Inside the ornate imperial chamber of a replica Chinese palace, tourists twist their faces in feigned anger and mimic the movements of a director as they star in their own personalised microdramas.
Gao Saifei, a 19-year-old aspiring actor among the group, told AFP she travelled to Hengdian World Studios often referred to as “China’s Hollywood” for the chance to act out a scene from a popular Chinese period drama.
Clad in a yellow Chinese imperial robe and furrowing her brows, she pretended to slap a kneeling concubine, while a crowd of enraptured tourists filmed the scene.
“It felt so liberating,” Gao told AFP excitedly, after her scene was met with applause from onlookers.
The sprawling studio in Zhejiang province, which includes a replica of Beijing’s Forbidden City, has drawn visitors like Gao, who want the chance to act in short microdramas for social media.
These mostly vertical soap opera-like series with episodes as short as 30 seconds have taken China by storm, with people across the country watching them on ByteDance-owned apps like Hongguo and Douyin.
Microdrama productions in Hengdian for tourists like Gao operate seamlessly, with a team including camera operators, lighting assistants, a director and sometimes extras assigned to each film set.
The director demonstrates the lines, actions and facial expressions of each character for tourists to mimic.
“Playing the emperor… allowed me to be a bit arrogant and dramatic,” said Gao, who studies acting in Sichuan province.
“It really helped me let loose and break out of my shell.”
– ‘Back in time’ –
At another studio in Hengdian, tourists sat at vanities as make-up artists powdered their faces and styled their hair in intricate designs.
Customers pay 388 yuan for the studio’s full microdrama package, which includes a costume, hair and make-up services, and an edited video at the end of the filming.
The affordable rates have also drawn foreign tourists such as Kinjal Patel from London, whose $150 package includes English translators.
Patel, 35, who described herself as a microdrama and period drama fan, was playing the role of an innocent older sister defending herself against a manipulative, evil younger sister, who accuses her of breaking their mother’s teacup.
“I… wanted to experience the architecture, the culture, the history and just walk through it because you feel like you’re back in time,” said Patel, donning a red Ming dynasty dress.
Microdramas are a hit because their content often “leans toward the realm of dreams and fantasies”, said Wu Yizhuo, who was directing Patel’s video.
“For instance, stories where a security guard is pursued by a beautiful female CEO, or a cleaning lady is wooed by a handsome, domineering CEO these are essentially escapist fantasies,” Wu told AFP, referring to some popular microdrama tropes.
“Even though we know full well that what we’re watching is fictional, our emotions still get swept up in the plot, allowing us to release some stress,” he said.
– ‘AI falls short’ –
Microdrama production companies have been increasingly harnessing artificial intelligence to replace actors and screenwriters with algorithms, slashing costs in the process.
AI-generated content accounted for 95 percent of the 128,000 microdramas released nationwide in the first quarter of 2026, state broadcaster CCTV said in June.
Workers in Hengdian have found themselves with far fewer roles this year, according to CCTV.
While some actors working as extras could earn as much as 600 yuan per day “in previous years”, daily pay is half of that this year, it said.
Student Gao said AI was able to bring to life “grander, more epic scenes on a much smaller budget” but is a double-edged sword as acting majors like her “might find ourselves out of work”.
She feels that while AI characters may appear “quite fluid” in terms of their facial expressions and movements, humans possess “genuine emotions” that “AI cannot truly replicate”.
“AI falls short when it comes to capturing the true depth of human emotion.”
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This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
