Reading has and always will be a source of knowledge, joy and pleasure. We have so much to gain through reading. A good read will always leave us fulfilled and satisfied, and at times brighten up our otherwise monotonous and gloomy day. Even during some of our most stressful days, reading is able to calm us down and offer to us relaxation and tranquility. It can distract us from the daily problems that we have to wrestle with. As said by Swedish author Hakan Nesser, “a good story can travel in time and borders; it can hit you no matter where you are.”.
Every story contains a unique universe of its own, full of so many possibilities and wonders that we can explore and enjoy on our own. Each stroke of an author’s pen brings us deeper and deeper into a world of fantasy that we can experience the world with our own imagination. Reading a good story is just like being given the script of a movie and playing it out with our own imagination. We live out each scene and experience every moment of a good story as we read, finding joy and satisfaction in the little world that we built as we indulge in the script written by the author, but was played out by our minds.
With the creation of the internet, the world headed into a digitalized era where everything is literally at the tips of our fingers. From that moment onwards, stories were no longer contained within the confines of the pages of a book. Great stories were spread far and wide in the vast stretches in the internet, laying silently to be discovered by readers. As we explore this vast ocean we call the internet, we sometimes stumble upon a treasure trove of good stories. I found my pot of gold under the rainbow in the form of chinese web novels.
Chinese web novels have a very rich history. With online libraries full of millions of titles from a huge variety of genres ranging from Chinese fantasy, wuxia, romance, action, mystery, horror and sometimes even Western fantasy, Chinese web novels offer a lot of joy and fun to its readers. Every day, hundreds of thousands of readers await patiently with bated breath for an update of their favourite novels and wanting for more after devouring the latest chapters. They wept as their favourite characters were faced with tragedy, rejoiced as some of their favourite characters performed a funny act, felt anger as their favourite characters were picked on, and nibbled on their fingers anxiously as their characters were faced with mortal peril.
Some of the most popular Chinese web novels have even been adapted for the big screen, or were aired as addicting dramas.
Some of the popular titles such as “Nirvana in Fire”, “Love O2O: Just One Smile is Very Alluring”, “Three Lives, Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms”, “Martial God Universe”, and “Princess Wei Yong” were all adapted from Chinese web novels. Even a recent anime series with the title “The King’s Avatar” was adapted from a web novel of the same title authored by Butterfly Blue.
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Why should such a treasure trove of good stories be limited only to Chinese readers? Shouldn’t it be shared with the world so that others who enjoy reading could enjoy the various Chinese web novels that we’ve enjoyed throughout the years? These were the questions that some of the Chinese web novels fans have been asking themselves. With that, the translation scene to bring these awesomtacular web novels to English readers sprung to life in the last two years. Fans, part time and even professional translators pitched in to share the amazing experience, the joy and sensation given to them by Chinese web novels to rest of the world.
With more and more readers introduced to the translated Chinese web novels, the novel translation community began to rapidly grow. Websites such as Volare Novels dedicated to hosting these translated tales thrive with an ever-growing fan base of supportive English readers. The community will continue to thrive and grow as an increasing number of fans and translators alike join the novel translation scene to make it a bigger and better community that will continue to bring the joys and wonders of good stories to readers for a long, long time.
Volare Novels, one of the largest novel translation site hosting more than 20 titles!
Source: http://volarenovels.com/novels/