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after my rebirth, i relied on online writing to “get rid of the class atmosphere”.

text｜xinghui

edited by chen meixi

even in the 21st century when all trends are fading away quickly, there are still some words that can transcend time and touch people's hearts.

for example, "escape" may be one of the most evergreen discussion topics on the internet.from the popular saying "the world is so big, i want to see it" in 2015, to the "determination to escape" that has recently hit the film and television stage, in nearly a decade, we have witnessed too many variant narratives associated with "escape."

they are the "gap year" culture popular at home and abroad, every "trip on a whim", and the enlightenment of "life is like a wilderness"...

image source network

the group resonance of seeking peace through "escape" has profoundly influenced the creative trends of the entire content industry.whether it is traditional film and television media or emerging video platforms, there are more and more natural and poetic expressions - popular bloggers who show daily farming life take the audience "to where there is wind" and use the camera to record every "desirable life".

similarly, in the media path of online literature, the call to return to the countryside has also accelerated the growth of specific categories.

for example, the "farming literature" with "getting rich through farming" as the typical theme has achieved a double explosion in quantity and quality in recent years. you may not believe it, but in the evening rush hour subway in beijing, shanghai and guangzhou, the worker next to you holding a mobile phone and looking tired may be silently reading a farming diary that is very different from urban life.

these online literary works about "escaping" from the city have long quietly become a magical tool for this generation of young people to "get rid of the class atmosphere".

the gravity of another world

how popular are farming articles these days?

take tomato novel, a representative of the free online literature, for example. whenever you click on a popular farming novel, you can see that the number of people reading it has exceeded 100,000 or even hundreds of thousands, and there are many works with more than 10,000 comments. for example, the representative work of popular writer cong yue, "the koi wife of the prime minister", was rated 9.3 by as many as 170,000 readers, which can be said to be both popular and well-received.

at the same time, the popularity of farming literature has also spread from the source of the text to the downstream of the industry chain, making major platforms and production companies eager to try. whether it is the long drama "tian geng ji" adapted from the "pure" farming literature, or the dark horse works such as "i'm busy farming in the cold palace" in the short drama wave, they have further promoted the mainstreaming of the "farming" element, and the water temperature has further risen.

as farming literature evolves into a new genre of ip adaptation, we can't help but become more curious: why are these stories of escaping the city and returning to the countryside so popular among readers?

in the opinion of writer cong yue, the popularity of farming literature is closely related to the fast pace of modern life."two points and one line, high-rise buildings, reinforced concrete... when a person is in such an environment every day, it is easy for him to yearn for a life of 'leisurely seeing nanshan'."

according to cong yue's observation, the need for "escape" is not difficult to understand at present. "just like some young people, they are busy with work and overtime every day. they may go home very late after dinner, but they just don't want to sleep when they lie in bed, because only this short period of time is truly "me". only at this time can i forget about work and interpersonal relationships - a short escape."

similarly, "the world in the novel is a paradise for them. rural stories can soothe their anxious emotions. i think this is also a way to release stress," cong yue explained.

if we continue to observe from the perspective of audience needs, there are more than just farming literature types that have the core of "escape".in fact, enduring online writing genres such as fantasy and cultivation are, to some extent, all about the art of "elsewhere".

as a creator with nearly 20 years of online literature reading experience, zi ling feng xue, a jinfan writer of tomato novel, tells us that, taking classic fantasy novels as an example, the protagonist can always turn the world around with his own strength and settle the injustices in the world. the term "going against the will of heaven to change one's fate" that sounds vulgar today actually contains a strong appeal. those who want to go against the will of heaven to change their fate must not be afraid of oppression and move forward courageously.

