Memorandum
- From
- Derek Weston via Variety
- Date
- Filed
- Culture·4 min to read
- Re
Taiwanese IP firms turn books into sold-out plays, series and scents
ReTaiwanese IP firms turn books into sold-out plays, series and scents
At the Taiwan Creative Content Fest in Taipei, Taiwanese intellectual property companies described adapting original books into stage plays, television series, fragrances and travel itineraries, while telco Chunghwa Telecom announced new film and series investments.
Taiwanese intellectual property companies are turning original books into stage plays, television series, fragrances and travel itineraries, and at least some of those stage adaptations have sold out, industry figures said at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest in Taipei. The session focused on how original stories can be carried across several media and sectors rather than remaining confined to the page.
Mimi Wang, a representative of a Taiwanese IP company, was among the speakers on the panel. The discussion centered on the idea that a single story can be developed into different formats, each reaching a different audience. The stage adaptations described during the session were reported to have sold out, which the panel presented as evidence of demand for locally rooted narratives. The panel's framing placed the book at the start of a chain of products rather than at its end, with each adaptation expected to bring new readers and viewers back to the original text.
The event also reflected a broader push by the country's media and telecom sectors to fund content. Telco Chunghwa Telecom announced film and series investments at the fest. Chunghwa is one of three Taiwanese telecom companies that are funding content through newly established funds, a trend that gives IP developers additional potential backers for projects that move from book to screen. For writers and developers, the presence of telecom capital at a creative industry event signals that the companies behind mobile networks and streaming platforms now see original storytelling as a core business rather than a peripheral one.
Among the titles in the investment slate is Gunshot, a police crime drama starring Kent Tsai. The slate also includes Call Of Lobster, which stars Choi Siwon and Chang Chen. The specific sizes of the telco funds were not detailed in the material available for this report, so the scale of the investments remains unclear, and it is not yet known how many of the announced projects will reach production.
Separately, Taiwanese IP developer Mirror Fiction presented awards at the fest. The prizes total more than $50,000 and are shared between two authors. The money is intended to help fund the publication of their books and their adaptation for the screen, linking the prize directly to the book-to-screen pipeline that the panel described. The awards are part of a biennial program, and the event marked its fifth edition, which indicates that the program has continued through several cycles of the fest.
Taken together, the fest's sessions pointed to a pipeline in which publishing, theater, television and tourism increasingly draw on the same source material. The panel's emphasis on cross-sector development suggests that Taiwanese creators and companies see original fiction as a foundation for multiple commercial and cultural ventures, rather than a single product. Whether the sold-out stage runs and the announced screen projects translate into sustained audiences will be a measure of how far that model can extend beyond the fest itself.
2
