The Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference carried out a special investigation focused on "promoting the high

        The game *Black Myth: Wukong* has become a global phenomenal work; the TV drama *The Legend of Zanghai* has been launched in 190 countries and regions overseas; online novels such as *Library of Heaven's Path* and *Tales of Demons and Gods* have gained hundreds of millions of views overseas...

     The "three new cultural exports" are going global with an unprecedented momentum. According to statistics, last year our province had more than 20,000 online literary works exported overseas, produced over 5,000 micro short dramas, and the number of online games approved with version numbers accounted for 14.5% of the national total, forming a complete ecosystem covering creation, incubation, IP transformation and international communication.

     While inspired by the remarkable achievements of "cutting through the waves", we must also notice a key "watershed": as overseas audiences get familiar with Chinese culture from being strangers to it, how can we make the cultural values carried behind the products truly understood and recognized?

     Since the beginning of this year, the Provincial CPPCC has organized its members to conduct in-depth investigations in Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Jinhua and other places around the theme of "promoting high-quality development and high-level overseas expansion of the 'three new cultural exports'", exploring feasible paths for sustainable development from multiple dimensions.

     Going global, and going deep into local communities

     Having engaged in literary creation since 2007, Xia Ling, a member of the Provincial CPPCC and director of the Provincial Online Writers Association, has received countless messages from readers, one of which remains fresh in her memory.

     At that time, her online novel *My Naughty Chef Wife* was adapted into a TV series and broadcast on overseas platforms. A Canadian viewer left a message saying that she initially followed the drama just to see how the female lead amazed the ancients with modern cooking skills, but later noticed a detail running through the whole series: before cooking, the female lead always thought about who the dish was for — she cooked warm nourishing meals for patients, prepared long-lasting food for people traveling far away, and served a sweet treat for people in low spirits.

     "In my culture, food represents nutrition and energy. But in this story, food seems to become a form of dialogue," the viewer wrote. She never thought cooking could also express "I understand you", so she specifically looked up the concept of "food and medicine sharing the same origin". Later, she even launched the topic of "food as an emotional language" in the discussion area, attracting many netizens to follow up and communicate.

     Xia Ling believes that although this is an individual case, it reflects a trend: after the shallow pleasure consumption of "good-looking stories" is completed, some overseas audiences will actively explore the cultural core behind the stories.

     This is also an important proposition of the Provincial CPPCC research group — cultural export cannot stop at "telling a good story", but also needs to tap the content that resonates in the story.

     The participants agreed that the solution lies in providing "understandable emotional interfaces", and finding the core behind the culture that can touch the common feelings of human beings — protection, understanding, belonging and identity.

     In this regard, Lan Jinmei, a member of the Provincial CPPCC and chief operator of Lishui Shefeng Intangible Cultural Heritage Workshop, has personal experience.

     Last year, she and her team customized a Milan Fashion Week dress for actress Lan Yingying, bringing She ethnic costume to the international stage. At that moment, she truly realized that the key to connecting Chinese culture with world fashion is to find the connection point that crosses cultural barriers.

     Therefore, at this year's provincial two sessions, she submitted a proposal calling for vigorous promotion of the export of the "three new cultural exports", with a key focus on innovative narrative methods.

     How to implement it? The investigation of NetEase gave her inspiration.

     The game *Where Winds Meet* created by the company not only integrates cultural elements into the daily scenes of the game: players can stop in the towns to watch shadow puppetry, walk into restaurants to play chess and pitch arrows with visitors, but also carry out localized adaptation synchronously. For example, the traditional timekeeping expressions are replaced with the zodiac icons familiar to overseas players, while concepts rooted in traditional narratives such as "wuxia" and "jianghu" retain their transliterations, in order to arouse the curiosity of overseas players and actively explore the profound historical and cultural heritage behind them.

     "The presentation of culture is 'embedded' rather than 'attached'," Lan Jinmei believes that it is necessary to promote the transformation of thinking from "translation" to "trans-creation", and reserve anchor points in the story structure for overseas audiences to generate curiosity and take the initiative to explore.

