He started out a typical underdog that most common guys identify with: underestimated all his childhood due to a scanty background but never gave up trying to grow and be good, then he met with auspices, his latent martial or Tao gift inexorably came though and got honed into skills that always unexpectedly crushed his opponents when he progressed through battles from one realm to the next loftier one, meanwhile building his harem (后宫) along the way.
    他起点很低，就是男读者们特别希望看到逆袭的那类草根：因身家卑微，少年不得志还常被人欺负，但从不放弃努力和善良直到有一天高人指点潜力爆发，于是一举练得神功雏形，总能在与对手相差悬殊的时候令人大跌眼球地反败为胜；一路过关斩将升级打怪，带着读者从一个地图换到另一个更高规格的地图，顺手积累一个后宫的女人。

    She, on the other hand, never had to try so hard. She was almost always born beautiful, titled and with a permanent innocence and sometimes ethereal or other-worldly wisdom obtained through her prior life in another civilization. But readers cheer her on despite her endowments because she would be temporarily put in a less-than-fortunate setting, wherein her hero somehow wouldn’t cast a favorable look on her and her love enemies were unusually shallow, bitchy and even villainous.
    她的命运截然不同，从无需如此费力晋升 - 貌美高贵天赐心智- 要么是穿越而来的前生经历要么是仙缘不浅，但说来奇怪地有着永恒的纯真。要说这样的女主角未免完美的有些无聊，但因总被编剧设计到种种“虐”境里，于是读者们也一路追随着女主角沙砌建筑一样的人生逆境，为之摇旗呐喊。

    He and she never met each other albeit living in the same kingdom of pulp fiction - web serials, as he and she go down divergent paths: the male protagonist is destined to grab up the world along with all the beautiful women in it, while the girl protagonist will win the heart of the extremely handsome (most important) prince who broke all other women’s hearts for the sake of loving her. Now you see they can’t get acquainted - he’ll lose his motivation to conquer the world and the high-minded she simply look past him as one of the working-up-from-grassroots class. Hereby we recognize through our pulp fiction the mentality chasm between men and women of the contemporary Chinese society.
    他和她是从不会遇见的，即使他们都住在同一个流行文学国度 - 网络小说，因为他和她注定命运截然两样：男频的主角结局总是征服世界以及世界里所有美丽贞烈的女人；而女频的主角注定赢得世界上最英俊强大的王子心，此王子为她可以破碎其他一切女追求者的芳心。 他和她才不会凑成一对，否则恐怕他失去目标郁郁寡欢而她会因为他需要奋斗才能爬上高层而对之不屑一顾吧。 这里我们是不是惊鸿一瞥当代中国两性之间思维的鸿沟。

    Yet ironically enough, men’s life ambitions and women’s dreams run parallel along the two sides of that great canyon, which we call patriarchy. Men don’t ever stop playing the power game in these Literal RPG worlds, be it of martial arts or Taoist immortal, whereas heroines rarely want power for themselves and when they happen to possess power, it only serves to magnify her halo. Both genders seem to be unable to cross the canyon through some bridge of equality or mutuality, but they also couldn’t bring themselves to part further.
    不过好笑的是，男频主角的理想与女频主角的绮梦却不偏不倚并驾齐驱，相隔仅仅一条峡谷，只不过这条峡谷名为“男权社会”。 男频主角永远都在玩着权力的游戏不论是修仙还是练武，而女频主角在权力上总是天真恬淡，就算因机缘拥有权力或者能量，其作用也不过是其吸引异性的光环之一罢了。两类受众永远也不可能通过什么平等、理解的桥梁穿过峡谷遇见，但也绝不会离经叛道甩开这条峡谷。

