The 11th Golden Eagle TV Art Festival has lowered its curtain in Changsha, the capital city of China's Hunan Province, on Sunday evening. The country's premier TV awards show is a one of a kind event, as the winners are chosen exclusively by the viewers.
Having first started in 1983, the Golden Eagle Awards are often called China's Emmys, and have become one of China's most popular and influential TV events.
Hu Ge, perhaps one of the hottest up and rising actors in China, was the biggest winner of the night. He snagged a double victory by claiming both the Viewers' Choice Award AND the Most Popular Actor Award. His accolades are for his excellent performance in the TV Series - "Nirvana in Fire".
"Receiving this award means I have just started the journey of art. This is a journey of creativity and heritage. While being more innovative in pursuing art, we also need to pass along the professionalism and devotion from the old artists," he said.
Previous winners like Li Xuejian, were awarded with the Best Performing Artist. This was his third Golden Eagle Award Since 1991. Li struggled with cancer for over ten years but finally won the battle and had a succesful recovery.
"Taking this award is not an easy task. I'll cherish it and will continue to perform at a higher level in the future," Li said.
The TV drama The Legend of Mi Yue was also a success as actress Liu Tao won the Most Popular Actor Award and Director Zheng Xiaolong claimed the Best Director Award.
In 2015, the size of China's TV drama industry reached over 13 billion US dollars, with 3 billion of it coming from Internet advertising.
Experts say the power of the Internet has penetrated the market with great impact.
"The Internet audience is younger than traditional TV audiences so we'll add more young and fashionable elements. Their interests and popular Internet topics have already influenced our TV drama production," said Liang Zhenhua, scriptwriter.
Many Chinese audiences hope that China can one day produce a TV series like the Game of Thrones. However, Director Zheng Xiaolong has a different view.
"The cost of making TV dramas is surging so it could turn to be like the movie industry. But another important area we're now ignoring is the low cost sit-com, which is suitable for the whole family," he said.
Industry insiders say the main problem of China's TV series development and expansion is a lack of creativity. Too much investment is poured into certain genres like fantasy-tale based programs. Where there is a real need of focus and emphasis, is actually in stories that reflect the realities of China's society.
"I think the biggest problem right now is creativity. For instance, many historical dramas are completely based on love stories of youth idols without any historical facts. Not to mention, the abundance of magical fairy dramas. This trend has no future," Zheng Xiaolong said.
Zheng says that TV dramas should focus more on China's social transformation, realities and problems. The themes of TV dramas not only need to be broadened, but need to capture the true fabric of Chinese society.
