Reader influence on the creation of transmedia science fiction: a participatory culture perspective

Abstract

The term “Participatory Culture” was first put forward by Henry Jenkins in the book Text Poacher with the aim of comparing participation and the bystander (Jenkins, 2015. Partici- patory culture in a networked era: a conversation on youth, learning, commerce, and politics. Polity Press, Cambridge, UK). The earliest example is the study of the cultural logic of fan groups (or “fan culture”). When it was later studied more extensively, it took on different meanings. It has greatly influenced novels in the cross-media creative environment, and this has not only helped to expand the imagination and inspiration of authors but has also enriched novel plots. It can also increase audience participation and reading enthusiasm. This paper takes China’s science fiction transmedia as its example to analyze the significance and role of Participatory Culture, and it does this with the intention of helping to provide sug- gestions for the development of transmedia fictions.

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ARTICLE
Reader influence on the creation of transmedia
science fiction: a participatory culture perspective
Han Xu 1✉, Javier Gonzalez Patiño1& José Luis Linaza1
The term “Participatory Culture”was first put forward by Henry Jenkins in the book Text
Poacher with the aim of comparing participation and the bystander (Jenkins, 2015. Partici-
patory culture in a networked era: a conversation on youth, learning, commerce, and politics.
Polity Press, Cambridge, UK). The earliest example is the study of the cultural logic of fan
groups (or “fan culture”). When it was later studied more extensively, it took on different
meanings. It has greatly influenced novels in the cross-media creative environment, and this
has not only helped to expand the imagination and inspiration of authors but has also
enriched novel plots. It can also increase audience participation and reading enthusiasm. This
paper takes China’s science fiction transmedia as its example to analyze the significance and
role of Participatory Culture, and it does this with the intention of helping to provide sug-
gestions for the development of transmedia fictions.
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01772-1 OPEN
1Facultad de Formación de Profesorado Y Educación, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. ✉email: han.xu@estudiante.uam.es
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1234567890():,;
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Transmedia fictions are stories that are typically dis-
seminated across at least two different media platforms.
The different modes of consumption each contribute
something different to the overall story world (Jenkins, 2008, pp.
97–98). Frequently, these kinds of texts evolve into whole fran-
chises, incorporating whole story universes, such as Star Wars
(Jenkins, 2008). In China, web fiction, much of which might be
considered transmedia fiction, has developed over more than two
decades. Web fiction generally refers to works of literature that
are mainly written to be accessed via the Internet. In China,
wǎngwén, which can be literally translated as “web literature”,is
primarily user-generated fiction in various genres, such as science
fiction, that is commonly “serialized on online platforms where
users write, publish, read, and interact with each other”, with
them being “typically curated according to genres, subgenres, and
gender orientations”(Zhao, 2022).
As noted above, as Chinese online novel websites have evolved,
it has become commonplace for novels to be serialized. More
than this, they are also often played as audiobooks. Many readers
have come to prefer to listen to each serialization of the novel
with friends or family, rather than reading it by themselves (Li,
2016). As a result, many websites enable the consumption of
novels in a fashion more akin to a series of podcasts (Guo, 2022).
On top of this, many of the novels available on the websites have
been adapted into comics, movies, TV series, games, etc., and co-
disseminated across different platforms (Lugg, 2011). It is for this
reason that the texts in this paper are being described as trans-
media fictions, rather than simply network novels.
Over the course of their development, the creative mode of
transmedia fictions has been constantly improved and perfected.
This brand-new mode has contributed unique creative and tex-
tual features to transmedia fictions, of which the role and
embodiment of Participatory Culture in the creation of trans-
media fictions is one of the most important. This is also one of the
important features that distinguish transmedia fictions from
traditional novels. In the book Confronting the Challenges of a
Participatory Culture (2007), Jenkins defines participatory culture
in the following way:
A participatory culture is a culture with relatively low
barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong
support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some
type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the
most experienced is passed along to novices. […] Members
firmly believe that what they give is important, and they can
feel a certain degree of social connection in the process of
participation.
This strongly captures the sense in which the contributors to
online science fiction websites in China—readers and authors—
engage with their content.
China’s transmedia fictions began to develop in the 1990s.
Overseas students initially exchanged and interacted through
social media such as BBS and blogs to express their love of, and
attachment to, the motherland (Xu, 2012). At this time, trans-
media fictions were short in length, and more closely resembled
diaries or essays, so they could not legitimately be called novels.
Alongside this, readers did not participate in the creation of the
novel, with the partial exception of the comment section of the
article.
In 2000, Cai Zhiheng, a writer from Taiwan Province, China,
took the lead in publishing the novel The First Close Contact on
the Internet, which initiated public engagement and participation.
As a result, the creative process of China’s transmedia fictions
began to change. Serial novels gradually replaced diaries, essays,
short stories, and other stylistic forms, and became the main
component of transmedia fictions. However, at this time, the
function of the novel website was not perfect, as it was only
possible to read online, but can’t communicate with the author.
However, as science and technology began to develop around
2004, and novel websites such as Huanjianshumeng, Qidian and
Rongshuxia began to appear, readers gained an opportunity to
participate in the creation of works. At present, there are more
than 120,000 science fiction novels serialized on Qidian, and the
number is still increasing. According to the 49th China Internet
Development Statistical Report of the Chinese Academy of Sci-
ences, “From 2016 to 2021, the number of authors of science
fiction novels on Qidian Chinese website increased by 189% to
515,000; more than 22% of top writers have created science fic-
tion works”(Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2022).
The readers on websites such as Qidian have, amongst other
things, been able to participate in the creation of works by leaving
messages in the novel comment area, interact with authors, dis-
cuss the plot development in topic groups, and reward authors
with virtual coins. Transmedia fictions is a serial mode, and so
reader participation in the creation of the work will have an
important impact on the work’s content development. In seeking
to enhance the popularity of their work, authors of transmedia
fictions need to cater to reader opinions, which conceivably gives
them great influence over authors and the process of creating
transmedia fictions.
The consumers of online science fiction of this kind differ from
the consumers of traditional print media in a number of
important ways. Readers of traditional novels can only read works
published on paper, so they cannot have an impact on the novel
during its creation; they are only passive recipients, largely
accepting what they are supplied. Of course, after a work is
published, the readers of traditional novels may not like it and
give it a negative evaluation, but this has no impact on the
published content of the work. Readers of transmedia novels,
however, can actively participate in the creation of the work
during the writing process, and can thus influence its progress
and even the ending of the whole work through their interaction
with the author. Overall, the consumption behavior of readers of
transmedia novels occurs earlier in the production process, is
more active, more visible, and typically happens at a larger scale
(Boni, 2017). This, in a sense, therefore, enables them to exert
more power over the producers of fiction of this kind (Tian and
Adorjan, 2016) and this is reflected in the way in which the online
platforms themselves ‘promote’(or don’t) the authors (Freeman,
2014). An alternative argument, however, would have it that this
model makes authors more accountable and less authoritarian in
their decision-making, with concomitant benefits in terms of such
works becoming what might be considered more ‘collective’
productions, or, as Jenkins expressed it, the “coordinated
authorial design of integrated elements”(Jenkins, 2010). Thus, in
line with Jenkins’notions of participatory culture (Jenkins, 2007),
the subjective position of readers and writers has become more
equalized, with readers becoming more ‘empowered’and con-
fident about the value of their contribution and authors coming
to see themselves more as members of a broad creative com-
munity of practice (Wenger, 1998), with ‘expression’(Jenkins,
2009) as its central goal.
