Chinese micro-dramas target US with familiar tropes for phone audience

{"text":[[{"start":9.53,"text":"Cypress Bai launched a successful Los Angeles-based studio producing micro-dramas — ultra-short serials with exaggerated plot lines designed for smartphones — after moving to the US from China to study film."}],[{"start":24.63,"text":"Now, she’s ready for her next act: adapting the shows, which are wildly popular with Asian viewers globally, to fit western tastes for viewers in the US. "}],[{"start":36.18,"text":"Chinese production companies that pioneered the format are seeking to expand beyond their traditional audience with English-speaking actors and western settings. "}],[{"start":48.379999999999995,"text":"The plots, however, remain a work in progress. "}],[{"start":52.51,"text":"They still rely on China-written scripts in proven genres like romance and fantasy — or both, as in Food, Love, Robots in which a woman navigates the uncertainty of love with a deceased soulmate resurrected in robot form. "}],[{"start":70.00999999999999,"text":"“They think they’ve found a formula that has been proven to work, so they just keep applying it again and again,” said Bai, 34, who launched Storypod Studio after attending Syracuse University. "}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":84.35,"text":"The influx of Chinese-backed micro-dramas in the US followed commercial success in China, where low-budget, one-to-two-minute episodes built around emotional hooks, dramatic conflict and constant cliffhangers became a runaway hit. "}],[{"start":100.17999999999999,"text":"Official data shows the format attracted nearly 700mn viewers in China last year and generated more revenue than the country’s cinema box office — the world’s second largest. Each series tends to generate more than $2mn on budgets below $200,000 for the US market."}],[{"start":122.11999999999999,"text":"The boom has encouraged Chinese producers and platforms to look overseas — particularly the US — in the hope of replicating their success at home. "}],[{"start":132.95999999999998,"text":"The playbook is to take a Chinese hit — featuring tropes such as a domineering CEO falling for an ordinary girl — and translate or adapt it for the US market, sometimes adding werewolf or vampire twists that producers thought would appeal to American women. "}],[{"start":null,"text":"

• A man in a cream suit embraces a woman in a white blouse with a black ribbon. Both look thoughtfully into the distance.
• A woman looks shocked while a man appears calmer.

"}],[{"start":151.34999999999997,"text":"Productions are fast and cheap, typically shot in seven to 10 days by recent film school graduates working with aspiring undiscovered actors. The production costs are a fraction of traditional film and TV budgets."}],[{"start":166.88999999999996,"text":"The biggest expenditure comes later. Marketing on platforms such as Meta and TikTok can account for up to four-fifths of a series’ budget, as micro-drama companies seek to funnel viewers into their apps and convert them into paying users — an approach that has underpinned the format’s rise in China."}],[{"start":186.11999999999995,"text":"In the US, the top four micro-drama apps — all China-backed — have attracted a combined 97mn downloads. The sector generated $966mn in net in-app revenue in 2025, up from $21mn in 2022, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Dozens of Chinese-produced titles — such as The Divorced Billionaire Heiress — have each brought in millions, or sometimes tens of millions, in revenue."}],[{"start":217.51999999999995,"text":"“How to create emotional push and pull — the kind of roller-coaster feelings that swing from anxious to angry to joyful and moved — is something Chinese screenwriters are good at,” said Zhu Shicong, head of studio at DramaBox, a leading Chinese-backed platform in the US."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":238.36999999999995,"text":"Erick Opeka, president of Cineverse, a Los Angeles-based entertainment company that has funded a homegrown micro-drama platform called MicroCo, said the Chinese-initiated format — with its “three-act structure and rapid hooks” — has resonated in the US despite receiving little attention from domestic producers."}],[{"start":259.31999999999994,"text":"“There is not much of a US industry in the space at all,” he said. “So the gap is being filled predominantly by Chinese companies.”"}],[{"start":269.16999999999996,"text":"In some cases, a limited understanding of the US audience has been an obstacle to moving beyond tried-and-tested romance storylines, where they believe middle-aged American women share similar expectations to their Chinese counterparts."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":286.09999999999997,"text":"And micro-dramas targeting male audiences — as well as popular US categories ranging from science fiction to horror — have largely failed to gain traction."}],[{"start":297.09999999999997,"text":"“Political storylines are missing from US micro-dramas because the screenwriters sitting in offices in China simply can’t write American politics,” said Gao Feng, CEO of Journey Entertainment, a New Jersey-based micro-drama producer whose hit romance shows have generated more than $10mn in revenue. “They don’t know how people make political donations or how politicians engage with their communities.”"}],[{"start":324.47999999999996,"text":"Cost-sensitive Chinese platforms are reluctant to hire high-calibre American screenwriters to develop content better suited to US audiences. So they rely on writers back home to produce proven storylines, led by domineering CEO romances, or rework Chinese hits for the US market."}],[{"start":345.77,"text":"“Platforms constantly watch and learn from each other and one platform’s failure quickly becomes a cautionary tale for the rest,” said Luo Tong, CEO of Los Angeles-based RKLG Picture, a micro-drama producer. “If a show underperforms, others simply won’t touch that genre again.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":366.75,"text":"The result is a large body of programming that tends to repeat itself. Bai, of Storypod, said revenue for a series featuring public humiliation and last-minute reversals in a banquet hall was about 80 per cent lower in October than in May."}],[{"start":383.29,"text":"“You can’t keep running the same formula and expect it to deliver the same returns,” said Bai."}],[{"start":390.68,"text":"Some US platforms are betting they can create shows with broader appeal. MicroCo has hired executives who have worked on blockbuster series including The Sopranos, Lost and Desperate Housewives."}],[{"start":404.58,"text":"Luo, of RKLG, said he plans to branch out into more traditional, long-form productions with higher quality."}],[{"start":413.62,"text":"“If you enter the micro-drama business, you really have to be ready for the industry trend to change in ways that may no longer suit your working style — or for the entire sector to potentially vanish,” he said. "}],[{"start":435.59,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1775458996_5752.mp3"}