"i think this is a latent desire in the hearts of many readers. it is a unique charm that does not exist in reality, so everyone yearns for it."zi ling feng xue summarized.

during the two years of serializing the fantasy novel "eternal ashes", he had felt this more than once. zi ling feng xue remembered that several readers with terminal illnesses had left many feelings in this story with an immortal as the protagonist. "some comments said that after reading it, they felt that they should still have an exploratory mentality, explore the world like the protagonist and lao niu, and then pursue freedom."

for readers who are struggling with illness and adversity, a short escape is also a valuable comfort. the free and easy travel in the fictional world can also be a spiritual force that nourishes reality.

image source network

on the other hand,in the process of creating the popular female-oriented novel "a dream of qingxuan", tomato novel writer wei xiaoxi also noticed that in addition to the necessary sense of genre distance, readers' needs also have an impact on the popular style of online literature.

according to her observation, the mainstream style of female-oriented works has changed significantly in recent years. "the popular themes in the market are basically light-hearted and cheerful. the physically and mentally abusive works that were popular a long time ago are actually not very popular anymore."

wei xiaoxi and cong yue both attributed the reason to the change in readers' mental state. "in a tense life, people need more relaxing novels than before, as a safe haven for happiness."

it can be said that online literature, as the artistic crystallization closest to the mass market, always sensitively reflects the demands of the times.this is why, at a time when the general public is pursuing spiritual peace, more and more online literary works are choosing to "escape" from city skyscrapers and head for mountains, wilderness, and rural villages.

the meaning of another journey

what’s interesting is that in this grand online literature “escape plan”, not only readers of the articles hope to “escape” from the hustle and bustle, but the authors who write the articles are also often on the road.

for example, for writer tong tong, creation and journey are inextricably linked.in the summer of 2022, tongtong began serializing a realistic work called "dongting tea master" on tomato novel, in which the protagonist is an urban woman who is determined to return to her hometown to start a business.

the opportunity to create this book came from tongtong's trip to collect folk songs. at that time, she took her children to dongting mountain to enjoy the beautiful scenery of "flowers every month and fruits every season". during the tour, tongtong discovered the phenomenon of fruit tea growing in dongting mountain, which aroused her interest as she already loved tea culture.

after that, tongtong visited the area several times and observed the innovative spirit of young people in suzhou with her own eyes. finally, she decided to write a story that started with "escaping from beijing, shanghai and guangzhou" - but in tongtong's eyes, it is more like a more proactive "return" of young people than an "escape".

in fact, even earlier, tongtong in real life also experienced "escape" and "return" in his life.

twelve years ago, one of tongtong's books was selected by a film and television company in beijing, so she was invited to beijing to work as a screenwriter. but soon, tongtong found that she could not adapt to this sudden career change, especially the fact that her creative freedom was damaged. "there, i had to listen to various opinions, listen to the requirements of investors, and constantly overturn the story line."

according to tong tong's recollection, "at that time, we would go to a script meeting almost every morning after waking up, and then someone would slap their head and say that the male lead we wrote yesterday was not very good, so we should write a new one - and make the male lead blind! and so on."

under the heavy blow, tongtong decided to "escape". she left beijing and returned to her hometown, living in seclusion deep in the mountains. she once decided to stop writing. but gradually, as her heart calmed down and her life entered a new stage, tongtong had many new thoughts about life.

"during the years i lived in the mountains, i gradually felt that i should merge my real hometown with my spiritual hometown. i wanted to record those lovely people and memorable things." so, tongtong, who once wrote sweet love stories, embarked on a journey of transformation into realistic creation.

as tong tong's representative work in the new stage, "dongting tea master" later won many honors. it was selected into the "2022 china writers association key works support project" and the "national press and publication administration 2022-2023 excellent reality theme online literature publishing project", and was rated as "2022 china online literature influence list works" and "the 7th china online literature + conference excellent online literature works" and so on.

image source: anhui literature and art publishing house official account

looking back, the "escape" and "return" described in "dongting tea master" are both in the book and outside the book.physical escape sometimes also means spiritual escape, and returning in the physical sense echoes the restart in the literary sense.

of course, there are thousands of online writers like tongtong who embark on a journey both physically and mentally.

cong yue used "letting go" to describe the original intention of traveling.she said: "many times, creation makes people very anxious. so i would choose to go out for a walk to get rid of some of my impurities, and then what i write may better express my true heart and i won't be so anxious."

so, on the distant tracks and on the high-speed trains, cong yue typed many words on her computer and mobile phone. when the beauty of nature floated past the window, another kind of clean scenery emerged from her pen.

source: interviewee

for zi ling feng xue, traveling is a way to experience reality.he remembered, "when i went to beijing, i saw many chinese-style buildings, which gave me a lot of inspiration. for example, the description of buildings in the immortal cultivation literature, i hope it will not deviate from our chinese and classical elements."