The veritable explosion in the online production of fiction in
China and the accompanying fan-based phenomena have pro-
voked significant academic interest. One body of work here has
explored the implications of the boom for the changing quality
and nature of literary output (Huang, 2014; Lu, 2016; Machajek,
2021; Tian, 2019; Feng, 2022). Studies here have notably focused
on the portrayal of men and women in online fiction and its
implications for gender relations in China (Chen, 2017; Wang
and Zhao, 2022; Xu and Yang, 2013; Yanjun, 2008; Zhou, 2021).
Some studies have also focused specifically on the transmedia
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characteristics of online fiction and its relation to other media,
such as games (Inwood, 2014). Other studies have explored the
economic implications of this new form of literary production in
relation to Chinese socialism (He et al., 2022) and, alongside this,
questions have been raised about what it might mean for the
future of print media (Zhu, 2020).
Together with the interest in the production of online fiction,
studies of fandom and its social effects have also featured strongly
(Huang, 2022; Sauro, 2017; Yin and Xie, 2021; Zheng, 2016). A
prominent vein in this body of work again relates to how matters
of both gender and eroticism have played out in Chinese online
fan communities (Guo and Evans, 2020; Li, 2022; Madill and
Zhao, 2021; Zhang, 2016). Another concern relates to the effects
of censorship on fandom and how it has generated a rather fluid
online media landscape (Luo and Li, 2022; Ren, 2020; Wang and
Ge, 2022; Zheng, 2019). Against this, some work has explored
how online literature fandom can serve as a motivating force for
nationalism in China (Liao et al., 2022). Interestingly for the work
presented here, some studies of fandom have focused on the
potential for fans to ply pressure on online authors and ‘coerce’
them to produce particular kinds of novels (Tian and Adorjan,
2016). Against this, some work has explored the extent to which
fans of online fiction might be obliged to undertake a form of
‘data labor’as a result of the algorithms platforms are choosing to
use (Yin, 2020).
Within the above literature, a range of studies have looked
more specifically at the development of web-based Chinese sci-
ence fiction. Many of these have focused on the unique character
of online Chinese science fiction (Song, 2013) and how it differs
from Western science fiction (Li, 2015). In relation to this, a
particular interest has been taken in how the explosion of web-
based science fiction in China has repositioned Chinese science
fiction on the world stage (Chau, 2018; Csicsery-Ronay, 2012;
Hartley, 2022). Other work has explored the way in which the
web has played a role in the growing commercialization of science
fiction in China (Han, 2022). Within this, certain studies have
looked at the demographic character of the readers of Chinese
web-based science fiction (Feng, 2009). Beyond this, some studies
have been concerned with how the move to consuming genres
such as science fiction through internet-based media has had an
impact upon more traditional print-based media (Yang, 2010).
Closer to the interests of this paper, some studies have focused
upon the uniquely participatory character of the involvement of
fans in the consumption and production of science fiction on the
web in China (Tang et al., 2022; Yang, 2021), including the
impact on this on the reworking of traditional literary tropes (Ni,
2018; Tian, 2015). This has been accompanied by some studies
that see the growing number of readers who become producers of
literature in China, including science fiction, to be a concrete
example of what has been termed prosumption (Chao, 2013). At
the same time, confronted with the repurposing of themes in this
literature and its increasingly transmedia characteristics, another
body of work has been concerned with the difficulties that
therefore arise with the copyrighting of content (Hickey, 2015),
echoing broader concerns in studies of online fiction (Ren and
Montgomery, 2012).
Alongside the above, certain studies have taken an interest in
how readers’wider concerns with the nature of the current world,
such as climate change or civil breakdown, maybe having a
shaping influence upon the kind of science fiction being pub-
lished on the web (Imbach, 2021; Li, 2018; Møller-Olsen, 2020;
Tian, 2019). This had led to some authors suggesting that the
participatory character of this kind of online fiction has actually
served to ‘reinvigorate literary creativity’(Lugg, 2011) and ‘nar-
rative innovation’(Feng, 2015) in China. Some of these studies
(e.g., Li, 2018) have noted the transmedia character of much of
the Chinese science fiction appearing on the web (Feng, 2015)
and the important role being played by readers within this.
However, these studies have tended to gloss over the nature of the
relationship between authors and readers in this world and the
way participation may have an impact on that relationship over
the course of a story’s production.
This paper aims to fill the existing research gap discussed above
by providing a comprehensive examination of the role played by
readers in the generation of Chinese transmedia science fiction. In
the process of reading transmedia fictions, readers actively engage
with the author, leaving messages, comments, and participating in
various forms of cultural involvement that directly influence the
novel’s creation process. This departure from the traditional
model, where novels were only read after completion by the
author, highlights the active participation of transmedia novel
readers in the creative process and production. To investigate the
nature of this engagement, this paper will draw upon Jenkins’s
theory of Participatory Culture, as outlined earlier.
Participatory culture, initially associated with fan culture, has
evolved to encompass a range of connotations through extensive
research. In this process, participants can derive spiritual satis-
faction, and the low barrier to entry provides strong support for
personal creation and sharing. Jenkins (2009) has identified sev-
eral forms of participatory culture that are relevant to our
exploration. These forms include ‘affiliations’, which involve
membership in online communities centered around specific
types of media, often social media platforms. ‘Expressions’refer
to participation centered around creative outputs, ‘collaborative
problem solving’involves teamwork to resolve issues and com-
plete tasks, and ‘circulations’relate to shaping the flow of media,
such as podcasting and blogging. Notably, these forms of parti-
cipatory culture resonate with the production of transmedia sci-
ence fiction on the web. Consumers of specific science fiction
genres can be considered online communities in their own right,
working together with authors to shape plot developments. In
addition, the transmedia nature of web fiction consumption, often
through audio formats, aligns with the concept of circulations.
Examining how readers employ teamwork to affect the author’s
writing process plays a critical role in exploring the influence of
readers on the production of transmedia fictions. Analysis of the
collaborative dynamics between authors and readers provides
insights into the extent of reader involvement and its impacts on
the creative aspects of transmedia science fiction.
By examining the multifaceted interactions within the partici-
patory culture and its specific forms in the context of transmedia
science fiction, this paper attempts to provide a comprehensive
understanding of the reader’sinfluence on novel creation. This
exploration will contribute to the existing knowledge and shed
light on the dynamics between authors and readers in the realm
of Chinese transmedia science fiction.
