Directed by famous TV drama director You Xiaogang and jointly produced by China and Russia, the 26-episode TV serial The Ultimate Secret of a Warrior (It was translated into Chinese The Secret of the Hunting Sketches) witnessed a warm welcome in Russia. This serial not only becomes the first Chinese one that has been broadcast in large scale through the mainstream media in Russia, but also realizes the highest per-episode price of 120,000 dollars in the overseas market. Besides, with another production Youngsters Go!, You Xiaogang won the Best Youth-theme TV Drama Award in the 13th Europe-Asia Broadcast and TV Festival in Moscow. As to the overseas expansion of Chinese TV dramas, You Xiaogang has his own thinking.
Poster of Youngsters Go!
Poster of The Secret History of Xiao Zhuang
Poster of The Secret of the Hunting Sketches
Poster of The Secret of Early Qing Dynasty
Archrival, Undercover, and The Secret of Early Qing Dynasty, many TV productions produced by You Xiaogang, director-in-chief of Beijing Zhongbei TV Art Center Co., Ltd of China, has won awards on many occasions of international TV festivals and gain popularity in the overseas market. You, who produced at home and promoted abroad, has made a long pondering over how to introduce Chinese TV dramas to the world in a more effective way so that the production will realize its commercial value as well as significant impact.
Starting from a Russian rumor that a mysterious treasure map is hidden behind the Turgenev’s manuscript of The Hunting Sketches, this TV serial narrates a series of thrilling legends of friendship and love in the competition of the French manuscript kept in National Museum of France.
As You told us, initially, the Russian party volunteered in shooting, but as this serial is characterized by Chinese elements such as Kung Fu, they had to quit. Then they suggest that Chinese party be mainly responsible for shooting, and Russian party take pre-order as their cooperation. “There is a certain risk for our side because the Russian pre-order will be paid respectively step by step during the whole cooperation. If they find something wrong, they are probable to quit.” This cooperation brought him to see this point: The commonly acknowledged theme is the very basis for possible cooperation.
Though it is a story happening in Russia, the Chinese cast has imbued the Chinese elements and particular humanitarian feelings with this TV production. From 2003 on, a series of Secret History TV dramas, The Secret History of Xiao Zhuang, The Secret History of Crown Prince, The Secret History of Tai Zu, The Secret History of Kang Xi, The Secret History of Yang Royal Concubine, and just-completed The Secret History of Xi Shi Beauty and documentary The Secret of Early Qing Dynasty, have made a sale success in the overseas market. In particular, the documentary has won numerous European TV awards, been purchased and broadcast by TV stations in Eastern Europe and Middle East and been collected by some libraries in North America. In North America, the Secret History series are rated No.1 in the North American Chinese network, and many American Chinese and white youngsters take it as a kind of extracurricular material for study of Chinese history. In his understanding, this series have become his stepping-stone for the overseas market, which is mainly attributed to their extreme interest in Chinese history.
The differences in TV entertainment orientation, culture and aesthetics lead to an embarrassing phenomenon that those TV dramas popular at every Chinese household mostly get the cold shoulder abroad. People in Chinese film and TV circles often joke that TV is national and film is international. With 30 years’ reform and development, China has surpassed Japan in economic power in 2010, and become the second economic entity in the world. However, in comparison of economic development, Chinese TV industry seems to have lagged behind. With tens of thousands of episodes as annual output, Chinese TV dramas made hardly any achievement abroad. The overseas marketing has turned into a disordered dumping, and the per-episode price descended to hundreds of or even dozens of dollars. Thus it is impossible to enter the mainstream channel in other countries. “Especially after 2002, like a swarm of bees, we scrambled to compete with each other, only to find our prices falling down.” You sighed.
The success of The Ultimate Secret of a Warrior has proved that Chinese TV drama cast must makes clear what kind of production overseas audience are expecting. “It is a must for us to make complete cooperation with those more professional and commercial TV agencies in Europe and America who are experts in commercial operation. Only under the circumstance of professional cooperation in the commercial benefit can our production become what they want.” You concluded.
You also suggest that government set up a commercial copyright assistance system in a combined way of public promotion and private supplementation, with production companies as the main body. This system will provide legal consulting, translation and platform resources support. “We need to establish such a consulting platform to govern copyright so that we can conduct vigorous marketing.” You said.
