'Friends' in China 20 years on
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E-mail Xinhua, November 6, 2014
Imitators & critics
However, as in other countries, Friends has its detractors in China too. "It's full of nonsense," said Guo Rui, a legal worker. His English is good, but he seldom laughs at the jokes.
Some critics think it's unrealistic, based on the impossible premise of a circle of friends joking around together all day.
But Chinese sitcom makers regard it as a flawless classic, and their works pay homage to the show.
Viewers criticize Chinese sitcoms for copying plots and jokes, and lacking inspiration, even though stories have very Chinese backgrounds.
Zhi Zhunyu is under pressure. With more foreign sitcoms, from America, Britain, Japan and the Republic of Korea, coming into China, audiences are becoming pickier and looking for more interesting ideas and images.
In August 2012, sohu.com began importing large numbers of U.S. sitcoms. "Almost all American TV drama producers want to broadcast their work to millions of Chinese web users," said Ma Ke, a senior director of the leading video online service.
"Chinese viewers of American sitcoms used to be people with better pay, and higher education and social positions, but now they tend to be younger groups," said Ma.
Western sitcoms have a standard production process, with teams of scriptwriters. But Chinese sitcoms always follow the director's instruction, and invest more in the cast than the scripts, Zhi said.h "We not only face challenges from domestic competitors, but also from other countries," Zhi said.
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