Vivibear
Encyclopedia
Weiwei Zhang is a Chinese-Swedish author who writes under the pseudonym vivibear. Her stories include romance novels and time-traveling series for young adults, all published in Chinese. To date, all sixteen novels she wrote were believed to be found with various degrees of plagiarism
, and the discovery was widely reported by Chinese media.
Vivibear managed to evade discovery until January, 2009, and prior to this time, nine books have gone into print and are prominently placed on bestselling lists at all major Chinese online book retailers. More than a million copies have been sold in less than 4 years.
, Zhejiang
Province. She attended Zhejiang University of Media and Communications as an undergraduate, but conflicting reports from the media and the author herself imply that she probably did not receive an accredited diploma from this university. After leaving college, Zhang worked at the official TV station in the city of Ningbo. Not long after she left her job to marry a Swedish man in 2004. The couple now reside in Sweden
.
She was the winner of several competitions for original stories in internet publishing. In the list of "Top 20 List of Successful Chinese Internet Writers" compiled in 2008, vivibear ranked No. 1.
In 2007, vivibear and the website that previously hosted all her books had a falling out. Claiming she had been pestered shamelessly by website's editors, she left website Jinjiang to start her own personal blog.
The post "Successful Young Adult Author vivibear is a Plagiarizing Maniac" received thousands of hits within the first hours of its appearance. Among the plagiarized works are fan fictions and yaoi
stories that amateur writers published online, and well-known authors including Ryōtarō Shiba
and Christian Jacq
. The number of writers on the Plagiarized List has been reported to exceed 500. The number of works vivibear plagiarized is more than 600.
Due to its severity, mainstream media, including newspapers http://hiphotos.baidu.com/sfrnacl/pic/item/4c30cf10ca746731b8127bd7.jpghttp://informationtimes.dayoo.com/html/2009-02/19/content_474268.htm###
http://e.cdqss.com/html/2009-02/20/content_27151.htm, TV programs and news websites soon picked up the story and unanimously condemned what has become one of the largest instance of plagiarism by a single person. The Local, a Swedish news website reported her plagiarism on April 26, 2009.
Throughout this time, Weiwei Zhang has remained silent in regards to the plagiarism scandal. Since then, she has made deletions and corrections to her online blog where she publishes her latest book series, removing contents that were suspected of plagiarism.
In February and March, publishers and literature hosting websites having contracts with vivibear responded:
Queries to the Chinese Copyright Office have met no reply. Due to difficulty of international lawsuit, no legal actions have been taken against vivibear yet. On June 1, 2009, Ji Yi Fang , the brother company of Princess Monthly, together with Hua Wen Publisher , released Weiwei Zhang's Fantansy Knight, which had previously been exposed for plagiarism. Marketing campaigns for the new book present news reports of Weiwei Zhang's plagiarism in various media outlets as a sign of the author's popularity.
Ji Yi Fang severed ties with Weiwei Zhang soon after Fantansy Knight was published. Vivibear then signed on with newly opened publishing company Ju Shi Wen Hua , a subsidiary of Shanda
. Doubts about vivibear's integrity caused readers to file complaints with both Ju Shi Wen Hua and Shanda to no avail. As of present, Ju Shi Wen Hua has helped Vivibear to publish three books, Flora, Bloodline Bride, and a Mediterranean travel book called Across the Blue. Flora is accused of stealing plots from Japanese detective manga series Case Closed
. Bloodline Bride had been accused of extensive plagiarism
in 2009. Netizens who examined the official preview excerpts and teasers of vivibear's travel memoir found a fourth of the book's contents are identical to older travel accounts, magazine articles, and blogs who are written by other people and published prior to vivibear's work.
Vivibear continues writing in her on-line blog as usual.
Since 2009, vivibear continue to garner more honors. Numerous Chinese newspapers granted her the title "Goddess of Plagiarism." In addition, on November 2, 2009, vivibear was given the Golden Crow GJM Award for her achievement and efforts in plagiarism. The Golden Crow Award has been compared to the Golden Raspberry Award. It is a grassroot virtual online competition that encourages Chinese internet users to nominate and vote their favorite celebrities for a variety of categories. Vivibear received 12150 votes, the highest number of votes in the history of Golden Crow.
Published
To Be Published
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
, and the discovery was widely reported by Chinese media.
Vivibear managed to evade discovery until January, 2009, and prior to this time, nine books have gone into print and are prominently placed on bestselling lists at all major Chinese online book retailers. More than a million copies have been sold in less than 4 years.
Personal life
Weiwei Zhang (vivibear) was born on November 26, 1977 in NingboNingbo
Ningbo is a seaport city of northeastern Zhejiang province, Eastern China. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, the municipality has a population of 7,605,700 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 3,089,180 in the built up area made of 6 urban districts. It lies south of the Hangzhou Bay,...
, Zhejiang
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
Province. She attended Zhejiang University of Media and Communications as an undergraduate, but conflicting reports from the media and the author herself imply that she probably did not receive an accredited diploma from this university. After leaving college, Zhang worked at the official TV station in the city of Ningbo. Not long after she left her job to marry a Swedish man in 2004. The couple now reside in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
.
From Internet to Print
Weiwei Zhang first wrote, and posted, on the internet The Search for Past Life , a series of stories about a young girl who routinely travels back in time to solve mysteries. This began several book contracts.She was the winner of several competitions for original stories in internet publishing. In the list of "Top 20 List of Successful Chinese Internet Writers" compiled in 2008, vivibear ranked No. 1.
In 2007, vivibear and the website that previously hosted all her books had a falling out. Claiming she had been pestered shamelessly by website's editors, she left website Jinjiang to start her own personal blog.
