iQIYI, Inc.’s original series “The Bad Kids” has made history as the first Chinese TV series to win the Best Creative award at the Asia Contents Awards.

The other drama series that were nominated for Best Creative include Netflix’s “Crash Landing On You”, JTBC’s “The World of the Married”, and Taiwan CTV’s “Someday or One Day”. Apart from iQIYI winning for Best Creative, the TV show’s Rong Zishan also snagged the Newcomer Actor award. The 2nd Asia Contents Awards is organized by the 2020 Busan International Film Festival held in Busan, South Korea on Oct. 25.

‘The Bad Kids’

“The Bad Kids” is a 12-episode suspense drama produced and released by iQIYI in 2020. During its run in China, the show produced 216 trending hashtags on Weibo and received a WeChat index of 26.13 million. “The Bad Kids” was rated 9.2 out of 10 by over 200,000 people on Douban, an influential Chinese social media platform known for its movie and TV show reviews.

“On behalf of iQIYI, the creators and the crew, I would like to thank the jury, for the honor and affirmation given to ‘The Bad Kids’. It has a unique perspective, and we are trying to bring new ideas of this type. It will be our privilege if you can remember the three little children who came into our world and inspired us to thinking in this summer. Thank you for everyone’s love for this show,” said iQIYI Vice President Dai Ying, who heads the company’s original drama division, in a press statement.

At this year’s AwardS, iQIYI was shortlisted for eight nominations in total through two of its original series: “The Bad Kids” and “Sword Dynasty”. “The Bad Kids” was nominated for Best Asian TV Series, Best Design Technology Achievement, Best Creative, Newcomer Actress (Wang Shengdi), and Newcomer Actor (Rong Zishan).

Meanwhile, “Sword Dynasty” landed the Best Technology Achievement and Best Actor (Li Xian) awards. Among all streaming media platforms, iQIYI was shortlisted for the largest number of nominations.

Asia Contents Awards

The Asia Contents Awards is an international film and television award that is presented by the Busan International Film Festival. The Awards recognizes outstanding Asian content from TV, OTT (over-the-top), and other diverse platforms that have been released in the past year from 14 Asian countries, as well as talented producers, writers, and actors in the Asian film and TV industry.

“Mr. Sunshine”, a drama series directed by South Korean screenwriter Kim Eun Sook, was last year’s recipient of the Best Creative award of the Asia Contents Awards. The series became the highest-rated Korean cable drama in TVN’s history with an 8.9 rating and scored a 8.9 on Douban in China.

iQIYI’s original suspense drama “The Bad Kids” winning this year marks a new milestone of Chinese drama series’ entrance into the global market.

As China’s leading streaming media platform, iQIYI is committed to producing high-quality content and innovating content formats such as drama series and variety shows. So far, a significant number of iQIYI original series such as “Tientsin Mystic”, “Burning Ice”, “Tang Dynasty Tour”, “The Thunder”, “The Golden Eyes” and “The City of Chaos” have won numerous awards at overseas festivals such as The New York International Television Film Festival, the China-U.S. Television Film Festival, and the Seoul International Television Festival.