C-dramas gain global momentum

Among the projects was Swords into Plowshares, a historical drama produced by Huace Group. Thai broadcaster True Visions announced it would air the series in Thailand simultaneously with China. The team explained that Thai audiences expect to watch the latest C-dramas "almost immediately after they are released in China or even simulcast".

Turkiye has been captivated as well. Selcuk Yavuzkanat, deputy director general of cinema at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, notes that in recent years, China's production quality has risen markedly, and Turkish audiences have shown a particular fondness for its historical epics.

"Our public broadcaster TRT has aired Chinese series before, and people liked them," he says. "I hope in the coming years we will buy more."

For industry veteran Zhao Yifang, CEO of Huace Group, none of these developments comes as a surprise. She has pursued international outreach since the 1990s and believes the major transformation in recent years has been a shift among audiences toward a global mindset for content. "From the beginning," she says, "we have kept international audiences in mind."

For Swords into Plowshares, that meant using AI during the scriptwriting stage to analyze emotional preferences in overseas markets. Later, international trailers were adjusted for regions such as Europe and Southeast Asia, with the same story but different emphases.

Practice has validated this approach. In August, The Thirsty Thirty, a Thai remake of Linmon Media's urban hit Nothing But Thirty, was released simultaneously on Tencent Video and Disney+. General Manager of Linmon International, Lu Yu, says that as the Thai series gained global momentum, Linmon chose to invest directly and oversee the Thai adaptation, working with local writers and actors to shape the cross-border remake.