Chinese actress Yang Mi plays the role of the heroine in the TV show "Three Lives, Three Worlds." (Photo : Getty Images)
Web-based fiction series are now sought-after by both Chinese readers and international readers, which started to gain popularity after the airing of “Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms” in Jiangsu TV and Dragon TV in January.
The famous TV drama is based on a novel with the same title. Local audiences first caught on and later got the attention of international readers.
The Web-based fiction series is a high-fantasy and romantic story written by Tang Qi. The story is about Bai Qian, a goddess, who falls in love with Ye Hua, a mortal.
Joshua, a follower of the show from the United States, said, "It is one of the worst feelings ever to wait for an episode of this show.”
He said that he watches two episodes daily but admits that he still can’t get enough.
The story also captured the attention of a Russian named Karina. She said that the novel fascinated her because of the beautiful romantic plot.
She said, "In fiction, the term we use is a slow burn as opposed to instalove which allows the reader to savor all the different stages of romance.”
Karina said that there is a complexity about the main characters of the story that lies beneath a calm surface. She said that their nature seems to “crash so hard when they fall for each other again and again.”
Literary critics like Jin Feng wrote that the romance novels are popular with female readers because they are all in a fantasy setting that attracts readers. She said that these works of fiction have a dose of fairy tales in them.
In her paper, she stated, “Top-ranked romance novels at Jinjiang and other websites favored by female readers all share the following characteristics.”
She added, “First, certain elements of fantasy prove essential to attract readers. While relatively realistic contemporary urban settings still appear, the trope of time-travel, futuristic settings, and elements of the paranormal and fairy tales usually carry the work.”
