Chinese television dramas ( Simplified

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...

: 中国电视连续剧), sometimes colloquially known as C-dramas, are

television drama In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-gen ...

s originating from China or the

Greater China Greater China is an informal geographical area that shares commercial and cultural ties with the Han Chinese people. The notion of "Greater China" refers to the area that usually encompasses Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan in East A ...

region. China produces more television dramas than any other country. The most popular genre of dramas in China is

fantasy romance Romantic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy fiction, describing a fantasy story using many of the elements and conventions of the chivalric romance genre. One of the key features of romantic fantasy involves the focus on relationships, social, ...

, with 47 of the 50 most watched dramas in the country in 2016 being in this genre. Chinese television dramas are popular and regularly broadcast throughout Asia; particularly in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Malays ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borderin ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. In ...

, the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

and

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand ...

Characteristics

Since the 1990s, historical serials have been the dominant genre on prime-time television. The trend peaked in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with many palace (also known as "Qing") dramas shown on television. Popular Chinese television dramas, such as Ashes of Love, Story of Yanxi Palace'',

Nirvana in Fire ''Nirvana in Fire'' () is a 2015 Chinese historical drama based on Hai Yan's book ''Lang Ya Bang (瑯琊榜)''. It was directed by Kong Sheng and Li Xue, and stars Hu Ge, Liu Tao and Wang Kai as Mei Changsu, Princess Nihuang and Prince Jing. ...

'', ''

The Journey of Flower ''The Journey of Flower'' () is a 2015 Chinese television series starring Wallace Huo and Zhao Liying. It is based on the fictional novel of the same name written by Fresh Guoguo, which is inspired from Daoist legends regarding the path to immort ...

'', '' Eternal Love'', ''

The Princess Weiyoung ''The Princess Weiyoung'' () is a 2016 Chinese television series starring Tiffany Tang in the title role, alongside Luo Jin, Vanness Wu, Mao Xiaotong and Li Xinai. It is adapted from the novel ''The Poisonous Daughter'' () by Qin Jian and is ...

'', '' Just One Smile Is Very Alluring'', '' The Legend of Zhen Huan'', ''

Scarlet Heart ''Scarlet Heart'' (, lit. ''Startling by Each Step'') is a 2011 Chinese television series based on the novel '' Bu Bu Jing Xin'' by Tong Hua. It premiered in China on Hunan Broadcasting System (HBS) on 10 September 2011. The series tells the s ...

'', ''

The Mystic Nine ''The Mystic Nine'' (, lit. ''Old Nine Gates'') is a prequel to the Chinese television series '' The Lost Tomb'' based on the internet novel '' Daomu Biji''. It aired on Dragon TV and was broadcast online via iQiyi from 4 July to 17 October 2016 ...

'', '' The Untamed'' and more often garner billions of views among China's most popular video websites, iQiyi,

Youku Youku Tudou Inc. (formerly Youku Inc.), doing business as Youku (), is a video hosting service based in Beijing, China. It operates as a subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding Limited. Youku has its headquarters in the Sinosteel Plaza in Haidia ...

and

Tencent Video Tencent Video (, also called WeTV outside of China) is a Chinese video streaming website owned by Tencent. The website was launched in April 2011, and is one of China's largest online video platforms. As of March 2022, Tencent Video has over 1.2 ...

. Some dramas have been so popular and widely acclaimed that they were remade in other languages, or were spun off into a sequel. Many series end each

episode An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a series intended for radio, television or streaming consumption. The noun ''episode'' is derived from the Greek term ''epeisodion'' (), meaning th ...

in a cliffhanger. The channel

CCTV-8 CCTV-8 is the television drama channel of the CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from ...

airs TV series around the clock. Series are divided into several rough categories: historical (subdivided into

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

-rallying, historical re-enactment and

wuxia ( ), which literally means "martial heroes", is a genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists in ancient China. Although is traditionally a form of historical fiction, its popularity has caused it to be adapted fo ...

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and ...

and

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studie ...

, comedy, and the more modern family conflict drama genre. Episodes usually begin with opening

theme music Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at som ...

over credits and end with further theme music and more credits. The series of episodes runs on together to depict a series of events that happen one after another in relevance to the main plot of the drama. Like a novel, the drama contains characters, conflict, plot,

climax Climax may refer to: Language arts * Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work * Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance Biology * Climax community, a biological community tha ...

, and resolution that intrigue the

audience An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called "readers"), theatre, music (in which they are called "listeners"), video games (in which they are called "players"), or ...

's interest. The large number of episodes allows the plot to be carried in much more detail than in a short movie. A particular aspect of life such as

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper second ...

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

, or work life of a person, or a specific job is shown with much greater details that allows the audience to acknowledge that particular area in detail. This gives the audience a better understanding of the characters and their perspectives as well as the entirety of the storyline. Long-form Chinese television series vary in quality, although since the mid to late 2010s, observers have noted a sharp increase in production values and script quality in some series. Also, a number of Chinese television series used music from

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

movies as incidental music. Dramas are generated with a specific genre like

romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

, comedy, horror,

family drama In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-gen ...

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, t ...

, or a mixture of these in the form of ancient, historical, Republican era or modern to highlight the theme and suits the audience's interest. Chinese-language dramas are often classified by where they were produced, such as mainland dramas, Taiwanese dramas, Hong Kong dramas, and Singaporean dramas. Each differs in the style of filming and editing format. Most consist of romance, family and friends with the combination of pop cultural themes. Dramas have also been the targets of censorship, with series such as '' Story of Yanxi Palace'' and ''

Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace ''Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace'' (, lit. ''The Legend of Ruyi'') is a 2018 Chinese television series based on novel ''Hou Gong Ru Yi Zhuan'' by Liu Lianzi. Starring Zhou Xun and Wallace Huo, the series chronicles the relationship between Emp ...

'' being cancelled by the Chinese government for not promoting socialist values.

Dubbing

Chinese dramas are often dubbed, by professional voice actors. It usually takes one month to do the dubbing for 30 to 40 episodes, in post-production. Popular voice actors may dub several series a year, often resulting in drama fans recognizing their voices. There are several reasons why actors would be dubbed in Chinese television dramas. First of all, dramas should be aired using

putonghua Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standa ...

, the standard

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

dialect, and many actors may have an accent, according to which region they come from. To standardize the pronunciation throughout the production, voice actors trained in standard Mandarin are employed in post-production. Filming conditions may also result in poor audio quality and noises, which requires work in post-production. Voice acting is also sometimes used to improve an actor's otherwise poor performance. Censorship may also require changing some lines in post-production. There are actors who are usually not dubbed, including

Hu Ge Hu Ge (, born 20 September 1982), also known as Hugh Hu, is a Chinese actor and singer. While studying at the Shanghai Theater Academy, he was invited to play the leading role Li Xiaoyao in the 2005 television series '' Chinese Paladin'', an ...

, Wang Kai,

Jin Dong Jin Dong (, born 22 December 1976) is a Chinese actor. He is known for his television roles in ''Legend of Entrepreneurship'' (2012), ''The Disguiser'' (2015), '' Candle in the Tomb'' (2016), ''Surgeons'' (2017) and ''The First Half of My Life'' ...

, Jiang Xin and

Deng Chao Deng Chao (, born 8 February 1979) is a Chinese actor, comedian, director and singer. His recent films, '' The Breakup Guru'' (2014), '' The Mermaid'' (2016) and ''Duckweed'' (2017) are among the highest-grossing Chinese films of all time in ...

Characteristics

Dubbing

See also

References

See also