The Blue Book of China TV Series 2025, launched at the Tokyo International Film Festival’s TIFFCOM market by Peking University’s Chen Xuguang and Zhejiang University’s Fan Zhizhong, outlines an industry undergoing structural reinvention and creative renewal.
Despite global economic uncertainty and fierce competition from short-video and gaming platforms, drama registrations rose in 2024, signaling that investor confidence in long-form television remains resilient. The report identifies a quality-driven transformation as the sector’s defining direction, anchored by stronger storytelling, diversified IP, and improved production standards.
IP adaptation continues to dominate, accounting for about 60% of new scripted series. Literary and online fiction have become vital sources of material, driving character-focused, high-craft dramas such as “The Tale of Rose,” “War of Faith” and “The Misplaced.” Warm realism remains a key creative force, reflected in “She and Her Girls,” “Romance in the Alley” and “A Common Person’s Song,” which blend social commentary with emotional optimism.
Costume dramas are adapting faster pacing and modular storytelling inspired by online short-form content. The Blue Book reports that China’s mini-series market grew from RMB36.86 billion ($5.1 billion) in 2021 to RMB373.9 billion ($51.5 billion) in 2023 and could surpass RMB1 trillion ($137 billion) by 2027. This growth has pushed traditional producers to experiment with condensed narrative structures while retaining cinematic depth.
Concluding, Fan highlighted Wong Kar-wai’s “Blossoms Shanghai” as emblematic of the medium’s artistic resurgence and industrial maturity. “Quality is king,” he said, summing up the Blue Book’s message that Chinese television’s future depends on fusing disciplined storytelling with the agility demanded by a rapidly evolving screen economy.
In the Q&A session, Fan described the microdrama sector as “production without barriers,” a creative democratization and an economic shock that forces established studios to rethink audience engagement and monetization models.
