[Big read] China’s superwomen are winning on screen: Empowerment or illusion?

Chinese drama fan Li Chengzi (pseudonym) has noticed an explosion in China’s domestically produced, female-centred series — the so-called “big female-lead dramas” (大女主剧). Since the start of the year, she has already watched three dramas featuring a female general, two centred on women running businesses, and several others about women working in insurance sales or launching “neo–Chinese style” fashion brands. “At this point,” she joked, “I’m close to collecting a full set of female leads across different career tracks.”

Female-centred dramas have been the hottest label in China’s television market over the past three years. On the three major streaming platforms — iQiyi, Tencent Video and Youku — the most popular shows this year have been This Thriving Land, Love’s Ambition, and Legend of Zang Hai, each surpassing one billion views, with the first two centred on women’s stories. Mango TV’s period drama Flourished Peony, which tells the story of a woman doing business in ancient times, gained over 40 million views within its first three hours of release.

Li Chengzi, 22, is currently preparing for her postgraduate entrance exams. She says she watches these dramas mainly to relieve stress. Take last year’s historical revenge series The Double, for example: its heroine, originally the prime minister’s daughter, is framed, her family is destroyed, and she is forced to live among commoners. Assuming a new identity, she slowly rises again to avenge her family. “When I finished the show, it felt satisfying,” Li said. “I even felt a bit encouraged by the idea that ‘who says women are inferior to men?’”

But she also knows that the heroine’s strength mainly comes from various “hacks” or skills, such as medical knowledge, painting and calligraphy, or mastery of music. “For people like us in real life, it’s over when the show ends.”

Scholars interviewed note that women have become the dominant force in cultural consumption. Their growing appetite for stories that reflect their own experiences, coupled with an increasingly sophisticated mass-culture production system, has together fuelled the rapid expansion and popularity of big female-lead dramas.

Associate Professor Liao Miaojing from the Shanghai Theatre Academy’s College of Film told Lianhe Zaobao that women’s preference for narrative perspectives centred on “me as the protagonist” can be traced back more than 20 years to the rise of online literature.

Chinese web literature categorises readers into two major groups: the “male channel” and the “female channel”. Female-channel works once popularised the trope of “the domineering CEO who falls in love with me”, and at the same time expanded into genres such as palace intrigue, domestic scheming, immortal-cultivator empresses, and female factory directors. Many well-received female-channel web novels have been adapted into dramas — for example, Empresses in the Palace (2011), which to this day is regarded by many as the classic big female-lead drama.

Fourteen years after its debut, viewers continue to go back to this drama. It is even “studied” online, where viewers analyse scenes frame by frame, and create derivative memes and short videos, keeping it popular.

Liao, who also works as a producer and screenwriter in drama production, pointed out that the rapid development of online literature has not only become a major source of material for TV adaptations, but has also shaped part of the narrative structure of big female-lead dramas.

“Whether it’s palace intrigue, domestic scheming, or fantasy cultivation, the female character must possess power equal to, or even greater than, that of men. Essentially, it takes the traditional male-oriented narrative of growth, levelling up, defeating enemies, and reaching the peak, and ‘gender-switches’ it into a female-lead version.”

As for the social factors behind the explosive popularity of these dramas, Liao observed that as women’s educational levels rise and their participation in society increases, the expectations placed on them have also become more diverse and stringent — they are expected to be talented and beautiful, balance both career and romance, and still fulfill the role of mother.

“But in reality, it is far more difficult for women to gain the same opportunities and achievements as men.” The sense of satisfaction brought by big female-lead dramas helps, to some extent, ease the anxiety women feel about success amid fierce social competition, allowing viewers to find a kind of psychological comfort and compensation in these idealised stories.

From the perspective of industry insiders, the popularity of big female-lead dramas is also linked to regulatory considerations. A Beijing-based screenwriter, who requested anonymity, said, “In a way, creators also enjoy writing this type of drama: the market has proven it works, and regulatory restrictions are relatively minimal.”

The screenwriter explained that historical and political dramas in China undergo lengthy censorship processes. Unless they are officially led projects with authoritative source material, most writers avoid them. “As for realistic contemporary dramas — if they’re too realistic, they won’t pass; if they’re not realistic enough, they lose their appeal. Female-centric stories have instead become one of the few options that are both safe and capable of attracting traffic.”

However, not everything goes when it comes to female-themed dramas. “Overly promoting singlehood or DINK (dual income, no kids) lifestyles isn’t ideal either.”

More broadly, producing content favoured by female users has not only become the strategy of streaming platforms, but also a consensus across short dramas, variety shows, stand-up comedy, and other cultural-entertainment sectors.

According to data analytics provider Guduo Media, female-channel short dramas account for up to 90% of all short dramas that have surpassed one billion views in the market.

These short dramas focus on women’s inherent strength, highlighting values such as independent control over one’s destiny, achieving an “overpowered life” through one’s own abilities, and no longer needing redemption through traditional romance — themes that strongly resonate with many female viewers.

This summer, two stand-up comedy shows — Rock & Roast Season 2 and King of Comedy Season 2 — also featured the highest proportion of female performers in history. Female-related topics increased markedly, propelling many female comedians, including Director Fang (房主任, real name Fan Chunli), to overnight fame.

In addition, following the success of the women’s variety show Sisters Who Make Waves, more female-centred programmes such as Warrior Girls and SHErlock have emerged.

