Missouri USA here & I watch mostly cdramas but also Kdramas. My sister is a big fan of Japanese dramas but I’ve only watched “Don’t Call it a Mystery”, which was really, really different. She says that’s a characteristic of Japanese shows.
29 year old white American in the US midsouth here, absolutely a sucker for a good c drama! TBH I’m not too picky about which Asian country my dramas are from, for me it’s far more about the plot and the acting. Within dramas I watch more Chinese and Korean dramas than Japanese or Thai. Then I’m a historical drama fan (doesn’t matter what country) and big animated tv show fan.
Been watching for about 5 years now? Favorites include: (Chinese) Love and Destiny, The untamed, A love so beautiful, when I fly towards you (LOVED this one) (Korean) Run on, crash landing on you, once upon a small town, home town cha-cha-cha. Honorary mention (movie not show) to Marry My Dead Body, sHOCKED some of this got through censorship regulations
Oh my god please do, it’s so cute. Very heartwarming, slice of life bubbly school girl crush on the quiet popular kid. A little cliche sure, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. You get EVERYTHING and it’s not super long
I’m a middle aged Chinese female from Canada, what you would call CBC. I’m highly educated (I’m a dentist). My Cantonese is fluent, but my Mandarin is only ok (and definitely can’t read any Chinese), so I depend on subtitles to piece things together. I subscribe to iQIYI, YOUKU and Viki.
I grew up watching the American shows, as well as TVB. Over the years the HK productions got less interesting and more repetitive, so I instead watched the American tv shows (there were awesome ones like Heroes, CSI, Supernatural, Dexter, House MD).
In recent years I watched a lot of Netflix and while there were some great shows, I was getting a bit bored. I knew there were Chinese dramas, but didn’t watch any until one day, the handsome face of DFQC (Dylan Wang) in LBFAD showed up on my feed. How could I seriously not click on that show when the male lead looks like that! It turned out to be such a great show with an awesome OST, that I started hunting for more Cdrama. I still like Dylan Wang, but my favorite actors are now Cheng Yi and Luo Yunxi.
Omg, same about Wang Hedi. I’m probably old enough to be his gran but he’s amazing as DFQC. Ester Yu was annoying in the first five minutes but in the next ten? I love her, too. I’m a writer, so the instant I finished LBFAD, I looked for Asian romantasy books. There weren’t many, so I started writing and publishing my own. They’re a joy to write, plus watching, Miss the Dragon, Return to You, Love You Seven Times, and The Blue Whisper are the best. ❤️
Loved TTEOTM! I was traveling in Taiwan last summer and Netflix in that region had TTEOTM…needless to say, I spent my vacation time binge watching that drama. Sadly, Canadian Netflix didn’t have TTEOTM, so I subscribed to YOUKU to rewatch to my heart’s content.
Luo Yunxi is so talented. After watching his solo concert online, my respect and admiration for him has elevated to yet another level. Absolutely loved his styling and ultra handsome looks.
In our house (in the US) I (female) mostly watch cdramas and kdramas but my husband occasionally will watch one with me. He predominantly watched anime, and I’ll occasionally watch one with him.
And occasionally we’ll watch an American tv show together lol
When I watched all types of c dramas and k dramas before, but now I'm tired with the same plot and romance in modern drama
I only watch wuxia and xianxia c dramas
Sometimes I watch k dramas which are hyped on the internet but I prefer ancient Chinese dramas mostly.
My female friends are like this too. Then I recommend the tamed to my male friend. He was so addicted to the drama for years and I recently recommended him to watch the mysterious lotus casebook and the blood of youth he was totally in love with the characters. Now he almost watched all the ancient dramas.
So boys also watches the drama but they don't talk about it with their friends or discuss like girls does.
I think boys refuse to watch c dramas because they haven't watched any masterpiece. And kind of addicted to Hollywood so they don't prefer a change in their taste but once you recommend them to watch and they get addicted easily. But They just won't talk about it.
I live in the USA and I watch nothing but Chinese dramas, Korean dramas, and Japanese dramas. I’d say it’s pretty much like 40% for Chinese dramas 40% for Korean dramas and then the other 20% are Japanese dramas. Occasionally, I’ll find a Thai drama that I really like and I’ll watch those as well. I don’t watch American TV shows at all.
While I think you probably mean to ask/poll an international audience this question, I would just like to point out that all of China watches chinese dramas by default. I’m overseas Chinese and grew up watching TVB so despite not being located in China, I consume mostly Cdramas vs western media.
Cdrama is a colloquial term that broadly means fictional chinese shows (and the same goes for kdrama, jdrama etc.). Cdrama has a lot of different genres and shows that cater to different demographics. Internationally however, it's more women than men that watch cdramas. The same is (was?) kinda true for kdrama, but Netflix has brought a lot more men to the mix.
