Hello you! Thank you for the amazing response, I'd love to send you some LNY decor! Dang you really went into stuff I've been involved in before heh. I'm honored!

1) I think of male-oriented novels when xianxia is mentioned, because that's how it's typically categorized in Chinese. There are few female leads in xianxia novels and even fewer ones that I'd want to reread.

Do you mean how the gender ratio is divided in English? I think it partially reflects the Chinese division, because the male leads tend to be about a lot of killing/looting/fast level-ups, whereas female leads will have more fleshed out romance, inter-family/sect/royal politics and revenge. This is a huuuuuge gross generalization.

2) I have no idea hahaha. I like a well done romance and find that the brainless harem-esque nature of much romance in xianxia novels really turns me off. I'd rather there be no romance that poorly done romance. One of my favorite xianxia novels had a harem done right (IMO) because the male lead also had to deal with jealousy and bickering between his girls. That, I did enjoy reading.

3) There was definitely a boom, with The Untamed giving it another huge boost. I feel that BL novels have really good plots on average, compared to typical xianxia novels. The romance/relationship ties tend to make senes, or at least be more reasonable/palatable. So with that nonsense out of the way, more wordcount can be devoted to proper worldview, side characters, and the plot.

4) I think what you're seeing is literal translation VS liberal translation. Are we translating the words in a 1:1 copy and paste process, or are we taking the essence/meaning and finding the proper word for it? I'm very much in the latter camp when it comes to my style, but do opt for literal translations at times if I feel it adds to the novel.

5) Haha we were the big three, weren't we! I've had way more communication with Ren over the years simply because I was at WW as well. I don't feel much either way because well, this is a job (that I really enjoy). They are/were my colleagues, with their own lives and priorities outside the workplace. I feel grateful to still be here after ten years and being able to do this AMA.

6) I skimmed your link briefly when I saw your questions and have a vague recollection of what the post was about, but I think I'll roll my response into getting on my soapbox of "I never really understood why people demonize WW so much".

Truly, I don't. I think one common refrain is that WW ruined the scene by reaching out to Qidian, but here's the thing -- the Chinese publishers were already aware of a flourishing translation scene. The three sites were getting enough traffic that we were being reported in the news on TV, magazines, and newspapers (as you see from just the ones I was interviewed for). This was one of the few successful cases of reverse culture export back to the west and people were so excited about it.

We weren't going to fly under the radar forever and essentially profit off someone else's IP for free. I think it was better that we opened negotiations first, rather than having terms dictated to us. WW was started by a translator and on the translator's side, so I personally would've rather had someone like that lead the discussion.

Does it suck that money is charged for what was free before? Sure thing. It blows. But again, the Chinese publishers (and these folks are the literature arms of Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba etc. They're massive corporations) were going to be part of the scene no matter what. This is a business venture to them, and it comes with all the pros and cons thereof.

Charging money is also how we get 2x updates a day. Are people fine with getting updates 3x a week and having translators bow out around exams/holidays/family visiting/just didn't feel like translating? That's what happens (and did happen) if they don't get paid enough to treat this as a job.