China-made, Cinderella-style mini-dramas find audiences overseas

Suspended 6 meters above the ground by a wire, UK actress Emily Bennett falls gently in front of a giant screen, wrapping up a nine-day shoot in Shanghai. Within a month, the mini-drama featuring an all-foreign cast will premiere in North America.

Mini-dramas filmed in China for international audiences are a growing industry, reshaping how the world embraces content on mobile devices.

Mini-dramas are defined by their bite-size structure, usually comprising 60 episodes that each runs between 90 seconds and two minutes. These dramas rely heavily on melodramatic plots and cliffhangers to coax viewers into paying for the next episode.

The short clips dovetail well with the fragmented viewing habits of busy housewives and commuters.

Originating in China, mini-dramas now resonate across the globe. A typical example is "The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband" produced by streaming platform ReelShort.

It debuted in North America in 2023, attracting more than 468 million views. The drama earned Crazy Maple Studio, ReelShort's parent company, a spot on Time's list of the 100 most influential companies of 2024.

According to tech media platform Huxiu.com, the value of the overseas micro-drama market was an estimated US$2.3 billion in the first half of 2024, with the US accounting for half that gross revenue. The dramas are also popular in Southeast Asia and attracting a growing number of viewers in Europe.

"Mini-dramas are getting very popular in Europe," actress Bennett told Shanghai Daily on set. "It's just easy to scroll and get hooked, because the stories are very addictive."

Storylines are often cliched. Among the most successful themes overseas are those with Cinderella-style romances, where a wealthy, successful business executive falls in love with a humble woman of poorer means. Other popular plots revolve around revenge or supernatural love stories featuring werewolves and vampires.

"The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband" follows the classic Cinderella storyline. A kind but poor girl agrees to marry an alleged criminal to help her sick mother. However, her seemingly disgraced husband turns out to be a billionaire tech mogul.

"Love stories will always win in any culture," said Anina Net, a Bennett co-star from Los Angeles who has appeared in more than 30 mini-dramas. "Everybody loves to see a handsome gentleman and a bit of meddling in someone else's life."

She noted that a friend in San Francisco had stopped paying for traditional TV subscriptions and instead watches mini-dramas on his phone on his way to work.

"He needs something fast and entertaining that can keep him in a good mood," Net said.

Mini-dramas typically require just 7-9 days to make and are released within a month. Bennett, 22, from Newcastle, filmed her first one in February last year and has appeared in 12 productions since.

The first 11 were shot in London and Istanbul before she landed in a role in Shanghai. That reflects a growing trend – the return of mini-drama production to Chinese soil to take advantage of cheaper costs and higher efficiency.

Yang Yi is one of the producers who has shifted production to China. He switched from a career in advertising to mini-dramas in late 2023, focusing on the North American market. He moved his operations to China from Australia earlier this year.

Yang told Shanghai Daily that it's hard to find production crews with mini-drama experience in Australia, whereas most crews in China have long experience in the industry. In Australia, he said, he could complete at most two projects a month, compared with three or four in China.

China's ecosystem for micro-drama production, developed over a decade, ranges from sets and lighting to post-production and legal support.

"The production ecosystem here is incredibly mature," Yang said. "You can find everything."

Speed and scale are essential, according to Yang Zhidong, founder and chief executive of Oumei TV Studio, which owns a 10,000-square-meter studio lot in Shanghai. About 30 percent of the space is devoted to North American-style sets tailored for mini-drama exports.

"Mini-dramas are consumables, not artworks," he said. "To be profitable, they have to be standardized and mass-produced, something that's difficult to achieve overseas."

For actress Bennett, the speed and workload in China can be grueling, compared with shooting in the UK. She worked 17 to 18 hours a day while filming in Shanghai.

"But I definitely would come back to shoot more," she told Shanghai Daily.

She sees micro-dramas as a valuable training ground. If she can handle long hours, navigate the language barrier and still deliver an excellent performance, she reckons her acting career will take off.

Today's China is definitely not short of opportunities. TikTok for Business projects the global market for mini-dramas could reach US$10 billion in value in the future, with a monthly user base of 200-300 million.

Producer Yang did the math for Shanghai Daily: There are currently over 200 Chinese mini-drama apps in overseas markets, including ReelShort, ShortTV and DramaBox. Assuming half of them are active and each requires 10 new shows per month, the annual demand exceeds 10,000 productions. However, current global output is only about 2,000.

"It's all untapped potential," he said.

Local governments across China, recognizing the huge potential of mini-dramas, and are rolling out support policies to attract production to their regions. This March, the Shanghai government announced a 50-million-yuan fund (US$6.9 million) to support the industry.

Studio owner Yang said Shanghai is uniquely positioned to seize opportunities. The city has a thriving advertising industry and a deep talent pool, including many bilingual professionals.

"The density of talent in Shanghai is unmatched," he said.

But Shanghai faces fierce competition from other cities, such as Hangzhou in neighboring Zhejiang Province. Last year, a district in the city launched a 200-million-yuan fund for mini-drama development, along with a package of financial incentives. The initiative has already attracted 200 production companies and total investment of 1 billion yuan.

This gold rush also brings challenges, such as casting.

Most actors are either recruited from an existing pool of foreign actors and models, or from actors flown in from overseas. While pay ranging from US$600 to US$1,000 a day is attractive, visa issues can be complicated and take a month to process. That's a problem when casting decisions are often made just a week before the shooting begins.

Some production companies or agencies take the risk of relying on tourist visas, which can result in fines or deportation if discovered.

"Bringing in foreign actors for shoots in China is a major pain point for us right now," said Yang Zhidong. "We need clear and practical visa policies tailored for this industry."

Quality is another concern. Zhao Yu'er, bilingual coordinator and casting director of Oumei TV Studio, said Chinese mini-dramas have to improve their quality to the length of full-length dramas if overseas sales are to grow.

Actress Net said plot content needs improving. When she started in the industry in 2022, many plots relied heavily on shock value, she said.

"Women got slapped, raped and beaten," she recalled. "I think in the beginning, the shock effect was there to grab attention. The mini-dramas were trying to say, 'Hey, this is a new format, and here you'll see things you'd never see on regular television'."

But audience tastes evolve. Viewers now want richer stories and more complex characters, with women in the micro-dramas portrayed as mature protagonists instead of naive victims.

The most looming challenge comes from existing premium streaming platforms, such as Netflix, which have also noticed the market potential of mini-dramas.

According to studio owner Yang, the streaming giant is already experimenting with mini-drama formats in South Korea. These shows break from traditional narratives to adopt fast-paced, twisty storytelling.

"Netflix has more money, more global access," he said. "If they move faster than we do, the window for China's micro-drama exports might close. This is the critical moment for us."