Of Reading Popular Chinese Novel

Summary

The author discusses their experience with reading Chinese web-based novels during the COVID-19 quarantine, highlighting the cultural insights and themes reflected in these stories.

Abstract

The COVID-19 quarantine led the author to discover the world of Chinese web-based novels through various novel apps. Despite the high cost of reading on these platforms, the author found free access to the Chinese versions of these novels, which are updated frequently across multiple websites and can be translated using Safari's translation feature. The novels, presumably written by Chinese authors, reveal cultural values such as the importance of dignity, class structure, humility, family relationships, filial piety, loyalty, and a unique sense of justice. These themes offer a window into contemporary Chinese culture and societal norms, as well as the influence of ancient traditions and government propaganda on modern beliefs.

Opinions

The author values the ability to read Chinese web-based novels for free, thanks to the availability of the original Chinese versions and browser translation tools.
There is a perception that dignity and social status are highly valued in Chinese culture, as evidenced by the characters' attitudes towards men who marry into wealthier families.
Class mobility and the recognition of humility are significant cultural elements, with characters being exalted or humiliated based on their social standing and behavior.
Family, relationships, and filial piety are central to the stories, with characters demonstrating strong loyalty and a sense of duty towards their relatives.
The novels depict a complex view of relationships, with monogamy being admired in stories about ordinary people, while polygamy is common in tales involving kings or lords, reflecting ancient imperial practices.
The sense of justice portrayed in the novels is tied to loyalty to one's country and the protection of the innocent, rather than being ro

Of Reading Popular Chinese Novel

The COVID-19 quarantine has introduced me to a new addicting pastime — that of reading Chinese web-based novels. I was first introduced to it through an ad in Facebook which pointed me to novel apps like BravoNovel, FlipRead, GoodNovel, WebFic, BabelNovel. For novels of two thousand or so chapters in length, it was very costly to read through these platforms. Fortunately, I was able to find the Chinese versions from which these novels were translated, and a single novel is posted on several websites most of which are updated within 24 hours from one another. This together with the use of the translation functionality of Safari has helped me read for free.

As I read through the various novels written presumably by Chinese people, I began to recognize some recurring themes that somehow show the current culture and values of the people living in China.

First, dignity is important to the Chinese. It is important to have pride or to “have face”, and they have to do things well in order to do so. Because of this, the characters in the novel usually despise males who marry into the woman’s family — those whose wives’ families are thought to be more well off.

The Chinese pay special attention to class. While there is a recurring theme of people being successful to the point of moving from one social class to another, the class structure somehow creates a certain level of order for the society.

There is also a special recognition to the virtue of humility, in which people who are humble are exalted when people find out that they are better off, and people who are proud are humiliated for looking down on those better off than them.

The Chinese also pay importance to family, relationships and filial piety. Although we do see some heroes and heroines in the story break their relationships with their grandparents because of the latter’s favoritism and neglect for the former’s welfare, we still see that they still show strong filial piety at least to their parents. We see how heroes fought to protect their parents, their wives and their parents-in-law. We see how hurt heroines are when they break their relationships with their families.

There is loyalty. In several stories involving ordinary people, we see how loyal and faithful the spouses to one another. We see that a monogamous relationship is admired. However — and this is where the confusion comes in — for those stories involving kings or lords, we see a proliferation of a polygamous relationship. There is one king or god who has multiple wives and several concubines, perhaps alluding to the emperors of the ancient times. Nevertheless, there is still loyalty, and the king or god is loyal to all his wives and mistresses.

This loyalty also links to the sense of justice of heroes. Their sense of justice lies in loyalty to one’s country and countrymen. Their sense of justice also lies in protecting and taking care of those who do not offend them, and fighting those who offended them. Yet their sense of justice and righteousness does not link to any faith. Although they believe in reincarnation, they are mostly atheist and this shows how the Chinese government has been successful in integrating ancient traditions and religions with government propaganda.

I continue to read these novels available for free in selected websites, and I look forward to getting more glimpse of the current culture, thoughts and beliefs in the Chinese mainland.