Fantasy World Community: Editors and Readers

Over the past three decades, Chinese popular fiction has experienced a remarkable expansion of fantastic literature and the emergence of broadly conceived fantasy fiction. Various creative expressions have pushed the limits of imagination, giving rise to new genres and subgenres in constant evolution. Given the plurality and heterogeneity of fantasy literature across different media, this paper aims to explore the kind of fiction featured in Fantasy World (Fei qihuan shijie飞·奇幻世界), one of the most influential literary journals devoted to fantasy fiction during the first decade of the twenty-first century. Rather than attempting to formulate a comprehensive definition of the genre, which, as Attebery notes, resists precise boundaries (1992), this study adopts an approach inspired by the sociology of literature and by previous research on literary journals. It focuses on editors and readers as central figures within the journal’s community. Through a qualitative analysis of paratextual materials - comments, interviews, and articles published in the journal - the paper seeks to shed light on the perspectives and opinions of those who created, shaped, and engaged with Fantasy World: their aims, tastes, and expectations, as well as the debates that animated the pages of the journal.