Some foreign readers express their enthusiasm by writing their own web novels that mimic the Chinese genre.
Tina Lynge, 26, quit her teaching job to write. The Danish author has penned over 40 Chinese web novels and created her first web novel of which even the protagonists use pinyin names.
She is posting new chapters of Blue Phoenix, a tale about how Hui Yue makes it in a world of survival of the fittest, on the website gravity-tales.com. The site hosts six comparable web novels.
Blue Phoenix has over 300 ratings on goodreads.com and is published as an Amazon e-book.
She told China Art newspaper she was amazed by the world the Chinese have created from their legends and culture. And she is "inspired" by the moral the online novels convey－success from persistence.
Peking University's Shao said the novels have flourished because they meet a demand for popular fiction in China.
Shao said she expected Chinese online literature to go further.
She predicted Amazon, and TV, film and game adaptations will accelerate their development.
The reading group's Wu estimated the overseas market may generate 1 trillion yuan ($145.3 million).
