Chinese Literature's Transformation and Digital Existence in the New Century

The reform ignited by digital media provided strong impetus to literary transformation at the turn of century in China. The market‐led rise of online literature has destroyed the balance of traditional literature and resulted in a fundamental digital readjustment of the overall literary structure. The fourth medium, with its irresistible technological force, has led to a large‐scale literary shift towards “being digital,” thereby changing literary traditions of existence and expression. Such being the case, we need to clarify digital media's dual function of “deconstruction” and “construction” in this literary shift so as to input new ideas from a different academic perspective into literary theory of the digital era, turn digital media's challenge to tradition into a chance for literary innovation and make the new media into a powerful driving force and effective resource for Chinese literature in the new century.