| In 2016,a news report that Chinese online fictions had gone viral abroad for years aroused online heated discussions in China.A series of translated Chinese online fiction websites are the major spreading channels,which have not only contributed Chinese culture to going west,but also fascinated many foreign readers.Among those websites,Wuxia World(www.wuxiaworld.com),has become the largest translated Chinese online fiction website with a huge amount of website visitors.It is reported that the website viewing times have totally exceeded 50 billion and ranked world's top 1,500 websites.It has more than 300,000 daily visitors from over 100 countries and the website is still growing.Under a dominated western culture environment,Chinese online fictions going viral abroad has a vital significance for Chinese international communications and its soft power development.As the Chinese web novel has grown its influence in the world,it would gradually become a Chinese cultural icon and represent China's image to international audiences.But different from Chinese traditional international communications which has been mainly promoted and controlled by Chinese government,the major force behind the fever is the huge amount of readers,and most of them are foreigners.They spend much time in translating and posting Chinese web fictions,organizing related cultural knowledge,producing relevant videos and pictures and even creating fan fictions to express their appreciations.They actively engaged into the reproduction of Chinese web fictions,which turns them into producers and content contributors instead of readers.The paper uses Henry Jenkins's theory of textual poacher from his fandom studies and selects Wuxia World as the case to study foreign readers' behaviors of how they produce content on the website.The study analyzes fan's comments,posts,fan fictions and original stories they created on Wuxia World.The purpose of the study is,from fandom's mode of reception,to know foreign readers and learn how their textual productions help Chinese culture spread to the world,and from that learn a lesson for the Chinese international cultural communications.Besides,the paper has made an online questionnaire to research foreign readers.Based on previous researches,the survey reveals that the foreign readers are from different countries,most of whom are male students,and came from the United States.It is shown that the U.S.readers accounts for 30%,making the biggest country group.The paper focuses on proactive fans,exploring the answers of why Chinese online fictions have gone viral abroad.The study thinks fans' textual production is a vital factor to the popularity of Chinese web fictions.Through varied textual production methods such as description,collage,criticism,parody and pastiche,foreign fans transformed their media consumption into media production,and then further create a new culture and a new community.Fan's textual production has not only changed the form of Chinese online fictions,but also the meaning.From a long-term view,the meaning production by foreign fans would become a sustainable production process.Chinese online fictions would be more widely broadcasted and kept alive through foreign fans' proactive output,and fan's desires for further interactions with each other also promote it to a larger social and cultural community.It would help Chinese online fictions develop into an international mass culture,based on opinions from Jenkins's and Fiske s fan studies.The paper aims to provide a new efficient sight and methods to Chinese international cultural communications,helping Chinese culture better spread to the world. |
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