1. Introduction
[1.1] In the last decade, Chinese series such as Nirvana in Fire (Beijing TV/Dragon TV, 2015–18), Joy of Life (Tencent Video/iQIyi, 2019–20), Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (Dragon TV/Zhejiang TV, 2017), and The Untamed (Tencent Video, 2019) have risen to popularity in the overseas market. At the core of this global success are the web novels that serve as intellectual property (IP) engines, or the source from which multiple formats and cultural products are created, and the transnational character of this domain is only made possible by volunteer fans involved in the translation process (Yecies, Yang, and Lu 2020). This occurrence is most clearly illustrated by The Untamed, whose original novel, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (2016), accrued a substantial international following prior to the series release.
[1.2] Without a licensed English translation for the novel, the transnational export could only be made possible by fan translators. In this process, fan translators take on the character of prosumers. Prosumers are individuals who produce and consume value either for their own benefit or for the benefit of others (Lang et al. 2021), and fan translators act as prosumers in their joint role as consumers and enablers of the Chinese IP engine. However, objects of fandom are ultimately products, and fans are intrinsically bound to the mechanisms of the industry that produces them (Booth 2015). As such, the degree to which fan translators can continue to support the transnational dissemination of Chinese cultural products is contingent on the industry's prosumer orientation, or how the industry regards the prosumption activity of fan translation. I examine the prosumption orientation of China Literature, an incubator for Mandarin IP content through its web novel self-publishing platforms, and its implications for the transnational flow of the Chinese IP engine.
2. The prosumer-industry interrelation
[2.1] Prosumers can be understood as consumers who voluntarily take part in the production of goods such as cultural products by influencing the course of their development, altering meanings, and contributing to their success or failure (Van Dijck and Nieborg 2009; Ritzer and Jurgenson 2010). Acts of fan prosumerism may also be construed as "free labor," or the translation of cultural consumption into productive activities "that are pleasurably embraced." Labor is free in the sense that it is independent and willingly given for various pleasures such as communication and exchange yet also "free" in the matter of being unwaged and lacking direct financial reward from the organizations involved (Terranova 2000). Fan translators, when considered through this understanding of prosumerism, have consistently acted as prosumers by willingly offering their unpaid labor as agents of globalization and transcultural fandom. They have been credited with building frameworks of intelligibility that allow the export of unfamiliar cultural elements (Cruz, Seo, and Binay 2021) while also using their familiarity with the local market to strike a balance between foreignization and localization that official industry translations often lack (Tremblay 2018). In the export of Chinese web novels, prosumers as translators and advocates have played the role of cultural intermediaries that furthered the success of Chinese web novels with foreign audiences (Shim et al. 2020).
[2.2] In so doing, prosumers adopt roles exclusive to the producer or the corporate/industry entities that traditionally controlled activities related to promotion and internationalization. As copyright holders of cultural products, these producers hold the legitimate rights and considerable means to execute these functions, and whether they aid or abet prosumer translation activities determines whether these functions will thrive. This relationship between the producer and fan prosumption activities can be understood as prosumption orientation.
[2.3] Prosumption orientation is the extent to which producers actively seek to integrate prosumers in the production process to benefit from their free labor (Siuda and Troszynski 2017) or the willingness of the producer to cede the means of production to prosumers (Ritzer and Jurgenson 2010). An orientation toward prosumption would involve stimulating prosumer activity to gain access to as many people as possible willing to do unpaid, value-adding work for a company (Siuda and Troszynski 2017). Previous studies have noted various approaches companies have taken to achieve this end. Brands have integrated prosumers into their promotion strategy by hosting fan competitions, creating official platforms for fan content, and encouraging parody, a practice that was once discouraged over copyright concerns (Dwyer 2018; Siuda and Troszynski 2017; Martens 2011). Companies have also invited prosumers to engage directly in the creation of a product by debugging and editing code for digital assets (Terranova 2000) and providing feedback for cultural products before launch (Siuda and Troszynski 2017). In the context of fan translation, prosumer orientation would then be understood as the degree to which industry includes fans and fan activity in the translation process of cultural products intended for foreign distribution. One example of pro-prosumer activity or high prosumer orientation is Line Webtoon (https://www.webtoons.com) as evidenced by outlets for fan labor built into its own platform. Webtoon Translate, a crowdsourced fan translation service on Webtoon, provides fans with built-in tools for legally and voluntarily translating selected web comics hosted on the platform. Previous studies have found that there are 54,350 volunteer Webtoon translators and 4,560 translation groups across all languages that have contributed to the global success of Line Webtoon (Shim et al. 2020). In creating systems to harness fan labor to provide additional content for its users, Webtoon utilized prosumerism to expand its production and distribution.
