China has 14m authors of online literature: report

HANGZHOU -- China's registered authors of online literary works totaled more than 14 million as of 2018, according to the latest report issued by the China Writers Association.

Organizations of online literature writers have been established in most of China's provincial-level regions, said the annual report on China's internet literature, which was unveiled at a three-day event on online literature co-organized by the CWA.

In 2018, an increasing number of online literary works that were of the realistic fiction genre and the number and quality of historical works written in a way that reflects the times have increased.

"Writing historical novels with a realistic attitude is hard but makes me happier," said Jiang Shengnan, the author of "The Legend of Mi Yue," who has recently been focusing on the history of the Song, Liao and Western Xia dynasties. In her opinion, conducting textual research, which is the premise for writing historical fiction, is difficult but enables the author to gain new knowledge and better understand the mood of ancient people.

Li Jingze, deputy head of the CWA, said with readers' needs constantly improving and scientific and technological further advancing, online literary writers should strive to break new ground and bring about more great works.