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Urbanlization and Internet Literature: Zhang Jiajia and His Healing Story

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Abstract
In 2013, Zhang Jiajia 张嘉佳’s book I Belonged to You (从你的全世界路过; thereafter Belonged) became a huge hit and a miracle of publication. In 2013 after half a year in circulation, the paper print sold more than 2,000,000 copies and was soon adapted to two movies. In 2014, both the kindle and paper edition of Belonged won No.1 for the best books list on Amazon China. Zhang Jiajia’s incredible success is a miracle, and it can only happen with the easy access of Internet. In addition to that, the lifestyle Belonged depicts is what post-80s and post-90s generations in China are experiencing now. My thesis studies how the Internet and Sina Weibo platform make the popularity of Belonged possible and why post-80s and post-90s readers from Sina Weibo like this kind of story. By investigating the reasons behind this book’s popularity, I argue that Internet literature and literary works in a similar genre to Belonged fulfill the emotional needs of post-80s and post-90s generations, which the literature works written by writers who receive government stipends cannot meet.
Type
thesis
Date
2020-05
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