Participatory culture is a concept that has infiltrated and
helped to shape a number of influential academic debates in a
wide variety of different domains, including media studies
(Burgess, 2008; Dena, 2008; Langlois, 2013), journalism (Deuze,
2006), heritage studies (Giaccardi, 2012), Human–Computer
Interaction (Rotman et al. 2011), linguistics (Androutsopoulos,
2013), marketing (Guschwan, 2012), and even public relations
(Tombleson and Wolf, 2017). One domain that has particularly
concerned itself with the concept is education, where the
increasing involvement of young people in participatory cultures
of various kinds is seen to be giving rise to some significant
challenges for educators (Ondrejka, 2008; Reilly, 2009; Tobias,
2013; Waldron et al., 2018). These include what has been termed
the ‘participation gap’, where people have unequal access to the
resources and knowledge around which participatory cultures are
being framed, leading to potential disadvantages in life; ‘the
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transparency problem’, which refers to the difficulty people may
have with identifying how different media may be shaping their
perceptions and understanding; and, unsurprisingly, ‘ethics’,
because people are increasingly taking on public roles through the
participatory production of online media for which they are
wholly unprepared (Jenkins, 2009).
Regardless of the domain, participatory culture can be char-
acterized by certain fundamental features, as identified by Jenkins
(2007): (1) participants can easily express themselves artistically
and engage in the culture; (2) participants who create and share
their creations receive ‘strong support’; (3) more experienced
participants typically pass their knowledge on to those with less
experience; (4) participants are deeply invested in the validity and
value of their own contributions; and (5) participation fosters the
participants a sense of social connection among participants.
Within the context of this study, thoroughly exploring the
concept of participatory culture requires the examination of
whether the novel readers, who are the participants in this
research, received ‘strong support.’This examination, in turn,
needs to analyze the nature and measure the extent of the support
provided to them during the novel creation process. In addition,
investigating the readers’social connections (e.g., their commu-
nication, discussion, and evaluation activities) will provide valu-
able insights into the dynamics of their participation and the
impact on cross-media creation.
Due to the vital role of novel readers in cross-media creation,
exploring their behaviors and involvement is critical within the
framework of participatory culture. Readers offer a crucial aspect
of popular culture, and their broad participation has emerged as
one of the most prominent features of transmedia fictions.
This paper focuses specifically on popular science fiction online
transmedia fictions, all of which were simultaneously made
available across multiple platforms, including novel websites, such
as audio novels, movies, TV series, animations, comics, and
games. The paper uses a Participatory Culture approach to ana-
lyze the influence of their readers on the authors of such works
when creating them. In doing so, it engages with novel themes
and texts and puts forward new suggestions for the creation of
transmedia fictions.
Ultimately, the argument here is that Chinese transmedia sci-
ence fiction not only offers a form of relaxation to young people
(Qin, 2007) that simply constitutes a new literary form (Xu et al.,
2022) but also stands as a new form of communication and
learning. There is a strong sense of participation in transmedia
fictions that exists not only between readers and authors but also
between readers and readers. This interaction helps readers learn
and increases their motivation (Gilardi and Reid, 2011). With its
potential for engagement, communication, and learning, trans-
media science fiction can make a unique contribution to both the
evolution of new media and the field of literary creation. As
illustrated below, it may even be used to enhance readers’popular
cultural competence.
Reader influence on the theme characteristics of transmedia
fictions
The subject matter of transmedia fictions is very wide and
includes oriental fantasy, science fiction, history, suspense, love,
and martial arts. Each major category has several specific sub-
categories. This variety of themes did not exist at the beginning,
but instead emerged as a result of emerging reader requirements
during the development of transmedia fictions, as part of a
phenomenon known as genre fiction. Zhou Zhixiong (2014), a
Chinese scholar, observes that ‘genre fictions are mainly aimed at
popular novels for entertainment purposes. Novels with the same
theme and similar purport are naturally formed in the
development history of novels, and are classified into one cate-
gory, forming the type of novels’.
For example, the large category of oriental fantasy is one of the
earliest themes of China’s transmedia fictions, and the most
famous representative work in the early days is Xiao Ding’s“Zhu
Xian”series is one of the most well-known representative
examples. This type of theme, inspired by Chinese myths and
legends, comes endowed with China’s characteristics. After its
great success, it was followed by many imitators, and a large
number of transmedia fictions about China’s myths and legends
were produced in these years. These novels cite different
mythological backgrounds and are divided into small types on the
basis of individual detail, including traditional Xianxia and the
fantasy cultivation of immortals. These small types emerged in
response to different reading needs—while authors must quote
different myths and legends when constructing the writing
background of their novels, they all fall within the broad category
of oriental fantasy.
As the landscape of transmedia fiction continues to expand,
readers have shown a growing dissatisfaction with traditional
notions of esthetic quality. They aspire for transmedia fiction to
break free from the constraints of myths and legends, and
embrace a broader, more diverse range of works. This shift in
reader expectations has prompted novel authors to seek timely
feedback from readers and embark on innovative approaches.
Simultaneously, many readers themselves have ventured into
creating their own works (Xu et al., 2022). Although some initial
attempts may have resulted in failures, they marked the emer-
gence of a new sub-category known as Oriental Fantasy within
transmedia fiction, signifying a fresh beginning. This transition
clearly exemplifies the unfolding of a nascent participatory
culture.
One notable aspect of this phenomenon is the readers’unin-
hibited expression of their artistic viewpoints. Additionally,
readers have gained the confidence to engage in their own crea-
tive endeavors and anticipate support from others within the
platform. Remarkably, when viewed through the lens of partici-
patory culture, we observe that the ‘guidance’shaping this tran-
sition stems not only from the authors but also significantly from
the readers. Although the readers may not possess the same level
of writing expertise as the authors, they are, in a sense, ‘experts’in
online popular culture and possess valuable insights into what
constitutes a ‘good’contribution. This pivotal moment reshapes
the dynamics of the author-reader relationship, with a substantial
degree of authority in the writing process being delegated to the
readers.
Establishing a stronger connection between the arguments
presented and the supporting evidence requires gathering rele-
vant data that substantiates the relationship between the emer-
gence of new sub-categories of transmedia fiction, such as
Oriental Fantasy, and the production of fan fiction by readers. By
conducting empirical research and analyzing data on reader
engagement and author–reader interactions within these con-
texts, we can provide robust evidence to support the described
developments and their impact on the author-reader relationship.
By thoroughly examining the evolving dynamics of participa-
tory culture within the realm of transmedia fiction, this
paper seeks to shed light on the interplay between readers and
authors. Through a combination of empirical evidence and the-
oretical analysis, we aim to provide a comprehensive under-
standing of the transformation occurring in the creation and
reception of transmedia fiction, thereby enriching the current
knowledge in this field.
