[6] Chinese television dramas are regularly broadcast and streamed throughout Asia; particularly in Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.
Long-form TV adaptions of classic Chinese novels and folklore include Outlaws of the Marsh (1983), Ji Gong (1986), Dream of the Red Chamber (1987) and Journey to the West (1988).
The Chinese state regulators introduced a permit system allowing for private and independent investors to co-produce television series with state-run media entities in the late 1980s as part of its market reforms.
[18] Taiwanese romance novelist Chiung Yao and her team began working in mainland on several television series, either based on her novels or original screenplays.
Period drama My Fair Princess (1998), a collaboration between Chiung's production company and Hunan Broadcasting System, was a success in both regions and widely sold in other Asian markets.
[26] Fictionalized drama series based on well-known ancient figures like Romance of the Three Kingdoms (1994) and The Legend of Liu Yong (1996) continued to draw strong ratings.
[25] Producers like Zhang Jizhong and Wong Jing also started making the mainland television adaptations of classic wuxia novels, such as those written by household names Jin Yong and Gu Long.
Critical reception to shows such as The Legend of the Condor Heroes (2003), The Proud Twins (2005) and Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (2003) were mixed and they are often compared to previous adaptations from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
[31] Established Hong Kong television production companies like TVB also began producing dynastic period dramas such as A Step into the Past (2001) and War and Beauty (2004) in mainland China due to the availability of such sets.
In 2014, the Chinese government announced that imported foreign films and TV series required publication licenses in order to be aired within China.
[42] Regulators also banned the broadcast of foreign television shows during prime-time slots and issued quotas on the number of imported content on streaming video platforms in 2018.
[48] Since the 2000s, celebrity-driven television dramas have allocated a significant portion of their production budgets to actor salaries in order to attract viewership.
[55][45] Monetization and profitability became paramount for the major tech-backed streamers as long-form videos is increasingly considered as part of their more mature business units.
[59] Television productions also had to compete with short video and live-streaming social media like Bytedance's Douyin and Kuaishou for user screen time.
In 2018, the National Radio and Television Administration (or NRTA, previously known as the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television) came up with an overall planning guide to select 100 tribute dramas to be aired between 2018 and 2022, series under the selection should be guided by the Xi Jinping Thought, with storylines that are realistic, moralistic and promoting Chinese nationalism and Core Socialist Values.
The state censorship regulator announced that television channels should only broadcast programs that focus "on different historical aspects that show the great struggle of the Chinese nation as its people have stood up and become richer and stronger".
[75] Audience reaction to some of the government-approved shows are mixed, some examples of those with higher ratings and critical review include Perfect Youth (2018) and Like a Flowing River (2021).
[78] Mainland-produced dramas have also been the targets of censorship, either explicitly with directives from the National Radio and Television Administration,[3] or implicitly due to self-censorship from the production companies and streamers.
In mid-2015, the Chinese regulators criticized several shows for promoting ‘Western lifestyles,’ cleavage,[84][85] smoking, drinking, adultery or themes such as time travel and reincarnation.
[86] Period drama series such as Story of Yanxi Palace and Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace were pulled from streaming services after a direct reprimand from a party-aligned newspaper, the Beijing Daily, for not promoting socialist values, as they "propagated a luxurious and hedonistic lifestyle, encouraging admiration for imperial life and a glorification of emperors overshadowing the heroes of today".
In 2014, the SAPPRFT (now NRTA) specifically put out a statement banning celebrities who have used drugs or visited prostitutes (Chinese: 劣迹艺人) from state television and other media outlets.
[92][93] Celebrities that were blacklisted by the China Association of Performing Arts and other government bodies due to scandals involving tax evasion, sexual assault and unpatriotic behavior may have their scenes cut,[94] obfuscated,[95] their faces swapped digitally by AI,[96] or have their entire filmography pulled from syndication and streaming services.
This is due to the fact that almost all mainland dramas are required to be aired using putonghua, the standard Mandarin dialect, and many Mandarin-speaking actors have regional accents.