(China Daily) Original online drama Luoyang, a production by leading content streaming website iQiyi, will meet viewers around the world on Dec 1.Luoyang in Central China's Henan province is the first city to be featured in the iQiyi Chinese Historic City Universe, a program that gathers content that draws inspiration from Chinese cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Longxi county of Dingxi, Dunhuang and Nanjing, in an effort to bridge the gap between China's local culture and a global audience.
Luoyang tells the story of group of people from different walks of life investigating an unsolved case of crime in the city of Luoyang, which served as the capital during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907).
The story was adapted from the novel Luoyang by Ma Boyong, one of China's most acclaimed authors and winner of the prestigious People's Literature Prize. At the press conference, Ma shared that his inspiration for creating the story was his love of history. "As a person who studies history, I find that no matter what period of history you study, Luoyang is a city you can never miss. Then I realized we should do something for a city so rich with legends."
The TV series Luoyang has so far attracted more than 3.55 million users, with strong interest shown from overseas audiences as it hit seven trending topic charts on Twitter in Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. Luoyang will be available on more local mainstream channels and platforms after its global premiere.With the demand for Asian content steadily on the rise across the world, Chinese-language content is also becoming increasingly popular among viewers worldwide. Working with industry talent, iQiyi hopes to introduce more Chinese-language content to more international audiences.
At present, 12 projects and counting are under development as part of iCHCU of Luoyang, including drama, documentary, animated series, VR and commercial real estate projects.
Wang Xiaohui, chief content officer at iQiyi, highlighted the breakthrough in iCHCU's launch: "With its release, iCHCU shows iQiyi breaking new ground in cinematic expression, original IP development, and business model innovation."
Acclaimed actor Huang Xuan, actress Song Qian and singer-actor Wang Yibo, all with significant global reach, will play the leading roles under the direction of director Xie Ze.
Source: chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2021-11-30 10:45