Insider anxiety, regulatory scrutiny, and widespread criticism challenge the micro-drama industry in sustaining its billion-dollar saga
Chi Zican, a 20-year-old scriptwriting major from Zhejiang province, quickly realized he had to forget everything he had learned in college for his first writing gig. His debut script tells the story of a woman who time-travels to uncover the mystery behind her daughter’s death. But while Chi had learned how to write for traditional TV shows at university, this script was for a micro-drama to be shot vertically in minutes-long episodes—a format that’s swept China’s entertainment industry.
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Yang Tingting is a Chinese editor at The World of Chinese. Interested in telling Chinese stories, she writes mainly about culture, language, and society.
