Chen Cun And Internet Literature

” Web Literature Past Its Prime
Submitted by Chen Cun, 2001–07–03, 17:34:53
I go online and I visit Under the Banyan
Tree because I want to see what web literature is really like. I have
high hopes for it. But web literature these days is starting to make me
reconsider. If the highest achievement of web literature is to publish
traditional books offline, if that is what qualifies you as a writer and
allows you to brag, then is there still a web literature? Its freedom,
its ran-domness, and its nonutilitarian nature have already been
polluted. Although I understand these changes, it is still not what I
hope to see. Web literature is already past its prime. The period of
what Laozi called “utter innocence” [chizi zhi xin] has vanished so quickly!”