Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, at 6:30 in the evening on November 16, local time, 25-year-old girl Lola sat in front of the TV on time to watch the Chinese TV series "Walking with the Phoenix". Recently, catching up on popular new dramas has become her favorite.
This TV series starring Zhao Liying and Lin Gengxin just finished broadcasting in China in April this year, and it appeared on the program lists of African viewers half a year later. "I am a fan of Zhao Liying." Luo La said that although there is only one episode played every day, she never stops watching Chinese dramas every day. Watching Chinese dramas has become a part of her daily life.
What is the magic power of Chinese film and television dramas that makes African audiences thousands of miles away love them so much?
"Walking with the Phoenix" poster
Parents are short-sighted, and Africans are also worried
What Laura is watching is the African st sinodrama channel. The channel operator, StarTimes Group, is a Chinese private enterprise that operates digital TV and Internet video in Africa.
"Chinese film and television works have opened up the African market. We have three Chinese channels in Africa: Kung Fu Channel, Chinese TV Drama Channel (St Sinodrama Channel), and Chinese Film and Television Channel, covering more than 40 countries and regions south of the Sahara Desert. "Zhang Jun, director of the Chinese channel of StarTimes Group, told reporters, "You can tell the preferences of African viewers from the channel name."
. TheKung Fu channel focuses on Kung Fu movies, broadcasting costume martial arts TV series, Kung Fu movies and excellent documentaries, etc. The main audience is men between the ages of 15 and 55.
Chinese TV drama channel broadcasts TV dramas and movies of various themes, covering modern cities, family ethics, costume fantasy, etc. The audience is mainly women between the ages of 15 and 50.
The Chinese Film and Television Channel focuses on authentic Chinese broadcasts, targeting the more than 3 million overseas Chinese in Africa, as well as African "enthusiasts" who love Chinese culture.
African audiences watch Chinese Kung Fu movies in the open air. Picture provided by the interviewee
Here comes the question, can African audiences understand Chinese film and television dramas?
"This issue has to be considered from two aspects: language and acceptance." Zhang Jun said that all Chinese film and television dramas broadcast in Africa are dubbed and dubbed in at least three languages: English, French, and Portuguese. Audiences only need to Just select the corresponding audio track on the set-top box, and you will have no problem understanding it.
And the acceptance is quite interesting. Among them, kung fu movies, as the earliest Chinese film and television dramas to enter Africa, have a natural appeal to African audiences; other themes, such as urban emotions and family ethics, are also easy for African audiences to empathize with, and it is not difficult to understand them.
It is said that "it is difficult for an upright official to deal with household affairs", and this is also true in Africa. In Egypt, " Golden Wolf's Happy Life " achieved a high ratings of 2.8. The play tells the story of Xiaomi and Jin Liang, a pair of lovers who, after getting married secretly, face the test of family disputes and strive to stick to their love.
This resonated greatly with the local audience: "We have such a thing too!" This also indirectly prompted China Radio International and the Egyptian Radio and Television Union to sign a cooperation agreement on the "Chinese Theater" column.
In fact, there is a precedent for similar family themes to become popular. According to statistics, up to 70% of Tanzanian TV users have watched the drama "The Beautiful Era of My Daughter-in-law". You must know that " My Fair Princess ", which was popular all over the country, only had 54% when it was first broadcast in 1998. of people have seen it. It can be seen how phenomenal this domestic mother-in-law and daughter-in-law drama is. The show is being rerun locally again this year.
Rodrigue, a Cameroonian scholar and executive director of the African Film and Television Center of the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University, said that film and television dramas are a window for African audiences to understand China. The emotional entanglements and relationships between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in African families are similar to those in China, so film and television dramas with family ethics themes are very popular there. "Looking a little closer, African developing countries regard China as an important partner, and the African people I also hope to learn more about China and generally love to watch urban emotional dramas that reflect the real life conditions of Chinese young people."
Swahili version poster of "A Beautiful Day for Wifes."Picture source: China Radio International
Chinese film and television dramas are so popular for a reason
From kung fu movies to mother-in-law and daughter-in-law dramas, from costume dramas to urban dramas... If you sort through the style switching of Chinese film and television works in Africa, you can find that they are very popular. reason.
