/PRZWT/On September 17th, the industry symposium "The Next Step of Short Videos", hosted by the second Galaxy Entertainment Group Macao International Short Film Festival (hereinafter referred to as "Macao International Short Film Festival") and jointly organized by Dongxi Culture and Entertainment, was held at the Galaxy International Conference Center in Macao. Li Hongjian, co-founder, vice chairman and chief content officer of Shanhai Xingchen Group, along with Li La, deputy general manager of the Film and Television Content Production Department of Tencent Online Video, Sun Jin, founder of Xiaoxi Culture and a well-known producer, Peng Fa, a renowned director and editor in China, and Chen Xingxing, a well-known screenwriter, among other guests, discussed key topics such as short drama creation, narrative innovation, IP development and cultural export. Jointly explore the development path of short video content from scale growth to value elevation.
01 From Online Literature to Short Dramas: The Underlying Logic Is "Emotional Value"
Li Hongjian reviewed at the symposium the development process of Shanhai Xingchen, which started from online literature ips and gradually entered the short drama field. He pointed out that the rise of short dramas is not accidental but stems from a fundamental change in users' attention structure: "People are increasingly accustomed to obtaining content in a fragmented way, and even viewers of long dramas are generally watching at 2x or 3x speeds." Against this backdrop, short dramas, especially vertical-screen ones, quickly dominated the market with their strong emotional narratives.
"Short dramas are essentially an emotional experiment," Li Hongjian emphasized. "They provide users with immediate and intense emotional value through key moments, plot twists and high-density emotional output." In his view, this content form is in line with the logic of Shan Hai Xing Chen's early in-depth exploration of online literature. "Both are based on a precise understanding of user psychology, but short dramas achieve emotional connection in a more visual and condensed way."
In May 2023, Shanhai Xingchen launched its first short drama "The Supreme God of the World", which achieved a recharge of over 10 million yuan within 72 hours. This not only verified the effectiveness of its strategy but also demonstrated the huge potential of short dramas as a new type of content carrier. Li Hongjian pointed out that short dramas are no longer a supplement or simplification of long dramas, but have truly become the "third content carrier" following movies and long dramas, and are reshaping the content consumption landscape in the mobile Internet era.
The core competitiveness of short dramas lies in their "emotional efficiency", which caters to the psychological needs of contemporary users who pursue efficient emotional experiences. This "efficiency" is not only reflected in the viewing behavior, but also profoundly influences the creative thinking and content production mechanism, driving the industry to shift from a traffic mindset to a value mindset and gradually building a new narrative paradigm based on empathy.
02 Reject stereotyped narratives and promote the breakthrough of intangible cultural heritage and the evolution of IP with an "elemental" mindset
When it comes to content innovation, Li Hongjian took the intangible cultural heritage short play "傩戏" as an example to explain the core essence of the "elementization" creative thinking. He emphasized that the theme of intangible cultural heritage must first become a good story, and culture should be naturally integrated into the plot as the core rather than mechanically piled up. "We are not writing 傩戏, we are writing a good story, and 傩戏 is just an element of it." This concept effectively prevents intangible cultural heritage content from becoming stiff "promotional videos", endowing it with both cultural depth and wide appeal.
He also pointed out that the short drama industry is becoming increasingly mature in character development and narrative logic. The early "uprooted" villains lacking motivation are gradually being replaced by more reasonable roles. Based on this, Shanhai Xingchen has implemented a "dual-track parallel" brand strategy: on the one hand, it launched the pioneering brand "Taohua Li", creating 3 to 4 aesthetically leading works every month, not chasing hotspots but focusing on creating trends; On the other hand, the company also continuously develops types of content that meet the expectations of the mainstream market to consolidate its business foundation.
Li Hongjian frankly admitted that currently, the industry still lacks short drama ips that truly have the ability to break through the circle. He believes that in the future, a three-in-one development model of "vertical screen + horizontal screen + film" should be adopted to systematically extend the IP life cycle and promote short dramas to achieve a value leap from emotional consumption to grand narratives and from traffic products to classic content.
At the final stage of the symposium, Li Hongjian said, "I hope that in the future, short dramas will also produce works that are as popular and timeless as movies and long dramas." He emphasized that short dramas should not be confined to "traffic business", but should move towards "IPization" and "classicization", which is a common goal for the industry. Shan Hai Xing Chen will continue to adhere to the parallel development of the "content value + commercial value + social value" triple path, and keep delving into the intangible cultural heritage track represented by "傩戏". At the same time, it will explore more diverse themes and more international expression methods to promote the true leap of Chinese stories from "going viral to going global".
