China Boosts Entertainment Production

Beijing, along with the rest of China’s booming metropolis, is using every opportunity this August to expand their media market. With the Olympics quickly approaching, China’s TV stations and film companies are feeling the pressure. Concentrating on their homegrown market, China is showcasing new TV dramas, animation series’, TV films and documentaries, hoping to gain some fans in the international circuit. Boosting production and screening more films at festivals like Cannes than ever before is helping them get the word out.

“Our major goal is to open the international market for Chinese TV products and to learn the taste of overseas audiences,” says Wang Qiao, sales staff member of the overseas department at China Intl. Television Corp. There seems to be a real focus on domestic products other than international according to CITC.

However, Wings Media, part of the Shanghai Media Group, plans on buying English-language products to support its recent English-language branch. But domestic shows such as manufactured copycats like “Super Girl,” a play on U.S. hit “American Idol,” reign supreme. They’ve found their niche in rehashing American shows including renaming “Ugly Betty” “Invincible Ugly Woman.” A localized version of CBS Paramount’s “America’s Next Top Model” also rules their airwaves.

The Chinese government is cracking down on censorship laws with an “antivulgarity campaign against all manner of content it considers inappropriate.” This leaves room for more family and period dramas, which have been the most consistent successes in Chinese television. The country’s roughly new media market will be put to the test this summer.