On February 20, 2025, the "first meeting of the year" in the film and television industry - the first China TV Drama Production Industry Conference and the 10th China (Shenzhen) International TV Drama Program Trade Fair was grandly opened in Shenzhen. More than a thousand elites from major platforms and the entire industry chain gathered together to discuss the transformation and future development of China's drama industry.

Hou Hongliang, president of the China Television Drama Production Industry Association, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote speech on the theme of "embracing 'drama' changes, changes and constancy".

Hou Hongliang emphasized that as a link between the emotions of the times and a rigid demand of the spirit, TV dramas must return to the essence of content and focus on audience needs. Today, audiences are more proactive in their choices and have clearer requirements for quality. Therefore, platforms and production companies need to change their thinking, get rid of the "traffic thinking" and "length dispute", focus on the narrative depth and social value of the series, promote content innovation, and gather momentum for the healthy development of the industry.

He pointed out that young creators are an important driving force for innovation in the industry, especially in the phenomenal works "Nezha: The Devil Boy Conquers the Dragon King" and the game "Black Myth: Wukong" during the Spring Festival, the new generation of forces that emerged have brought new possibilities to the industry. Hou Hongliang called for more young creators, technicians and managers with innovative thinking in the TV drama industry, and to improve audio-visual quality and production efficiency through new technologies such as AIGC and virtual production, so as to achieve a win-win situation for art and business.

Hou Hongliang also specifically mentioned that the development of the industry requires the collaborative cooperation of the entire industry chain. Platforms should support the creation of high-quality content, producers should focus on content polishing, capital should provide "patient capital" support, and regulators should create a good industry ecology. Only through the persistence of long-termism can the industry shift from "seeking survival" to "seeking development" and achieve sustainable leaps.

Hou Hongliang

The following is the full text of Hou Hongliang’s speech:

Dear leaders and colleagues in the industry, good morning! I am very happy to be able to gather with all colleagues who care about the future of the industry at the beginning of the Year of the Snake in Shenzhen, a city that is determined to make progress, to jointly plan the development of the TV drama industry.

First of all, on behalf of the China Television Drama Production Industry Association, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the leaders and guests present, and to the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee and Government, the Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department, and Shenzhen Radio and Television Group for their strong support for this conference; I would also like to thank the Association Secretariat for its careful preparations, which have built a bridge of efficient communication for practitioners in the entire industry chain. I would especially like to thank the member units of the China Television Drama Production Industry Association for their trust in us and for working hand in hand with us.

2025 will be a critical year for the TV drama industry to break through. This industry conference aims to gather insights and seek good development strategies through the two-day agenda, with the goal of "leading with quality products, moving towards innovation and quality", and effectively promote the high-quality development of China's TV drama industry.

I would like to take this opportunity to share three industry expectations:

First, we will focus on the audience and reshape the ecosystem for high-quality creation.

As the emotional bond and spiritual necessity of the times, TV series have experienced nearly seventy years of accumulation. In the new media era, audiences are more proactive in choosing content and have clearer requirements for quality. Audiences' demands for innovation, artistry and emotional resonance are becoming increasingly strong.

In the past, many TV drama projects relied too much on successful experience or big IP and large traffic, ignoring the guiding ideology of audience-orientedness, resulting in homogenization of creation and loss of audience. Today, change is imminent. We need to explore new solutions on the premise of respecting innovation, respecting artistic laws, and respecting artists.

The solution is to return to the essence of "content is king" . Platforms and production companies need to achieve three changes:

Shift from "traffic thinking" to "value thinking" : Break the obsession with short-term data and business routines, cultivate content aesthetics with professionalism, forge the narrative depth and social value of works with ingenuity, and protect the industry's innovative vitality and healthy ecology;

Shift from "length dispute" to "need for expression" : Get rid of the superficial debate around the length of the series and focus on the core appeal of content expression - the length of the series should serve the narrative, which can penetrate people's hearts with the condensed narrative of "The Long Season" and arouse empathy with the epic pattern of "The World", defining quality with quality;

From "each going it alone" to "open co-creation" : establish a market feedback mechanism to allow creation to resonate with market demand, and form a good co-creation among creators, production companies and broadcasting platforms.

Second, use innovation as a wing to stimulate new forces in the industry.

This year's Spring Festival movie "Nezha: The Devil Child Conquers the Dragon King" reconstructs classics with oriental aesthetics, and the game "Black Myth: Wukong" subverts traditional narratives with technological innovation. These two phenomenal works prove that young creators are using their boundary-breaking power to inject new possibilities into the industry.

The TV drama industry is also in urgent need of such a new generation:

Creators: Possess innovative artistic thinking, explore themes, innovate content, and make breakthroughs in form;

Technicians: Leverage AIGC, virtual production and other technologies to improve audio-visual quality and production efficiency;

Managers: Use innovative management concepts and flexible collaboration models to promote efficient implementation of projects and achieve a win-win situation for art and business.

We also look forward to building a more professional and fair evaluation system so that the efforts of each position can be seen and recognized. Tonight's "Annual Ceremony" will nominate outstanding representatives in various fields of drama creation - from screenwriters, directors, actors to photography, lighting, art, modeling, editing, and music. Each link is related to the final quality of the work. Only by setting benchmarks and encouraging innovation can we push the industry to bid farewell to "routine production" and respond to the audience's desire for quality products with sincere creation.

Third, based on collaboration, we will jointly build a long-term pattern.

The high-quality development of the industry requires the entire industry chain to abandon short-sighted thinking and build a "symbiotic and win-win" ecology:

Platforms: Support high-quality content, encourage diverse exploration, and focus on long-term value;

Producers: stick to the original intention of creation, focus on content polishing, accumulate word-of-mouth, and form a brand effect;

Capital side: Use "patient capital" to support high-quality projects and refuse to chase traffic bubbles;

Regulators: Create an industry ecology that respects creativity and promotes market prosperity.

"Those who do not plan for the overall situation are not qualified to plan for a specific area, and those who do not plan for everything are not qualified to plan for the moment." Long-termism means insisting on doing difficult but right things - enduring temporary difficulties in exchange for long-term returns; paying attention to system resilience and responding to internal and external challenges. Only in this way can the industry be driven from "seeking survival" to "seeking development" and achieve high-quality and sustainable leaps.

Finally, I would like to thank all the leaders and colleagues in the industry for coming! We hope that the China TV Drama Production Industry Conference will become a benchmark for the development of the industry and help us give back to the audience with more high-quality works!

Thank you everyone!