[2.4] Producers with a high prosumption orientation financially benefit from fan labor that is both value adding and uncompensated. However, the dual edge of co-optting this free labor is that the nature and direction of prosumer production are generally beyond the control of industry (Ritzer and Jurgenson 2010) and may run counter to its for-profit agendas, thus creating tensions between fan prosumers and producers (Watson 2010). Fan translation has an added layer of tension arising from interpretations of copyright infringement. These tensions have led to cases of legal action targeting prosumers to cease and desist. This orientation toward prosumers is known as prosumption rejection and characterized by hostility toward fan prosumer activity through concrete steps to curb prosumer activity. The heavy-handed methods of prosumption rejection in dealing with prosumer activity, while legally justifiable, have often led to hostility from the consumer base and lent a perceived moral ground to piracy (Hatcher 2005).
3. Prosumption orientation: The case of China Literature
[3.1] China Literature is a media company dedicated to creating IPs such as TV shows and films, animations, comics, audiobooks, and games through a combination of in-house production and third-party licensing. Central to its operations is the company's wealth of content sourced from its Chinese-language self-publishing web novel platform, Qidian. Web novels have functioned as IP engines for several of the company's commercially successful adaptations, such as Soul Land (Tencent Video/CCTV, 2021), The King's Avatar (Tencent Video, 2019), and Candle in the Tomb (Tencent Video, 2016), with dramas such as A Lifelong Journey (CCTV-1/iQIyi, 2022) and My Heroic Husband (iQIyi, 2021) being licensed overseas (China Literature 2022). In 2017, China Literature launched Webnovel.com (henceforward referred to as Webnovel), an English-language self-publishing website and mobile application that dually serves as a platform for translations of Chinese serial fiction from Qidian.
[3.2] Platform-based models of IP generation are the backbone of China Literature's operations, and by their nature, these platforms rely on user-generated content as their lifeblood. However, the sole emphasis lies in examining the company's prosumption orientation concerning the translation of original content found on Qidian. Because of limited officially licensed translations, English-language fan translations were hosted on online novel forums and online fantasy communities prior to the launch of Webnovel. The earliest documentation of China Literature's intersection with Anglophone prosumers can be seen after the launch of Webnovel. In 2017, China Literature publicly announced the development of Webnovel. In comments made by its official account on the social news aggregator and forum website Reddit, the company expressed its intent to "cooperate with all fan translators and the whole community" and refrain from "[making] any troubles" for current fan translators (https://www.reddit.com/r/noveltranslations/comments/5ppev1/about_qidian_international/). Initially, its approach involved inviting both fan translation groups and individual translators of Qidian-original novels to sign a contract with China Literature to migrate their work to Webnovel and receive compensation through wages paid by the company (Qidian 2017). Translated work would be assessed by a quality assurance team, and failure to meet standards could result in a translator being removed from the project.
[3.3] At this stage, it is important to note the nature of the relationship China Literature sought to establish. Under this arrangement, China Literature exerts control over the content, quality, and distribution channels of translated works and provides financial compensation for the labor of translation. This relationship loses the essence of free labor—the lack of compensation and compulsion—that characterizes prosumerism. Free labor benefits a company, but a company can neither create nor direct it because without remuneration the company lacks the right to control. By providing wages for translators, China Literature gains authority over their work and establishes a relationship that better resembles that between a company and a contractor. This approach may be considered low prosumption orientation because the company does not intend to encourage prosumer labor and instead hopes to turn prosumers into laborers under the purview of the organization.
