On March 10, 2023, Hong Kong hosted a global online writing competition organized by WebNovel, a readership owned by China Literature Limited. Online literature has become a powerful tool for China to share its cultural stories with the world.
The WebNovel Spirity Awards (WSA) is an annual competition that showcases the works of English, Indonesian, and Thai writers. The 2022 edition of the competition saw the participation of over 90,000 writers worldwide, with three participants from Thailand, India, and Pakistan respectively winning the gold awards.
Growing Global Interest
At the awards ceremony, over 20 online writers from various countries and regions discussed the development of online literature in China and globally. China Literature Limited (CLL), the reading portal that organizes the competition, has contributed to promoting the global industry. The report by CLL shows the total population of overseas online writers on WebNovel grew by 130 percent from 2018 to 2022. The top five countries with the largest number of writers on the platform were the United States, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Britain.
Overseas readers on WebNovel engaged in discussions about Chinese-related words over 150,000 times in 2021, according to the report. The report also showed that more than 10,000 Chinese online literary works entered overseas markets, with a market size totaling more than 3 billion yuan (about 434 million U.S. dollars) in the same year.
Opportunities for Collaboration
Zhao Bipeng, the director of overseas business at CLL, highlighted that China had a relatively mature industry chain for online literature, with numerous popular online novels having already been adapted into movies, TV series and video games, among others.
Kittisak Kongka, a 33-year-old Thai online writer, won a gold award in the WSA 2022. Kongka has already had three novels adapted for the screen in Thailand. However, he missed an opportunity to collaborate with a Chinese production company several years ago. Kongka remains optimistic about his career prospects in China, and he also hopes to draw inspiration from China’s expansive and deep-rooted culture.
China’s online literature industry has made great strides. The industry is poised for even greater growth, with the potential for collaboration with overseas partners.
