How can micro-dramas, a form of new popular art in the internet age, achieve a sustainable and high-quality development path?
Initial Steps for the Industry
In the early morning at the Huaxia Cultural Park in Hengdian Town, Dongyang, Zhejiang, director Wang Shuai is meticulously refining action details with actor Lu Xiaoxiao on the set of the micro-drama The Surname of Langya 3. His attention to detail reflects a broader shift within the micro-drama industry towards prioritizing quality over mere speed and volume.
Once seen as disposable emotional products with formulaic plots, the sector is now undergoing a transformation. Various regions and groups are actively exploring ways to enhance quality and upgrade content, proving that genuinely moving stories stand out. The national development plan emphasizes fostering new popular art forms under internet conditions and developing new cultural formats like micro-dramas. The central question is how these short-form narratives can be substantial and avoid superficiality to ensure long-term development.
Ordinary People Chasing Dreams
On set, 27-year-old Lu Xiaoxiao practices with a wooden spear, embracing the hard work as a step closer to her dream. Over a year ago, acting was not part of her life. After responding to a casting call in Hengdian, she started from extra roles, gradually gaining experience. She observed that many early productions were rushed, with flat characters and clichéd scripts. Believing acting requires empathy and refinement, she became more selective with roles, dedicating herself to studying characters and honing her craft.
This dedication found its space as the industry evolved from competing for views to deepening content and expanding genres. Her participation in The Surname of Langya 3 validated her approach. The production emphasized script readings, meticulous costumes and sets, and rigorous action sequences. Practicing spear techniques for hours left her hands shaking, but the post-broadcast result—her fan base growing from over 100 to more than 10,000 and receiving offers for quality scripts—made the effort worthwhile.
The industry's growth has opened channels for ordinary people to engage in artistic expression. At 6 AM in Hengdian, Du Meiying prepares breakfast for crew members lodging in her family's building. An impromptu invitation from a director led this 56-year-old with no formal training to appear on screen, performing naturally by drawing from her life experiences. She believes that life itself provides the richest scripts and that everyone can be a protagonist with passion.
Data from the platform "Hongguo Short Drama" shows the significance of locations like Hengdian. Of the 19 dramas with over 2 billion plays in 2025, 14 were closely related to Hengdian. The blossoming of individual dreams is intertwined with the opportunities of the times. The first National Micro-Drama Script Creation Competition, held in Hengdian, awarded its top prize to Chen Mengru for Wuju Queen: My Troupe Won't Close Down. Her script, born from a love for the intangible cultural heritage of Wuju opera, injects new themes into the genre by focusing on a young inheritor innovating to save her troupe, showcasing the creative transformation of traditional culture.
Personal aspirations and era opportunities fuel each other. Currently, Hengdian boasts over 15,000 supporting industry personnel and more than 140,000 background actors.
Building a Complete Industrial Chain
At noon in the Dazhi Film and Television Base in Zhengzhou, Henan, production manager Wang Xin is rushing to manage three simultaneous shoots. This fast pace is now routine, with the base sometimes hosting over ten crews daily at peak times. The speed mirrors the rapid development of Zhengzhou's micro-drama industry. In 2025, the city reviewed and approved 6,900 micro-dramas for release, accounting for 21% of the national total, with an industrial scale exceeding 9.7 billion yuan.
The success stems partly from geographical advantages. Zhengzhou's central location has fostered a high-speed rail network connecting it to major economic regions across China within hours, facilitating the rapid flow of talent and capital.
While transportation opens development space, the region's profound history and culture provide a wellspring for creative content. For instance, the 2024 production Meet Shaolin, Feel the Kung Fu, filmed at cultural landmarks like the Shaolin Temple Scenic Area, was well-received and selected for a national tourism-themed micro-drama initiative.
The market's invisible hand selects based on unique resources, while the government's visible hand actively supports growth. The Dazhi base, transformed from old factory buildings with government assistance in renovation, planning, and administrative processes, has served over 2,600 production teams since opening in May 2025. Zhengzhou has established 31 such large-scale filming bases covering over 900,000 square meters. The city also released a micro-drama filming map detailing over 100 locations, effectively turning the entire city into a natural studio.
Talent is another crucial pillar. Policies introduced in October 2024 support talent cultivation across the entire industry chain, combining efforts to attract external talent with housing and entrepreneurial support and fostering local talent through university-industry collaborations. This has helped companies secure stable, skilled workforces.
An optimized business environment translates to efficiency for enterprises and vitality for the industry. The entire chain, from script incubation and production to review and distribution, has formed a closed loop in Zhengzhou. The city's efficient and pragmatic services act as a force rolling the snowball of inherent advantages—like transportation and culture—forward, making it grow larger. To date, Zhengzhou has attracted over a thousand micro-drama production enterprises and more than 42,000 industry practitioners.
