RRags-to-riches stories, revenge plots, and a variety of twists and turns – Chinese viewers love what they see in internet “microdramas.” Run time is just a few minutes or less.
But Chinese authorities, wary of losing control over messaging, have little love for this new medium and are cracking down on the burgeoning microdrama industry.
Unlike traditional television programming, which requires longer production schedules, larger budgets, and stricter government oversight, the microdrama industry offers low-cost programs that often take a fraction of the time and cost to produce. It has become popular due to the spread of mini-programs that are produced in a short period of time on a budget. in front of an audience, and until recently remained largely unregulated.
Known not for its award-winning or acclaimed writing or acting, but rather for its pure sobriety, the microdrama leans into familiar and tried-and-tested themes such as romance, family strife, and tension between the rich and the poor. There is a tendency.
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“They’re not looking for drama quality,” Oscar Chow, a lecturer at the University of Kent who studies the subject, told TIME about microdrama makers. “This is a very profit-oriented production model.”
However, despite their low production values, these microdramas reach huge audiences and provide virtually immediate financial returns. Many of the micro-dramas distributed on platforms such as Douyin, Bilibili, Kuaishou, and QQ require small subscriptions to watch, and viewers have proven willing to pay for them. Last year, Kuaishou had about 270 million active users watching microdramas every day, of which more than 94 million were paying users. The show, which was launched on WeChat in 2023, generated revenue of approximately 100 million yuan (approximately $19 million) in just eight days.
According to a Chinese economic newspaper, the domestic market size of the micro-drama industry will reach approximately 38 billion yuan (approximately $5 billion) in 2023 in just five years, 70% of the size of China’s 100-year-old film industry. %. Securities Timesis projected to grow to $14 billion by 2027.
These microdramas have also reached American audiences. ReelShort, a Chinese streaming app released in the US in 2022, surpassed TikTok at some point in 2023 to become the top downloaded app in the Apple App Store. It has been downloaded over 10 million times on Google’s app store.
But the very interesting tropes that keep viewers glued to the screen, especially content that emphasizes the negative aspects of family life, are also what keep the nightly censorship going.
In just over a year, the industry has gone from one of the freest forms of expression in China to one of the most highly regulated.
From the end of 2022 to February 2023, China Radio and Television removed approximately 25,300 programs for suspected “pornographic” and “vulgar” content, state-run CCTV News reported. And in December 2023, the Communist Party’s Cyberspace Secretariat issued guidelines for short video content that prohibit the display of pornography or acts of violence, incitement to ethnic or regional discrimination, and the spread of “false views about marriage and love.” . From June 1, the government will require all microdramas to obtain a license before being distributed online.
Many of the platforms have also started self-monitoring to ensure continuity of operations. In recent months, Douyin and Kuaishou have removed several microdrama titles due to “bad values” and other illegal content. Earlier this month, Douyin announced that it had removed six microdramas for “deliberately amplifying and exaggerating content such as conflicts between husband and wife, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.” On the same day, Kuaishou removed his four titles and his more than 700 related contents, repeating some of Douyin’s reasons, stating that the titles were found to “deviate from society’s mainstream values” added.
Xi Jinping’s government has repeatedly promoted preserving family values as a way to boost stagnant birth rates. Young people cite a variety of reasons for not wanting to get married or have children, mainly economic concerns, but in a speech at the National Women’s Federation of China in October 2023, President Xi said the following: Stated. Through traditional stories of good families, women are guided to inherit the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, establish good family traditions, and play a unique role in creating a new trend of family civilization. ”
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To that end, the government seems to recognize the appeal of microdramas not simply as a matter of constriction, but as a potential tool that can be leveraged. In January, state regulators launched a plan to integrate culture and tourism promotion into up to 100 microdramas this year, as the towns featured in microdramas have seen an increase in visitor numbers. “The government won’t just shut down an entire genre, because it could be an opportunity for them to do something more creative,” Chow says. He calls it “ideological activity.”
Chou does not believe that the new regulations will prevent microdrama producers from participating. He says that’s because they clearly care more about profit than principle. “There’s always room for negotiation here,” he says of China’s entertainment industry. “If a production company wants to censor a drama about ‘unconventional family values’, they can find the next corner.”
But viewers have already expressed their displeasure at the latest blatant example of the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to turn culture into control.
After some titles were removed in April, one Weibo user commented: “Movies and TV dramas are part of culture. If you compare culture to a tree and impose too many restrictions on it, it will only grow into a tree with a crooked neck, rather than ‘cultural confidence.'” is a Chinese Communist Party slogan that calls on Chinese people to be proud of their culture. )
Another user commented, “The state wants to control what you think,” and another user asked, “Are you worried that it’s going to affect marriage rates because it’s too real?” Ta.
“Like consumers around the world, most mainstream viewers and consumers of media want content that is produced in the lowest common denominator, that is, in their native language, that reflects the country and reality in which they live, and that is available on their favorite apps and streams. They will prefer content that is easily accessible on the platform,” Michael Berry, director of the UCLA Center for China Studies, told TIME.
However, he added that complaints about censorship in China are also usually not acknowledged. And, he cynically admits, he believes that over time, Chinese viewers will simply “readjust their expectations to fit what is acceptable.”
—Koh Ewe contributed reporting.
