Micro-short dramas further strengthen China-ASEAN cultural exchange
A promotion session for the 2026 ASEAN-China Micro-Short Drama Contest was successfully held in Beijing on Friday (17/7). The contest is part of the eighth ASEAN-China Media Week, organised by China’s National Radio and Television Administration, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region government, and Brunei authorities. It aims to build a China-ASEAN cooperation platform in the micro-short drama sector, achieving mutually beneficial results in cross-border cultural innovation.
Wei Dangjun, vice chairman of the China Netcasting Services Association, stated in a speech that micro-short dramas have emerged as an innovative outcome of digital netcasting and a new channel for cross-border cultural exchange. He expressed hope that participants would submit outstanding micro-short drama works, making them an important bridge to deepen exchanges and cooperation between the two sides.
Under the theme ‘AI Empowerment, Co-Creation and Shared Future’, the contest accepts micro-short drama works and original scripts related to mutually beneficial China-ASEAN cooperation, tourism, youth and people-to-people exchanges, and AI innovation. A number of works and scripts are currently being submitted to the committee, with judging results expected to be announced in October, followed by a launch and promotion conference for the competition’s outcomes.
In recent years, Guangxi has utilised its geographical advantages and close ties with ASEAN to transform itself into a hub for the expansion of micro-short dramas into the region. It relies on its own international distribution platform and mainstream streaming platforms outside China as crucial methods to achieve the export of Chinese dramas. Furthermore, Guangxi continues to develop a co-production model of ‘developed in Guangxi, filmed in ASEAN countries, and distributed jointly’, consistently producing cross-border co-productions between China and Thailand, as well as China and Vietnam.
Zhou Shuya, an associate researcher at the China National Radio and Television Administration Research Centre, explained that ASEAN had become the region with the largest download volume for Chinese micro-short dramas outside China in 2025, exceeding 400 million times and accounting for approximately 27 per cent of total overseas downloads. Zhou added that in the first half of 2026, Thailand, Indonesia, and several other Southeast Asian countries continued to be the main markets for Chinese micro-short dramas. Meanwhile, genres such as urban romance and grassroots struggles are highly popular with ASEAN audiences, providing a strong foundation for the export of Chinese dramas to the region.