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https://www.quora.com/topic/Television-Dramas

I find TV dramas only refer to Chinese/Japanese/Korean 电视剧 on the quora topic. Why?

English 电视剧 only are called TV series? If an English 电视剧 only has one season, can it be called series?

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  • They are synonyms. The season you mentioned is just the culture. Chinese TV series don't usually have seasons.
    – Salomon Zhang
    Mar 28, 2019 at 23:20
  • Even in the English speaking world, "season" was originally used in America but not elsewhere. It has recently spread though, I think. In English a "series" or "serial" just meant multiple episodes, in contrast to a movie. There were also "miniseries". Not all series are dramas, especially comedies. Not all dramas are series.
    – hippietrail
    Apr 1, 2019 at 12:28

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「電視劇」is equivalent to TV drama.「電視劇」does not tell you anything about the length of the series (if there even is a series) or the number of seasons in the series.

If an English 电视剧 only has one season, can it be called series?

Yes. A TV series represents a connected group of TV shows with the same title/name. Series are only divided into seasons because of traditional American TV airing practice, where half the year is devoted to viewing and the other half is a re-run.

TV dramas are a product which responds to supply and demand; by nature, if a TV series is not performing by popularity metrics, then there will be no contract to make another season in the series. There are many single-season TV series out there (for various reasons, not only due to lack of popularity).

A TV drama series is called「連續劇」in Chinese. Dramas, in general, are just called「戲劇」, so you can get single "episode" (more like a mini-film) dramas called「單元劇」.

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  • I think in mainland we brief 电视连续剧 as 电视剧. I would think 电视剧 has more than one episole usually.
    – dan
    Mar 29, 2019 at 22:23
  • @dan you can check baidu for these terms if you want, that’s where i got half the information for this answer from.
    – dROOOze
    Mar 29, 2019 at 22:37

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