The main difference between this evolving sub-category and its
counterparts is that, although its framework quotes some tradi-
tional myths and legends, it is a new world that writers have
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drawn on reader opinions to conceive and develop. This “new
world”is at the core of the whole novel and is key to attracting
readers. Again, in a spirit of participatory culture, readers con-
stantly put forward opinions about this “new world”in the
process of novel creation, which helps the author to constantly
improve the world’s setting, resulting in a novel that is very
popular with readers. Representative works include Tiancantu-
dou’sFights Break Sphere, Wochixihongshi’sThe Heroic Age, and
Mengrushenji’sYang Shen, which are all famous transmedia fic-
tion in China.
In addition to oriental fantasy novels, transmedia fiction with
science fiction themes has also emerged as an important repre-
sentative of China’s transmedia fiction. These are the type of
novels that this paper focuses on. We should first acknowledge
that science fiction is not easy to define. Most scholars tend to
subscribe broadly to the definition first offered by Darko Suvin
(1988), where he observes that: “Science fiction is a literary type
or language organization. Its necessary and sufficient condition
lies in the presence and interaction between alienation and cog-
nition. Its main strategy is to replace the imagination framework
of the author’s experience environment.”
Suvin believes that science fiction is an attempt to understand
the living state of human beings from a new perspective in an
unfamiliar world, or as Howell puts it, where “reality is “made
strange”in light of a single fantastic premise”(Howell, 1994, p. 3).
Spiegel (2008) expresses this, if anything more broadly, as a
matter of ‘estrangement’.
On the basis of Suvin’s theory, science fiction can be roughly
divided into three categories on the basis of different ways of
treating science and technology, specifically popular, constructive,
and speculative science fiction (Nicholls et al., 1999). Popular
science fiction regards the novel as a popular science reading
material and integrates a lot of scientific knowledge into the
novel, with the aim of popularizing it. This genre is not a com-
plete science fiction but more closely resembles a popular pub-
lication, and so does not have a large audience.
Constructive science fiction is based on existing scientific
knowledge and constructs an ‘unreal’new world. Its objects of
reference are unlikely to exist in the real world at present, but
which could, through future innovations, conceivably exist in the
future, whether as a result of human or robot endeavors. This type
of science fiction does not describe individual human beings, but
rather the whole society. It can often satisfy readers’fantasies about
the future, and it appeals enormously to them for this reason.
Speculative science fiction mainly depicts the individual and
future impacts of future world changes. It can be imagined in the
past, the future, or some distant space, and its key preoccupation
is often the benefits or dangers of scientific progress or techno-
logical change for human civilization. The book will engage with
each of these variations of science fiction by drawing on a range
of insights, experiences and perspectives that show the influence
of scientific facts and methods on human beings and the possible
impact of future changes in the world, and in this respect, the
book will therefore effectively function as a warning to the future
world. Contemporary readers will gain some enlightenment about
the world that future generations will inherit.
Other authors have proposed a rather different kind of typology
of science fiction. Roberts (2016), for instance, suggests that it has
three basic forms: “stories of travel through space (to other worlds,
planets, stars); stories of travel through time (into the past or into
the future); and stories of imaginary technologies (machinery,
robots, computers, cyborgs and cyberculture)”(Roberts, 2016). He
also allows that utopian fiction may count as a fourth form, though
with quite distinct antecedents in philosophy and social theory.
When China’s transmedia science fiction novels are assessed
from a content perspective, they might generally be seen to be, in
Suvin’s terms, constructive and speculative. However, transmedia
science fiction has tended to absorb certain characteristics from
other genres to supplement its own deficiencies and make the
content more vivid. Thus, it is not just science fiction, but consists
instead of comprehensive novels flavored with oriental fantasy or
western magic colors. Nonetheless, these novels are broadly
recognized by their readers as science fiction and are referred to
in those terms. Transmedia science fiction was originally based on
famous science fiction movies, such as The Matrix and Star Wars.
However, readers began to tire of this form. There are relatively
few famous science fiction movies and too much repetition is not
conducive to a positive reading experience. This led to the
addition of other elements, though the core remains science fic-
tion. This change was driven partially by readers, who suggested
creating new science fiction content that engaged with different
themes such as eschatological crisis, time travel and/or mechan-
ized warfare. Here one can again see the ways in which the
production of transmedia science fiction was evolving into a clear
participatory culture. Many authors engaged with these and other
themes, and this quickly established China’s science fiction
transmedia as the most popular novel type among readers.
Representative works from this genre include Lord of the Mys-
teries,Swallowed Star and Spare Me Great Lord. Each one has
risen to the top of qidian’s annual bestseller list.
Many small novel categories, including campus, military, and
urban love novels, have been absorbed into large categories.
History novels include fantasy and overhead history.
These small classifications have gradually been improved by
drawing on reader preferences. This too shows the participatory
nature of reader involvement in the development of themes in
China’s transmedia fiction. Amidst fierce competition, only those
novel themes that meet reader reading requirements will perse-
vere and further develop. Authors must therefore cater to readers’
preferences when choosing the theme of transmedia fiction. A
novel that is popular with readers will create more hits and
subscriptions than niche/unpopular novels. Writers of transmedia
fiction who are mainly focused on making profits will prioritize
click and subscription volume. If neither is engaged and
acknowledged, income will be greatly reduced. Reader preferences
can determine the theme of transmedia fiction, which is a writing
feature that traditional novels lack.
Undoubtedly, some transmedia fictions authors operate on a
‘not-for-profit’basis. Their style is not aligned with current
mainstream esthetics or reading needs, and so it is difficult for
their work to be popularized among readers of transmedia fic-
tions. Their work is basically unable to obtain benefits and is even
disregarded for long periods of time.
Reader influence on the textual characteristics of transmedia
fictions
In addition to the theme, the textual features of transmedia
fictions are also very important. In contrast to traditional novels,
transmedia fictions have a low writing threshold and a wide
audience, meaning their text requirements are not as strict as
those of traditional novels. In the case of transmedia fictions, the
click-through rate of free reading chapters is very important,
and only books with a sufficiently high click-through rate can
guarantee sufficient subscriptions for the novel’spaidreading
chapters. Writers of transmedia fiction like the subscription
ratio to be kept at around 100:1 in order to ensure their profit.
Authors who wish to obtain more income from transmedia
fictions must have more subscriptions. If the author wants more
subscriptions, they must have a higher click-through rate.
Transmedia fictions need to be unique in the text, as this will
attract more readers.
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If transmedia fiction wants to attract readers’attention, it must
have novel content, and this is why novelty has emerged as the
most prominent textual feature of transmedia fiction. The novelty
of transmedia fiction is first manifested in the diversity of its
contents. Western magic, oriental fantasy, suspense, and history
are among the different transmedia themes. These themes often
have different esthetic advantages that can be adjusted to specific
reader needs and preferences.
