disseminated across different platforms (Lugg, 2011). It is for this reason that the texts in this paper are being described as transmedia fictions, rather than simply network novels.
Over the course of their development, the creative mode of transmedia fictions has been constantly improved and perfected. This brand-new mode has contributed unique creative and textual features to transmedia fictions, of which the role and embodiment of Participatory Culture in the creation of transmedia fictions is one of the most important. This is also one of the important features that distinguish transmedia fictions from traditional novels.
This strongly captures the sense in which the contributors to online science fiction websites in China—readers and authors—engage with their content.
China’s transmedia fictions began to develop in the 1990s. Overseas students initially exchanged and interacted through social media such as BBS and blogs to express their love of, and attachment to, the motherland (Xu, 2012). At this time, transmedia fictions were short in length, and more closely resembled diaries or essays, so they could not legitimately be called novels. Alongside this, readers did not participate in the creation of the novel, with the partial exception of the comment section of the article.
In 2000, Cai Zhiheng, a writer from Taiwan Province, China, took the lead in publishing the novel The First Close Contact on the Internet, which initiated public engagement and participation. As a result, the creative process of China’s transmedia fictions began to change. Serial novels gradually replaced diaries, essays, short stories, and other stylistic forms, and became the main component of transmedia fictions. However, at this time, the function of the novel website was not perfect, as it was only possible to read online, but can’t communicate with the author.
However, as science and technology began to develop around 2004, and novel websites such as Huanjianshumeng, Qidian and Rongshuxia began to appear, readers gained an opportunity to participate in the creation of works. At present, there are more than 120,000 science fiction novels serialized on Qidian, and the number is still increasing. According to the 49th China Internet Development Statistical Report of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, “From 2016 to 2021, the number of authors of science fiction novels on Qidian Chinese website increased by 189% to 515,000; more than 22% of top writers have created science fiction works” (Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2022).
The readers on websites such as Qidian have, amongst other things, been able to participate in the creation of works by leaving messages in the novel comment area, interact with authors, discuss the plot development in topic groups, and reward authors with virtual coins. Transmedia fictions is a serial mode, and so reader participation in the creation of the work will have an important impact on the work’s content development. In seeking to enhance the popularity of their work, authors of transmedia fictions need to cater to reader opinions, which conceivably gives them great influence over authors and the process of creating transmedia fictions.
The consumers of online science fiction of this kind differ from the consumers of traditional print media in a number of important ways. Readers of traditional novels can only read works published on paper, so they cannot have an impact on the novel during its creation; they are only passive recipients, largely accepting what they are supplied. Of course, after a work is published, the readers of traditional novels may not like it and give it a negative evaluation, but this has no impact on the published content of the work. Readers of transmedia novels, however, can actively participate in the creation of the work during the writing process, and can thus influence its progress and even the ending of the whole work through their interaction with the author. Overall, the consumption behavior of readers of transmedia novels occurs earlier in the production process, is more active, more visible, and typically happens at a larger scale (Boni, 2017). This, in a sense, therefore, enables them to exert more power over the producers of fiction of this kind (Tian and Adorjan, 2016) and this is reflected in the way in which the online platforms themselves ‘promote’ (or don’t) the authors (Freeman, 2014). An alternative argument, however, would have it that this model makes authors more accountable and less authoritarian in their decision-making, with concomitant benefits in terms of such works becoming what might be considered more ‘collective’ productions, or, as Jenkins expressed it, the “coordinated authorial design of integrated elements” (Jenkins, 2010). Thus, in line with Jenkins’ notions of participatory culture (Jenkins, 2007), the subjective position of readers and writers has become more equalized, with readers becoming more ‘empowered’ and confident about the value of their contribution and authors coming to see themselves more as members of a broad creative community of practice (Wenger, 1998), with ‘expression’ (Jenkins, 2009) as its central goal.
The veritable explosion in the online production of fiction in China and the accompanying fan-based phenomena have provoked significant academic interest. One body of work here has explored the implications of the boom for the changing quality and nature of literary output (Huang, 2014; Lu, 2016; Machajek, 2021; Tian, 2019; Feng, 2022). Studies here have notably focused on the portrayal of men and women in online fiction and its implications for gender relations in China (Chen, 2017; Wang and Zhao, 2022; Xu and Yang, 2013; Yanjun, 2008; Zhou, 2021). Some studies have also focused specifically on the transmedia characteristics of online fiction and its relation to other media, such as games (Inwood, 2014). Other studies have explored the economic implications of this new form of literary production in relation to Chinese socialism (He et al., 2022) and, alongside this, questions have been raised about what it might mean for the future of print media (Zhu, 2020).
