China's youth enchanted by performing arts

Young Chinese are playing a more prominent role in fueling the country's performing arts market as more of them are going to concerts and theaters as part of their lifestyle and are showing a growing willingness to spend money for live performances.

Last year, young Chinese accounted for 55 percent of consumers of performing arts. This was a record high percentage, according to a report released by the Lighthouse Research Institute and ticketing firm Damai on March 25.

Seventy-two percent of concertgoers were people born after 1990. Among them, female consumers were paying more money for live performances.

The report said the total revenue of China's performing arts market reached about 20 billion yuan ($2.82 billion) in 2019, an increase of 7.29 percent year-on-year.

It is the first report centering on China's performing arts market by the Lighthouse Research Institute, a Chinese survey and market research platform under Alibaba Pictures that has served more than 100 companies ranging from film, performing arts to TV dramas and reality shows.

The report analyzed the performing arts market based on three major areas: theatrical production revenue was about 8.4 billion yuan; concert revenue was about 4.3 billion yuan; and the revenue of performances in tourism was around 7.4 billion yuan.

The revenue of performances in tourism grew fast with an increase of 9.58 percent compared to 2018. Concert revenue increased 6.88 percent year-on-year, with people born after 1990 and 2000 becoming the major consumers.

Concertgoers

The report named the top three artists of 2019 whose concerts drew the biggest crowds. They included Taiwan pop singersongwriter Jay Chou, Taiwan rock band Mayday and mainland singer-songwriter Zhang Jie. These artists are all well established in the music industry.

In 2019, young artists became the mainstream attraction in the market, such as Modern Brothers.

Led by vocalist Liu Yuning, 30, the band launched its first nationwide tour in 2019. Liu rose to fame in 2018 on short-video app Douyin, which is known as TikTok outside China.

The top five Chinese cities with the most consumer power were Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou of Zhejiang province, Shenzhen and Guangzhou of Guangdong province.

"On the whole, ticket sales of concerts held in the southern part of China were higher than concerts held in the northern part of the country," the report said.

More consumers were willing to travel for shows, which made cross-city consumption, especially in the concert category, grow rapidly last year.

For example, 92 percent of the audience watching a concert celebrating the sixth anniversary of TF Boys, a three-member Chinese pop group, which was held in Shenzhen on Aug 10, came from different cities across the country.

Fans from 332 cities across the country watched Chinese singer-songwriter Hua Chenyu's concert in Haikou, South China's Hainan province, on Nov 15. The concert was one of the stops on his Mars tour in 2019.

One of his fans was Xiaomi, who declined to give her real name. She flew from her home in Chongqing along with three friends to watch the concert.

The 25-year-old, who works in a department store in Chongqing, has been a fan of Hua since she watched his concert at the National Stadium in Beijing in 2018.

"His concerts sold out in seconds. My friends and I tried to buy tickets as fast as we could," she said.

"It's a great trip to Haikou, which I had never been to before, along with my friends and to watch my idol's concert."

Among all the ticket buyers for live shows, first-tier and second-tier cities still had a larger number of consumers, which numbered around 76 percent. In comparison, third-tier and fourth-tier cities accounted for about 24 percent of consumers, according to the report.

In third-and fourth-tier cities, the report said that people loved watching concerts more than theatrical dramas.

"It has now become a way of life for young people to spend money on performances by their idols and they form a positive attitude of life through following the young stars," Zhang Yiwu, a professor of Peking University, said in a WeChat public account.

"It indicates China has entered a higher stage of development with better economic and social foundations. It's also a driving force for Chinese cultural and creative industries."

He also said the fact that Chinese young performers are doing increasingly well in the domestic market shows a great potential for indigenous culture to build a stronghold, although Chinese cultural industries are not so strong as that of the United States.

The report also gave examples of some of the most popular theatrical productions in 2019, including musicals, plays and children plays.

For example, Rhinoceros in Love, a Chinese play directed by one of China's most commercially successful theater directors, Meng Jinghui, premiered in 1999. The Count of Wulong Mountain was produced by Mahua Fun Age, one of China's most popular comedy troupes. These were two of the most well-received plays among young theatergoers born after 2000.

Onmyoji, a musical adapted from the mobile video game with the same name, which was developed by Chinese internet company NetEase in 2016, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's award-winning musical, Cats, were most-watched by people born after 1995 and 2000 respectively in China.

One of the most popular musicals staged in China last year was French musical Mozart-L'opera Rock.

According to Beijing Joyway Culture & Media Co, the co-organizer, Mozart-L'opera Rock toured nine Chinese cities. These included Tianjin; Nanjing of Jiangsu province; Guangzhou; Beijing and Xi'an of Shaanxi province, between Dec 30, 2018 and March 24, 2019. Its 77 performances attracted 112,750 people in total.

"Musical has a stable fan base in China and the reputation of Mozart-L'opera Rock made it a hit among Chinese fans," said Zhang Yuzi, deputy manager with the Beijing company.

When the musical was staged in Hangzhou in mid-March, it drew a big crowd of fans, including Chen Yike, a 28-year-old resident.

"It was the first French musical that I had ever watched. I was totally captivated by the show so I bought tickets for another two days," recalled Chen.

She also took photos and got autographs from the cast after the shows. "There were lots of fans lining outside the theater, which I will never forget. I hope the musical will come to China again."

The average individual spend on concerts among Chinese consumers was 1,525 yuan in 2019. Musicals grossed 1,280 yuan for average individual spend.

Streaming hits

Reality shows produced by online streaming platforms, such as Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video, received a large number of views. The popularity of those reality shows helped propel live performances in 2019.

Two of the most popular reality shows in 2019 were Street Dance of China by Youku and The Big Band by iQiyi.

The nationwide tours of the artists who participated in these reality shows both sold out of tickets quickly.

Street Dance of China featured celebrity coaches, such as the 19-year-old Chinese singer-actor Jackson Yee (Yi Yangqianxi), who has more than 80 million followers on his Sina Weibo platform. This helped attract audiences of people born after 1990 and 2000, the report said. They accounted for 58 percent of viewers, with females taking up 82 percent of that figure.

The Big Band, which premiered last summer and brought once-underground indie music to the limelight, has launched a nationwide tour with major acts sharing stages. People born between 1980 and 2000 were the major ticket buyers, accounting for up to 85 percent.

The performing arts market in the first quarter of 2020 has been heavily affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Artists and performing arts organizers have halted all tours and shows.

"However, online streaming shows have soared as record companies, artists and concert organizers are trying to find a connection with fans despite all of the cancellations and postponements of live shows," the report added.

"It may become a new trend among theater fans and concertgoers to enjoy shows online."