However, science fiction novels are slightly different because
they often combine the esthetic features of other subjects with
science fiction elements, which forms a brand-new imaginary
space packed with incredible novelty (Liu, 2016). Mecha-type
transmedia science fiction includes Armed Storm,Tales of Tea-
chers and Scholars and Seeing and Hearing of Abnormal Crea-
tures
1
. These novels are classic works that combine science fiction
with other elements. Consider the example of Armed Storm,
which is set in a future society’s big space age. Nuclear energy,
spacecraft, superconducting equipment, ion equipment, cloning
technology and other cutting-edge science and technology all
make an appearance. The book hero accidentally gets an intelli-
gent mecha and this, in addition to other technological elements,
proves to be his main source of reliance. However, in the process
of his growth, both his own level of promotion and combat
experience are invested with fantasy and magic. For example, the
book refers to China mythology, magic in western mythology and
brings technology and magic together. The Record of Abnormal
Creatures combines science fiction with western magic and a
distinctive cast of characters. The hero is a mixed-heritage demon
hunter, and the heroines are a vampire and werewolf. The book
focuses on the struggle between the demon hunters and other
heritage groups. It does not only depict the technological devel-
opment of the demon hunters but also refers to the magical skills
of other heritage groups, and this combination of reality and
fantasy cultivates readers’imagination.
Transmedia fictions also have utopian narration characteristics,
which is commonplace throughout Chinese science fiction (Song,
2013). This feature is closely related to reality. Robert Scholes
(2011) observes:
“The expression of this utopian impulse has been as close to
the real world as possible, but it has not turned into some
conscious utopian conception, nor has it entered the
development track of another utopian plan and realization
that we call.”
From this perspective, transmedia science fiction does not seek
to establish a science fiction world different from the real world;
instead, the author uses science fiction imagination to express
dissatisfaction with contemporary real society, on terms “as close
as possible to the real world”. This feature is shown in some
transmedia science fictions of the upgrade type.
For example, the writer Huishuohuadezhouzi established a
different life circle on earth in the book “Spare Me Great Lord”.In
this book, people on Earth can improve their force value through
cultivation, and their social status is ranked in accordance with
their individual force value. The higher the force value, the higher
the social status. Although the book is fictional, it strongly
resonates with readers because the fictional scenes share many
similarities with real society. To take a few examples, grades are
divided in accordance with academic achievements in schools;
there is a strict superior-subordinate relationship in government
agencies; and seniority produces a number of advantages in the
company environment. These realities are invoked in the virtual
society, and the parallels resonate with readers. In the comment
area of the novel “Spare Me Great Lord”, many readers said as
much, which confirms the novel content resonated with readers.
In this fictional world, the hero still has to fight for his family,
compete and cooperate with friends, grow up silently, and finally
experience a happy ending with the heroine. Although this kind
of thinking is somewhat old-fashioned, it is the ideal life that most
readers have pursued their whole lives, and so it is very popular.
The reflections engaged in by readers through their discussion of
these kinds of texts also push forward their own understanding of
the interrelationships between the novel of this kind and society.
In this way, readers are actively learning from one another about
their own culture.
Readers of transmedia fictions often substitute themselves for
the book protagonist when reading. This means they don’t like
the protagonist to suffer too many hardships; they hope he/she
will be able to turn the corner smoothly when encountering
difficulties and will fight back strongly when looked down on by
others. Their desire in these regards is further strengthened when
they experience similar things in their own lives but are unable to
solve them easily. The utopian content of transmedia fictions is
therefore their spiritual sustenance. This is different from the
dystopian themes that often preoccupy traditional science fiction.
Transmedia science fiction is therefore more predisposed to
describe the hero’s omnipotence through unrestrained fantasy, as
this will produce an extraordinary transcendence of the author’s
personal life and an imaginary reproduction of their real life. This
utopianism of individual narrative is not just an expression of the
author’s personal imagination but is also a figurative embodiment
of readers’wishes. Science fiction transmedia novels most fre-
quently seek to create a social environment that science and
technology could achieve in the future, upgrade real life to a
certain degree, and place the hero in a large background, in a
manner similar to the cultivation game that starts a new story.
This kind of individual narrative utopia routine evokes the deep
love of readers (not just of science fiction but also of transmedia
fictions that deploy similar routines). Here too, the online dis-
cussions about these fictions provide readers with an opportunity
to reflect on one another’s aspirations and hopes, for themselves
and for society, helping them to develop a more nuanced grasp of
one another’s perspectives. The grounding of these narratives in
recognizable aspects of people’s everyday lives, while reconfi-
guring them into something ‘better’resonates with the work of
Jameson on utopias and their ultimate purpose (Jameson,
1979,2004,2005,2010). Indeed, the use of highly familiar rou-
tines to accomplish the narrative reinforces this point. As Wegner
(1998) puts it:
“Jameson (1987) now suggests that the “object of
representation”in a Utopian text may never have been
the “realm of freedom”that would exist in a radically other
society…Rather, Jameson now asks us to consider the
possibility that what the Utopia successfully brings into
view is precisely the “machinery”concentrating and
localizing necessity - those structures that enable a social
order to (re)produce itself - so that new forms and spaces of
freedom can come into being in the first place”(Wegner,
1998, p. 70).
We can also see in these traces of the levelling and creative
aspirations of a participatory culture in the making.
Transmedia science fictions are different from traditional sci-
ence fiction novels that deal with the relationship between fantasy
and technology. Traditional science fiction novels will consciously
limit their imagination, while science fiction transmedia fictions
tend to be more arbitrary, which is due to their great freedom on
the network platform. This kind of freewheeling not only reflects
the author’s ability but also the fact that, in the process of
transmedia fiction creation, readers can actively participate in the
creative process by engaging through the network platform. It has
already been noted that China’s transmedia science fictions are
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generally constructive and speculative. However, there are some
subtle differences between the two types when they deal with the
relationship between fantasy and technology.
Looking now to speculative transmedia science fiction, this
kind of fiction speculates on the possible impact of changes in
science and technology on human beings and embodies the
author’s own thinking about real life in the illusory world. Liu
Yuan (2016) refers to the reflections of scholars on The Guest and
notes how they observe “the author trickily weaves complex sci-
ence fiction stories in the net of philosophical thinking, which
conveys his cognition of Kant’s ethical concept and his view of the
real world”.
This describes the conflict between the Federation and Empire
civilizations, and the ensuing scenes are responses to reality. In
his 2009 novel, Mao (2009) writes:
The imperial rulers, regardless of the life of the people at
the bottom, devoted all their efforts to make the strongest
space travel technology and spent countless funds to study
warships and weapons, just to satisfy the vanity of the royal
family. There are federal presidents, houses of parliament,
seven big families, and supreme justices. These upper
classes are all corrupt, but the lives of ordinary people seem
to be good.
