2 . Consisting of 39 episodes, the drama Knockout (狂飙) was directed by Xu Jizhou in 2021. It stars actors Zhang Songwen and Zhang Yi, who respectively play a fishmonger-turned-gang boss and a devoted police officer, recounting how they turn from friends to enemies over a period of two decades. Not only does it become a hit in China,     1    .

Set against the background of two decades of major social development in China and progress in it law-enforcement methods and capabilities, the story earned 8.6 points out of 10 on Douban and has won the market largely,     2    . Zhang Songwen’s character Gao appears as a humble fishmonger who relies on his small business to take care of two younger siblings.     3    . Luckily, he occasionally receives protective assistance from police officers he knew before. After tasting the benefits brought by guanxi, or “a special relationship” Gao is seduced (引诱) by the criminal underworld, a dark network that he once hated and fought against. In contrast, the police officer An Xin (played by Zhang Yi) is a lonely hero and idealist.     4    .

The show’s popularity index has reached 11,800—normally, 8000 marks a hit—on iQiyi.     5    . Despite describing the drama as “a shrimplike delicacy”, referring to its plain beginning and end, but with an excellent middle section, many viewers suggest the show signals the rise in quality of domestic TV offerings and express their hope that more, equally appealing, homegrown series will be forthcoming.

As COVID-19 continues to spread in China, watching a fitness livestreaming (网络直播) video,     1     (host) by Liu Genghong, has been a daily must for millions of people stuck at home.

Liu,     2     was a little-known singer born in Taiwan, took the Internet by storm and became the hottest fitness broadcaster on Chinese social media, with his videos     3     (attract) 230 million followers. Since the popularity of Li Jiaqi, China’s “Livestreaming King” famous     4     his eye-catching online sales strategy, no one     5     (enjoy) such a rise in livestreaming field. A comment says, “Li empties our wallets, while Liu empties our bodies.”

Experts voiced     6     (different) on whether the new trend would last long. “It has driven people to exercise, but in the long term, I think     7     difficult to form a new area within livestreaming”, according to Wang Peng from Renmin University of China. But Huang Haidong,     8     expert from the Chinese online fitness platform Keep, says the fitness wave is certain to be a firm, long-term trend, whether it’s about Liu Genghong or not.

China has the largest fitness market in the world. However, whether this trend has long-lasting power will depend on how money     9     (give) to the livestreaming platforms. Now broadcasters mainly have three     10     (source) of income including fans offering cash “gifts”, advertising brands, and selling products through videos. Yet, organizers and networks haven’t found a better solution to the problem.

4 . When A33, a theater in Beijing, hosted a new stand-up comedy show（脱口秀), to the surprise of the organizers, nearly 250 people turned up and laughed together. Six years ago, that would have been unbelievable. Indeed, there were even cases of shows having more performers than viewers.

Wan Da, one of the performers, said, “Many people are worried about the future of stand-up comedy, a genre (类型) that is very popular in the U.S. after its introduction in China. Can it adapt itself here? But as the results show, there is no need to worry. We have survived and carried on some of the best American traditions.”

Programs such as Rock& Roast, a comedy talk show competition, which are thought to help people reduce their pressure, drive audiences to offline performances for a real laugh. “Generally, our audiences are in the 20-35 age group, but recently some older people are reported to go to the theatre,” said Song Qiyu, a performer and founder of Beijing Comedy Center.

Compared to traditional Chinese comedy performances, the stand-up comedy has a lower bar as it doesn't require years of professional training. This allows everyone to take part. Work experience and personal observations of life are the sources of their inspiration. Different lives and jobs make the performances varied, giving them unique individual colors.

Joe Wong, a humorist from Jilin province, whose performance in Washington, D.C. in 2010 attracted much attention across China's social media, is happy to see the development of the industry in China. However, he has a warning, too: There is huge space for the genre in China, but we should be careful of growing too fast as the market still needs good works.

In China, many fresh college graduates join. Through their efforts, the industry will improve its standards and popularity as well as influence.

5 . China’s TikTok, which has taken the world by storm, is working its magic in its home nation, too.

The Chinese version of TikTok, called Douyin, has amassed (累积) 400 million daily active users, parent company Byte Dance (字节跳动) revealed in its annual report this week. This is an impressive growth for the addictive video app, which had 250 million daily active users in January last year.

The report, which describes users’ behavior and trends, shows the cultural difference between China and the US, said Katherine Wu, an investor at New York-based firm Notation Capital.

Things that trend in these two countries are completely different. For example, knowledge-based content is extremely popular in China, but less so in the U.S. Also, those creators that did the most dance videos in China are users born in the 60s, while in the US, it seems that it’s mostly teenagers who are creating the dances.

Byte Dance claimed that Douyin has established itself as the largest knowledge, culture and art platform in China. 14.89 million “knowledge-based content videos” were shared on the app last year, it claimed. For example, one of the world’s most valued startups claimed that the number of users who posts videos about chemistry reached 130 million people last year. “On the art and culture front, videos related to those topics had 543.1 billion plays on Douyin last year.” it claimed.

Education has become a main use case for Byte Dance. TikTok, which is estimated to have earned more than $50 million last year, already counts educational content as one of the most consumed categories on its app across the world. The app launched an educational campaign in India last year, where it has amassed more than 200 million users.