[3.4] Following translator recruitment, China Literature announced that it would take legal action to remove unauthorized novels, which include translations hosted outside its international platform, and reiterated its call for translators to work under Webnovel (Qidian 2017). In taking active steps against unofficial translations created by prosumers, the company showed a marked shift toward prosumption rejection, a decision that could produce cascading effects on the global market of Chinese IP. A formal study on the impact of countermeasures against prosumerism has yet to be undertaken, but the current body of literature regarding prosumerism in fandom contexts provides a foundation for inceptive exploration of the idea that prosumption rejection may decelerate the transnational diffusion of Chinese IP engines. The global market for Chinese IP was established by the efforts of a bilingual audience that created translations that reflected a familiarity with the nuances of the target language (Li 2021; Zhao 2021). Their genre knowledge and understanding of the audience informed their creation of paratexts, which filled gaps in intelligibility that were pivotal in the export of genres such as wuxia and xianxia, genres of Chinese martial arts fiction with a heavy focus on Chinese history and mythology. A concrete way of understanding the unique contributions of prosumer translators is looking at how they balance localization and foreignization. Professional translators of wuxia often grapple with methods to translate technical vocabulary, and their attempts at accessibility often neutralize the cultural elements that serve as a point of attraction for foreign readers of the genre (Li 2021). Fan translation favors full translations supplemented by exploratory notes that facilitate genre immersion for the audience and assist in building collective knowledge and sophisticating tastes. This labor is unrestrained by market considerations on economic viability, thus creating an abundance of content sustained and amplified by a growing audience that participates in promotional efforts and stimulates translation activity through both monetary and nonmonetary rewards for translators. However, prosumption rejection redirects the burden of building cultural resonance to agents inexperienced in the role of intermediary, and the corporate-driven approach introduces risk aversion, which undercuts the mechanisms that compounded global interest in Chinese media. Limiting access to an IP engine may have the corresponding adverse effect of depriving the IP engine of its source of energy. The longevity of original IPs is sustained through the sense of affiliation of an active audience loyal to transmedia adaptations (Jenkins 2002). In the context of Chinese media, web novels are often the initiation point for audience immersion, and it is through their reception that the industry can assess the viability of an IP engine. The ability to realize the full potential of an IP engine, particularly in the untested markets of an international audience, is then subverted when audiences are curtailed through restraints on a point of entry.
[3.5] Prosumption orientation is not static, and changes in technology or in market conditions may prompt an organization to reevaluate its strategies toward prosumers. However, recent developments in Webnovel suggest that China Literature does not intend to modify its approach. Among notable measures is the pivot away from recruiting individual fan translators and translation groups in favor of corporate translation providers and machine translation (MTL), a form of artificial intelligence (AI) technology that enables the rapid translation of original Chinese novels from Qidian. The MTL technology used by Webnovel is reminiscent of the role in the early stages of capitalism played by factories, which clearly defined the producer through ownership of the means of production. Producers exerted their identity through ownership of the factory, which was the center of all production activity, where inputs such as raw materials must be consumed to produce the goods that are bought and used by consumers (Ritzer and Jurgenson 2010). The AI technology for MTL held by China Literature replicates this process by taking original novels as raw input and producing the translated chapters that serve as the end product. The further consolidation of the means to translate original novels insinuates an inclination to confine translation activities within the purview of China Literature and exclude contribution or intervention from prosumer activity.
4. Conclusion
[4.1] Further studies will be needed to develop formal measures of prosumption orientation, and there is much to be learned about the nuances of its application across industries and cultural contexts. I have taken an exploratory approach to understand how this concept can be utilized to reassess discussions on fan labor. By conceptualizing translators as prosumers, I have shown how fan translators have claimed their space in the production process of cultural goods by establishing new frontiers for cultural export and revealing points of codependence in the fan-industry relationship. Acknowledging their labor as value-adding cocreation challenges the framing that places fans antipodal to the industry and uncovers opportunities for productive convergence. Focusing on the ways industry actively shapes its relationships with prosumers contributes to a more holistic perspective on the interface between producers and prosumers in the context of fan labor where prosumer narratives are often centered. As Chinese media companies continue to enter the international market, further studies on the synergy between top-down and bottom-up approaches to cultural export will be crucial toward the mutual goal of seeing Chinese IP engines thrive.