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BEIJING, Oct. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Britain is not only offering China good opportunities to invest, but also profitable entertainment. According to the BBC, China is now one of the top three markets in the world for British television dramas. CCTV reporter Chen Tong checks out what Chinese Anglophiles are into.
Luo Xiao started to watch British dramas three years ago. His favorite dramas update once a week. He says he is like an ant on a hot pan, waiting for the next episodes to come out.
"The British dialect is very nice to hear, they pronounce every word so properly. There's also British humor, which reminds you of classic royal culture. The connection between the episodes so seamless that it always makes me want to watch the next episode. Every season also has its own theme, so that I cannot wait to watch the next season when one is finished," he said.
Luo is not the only one crazy about British dramas.
When British Prime Minister David Cameron posted a message on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, just after his reappointment this May, many comments that followed were actually asking The Prime Minster to push for the latest episode of the detective series Sherlock to be released as soon as possible.
Shi Chuan of the Shanghai Theatre Academy says most of the audience for British dramas is white collar.
"The scale of this market in China is not huge, most of the audience are white collar and elite. But they are high-end consumers and they are curious about British culture. To ordinary people in China, British culture is more distant and strange. But white collar and elite viewers prefer them," he said.
Last January, the clicks for the third season of Sherlock hit the millions within seven hours of its release on internet site Youku, a record for British drama.
To meet the demand, large video websites like Tencent and Sohu have created special channels for British drama. Shi says the reason they are happy to do this is that most of the fans of British dramas are high-end consumers.
"There might not be a lot of people watching British drams, but those do are high-income consumers. The British dramas have an important characteristic," Shi said.
"Unlike our dramas which are broadcast only after all production is finished, British dramas are still shooting as the TV stations are airing them. The production team will revise the set-ups, according to the feedback of the audience. The set-ups are connected tightly with the audience and so British dramas will always have fans."
In addition to Sherlock, other British dramas like Downton Abbey and Black Mirror are also trending in China. The first episode of the latest season of Downton Abbey on Youku received 4.7 million hits when it premiered last year.
(Source: CNTV.cn)
