Press

HIP in Beijing: StoryDrive tells amazing stories! (Part 1)
Dr. Jing Bartz, November 30. 1999
Before the Indian publisher, Bipin Shah, travelled to Beijing, he visited his bookseller in Singapore. Bipin came with a vision but left disappointed. He tried to convince the bookseller to take his beautifully illustrated books about Indian art into the programme, but the bookseller preferred art books from Europe. “Asian people admire Western culture,” Bipin explained, “but unfortunately, they ignore cultures coming from their neighborhoods in Asia.”
Ignoring fellow Asian cultures was exactly what the StoryDrive Conference Asia 2016 aimed to change. This year, everything was about incorporating and including “New Regions, New Inspirations“, as stated in the slogan of the 4th StoryDrive, held on May 29 and 30, in Beijing. After Bipin gave a speech about the Indian book market, Gong Li, a Chinese senior editor, presented a project that had already begun: a huge plan for mutual book translation between China and India. The selected Indian books are not published in English, but in regional languages like Hindi and Bengali. At first sight, the Indian book market seemed to be a market dominated by the English language; however, Gong Li and her colleagues found out that many non-English books are the ones that contain valuable Indian thoughts, which the Chinese are keen to study.
In addition to establishing a platform focused on Asia, the StoryDrive 2016 had even bigger ambitions. As a highlight of the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), StoryDrive presented speakers with impressive diversity: Along with top culture managers and politicians, there were professors, publishers, digital publishers, filmmakers, writers, agents, scouts as well as other creative professionals. The “new regions” speakers who were invited hailed from nine different countries, namely Brazil, Germany, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Turkey, UK, US and of course China.
How important are stories in the digital age and how do they work? Juergen Boos, president of Frankfurt Book Fair, answered these questions in his opening speech by explaining that today’s stories should definitely meet technology, economics and science. The “cross-disciplinary thinking has become even more important,” he added, “Writers nowadays work directly with technologists or coders, when a book is enhanced with gaming elements.” Boos set the goal of StoryDrive Asia 2016: “To create an attractive ecosystem of the new cultural avant-garde.”
Wu Shulin, former vice-minister of General Administration of Press and Publication China, shared his personal story about Chinese online literature with the 300 participants. Ten years ago, Wu was confronted with a difficult decision - whether the government should grant permission for “online literature”, i.e., cheap commercial novels on the internet. Its business model was that all content generated by internet users must be free, and the writers with the largest number of clicks will be rewarded by the online platforms. Online literature is a very China-specific phenomenon because nothing of its kind has yet to be observed in any other part of the world. Being aware of the political risks that might come by way of free writing, Wu still let things go. Today, he is very proud that he made the right decision. Online literature has turned out to be a mega business in China, helping top writers earn tens of millions of US dollars annually, not forgetting that this model helps millions of people read stories 24/7 on devices like smartphones or tablets at very low cost.
Undoubtedly, Chinese online literature has become a brand new IP (intellectual property) industry. Almost overnight, China IP has become the new buzzword and is attracting numerous investors. Hou Xiaoqiang, founder of the super IP-driven film company China Wit Media, talked passionately about his IP treasures. He exclusively hunts IP from online novels. “Only there will you find the right stories for TV or Internet-TV adaptions,” Hou said. This is because online novels have already been well examined and approved by fans through all kinds of data collection, comments, clicks and the like. Hou strongly believes that there is no better guarantee for market success than promising data. The audience has no other choice but to trust in the words of a person whose two-year young company recently produced several chart-topping box office films in the entertainment category.
Fully inspired by the IP hits in China, Holger Volland, vice president of Frankfurt Book Fair, spontaneously created a new word for this phenomenon: Hyper IP or HIP. He further explained why a book fair like Frankfurt came up with events like StoryDrive: “We want to bring storytellers and product developers together. What kind of medium comes out at the end, doesn’t matter.”
Against the trend towards pure entertainment, Youtube’s pendantin China, Youku Tudou, is currently attempting to screen some high-ending cultural programs. Yao Wentan, executive producer of Youku Tudou, shared her cultural adventure on one of the most successful commercial video platforms in China. The series was named “LOOK IMAGINATION”, and it involves topics such as classical paintings, music and international literature, presented on camera by three of the country’s famous intellectuals. Against all expectations, this series enjoyed immense success. Yao revealed that just recently, the programme attracted more than ten high-end brands, including those for cars and high-tech products, looking to put their web-ads in the programme. The target audience of LOOK IMAGINATION is “not very young”, “nor very old”, namely people aged between 25 and 35. However, “never underestimate your users,” Yao said, “they do love entertainment, but they are also ready to pay for cultural products with high-quality.”
Dr. Jing Bartz, consultant and culture manager, writer, living in Hamburg.