Together with the interest in the production of online fiction, studies of fandom and its social effects have also featured strongly (Huang, 2022; Sauro, 2017; Yin and Xie, 2021; Zheng, 2016). A prominent vein in this body of work again relates to how matters of both gender and eroticism have played out in Chinese online fan communities (Guo and Evans, 2020; Li, 2022; Madill and Zhao, 2021; Zhang, 2016). Another concern relates to the effects of censorship on fandom and how it has generated a rather fluid online media landscape (Luo and Li, 2022; Ren, 2020; Wang and Ge, 2022; Zheng, 2019). Against this, some work has explored how online literature fandom can serve as a motivating force for nationalism in China (Liao et al., 2022). Interestingly for the work presented here, some studies of fandom have focused on the potential for fans to ply pressure on online authors and ‘coerce’ them to produce particular kinds of novels (Tian and Adorjan, 2016). Against this, some work has explored the extent to which fans of online fiction might be obliged to undertake a form of ‘data labor’ as a result of the algorithms platforms are choosing to use (Yin, 2020).
Within the above literature, a range of studies have looked more specifically at the development of web-based Chinese science fiction. Many of these have focused on the unique character of online Chinese science fiction (Song, 2013) and how it differs from Western science fiction (Li, 2015). In relation to this, a particular interest has been taken in how the explosion of web-based science fiction in China has repositioned Chinese science fiction on the world stage (Chau, 2018; Csicsery-Ronay, 2012; Hartley, 2022). Other work has explored the way in which the web has played a role in the growing commercialization of science fiction in China (Han, 2022). Within this, certain studies have looked at the demographic character of the readers of Chinese web-based science fiction (Feng, 2009). Beyond this, some studies have been concerned with how the move to consuming genres such as science fiction through internet-based media has had an impact upon more traditional print-based media (Yang, 2010). Closer to the interests of this paper, some studies have focused upon the uniquely participatory character of the involvement of fans in the consumption and production of science fiction on the web in China (Tang et al., 2022; Yang, 2021), including the impact on this on the reworking of traditional literary tropes (Ni, 2018; Tian, 2015). This has been accompanied by some studies that see the growing number of readers who become producers of literature in China, including science fiction, to be a concrete example of what has been termed prosumption (Chao, 2013). At the same time, confronted with the repurposing of themes in this literature and its increasingly transmedia characteristics, another body of work has been concerned with the difficulties that therefore arise with the copyrighting of content (Hickey, 2015), echoing broader concerns in studies of online fiction (Ren and Montgomery, 2012).
Alongside the above, certain studies have taken an interest in how readers’ wider concerns with the nature of the current world, such as climate change or civil breakdown, maybe having a shaping influence upon the kind of science fiction being published on the web (Imbach, 2021; Li, 2018; Møller-Olsen, 2020; Tian, 2019). This had led to some authors suggesting that the participatory character of this kind of online fiction has actually served to ‘reinvigorate literary creativity’ (Lugg, 2011) and ‘narrative innovation’ (Feng, 2015) in China. Some of these studies (e.g., Li, 2018) have noted the transmedia character of much of the Chinese science fiction appearing on the web (Feng, 2015) and the important role being played by readers within this. However, these studies have tended to gloss over the nature of the relationship between authors and readers in this world and the way participation may have an impact on that relationship over the course of a story’s production.
This paper aims to fill the existing research gap discussed above by providing a comprehensive examination of the role played by readers in the generation of Chinese transmedia science fiction. In the process of reading transmedia fictions, readers actively engage with the author, leaving messages, comments, and participating in various forms of cultural involvement that directly influence the novel’s creation process. This departure from the traditional model, where novels were only read after completion by the author, highlights the active participation of transmedia novel readers in the creative process and production. To investigate the nature of this engagement, this paper will draw upon Jenkins’s theory of Participatory Culture, as outlined earlier.
