Culture

The 'New Three Types of Culture' Going Global is the Right Time

2025-09-23   

With the continuous development of the Chinese economy and the increasing cultural confidence of the younger generation, the world's attention to China continues to increase, and Chinese culture is entering an opportunity period for going global. China's cultural "new three" represented by online literature, online games, and online movies and TV dramas are vividly showcasing China's history and reality, tradition and innovation, wisdom and pursuit to the world in a way that overseas users enjoy. The cultural trend of going global is surging. Wang Yurong, a post-90s writer who has been creating online literature since high school, told reporters that her Song Yun themed novel "Shangyuan Huan" has been favored by overseas publishing houses and has been translated into English for distribution in Singapore, North America, and other places. In the future, she will also release multilingual versions of micro dramas. Not only online literature, but also China's digital cultural products such as online games, online movies and TV shows, anime, etc. are accelerating their overseas expansion, demonstrating vigorous vitality and strong competitiveness in the global market. According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, the total amount of cultural trade in China will reach 1.4 trillion yuan in 2024. Among them, the trade fields rich in digital elements such as online games and online audio-visual have performed outstandingly, with a scale of over 370 billion yuan and a significantly higher growth rate than traditional trade. The industry report released by the Game Working Committee of the China Audio and Digital Association shows that in the first half of this year, China's overseas revenue from independently developed games reached 9.501 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of over 11%, leading the incremental track of the global gaming market. By 2024, the market size of online literature going global will exceed 5 billion yuan, cultivating 460000 overseas online writers, with an overseas user base of over 350 million, covering more than 200 countries and regions. Multiple cultural products have gone viral, confirming the unique charm of the "new three styles" of Chinese culture. In 2024, "Celebrating the Second Season" became the most popular Chinese Mainland drama ever broadcasted on Disney's streaming media platform, which caused heated discussion on mainstream video websites in Europe and the United States; Black Myth: Wukong, Genshin Impact and other games topped the download list of more than 100 countries and regions; The overseas portal website "Qidian International" of Yuewen Group has launched 10000 translated works of Chinese online literature, covering multiple languages, which often triggers overseas readers to follow and urge updates. From the popularity of mainland Chinese TV dramas in Southeast Asia more than 20 years ago, to the successful promotion of Chinese creative models and technical standards to the world through works such as "Celebrating the Year" and "Black Myth: Wukong", integrating resources and operating IPs globally, Chinese cultural products have achieved a leap from "works going global" to "ecological going global". Relying on the "new three ways" of the Internet to break the space-time barrier, it not only demonstrates the global potential of Chinese cultural products, but also reflects China's positive role in cross-cultural dialogue, and becomes an important carrier for mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations. In April of this year, the mobile version of "Delta Action" developed by Tencent Tianmei J3 Studio was launched in the global market with technological empowerment, and immediately topped the free game list on the Apple App Store in 169 countries and regions. When testing overseas, even minor issues are immediately investigated and debugged repeatedly. ”The game producer Guo Zhi introduced that a large number of real person motion capture is used in the development, with dozens of cameras working simultaneously, which can capture hundreds of photos in seconds and generate 20 million 3D models to better immerse overseas players. New technologies are becoming an important driving force for the steady development of the "New Three", including games, to go global. With the assistance of AI technology, the translation level and efficiency of web dramas and articles have been greatly improved. The total number of AI translated works by "Qidian International" has exceeded 7200, accounting for about 70% of the total number of Chinese translated works. In the first half of this year, AI translated works accounted for about 40% of the top 200 best-selling works on the "Qidian International" bestseller list. Chinese web dramas going global are also undergoing a change from "exporting works" to "exporting production capabilities". According to the person in charge of iQiyi, they have established local companies and offices in Southeast Asia, North America, and other regions, and have exported Chinese language film and television works to over 190 countries and regions worldwide. Technological