The differences
The rise of Chinese fantasy novels abroad comes along with the background of the global fantasy literature trend, featuring the popularity of Western fantasy fictions and movies such as The Lord of The Rings, and A Song of Ice and Fire. Nevertheless, the Chinese xuanhuan and xianxia novels stand out for their expansive and unique Eastern elements based on profound Chinese culture and history.
"Xuanhuan is a much broader category that includes all Eastern-based fantasy worlds and xianxia is a subset of xuanhuan," explained Lai. "The Western equivalent of xuanhuan is known as qihuan. By definition, xianxia involves Taoism and Xian (god of immortality and enlightenment) which is not prevalent in the Western world."
Concepts including the Five Elements (wuxing), supernatural animals like fox spirit, the Eight Trigrams (bagua), the Four Beasts (azure dragon, black turtle, phoenix, white tiger), and other aspects of Chinese mythology, are also refreshing to the Western readers, said Lai.
Rifshan agrees, adding that he even prefers the Chinese fantasy novels to Japanese ones.
"Chinese novels consist of many real life legends which are unique considering most readers are from places with less developed cultures and fewer legends," he said. "Because of the history, the realistic fiction from the legends is more interesting than pure fiction. Most Japanese things I read are a lot more imagination based."
The excellent and fast-paced translations contribute to the novel by elaborating the alien concepts in detail.
"I think readers find the Taoist and Buddhist concepts interesting, but they often do not fully understand them unless we explain them more clearly," said Lai. "For example, many did not understand why a Qiankun bag could hold everything, until we explain that in bagua, Qian means Heaven and Kun means Earth; therefore, a Qiankun bag is something that can hold anything in Heaven and Earth."
TV adaptation
Apart from Web novels, popular Chinese TV dramas adapted from xuanhuan and xianxia novels are also catching the attention of a growing number of foreign audiences.
On viki.com, a streaming website featuring popular Asian TV dramas, the latest xuanhuan and xianxia dramas including The Legend of Chusen (Qingyun Zhi), adapted from Xiao Ding's Zhu Xian, and Ice Fantasy adapted from Guo Jingming's Huan Cheng, are among the hottest on the list.
Sabrina, in her 30s, who works in healthcare in the U.S., said she enjoyed The Legend of Chusen a lot. The Legend of Chusen, starring Chinese heartthrob actor Li Yifeng and rising actress Zhao Liying, tells a story of a young man named Zhang Xiaofan and his journey of learning the cultivation of Buddhist, Taoist and Heretics, to finally destroying a conspiracy to overthrow the Qingyun faction, the leader of the righteous and good.
The drama has subtitles in English and Spanish and has gained a 9.7 out of 10 rating on Viki from audiences.
"I like the battle between the Good Sect and the Evil Sect with all their young apprentices, using their own style of fighting coupled with their intelligence, while forging their friendship," said Sabrina, who is also a volunteer translator. "It's a refreshing change after watching Korean dramas which all have similar story lines and predictable outcomes."
As fan of the actress Zhao Liying, Sabrina has seen almost all of her dramas. "I first saw her in Legend of Lu Zhen but loved her in Shan Shan Comes To Eat," said Sabrina. "I think she is a good actress, not to mention she's pretty and lovable. She looks like someone that I could be friends with."
Another group of fans for The Legend of Chusen are die-hard fans of Li Yifeng, one of the most celebrated and promising young actors in China for his good looks and acting skills.
"One of the 'Bees' in Malaysia," (Li's fans dubbed themselves bees), who didn't reveal his/her name, said fans in Malaysia watch The Legend of Chusen on YouTube. "When it has an update, we all watch it together while talking about it in a group chat," the fan said.
Most of the Malaysian fans came to know and like Li from the TV drama Legend of the Ancient Sword, Li's debut in a xianxia drama.
"We originally started watching The Legend of Chusen because of our idol Li. Also because xianxia, no matter TV dramas or Web games, is popular in Malaysia," the fan said.
The copyright
In June, Rifshan founded his own website lightnovels.world, specializing in translating Chinese light novels to English, as well as giving the novels' original authors the ability to showcase their works.
"I noticed that many translators do not have user-friendly websites, and they lack Web development knowledge," said Rifshan, who hopes to create a platform where translators can easily post the translations.
Rifshan is not worried too much about the copyright problem.
"I heard from various people that authors actually find it shocking that there is such a large audience reading their work through these translations and they are happy about it," he said.
"But if there is a problem, I don't mind stopping or discussing this with them, as it's their original work. We are just adding a bit more work into it to increase the audience."
Lai, who is busy with translating, said he wants to turn the translated Chinese xuanhuan and xianxia Web novels into books.
"We are working with Chinese reading websites 17K and Qidian [where translators get their original novels], to gain all necessary authorizations to continue our work and eventually publish it," he said.