     "This is also one of the keys to promoting the transformation of the 'three new cultural exports' from 'traffic-driven export' to 'value symbiosis'," said Zhong Guanhua, director of the Provincial CPPCC Cultural, Historical and Learning Committee. He believes that it is not only necessary to improve the "localized narrative" capability of enterprises, but also the government needs to build a framework for "systematic connection".

     In this regard, the research group put forward a number of specific suggestions, such as disassembling and transforming Liangzhu Culture, Song Dynasty Charm Culture and other cultural resources into standardized, unlockable and licensable digital files, with supporting cultural annotations, historical backgrounds, usage specifications, etc.; carrying out special research in cooperation with universities and scientific research institutions, analyzing the cultural customs and aesthetic preferences of different overseas regions, and forming cross-regional adaptation guidelines for cultural content.

     How to maintain momentum after going viral

     Since the beginning of this year, Jiaxing Jiuzhou Culture Media Co., Ltd. has accelerated the layout of its IP industry chain —

     Its original literary brand Jiuzhou Novel has officially established a master writer club to collect high-quality original stories globally; the comic drama *Spear for Life* jointly produced with the *Justice Online* mobile game has been launched...

     "These are all important moves for the transformation from content production to the construction of a complete IP ecosystem," introduced Wang Weizhi, vice president of the company. ShortMax, the overseas short drama platform led by Jiuzhou Culture, has covered more than 200 countries and regions, with a total reserve of more than 20,000 episodes, completing the phased task of "large-scale reach". But for long-term development, it still needs to rely on content to form strong IPs.

     This is not an isolated case. At present, our province has formed a cultural export ecological chain of "online literature incubates IP, online drama amplifies communication, and online games expand experience". For example, the Chinese Online Writers Village has promoted more than 270 IP transformation, derivative and adaptation projects through mechanisms such as the "Online Literature IP Express Train", with a total transaction value of more than 2.4 billion RMB.

     However, the research group found during the investigation that there are still breakpoints in the IP transformation chain, and the extension to high value-added fields such as derivative consumption, digital cultural tourism and immersive experience is insufficient.

     They believe that the key to solving the problem is not that a certain link in the chain is strong enough, but whether the whole chain can "operate smoothly". It requires all links to work together, integrating creativity, production, branding, marketing and distribution, to promote the transformation from "single-point hit" to "cross-border ecosystem".

     *Peaceful Era* is a sample that can be analyzed in depth: it links with cultural tourism resources in many provinces and cities across the country, with joint sales of cultural elements such as rice wine and aromatherapy exceeding 10 million yuan. It has launched the "Wuyue Goodies Market" in the Zhijiang Hall of Zhejiang Provincial Museum, with more than 200 types and over 4,000 pieces of cultural and creative products launched in the first batch.

     As the producer of this drama, Fu Binxing, a member of the Provincial CPPCC and president of Huace Pictures Group, believes that what determines whether a cultural product can go through cycles is not only the production efficiency, but also whether the IP itself has sufficient value thickness that can be continuously explored and developed.

     Liang Xueqin, a member of Jiaxing Municipal CPPCC and associate research librarian of Nanhu District Cultural Center, holds the same view. In her opinion, the overseas export of top IPs will eventually fall on "experience export". When overseas users are not just "watching" a Chinese story, but "stepping into", "participating in" and "consuming" derivative products of a Chinese story, cultural communication truly changes from "reach" to "immersion".

     "Compared with the world's top IPs, Zhejiang's hit products still have obvious gaps." In this regard, Liang Xueqin proposed a new cooperation model — encouraging online literature writers, film and television companies, troupes, game companies, cultural tourism enterprises, cultural and creative manufacturers to become "IP development partners", and establish an equity cooperation mechanism of "risk sharing and benefit sharing".

     In addition, the research group believes that the shortcomings of channels also need to be filled urgently. For example, the number of platform-based enterprises with global influence and global competitiveness is small, the export of online dramas is highly dependent on international platforms or overseas agents, the international distribution of online games is subject to high platform sharing, and many enterprises have weak capabilities to adapt to international rules and carry out compliant operations.