therefore, even though the world in zi ling feng xue's writing is imaginative, magnificent and vast, the fictional wonders always have real reflections. snow-capped mountains, seas, and forests, he encountered them during his journey and generously shared them with countless readers through his creations.

wei xiaoxi also believes that: "although themes such as immortal cultivation literature seem far from reality, travel can still bring a lot of help. for example, when you have seen the magnificent mountains and rivers of our motherland with your own eyes, you may be able to develop more specific associations when writing. you will know what the mountains are like and what the clouds are like."

when his companions were resting or it was late at night when everyone was asleep, wei xiaoxi would often open his laptop and think and write by himself.she didn't know whether the mountains, rivers, lakes and marshes she saw would one day inspire her to write again, but the possibility itself was worth it.

in this way, writing and reading, escaping and returning, they all unfold back and forth in the creative career of online writers. the coupling of literature and travel, and the intertextuality of reality and imagination, thus constitute a unique landscape belonging to chinese online literature.

another possibility for online writing

when talking about the relationship between "culture" and "travel", we can easily notice:in recent years, the rediscovery of literary works has become a new trend in the tourism industry.

for example, a series of literary books such as "the right bank of the ergun river" and "my altay" have successfully boosted the topic of local tourism.

especially in the first half of this year, with the popularity of the tv series "my altay" adapted from the same name, scenic filming locations such as grasslands, snow-capped mountains, and the gobi desert have entered the public eye and have been on the hot search list of social platforms many times. according to data from fliggy, after the series was aired, the popularity of altay tourism searches on the platform increased by more than 5 times.

image source: douban

it can be seen that high-quality literary works and literary adaptations have a potential that cannot be underestimated in tourism promotion. so, can a similar path be replicated in the field of online literature that we are familiar with?

faced with this question, zi ling feng xue, who is also an old bookworm, answered it based on his personal experience.

he said: "a long time ago, i read nanpai sanshu's "grave robbers' chronicles". many of the place names in it belong to the real world, which made me yearn for it. in particular, the very popular "ten years' appointment" attracted many people to changbai mountain. this is actually a typical example."

to this day, zi ling feng xue still remembers how he was attracted by the local customs and people when he read "grave robbers' chronicles". he believes that this path is worth trying more."for example, the theme of cultivating immortals actually originated from taoism in my country, and taoism is distributed all over the country. online literature can also help the local tourism industry."

image source: douban

tongtong, who has experience as an editor, started from the act of reading itself.

in her opinion, reading and traveling have something in common.。“travel is the arrival of the body, right? reading is the arrival of the soul. if you get spiritual resonance from reading first, and then go to see it with your own eyes, it will be easier to find the meaning of travel in the details and truth.”

if we look at it from this perspective, online literature undoubtedly has the powerful power to resonate with readers.

now, tomato novel, having noticed all the positive signals, is about to launch the "tomato reading and travel season" - the 2024 online literature rural cultural tourism creation support plan and the tomato novel's fourth online literature essay competition.

the goal of this support program is to combine literature and tourism through imaginative online literary works, and to guide more young creators to tell our own stories of mountains and rivers and historical culture through the method of "online literary creation + creative communication and promotion".

it is reported that the first stop of the "tomato reading tour season" will be longhu mountain in jiangxi on september 24. just as the theme of the event advocates, many top tomato novel writers will lead readers to embark on a "mountain and river painting" journey "between the lines".

image source: tomato novel

before this, wei xiaoxi had heard of the name of longhu mountain in many literary and artistic works. she was very curious about this strange yet familiar destination. "with this opportunity to visit longhu mountain, i may know why the 'tianshi mansion' was built here and what kind of feeling its cultural heritage will give people."

cong yue also had a lot of expectations about the significance of this trip. she pointed out that today's tomato novels has grown into an important original content position, and the guiding significance of the "tomato reading travel season" is worthy of attention."in the future, i hope to see more authors combine their hometowns with their writing. this will not only boost tourism, but also promote local culture."

yes, in an era where “escape” narratives have attracted millions of readers, another possibility for online literature has been opened up:why can’t your next great destination come from a good story?