Hong Kong ‘comedy king’ Stephen Chow to launch Douyin mini-drama series amid booming popularity of the format

The project from the Chinese version of TikTok will kick off with Chow’s show in May, followed by content involving other ‘outstanding young creators’

Mini-dramas have become popular in China as the quality is a cut above user-generated content while short episodes still fit into viewers’ downtime

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Director and actor Stephen Chow attends press conference in Beijing for his film The Mermaid on December 9, 2015. Photo: Visual China Group via Getty Images

Published: 5:00pm, 30 Jan 2024Updated: 6:30pm, 30 Jan 2024

Hong Kong filmmaker Stephen Chow Sing-chi, a popular actor in mainland China known as the king of comedy, has inked a deal with Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, to make an exclusive series, as A-list talent and Big Tech join hands to take advantage of a mini-drama frenzy.

The project – code-named “9527” in a reference to the 61-year-old comedian’s 1993 film Flirting Scholar – will feature content from Chow as well as other “outstanding young creators”, Douyin said in a statement posted to its official WeChat account.

The project’s first drama from Chow, titled Jinzhu Yuye, is expected to air in May. Other titles are currently “in production”, according to the statement.

Mini-dramas have become hugely popular in China owing to their short episodes made with a soap-opera quality that typically puts them a cut above user-generated content. A normal season consists of dozens of episodes at a few minutes each.

Chow said the low-budget content has become a “fast-growing sector of technology and media innovation”.

Douyin will also engage with other renowned directors to “keep exploring the production and innovation of micro-series” on its platform with 600 million daily active users, the company said in its statement.

Companies such as Douyin owner ByteDance, Kuaishou and Tencent Holdings have all been investing in the format amid a greater hunger for short videos that fit more easily into viewers’ downtime. The format is heavily populated with romance stories and comedies, with episodes that end on cliffhangers to keep viewers hooked.