In August 2026, Back to Gaokao, an AI short drama, claimed No. 16 in the new release charts of a short drama platform. Surprisingly, it was not a masterpiece from a production team in a tier-1 city, but independently created from scratch over 40 days by a group of young people in Cangxi County, Sichuan Province. Three months earlier, some of them were recent college graduates, and others were working in sectors such as interior decoration or semiconductor packaging.

Underlying this AI short drama is Alibaba Philanthropy's fresh initiative to nurture digital talent in county-level regions by bringing in the booming AI short drama industry. At training bases for AI short drama production, the initiative equips young people from rural areas with cutting-edge digital skills, enabling them to seize the opportunities of the AI era right in their hometowns.

From AI Novice to AI Short Drama Director

Luo Yingping, a rural revitalization commissioner with Alibaba, helped arrange for Yang Ruiqi, a young man from Cangxi County, and three friends of his to be sent to Hangzhou in May for a 40-day hands-on training program in AI short drama production. Before the trip, their understanding of AI was pretty much limited to typing “Generate a female character” into a chat box. In Hangzhou, they found that professionals would write prompts with detailed facial descriptions, even down to the exact number of hairs.

These young people threw themselves into learning. In the second week, they got a handle on character modeling. In the third, they figured out camera placement and movement. In the fourth, they cracked editing. They spent their days making shorts and their nights breaking down movies to study how blockbusters were shot and gradually develop a director’s eye.

Over the course of 40 days, Yang Ruiqi, an English major with no prior training in movie production, gained the ability to independently run the entire production pipeline from character design to final cut. In August, he and his teammates released Back to Gaokao, Cangxi County’s first homegrown AI short drama. A few days later, it shot to No. 16 in the new release charts of a short drama platform.

This work was originally just a practice piece for the team. Luo Jie, head of the Cangxi County-based short drama production company behind the team, noted that the team's performance shows that county-level regions are not lacking in capability and that it is all about finding the right opportunity.

Building a Replicable Approach to Nurturing Talent for County-Level Regions

The effort to bring the AI short drama industry to the county level originated from the insights of Luo Yingping, a rural revitalization commissioner with Alibaba, into Cangxi County's local industries.

He recalled that, a few years earlier, Alibaba Philanthropy had helped establish a digital employment hub in the county. As e-commerce livestreaming had become saturated after years of growth, local young people still faced limited job options. With the explosive rise of AI-generated content (AIGC), he started exploring the possibility of introducing the emerging AI short drama industry to the county. This idea clicked immediately with Luo Jie, head of the digital employment hub.

After extensive research and on-the-ground visits, Luo Yingping reached out to Zhenyouqu Media, a Hangzhou-based AI short drama company, and designated it as a philanthropic training base for AI short drama production. Under this arrangement, Luo Jie recruits trainees from the county, while Alibaba Philanthropy covers their 40-day room, board, and travel expenses.

Upon returning from Hangzhou, trainees leverage a mentorship system to pass on the skills that they have learned. To date, Cangxi County's AI short drama team has grown to 20 members, capable of producing four short dramas a month and continuously nurturing talent through practice.

According to Luo Jie, the company has already signed annual framework agreements to produce 50 AI short dramas this year. Team members can earn an average monthly income of RMB 5,000 to 6,000, a level in the upper-middle bracket among local firms.

"This cannot compare to salaries in tier-one cities," Yang Ruiqi said. "But without the burden of big-city rent and living expenses, being able to work close to home is a great opportunity."

This approach is being replicated across more county-level regions. Places like Kaihua and Pan'an in Zhejiang Province have successively launched their own projects for AI short drama production.