Chinese audiovisual industry leaders on Monday applauded the sustained partnership in the production of television dramas and movies among Hong Kong and Chinese mainland enterprises, calling the special administrative region an “optimal gateway” for Chinese film and TV content providers to go global.
They made the remarks at a high-profile forum, themed “Cooperation and Innovation for a New Vision”, in Hong Kong.
The forum was held in conjunction with the Hong Kong International Film and TV Market – Asia’s leading film and entertainment content marketplace – which kicked off at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai.
As a highlight of the four-day event organized by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the forum drew more than 200 top drama directors, producers and representatives of leading companies in the industry to shine a critical lens on content innovation, emerging trends in short-form video dramas, and the game-changing role of artificial intelligence in audiovisual production.
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“The active participation bears clear testimony to the vision and enthusiasm of stakeholders in the country and beyond in collaboratively tapping new opportunities and striking industrial progress together,” said Yan Ni, deputy director-general of the International Cooperation Department of the National Radio and Television Administration of China -- the forum’s organizer.
She noted that the amended Agreement on Trade in Services of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, implemented on March 1, includes new liberalization measures covering areas like mainland-Hong Kong co-production of TV dramas, and Hong Kong television channels’ access to the mainland, which has strengthened ties between mainland industry practitioners and their Hong Kong counterparts.
The joint efforts between the SAR and the mainland in audiovisual productions have borne fruit with Best Choice Ever -- a TV drama adapted from the same-name novel by Hong Kong writer Nee Yeh-su.
Luo Yi, deputy director-general of the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Radio and Television, said the drama has received an overwhelmingly positive response, establishing itself as a new cross-regional intellectual property transformation benchmark.
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Yan said Hong Kong, long recognized as a cultural melting pot boasting robust global connectivity, serves as an ideal platform to make China’s voice bigger on the world stage.
This year’s Filmart has attracted over 760 exhibitors from 34 economies, featuring 32 government-led regional pavilions, according to Jacky Chung, director of Chinese Mainland at the HKTDC.
Among the exhibitors is Zhejiang Huace Film & TV, a Hangzhou-based media production company that has spearheaded Chinese culture’s go-global push for nearly three decades.
The company has distributed 150,000 hours of Chinese film and television content to over 200 countries and regions, making it among the nation’s top audiovisual exporters.
Huace CEO Fu Binxing told China Daily that in recent years, her company has also sold many scripts of mainland-TV and film works to content production companies in overseas markets such as Turkiye, Thailand, and South Korea for localized adaptations.
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Huace has consistently used Hong Kong as a strategic launchpad for its international marketing endeavors, having made its debut at the Filmart some 20 years ago and being a regular partaker since.
During this year’s event, the company showcased a selection of nearly 30 television and film productions to prospective buyers from abroad, while also engaging in productive talks with potential global partners from more than 30 countries and regions.
“Filmart is one of the largest trading grounds in Asia, and we are committed to utilizing the platform to tell the stories of China better and to further lift the status of Chinese-language productions in the global film and TV landscape,” Fu said.
The emergence of artificial intelligence gives a much-needed boost to Chinese cultural work seeking a global audience, she added.
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Huace has developed a large language model, “Flourished Peony”, named after the company’s latest billion-view TV drama. “The model can generate subtitles and dubbings in many foreign languages, allowing us to distribute Chinese films and TV dramas in more overseas regions with a speed faster than before,” Fu said.
During the forum’s panel discussions, the global popularity of short-form drama -- a content format characterized by brief episodes between dozens of seconds to several minutes -- was highlighted by participants as a key front for exciting prospects for Chinese practitioners to make breakthroughs at home and beyond.
“Chinese short drama is recognized by many as the country’s most recent cultural export with global appeal, akin to the prominence of movies in the United States, reality television shows in South Korea, and animations in Japan”, said You Xiao, an official from the National Radio and Television Administration.
Minutes-long dramas produced on the mainland saw about 100 million downloads last year, and grossed revenues exceeding $100 million in the global market.
The mainland authorities will support all sectors in the industry -- from film and television producers, broadcasters, multi-channel networks, and video platforms to media research institutions -- to leverage this emerging trend, said You.
