One of the top three winners for WebNovel Spirity Awards 2022 are Leveling Endlessly With the Strongest System by Crimson ink from Pakistan.
The WebNovel Spirity Awards 2022 were held in Hong Kong this month. Three online novels written by authors from Pakistan, India, and Thailand took home the top prize, besting 90,000 other entries in the three language categories of English, Indonesian, and Thai.
Launched in May 2017 to support the translation of Chinese online novels, WebNovel is the international portal of China Literature Company, a pioneer in the online literature market and one of the biggest online literature platforms. WebNovel began receiving original works from writers outside of the country in April 2018.
According to a report recently released in collaboration by China Literature and the Global Times Research Center, Web-Novel had published translations of about 2,900 Chinese online novels by the end of the previous year. Additionally, the platform saw the arrival of 340,000 foreign online authors who produced 500,000 works.
About 170 million more people visited WebNovel in four years, an increase of 8.5 times. The WebNovel Spirity Awards, or WSA, were established in 2018 with an initial focus on English-language authors. However, last year, submissions in Indonesian and Thai were also accepted.
The top three winners for WebNovel Spirity Awards 2022 are Leveling Endlessly With the Strongest System by Crimson ink from Pakistan, This Love Doesn’t Have Long Beans by Ninepinta from Thailand, and Allure of the Night by ash knight17 from India.
The humble writer behind Leveling Endlessly with the Strongest System goes by the pen names “Crimson” and “ink.”
The only word in the biography of the author, that describes the author, is “shy.” Crimson ink chooses to highlight the personalities of the books rather than write complex sentences and setting up social media accounts to promote the books.
The book is the most recent addition to Crimson ink’s book collection, and it has the most chapters and reader hearts. Like every other book written by Crimson Ink, Leveling Endlessly with the Strongest System! belongs to the fantasy genre.
The awards’ primary objective is to support emerging foreign authors. According to the report, since 2018, the number of authors living abroad has grown at a compound annual rate of 130%, with those born after 2000 accounting for 37.5% and those born between 1995 and 2000 for 29.5%.
The WSA 2022 winners had an average age of 27, and more than 40% of them published their first novels on the platform.
The United States, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Britain were the top five nations with the most writers on the platform. According to themes like Western or Eastern fantasy, science fiction, and more than 100 subcategories, the platform’s original works can be categorised into 15 main categories.
The most important details in this text are the influences of Chinese online literature on the 2,900 Chinese online novels, such as “reincarnation”, “system”, and “immortality cultivation“.
The gold prizewinner Leveling Endlessly With the Strongest System combines the elements of these modes, and readers on WebNovel come from more than 200 countries and regions around the world, with the biggest reader group coming from the US and the fastest growing from Pakistan.
The translated versions include various themes such as immortals, martial arts, fantasy, urban life, and science fiction. Readers born after 1995 account for 75% of the total.
Online Chinese literature provides a better understanding of traditional Chinese culture and contemporary China. Last year, words related to “China” appeared over 150,000 times in readers’ comments. Other frequently mentioned words include Taoism, gourmet food, martial arts, tea art, and panda.
The most-mentioned five Chinese cities are Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macao, and Hangzhou of Zhejiang Province. Full Marks: Hidden Marriage: Pick up a Son, Get a Free Husband was viewed over 100 million times on the portal.
Nine translations of Chinese online novels had more than 100 million views on Web-Novel by the end of the previous year. The most popular Chinese online novel, with more than 400 million views, is Jiong Jiongyouyao’s Full Marks Hidden Marriage: Pick up a Son, Get a Free Husband, which tells the story of tenacious, independent modern women.
The appeal of online literature, according to Yang Chen, vice president and chief editor of China Literature, was highlighted at the WSA 2022 award ceremony. “No matter what language they are written in, stories can carry dreams, transcend cultural differences, and win more readers,” Yang Chen said.
Online literature is now one of the main sources of the cultural industry in China. Audiobooks, cartoons, TV shows, movies, video games, and other innovative cultural products have all been made from online novels. Similar to this, China Literature has been putting effort into the WebNovel adaptations of original works.
According to the report, 40 percent of the works that have won awards are being turned into audiobooks, cartoons, movies, or TV shows by teams that are primarily composed of people from the US, Britain, India, South Korea, and Thailand.