Finding the AI Creators Best at Storytelling: Orca Entertainment’s Jingrui AI Creation Contest Comes to Tsinghua University

“Excellent works must be carefully polished and shaped by their creators; they cannot possibly be generated with a single click of AI. Chasing traffic and gambling on a hit is not truly telling a story. I hope everyone can create quality works.” At the Jingrui AI Creation Contest expert roundtable, “New Technologies Bring New Vitality to Culture, Telling China’s Stories Well with AI,” held at Tsinghua University on November 6, renowned director, screenwriter and executive producer Tang Jili shared his views on AI-driven film and television creation.

The event was organized by Orca Entertainment Group. Renowned director, screenwriter and executive producer Tang Jili, well-known writer and self-media creator Liushen Leilei, Professor Hang Min—vice dean of Tsinghua University’s School of Journalism and Communication and director of the Center for Economic Communication and Development—and Zhang Long, general manager of Orca Entertainment Group’s AI Screenwriting Studio, engaged in a cross-perspective discussion spanning film and television, literature, academia and industry on AI video creation.

On-site scenes from the “New Technologies Bring New Vitality to Culture, Telling China’s Stories Well with AI” event

A work is more compelling if it stays true to its original purpose and does not chase traffic

In September this year, Orca Entertainment launched the AI talent incubation and training program “Orca AI Talent Program” and concurrently launched the “Jingrui AI Creation Contest,” aiming to find the AI creators best at telling stories. It specially invited Tang Jili to serve as the chief expert of the competition’s jury. As the first AI video creation competition in China with a total prize pool of RMB 10 million, the Jingrui AI Creation Contest offers 265 award slots, with the top prize in a single category reaching RMB 2 million. Open to individuals and teams, it places no restrictions on the AI creation tools used or the subject matter of submissions, which will close on November 22.

Director Tang Jili, who has devoted more than 40 years to the film industry, has made globally acclaimed films such as “Red Zone,” “Police Story 3” and “Myth.” With the rapid development of AI technology, he has also become one of the most enthusiastic adopters of AI in Chinese-language cinema over the past two years, continuing to train action-generation models to film-industry standards. His AI short drama “Feng Shui Master,” for which he served as executive producer, has surpassed 1.3 billion cumulative views. “Technological change at every stage alters the way we create. AI will provide many creative tools, but audiences will always care about a good story. To find stories that cross cultural boundaries and evoke empathy, we need to put in more effort,” Tang said.

Photo: renowned director, screenwriter and executive producer Tang Jili, chief expert of the jury of the “Jingrui AI Creation Contest”

In the face of the arrival of the AI era, writer Liushen Leilei chose another way to break through: using AI to expand from literary creation into film and television. This writer, known to readers for “Rereading Chinese Literary Classics,” has also created numerous AI short films over the past two years. When AI lowers the barriers to visual storytelling, the Chinese classic stories he has read and reviewed for years gain the possibility of renewed vitality.

“Chinese classic stories are a treasure trove for creation. Ordinary people, a sense of parity and emotional resonance remain important factors in moving audiences. The grandeur and diversity of classic works, along with the imaginative space they leave behind, also provide room for AI visual creation to demonstrate its capabilities. Liushen Leilei believes AI adaptations of Chinese classic stories are already common in the market. AI tools are advanced and sharp, but the intentions with which they are used determine what the resulting work will be like. Upholding a humanistic ethos rather than chasing traffic is not only a matter of responsibility; it also makes a work more compelling.” At the event, he also revealed that he was preparing a work to enter the Jingrui AI Creation Contest.

Photo: Well-known writer and independent media creator Liushen Leilei

AI creation must not only deliver volume; it must also pursue premium content

According to the DataEye Research Institute, the domestic market for AI dramas and animated dramas is expected to exceed RMB 40 billion in 2026, with a user base of over 600 million. In terms of output, a single platform added as many as 221,900 AI dramas and animated dramas in the first half of the year alone. Meanwhile, the number of active production contractors in the industry fell from 1,216 in the first quarter to 698. The competitive focus of the content industry is shifting from “who can create hit content” to “who can consistently produce premium content.”

In Hang Min’s view, the transition toward premium AI content is urgent, and using AI to tell Chinese stories well has become one of the key solutions. This is not only a business issue, but also a cultural one.

“Policy, technology, and demand have given AI content unprecedented opportunities for development, but there is still a clear contradiction between the boom in the volume of AI content and the unevenness of its quality,” Hang said. AI creation must not only bring growth in the number of works, but also strive for the highest standards in premium content. “Young people are both creators of content and disseminators of Chinese stories. We hope that more young talents will seize the opportunities of the times, join in exploring AI content creation, take their work to the international stage, and spread Chinese culture more effectively.”

Photo: Professor Hang Min, Vice Dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University and Director of the Center for Economic Communication and Development

As creators ramp up efforts to produce premium content, they also need support from mature industry mechanisms. Zhang Long, General Manager of the AI Screenwriting Studio at Hujing Entertainment Group, believes that AI creation is a fusion of technology and art. AI changes how creation is executed, not who makes the creative decisions. The value of a tool lies in bringing creators’ visions to life with precision, rather than replacing their judgment. To tell stories well with AI, technology should step behind the scenes and work with creators to define the production standards of the new generation of the content industry.

Zhang said: “The ultimate purpose of a tool is to restore the original author’s intent.” Taking Hujing Entertainment’s newly launched “Jingrui AI,” the industry’s first AI film and television production and management platform, as an example, he shared the industry’s cutting-edge exploration of technology products. Unlike pipeline-style creation based on “one-click generation,” the Jingrui AI platform covers the entire production chain, from breaking down scripts and storyboards and generating art assets to multi-model production and post-production color grading and enhancement. Its more than 300 precision-control features and real-time collaboration for up to 100 people better address the practical production needs of creating premium AI content.

“After AI technology democratizes creation, the capabilities required of creative teams rise rather than fall,” Zhang said. “AI film and television production is not something that one person can achieve just by knowing how to use models. Only when every member of a creative team works with AI precisely at every stage can they bring together an excellent aesthetic vision in a unified whole.”

Photo: Zhang Long, General Manager of the AI Screenwriting Studio at Hujing Entertainment Group

This article was provided by Hujing Entertainment. QbitAI has been authorized to repost it, and all views belong to the original author.

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