Sorry, you have not enabled Javascript for your internet browser, so some of our website's pages may not render as fully as intended.
Please Click here for easy instructions on how to enable Javascript on your browser or consult your IT support staff for help.

News on Entertainment & Culture in China

1 23 4 5 6 7... 54

Just another love story?

The most-watched show during the virus period provokes a gender debate
Feb 21, 2020 (WiC 483)

With parts of China still in residential lockdown, people have been looking for creative ways to relieve the tedium. Homemade videos on Douyin (also known as TikTok outside China), show some of the ideas on offer, including playing snooker with ...

Commercial break

Wuhan virus could see wave of failures among struggling film studios
Feb 14, 2020 (WiC 482)

When production studio Huanxi Media found out in late January, ahead of the Chinese New Year, that the release of the family-friendly blockbuster Lost in Russia was cancelled because of the coronavirus crisis, it quickly struck a deal ...

Apple’s mother-daughter ‘short movie’ divides opinion in China
Jan 31, 2020 (WiC 481)

Apple’s first TV spot in China, titled The Old Record, arrived in 2015 right before the Chinese New Year, the busiest gift-giving holiday. The commercial was an adaptation of a Christmas-themed advertisement a few weeks before. In it, ...

Seven films pulled over fears cinemas will empty due to the Wuhan virus
Jan 24, 2020 (WiC 480)

As Wuhan’s coronavirus outbreak plunged the country into crisis, news emerged on Thursday that Leap, along with six other blockbusters scheduled to debut tomorrow – the first day of the Chinese New Year – have been preemptively ...

Thanks to China’s growing love of pets a new movie has proven a big hit
Jan 17, 2020 (WiC 479)

When his cat Garlic died, Huang Yu was so heartbroken that he thought he should try to clone its corpse. That unusual expression of grief led him to Sinogene, a commercial pet-cloning company based in Beijing that offered to generate a replica of ...

Ming the merciless

Costume dramas back in force, but one gets pilloried for historical errors
Jan 10, 2020 (WiC 478)

China’s media regulators are difficult to please, with changing views on what constitutes acceptable content, even for TV dramas. In one case it was plotlines involving time-travel that got banned; in another it was scheming palace concubines ...

How China ‘let it go’ (again)

Disney caps stellar year at Chinese box office with Frozen sequel
Dec 6, 2019 (WiC 477)

To drum up interest for Disney’s latest animated movie Frozen 2, the studio teamed up with beautification app Meitu to release a themed augmented reality filter. After the filter is turned on in Meitu’s mobile app, users need only ...

A very real risk

Are reality shows getting too dangerous after a contestant dies of a heart attack?
Dec 6, 2019 (WiC 477)

In 2013, Zhejiang Satellite TV produced a diving show called Splash. Adapted from Dutch TV series called Sterren Springen, it followed a group of celebrities as they attempted to dive like Olympians. Reviews were overwhelming negative. Some ...

Youku’s drama mystery

Viewers mull why streamer has been delaying episodes of its hit new show
Nov 29, 2019 (WiC 476)

Back in April, fans of the historical drama Investiture Of The Gods, starring Deng Lun and Wang Likun, were annoyed to discover that the series on Hunan Satellite TV was being cut short. The remaining 12 episodes were being trimmed to ...

Not ‘crazy’ enough

Comedy king Ning Hao’s latest production takes a new direction
Nov 22, 2019 (WiC 475)

It has been a busy month for livestreamers like Viya, who have been selling thousands of brands over the Singles’ Day season (see last week’s Talking Point). Celebrity livestreamers like her were doing business frantically in the run-up to ...

1 23 4 5 6 7... 54