'Chinese wave' needs quality productions to swell

A scene in the novel-based drama Nirvana in Fire. [Photo/IC]

News that the Internet novel-based drama Nirvana in Fire was purchased by a Korean TV station and will be broadcast Tuesday has cheered its fans. In fact, the TV series has already entered North America last month and will be broadcast in countries and regions such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia, which is seen as a sign of wider overseas recognition for Chinese TV dramas, and possibly even the start of a “Chinese wave” similar to Korean wave sweeping Asia during the last decade.

Most TV adaptations of online novels have quite a bad reputation among Chinese audience, not only because these productions contain stupid factual mistakes and ruin the original work due to poorly executed adaptations, but also because it is clear all the producers care about is grabbing a bigger share of the TV market with a star-studded cast, rather than presenting quality work to its audience. Take The Lost Tomb for example: The adaptation of the novel of the same name, which enjoys wide readership, was criticized for its poor quality and lame storyline and it scored badly on major film rating websites.

Under such circumstances, it is not hard to imagine why Nirvana in Fire could win the hearts of millions of viewers and has generated as many as 3.55 billion tweets on Sina Weibo alone. Regarded as the Chinese version of The Count of Monte Cristo, the drama tells the story of how the hero, Mei Changsu paves the way for his friend to come to power as the emperor and avenges the injustices to his father, fatally wronged 12 years before.

Different from other TV adaptations mocked for their knockoff plots and shoddy production values, the production team of Nirvana in Fire not only invited Hai Yan, the original novel’s author to draft the screenplay, but also gave much attention to the exquisite set designs and pre-Tang Dynasty (AD618-907)costumes , as well as the editing, which has been praised by viewers and recommended by word of mouth.

In recent years, a large number of popular and quality Internet novels have gained the attention of production companies which have turned them into films and TV series. These spawn derivative products. However, most of the time, fans of the original novel are disappointed by the adaptations.

That is not to say the flood of money into the online literature world is a bad thing. At least, it has brought wider attention to this newly emerging form of literature in the past decade and provided a broader platform for it to better survive, develop and flourish. However, usually after purchasing the intellectual property of the online novels, investors have hasty produced and released their adaptations, and been obsessed with the idea of counting on actors’ fans to initiate online hype to create a false impression of huge popularity. This inevitably ends up losing the audience’s favor. This vicious circle, although quite economically alluring for investors, may eventually lead the industry astray.

Also, even for the possible “Chinese wave”, what counts most is quality of our TV and film works, no matter whether they have modern or historical themes, although domestic costume dramas are noticeably more preferred by overseas TV stations, especially Asian broadcasters. Production companies should not only keep in step with their foreign counterparts in shooting and editing techniques, more importantly, they respect the audience and offer them quality screenplays and well-made productions, something they should have done long ago.

The author is a writer with China Daily