SHANGHAI , China ( CNN ) -- If it were n't for the Internet , Murong Xuecun might still be working as a sales manager at a car company in the southern Chinese city of Chengdu . That is what he was doing when he started writing his first novel on his office 's online bulletin board system back in 2001 . The Internet is increasingly being seen in China as a tool for literary empowerment , analysts say . Week by week when he got home from work , Murong would post new pieces to a story that painted a bleak yet honest picture of modern urban life in the city where he lived . It contained tales about sex , love , gambling and drugs and became so popular that it soon appeared on numerous other online forums . Today the 35-year-old is considered one of the most famous authors to have emerged in contemporary China . His debut work , `` Leave Me Alone : A novel of Chengdu , '' has been read by millions of Chinese `` netizens '' -- steady Internet users -- and adapted for film and television and translated into German , French and English . He also is viewed as a pioneer of what has become nothing short of a literary renaissance online in the country , particularly among young Chinese writers . This is a constituency that has struggled to find a platform for their work in a publishing industry that is viewed as conservative as it often faces state censorship . Instead of remaining silent , a new generation of authors has found its voice on the Web . `` It is a very big revolution , '' said Yang Hengjun , a political espionage novelist who published his first work online . `` When you write something on the Internet that you ca n't do in reality and you cause a change , that is revolutionary . '' The past decade has seen the blossoming of countless literary Web sites and online forums hosting stories from thousands of aspiring authors . Their work is read by millions of Internet users , leading some to assert that in the future all writing , even reading , in China will take place in cyberspace . `` It 's an inevitable trend due to the rapid development of the Internet and conceptual change of people , '' said Hou Xiaoqiang , head of Shanda Literature , a division of Shanghai-based Shanda Interactive Entertainment , the largest online entertainment provider in China . `` Ordinary people have started to realize the world ought to be dominated by them , rather than some media or elite , '' Hou added . `` Online authors are breaking the rules and using totally fresh concepts . '' Shanda Literature operates three of China 's biggest literary portals , including Qidian , one of the most popular . Collectively , the Web sites receive more than 200 million daily page views and have published nearly 30 billion Chinese characters , according to Shanda Literature 's company data . Shanda generates revenues through online advertising and by charging readers small amounts to access popular stories or works from famous authors who have been contracted to write . However , the company is increasingly trying to earn money by licensing online novels to film studios , music producers , game developers and book publishers while protecting the intellectual property rights of its authors . Shanda owns the rights to more than 200,000 works and has already sold a number of licenses to other entertainment companies , including a popular `` Tomb Raider '' novel that is being adapted for film by Hong Kong director Johnnie To Kei-Fung . `` Literature is the starting point of all means of entertainment , '' Hou told CNN . `` It can provide numerous blueprints for games , music , movies and dramas . A lack of good stories is the main reason of the underdevelopment of entertainment [ in China ] . '' Many of China 's usually young and often female cyber-writers are posting their work online with the hope that , like Murong 's novels , their stories will be read by millions , ultimately becoming books or movies and turning the authors into celebrities . The online Chinese literary scene is , in some ways , like a TV reality show . Bookstores now have sections devoted to Internet novels published as paperbacks , while a number of other influential writers have emerged from the Web over the years , including Annie Baobei , whose books about love and loneliness in Chinese cities have sold more than a million copies . `` In America , people have the American dream . In China , people have the online dream , '' said Dai Yingniao , a college junior who says almost all of her friends read online fantasy novels about time travel , romance or some mixture of the two . These genres are mostly read by ordinary girls who find life boring , said Dai , noting her roommate especially fancies a novel from the Qidian Web site called `` The Legend of Little Beauty . '' `` I prefer real literature rather than imaginary works , '' added the 20-year-old . She then described a cyber-novel she is planning to write about a princess who lives during the Qing Dynasty . After leaving her home in Beijing , the princess returns to find she no longer recognizes her family or the society she had lived in a few years before . `` I just want to convey my opinions about today 's life , '' Dai said . `` Sometimes euphemism is more powerful . '' Today it is more accepted for Chinese publishers to take risks with voices emerging online , many now printing stories that simply would not have been possible a decade ago . Publishing houses often peruse Web sites for talent whose writing can be brought to readers who are not logged on . `` Publishers can come in and say there are readers for this , and this is the demographic and if we want to hit young adults , then this is a great voice , '' said Jo Lusby , the manager of Penguin China . `` [ The literary Web sites ] are now a very natural part of the publishing scene in China . It is really a convergence of print and online writing . '' Yet despite what has been a gradual commercialization and subsequent opening up of the Chinese publishing industry during the past few years , many of the writers who are able to self-publish with freedom online find they still can face substantial censorship when their works are adapted for offline audiences . `` Offline publishing is still tightly controlled and not easy to change , '' said Yang Hengjun , whose spy novels are banned in the country . `` Any Internet novel is largely edited when it goes to publishing . '' In the long run , however , Yang said he believes the freedom of literary expression on the Internet will spur even further liberalization in the Chinese publishing industry . `` It is a good thing and it is a promising thing , '' said Yang . `` Nowadays for more and more people if they want to express themselves , they can go online . ''
China now has the most Internet users in the world . Publishing houses increasingly patrol Web sites for writing talent , observer says . One of China 's biggest literary portals reports 200 million page views a day .