Chinese film and television dramas have been broadcast in Africa through TV channels, dating back to 2008. Zhang Jun still has fresh memories of StarTimes' earliest TV series broadcast in Africa, including "Journey to the West", "Dragon", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", and "The Legend of the Condor Heroes". Once they were launched, they quickly gained a large number of African fans. Subsequently, domestic film and television works including costume suspense, urban romance, etc. also quickly went overseas. As of press time, StarTimes has broadcast 315 Chinese TV series and 508 Chinese movies in Africa.
theme is undoubtedly the most important factor in opening up the African market. "Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Wu Jing, Donnie Yen... I have watched all the works of these people." Rodrigo believes that in addition to kung fu movies, film and television dramas that reflect common human emotions, such as marriage and love entanglements, family life, entrepreneurial struggles, etc. They are all loved by African audiences.
These works also have some things in common, that is, the plot is simple, the plot advancement is not fast, the actors' expressiveness and the lens language are full, and the conflict presentation is intuitive and easy to understand.
The artistic expression of traditional culture is also what Chinese film and television dramas are good at. For example, "Sweet Honey as Ashes as Frost", "Do you know if it should be green, fat, red and thin " and "A Thousand Bones of Flowers" are known for their softness in character modeling, costumes, scene design, and atmosphere creation, and are full of oriental classical charm.
The excellent traditional Chinese cultural genes in these costume dramas are rooted in the plots and deeply integrated into the protagonist's feelings about home and country and the charm of the characters. The "virtuous and kindhearted", "optimistic and strong", "sacrifice for righteousness" and "borderless" in traditional Chinese culture. "Love" is demonstrated in the protagonist.
Urban emotional film and television dramas such as "Du Lala's Promotion", "Beijing Love Story", and "33 Days Out of Love", from the perspective of truly showing urban life, describe the story through the use of elements such as love, friendship, and family. The innocent feelings of the protagonists as they grow up in life and career resonate with African audiences.
technology is another important dimension. Yang Yujia, editor-in-chief of the StarTimes French Channel, believes that compared with African self-produced film and television dramas that pay more attention to the expression of actors' emotional outbursts, Chinese film and television dramas have higher production standards, especially costumes, makeup, props, and special effects, which are refreshing to African audiences.
The continuous deepening of exchanges between China and Africa in various fields is also affecting the dissemination of film and television dramas. For example, the marketing of Chinese products in Africa has subtly aroused local people's attention and yearning for Chinese movies, TV dramas and Chinese culture, and gradually formed a "Chinese culture craze".
In May of this year, African young people from the 8th China-Africa Youth Gala in Zhejiang (Jinhua) came to Hengdian to experience the charm of the integration of film, television, culture and tourism up close. Source: Hengdian released
If the earliest film and television works to enter Africa were Chinese stories told by Chinese people, then now, more and more works are produced in which Africans tell Chinese stories.
I believe many people still remember the TV series "Beijingers in New York", which tells the story of a Beijing couple's struggle and survival in New York. Thirty years later, a film and television work with a similar theme, "The Most Beijing", was released in Africa, but the protagonist of the story was replaced by an African.
""The Most Beijing" selects 100 representative scenes of food, architecture, neighborhoods, etc., and takes the audience on an in-depth tour of Beijing through the perspective of an African host." Yang Yujia said that the series uses the form of short videos, with 10 episodes per episode. minutes, with a faster pace and easier for African audiences to accept. Another work released since then, "The Most Jinhua", focuses on Jinhua, Zhejiang, which is at the forefront of cultural exchanges and cooperation with Africa. It introduces the ups and downs of being in China through 10 Africans who do business, study and live there. Although it belongs to the category of documentaries, the average ratings of the second season of "The Golden Flower" reached 2.7, which is equivalent to a hit TV series.
"In the curiosity and exploration of cultural differences, encountering cultural commonalities makes the resonance even stronger." Ao Manyun, director of the Tanzania Research Center of Communication University of China (National and Regional Research Registration Center of the Ministry of Education) believes that, and "Beijing The logic of "People in New York" is similar. "The Most Beijing" and "The Most Golden China" tell the story of Africans in a foreign country. Whether they are living well and whether they can integrate into Chinese society is what the audience cares about. By finding resonance and joy in conflicts and contradictions, African audiences will love Chinese film and television works even more.
