But these still need to be considered. Behind the Japanese's liking for Zhuge Liang: the history of content going global and quality improving together | China | Zhuge Liang

On June 20th, at the "Magnolia Dialogue" forum at the Shanghai TV Festival, NHK program production company director producer Ryuta Kotani displayed the portrait of "Zhuge Liang" on a PPT, which made the audience and guests understand and laugh. However, despite the popularity of Chinese historical stories in Japan and the experience of working with the Chinese team, there was still a "mistake" on his PPT that caught the attention of domestic peers - "4000 years of history." At the "Empirical China: Songze Liangzhu Civilization Archaeology Exhibition" currently held at the Shanghai Museum, every trace of China's 5000 year history of civilization can be clearly seen.

Hu Xu, Chairman of Shenzhen Tiantian Growth Film and Television Co., Ltd., believes that such an understanding of China's Liangtai Xiaogu can trigger thinking. To shape a trustworthy, lovely, and respectable image of China in overseas communication, it is necessary to have sufficient cultural confidence. "What is the basis of China's 5000 year history and civilization? Can we answer this question to international audiences?"

The quantity and quality of overseas content dissemination have increased simultaneously

In recent years, international communication channels and platforms have shifted from few to many, communication methods have changed from single to multiple, and overseas entities have moved towards international cooperation and collaboration. The scale and quality of Chinese content going abroad have achieved synchronous improvement, and the effectiveness and influence are increasingly increasing. In 2022, China's exports of audiovisual programs and services exceeded 200 million US dollars for the first time, with private enterprises and online platforms becoming the main force of international communication. Sergei Moldova, the copyright manager of the Russian streaming platform OKKO, introduced that in recent years, a series of Chinese content has been popular in Russia. Dramas such as "You Smile Beautiful", "The Three Body Problem", and "The Beginning" have had good views on the platform. "Thank you to China for providing us with excellent content such as" The Great River "and" Fox Hunting ". Russian audiences love these programs very much."

Lu Bo, Senior Partner of IFA Media at Lengju Media in Singapore and General Manager of Culture and Communication at Lengju Film and Television in Beijing, witnessed the development of China's production power. From the beginning, Chinese companies and producers simply learned and imitated overseas models, to now reaching international standards in certain fields. "During the epidemic, 'Flavor of the World' was to be filmed overseas, and the creative team came to me to see the samples. I was shocked by the superb production level. In recent years, the local production force in China has grown rapidly, and the investment in production funds is also exciting."

The "Bears Appearing" series has achieved good dissemination results overseas. According to Luo Gaocheng, Deputy General Manager of Fangte International Co., Ltd., Fangte has more than ten years of overseas experience, covering more than ten countries around the world. "A decade ago, there were relatively few Chinese companies going abroad. Now, when we participate in overseas festivals and exhibitions, we find that there are more and more Chinese companies, and their awareness of going abroad is becoming stronger. Moreover, in the past, there were only joint exhibition booths in China, but now we can see provincial joint exhibition booths, and more and more Chinese partners are contributing their efforts in the field of going abroad."

Wan Ruoreo, the deputy director of the External Communication Center of the Wuzhou Communication Center, also noted that the circle of friends for overseas communication is growing, and more and more Chinese television stations are going overseas together. "Our partners have expanded to Central Asia, Russia, Southeast Asia, countries along the the Belt and Road, China and Europe, and more people are listening to China's voice."

There are still "shortcomings" worth considering when going out to sea

Nowadays, more and more overseas projects choose to collaborate with China and foreign countries, but when collaborating, differences may arise between the two parties due to different cultural interests.

According to Ryuta Ogata, China's giant pandas, cuisine, and historical stories are all popular themes in Japan. "Last year, we had a project in collaboration with CCTV, mainly using Chinese high-definition cameras to capture the cooking and culinary culture along the Grand Canal. When the Japanese team came to China, the first topic they talked about was whether to shoot the kitchen. Japanese audiences wanted the camera to 'enter' the kitchen, while Chinese creators thought that food was enough." After multiple discussions, Chinese partners overcame difficulties and filmed scenes in the kitchen, where the chef was able to showcase the exquisite craftsmanship of carving tofu into beautiful flowers. "Japanese audiences really want to see such details."

"Summarize the preferred themes of overseas documentaries, including nature, history, outdoor, and some smaller categories such as crime and technology. Especially the first two are the most popular and have long been favored by overseas audiences." Lu Bo believes that based on China's rich terrain and long history, there is a wealth of content that can be disseminated overseas. It is worth considering that there are still shortcomings in the shooting of nature documentaries. "The BBC has been filming this genre for decades, and I don't think there is any difference in equipment compared to China. However, many BBC creators are professionals in biology who have switched careers and are very familiar with animal habits, and there are still few professionals in China who study animals and plants involved in television production."

Nowadays, more and more domestic content is being translated and distributed locally overseas. When Hu Xu was translating and distributing his work "Daily Growth" in Vietnamese, he found that it is often more complex than he imagined to truly connect with the local culture of the foreign market. "When we were looking for voice actors in the local area, we found that Vietnam has differences in North South accents. Their variety shows usually use a Southern accent, while current affairs programs use a North Vietnamese accent. We wanted the content to be more entertaining, so we asked the voice actors to repeatedly screen for suitable accents. After its release, the local audience commented, 'I can't tell it's an imported film.' His experience of spreading Chinese works overseas reminded him of a sentence in the autobiography of Israel's first female prime minister: 'In the end, we must realize that our differences are not as many or so important.'"