The annual Shanghai TV festival kicked off Monday with a live gala performance. This stage extravaganza at the downtown Arts Center tries to summarize the history of Shanghai’s television industry in 70 minutes of dancing and singing.
It opens a week-long festival for TV directors, producers, actors, distributors and people who only have story ideas for their next TV production. But when ICS asked randomly on the street, few people say they still watch TV nowadays, and when they do watch TV dramas downloaded from the Internet, many say they prefer foreign shows.
Song Xiaohe, a viewer says, "I watch foreign TV dramas more than China’s home made ones. I find foreign dramas more entertaining and educational. The storytelling is more compact with suspense."
Song added she does enjoy a few Chinese stories that reflect today’s societal reality and that relate to her better than fictional dramas about ancient dynasties. Shanghai-based opera tenor Liao Changyong told ICS that while Beijing is the country’s cultural capital, Shanghai still needs its own identity and soft power on the small screen, even though the city has some of China’s best performance schools.
Liao Changyong, a singer says, "Shanghai is perhaps the quickest in Chinese mainland to introduce western pop culture and art into China, which is good for technical improvement in acting, directing or writing for television. But a city needs its own cultural elites and identity instead of leaving the audience with few options for quality except foreign television content."
The weeklong festival will bring individuals and companies from at home and abroad together for a series of themed talks and informal discussions about buying and selling TV productions, formats, and the latest equipment.