     They suggest actively striving for national-level platforms, national-level brand activities and major pilot projects to settle in Zhejiang, relying on scientific research institutions and leading enterprises to carry out industry-university-research collaborative research and technical standard formulation, and integrating resources of professional institutions to build "overseas compliance service packages", etc.

     Embracing AI and prioritizing high-quality works

     Recently, at the 16th China Golden Eagle TV Art Festival (Micro Short Drama Honor Unit), Dongyang Gewu Zhizhi Culture Media Co., Ltd. won the honor of Producer of the Year, as well as many honors including Micro Short Drama of the Year, Director of the Year, and Screenwriter of the Year with its work *Langya Surname*.

     As a film and television production company, in the face of the AI wave, choosing to explore the high-quality development path of historical short dramas is thought-provoking in itself.

     "We should not only embrace AI, but also strengthen high-quality works," said Lu Caijian, chairman of the company. He believes that AI is reshaping the cost structure of film and television production, but lower cost does not mean lower quality. "The reason why our team can get to today is ultimately due to two points: deep cultivation of content, and maintaining awe for users."

     Data shows that in the first 8 months of this year, 430,000 micro short dramas were launched nationwide, 13 times the total number of last year, of which AI-generated dramas accounted for more than 90%. However, while technology expands the space for imagination, it also precipitates a large amount of "digital swill", and phenomena such as shoddy production, routine copying and even plagiarism are common.

     During the visits, the research group found that the proportion of "three new cultural exports" enterprises in the province applying AI has increased significantly, but between "embracing AI" and "prioritizing high-quality works", there is still a widespread "dilemma":

     On the one hand, the homogeneous competition in content creation has intensified. In the field of online literature, themes such as fantasy, xianxia and overbearing presidents are clustered; among micro short dramas, types such as ancient costume sweet romance and counterattack cool dramas are repeated; in the field of online games, the proportion of MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) is relatively high.

     On the other hand, the talent demand structure is changing rapidly. For example, at Jiuzhou Culture, the number of employees has expanded from 3,000 to nearly 10,000 in one year, of which AI content creation posts account for 60%, and traditional film and television production posts account for only 3%.

     Take screenwriters as an example. Zhu Xu, a member of Hangzhou Municipal CPPCC and secretary-general of Hangzhou Film and Television Artists Association, found through investigation that in the field of online dramas and micro short dramas, creators are deeply bound to platforms. In order to pass the platform review requirements and conform to the platform algorithm rules, the independent status of screenwriters as the "creation subject" and the core value of the "soul" of works are relatively weakened, which easily leads to content homogenization and routinization.

     In her opinion, at the moment of new technology and new media reform, "new screenwriter" talents who have both values and historical views, are proficient in AI technology application and have IP awareness are needed.

     This is also the consensus of the research group members — what the AI era needs is no longer content producers with a single skill, but compound talents who understand both cultural content and technical operation, and are familiar with both the domestic market and international rules.

     The participants agreed that breaking the bottleneck of talent supply is inseparable from the combination of introduction and cultivation. For example, supporting universities and leading enterprises to jointly build industrial colleges, relying on high-level platforms to build digital cultural talent training bases, and carrying out special training for on-the-job employees on AIGC application, overseas operation, copyright management and other topics.

     How to form an institutional environment conducive to high-quality creation is also the focus of the research group.

     Zhu Guoqiang, a member of Dongyang Municipal CPPCC and chairman of Dongyang Federation of Literary and Art Circles, believes that multi-party coordination from the government, platforms, industry organizations and other parties is required. For example, the government establishes a theme innovation guidance catalog to reasonably regulate the creation scale of homogeneous themes; platforms establish a recommendation mechanism that balances "traffic" and "quality", giving traffic support to high-quality content and reasonably regulating homogeneous content.

     Culture is like water, moistening things silently. The story of cultural export is a dynamic nautical chart that is being continuously depicted. How much creative potential is hidden in the future? How to travel steadily and far in a broader waterway? The answer still requires in-depth thinking and continuous exploration.

The article is sourced from Zhejiang Online