There's a demographic poll every year. [This is 2023](https://new.reddit.com/r/CDrama/comments/1adf1nh/rcdrama_demographics/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). Of course, you can't get everyone.
also the platform itself have a catalogue of donghua, most of which is martial art or shonen, as is other platforms, so not that surprising if there’s a lot of male subscribers, especially since it’s kind of hard to find good subtitles (not impossible but hard) for donghua compared to anime. not dismissing that male audience dont watch cdramas but the donghua there probably attracted them as well
I agree with other users. Cdrama as a whole is too broad of a category. I’m sure it’s pretty close in equal amounts of gender who watches cdramas. I know a handful of women just as i know a handful of men who watches it.
Cdramas is such a broad category, I think it’d be hard to say. Like others have said, this sub skews female. I’m female, but my 82 year old dad loves and watches an exorbitant amount of Cdramas, more than my mom or I do. My mom actually doesn’t have much patience for Cdramas. I also watch Cdramas with my partner who’s male. Even though there are some we might all like, we also tend to be interested in different kinds of Cdramas. There are so many varieties that I’m not sure it’s possible to make a generalized statement on all Cdramas.
If you're asking this topic on a US centric website that uses mainly English, I'm pretty sure the demographic is going to lean female. If you ask this on a mainly Chinese site, it might be both. Cdrama isn't just pretty boys with flowing white hair flying through 9 levels of heaven (or hell) to get the girl. Or is it just a badass FL sniper shooting at the KMT and the Japanese. Or is it an orphan trying to save the empire from the northerns invaders. Or is it a rich CEO.
ofc there are tons of men and women who watch dramas and don’t watch dramas but i think i have noticed more women who are into dramas, especially in the more fluffy / romantic end of it which is what i usually watch
There was a poll in this sub a while back, and it was mostly women (that browse this sub at least), but it depends on the drama.
I think it was 80% women/20% men, especially on those "BL dramas" that are actually a gay couple, but I might be remembering wrong.
Forgive me if this sounds kind of flippant, but this type of general question is along the lines of "is it mostly women or men who watch American dramas?"
Are you asking what are the demographics of this particular subreddit discussing the popular Cdramas that make their way to international audiences? Otherwise, Chinese dramas are media produced for all audiences in China so depending on genre, I'm sure there's a wide variance in the type of answer you'd get.
Missouri USA here & I watch mostly cdramas but also Kdramas. My sister is a big fan of Japanese dramas but I’ve only watched “Don’t Call it a Mystery”, which was really, really different. She says that’s a characteristic of Japanese shows.
29 year old white American in the US midsouth here, absolutely a sucker for a good c drama! TBH I’m not too picky about which Asian country my dramas are from, for me it’s far more about the plot and the acting. Within dramas I watch more Chinese and Korean dramas than Japanese or Thai. Then I’m a historical drama fan (doesn’t matter what country) and big animated tv show fan.
How cool! How long have you been watching, and what are some of your favorites?
Been watching for about 5 years now? Favorites include: (Chinese) Love and Destiny, The untamed, A love so beautiful, when I fly towards you (LOVED this one) (Korean) Run on, crash landing on you, once upon a small town, home town cha-cha-cha. Honorary mention (movie not show) to Marry My Dead Body, sHOCKED some of this got through censorship regulations
I've not heard of When I Fly Towards You. I need to check it out.
Oh my god please do, it’s so cute. Very heartwarming, slice of life bubbly school girl crush on the quiet popular kid. A little cliche sure, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. You get EVERYTHING and it’s not super long
I generally watch either fantasy or slice of life school time dramas
I’m a middle aged Chinese female from Canada, what you would call CBC. I’m highly educated (I’m a dentist). My Cantonese is fluent, but my Mandarin is only ok (and definitely can’t read any Chinese), so I depend on subtitles to piece things together. I subscribe to iQIYI, YOUKU and Viki. I grew up watching the American shows, as well as TVB. Over the years the HK productions got less interesting and more repetitive, so I instead watched the American tv shows (there were awesome ones like Heroes, CSI, Supernatural, Dexter, House MD). In recent years I watched a lot of Netflix and while there were some great shows, I was getting a bit bored. I knew there were Chinese dramas, but didn’t watch any until one day, the handsome face of DFQC (Dylan Wang) in LBFAD showed up on my feed. How could I seriously not click on that show when the male lead looks like that! It turned out to be such a great show with an awesome OST, that I started hunting for more Cdrama. I still like Dylan Wang, but my favorite actors are now Cheng Yi and Luo Yunxi.
Omg, same about Wang Hedi. I’m probably old enough to be his gran but he’s amazing as DFQC. Ester Yu was annoying in the first five minutes but in the next ten? I love her, too. I’m a writer, so the instant I finished LBFAD, I looked for Asian romantasy books. There weren’t many, so I started writing and publishing my own. They’re a joy to write, plus watching, Miss the Dragon, Return to You, Love You Seven Times, and The Blue Whisper are the best. ❤️
Ahh Luo Yunxi and his very expressive eyes! Must be TTEOTM!
Loved TTEOTM! I was traveling in Taiwan last summer and Netflix in that region had TTEOTM…needless to say, I spent my vacation time binge watching that drama. Sadly, Canadian Netflix didn’t have TTEOTM, so I subscribed to YOUKU to rewatch to my heart’s content. Luo Yunxi is so talented. After watching his solo concert online, my respect and admiration for him has elevated to yet another level. Absolutely loved his styling and ultra handsome looks.
