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fantasy fiction I read, I never come across novels where the main
character gained strength and became gods as they do in the Chinese
novels,” Hansen told our reporter.
Many readers also favour the way main characters are portrayed in
Chinese web novels, which they believe is more complicated, subtle
and morally ambiguous than light novels they had read before.
“It makes me feel really inspired to see these characters fighting for
what they hold dear and believe in. I am fascinated by how these char-
acters are not flawless heroes but have personal traits such as anger,
jealousy and hate,” Hansen told ChinaReport.
“Culture and the attitude of the protagonist are the main reasons
for the popularity of Chinese novels among Western readers. Espe-
cially the attitude of protagonists who don’t mind revenge is a good
change from the regular superhero comics where the protagonist has
a heart of gold and forgives everyone. I would say that people are
tired of the standard good-hearted protagonist we see in Japanese and
American fiction,” Wuxiaworld reader Strixflash commented.
‘Fellow Daoists’
As the translator of the milestone work Coiling Dragon and the
founder of Wuxiaworld, the Chinese American Lai Jingping ignited
the Chinese fantasy fiction craze.
Lai used to work for the US Department of State and was sent to
Malaysia, Canada and Vietnam as a diplomat. He is keen on reading
classical Chinese wuxia novels written by Jin Yong and Gu Long.
Lai gave himself the online name “RWX” after his favourite fic-
tional character, Ren Woxing, (任我行, literally meaning “I do as
I please”), a martial-arts master and a cult leader in Jin Yong’s wuxia
masterpiece The Smiling, Proud Wanderer (笑傲江湖).
In 2014, a Vietnamese friend recommend he read the Chinese web
novel Coiling Dragon. Lai was immediately hooked and decided to
translate it.
Under the name RWX, Lai first updated his translation chapter by
chapter on Light Novel Forum, a literary platform on Reddit that is
dominated by Japanese light novels. Coiling Dragon soon overshad-
owed the Japanese novels and became the most popular one on the
forum.
Written by popular xianxia writer “I Eat Tomatoes” (我吃西红
柿), Coiling Dragon tells the story of the adventures of Linley Baruch,
the scion of once-legendary Dragonblood Warriors. Framed in the
settings of Western fantasy, the story features magicians, warriors, im-
mortal beings and a magic ring, the elements of which are familiar to
foreign readers.
Lai set up the Wuxiaworld website in December 2014. In just two
years, the site has become the biggest base in the world for Chinese
fantasy and light fiction lovers.
According to data from web traffic data tool Alexa on May 5, Wux-
iaworld ranked 1,053rd busiest of all websites, far surpassing China’s
largest web novel hosting site, Qidian, which was established in 2002
and ranks 8,321st. Wuxiaworld gets more than five million visitors
from 120 countries per day and has over 300,000 readers. One third
of the visitors are from US, others from the Philippines, Indonesia,
Singapore, India, Canada, Brazil, Germany, UK, France and Austra-
lia.
In 2015, after having translated over three million words of Chi-
nese web novels, Lai resigned from the US State Department to work
full time on translation and website operation.
Fans on Wuxiaworld jokingly call themselves “fellow Daoists” and
endlessly discuss all aspects of Chinese web novels: how to form a
“Gold Core” (金丹), the elixir of life, during the advanced stages
of cultivation, or how to immobilise, control or kill an opponent in
fighting though striking his or her meridians, the network of vessels
in the body through which the vital energy Qi flows.
Learning Chinese has become cool among fans. Many start teach-
ing themselves or take courses to learn the language to read the web
novels. The website also provides explanations in a glossary of general
terms used in wuxia, xianxia and xuanhuan stories, as well as a list of
commonly used Chinese idioms and phrases and tips for learning
Chinese.
Wuxiaworld has over 30 translation groups, each in charge of one
or two works. The site has already completed the translation of seven
novels such as Coiling Dragon, Stellar Transformation, Child of Light,
and is currently translating 33 novels.
Apart from Wuxiaworld, according to research by Ji Yunfei, a schol-
ar of the Webnovel Research Forum of Peking University, there are
more than 100 Chinese web novel translation websites around theThe manga adaptation of the
popular web novel Coiling
Dragon written by I Eat
TomatoesManga version of Coiling DragonPhoto by cfp Photo by cfp