These situations broadly approximate to past history and
resonate with readers for this reason. After foreshadowing the
whole book’s plot and constantly communicating with readers,
the author offers his conclusion on what kind of society that is
best suited to human development. He observes:
Although the corruption at the top of the empire is no
different from the erosion of the seven members of the
Federation, I still prefer a world where everyone in the
Federation has dignity. Even if this dignity is only
superficial, it is better than nothing.
The constructive transmedia science fiction is therefore dif-
ferent. Although it constructs a world different from reality, some
assumptions of this world can be traced and are based on modern
technology or reasonable scientific conjecture. This kind of work
requires the author to be highly conscious, to control fantasy in
an appropriate range, and so on. This appropriate range is based
on the relationship between the fantasy world and existing
technology. If it exceeds this range, the novel will become an
oriental fantasy or western fantasy. But if it falls beneath the
bottom line of this range, it will not be sufficiently imaginative to
sustain the readers’interest. With regard to thinking about the
universe, traditional science fiction is described in accordance
with existing scientific knowledge of human beings. For example,
consider the surpassing of the speed of light—traditional science
fiction avoids this question entirely or instead seeks to explain it
by drawing on the known scientific concept of a wormhole.
However, in the book Dark Blood Age, read by readers across the
world, a different explanation emerges. Here the author uses
philosophical thinking to create concepts such as a zero-
dimension node and rainbow bridge. He (Tianxia, 2010) observes:
Zero dimension has no size or distance. When zero
dimension is connected with the multidimensional material
world, or there is a time axis, zero dimension has meaning,
and human consciousness exists with zero dimension. Also,
a node exists between the smallest scale of time and space,
between existence and nonexistence. When someone
observes it, it has meaning, and the world inside is real.
When you leave it, it doesn’t mean anything.
In engaging with these settings, readers can communicate
regardless of the distance limit, invade the consciousness of others
at will, and realize the figuration of self-consciousness. This all
serves to take forward their understanding of the culture they
inhabit and the way it operates. The author of Dark Blood Age
observes that ‘consciousness is pinned on the zero-dimensional
space, and it can acquire the ability of superluminal, which is not
superluminal in the material sense, so it conforms to the special
theory of relativity’.
Readers can easily identify that these seemingly bizarre set-
tings have a certain philosophical rationality and scientific
logic. Many fans will supplement and improve them in the
comment section, and this will take precedence over the author
answering other people’s questions. This will in turn help to
ensure the book’s‘scientific’credentials. In this kind of context,
readers of science fiction transmedia fictions are actively edu-
cating one another about philosophy and science and building
up a greater competence about these matters within their online
community.
The text of transmedia fictions also has the characteristic of
labeling, which is given by readers. The continuous integration of
the themes of transmedia fictions means that it difficult to reflect
innovation in novels by solely classifying them on this basis, and
this is why transmedia fictions will use “labels”for auxiliary
classification. Consider the example of Qidian, the largest website
in China. In its science fiction novels, there are more than 20
kinds of auxiliary labels, including giants, secret agents, sum-
moning, invincible, and transformation. The function of these
labels is to mark the most common elements of works, and this
can help readers quickly query them. The large number of
transmedia fictions means there are thousands of novels in each
category, even after subject matter classification. In order to
enable readers to quickly find the novels they want to read and
facilitate their reading; the author chooses or customizes some
tags when uploading works on the network platform. These tags,
in the same way as keywords, can notify readers of the char-
acteristic content of novels in the shortest amount of time and are
a convenient point of reference when querying the types of novel
to read. Of course, from a marketing point of view, certain
categories of novels may be particularly popular for a certain
period of time and, if novels are added with corresponding
category labels during this period, it will attract more readers and
increase the number of paid readings. However, despite this
marketing angle to the tagging practices adopted by websites, it
remains the fact that they allow readers to quickly find the type of
reading they like so that they do not need to spend too much time
searching. Large categories, such as the science fiction genre, have
many smaller category labels. These categories help readers to
know the main elements of a science fiction novel in more detail,
such as whether its genre is mecha, doomsday, future world, etc.,
so the primary function of these categories and tags is to facilitate
reading.
For example, the transmedia science fiction novels Natural
Disaster and Dark Blood Age both consider the doomsday crisis.
In Natural Disaster, after the end of the world, Earth becomes a
game world where human beings gain experience value by
choosing different occupations and fighting with other heritage
groups. When they gradually upgrade to a higher cosmic civili-
zation, they are labeled “upgrade”.Dark Blood Age is about the
world after the sun disappears, when it is sustained by dark
matter and energy. This novel provides a detailed analysis of the
concepts of space and time interval in the starry sky war and also
provides insight into the advantages and disadvantages of the
space-time deviation and information transmission deviation
produced in this war. The author emphasizes the importance of
technology in the space war. If humans lack technology, they will
be unable to break through the dark matter world and will kill
each other. And this is why it is labeled as “technology flow”.
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As embodiments of grassroots culture, transmedia fictions have
a low creative threshold which falls below products with higher
artistic value thresholds, such as traditional novels. However,
transmedia fictions can involve more people in an esthetic pursuit
and elevate their individual understanding of popular culture. In
other words, they bring with them an opportunity to learn about
how popular culture operates. In the process of creating trans-
media fictions, readers not only participate in the evaluation
stage, but also directly intervene in the creative process, and even
contribute to interactive writing. They consequently have an
enormous influence on the text characteristics of transmedia
fictions. The author is no longer the dominant figure in the
construction and development of the text, and indeed the author
and readers come together in a joint enterprise, from which
everyone learns something.
Reader influence on the creation of transmedia fictions
Reader influence on the creation of transmedia fictions can be
divided into influence of readers before and during the creation of
transmedia fictions. In the paper media age, traditional novel
creation was a relatively independent process. Ordinary readers,
as recipients of traditional novels, hardly had any direct impact
on the process of novel creation. It is conceivable that adjust-
ments may be made to the small number of works serialized in
newspapers and magazines on the basis of their broad public
appeal. However, overall reader influence during this era was
likely to be negligible.
The professional critics and the literary editors of publishing
houses exerted great influence on traditional novel creation in the
paper media era. The former was entitled to speak on the eva-
luation of literary works in the paper media era, and the latter was
able to decide if literary works were smoothly published. Before
starting the writing process, the author will cater to and adjust
creative content and style in accordance with established literary
criticism at that time and the preferences of publishing houses’
editors, and this will ensure the smooth publication of their work.
However, in the online literature era, the appearance of the online
platform establishes a clear communication channel between
ordinary readers and novel writers, and it is more convenient for
readers to participate in the evaluation of works, which greatly
enhances their influence on the creation of transmedia fictions. In
addition, not all transmedia fictions need to be published as
physical books, and indeed most transmedia fictions are only
published on the network platform, meaning that professional
critics and publishers will have very little influence on the crea-
tion of transmedia fictions.
