Chinese microdramas, called duanju, are cliffhanger series told in vertical episodes of two minutes or less. PetaPixel reports that since ByteDance released Seedance 2.0 in February, producers have been swapping live shoots for AI video.
The Economist credits the business with about 700,000 jobs, mostly around studios in Guangzhou and Zhengzhou, where crews once shot dozens of episodes a day. One studio owner says his work is down 70% on last year, and actor Li Dazhi says his pay has halved.
Producers are paying for AI tokens instead of cast and crew, turning out series in days rather than weeks, and a director quoted in the piece says most viewers don't care whether a show is AI. An American actress working in China described the shift as happening almost overnight.
The article contrasts this with the US, where SAG-AFTRA is pushing for limits on digital replicas and it is still unclear whether audiences will take to AI drama.
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