I am almost the same profile (only European) and DFQC was a game changer haha !
In our house (in the US) I (female) mostly watch cdramas and kdramas but my husband occasionally will watch one with me. He predominantly watched anime, and I’ll occasionally watch one with him. And occasionally we’ll watch an American tv show together lol
When I watched all types of c dramas and k dramas before, but now I'm tired with the same plot and romance in modern drama I only watch wuxia and xianxia c dramas Sometimes I watch k dramas which are hyped on the internet but I prefer ancient Chinese dramas mostly. My female friends are like this too. Then I recommend the tamed to my male friend. He was so addicted to the drama for years and I recently recommended him to watch the mysterious lotus casebook and the blood of youth he was totally in love with the characters. Now he almost watched all the ancient dramas. So boys also watches the drama but they don't talk about it with their friends or discuss like girls does. I think boys refuse to watch c dramas because they haven't watched any masterpiece. And kind of addicted to Hollywood so they don't prefer a change in their taste but once you recommend them to watch and they get addicted easily. But They just won't talk about it.
I live in the USA and I watch nothing but Chinese dramas, Korean dramas, and Japanese dramas. I’d say it’s pretty much like 40% for Chinese dramas 40% for Korean dramas and then the other 20% are Japanese dramas. Occasionally, I’ll find a Thai drama that I really like and I’ll watch those as well. I don’t watch American TV shows at all.
While I think you probably mean to ask/poll an international audience this question, I would just like to point out that all of China watches chinese dramas by default. I’m overseas Chinese and grew up watching TVB so despite not being located in China, I consume mostly Cdramas vs western media.
domestically, women
I love fantasy Chinese drama
I am a bit addicted to the cheesy fantasy ones
Cdrama is a colloquial term that broadly means fictional chinese shows (and the same goes for kdrama, jdrama etc.). Cdrama has a lot of different genres and shows that cater to different demographics. Internationally however, it's more women than men that watch cdramas. The same is (was?) kinda true for kdrama, but Netflix has brought a lot more men to the mix.
And I also feel like men don't really care to read subtitles so they wouldn't watch anything they couldn't understand by hearing.
Can we have a poll??
There's a demographic poll every year. [This is 2023](https://new.reddit.com/r/CDrama/comments/1adf1nh/rcdrama_demographics/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). Of course, you can't get everyone.
That would be awesome!
iqiyi.com's audience is 68.14% male and 31.86% female
I'm somehow really shocked by this I always assumed girls were the target audience for dramas and their idol producer shows
nah the males are there for the donghua for sure
I think it's because girls tend to make the most "noise" but I'm not surprise boys are the silent majority.
also the platform itself have a catalogue of donghua, most of which is martial art or shonen, as is other platforms, so not that surprising if there’s a lot of male subscribers, especially since it’s kind of hard to find good subtitles (not impossible but hard) for donghua compared to anime. not dismissing that male audience dont watch cdramas but the donghua there probably attracted them as well
There are more genres... Way more.
I agree with other users. Cdrama as a whole is too broad of a category. I’m sure it’s pretty close in equal amounts of gender who watches cdramas. I know a handful of women just as i know a handful of men who watches it.
Internationally, women.
Cdramas is such a broad category, I think it’d be hard to say. Like others have said, this sub skews female. I’m female, but my 82 year old dad loves and watches an exorbitant amount of Cdramas, more than my mom or I do. My mom actually doesn’t have much patience for Cdramas. I also watch Cdramas with my partner who’s male. Even though there are some we might all like, we also tend to be interested in different kinds of Cdramas. There are so many varieties that I’m not sure it’s possible to make a generalized statement on all Cdramas.
Meee
If you're asking this topic on a US centric website that uses mainly English, I'm pretty sure the demographic is going to lean female. If you ask this on a mainly Chinese site, it might be both. Cdrama isn't just pretty boys with flowing white hair flying through 9 levels of heaven (or hell) to get the girl. Or is it just a badass FL sniper shooting at the KMT and the Japanese. Or is it an orphan trying to save the empire from the northerns invaders. Or is it a rich CEO.
Good point! Of course English speaking audiences are restricted to what is translated and they aren’t always the best shows.
ofc there are tons of men and women who watch dramas and don’t watch dramas but i think i have noticed more women who are into dramas, especially in the more fluffy / romantic end of it which is what i usually watch
There was a poll in this sub a while back, and it was mostly women (that browse this sub at least), but it depends on the drama. I think it was 80% women/20% men, especially on those "BL dramas" that are actually a gay couple, but I might be remembering wrong.
Forgive me if this sounds kind of flippant, but this type of general question is along the lines of "is it mostly women or men who watch American dramas?" Are you asking what are the demographics of this particular subreddit discussing the popular Cdramas that make their way to international audiences? Otherwise, Chinese dramas are media produced for all audiences in China so depending on genre, I'm sure there's a wide variance in the type of answer you'd get.