This month, two AI-free productions made by amateur teams have gone viral on the Chinese internet, sparking debate as to whether AI-generated content can replace human-made stories.
The eight-episode short drama, “ENEMY,” has surpassed 800 million views, with its most viral episode receiving over 11.7 million likes on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, while the film “Ji Shi Yi Dao,” meaning “the auspicious hour has arrived,” has received over 6.1 million likes. Both are available for free on Douyin, video platform Bilibili, and lifestyle app Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote.
The rise of the two productions comes as China’s film and short drama industry rapidly expands its use of AI-generated content. Approximately 128,000 short dramas were released in the first quarter of this year, with AI-generated content accounting for 95% of the total, as reported by the China Netcasting Services Association. Short drama production companies across the country have been cutting staff or shifting toward AI-generated content.
Both productions center on Chinese opera and wuxianliu — or “infinite flow” — a genre featuring characters who must repeatedly traverse various parallel worlds to complete missions and survive deadly challenges. The genre is widely considered to have originated with the 2007 Chinese web novel “Infinite Horror.”
