Chinese Micro-Dramas Surge as Creatives Refine Genre and Companies Lure Name Talent
variety.comFaye Bradley Chinese creatives are refining a new trend in entertainment: the super-short streaming series. Each episode in the series typically lasts less than two minutes, making them easily consumable on mobile devices.
Each series consists of 20 to 100 episodes in total, and covers a wide range of genres such as comedy and romance. “The mini-drama series is the industry’s response to the new mode of viewing enabled by portable devices such as mobile phones,” said Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh, dean of arts and director of the Centre for Film and Creative Industries at Lingnan University. “Miniaturization of the interface entails miniaturization of the product.
We can call it TikTokization.” Key players in the sector include short video platforms operated by Kuaishou, BiliBili and Tencent Holdings, while apps ReelShort, DramaBox, Sereal+, ShortTV, GoodShort and FlexTV are also players in the super-short scene.
Douyin, the Chinese sister company of TikTok, recently announced a deal with Hong Kong filmmaker Stephen Chow (“Kung Fu Hustle”).The company said that Chow’s first series project is called “Jinzhu Yuye” and is currently a work-in-progress that could be delivered by May.
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