    Sometimes you want to shout to the heroine and all her court of readers: hey, this is a fantasy, you can do anything imaginable, but you are not trying to do more interesting things? explore a bigger and more complex world and encounter some characters of depth and sophistication? What a waste of your imaginations. Look at your pulp-fiction counterpart: he has traversed and even built different worlds, fell in love with and married, if convenient, a posse of gorgeous young lasses, learned multiple skills, assumed an assortment of military and political positions, and eventually came to the redemption of all those that died for him… What have you done, my girl? Besides managing to remain as untouchably pristine and pretty throughout, and sometimes when your heart beats just a tint wayward to a second man you get flooded by commentary calling you promiscuous. A pretty boring and hard life to live. I suggest you get out when you can, dear girl.
    有的时候我真想对着这些女频小说流量电视剧的女主角大喊一声：嘿，这是个玄幻剧，你想做什么就能做什么，怎么从不见你做一些比谈恋爱更有趣的事呢？譬如探索一个更复杂广阔的世界遇见更深刻成熟的人物？不然真是浪费想象力，浪费玄和幻。你看你邻居男频主角， 他踏遍千山万水有时候还能创造河山，他爱上了还在方便的时候迎娶了诸多绝代佳人，他手握神兵身怀绝技，他手握重权呼风唤雨，他还站在道德高地驱动他人为他出生入死还心怀感激。 你完成了什么，少女？除了勉力维持住了少女的纯真美丽？另外有时候你稍显心意摇摆，就被同样一批为你呐喊加油的读者指责三心二意，水性杨花。 我看你的这生活真够无聊又显艰难啊。能跑多快就跑多快吧，姑娘。
    These tropes by no means represent the entirety of Chinese pulp fiction, only a prominent facade of it that covers novels like the Pillow Book (三生三世枕上书), Battle through the Heaven(斗破苍穹), and many others that budded on Qidian and Jinjiang and bloomed into feature web-based drama series. They are sometimes referred to as “trash novels”, at least not the kind you are proud of having finished and would tweet “my book of the month” about.
    这些文学套路当然并尽述中式流行小说的趋势，但却代表了极其突出普遍的一面，覆盖了《三生三世枕上书》以及《斗破苍穹》还有很多被拍成流量电视剧的红作。这些小说偶尔被加恶名“垃圾小说”，就算有些刻薄，但公平地说，它们不会是你读了之后拍照发圈来炫耀自己爱读书的那类作品。

    Literary snobbery aside, there are many insights I gleaned through sampling these books. For the starters, this genre gives us a glimpse into the real world today, especially what reveries Chinese young adults live on and what confines they think within, not limited to the gender split but how Chinese feminism may continue to starve out with such a paltry foundation of upcoming young, rational, brilliant, self-respecting, integrity-centered girls. What the next generation of young women are reading as pastime decides what roles they play in society and how they see and define themselves. If they are happy to gouge on novels focused on how a heroine maneuvers albeit innocently her way to to the top.. man, or on a girl immortal that so “valiantly” downgraded herself to be a servant girl to the deity she pursues under the pretext of “returning the favor that he saved her life once”, they can only be expected to pull off the same stints in real life: they allow the prince’s favor take over their entire life-scope, they are justified in doing almost anything self-demeaning as long as it is for love, and they are completely blind to the world of possibilities in terms of science, technology, philosophical thinking, politics, arts and etc.
    文学层次上的论阶排辈且不说，翻翻这些小说却能给我们带来很多人性上的洞见。 首先此类作品能够让我们看见当代青少年梦想的轮廓以及思维上的边界，这其中首要的就是中国女权主义者恐怕比从前更加后继无人，考虑到她们的下一代中生气勃勃、逻辑分明、心智独立、性格公义的比例毫不见涨。女孩子们现在热衷阅读的就能大致决定她们将来在社会扮演的角色以及对自我的认知。 她们现在手不释卷地关注甄嬛们如何冲破各个贱人的阻挠获得最英俊专情之天潢贵胄的青睐，为一个仙国小帝姬如何为了追求爱情委曲求全自降身份成为目标的侍女而落泪心伤，那在自己的生活里恐怕做法也无有二致：男神的感情归属将成为她们的天空与世界；为了爱如何自卑忍耐也能感动中国；什么科学探索什么工程技能什么哲学思辨什么满腹经纶什么琴棋书画，统统视而不见一窍不通，哪里有爱情的趣味高执行成本低呢？

