Comparison between C-Drama, TW-Drama and HK Dramas?

[hotsushi-kun]

Hello there, i've been watching some dramas from Chinese-langauge (particualy Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese) and i've been thinking, what the difference between Chinese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong dramas and what do they differ. I know that they are both part of Chinese langugage and are use Chinese language symbol, Chinese and Taiwanese use Madarin whereas Hong Kong use Cantonese. But what do they differ from it and what kind of production quality they produce, as well as its variety they make.

Let me know?

[5201314]

Hong Kong and Taiwan used to be the kings of dramas like 20 years ago. Mainland China started to up their game in the late 2000s and the quality of dramas in TW and HK have crashed. You might have one or two standout productions from TW and HK each year, but all the money and talent is in mainland China.  

[pace]

These wikipedia links might be helpful:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_Hong_Kong

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_Taiwan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_China

I can't really say much about Hong Kong's dramas, but I've noticed some things about Taiwanese and Chinese dramas. Airing schedules differ. In China, dramas will air multiple episodes a week and finish a series' run usually within a month. Taiwanese dramas (if they're not daily) will usually air once a week and with shorter episodes. China usually releases a lot of costume dramas, which I don't really see coming out from Taiwan anymore. Chinese dramas can air on multiple broadcast stations simultaneously (not referring to cable channels in this). I know TW-dramas air on multiple platforms too, but I don't think they air on two TV stations at the same time whereas Chinese dramas can. There's also the thing with the NRTA since they restrict and censor things which means that certain things that might pass for a Taiwanese drama might not if it is too air in China such as explicit BL content. 

In terms of production quality, that depends on each project. However, Chinese dramas are a really interesting topic to look at because celebrities have been noted to be overpaid and take a huge chunk of the budget for a drama. With NRTA's new regulations though, perhaps scripts and production quality will improve noticeably...not that there aren't great Chinese drama productions but that some shows have gotten into controversies for these reasons. It also doesn't help that some dramas will try to increase episode counts which also end up lowering the quality of dramas.

[hotsushi-kun]

On 4/3/2020 at 2:57 PM, 5201314 said:

Hong Kong and Taiwan used to be the kings of dramas like 20 years ago. Mainland China started to up their game in the late 2000s and the quality of dramas in TW and HK have crashed. You might have one or two standout productions from TW and HK each year, but all the money and talent is in mainland China.  

I do recall there are some users on OH who used to watch these HK and TW dramas back in 1980s, 1990s and 2000s when HK and TW dramas we'e really cool and had a huge budget products. Hong Kong was an primarily producer of these Chinese dramas on 1970s through 1990s and then in 2000s TW-Dramas was an prime king of Chinese dramas and now in 2010s Mainland Chinese dramas are the main kings. At least there are couple of newer generations who are much more into Mainland Chinese dramas than Taiwanese and Hong Kongese, and the dramas from HK and TW are rarely produced. In 2019 dramas from Mainland, Taiwanese and Hong Kong had sort of this based on MDL lists:

276 dramas are from Mainland China

40 dramas are from Taiwan

29 dramas are from Hong Kong

I am much more comfortable with Mainland Chinese dramas too because i am 23 and born in 1997, and i hail from Serbia and Serbia have a deep connected ties with China, but i also rarely watch Taiwanese and Hong Kong dramas on occasions, my next priority is that i will watch is Before We Get Married from Taiwan and one older that is In Skip Beat! made in 2011, which is an Taiwanese remake of an Japanese manga by Yoshiki Nakamura.

There are couple of Taiwanese dramas that gets aired into Mainland China as well, due to China's try to be an economic superpower and produce their drama of their own. I don't know if Hong Kong dramas is airing on Mainland China too, though, because i know Hong Kong use cantonese language whereas China and Taiwan opted to use Madarin an primary language.

 

On 4/4/2020 at 10:23 PM, pace said:

These wikipedia links might be helpful:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_Hong_Kong

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_Taiwan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_China

I can't really say much about Hong Kong's dramas, but I've noticed some things about Taiwanese and Chinese dramas. Airing schedules differ. In China, dramas will air multiple episodes a week and finish a series' run usually within a month. Taiwanese dramas (if they're not daily) will usually air once a week and with shorter episodes. China usually releases a lot of costume dramas, which I don't really see coming out from Taiwan anymore. Chinese dramas can air on multiple broadcast stations simultaneously (not referring to cable channels in this). I know TW-dramas air on multiple platforms too, but I don't think they air on two TV stations at the same time whereas Chinese dramas can. There's also the thing with the NRTA since they restrict and censor things which means that certain things that might pass for a Taiwanese drama might not if it is too air in China such as explicit BL content. 

In terms of production quality, that depends on each project. However, Chinese dramas are a really interesting topic to look at because celebrities have been noted to be overpaid and take a huge chunk of the budget for a drama. With NRTA's new regulations though, perhaps scripts and production quality will improve noticeably...not that there aren't great Chinese drama productions but that some shows have gotten into controversies for these reasons. It also doesn't help that some dramas will try to increase episode counts which also end up lowering the quality of dramas.

Thanks, i am glad to let you know about it. There is still think that i could combine these drama from Taiwan and Hong Kong into Mainland as an Top 50 List of Best Chinese Dramas from 2020, since Taiwan and Hong Kong are largely connected with China, due to historical days they had.

[Miaou00]

I used to be a taiwanese drama fans before I entered the Kpop world or the hallyu with TVXQ, SUJU, SNSD and Boys Over Flowers in 2009.  I was fan of taiwanese stuffs for 1 year (Fahrenheit, Joe Chen, Mike He, Ming Dao, Ethan Ruan.....Ariel Lin, Rainie Yang

• Taiwanese dramas were really good, simple, soft and warm (Devil beside you, Prince turn into a frog, They kiss again....)
• Taiwan had a lot of good looking idol-actor:actress or singer-actor/actress

Hong Kong was more popular for action movies (my dad were fan of almost every huge movies from HK. 

I don't know why they get invisible once Mainland China started to rise economically. Like both Taiwan and HK had the advantage of selling their contents to mainland (a huge market). 

The only new taiwanese actor that can come to my mind is Jasper Liu because of Seungjae and some SWOON contents about him;