China News Service, Beijing, March 11 (Reporter Wang Shiyao) “I can’t see enough, please update!” In recent years, as Chinese online literature, Chinese film and television dramas and micro-short dramas have become popular overseas, on major online platforms, there are many movies in different languages. "Update reminders" came one after another, and the "order volume" of Chinese stories increased sharply.
This year’s government work report emphasizes deepening cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries and improving international communication capabilities.
How to catch this wave of traffic and tell Chinese stories well on the international stage?
In March 2023, Beijing, the audience visited the special exhibition area of online literature companies at the 6th China "Internet Literature" Conference.
Photo by Yi Haifei
How Chinese online articles “ride the wind and waves”
How popular are Chinese online articles overseas?
Let’s first look at a set of data:
According to the "2023 China Internet Literature Development Research Report" released by the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the scale of China's online literature overseas market will exceed 4 billion yuan in 2023, with approximately 230 million overseas visiting users, covering more than 200 countries and regions around the world.
In addition, in 2022, 16 Chinese online literature works were included in the British Library for the first time, covering multiple online literature themes such as science fiction, history, reality, and fantasy.
With the support of national cultural policies, millions of authors have signed contracts with the website.
The large creative team and rich subject types allow Chinese online articles to continue to innovate and progress in the fierce competition.
For two consecutive years, Wu Yiqin, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association, has focused on online literature in his proposals for the two sessions.
In his view, compared with traditional literature, Chinese online literature has a higher degree of marketization overseas and is mostly used by young people. It is one of the most dynamic and innovative carriers for Chinese culture to go global.
However, facing the reading needs of millions of overseas readers, if Chinese online articles want to better "ride the wind and waves", they also need to solve the problem of insufficient translators.
The suggestion given by Wu Yiqin is to use AI translation.
"AI translation can allow online literature to be exported overseas on a large scale. Taking English AI translation as an example, compared with manual translation, it only costs 10% of the original cost, increases efficiency by a hundred times, and has an accuracy rate of up to 90%."
On September 18, 2023 local time, "Fengshen Part 1" held its British premiere in London.
Photo by Ouyang Kaiyu
How Chinese movies “overcome all obstacles”
Not only Chinese online articles, but also Chinese movies have attracted a large number of fans overseas in recent years.
"Hello, Li Huanying", which touched hundreds of millions of viewers with its true feelings, and "Hot and Spicy", which used boxing to break life difficulties, were successively purchased by Sony Pictures for remake rights and global distribution rights; "Fengshen" (first "Part: Chaoge Fengyun" won the "Artistic Contribution Award" for the best genre film in the Venice Film Festival film market; "The Wandering Earth 2", which shows the feelings of Eastern culture and country, has an overseas box office of over 100 million yuan...
As the global film market continues to improve, overseas audiences have also placed higher demands on Chinese films.
Actor Donnie Yen, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said that in the past, Chinese martial arts films were more widely accepted overseas, but now more new types of Chinese films have emerged.
"Now the audience is smarter and has higher requirements for movies, which is to impress the audience."
Actor Zhang Kaili, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said that she should be among the first batch of actors to enjoy the benefits of "going overseas".
"Desire" was the first to go abroad more than 20 years ago and was deeply loved by local people in North Korea and Vietnam.
She encouraged film and television workers to continuously improve their content production capabilities, platform communication capabilities, and IP influence, and actively tell Chinese stories that warm and gather people's hearts to the world.
"The more cultural works that go abroad, the better. If elegance wants to go out, so will vulgarity." Jiang Shengnan, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a writer, suggested, "Only if there are enough things 'going overseas' can overseas people be exposed to more works from China." , in order to find the greatest common divisor.”
It is true that Chinese films still have a long way to go from "going overseas" to "exiting the industry". Literary and artistic creators should take advantage of the times, build on the rich creative soil of traditional Chinese culture, and take every step steadily.
From small steps to big strides, we hope that more and more Chinese stories of "going global" can run against the wind and become a window for overseas audiences to understand China's culture.
(over)