Expounding on the vicissitudes of children’s content creation in China.
Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of participating in a roundtable discussion with Natasha Shetye and April Wang on the subject of creating children’s content in China. A recording of our conversation - the 18th episode of the MIDDLE EARTH podcast, “It Pays To Play: The Economy That Runs On Whimsy” - covers off on the opportunities & challenges of creating content for kids in China across media ranging from film and TV, to theme parks, theatre and the Internet. The conversation is more than 6 months old, but still remarkably relevant - especially for China, where things can change overnight, and often not to your benefit.
As a “cheat sheet” for those who don’t have time for the entire one-hour discussion, I share observations on...
- ...the role of women in children’s content creation. (03:29 - 05:20)
- ...the pedagogy of children’s content. (08:20 - 09:01)
- ...values in children’s content in China vs the West. (11:29 - 13:51)
- ...tailoring theme parks to local family values. (14:50 - 15:54)
- ...the role of focus groups in children’s content. (21:39 - 23:11)
- ...children’s content development and distribution. (24:03 - 25:10)
- ...grassroots word-of-mouth among Chinese parents. (25:57 - 26:37)
- ...the Chinese approach to building theme parks. (28:30 - 29:51)
- ...educational children’s content in China. (33:41 - 34:54)
- ...content restrictions in China. (34:56 - 36:34)
- ...foreign content creators in China. (36:35 - 38:15)
- ...cognitive dissonance in Chinese content. (39:14 - 40:43)
- ...content investor expectations and impact. (41:45 - 42:52)
- ...chasing money vs pursuing quality. (43:02 - 45:15)
- ...KUNG FU PANDA and Chinese heroes. (47:18 - 48:33)
- ...China’s “Frost Boy” social media phenomenon. (49:26 - 51:05)
- ...foreign film box office restrictions in China. (51:44 - 52:34)
Enjoy!
Kevin
Kevin is the author of AWN's Reality Bites blog, his musings on the art, technology and business of immersive media (AR, VR, MR) and AI. You can find Kevin's website at www.kevingeiger.com and he can be reached at holler@kevingeiger.com.