    And by the way, such novels flick the harp strings of the readers’ hearts by often cookie-cutter tropes: the man for some righteous reason pays attention to another girl at the beginning, and the other girl is no doubt morally unkempt and shameless, imposing and scheming in the pursuit of the man. The internet call such twists “tear jerking” (虐). The readers enjoy the plots in a sadistic way but at the same time cry for “sweets” , a figurative speech depicting that the couple you ship for display romantic feelings toward each other.
    不过顺便说一下，这些女频网红小说拨动读者心弦赚眼泪的桥段都是一个模子凿出来的：总是在起初男神对女主角不知出于什么正义凛然的原因不加理睬甚至恶语相向，而绿茶婊的女二们也绝对不出你所料的满腹心机、心狠手辣还死缠烂打。真是没有比女主和女二更强烈的宇宙对比了。读者们特别自虐地享受着这些套路，不过也整天吵着要“吃糖”，也就是要看男女主角两情相悦的时刻。

    In the oft-temporary cases of the male protagonist neglecting the heroine, he will be whipped by the female audience as “a pig-limb”(大猪蹄子)，while the heroine would get bashed down by both genders for having a change of heart. God forbids if she was previously married… she would lose the plot armor and instantly die as the supporting female character. There are no such things as imperfect, non-virgin and sophisticated heroines in the history of Chinese pulp fiction or TV dramas. So you start to wonder, maybe the Chinese young girls are all practicing celibacy judging by what they model after? but we know that is not so. I personally vote for young people not taking romantic relationships lightly and that they should try to remain pure before marriage because of my personal beliefs, but I don’t undervalue anyone if I knew they treaded that line, and I certainly am no hypocrite in rooting and living for different standards.
    在这些总是会过去的虐心桥段里，男主角不免会被女读者们称为“大猪蹄子”，而女主角也是脚踩钢丝，若心有稍许偏离只会被评论弹幕口诛笔伐。若是女主角以前结过婚。。不！这是不会发生的，这样的女主角一定在下一集就变回女二还莫名领了盒饭，死状惨烈。我们的流行小说以及电视剧史上还没有过非处女的、形象不够完美的、性格成熟通透的女主角。 这时候你会不会想到，既然网民们对女主角如此苛刻，想必高中的开房率是0了吧？非也非也。是的，本文有古板的价值观，认为人应该慎重恋爱，守身如玉，但不因此事看低他人，更不会苛求那些梦中主角冰清玉洁却又活出另一套自由开放，最后还要对处女情结的直男癌们加以鞭挞。

    I think these fantasy light reads reflect a moral confusion young Chinese women are swarmed with: their only weapon to fight the so-called patriarchy is calling the infidel husbands names and diving into a fantasy world with princely gentlemen who won’t even look at other girls than themselves; they judge guys not in terms of their integrity or work, but solely by how they respond to women’s affections; they don’t write about or read about female role models with hard-earned skills, leadership, or moral qualities tested in realistic difficult life decisions. They are just hunting men and assess everything in their world based on the success of it. End of story.
    这些玄幻类轻小说就是年青女性价值观混沌的写实：她们的所谓反抗男权社会的唯一路径以及武器就是讨伐不忠的丈夫和劈腿的男朋友以及幻想遇见对其他女人看都不看上一眼的男神；她们对男人的价值判断完全围绕着外貌、钱权以及这些男人对待恋人的态度，而想不到还有什么工作成就、责任感、道义、勤奋、格局以及胸怀；她们从不追读也不创作任何坚韧明亮，有领导力能够在真实的道义两难中做出令人叹服抉择的女主角类。她们读书也好，生活也好，恐怕还都是为了嫁个好人家。全剧终。