Instead, transmedia fiction writers now pay more attention to
the opinions of ordinary readers. In seeking to gain more com-
mercial benefits, they will cater to the preferences and esthetics of
ordinary readers and create some novels with fixed routines. But
this was not the case at the beginning of the rise of transmedia
fictions. As Yang Xinmin (2000) observes:
Because the publication of traditional literature needs to be
restricted by publications and editors, the authors of
transmedia fictions only need to create and publish
according to their own preferences, and they are completely
free to be driven by the authentic’I’to express freely and
attract the same interests.
At this time, the market of transmedia fictions had not been
perfected, and accordingly, its content mainly expressed the
author’s truest feelings and personal ideas.
However, as cultural capital entered transmedia fiction web-
sites, transmedia gradually began transform into an industrial
economy, meaning that the early free improvisation was no
longer the basis of the creative process. Transmedia fictions then
gradually became a part of consumer culture and a kind of
cultural good.
In traditional literary creation, the author of a novel pre-
supposes a specific audience before creating a work. But if the
preset readers of traditional novel writers are close friends that
the author tries to locate on the basis of self-expression, the preset
readers of online literature creators become the potential target
customers of their products, which are mainly tailored to custo-
mer needs. In seeking to meet customer needs, many transmedia
fiction writers will add a large number of routine elements to their
works, resulting in an increasing number of works with similar
plot settings that are increasingly indistinguishable from each
other. This is an important contributing factor to the low literary
value of transmedia fictions.
Jiangnan’sDragon series clearly demonstrates this. Dragon I,
the first book gained broad reader attention across various plat-
forms and was awarded high marks on them by reviewers. The
exquisite world outlook setting, the plot’s ups and downs and a
passionate emotional catharsis drew extensive praise from read-
ers, and the book was even once labeled as China’s Harry Potter.
Young readers were deeply attracted to the book’s young
characters and youthful fantasies, and the comment area con-
tained many encouraging reader messages and suggestions from
readers and extensive reader–author communication. On the
basis of the first book, the series looked likely to progress and
further develop.
However, as a result of the success of Dragon I, the series’
hidden commercial value was recognized and, as a result, a large
amount of commercial capital was invested into it. Since Dragon
II, the commercial elements of the series have gradually increased,
and the plot has begun to resemble a Hollywood commercial film.
This culminated in Dragon III, which was evenly divided into
three volumes (the upper, middle, and lower) which were, in
much the same way as toothpaste, sold in batches. The accu-
mulation of this commercial content caused reader enthusiasm
for the whole series to decline, and growing reader dissatisfaction
was further exacerbated by delayed plot content. Readers
responded to what they viewed as unreasonable plot settings by
leaving messages in the book review area that expressed the hope
the author would make changes. However, under the pressure of
commercialization, these suggestions were ignored, and many
readers now regarded the series with substantially diminished
expectations. They expressed their disillusionment on a profes-
sional book review website, and the Dragon IV rating plummeted
as a result. (Figs. 1and 2).
Zhu Liyuan (2010), in reflecting on the “horizon of expecta-
tion”that has become part of modern literary theory, presents it
as:
Readers’directional expectation of the way a work is
presented before reading and understanding. This expecta-
tion has a relatively definite boundary, which defines the
possible limit of understanding. Expectation has two forms.
One is a narrow horizon of literary expectation formed on
the basis of past esthetic experience (esthetic experience of a
literary type, form, theme, style, and language); the Second,
is a broader horizon of life expectation formed on the basis
of past life experience (life experience of social and
historical life). These two horizons blend with each other
to form a specific reading horizon.
As an important form of online literature, transmedia fictions
have a “horizon of expectation”, and this concept perfectly
encapsulates and embodies the need for transmedia fictions to
gain knowledge and understanding of readers’needs in advance.
Readers of transmedia fictions are first and foremost netizens who
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can skillfully use the Internet and have spare time. With regard to
age, they are mainly young students, although other age groups
should also be acknowledged and considered. With regard to
academic qualifications they, from an early stage, possessed high
academic qualifications, although this has gradually changed over
time. Consider the example of China. The 44th China Internet
Development Report (2019) observes that “in 2019, the number of
online literature users has reached 455 million, and the usage rate
of netizens has reached 53.2%, and it is still growing”. At present,
more than half of China’s netizens in China use transmedia fic-
tions, and this percentage is still increasing. This has produced
the popularization of the reading interests and expectation hor-
izons of transmedia fictions, as Guo (2009) acknowledges in
observing that “online literature is moving from’elite reading’to
‘civilian reading”. The horizon of expectations held by readers of
transmedia fiction directly influences novel content in the pre-
creation stage. The science fiction transmedia fictions referenced
in this paper look well-placed to become one of China’s most
popular transmedia fictions because they meet readers’
expectations.
Despite the preceding analysis, it is important not to see the
development of transmedia science fiction on the web as being
simply about the production and consumption of cultural com-
modities. Readers, at first sight, are fans of the novels and, from
the perspective of participatory culture, their behavior conforms
to the definition of fan culture. However, in the process of a
novel’s creation, the readers are not pure recipients, they can also
export their own cultural context, and this ‘output’can be
accepted by the author. Thus, although the author is the main
creator of the novel, he is not completely exporting his own
cultural content. In many cases, readers’comments bring the
author new inspiration. Indeed, many authors of cross-media
novels are also readers of other transmedia novels (Xu et al.,
2022). In that case, readers are often inspiring their own creations
when commenting on other works. Whole dialogs evolve between
authors and readers as a novel progresses and authors need to
persuade the readers to their own ideas, especially if the readers
have questioned some of their plots. If an author does not choose
to simply accommodate reader feedback, he must cleverly design
his following output, so as to convince the readers to keep reading
Fig. 1 Dragon I score.
Fig. 2 Dragon IV score. The Fig. 1is the Dragon I score, and the Fig. 2 is the Dragon IV score. The score has obviously decreased in the Fig. 2.
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his work. So, in transmedia science fiction novels, there is a high
probability that the roles of readers and authors can be inter-
changed. They influence each other and, in a sense, achieve each
other. Neither can stand without the other and they are them-
selves participatory creations. This repositioning of the role of
‘reader’and the role of ‘writer’in transmedia science fiction can
be seen to resonate in a number of ways with Jenkins’notion of
participatory culture (Jenkins, 2007), with both parties being
involved in a mutual ‘expressive’endeavor where no one party
has absolute control (Jenkins, 2009).
Readers do not only influence the content of transmedia fic-
tions before they are created but also play an important role in the
creation process. In traditional novel creation, creation and eva-
luation are two different stages, with creation, being followed by
evaluation. Readers’evaluation will form a series of texts after
they finish, but this will basically not affect the texts created by
authors. Transmedia fictions are different by virtue of the fact
that they are published while being created, with creation and
evaluation appearing as simultaneous parts of the writing process.
Here reader feedback can directly affect the creation process of
works and their content. Different readers actively participate in
the evaluation of work, which results in different expectation
horizons and esthetic experiences being taken into consideration.
