Micro dramas boom as many turn to short videos

Chinese creatives foresee huge potential in micro dramas, the new trend in the country's entertainment industry, experts said at an event in Linfen, Shanxi province, on Monday.

"Through the event held in partnership with CCTV.com, the online media outlet affiliated to China Media Group, we want to build Linfen into a national platform for the micro drama industry," Yan Jianguo, director of the Linfen publicity department, said in his speech at the Light and Shadows of Linfen: China's Premium Micro Short Drama Night.

Micro dramas are low-budget productions mostly shot in vertical format, with each episode a few minutes long, that are shown on short-video streaming platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou. In this genre, viewers can enjoy dramatic plot twists and fast-paced narratives that revolve around revenge or betrayal.