Mr Li Si Wei has labored for China’s tech large Sohu and China’s primary video streaming platform iQIYI, and is now with the Singapore-listed G.H.Y Tradition & Media.
He has over 15 years of profitable expertise in digital leisure within the areas of Web TV, selection reveals, and short-format movies which have emerged globally lately. He led the worldwide advertising and promotion of the hit TV sequence “Story of Yanxi Palace” and the variability present “Youth with You”, which have been broadcast all through Asia.
Mr Li has in depth expertise in worldwide model advertising and workforce administration, with explicit perception into the historical past, tradition, leisure atmosphere and customs of Southeast Asia, and has maintained shut partnerships with many media, movie and tv organisations and types in Southeast Asia.
As a senior advertising skilled within the China market, Mr Li has been invited to be a speaker at a number of China and worldwide advertising summits and to be a choose at promoting festivals.
How did you first get occupied with bridging the totally different markets of Singapore, Southeast Asia and China?
Traditionally, China has opened a transport route connecting Southeast Asia as early because the second century BCE. Since then, cultural and commerce exchanges between China and Southeast Asia have by no means been interrupted.
Personally talking, my earliest impression of Singapore originated from a sequence of Singaporean TV episodes that had been widespread in China within the 80s, akin to “The Nice Conspiracy” and “The Story of the Nice Heroes” starring Fann Wong and Christopher Lee, the photographs of that are nonetheless vivid in my thoughts.
Not too long ago, because of the nice success of the TV sequence “The Little Nyonya” in Singapore and Malaysia, and aired in China, a spread of Southeast Asian-themed TV sequence and selection reveals adopted, which continued to reap excessive reward and fame from native viewers in China.
I noticed an enormous room for progress in the entire Southeast Asian movie and tradition area, which prompted me to affix G.H.Y Tradition & Media, as the corporate shares the identical imaginative and prescient. G.H.Y’s dedication to growing nearer ties with Southeast Asia is obvious from their organising of some Southeast Asian places of work — one in Singapore because the headquarters to handle the area, and others in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
Utilizing movie and cultural works as a bridge between China and Southeast Asia, G.H.Y and I intend to deepen mutual understanding and communication; to grab alternatives and contribute to constructing the prosperity of the Asia-Pacific area collectively.
Was there a specific mutual profit for the Chinese language and Singaporean TV and movie industries to work collectively? If that’s the case, what would that be?
I believe the best widespread worth of the trade, each in China, Singapore and Southeast Asia as an entire, is to supply our audiences with useful movies and TV productions that they may take pleasure in watching day by day.
By creating movies and TV content material made by Asia for Asia, we will improve mutual understanding and communication amongst folks of various nationalities and cultures, and on the identical time, promote the event of the entire trade. From movies and TV content material, spinoffs are inevitable — akin to offline movie and TV bases, offline IP dwell video games, IP derivatives improvement, and the coaching of performing skills.
G.H.Y has simply introduced that they’re launching extra Singapore-China collaborations for the creation of authentic leisure content material (IP tasks) for 2022 and past. What makes an IP venture totally different from a standard one that may assist cross-cultural relations between media markets?
Sure, the earlier co-production and launch of “The Little Nyonya” by our Chinese language and Singapore groups was a giant success in China and abroad markets, which gave us numerous confidence.
As everyone knows, the core of making movie and TV works comes from the subject material — good content material will entice good actors to take part and thus entice extra viewers that finally will find yourself as a well-received piece of labor that’s thought-about “good”.
The success of “The Little Nyonya” has proven us the nice potential of the Nanyang (Southeast Asia) theme in China and regional markets.
For the “Nanyang” IP portfolio for G.H.Y, the corporate has accomplished the preparation and filming of “Sisterhood”, “Nanyang Heroes” amongst others, coming to audiences quickly.
The distinction between IP and odd tasks is that good IP might be continued and extra leisure derivatives might be developed beneath the identical IP to satisfy the viewers’s extra diversified leisure wants.
For instance, for our different IP work “Horror Tales of the Tang Dynasty”, to be able to enable the viewers to benefit from the fantastic episodes on-line whereas experiencing the allure of the IP in an immersive approach, we have now invested within the offline “Horror Tales of the Tang Dynasty” dwell sport which will probably be launched to Chinese language audiences quickly.
