Bi Ming

[Wong Kai-wah, Language Teacher, Department of Chinese Studies, University of Hong Kong]

Several years ago, I read some Taiwanese online novels and even bought one or two printed copies. My biggest impression after reading them was that, apart from using the internet as a publishing platform, these online novels were no different from regular novels. Or, to be more precise, these novels never fully utilized the functions of hypertext, failing to make each novel unit both a starting point and an ending point for reading.

Reading the manuscript of "Falling in Love Online" gave me an unexpected surprise. Although the emotional stories of the five characters—Car Man, Matchstick Man, Carol, Wind Cold, and Bi Ming—are independent, the character Don is cleverly inserted, stringing together five seemingly real yet touching stories that appear ordinary yet are not.

While Michael Joyce's *Afternoon, a Story* is an icon of hypertext fiction, I've always believed that Sima Qian's *Records of the Grand Historian* best showcases the characteristics of hypertext fiction when it's online. Each biography and each character is self-contained yet interconnected, weaving together a truly rich and inexhaustible network of hypertext fiction. Of course, ordinary readers who stumble into this network will feel lost and adrift, without guidance. Therefore, *Falling in Love Online* currently only has five short stories, which is just right. If it were to be released online someday, it might just be the first elixir to entice readers to fall in love with hypertext fiction. By extension, if the "Don Story Relay Contest" were also held online, readers would surely be able to better appreciate the charm of hypertext novels as both novels and interactive games.

The vast internet is like a vast sea of people. Through artistic arrangement and thoughtful narration, even the simplest stories can resonate with our hearts. "Falling in Love Online" freezes fragments of our high school lives, the lingering traces that are about to fade from our memories, in a single moment. It is both the twists and turns of emotions and their sublimation.

I am neither a creator nor a critic. I met Cheren by chance and logged into the "Original Space Young Writers Working Group" by chance. I was attracted by the young writers there and felt their passion for creation.

Everyone has a fire in their heart, and the younger they are, the hotter and brighter that fire is.

​

​

[Baidu Baike sobremesa533 ]

This is a book of poignant sadness, told from the female protagonist's perspective about the boy she likes. However, she is always too timid to truly express her feelings for him, leading to repeated struggles and uncertainty about the future of their relationship. The book is very sincere; perhaps we all had a boy like that in our youth, a love we could never express. While the plot is simple, it feels very real. A truly wonderful book.