Sanford Panitch, president of Columbia Pictures, alongside Cheng Wu (middle), vice-president of Tencent Holdings Ltd, and Chen Hongwei (right), deputy general manager of Tencent Pictures, promote Venom in Beijing on Sept 17.[Photo provided to China Daily]

As the most popular drama this summer, Story of Yanxi Palace has racked up nearly 18 billion "clicks" online, propelling actor Nie Yuan and actress Wu Jinyan to become one of China's most popular on-screen couples.

With the two stars again teaming up in the new tale, The Legend of Hao Lan reimagines the myth surrounding the birth of Qin Shihuang, China's first emperor who lived from 259 to 210 BC.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China in 2021, Tencent Pictures announced its association with the Shanghai-based studio Passion China to coproduce a series about the civil war in which the Communist Party-led forces defeated the Kuomintang.

"The war is one of the most significant conflicts ever to have taken place in China, which has rewritten the fate of millions of people," says Wang Shuzeng, who penned the book People's Liberation War, which the drama was adapted from. "I hope audiences will see how New China was shaped and will become more confident about our life and future by watching this drama."

Other productions that reflect China's wartime history or modern reforms also include director Guan Hu's World War II epic 800, a biopic of the hero Xie Jinyuan during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), and Face to Sea, a TV drama series on Shenzhen's rise, thanks to China's reform and opening-up.