Chinese dramas look at how to break into overseas markets

In 2023, with the quality of Chinese domestic TV dramas constantly improving, how to break into overseas markets has become a hot topic of discussion.

In a forum on how to "Break the circle" into overseas markets, Wang Qiao, vice president of New Classics Media, proposed to "let people see it first and then read people's comments," as Chinese domestic TV dramas are still in the initial stage of pushing into overseas markets.

On June 25, as part of the 29th Shanghai TV Festival Roundtable Forum, participants discussed the issue and explored better strategies to help audiences from different countries understand Chinese TV dramas.

"In recent years, the overseas TV dramas broadcast in Japan are still dominated by American and Korean dramas," said Zhong Weijiang, president of Focus Pictures INC. "Although Chinese actors are beginning to be noticed by Japanese viewers and the quality is getting better, there is still a gap compared to American and Korean dramas, which have dominated the market for a long time."

"The quality of Chinese dramas reached a terrifying height in the first few years, and Asian viewers have begun to show interest in more Chinese dramas, including costume dramas," said Marianne Lee, chief of Content Acquisition & Development, VIU.

Fu Wenjie, executive vice president of Xixi Pictures, agreed.

"Chinese TV dramas need to focus more on resonance if they are to capture the overseas market more closely," Fu said.

In recent years, Chinese dramas that entered the international market were mostly costume dramas.

But as the quality of Chinese TV dramas continues to improve, overseas viewers have begun to break away from the traditional concepts and accept more themes, such as urban dramas and romance dramas, according to Lee's data from the Viu platform.

"Apart from the subject matter, Chinese actors like Sean Xiao and others are very popular in Japan," Zhong said.

"We held three events to promote 'Where Dreams Begin,' even though the actors didn't show up, and used videos they recorded and then showed the props used in the drama. But the response was especially good, and the tickets were snapped up."

Combined with content, Zhong made a suggestion: "Not only should TV dramas go out, but also artists and creative teams need to go out and need a chance to interact with overseas audiences."

This proposal was immediately supported by all the guests in the room, and Lien Trinh, Content & Channels director of VSTV / K, said: "Audiences have high expectations for Chinese domestic dramas, and I hope this can be a two-way run."