1 . Launched in 2010, iQiyi has grown used to the foreign press calling it “the Netflix of China.” Not the worst nickname, given the video-streaming pioneer's success. But Gong Yu, iQiyi's founder and boss, insists that his firm is more accurately _________ as “Netflix plus.” A bold claim for a loss-making business worth one-fifteenth as much as America's (cash-generating) entertainment powerhouse with a market value of $214 bn. Still, Mr Gong has a_________.

Like Netflix, iQiyi offers customers a catalogue of licensed and original content. Unlike Netflix, which relies almost entirely on subscription fees, iQiyi has _________ revenue streams. “Membership fees,” which start from 19.8 yuan ($2.87) a month, _______ just over half of iQiyi's 7.4 bn yuan in revenues in the second quarter. The rest came mainly from an online store (which sells “entertainment-related merchandise), mobile-gaming, an e-book business and advertisements: iQiyi operates a “freemium” model which allows users to stream some content free of charge _________ that they agree to watch ads.

Conveniently for iQiyi, which does little business outside its home market, Netflix is blocked in China, under laws that _________ a lot of foreign content. But that is not to say that China is free from the streaming wars of the sort between Netflix and rivals like Disney, HBO and NBC Universal.

Far from it. Mr Gong is _________ Tencent Video, which overtook iQiyi at the end of June with 114m video subscribers to iQiyi's 105m (see chart) . Mr Gong's firm lost 14m subscribers in the most recent quarter while Tencent Video, which also runs a freemium model and_________subscribers 20 yuan a month, added Zin. Tencent Video offers a richer selection of English-language _________, including hit television series like Chernobyl and Silicon Valley. More important, the rivalry between Tencent Video and iQiyi is the war between mighty Tencent and ____________ Baidu, a search firm that is iQiyi's majority owner.

____________, as Westerners who pay for a few video subscriptions can prove, streaming is not a zero-sum game. Gigi Zhou of BOCOM International, a broker, believes the Chinese market will soon be big enough to ____________ both iQiyi and Tencent Video, which also has yet to make money. Ms Zhou expects 400m Chinese to subscribe to video-streaming platforms by 2023, up from some 300m in 2019. So long as no new rival ____________, each firm could capture around 150m, helping them spread costs over more subscribers and so turn a profit.

Before streaming peace can break out, iQiyi faces another fight. On August 13th it said it was under ____________ by America's Securities and Exchange Commission after a short-seller accused it of cooking sales data, a charge it ____________. If found guilty, it may have to delist from New York's Nasdaq exchange. The firm's stable share price implies that investors' faith in battle-hardened Mr Gong remains unshaken.

2 . BLOSSOMS SHANGHAI, a Six-Year Wait Over Now

HONG KONG film director Wong Karwai’s first television series, Blossoms Shanghai, began its broadcast at the end of December. The drama with 30 ______ is adapted from a 2012 novel of the same name, winner of the 9th Mao Dun Literature Prize in 2015. It aims to ______ stereotypes (刻板老套的印象) about Shanghai and help readers understand its culture.

The TV drama, set in 1990s Shanghai, centers around a young man called A Bao (played by Hu Ge, now a cultural ______ in TV field) who rises from ______ beginnings to become a successful businessman in ten years. Along the way, he receives help from supporters and faces off against rivals to expand his business empire.

The TV adaptation comes out in two ______ one in Shanghainese, the other dubbed (配音) in Putonghua. The former is an effort in particular to stay true to the novel’s ______ flavor, with the major roles taken on by actors born and raised in Shanghai and a large amount of the dialogue had in Shanghainese. Even director Wong himself spoke ______ Shanghainese while working on set.

The success of the TV series can ______ the effort invested in recreating the look and atmosphere of the time. In August 2020, the crew posted a newspaper notice to seek everyday household objects from the period between 1976 and 1995. The appeal received a nation-wide response. Various items from old newspapers to cigarette lighters to ______ , and even a car, were sent to them. Some of these items had interesting stories behind them, which bring strong ______ from the Shanghai citizens for the past days.

In addition, the main setting of the story, “Huanghe Road”, was rebuilt at a 1:1 ______ at Shanghai Film Park in Songjiang.

In typical Wong Kar-wai style, the production took six years to complete. The director has a reputation for being very ______ each and every shot, often requiring actors to perform a scene upwards of ten times. At a promotional event when the cast was asked to provide a reason for people to watch the series, actress Ma Yili said, “I hope you can see our growth and change of the city in this drama and remove the old fixed general image.” Three trailers (预告片) had previously been released. Each trailer also focused on a different part of the series: the first on A Bao’s life before his success, and the story brings us to the old days when almost all the Shanghai citizens invested their savings in stock due to ______ in marketing; the second on him as an influential businessman; and the final one on the era of the drama, which is essential to A Bao's personal struggle.

The TV series has received mixed reviews. On Douban, quite a number of viewers are not happy with its plot which they think is transitioning too rapidly and thus a bit challenging to follow, thus it ______ the viewing. But nearly 80 percent of the viewers have given it a ______ rating. ‘This is not a TV series! This is art!’ said one post on the platform.

4 .

A Bite of China is a very popular TV program. It shows the relationship between_________and people in Chinese culture. To our joy, it returned for its third season on CCTV on Feb 19th during the Spring Festival. In fact, its first season and the second were very wonderful. When A Bite of China I was on TV, it_________attracted a number of audiences.

A Bite of China III has already broadcast (播放) eight episodes(集). Every episode has a different topic. The producer and director of the third season is Liu Hongyan. She invited a Dutch photographer, Banito Strangio, to_________her team. She said that the foreign designers from different countries have_________cultural traditions. _________we can find different ways are used in the program to show the traditional Chinese diet culture.

Many experts do think of this program as an/a_________food program. It is because it shows the_________of Chinese food. A Bite of China makes Chinese people memorize their cooking traditions. Most of the traditions have been forgotten in today’s_________life. So the program has more educational_________.

Chinese eating habits__________traditional Chinese culture. A Bite of China III continue to show the beauty of the Chinese diet and the real meaning of Chinese culture.