A LOOK AT CHANGING ERAS

A conference looks back at how online literature became popular in China, Wang Ru reports.

When First Intimate Contact was serialized on the internet in 1998, it soon gained popularity among young people. Twenty years later, many still regard it among their "unforgettable memories" of youth. Looking back at the book in 2018, people realize that it marks more than the memory of a generation, but the start of an era - the era of online literature.

"From my perspective, online literature has moved into a 2.0 era from the original 1.0 over the past 20 years," says Yu Qian, CEO of Alibaba Literature, at the China Online Literature Conference held in Beijing over Sept 14-16.