Press

8 Questions for HOU XIAOQIANG, Founder of China Wit Media & Duyao APP

SD: Mr Hou, what have you been busy with lately?
HXQ: Work mainly; matters concerning Duyao（毒药） and Wit Media（中汇影视）. Wit Media was just listed on NEEQ (National Equities Exchange and Quotations) in March, and Duyao APP will soon be launching a new optimized version. Then, there's my family. My parents are getting older; sometimes, I really want to spend more time with them.

SD: What is IP? What is super IP?
HXQ: Everyone has a different view on the understanding of IP. Wit Media just held our first presentation on April 12. At the presentation, I shared my understanding of IP with those present.

In my opinion, you can only call something super IP if it meets the following three conditions: only online literature with high hit rates or best-selling books; only works with high Duyao and Douban（豆瓣） scores and good word-of-mouth; and only works with high conversation rates on tieba（贴吧） and weibo（微博） as well as those with a high degree of fan loyalty. These super IPs normally have a number of commonalities: sufficiently large in terms of size, easily one million or 10 million characters; has a unique world view and character image; the genre must be new and the sentiments must be new.

I firmly believe that the genre and sentiments of online literature must lead traditional film and television by three to five years. I also firmly believe that super IP is not static; rather, iti is a dynamic process. It is a process that flows from niche to the majority to the mainstream; a process from the 2-dimentional to three-dimensional; a process from media operation to super team screening; a process from creation to re-creation. In this sense, we are not simply selecting works with high hit rates. We would rather select niche works with a high degree of loyalty.

Let me briefly summarize Wit Media's current IP choice into a few words: young ladies, 2-dimensional, hardcore, positive energy.

SD: How many super IPs does China Wit have? Can you give us a few examples?
HXQ: Wit Media announced seven major genres with a total of 33 IPs at the recent presentation, of which 16 are being adapted into film, television drama and online drama.

For instance, there's The Devotion of Suspect X（《嫌疑人X的献身》） jointly filmed with Enlight Media and directed by Alec Su, the biographical film of the historical figure Marshall（《马歇尔》） jointly filmed with a Hollywood first-tier team and Hero Film, Quick, Take My Brother Away（《快把我哥带走》） in conjunction with Wanda Pictures, and Lotus（《莲花》） in conjunction with renowned director Li Shaohong. There is also Once Loved You Distressed Forever（《我曾爱过你，想起就心酸》） starring South Korean national idol Jang Dong-gun, for which filming will begin shortly, The Wind Goes as He Knows（《他知道风从哪个方向来》） in cooperation with renowned Chinese director Liu Jiang, The Patriot（《爱国者》）in conjunction with famous screenwriter Wang Hailin, How Do You Do, Madam（《太太你好》）together with renowned screenwriter Zhang Wei, and Journey to Seek Past Reincarnations（《寻找前世之旅》） in cooperation with iQIYI and directed by renowned director Gao Linbao, among numerous other monumental super IP works.

These 33 IPs are only part of Wit Media's projects. There are various other projects that have not been announced. In addition, Wit Media now buys a new IP each week. Perhaps in two months’ time, you will find that Wit Media has another few IPs that have already been transformed into projects.

SD: Why is Duyao called Duyao?
HXQ: "Duyao" is derived from these words spoken by Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa, "Some poison is necessary. Some very mild poison is the formula that forms the soul." These words on poison (or duyao in Chinese) means something that cannot be clearly explained or stated; it's a little evil, but is also a little humane; there's also a bit of sentiment. It is safe and harmless. I feel that this is probably my ideal state.

SD: What functions does Duyao have? Who are the users?
HXQ: As a platform for carefully selecting and recommending high quality lengthy film reviews and book reviews, Duyao primarily includes movie lists, book lists, topics, rewards, rankings and other core functions. Users are classified into general users and master users. Currently, 20% of our users are movie reviewers and book reviewers, 23% are authors or screenwriters, 8% are book and movie industry practitioners, and 3.5% are from the media. Elsewhere, close to 50% of movie fans and book fans are primarily young people who are graduates or with higher academic qualification.

SD: How many online literature do you read in a year? Who do you admire most? Or what categories do you most admire? Why?
HXQ: My work means that I read online literature every day, but I don't finish reading many of them. Of the online writers, I most admire Tangjia Sanshao（唐家三少）. His works have already become the memories of youth of many. What is most important is that I feel that he is diligent, grateful, and persistent, and has surging passion and immense imagination. There is no doubt in my mind that he will become an influential world class author. Others such as Xuehong (血红，translation: Blood Red), Tiaowu (跳舞，translation: Dance) and Tengping（藤萍） are also very talented online authors.

SD: Can original Chinese IP go abroad?
HXQ: This is a general trend. I firmly believe in this.

SD: Is your current work still related to the publishing industry?
HXQ: My work now involves selecting works from original online literature websites and publishers most appropriate for film and television. I also recommend the works of our best authors and screenwriters to publishers. In the last decade or so, I had started from book.sina.com and cul.history.sina.com, and moved to Cloudary Corporation, and ultimately to Duyao and WIt Media. I have never left the publishing industry. Many of my buddies are authors and publishers. We will always get along and work together with one another.

HOU XIAOQIANG（侯小强） will be speaking at the StoryDrive Conference in Beijing (29 -30 May 2016).

Translation: Cheang Yee