The Duanju now target a global audience

Long confined to Chinese platforms, duanju are now appearing on screens around the world. Their international distribution relies on a careful adaptation of stories, faces, and narrative codes.

Apps like ReelShort and DramaBox don't just translate their content. They adapt their offerings to each market: local casting, familiar settings, reworked dialogue to better fit cultural usage. Some series produced in the United States adopt local narrative codes: sentimental thrillers, intense romances, social dramas.

Platforms also rely on social media to circulate the most intense clips, often in just a few seconds. Digital word of mouth plays a central role: it's often isolated scenes—a look, a slap, a statement—that capture attention before leading to the full series.

On TikTok, the hashtags #shortfilm and #shortmovie have exceeded 29 billion and 17 billion views respectively. The ReelShort app boasts over a billion monthly views, 62% of which come from users under the age of 35.

In France, Le Monde notes that this ultra-fast format is attracting a new generation of users, accustomed to consuming stories in fragments. Far from being a simple export product, duanju is becoming a shared visual language, capable of reaching viewers from very different cultures.

Sources:

• The Telegraph , November 11, 2024

• 36Kr Europe , April 18, 2024

• Le Monde , June 7, 2024

• Radii , February 20, 2025

• Caixin Global , June 25, 2025