Dramatic turnaround

Adapted from a hit web novel, the Chinese fantasy drama Martial Universe is proving popular overseas despite meeting with a tepid response back home, Xu Fan reports.

As one of the latest Chinese fantasy tales to grab headlines overseas, Martial Universe has aired in 18 countries and regions, and is due to make forays into more foreign markets, according to it's producers.

Adapted from a popular online novel, the series fictionalizes the coming-of-age story of a reluctant hero, Lin Dong. The mischievous yet talented teenager from a fallen martial arts family, accidentally discovers he has magic powers which draws him into a series of adventures. What unfolds not only changes his destiny, but also rewrites the history of his fictional land.

The novel, Wu Dong Qian Kun (Martial Arts Reshapes the World), was written and published online in 2011 by renowned web novelist, Li Hu, who is better known by his pseudonym Tiancan Tudou, quickly garnering around 32 million views within the space of a just few months.

As a mark of the novel's growing popularity overseas, the drama has been ranked ninth on the most-watched lists, both for this week and this month on wuxiaworld.com, the largest Chinese-to-English translation platform in the world.