The entire IP leisure expertise, which mixes on-line productions with offline dwell experiences, may even be out there to Singaporean audiences quickly.
To date, is the Singaporean media market extra related or totally different from the Chinese language?
I believe, for now, the Chinese language media market will probably be richer and extra aggressive.
For instance, for our acquainted long-form video platforms, China has many platforms akin to iQIYI, Tencent, Youku and Mango TV, and every platform has its personal unique IP content material. This wholesome competitors not solely satisfies the totally different tastes of viewers but additionally promotes additional trade improvement.
Within the discipline of short-form movies, which has emerged lately, China already has Douyin and Kuaishou, that are utilized by many customers in mainland China, and each have launched worldwide variations to satisfy the necessities of worldwide customers.
Seeing the success of TikTok worldwide, what’s one thing that you’ve discovered from working with the Chinese language market that you simply assume might be utilized to Singapore or the remainder of the world?
The success of TikTok has certainly taught us so much.
From the enterprise facet: Perseverance in the fitting approach, this regulation is a prerequisite for enterprise success. TikTok’s success on the earth was preceded by a number of years of exploration and perseverance within the Chinese language market. Success is not any accident; it is going to be given to firms and people which are properly ready.
From the consumer facet: TikTok’s success can’t be separated from its social attributes. Whether or not it’s a social platform within the type of graphics or a video social platform akin to TikTok, we will see that, together with the continual improvement of the community and cell gadgets, customers’ social wants on the community are continually altering. They at all times wish to be proven or uncover richer content material, which is the rationale why TikTok customers are rising quickly around the globe.
From the science and know-how facet: One other key to TikTok’s success comes from its underlying logic, which is the algorithm’s advice. Counting on the energy of algorithms, TikTok provides customers steady and correct suggestions of content material they’re occupied with. This additionally permits advertisers to focus on their audiences extra precisely. This has drastically improved the effectivity of communication between the content material and customers.
We normally say that success is tough to be copied, however we will be taught from the profitable experiences of others and mix it with our personal scenario to perform new breakthroughs and improvements, that is the place our focus must be.
Why do you assume the short-drama format would work with the Singaporean viewers?
To start with, our profitable expertise in China makes us assured within the new leisure content material of short-form dramas. With the accelerated tempo of contemporary life, persons are in a rush of their work and social conditions all day, so their private leisure time is fragmented.
By way of conventional motion pictures and TV dramas, watching them at double velocity and filtering out lengthy and slow-paced storylines has develop into a brand new mode of viewing for younger folks. Brief video dramas of 3-5 minutes per episode additionally align with younger folks’s choice for movie and TV leisure content material.
That is additionally evidenced by the efficiency of the primary season of “Goddess Lodge” globally launched by G.H.Y, which not solely acquired 140 million viewers on Douyin in China, but additionally gathered greater than 10 million viewers on TikTok platforms in Southeast Asian nations like Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. After all, this new brief drama mannequin additionally places ahead newer and better necessities for the creators of movie and tv content material.
G.H.Y additionally collaborates with NUS to hone younger expertise with Pitch It! — an annual tertiary-wide advertising competitors. Do you will have plans to have interaction with a wider pool of expertise to your future tasks?
Sure, G.H.Y needs to work with extra Singaporean establishments of upper studying to encourage and nurture one of the best skills within the discipline of movie and media. To this finish, G.H.Y will present skilled mentors to share wealthy real-life instances, and in addition present alternatives for younger skills with hands-on observe by means of G.H.Y’s movie and tv tasks.
With GHY’s collaboration with iQIYI, what do you assume are qualities that younger artistes want in the present day?
Crucial factor is that the artiste will not be solely a shining star on the display but additionally a public determine, an idol, that many younger folks admire and imitate.
Along with making steady efforts to refine their private skills, they need to even be strict with themselves when it comes to their private ethical character, and type out the fitting function fashions and values for the youthful era.
It’s with this aim in thoughts that G.H.Y, along with iQIYI, has collectively established the biggest artiste company in Southeast Asia, hoping to recruit, practice, and create a brand new era of Asian idols in Southeast Asia by means of a sequence of movie and tv productions and selection reveals which are well-received in China and abroad markets.
Lastly, what sort of tasks do you hope to see come out of the China-Singapore media relations sooner or later?
We hope to strengthen exchanges and function a bridge to reinforce friendship and mutual understanding between the 2 peoples and promote regional prosperity.
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