Fantasy's future
As mentioned above, when Tolkien's works were first introduced in China, many publishers took them wrongly as an adult version of fairy tales or even just entertaining children's literature. But in later years, as its influence gradually began to show in other fantasy works like Forgotten Realms by R.A. Salvatore, Dragonlance Chronicle trilogy by Tracy Hickman and Margret Weis, and the hot Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, not to mention the supreme popularity of the eponymous movies in the early 2000s, Tolkien and his works became re-identified and re-introduced.
Like science fiction, a genre of literature that has long been dominated by the West, fantasy literature was not introduced to China until the recent decade. During the 10-year-long familiarization and nurturing process, Chinese readers have not only become loyal fans, but a few have become fantasy writers themselves.
However, unlike Chinese science fiction, which has its own genetic roots in the country and has begun to exert its influence abroad with new translations of works like the Three Body trilogy by leading domestic writer Liu Cixin, writing fantasy literature is in its infancy.
"Most of them are online writers, and there are actually quite a large number of them. We have published some of their works before like the Tianlu Fengyun (turmoil in Tianlu) by Fei Ling," said Wang, adding "Fantasy writing is a significant literature genre in the West and its introduction to China has influenced a group of readers and writers."
In fact, according to Wang, fantasy writing was the earliest style to appear on the Internet when online reading and writing was just becoming popular. "The current popular styles like time travel literature developed later," she noted.
Many consider Western fantasy stories similar to Chinese wuxia (martial arts) novels. In fact, the two do have their commonalities like depicting a troubled time during which a hero must save the world, and many of them draw inspiration from different eras of history.
"There have been some Chinese fantasy works introduced abroad like Zhu Xian (Jade Dynasty) by Xiao Ding, which were translated into Korean," said Wang, "but compared to science fiction, some of which gets introduced abroad from time to time, fantasy literature still lags behind."
Based on readers' enthusiasm for this new genre and the large group of online Chinese writers, Wang believes eventually some domestic fantasy works will stand out.
Nutritious lunch provided in Taipei's elementary school
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