Crossing Mountains and Seas: A Global Exploration
In a conference room at Shaanxi Xingguang Yingmei Digital Culture Network Technology Co., Ltd., general manager Shi Xiangyang and his team are refining dialogue for an overseas-targeted micro-drama, recognizing that while language can be translated, cultural nuances often cannot.
Over the past year, the company has successfully launched over 20 micro-dramas internationally. Initially, they used a "dubbed/subtitled drama" model, which was cost-effective and fast. However, as the market expanded, they found that a lack of content tailored to local audiences led to low viewer retention and payment rates. They realized that successful overseas expansion requires deep localization, adapting to local cultural customs and aesthetics, down to details like set design preferences.
Hainan Lingshui Yingli Wanxiang Digital Media Industry Co., Ltd. underwent a similar transition. For their 2025 series Homeward Journey, which tells the story of a modern auctioneer time-traveling to 1936 Paris to protect cultural relics, the team initially set parts of the story in Marseille. After historical research revealed inaccuracies in the original setting for a Chinese businessman, they relocated the story to Paris and adjusted the business details, ensuring cultural authenticity for the target audience.
This meticulous approach underscores that genuine cultural exchange requires finding emotional resonance and integrating local characteristics. However, such localization demands higher investment in funding, teams, and scenes. Supportive policies in Hainan, such as improved international data connectivity via new submarine cables and expanded visa-free access for 86 countries, have significantly reduced costs and facilitated collaboration with overseas talent.
This synergy between policy and enterprise is propelling Chinese micro-dramas onto the global stage. Industry data shows explosive growth in overseas downloads and revenue in 2025. While adapting to local markets is crucial, maintaining core values is equally important. The team behind Homeward Journey was pleasantly surprised by overseas viewers' secondary creations and clips, which resonated with the series' themes of guardianship, homeland, and integrity.
As the company's chairman noted, going global requires not just emotional expression but lasting value. By staying true to core principles while actively integrating into local contexts, micro-dramas can successfully bridge cultures across vast distances.
Navigating Disruptive Shocks
Returning to the Huaxia Cultural Park in Hengdian recently revealed a quieter scene compared to months prior, with only two micro-drama crews filming. A staff member noted a decrease in production teams this year.
Contrasting this on-set quiet is vibrant activity elsewhere. In a nearby office building, the team at Dongyang Jubao Film and Television Media Co., Ltd. is reviewing an AI-generated micro-drama. Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming content creation; data indicates that in the first quarter of 2026, over 95% of newly released micro-dramas were AI-generated.
This revolution is recalibrating established rules and experiences. Key concerns include portrait rights for AI-generated characters. Using generic models keeps costs down, but employing customized likenesses, especially those resembling celebrities, has led to legal disputes. Some companies have implemented strict protocols, requiring actor authorization before using their likenesses.
The impact extends to actors, particularly background performers, who are increasingly being replaced by digital avatars. Many report fewer job opportunities and reduced pay. In response, some regions are exploring new pathways. At the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival theme park in Hengdian, over 300 former background actors have found new roles as interactive performers (NPCs), enhancing the tourist experience and gaining more stable employment, demonstrating a model for integrating cultural tourism and supporting workforce transition.
Despite the pressure, many industry players remain confident. Data suggests that while the volume of live-action dramas released is much lower than AI-generated ones, their total viewership can be significantly higher, indicating an enduring audience appetite for the authentic emotional connection and nuanced performances that human actors provide.
Industry leaders see the AI wave as containing both challenges and opportunities. It removes previous constraints of cost and physical scenery for special effects, allowing for the expansion of creative themes. The key for enterprises is to shift from being labor-intensive to being creativity-intensive, combining great ideas with new technologies. Regardless of technological disruption, the demand for compelling stories, strong IP, and quality content remains the cornerstone of sustainable development.
Policymakers are also adapting. To foster a healthy ecosystem, draft regulations have been proposed, including requirements for clear labeling of AI-generated content. Companies are adapting by integrating AI with physical sets. In Zhengzhou, filming bases are evolving towards "AI + Live-Action" fusion. For example, in a period war drama, only a few actors might perform in front of a small physical set piece, with vast armies and backgrounds generated by AI, balancing realism with production efficiency.
As technology evolves from film to digital, long-form to short-form, and now to AI generation, the constant for enduring works is the commitment to quality and the principle that technology should serve human creativity. In the offices of Jubao Film and Television, editors fine-tune trailers for live-action dramas while AI video engineers generate new algorithmic visuals nearby. Both production modes operate in parallel, empowering each other.
Looking ahead, industry participants express confidence. By adhering to a long-term vision while staying grounded and adaptable, they believe the sector can navigate cycles and continue to grow and mature.
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