Qian Shen

Qian Shen

May 05, 2026

Micro-dramas, Affective time, Emotional structure.

In recent years, contemporary romantic micro-dramas have rapidly developed on mobile platforms in China. Despite exhibiting a high degree of convergence in plot patterns and character configurations, they continue to demonstrate strong market vitality. Addressing this phenomenon, this article approaches the issue from the perspective of affective narration, examining the structural organization of emotion in micro-drama adaptation practices. Through an analysis of representative texts, the study finds that micro-dramas systematically compress the extended temporal structures of their source materials during the process of media transformation. This involves the front-loading of conflict, the concentration of rescue scenarios, and the acceleration of relational confirmation, thereby shifting narrative logic from “story completeness” to “affective efficiency.” At the level of gender structure, masculine power is translated into emotional commitment through a recurring cycle of “threat–rescue–confirmation,” forming a stable mechanism of affect production. Meanwhile, under the influence of platform logics and an accelerated media environment, narrative time is reconfigured into affective time, with emotional gratification becoming the primary criterion for narrative completion. From this perspective, the so-called “homogenization” of micro-dramas should not be understood as a lack of narrative diversity, but rather as the highly standardized operation of affective structures under the conditions of digital audiovisual industrial production.

© 2026, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license