Micro-dramas — TV series cut into short snippets of one to 15 minutes — are becoming a huge business worldwide. The global market for this new, bite-size format is said to be worth two billion dollars a year, with forecasts that this could double by the end of 2025. And that’s excluding China, which has emerged as a global leader in the production and consumption of weiduanju (微短剧).

With the PRC’s micro-drama market growing at a blistering 250 percent annually, bringing in some RMB 37.4 billion (5.2 billion dollars) in 2023 according to state media reports, the authorities are also acting quickly to figure out how they can control this new entertainment format and ensure it serves their interests. On January 4, the National Radio and TV Administration (国家广播电视总局), or NRTA, publicized its plan to create hundreds of short videos on Xi Jinping’s political thought — for example, by promoting his vision of uniting classical Chinese culture with the latest technology and teaching netizens about the benefits of Xi’s version of the rule of law. 

The agency also announced that, over the coming year, it will draw up regulations for stricter micro-drama governance. An anonymous TV producer told the Global Times that this is because the format currently offers only “emotional value” rather than “promoting positive values” — a euphemism for Party values. Chinese micro-dramas have so far proven popular before within the PRC and beyond its borders, and the format has found a natural home on Chinese platforms like Kuaishou and Douyin. The industry’s new challenge will be how to preserve this early success while also pleasing censors and ensuring Xi plays a starring role.