Collaboration reconfigured: The evolving landscape of entertainment TV markets between Taiwan and Mainland China

This article examines the evolving landscape of variety show markets in Taiwan and Mainland China. It begins with an overview of the role of Taiwan in the initial development of variety show production in Mainland China. It then analyses the factors behind Taiwan’s declining position in distribution to the Mainland and its weakened role as a knowledge broker, which parallels the evolution of Mainland productions from copycats to licenced format trade and adaptation and subsequently original programming concepts. Following this is an analysis of recent movements of Taiwanese talent and capital to the Mainland and, increasingly, to online platforms. While digital technologies and platforms present new collaboration opportunities, and format trade facilitates production, this article points to potentially intensified tensions arising from cross-strait cultural production that often intends to address multiple audiences with hybrid content.