[Source: China Women's Daily]
It is understandable that the micro-short drama uses an appropriately exaggerated plot structure to cater to the audience's emotional release and increase the audience's pleasure experience. But if you are completely coerced by traffic and profits, and only rely on simple and vulgar plots and extremely explosive contradictions to attract attention, you can only gradually devour your vigorous vitality.
■ Fan Yuchen
A small news in three days, a big hot search in five days. In just two years since its birth, micro-short dramas have grown savagely all the way and quickly out of the circle with their short duration, fast pace, and low cost, "a couple of short dramas earn more than 400 million yuan per month" and "a building in Hengdian creates more than 1,000 micro-short dramas in half a year"...... The myths created by micro-short dramas frequently appear at the top of the hot search list. According to the "2023 Micro Short Drama Industry Research Report", the market size of micro short dramas in 2023 will be nearly 40 billion yuan, close to 70% of the TV market volume, and the market size is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan within five years.
However, the recent two takedown announcements have cooled down and warned the heat of micro-short dramas.
On April 10, Douyin and Kuaishou, the two major short video platforms, successively issued announcements to remove from the shelves the micro-short dramas on their platforms that promote unhealthy and non-mainstream views on family, marriage and love, and deliberately amplify and exaggerate the conflicts between husband and wife, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Douyin revealed that according to the relevant community rules, 6 related illegal micro-short dramas have been removed from the shelves, including "The Final Bottom Line", "Mother's Birthday", "Miss Daughter Fights Back", etc. The Kuaishou platform also issued an announcement to remove 4 illegal micro-short dramas such as "Pregnant Woman" and "Mother-in-law's Kennel", and cleaned up 738 pieces of related content.
Looking back at the relevant supervision of micro-short dramas, it can be found that this is not the first time that micro-short dramas have been removed from the shelves due to unhealthy values: in December last year, Mimeng launched the popular short drama "Black Lotus Upper Manual", but it was subsequently removed from the platform due to reasons such as "exaggerating the bad values of extreme revenge and countering violence with violence, and confusing the concept of right and wrong". On March 21 this year, the online micro-short drama "Teacher Don't Run" had a vulgar plot, and the lines, pictures, and plots involved serious soft pornography and other violations.
Celebrities, bosses, scumbags, evil mothers-in-law, rich and rich, reborn, crossing, revenge...... In fact, not only the batch of micro-short dramas that have been removed from the shelves, but also the exaggerated character settings, the ups and downs of the bloody plot reversal, especially the extreme contradictions and conflicts, have always been the tried and tested production routines of micro-short dramas. The creators of micro-short dramas, who are well versed in the psychology of users in the Internet era, skillfully copy the cool logic of the previous online cool texts and cool dramas in short videos, and use the suspended background that is detached from reality to create an omnipotent daydream for ordinary people, and the exaggerated escalation of contradictions, vicious fighting and revenge, while quickly attracting the attention of the audience, also connects people's suppressed emotional pain points in reality, so that people can get a happy catharsis and "up" pleasure experience in watching.
When such a simple and straightforward refreshing "product" continues to hook the audience's attention and eat the sweetness of traffic, catering to and amplifying the darkness and ugliness of human nature, and even "reviving the soul" of backward values in the drama, it has become a shortcut for capital to pursue profits on the short drama track.
In the micro-short dramas that have been removed from the shelves this time, the "war" between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law and husband and wife that has been rendered and amplified is based on the interpersonal conflicts and negative emotions that are common in ordinary people's family life. By creating bizarre and outrageous characters and a bloody plot of "tearing each other", the contradictions between husband and wife and mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are spectacled, which not only ignores the complexity of human nature and reality, but also makes people angry that the stigma of women's relationships in film and television works has been criticized and reflected on for many years.
Many classic gender studies have long pointed out that in popular culture, the portrayal of women's nature as jealousy and shallowness, and the relationship between women and women as "fighting", exclusion, and cannibalism, are the remnants of the "misogynistic" culture in a patriarchal society for thousands of years. The sharp relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law that is common in traditional society is precisely the helpless tragedy in which women project hatred and contradictions onto the same sex in a patriarchal culture. Today, at a time when women have participated in social production on a large scale, equality between men and women has become a mainstream value, and the friendship between women supporting each other is gradually being seen, exaggerating the conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in order to create a strong conflict, and killing each other between women to attract attention, although it is a window for the audience to get emotional catharsis for a short time, but it reproduces and solidifies the backward and ugly gender culture, and also seriously affects the audience's normal cognition of intimate relationships and family relationships. This can no longer be called a traffic password, it is like a cultural toxin to be removed.
In addition to the "big war" of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, it is not uncommon for the plot of objectifying women, vulgar kitsch, and worshipping money in micro-short dramas: whether it is a revenge short drama such as "The Revenge of the Wrong Daughter", the heroine was extremely insulted by the male protagonist in the early stage, and the plot carried out extremely intelligent and dwarf operations on women, or the sweet pet short dramas such as "Mr. Gu's Second Married Wife" conveyed from "second marriage with a baby girl" to "boss wife" represents a successful "counterattack" by women 's distorted value orientation seems to satisfy the refreshing feelings and fantasies of female audiences, but in fact, it hollows out the core of women's self-worth and cuts off the logic of character growth. What's more, such as the soft pornography in "Teacher Don't Run" and the violence in "Black Lotus Superior Handbook", they disregard morality and public order and good customs, and have become pure industry dross.
Wrapped in misogynistic and vulgar cool points copied one after another, a large number of micro-short dramas with homogeneous themes and mixed quality have flocked to the market, and the various problems exposed by their barbaric growth cannot but make people wake up and reflect, where will the micro-short dramas go?
Throughout the iterative history of media, from radio and TV dramas to online dramas, from traditional literature to online literature, every new way of communication and creation will arouse social discussions and worries when they appear. However, practice has proved that popularity is never the same as shallowness, and there is no shortage of touching boutiques in new creative forms, and even has a tendency to become classic. The "cheats" that are ever-changing are sincere creative stances, high-quality content, and values that are in line with the orientation of the times.
Short dramas are no exception. As an emerging form of online literature and art, micro-short dramas do well conform to the current rhythm of people's lives and fragmented viewing habits, allowing the audience to get a moment of mental rest in the busyness. It is understandable to use an appropriately exaggerated plot structure to cater to the audience's emotional release and increase the audience's pleasure experience. However, if it is completely coerced by traffic and profits, and only relies on simple and vulgar plots and extremely explosive contradictions to attract attention, it can only gradually devour its vigorous vitality.
Fortunately, as the problems exposed by micro-short dramas are gradually taken seriously, the standardization and formalization of this industry are also advancing. At the 11th Online Audiovisual Conference not long ago, Feng Shengyong, director of the Network Audiovisual Program Management Department of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, said that since June 1, all micro-short dramas broadcasted, drained, and pushed by online audiovisual platforms and small programs must hold the "Online Drama Film Distribution License", or the corresponding online record number of the platform. In addition to supervision, the development of micro-short dramas is also being supported by the "head forces" of the industry, and the participation of well-known production companies and well-known directors will continue to update the creative power of micro-short dramas, and improve the entry threshold and content iteration of the micro-short drama industry.
No matter how the media and audience change, boutique products are still the same pursuit. We call for more micro-short dramas with aesthetic standards and positive values to appear, and look forward to one day, when we ask what the cool feeling of micro-short dramas is, the answer is no longer misogynistic and vulgar routines, but in just a few minutes, human nature and the world with realistic penetration and artistic expression.
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