People travel thousands of miles to a place to see a concert, watch a live TV show, or simply drink a cup of milk tea. One city in China has this magic: Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province in central China.
Hunan Broadcasting System (HBS), the provincial satellite TV station, known for producing a batch of popular variety shows and talent shows, such as the phenomenal "Happy Camp" and far-reaching "Super Girls," which both have become iconic for at least one generation in China.
Mango TV, HBS's new media service platform, was founded on May 26, 2006 in Changsha and is much younger than Hunan TV, but it has already acquired a number of well-known shows, including "Sisters Who Make Waves" in 2020.
The finals of talent show "Super Girls" in 2016 was concluded in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province. /CFP
Changsha has been considered a pioneer in producing TV shows, variety shows and dramas. The recording and producing programs have been industrialized in the city, especially in the Malanshan Video Cultural and Creative Industry Park, also known as Malanshan V Zone.
Hit shows produced in Changsha
Season 1 of reality show "Sisters Who Make Waves" swept the country in the first half of 2020, received over 5.1 billion views in the year, and its investment data refreshed a number of records, according to report released by Mango Excellent Media Co., Ltd, the public company behind Mango TV.
Mango TV has proven its strong content production capabilities and ability to produce hit programs. According to the report of Mango Excellent Media in the first half of 2020, Mango TV achieved revenue of 4.283 billion yuan in the first six months, with a year-on-year growth of 7.76%, and its net profit was up to 1 billion yuan, arrived 49.21% year-on-year.
Apart from "Sisters Who Make Waves" last year, many other popular dramas and documentaries were produced in Changsha, including "The Guardians of Jiefangxi," "Super–Vocal" and "Who's the Murderer?"
Five contestants perform on the stage of reality show "Sisters Who Make Waves" Season 2 on March 5, 2021. /CFP
Specialization in the entertainment industry of Changsha
In 2017, the year Malanshan V Zone was launched, among the top 10 variety shows that received over 1 billion views that year, eight of them were from Malanshan V Zone.
From January to September 2020, Malanshan V Zone earned 30.629 billion yuan, representing a 15.34 percent increase year over year, according to Xinhua. Covering 15.75 square kilometers in the city, Malanshan V Zone has gathered over 3,000 video cultural and creative enterprises, focuses on the production of digital video contents through the integration of culture and technology, also was known as "China V Valley."
The outside of China's Malanshan Video Cultural and Creative Industry Park in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province. /CFP
Malanshan's development plan stated that by 2030, it would be successfully integrated into the global video industry value chain and innovation chain, with an output value of more than 300 billion yuan, transforming it into an international large-scale cultural and creative industrial park featuring video cultural and creative industries.
Read more about our special coverage on China's 1-trillion-yuan star city of Changsha.