Previous life and present life of online romance novels

When it comes to online romance novels, we should look back at the romance novel craze triggered by Taiwan romance writers entering the mainland market one after another in the 1980s. In 1963, Qiong Yao wrote the autobiographical romance novel Window, which attracted wide attention in Taiwan. Later, she published more than 60 romance novels, which were called Love Encyclopedia. Her novels described different kinds of love in different classes, different ages and different times, but loyalty to love and life and death of lovers were eternal themes. In Qiongyao's classical aesthetic atmosphere, such firm love creates illusions about pure love for modern people. In Qiongyao's novels, love is the only purpose of their existence. Losing love and lover means losing the meaning of existence. The characters in Qiongyao's books have limited communication ability outside of love, showing universal reclusive complex and classical characteristics of pre-modern society.

After the social form of the 1990s moved further towards market economy, romantic novels walked out of the clean and pure era. Qiongyao fever began to cool down, Cen Karen, Ji Xiaotai, Yi Shu and Liang Fengyi novels began to segment Qiongyao market. Romance novel out of Qiongyao mode, began to show colorful. The love of the new generation of romance writers has become daily economy, and women have no chance to show the weakness and elegance of the characters in Qiongyao World. They are the new white-collar beauty in the metropolis, and they do not show weakness in the competition with men. Liang Fengyi said: May wish to write all kinds of stories of our blood and tears to arouse resonance, good relief. Similarly, Yi Shu will remind readers that only those who do not worry about food and clothing are qualified to complain about fate with time. Hong Kong society worship money living standards created a lot of beautiful white hair old couple marriage tragedy, therefore, Yi Shu does not think that money will bring happiness and pleasure to women: I suspect that there is such a thing as love. Therefore, the romance novels of the 1990s are no longer Qiongyao's love anthems. Love can be abandoned, sacrificed, bought and sold, and love narratives are integrated with interest calculations and commercial activities.

Hsi Chuen emerged in the early 1990s as one of Taiwan's most popular romantic novelists among mainland readers after Chiung Yao, Karen Cen and Chi Hsiao-tai. Some people have compared it with Qiongyao: if Qiongyao's book is like sugar sugar added with saccharin, sweet a little bitter; Xi Si's work is a sweet and greasy ice cream, childish beauty running everywhere, domineering handsome men flying everywhere. Xi's works are generally fresh and pretty, simple in character relationship, clear and single in structure, complete and dreamy in ending, humorous in speech, easy and pleasant in reading effect, and can be called modern delicious cultural fast food. The male protagonist in Xi's works is either the boss himself or works in a big company (this model has also become the imitation object of the online romance president article), and women realize the integrity of their role by conquering men. Xi silk does not often write Qiongyao keen love triangle, in her view, the actor's perfection and heroine's wisdom give them enough self-confidence, do not have to be sentimental, boring.

Looking back on the development of Hong Kong and Taiwan romance, it is not difficult to see the impact of the post-80s network romance writers. The so-called queen of pathos loves The Book of Songs, A Dream of Red Mansions and graceful Ci songs. She can understand the indescribable pain described in ancient poems: lonely empty court, late spring, life as if it were only the first time, etc. Her novels are good at classical charm, exquisite fine brushwork description and sad ending, which continues the tragic logic of love but not keeping each other in Qiongyao's novels. Gu Man, author of Why Sheng Xiao Mo, keeps the characteristics of campus youth literature. The pure love stories of small freshness, small luck, small warmth and small romance are similar to Xi Si's style. Tong Hua, Mei Yuzhe and other writers who are good at combining romance with overhead history mostly draw lessons from the cultural elements and narrative methods of historical palace film and television dramas and martial arts in Hong Kong and Taiwan since 1990s. Xinyiwu, author of the series of Warm-wounded Youth, wrote sentimental novels about lost youth, which conform to the nostalgia complex of the post-80s generation. Under the influence of Xi Silk's series of novels that travel through ancient times, such as Love Through Time and Space, a large number of online romance novels almost make contemporary female diaosi exhaust the possibility of falling in love with ancient emperors. In 2006, after crossing the text fire, in order to open up new theme attention, Baidu Tieba began to appear president theme, in 2008 red sleeve Tianxiang opened a series of cool presidents, president Wen romance novels in the popular Hong Kong and Taiwan romance on the basis of more spectacular. In 2010,"Know whether, know whether, should be green fat red thin" as a romantic farming text was successful. This kind of novel focuses on family affairs, generally taking ancient society as the background, describing the characters 'family affairs, marriage and children, plain trivia. Farming romance can generally be regarded as a variety of transmigration novels, most of which are reborn, or reborn to modern childhood, or reborn to ancient times, especially back to childhood, so that readers can make up for past regrets and correct life deviations in novels.

According to the characteristics of the media and the taste of the audience cultivated by the media, the online romance novel is getting longer and longer, and the volume is far larger than the romance story in the history of popular literature. Therefore, the online romance novel must mix various elements to give love a large shell with as large space and lasting duration as possible. It can be said that under the fashionable and huge shell of network romance novel, its story core, motif and narrative mode have not separated from the scope of popular literature and art since 1980s. Hong Kong and Taiwan romance novel, martial arts novel, film and television drama, ancient vernacular novel represented by Dream of Red Mansions and so on have become the main reference objects of network romance novel. Confined to the conservative taste and reading expectation of the masses, network novels do not have the ambition to expand the imagination of love mode, but copy a large number of story modes of Cinderella, prince and princess, and do not devote themselves to reflective thinking about contemporary people's love concept and love life, but do not hide their identification, infatuation and worship of money worship and power myth.

However, as a kind of postmodern popular culture, network novel relies on modern media to reproduce the role of contemporary storyteller, and we can still examine the logic that the author gives life through the story, which is behind the powerful popular culture ideology. Travel back to ancient times, rebirth to childhood, golden finger, finch screen selected to become the true love of dignitaries, these elements are surreal help outside the normal life order, magical dream help makes the protagonist effortlessly have other characters incomparable innate advantages, only such a person can become a winner in life. In this daydream form, online romance novels attempt to respond to harsh social realities. In this era of so-called father-to-father capitalism, urban youth need more drugs from unlimited fantasy than hot-blooded inspirations for personal struggle.

Author: Li Weichao