The short dramas produced by Zhongxiu, aside from the recent incident involving an 11-year-old girl playing a child bride, have also been linked to news about babies being brutally abused by production crews. Moreover, these incidents are just the tip of the iceberg of the toxic black arts industry that short dramas represent for Chinese workers. It is understood that, besides these issues, short dramas also involve excessively long working hours and intense workloads. According to BBC reports, the Chinese short drama industry is characterized by a “fast” overall tone, relying on a market line of “quick, cheap, low-cost.” The most common model is “7+7+7,” meaning seven days of preparation, seven days of filming, and the post-production “streaming” also takes seven days. This operational mode causes extremely severe oppression and barbaric treatment of the laboring masses within the industry. According to Ji Mian News, some short dramas are even shot at an insane pace of 100 episodes in 7 days, working 20 hours a day at high intensity. Entire crews work 24 hours straight with only 6 hours of rest, compressing what would normally take 10 days of filming into just 5 days. The male lead of one such drama finished shooting at 1:30 a.m., had to get up at 3 a.m. for makeup, and only slept for an hour before collapsing. If even adults are subjected to such conditions, what about children and infants? According to NetEase News, child actors face filming times of up to 14 to 16 hours a day and are at risk of being exposed to wind and rain. Yet, the regulatory body, Zhongxiu, has only issued a “Management Tips for Children’s Micro-Short Dramas,” to evade their obvious responsibilities. What are everyone’s thoughts on this?
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This is the association’s brief comment on short dramas, which are a harmful opium to the Chinese working people
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