In the process of communication between the author and readers,
the author may adjust the creative direction or even modify the
previous text in response to different reader feedback and
expectations. The volatility of popular culture is widely
acknowledged (Beer, 2013). Amongst other things, we can
therefore see in the relationship between authors and readers in
Chinese transmedia science fiction elements of readers actively
educating authors as to the current preferences of popular cul-
ture, so that authors can shape their output accordingly. This, too,
resonates with the core precepts of a participatory culture.
The above points cannot be seen to align exactly with the
various forms of reader response theory that are commonly
posited in literary criticism, where the claim is that the meaning
of any text is entirely dependent upon what the reader makes of
it during the reading process and that a text may not be seen to
exist in any meaningful way until a reader has engaged with it
(Bleich, 1988;Fish,1970;Holland,1998;Rosenblatt,1978). It
does, however, resonate to some extent with the notion of
‘interpretive communities’in social reader-response theory,
where a shared interpretation can be seen to evolve amongst a
particular community of readers of some specifictext(Fish,
1980). There are various more nuanced versions of reader-
response theory, especially in the area of reception esthetics
(Jauss, 1982) and reception theory (Hall, 2003), where the point
is still to acknowledge the active role played by the reader, but
not to see this as entirely open-ended, but rather something that
is shaped by a reader’s cultural background, experiences, and
esthetic preferences. Generally, the point being made in all of
these theoretical perspectives is that the reader of a text is not
simply passive but rather playing an active and creative role in
how the text is consumed. This paper argues that, in the context
of transmedia science fiction, the creative role being played by
the reader reaches new heights, is inherently different from the
consumption of traditional fiction, and is helping to reconfigure
the nature of the relationship between authors and readers.
Readers are now in a position to influence the esthetic outcomes
of a text while it is being written, rather than simply at the point
where the authors’work upon the text is, to all intents and
purposes, finished. This, of course, can be seen to squarely align
with Jenkins’notion of participatory culture (Jenkins, 2007),
where the participants are generally able to express themselves
creatively and engage, are widely supported in doing so, and are
able to assert the merit of their own contributions.
The following screenshots show the kinds of feedback authors
receive from their readers via the comments sections on the
websites (Figs. 3–5):
Writers of transmedia fictions often pay attention to these kinds
of comments from readers. They also interact with their readers in
the communication group and revise the textual content of their
novels on the basis of the feedback they receive. This is the only way
that they can see off the fierce competition confronting them in this
publishing domain and ensure their work will remain competitive.
The novel income and average subscription for VIP chapters pro-
vide the most intuitive basis for grasping the quality of transmedia
fiction. In interviews with some writers of transmedia fiction, one
writer named Han Yu said that when he first started writing, he
experienced a period of low subscription. At this time, he didn’tpay
attention to his readers’opinions and did not interact with them,
which clearly contributed to his poor performance. He later began to
Fig. 3 The comments sections of the novel “Madden Shooting Guard”.
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actively interact with readers who left messages in the comments
section, discussing the plot’s development, and taking reader sug-
gestions into account when writing. This order of engagement
clearly contributed to his later average subscription of more than
1000 chapters which was delivering him a good monthly income
(Fig. 6).
To summarize, readers’horizons of expectation and esthetic
experience will directly affect the creation of transmedia fictions
by enabling active reader participation in comment evaluation.
The creative process of transmedia fictions is inseparable from
reader participation. Only those transmedia fictions that allow
readers to actively participate in interaction, evaluation and dis-
cussion can aspire to success in the highly competitive online
literature industry.
Conclusion
In a 2022 interview, Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the 2021
Nobel Prize in Literature, in explaining why he writes, noted that
“you are ready to write for the readers. At first, you don’t know
who is on the other side. But then you feel things that you see the
necessity to tell”.
This is a familiar feeling for transmedia fiction writers.
Transmedia fictions are written for readers, who don’t know the
author. Through their work, the author expresses what they wish
to express to readers, and readers in turn participate in the
creation process by providing positive evaluation feedback, the
most distinctive feature of transmedia fictions and the embodi-
ment of Participatory Culture in the creation of transmedia fic-
tions. The quality and reputation of transmedia fiction are all
evaluated by readers, whose influence on the creation of trans-
media fictions far exceeds that of professional critics and literary
editors. But this will also create a clear problem in the form of a
lack of esthetic accomplishment. After all, most readers are
ordinary people. Although they actively participate in the creation
Fig. 5 The comments sections of the novel “Dark Blood Age”.
Fig. 4 The comments sections of the novel “The Guest”.
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HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | (2023) 10:279 | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01772-1 11
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of transmedia fictions, they will struggle to also contribute full
literary and artistic value. Accordingly, in seeking to contribute to
the further development of transmedia fictions, professional
critics and literary editors should actively participate in the
creative process and pass on their own experiences to readers and
authors. From a participatory culture perspective, this will not
only guide readers to read but will also provide positive guidance
to the creation of transmedia fictions and improve the literary
and artistic value of transmedia fictions.
As has been argued throughout this paper, fans can sig-
nificantly affect not just the popularity of these kinds of novels,
but also how they are created. A transmedia fiction that is par-
ticularly popular with fans, even if its literary value is not high,
will get the attention of website editors, and editors will assign it
additional web resources. For website editors, their criterion for
selecting transmedia novels is whether they meet the tastes of
online readers, rather than the comments of professional critics.
Alongside this, at present, professional critics still don’t pay a
great deal of attention to transmedia novels and think that their
literary value is slight. However, these opinions count for little in
the success of transmedia science fiction and its reach.
Yet, it remains the case that professional critics could, indeed,
playaroleinimprovingthequalityandliteraryvalueof
transmedia novels. If professional critics and literary editors
were to play a more active role in the creation of these novels, it
would quite possibly have a knock-on effect by improving
readers’literary literacy and esthetic capacities. For example,
they could actively engage in discussion with readers via the
comments pages for online novels, criticize ways in which the
novels are using more hackneyed and formulaic routines, pro-
pose innovations in article conception, make suggestions
regarding wording, and so on. This would help the readers to
not only participate but learn. Professional critics and literary
editors typically represent the traditional elite in literature, while
the readers and authors of transmedia science fiction novels
tend to represent the grassroots. If these two currently disjoint
communities can communicate with one another more actively
in this way, it is very likely that many more novels that can
satisfy both the elite and the grassroots will be born. It may also
servetopromoteamoreconcreteandformativerelationship
between the two, where each comes to understand that there are
things of value to learn from the other.
Received: 21 December 2022; Accepted: 18 May 2023;
Note
1 Respectively, by Skeleton Elves, Fang Xiang, and Yuan Tong.
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Author contributions
Han Xu is the only author involved in writing the manuscript. Professor Javier Gonzalez
Patiño and Professor José Luis Linaza, these two authors revising it critically for
important intellectual content, contributed equally to this work and jointly supervised
this work.
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Ethical approval
This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of
the authors.
Informed consent
This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of
the authors
Additional information
Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to Han Xu.
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