In a response to Lianhe Zaobao, iQiyi stated that female content is becoming the most creative area in the entire entertainment industry. “There is no content that women cannot watch — only content that hasn’t been filmed from a female perspective. In the future, a lot of female-oriented content across all genres will emerge.”

As China’s big female-lead dramas become more commercially mature, some see them as a result of rising feminist consciousness. But creators argue that many such works remain stuck at the level of “feel-good escapist stories”, lacking real-world inquiry or deep portrayals of women’s growth. They often mix in outdated ideas, appearing at once progressive and conservative.

Describing this contradiction, Hu Rong, screenwriter of dramas Love Song in Winter and Legend of the Female General, quotes writer Eileen Chang: “For a woman, no matter how good she is, if she fails to gain the love of the opposite sex, she will not gain the respect of her own sex.”

When interviewed, Hu said this quote still holds true today, because in many big female-lead dramas, a woman’s worth is still validated through love. “Romance is part of life, but if personal growth and career struggles all exist just for the sake of marrying well, then the story has gone astray.”

In the urban drama Love’s Ambition, which finished airing in October, the heroine Xu Yan cuts ties with the male lead and — after failing to reconcile — leaves his wealthy family to start her own business. Just as viewers were excited to watch her rise on her own, the once-aloof male lead suddenly discovers the charm of a career woman and begins a pursuit to win her back, shifting the narrative focus back to romance. One viewer complained: “A woman works so hard to build her career and find herself — is it all just so she can be noticed by a man?”

In Hu’s view, another problem with many big female-lead dramas is that the protagonist’s halo is too strong, and success comes far too easily.

She said that many so-called strong female characters encounter difficulties but seldom have the chance to demonstrate their own abilities before an all-powerful male lead descends to solve everything. “Labels like ‘beautiful-strong-tragic’ (美强惨) or ‘yujie’ (御姐, meaning sophisticated mature woman) are often superficial. They still cannot escape the male gaze, which sometimes even turns into a form of sexual appeal.”

Hu observes that across the television industry, while there are more female-led dramas, there is less discussion about women’s complexity, true independence, and personal growth, while the creative mindset has also become more conservative.

In the 1990s, Chinese television also produced several works depicting women, such as Empress Wu Cheh Tien, The Orange is Red, and Palace of Desire. Hu says the women in those dramas were complex and full of vitality, full of contradictions and inner conflict. “But many dramas today tend to contrive setbacks. They offer no guidance to the audience, only gratification.”

Li Jingling, screenwriter of Best Choice Ever and The Rebel Princess, believes that when it comes to long-form dramas, the narrative surrounding big female leads is slowly shifting away from the simplistic idea that “women should be like men and pursue careers”, towards removing male-centric or conventional societal standards, focusing on women, and emphasising their unique inner growth and sense of agency.

She admits, however, that such a transformation cannot happen overnight. “After all, outside Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, many people are still influenced by traditional values and prefer happy endings. If a female character is portrayed as overly avant-garde, fighting alone without acknowledging emotional needs, it would alienate too many viewers.”

Li Jingling notes that the concept of “female subjectivity” has been increasingly discussed this year. As big female-lead themes become more widespread, audience expectations and tastes will also rise, pushing creators to produce more stories where the female protagonist is not gifted with extraordinary talents, privileged birth or constant assistance from male characters — rather than relying on escapist, overpowered narratives.

On this point, Hu Rong adds that being a “big female lead” does not mean cutting off all emotional ties; if a heroine is criticised as being “obsessed” with love simply for falling in love, then the pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme.

Ke Qianting, associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University’s Department of Chinese, said when interviewed that most female-lead dramas today are mass-market cultural commodities, fundamentally different from serious works created out of deep insight into real life.   

She explained that the former are audience-driven: they depend on rapid user feedback, constantly tweak their formulas, and mass-produce “feel-good” stories designed to meet emotional expectations.

“This is both advanced and backward. What’s advanced is its ability to anticipate audiences’ appetite for gratification and entertainment — even creating feel-good moments viewers haven’t yet imagined. What’s backward is that it immerses viewers in feel-good, wish-fulfilment narratives, leading them to unconsciously absorb the values and norms embedded within.”

Ke has previously criticised the market for embracing “new women” themes while still confining female characters within the boundaries of appearance and demeanour, ignoring real structural challenges such as workplace discrimination and the glass ceiling.

She says that as female audiences grow more aware and raise their expectations, the highly systematised and commercialised production environment may also create opportunities for powerful female-centric works.

“The Handmaid’s Tale was adapted and produced with a lot of care; Why Women Kill is also very satisfying to watch. As long as there are artists with humanistic ideals in the production team, they will bring a pioneering consciousness to the work.”

Ke also believes that contemporary women’s consciousness is complex and often contradictory. “Relying solely on big female-lead dramas or mass media to raise awareness of women’s issues can only go so far.”

She asked, “What does liberation really mean? Is it career success, elegance and composure, having both a son and a daughter — or something else entirely? This may still be a kind of ideological illusion rather than a genuine awakening. The most meaningful answers about what contemporary women should strive to be must come from women themselves. Only through observing, reflecting and debating can the ‘big female lead’ truly become a meaningful cultural benchmark.”

This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as “女强人们究竟是真“强” 还是看“爽”就好？”.

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