Justificación

Microfiction as a genre of literature has received an inconsistent degree of academic study. Perhaps the reason for this disparity lies in a lack of general consensus on what constitutes a work of ‘microfiction’ as opposed to a short story. Known variously as ‘microfiction’, ‘flash fiction’ or ‘sudden fiction’, these terms generally refer to any work of fiction comprising less than between 250 words (Stern, 1996) and 400 words (Zavala, 2005). Masih (2013) takes the delineation even further, explaining the development of sub-categories of microfiction:

We now have 50 word stories (dribbles), 55-word stories (sometimes termed nanofiction, and found, among other places, on an East Indian blog), 100-word stories (drabbles), quick fiction, fast fiction, microfiction, furious fiction, sudden and flash fiction, postcard fiction, napkin fiction (from Esquire online) minute-long stories, smoke-long stories, skinny stories, vest-pocket stories and pill-size stories (from the forties),

17 pocket-size stories, palm-size stories, and… I am sure there are

others, with more to come.

(Masih, 2013, loc. 665) The focus of my inquiry is on what Nelles (2012) terms ‘Twitter fiction’. As the name suggests, these stories are written and formatted to conform to the publishing requirements of microblog sites like Twitter. Such stories are restricted to 140 typographical characters, which cuts the length of a work down to less than approximately 30 words (if writing in English). Although I am analysing fiction published on the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo instead of Twitter, the publishing requirement of 140 characters is the same for both sites. Chinese language scholarship on such works of fiction predominately use the term weixiaoshuo (微小说, micronovel), so Masih’s categorization notwithstanding, I shall henceforth refer to 140-character social media-driven fictional works as ‘micronovels’ (for the works themselves) and ‘microfiction’ (for the genre).

1.2.3.1

Rising popularity of Chinese online micronovels

Although the contemporary transmission medium makes us think of microfiction as a modern phenomenon, there is evidence to suggest that very short works of literature have a long and rich history, particularly in Asia. According to Qi (2009), ‘flash fiction’ in China can be traced all the way back to the creation myths of Nüwa, Fuxi and Pangu, the former of which first appears in the work of Lie Yukou (列圄寇, circa 400BCE). The story of Pangu, which appeared some 500 years later during the Warring States period, comprised only 350 words (Qi, 2009). Certainly, ‘short, short stories’ are nothing new, as far as China is concerned, but according to Qi, “[i]t has taken over two full millennia for flash fiction to evolve to where it is today—as a white-hot, important literary genre” (2009, l.968, emphasis in original). While Qi’s description may be somewhat exuberant, it is indisputable that the

18 popularity of microfiction has increased, in part owing to the rapid dissemination opportunities afforded by new technologies (Qi, 2009; W. Meng, 2011; Li, 2013; Wang & Liu, 2013; Zhong, 2013), which allow millions to try their hands at creative writing. Readers of web literature (of which microfiction is a subgenre) topped 274 million in 2013, according to information released by CNNIC (2014). In China, this rise of this style of wangluo wenhua (网络文化, cyberculture) has been particularly noticeable within social media networks. In October of 2010, Sina Weibo ran their first microfiction competition (W. Meng, 2011; Zhang, 2013), which saw over 230,000 entries and generated over 1.6 million associated posts in the following month (Wang & Liu, 2013). In 2011, the Yangzi Evening News organized a microfiction contest, in which a total of 90,000 people participated (W. Meng, 2011). Microblog fiction writers come from all sectors of society, and the medium serves “to provide everyone with a microphone; micro novels have become a tool for each individual to broadcast their own voice to limitless social groups” (Zhang, 2013, p.66).

Wang and Liu (2013) claim that literature has undergone a crisis in modern society, as people are showing less interest in reading and have less knowledge of traditional literature. This claim is debatable: while some scholars have begun to speak of a hou wenxue shidai (后文学时代, ‘post-literature age’) in contemporary China (Huang, 2003; Wang & Liu, 2012), this is primarily through the lens of the evolution of the distribution medium, rather than as evidence of the death of literature, per se (Huang, 2003; Wang & Liu, 2014). The reasons behind these changes are numerous, ranging from fundamental shifts in working patterns and the associated effect this exerts upon recreation time, through to advances in technology which have changed the way we interact with one another. Microfiction stands at the juncture between these two factors, representing a convenient and easily- consumable cultural literary artefact. Microfiction also appeals to aspects of youth cyber-culture, primarily the desire to share content and opinion through a readily

19 accessible medium. Reading and writing microfiction has thus become a fashionable entertainment activity, and is intrinsically linked with the way in which netizens promote and share their ideas within their own online social networks (Wang & Liu, 2013). The construction of online identity is an important factor for consideration in this regard, for which one must consider the type of material being shared, and the impact this has upon how a person is ‘seen’ by society at large. Conducting research into micronovels in 2011, Meng has identified the following seven characteristics shared by all works of the genre:

1. Micronovels are completed online, and are published and distributed through the format of microblogs.

2. Micronovels are convenient to transmit and read, and should be less than 140 characters.

3. Micronovels must be purposive.

4. Micronovels must have a plot, and must emphasize an emotional trigger-point.

5. Micronovels must contain 1-3 key scenes. The relevance of these scenes will be disclosed at the end of the story. The order/form of the story should be clear cut.

6. Micronovels are an extension of microblogging, and place emphasis on interaction with the reader.

7. Micronovels have the possibility to be easily transferred in the same way as multimedia texts.

(W. Meng, 2011, p.118) As this study of queer online microfiction will demonstrate, Meng’s ‘recipe’ for a micronovel is overly restrictive; although points 1, 2, 6 and 7 hold true in all cases,

20 many examples of microfiction tick only some of the remaining boxes in terms of construction.