C-dramas captivate Vietnamese viewers

Ngo Minh Quang, a 23-year-old Chinese language teacher in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, has been a fan of Chinese dramas over the years.

At just 5 years old, he was captivated by the fantastic world of Journey to the West, a classic drama adapted from the novel of the same name that was written during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Describing the tale — a fictionalized account of the adventures of a Buddhist monk and his three powerful apprentices, including the heroic Monkey King — as his favorite drama, he told China Daily that he has watched it multiple times and even revisited it after beginning to learn Chinese.

"I used the drama to practice listening and reading, as well as to improve my understanding of grammar and words," he said, adding that the mythological story is not just entertainment, but also like a good friend drawing him deeper into ancient Chinese culture and history.

Quang, who is now introducing Journey to the West to his Vietnamese students, said the charm of most Chinese dramas lies in their exquisite costumes and lavish settings, which not only are beautiful, but also convey the country's cultural depth and values.

With its geographical closeness to China and centuries of cultural exchange, Vietnam has become one of the largest Asian markets for Chinese dramas, or C-dramas.

According to statistics from Youku, one of China's most popular streaming platforms and drama producers, more than 1,000 hours of over 30 dramas have been released in Vietnam in recent years. Among them, the fantasy series Till the End of the Moon, a romance tale known for its aesthetic style inspired by the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes' murals, soared to the top of local ratings on several Vietnamese platforms such as VieOn during its premiere.

Some of the popular Youku-financed series streamed in Vietnam in recent years also include the female revenge-themed costume drama The Double, the urban romance The First Frost, and the crime tale Escape from the Trilateral Slopes.

"When Chinese films and TV series started to spread abroad between the late 1980s and early 1990s, Vietnam was one of the earliest overseas markets to import domestic content, propelling it to accumulate a large fan base for C-dramas over three decades," said Zhu Xinmei, director of the International Communication Research Institute at the Development Research Center of the National Radio and Television Administration.

In 1993, Kewang (Yearning), a drama set in Beijing during the transformative period of the 1980s, debuted on Vietnam Television, the country's largest broadcaster. It was hugely popular in Vietnam, exemplified by ratings as high as 90.78 percent.

Over the ensuing years, costume dramas — regarded by industry insiders as the most popular genre in Vietnam — have also made a splash in the country, with shows such as My Fair Princess, Prime Minister Liu Luoguo and Yongzheng Dynasty, all of which depict palace and court life during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

In 2015, The Journey of Flower — a romantic fantasy tale starring actress Zhao Liying and actor Wallace Huo — took Southeast Asia by storm, amassing more than 20 million views on Zing TV, one of the largest streaming platforms in Vietnam.

Zhao's popularity helped make her costume drama The Legend of Shen Li — a fantasy romance about a heroine from the fictional phoenix clan and a celestial being — a hit again in Vietnam last year.

With China's achievements in reform and opening-up and its efforts to alleviate poverty, television shows depicting realistic themes that reflect modern China's transition have also been well received in Vietnam, said Zhu, the institute director.

Zhou Xiaoqiong, a specialist in charge of Vietnamese business at Guangxi Television, said China Hour, a program launched in 2018 to promote Chinese TV shows to foreign countries, has translated more than 800 episodes of more than 20 projects into Vietnamese. Zhou said she has noticed that movies and TV dramas that soar in China usually gain recognition in Vietnam.

For instance, Ne Zha 2, China's biggest box-office sensation, "hasn't even been released in Vietnam yet, but I've already noticed a bunch of Vietnamese media covering it," she said.

Zhou, a Vietnamese major who graduated from Guangxi Minzu University, recalled that many of her Vietnamese friends, like her fellow Chinese, used to spend entire summer vacations glued to the television, captivated by iconic classics such as Journey to the West and Dream of the Red Chamber. Now grown up, they continue their passion through modern Chinese dramas like Daughter of the Mountains and The Tale of Rose.

Starring A-list actress Liu Yifei, The Tale of Rose — which follows the romantic experiences of Huang Yimei, or Rose — was broadcast on Vietnam Television in September. The series received praise from local media as a significant work highlighting the evolving and empowering portrayal of women.

"Chinese films and television series have become a vital window through which Vietnamese audiences explore not only the richness of Chinese culture, but also the evolving facets of its modern society," Zhou said.