China-born producer sets pace for new era of vertical micro-dramas

Li sees the arrival of AI tools as the defining opportunity — and challenge — for the format's next phase.

"The big question is how creators learn to use AI as a tool in the creative process itself, to open up nearly unlimited possibilities," he said.

His advice to creators entering the field echoes that outlook: "Keep learning, stay open-minded, be bold with your imagination, understand your audience, and adapt to the times — that's the path every creator has to walk."

Li's interest in media began well before he entered the industry professionally. By his final years at Trinity, Li had become executive producer of Studio 21, overseeing team responsibilities and content across each episode.

Before moving into vertical drama, Li directed a documentary at Trinity, How Has COVID Influenced Trinity University's International Students From Asian Countries (2021), which examined the experiences of Asian international students during the pandemic.

"Making that documentary gave me a lot of confidence that I wanted to keep working in content creation — and specifically behind the camera," he added.

Li's work extends beyond the edit suite. With 1214 Entertainment, a Texas-based organization, he has served as PR manager for the YAR (Young Asians Represent) Music Festival — billed as the first dedicated Asian music festival held in Texas at the Round Rock Amphitheater — and later as Stage Executive Producer for Night Market Fun, another of the organization's AANHPI-focused cultural events.

Asked about the biggest difference he navigates when adapting East Asian storytelling conventions for US audiences, Li pointed to something subtler than plot or dialogue: how emotion itself is communicated on screen.

"In East Asian storytelling, especially in short dramas, audiences often understand a character's underlying emotion through small expressions — a glance, a slight smile — without anything being said outright," Li said. "American audiences tend to prefer emotion expressed more directly."

The rapid rise of vertical micro-dramas — series designed from the outset for phone screens rather than adapted to fit them — has outpaced the industry's frameworks for discussing craft and quality in the format.

Li's career reflects one attempt to build that vocabulary from the inside: treating pipeline discipline, subtitling and localization as the mechanisms that let a few-minute episode carry the emotional and narrative weight audiences expect from much longer television.