On the subways in Beijing, most people stare at their smartphones. Some play video games or watch TV dramas, while some choose to read.

在北京地铁上，大多数人都会盯着他们的手机看。一些人玩游戏或者追剧，同时也有一些人选择阅读。

Online novels are popular among these readers. In fact, more people are becoming registered users on online literature websites or smartphone applications.

网络小说在这些读者中特别受欢迎。实际上，有更多人成为网络小说网站上或者手机应用上的注册用户。

The total number of online literature websites users increased to 352 million by the end of June 2017, according to the latest report from China Internet Network Information Center. This shows half of all netizens are online literature readers.

通过中国互联网网络信息中心最新的报告，截止到2017年6月末，网络文学网站用户已增加到3.52亿人次。这表明有过半网民都是网络文学读者。

Many scholars estimate the number will keep increasing at an annual rate of tens of millions.

许多学者预估称，这项数字将会以每年增长数千万的速率持续增长。

Yet the fast growth due to the widespread adoption¹ of internet and smartphones in the past 20 years was criticized by some writers as a disorder².

但是在过去二十年间，智能手机和互联网的普及所带来的网络文学的迅猛发展，被部分作家视为胡闹。

As the number of online literature works increases, a large variety of light pornographic online novels under the deceptive³ cover of "romance" and "fantasy" appeared.

随着网络文学作品数量增多，一大波打着罗曼蒂克和奇幻旗号的淫秽色情网络轻小说也出现了。

Such works, often with similar, catchy⁴ titles, also contain similarly vulgar content. A genre⁵ of them was even nicknamed the "My Bossy⁶ Boss" series, all about rich womanizers and poor "Cinderellas".

这类作品，经常采用一些吸引人的标题，也同样包含低俗内容。有一类标题甚至叫《我的霸道总裁》，所有的内容都是有关一些有钱的花花公子和贫穷的灰姑娘。

Writer Ning Ken⁷, the top prize winner of the First Online Literature Contest and deputy-editor of the magazine October (Shi Yue), said online literature needs guidance.

第一届网络文学比赛的冠军、《十月》杂志的责任编辑作家宁肯称，网络文学需要引导。

"The quick development of online literature is beyond my imagination. It is going in a direction that is out of my expectation as well," the writer said. "I think it should be something with high quality, rather than a sort of entertainment. Its quality should be improved."

宁肯表示：“网络文学的高速发展远超乎我的想象，同时它的发展趋势也超乎我的意料。我认为它应该是高质量的，而不仅是一种消遣。网文的质量有待提高。”

However, some writers praised the blooming of online literature.

但是，也有一些作家对网络文学的兴起持肯定态度。

"As an online writer, I am happy about the past history of online literature. Thought it may develop in a disorderly way, it has a strong vitality⁸. Online literature will have higher quality as time goes," Yin Xun said.

殷寻表示：“身为一名网文作者，对于网络文学的历史进程而感到高兴。尽管可能以比较混乱无序的方式而发展，但是生命力顽强，网文也将随着时间发展而提高质量。”