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.
Personal life
Weiwei Zhang was born on November 26, 1977 in Ningbo, 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.
Career
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.
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 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 was more than 600. Due to its severity, mainstream media, including newspapers , 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 Chinese media allegations of 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：
myfreshnet：
Princess Monthly：
Core Publishing Group:
Yueduji:
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.
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
