A Generation's Pride

A Generation's Pride is an urban novel by the web author Yiqichenggong, serialized on Zhulang.com from December 1, 2012, to its completion on July 7, 2015, running 795 chapters and roughly 9.937 million Chinese characters. The story centers on Zhao Heng: orphaned young in the mountains of General City, he harbors a hidden background, is later taken under the wing of Du Tianxiong of Haihua and others, reclaims his family name, and founds the Heng Sect. He then engages in layered power struggles with the four great families of Huaguo, the Zhou Group, and other forces, gathering around him a band of Heng Sect commanders—Lu Meng, Song Qingguan, Chang Kong, Zhou Qixuan, Guihun, Han Jian, and others—and rises from local power to a larger stage, eventually becoming interim president of Huaguo. Gang conflict, family feuds, and national grievance intertwine as the backbone, threaded with the protagonist's romantic entanglements with five women; the overall direction is hot-blooded rivalry and iron-fisted intrigue. In his preface the author says he "can't write literature, is no master, and can only write a novel that gives readers a laugh," a clear positioning: this is a massive urban web novel that wins on wish fulfillment and emotional release, not serious literature.