By Isa He
Rigid micro drama regulations may curb creative freedom.
As a crazy fan of micro dramas, Cai Hanjun, a 20-year-old university student, watches micro dramas on Douyin for about one to two hours every day.
Hooked to her phone screen, Cai loves micro dramas – vertically shot, minute-long episodes featuring frequent plot twists. She enjoys genres like romance, suspense, and comedy, with a particular preference for stories about reincarnation and revenge.
“There’s one micro drama I really like, which is about a woman coming back to life and taking revenge on her husband who hurt her in her first life. It felt really satisfying and I was addicted to watching it,” the student living in Wuhan says.
As of June 2024, the number of Chinese micro drama viewers reached 576 million, accounting for 52.7 per cent of the total internet users in the country, according to the China Netcasting Services Association (CNSA).
In 2024, revenue from the micro drama market reached RMB ¥50.40 billion (US $6.93 billion), surpassing the box office of Chinese movies for the first time, according to DataEye, a digital research firm based in Shenzhen.
The firm also estimates that the micro drama market will surpass RMB ¥100 billion (US $14 billion) by 2027.
Whilst the popularity of these ultra-short, binge-friendly micro dramas has been booming in recent years, they have also brought scrutiny from the government.
Since 2024, the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) has tightened regulations on micro dramas by introducing new rules on content review, theme direction, and platform responsibility.
On February 5, it released a notice that a classified and three-tiered review system based on production themes and budgets has been established.
Key micro dramas, with a budget of RMB ¥1 million (US $136,729) or more, or involving sensitive topics such as politics, military affairs, diplomacy, or national security, must undergo national-level review.
Regular micro dramas, with a budget ranging from RMB ¥300,000 (US $41,018) to RMB ¥1 million (US $136,729), are reviewed by provincial-level radio and television authorities.
Smaller productions with a budget under RMB ¥300,000 (US $41,018) are supervised by streaming platforms, which are responsible for internal content review, copyright compliance, and routine reporting to regulators.
Noting that the new regulations aim at fostering industry growth and ensuring stricter governance, the NRTA requires all micro dramas to hold an online drama distribution permit and display a government-issued license number. It also introduces a “white list” system banning unlicensed content from being promoted or monetised.
It adds that the new measures hope to prevent the industry from over-commercialisation and encourage content that aligns with public values and social responsibility.
Due to the regulations, Cai noticed that the type of “satisfying” dramas she likes has become harder to find. “I used to see a lot of dramatic plots. Now, it’s harder to come across them. It’s a bit disappointing,” she says.
“The shows I watch do have distorted values. And yes, some dramas could negatively affect people’s thinking. So maybe regulation is necessary,” she says.
But Cai does not like the government’s tighter control over micro dramas, as these policies dampen creative freedom. “It makes people feel restricted… I hope they won’t interfere too much so there is more creative freedom,” she adds.
When asked about her view on the three-tiered review system for micro dramas, she says, “As long as I’m not restricted, I want to be in the group that can watch everything.”
The industry regards the new regulations as a watershed that micro drama is shifting from rapid, unregulated growth to a stage of stricter policy guidance and compliance.
Li Tao, the founder and CEO of Fengxing Culture, a micro drama firm in Xian, western China, sees the new regulations as a turning point, signaling both official recognition and rising expectations for the industry.
Li points out that at the start, the industry grew wildly, resulting in many micro dramas with content being vulgar, violent, and other unhealthy values.
“It is only after the supervision of relevant departments and the introduction of relevant policies that the industry is gradually moving towards a more and more standardized direction and healthier development,” he adds.
Li notes that many micro drama production companies that fail to produce high-quality work have been eliminated by competition and market forces in the past two to three years.
He says his firm will strictly follow the policy requirements to create more content with correct values, correct guidance, and diverse topics, encouraged by the government.
Assistant professor Lin Jian of the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong reveals that the regulations are very much related to the political system in China.
“In China, cultural governance has been a significant part of national supervision. Because the Chinese government is a one-party system, it requires its society to be consistent with its ideology. It conducts a content review to ensure that the values are consistent with the mainstream ideology,” he says.
“Since the market of micro dramas has grown rapidly in the past two years, many Chinese are exposed to them. And as a cultural product, it involves values and ideology, so government censorship will come in,” he adds.
Lin stresses that the industry has a wealth of experience in dealing with government regulations while maintaining freedom of creation, and supervision of micro dramas is much more complicated than that of films.
“Even though those regulation policies are now introduced, the production of content on the internet is freer compared to the production in traditional media. Wheth
er an internet company or a government department, they don’t have enough time, manpower, or capital to conduct a detailed review of every piece of micro drama content, unlike a movie review,” he adds.
Stating that the three-tiered micro drama review system can enhance the efficiency of the reviewing process, Lin hopes that the review system can be better defined and polished.
“It is necessary to regulate cultural content, especially the production of the so-called mass culture and popular culture. But the question is how you establish a transparent review system, the human factor of the current review system is still relatively large, and its boundary is not very clear,” he says.
Edited by Yika Ng
Sub-edited by Lunaretta Linaura
