TV

Surprise, surprise: Chinese legends are most popular TV dramas

legend_drama.jpg

CSM is a market research firm owned by global market research house TNS and a company controlled by CCTV. CSM has released a report about China's TV drama industry in 2004 which Xinhua has summarized. These are some of the key points in the Xinhua summary:

- In 2004, 156 TV stations in 33 cities nationwide broadcast more than 180,000 episodes of 1,500 different TV drama series.

- The above total represents a 5.8% increase from 2003.

- Most of the dramas are Chinese legends plays and "life" dramas.

- Because of recent limits on cops and robbers / crime dramas put in place by SARFT (State Administration of Radio, Film and TV), the number of such dramas went down to under a quarter of the previous quantity. 

- Historical dramas (literally 'old clothing dramas' 古装剧) also decreased slightly.

- Dramas based on Chinese legends (传奇剧) were the darling of Chinese TV in 2004 making up 20.5% of all dramas watched. 

- Urban life dramas (都市生活剧) also did well. 'Big Sister' (大姐) and 'The Camphor Tree' (香樟树) were the most popular dramas on satellite TV in 2004. 

- 70 foreign dramas (1,297 episodes) were approved for broadcast. 45 of those were from Hong Kong and Taiwan; programs from Korea were the second most broadcast foreign dramas.

- The TV drama market in China is worth 4.3 billion yuan.

LINKS:
- Xinhua: China TV drama report
- CSM home page
The image is a screenshot from the TV drama Longfei Xianggong (龙飞相公)
Media Partners
Visit these sites for the latest China news
090609guardian2.png 090609CNN3.png
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
laomo2008fpA.jpg
Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
AXL091030storiesforthcoming.jpg
Princess Der Ling: Two Years in the Forbidden City: Two years in the Forbidden City is largely a reminiscence of the minutiae of life for one of history's most powerful women, by one of her court attendants, a Manchu noble's daughter by the name of Der Ling.
Carl Crow's The Long Road Back to China: In 1939 Carl Crow - an American journalist, advertising executive and author who had lived in Shanghai for 25 years until forced out by the Japanese - travelled up the Burma Road from Rangoon to Chongqing on assignment for Liberty magazine - 'the most interesting assignment I have ever been given'.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ The top Chinese books in 2007 (2008.02): China Reading Journal (中华读书报), Yazhou Zhoukan (亚洲周刊), and City Pictorial (城市画报) choose mainland China's top books for 2007.
+ Men behind the Nanny (2005.04): The Publicity Department (formerly known as the Propaganda Department) has held a "forum" in Beijing to promote what it calls "news editorial staff management regulations (in testing phase)". These regulations appear to be same the set of rules earlier reported on Danwei of which the stated intent is to clear up corrupt journalistic practices.
+ Asimov Published, Interviewed in Beijing (2005.03): Cover story from this week's Book Review section of The Beijing News announces the publication of a Chinese translation of Isaac Asimov's complete Foundation series. Yup, the Beijing News has scored a fictional interview with "I, Asimov". They've been taking similar liberties recently in their entertainment sections, captioning photographs of celebrities with made-up quotes.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky rsschiclet2.png (on the mainland)
or Feedburner rsschiclet.gif (blocked in China)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Main feed: Main posts (FB has top links)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Top Links: Links from the top bar
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Jobs: Want ads
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Digest: Updated daily, 19:30