Plagiarism Controversy
On January 30, 2009, a netizen on the forum "Tianya.cn" accused Weiwei Zhang of copying and plagiarizing. While reading one of vivibear's novels, this person noticed random switches between traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese, which is very unusual given that the writing system in mainland China has long ago been converted to simplified Chinese. More sections in vivibear's books were found to be identical to other people's works, all published at much earlier dates.The post "Successful Young Adult Author vivibear is a Plagiarizing Maniac" received thousands of hits within the first hours of its appearance. Among the plagiarized works are fan fictions and yaoi
Yaoi
In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, . The English equivalent is . also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by...
stories that amateur writers published online, and well-known authors including Ryōtarō Shiba
Ryotaro Shiba
, born in Osaka, Japan, was a Japanese author best known for his novels about historical events in Japan and on the Northeast Asian sub-continent, as well as his historical and cultural essays pertaining to Japan and its relationship to the rest of the world....
and Christian Jacq
Christian Jacq
Christian Jacq is a French author and Egyptologist. He has written several novels about ancient Egypt, notably a five book suite about pharaoh Ramses II, a character whom Jacq admires greatly....
. The number of writers on the Plagiarized List has been reported to exceed 500. The number of works vivibear plagiarized is more than 600.
Due to its severity, mainstream media, including newspapers http://hiphotos.baidu.com/sfrnacl/pic/item/4c30cf10ca746731b8127bd7.jpghttp://informationtimes.dayoo.com/html/2009-02/19/content_474268.htm###
http://e.cdqss.com/html/2009-02/20/content_27151.htm, TV programs and news websites soon picked up the story and unanimously condemned what has become one of the largest instance of plagiarism by a single person. The Local, a Swedish news website reported her plagiarism on April 26, 2009.
Throughout this time, Weiwei Zhang has remained silent in regards to the plagiarism scandal. Since then, she has made deletions and corrections to her online blog where she publishes her latest book series, removing contents that were suspected of plagiarism.
In February and March, publishers and literature hosting websites having contracts with vivibear responded:
- jjwxc.net：Affirmed plagiarism. Clean up impossible: portion of plagiarized text too large . Delete vivibear's account.
- myfreshnet：Accusations of plagiarism are confirmed; The accused would not give any apology or explanation. Zhang's ID and personal column have been deleted
- Princess Monthly：Issues of Zhang's latest novels Fantasy Knight and 101st Time Runaway Bride have been delayed due to unspecified reasons
- Core Publishing Group: All unsold books by vivibear have been pulled off-shelf. From now on, we will not published any more of her novels. Please stop all related discussions
- Yueduji: The CEO has learnt of the situation; the company reserves the right to sue vivibear should proper authorities judge it to be plagiarism
Queries to the Chinese Copyright Office have met no reply. Due to difficulty of international lawsuit, no legal actions have been taken against vivibear yet. On June 1, 2009, Ji Yi Fang , the brother company of Princess Monthly, together with Hua Wen Publisher , released Weiwei Zhang's Fantansy Knight, which had previously been exposed for plagiarism. Marketing campaigns for the new book present news reports of Weiwei Zhang's plagiarism in various media outlets as a sign of the author's popularity.
Ji Yi Fang severed ties with Weiwei Zhang soon after Fantansy Knight was published. Vivibear then signed on with newly opened publishing company Ju Shi Wen Hua , a subsidiary of Shanda
Shanda
Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited is a Chinese operator of online games and book publisher, based in Shanghai, established in December 1999 by Chen Tianqiao and Chen Danian. In 2005 it claimed to have 460 million registered accounts and an average of 1.2 million players at any given time....
. Doubts about vivibear's integrity caused readers to file complaints with both Ju Shi Wen Hua and Shanda to no avail. As of present, Ju Shi Wen Hua has helped Vivibear to publish three books, Flora, Bloodline Bride, and a Mediterranean travel book called Across the Blue. Flora is accused of stealing plots from Japanese detective manga series Case Closed
Case Closed
Case Closed, known as in Japan, is a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama. The series is serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday since February 2, 1994, and has been collected in 73 tankōbon volumes as of September 2011...
. Bloodline Bride had been accused of extensive plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
in 2009. Netizens who examined the official preview excerpts and teasers of vivibear's travel memoir found a fourth of the book's contents are identical to older travel accounts, magazine articles, and blogs who are written by other people and published prior to vivibear's work.
Vivibear continues writing in her on-line blog as usual.
Achievements and Honors
Before 2009, vivibear placed prominently in the "Top 20 List of Successful Chinese Internet Writers" and was admittedly one of the top-selling novelists on the Chinese romance fiction scene.Since 2009, vivibear continue to garner more honors. Numerous Chinese newspapers granted her the title "Goddess of Plagiarism." In addition, on November 2, 2009, vivibear was given the Golden Crow GJM Award for her achievement and efforts in plagiarism. The Golden Crow Award has been compared to the Golden Raspberry Award. It is a grassroot virtual online competition that encourages Chinese internet users to nominate and vote their favorite celebrities for a variety of categories. Vivibear received 12150 votes, the highest number of votes in the history of Golden Crow.
List of works
All books have been accused of plagiarism.Published
- The Search for Past Life
- Sequel to The Search for Past Life
- The Search for Past Life 3
- Girl Who Time Traveled Back to Kyoto
- Love Story in the Warring Kingdoms
- Search for the Dragon
- Tang Princess Looking for a Husband
- Lan Ling
- Legend of the Onmyōji
- Fantasy Knight
- Flora
- Bloodline Bride
To Be Published
- 101st Time Runaway Bride