progress has led to content advancement and changed the way content is produced, achieving "localized" expression. This is not only a language conversion, but also a deep practice of cultural adaptation and emotional resonance. In the initial stage of a certain micro drama platform going global, the market response to directly translating domestic content was mediocre. Later, it shifted to localized production and integrated into local culture, resulting in a significant increase in global daily active users; Bilibili has partnered with Fuji Television in Japan to establish a national innovation channel, promoting the adaptation of Japanese dramas with IPs such as "Time Agent". Bilibili Vice Chairman Li Mei said, "Animation is an art based on fantasy, and the love for fantasy is a shared nature of all humanity. This requires dramas to have a global perspective from the beginning of creation." "Global co creation" is becoming a new trend. The relevant person in charge of Yuewen Group introduced that they are promoting cultural globalization from three aspects: firstly, creating high-quality content to enhance IP value through globalization. For example, after the first season of "Celebrating More Years" was popular, Disney pre ordered the exclusive overseas distribution rights for the second season; The second is to build a diverse IP ecosystem and expand its influence through forms such as publishing, animation, and film; The third is to promote the "content output+localization" model, which has trained 500000 overseas writers and incubated 770000 original works. British '90s' young man Calvin has been obsessed with Chinese online literature since 2018, especially' Douluo Continent '. Later, he signed with an online literary platform and became a "fellow disciple" with his idol Tang Jia San Shao. With extensive reading experience and the integration of Eastern and Western elements for creation, his works have been read over 90 million times on "Qidian International" in the past few years. Winning resonance is the key to venturing into the "deep sea" culture, "going out" is the first step, and "entering" is the key. Chinese traditional culture has a profound cultural heritage, but outsiders find it difficult to understand its essence solely based on symbols or images. Therefore, it is necessary to trigger emotional resonance and value recognition among audiences from different cultural backgrounds through diverse and in-depth cross-cultural expression. Although the "new three types" have achieved significant results in going global, they also face challenges such as content homogenization and single type. Although historical legends, youthful sweet pets, and fantasy works are popular overseas, they are prone to forming stereotypes. Ji Yunfei, an assistant professor at Sun Yat sen University, believes that the current "new three types" have already opened up the "pleasure" channel and are gradually integrating into foreign cultural environments. However, in order to truly form a strong emotional resonance and solid cultural identity with global users, more diverse types and deeper content are needed. Zheng Chao, Executive Director of Zhejiang Electronic Sports Association, reviewed the 2024 Cologne International Game Show and stated that "Made in China" has shifted from simply following technology to "technology+culture", organically integrating Chinese cultural elements to attract overseas users. He mentioned that the exhibition area of "Black Myth: Wukong" was particularly lively, with many foreign players imitating the images in the game and queuing up to take photos and check in. The popular online literature has recently gained recognition from overseas authoritative institutions. After the British Library first included 16 Chinese online literature works in 2022, it also included 10 Chinese online literature works such as "Full time Master" and "Celebrating the Year" last year. Today, practitioners in relevant fields say that online literature, online games and online film and television dramas have successfully exported themes that can evoke resonance overseas, such as kinship, dreams and growth, by taking full advantage of the open and shared communication characteristics of the Internet, and by virtue of ups and downs of plots, extraordinary imagination and expressions close to life. In the view of Professor Xia Lie from Hangzhou Normal University, the "new three styles" of cultural globalization signify that China's online literary and artistic creation in the past decade has acquired global characteristics, and the world's popular culture has arrived at "Chinese time". Professor Li Wei from the School of Literature at Nanjing Normal University proposed that cultural globalization is a "protracted battle" that requires resonance to overcome differences and respect for craftsmanship. We should support the young generation in China who possess both cultural confidence and a global perspective, actively engage in creation and dissemination, and promote cultural globalization to a wider "deep sea area". (New Society)

Edit:He Chuanning Responsible editor:Su Suiyue

Source:Xinhua

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