Recently, the Chaoshan-themed film Love Letter to Ah Ma has been a box-office hit, driving filming locations such as Xima Road in Shantou and Jiefang Road in Mianhu, Jieyang to become popular cultural and tourism check-in spots themed around ‘Qiaopi culture’; Southern+ Paike simultaneously released on-site video footage. Although the exact time when this phenomenon emerged has not been clearly identified, it has already generated a considerable public response and cross-regional dissemination effect. Niche sectors worth attention include cultural and tourism route operators, Chinese-language education service institutions, cross-border cultural content distribution platforms, and film and television IP derivative operators. This event marks that film and television IP is moving beyond the level of content consumption and is deeply penetrating cultural and tourism resource integration and overseas cultural education scenarios, with an influence that has exceeded the scope of promotion for a single film.

Event Overview

During the continued theatrical and new media platform release of the film Love Letter to Ah Ma, its filming locations—Xima Road in Shantou, Jiefang Road in Mianhu, Jieyang, and others—have sparked spontaneous visits and co-created content by tourists because they present the historical context of Qiaopi culture; the Southern+ platform’s Paike team has released multiple sets of on-site footage, strengthening the associative perception between the locations and the cultural symbols. At present, publicly available information is limited to the film’s popularity driving on-site check-in activities, follow-up media content, and the preliminary response of study tour organizations. No official announcement has yet been released by cultural and tourism authorities or the film side regarding standardized cooperative tour routes.

Which Niche Industries Are Affected

Cultural and Tourism Route Operators

Driven by the film and television IP, demand has risen for themed study tour routes centered on ‘Qiaopi culture’, especially with increased inquiries for customized group tours from overseas Chinese communities, Chinese-language schools, and cultural foundations. The impact is mainly reflected in the following: existing hometown-of-overseas-Chinese cultural routes need to quickly incorporate film narrative elements (such as scene recreations, dialogue-based guided tours, and letter-making craft experiences), while also adapting to practical requirements such as cross-border itinerary filing, multilingual interpretation, and safety registration.

Chinese-Language Education Service Institutions

Chinese-language schools and overseas Chinese education organizations are using the film as a vehicle for cultural teaching, promoting the development of integrated ‘film and television + study tour’ courses. The impact is mainly reflected in the following: domestic reception units need to coordinate and provide visit routes aligned with teaching objectives, supporting teaching kits (such as replica Qiaopi letters and QR codes for oral history audio), as well as teacher training support, thereby placing higher requirements on content compliance and educational suitability.

Cross-Border Cultural Content Distribution Platforms

Chinese-language media, cultural foundations, and overseas Chinese community service platforms targeting Southeast Asia, North America, and other regions have begun requesting quotations for bundled content packages including film materials, on-site footage of filming locations, and audio interpretations of Qiaopi documents. The impact is mainly reflected in the following: content licensing boundaries, multilingual subtitle/dubbing production standards, and the confirmation cycle for copyright ownership have become key bottlenecks for business implementation.

Film and Television IP Derivative Operators

Film producers and joint promotion agencies have received expressions of interest from cultural and tourism departments and study tour institutions in multiple locations regarding the joint development of standardized export products combining ‘film and television + routes + content packages’. The impact is mainly reflected in the following: it is necessary to establish a reusable content asset management system (such as a scene coordinate database, a cultural annotation glossary, and multi-version narration scripts) to support customized output for different markets, rather than one-off event-style cooperation.

What Key Points Should Relevant Enterprises or Practitioners Pay Attention To, and How Should They Respond at Present

Pay Attention to Whether an Official Coordination Mechanism Will Be Formed Later

At present, there has been no special policy on coordinated cultural and tourism linkage for this film issued by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, the overseas Chinese affairs department of Shantou, or the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese. Relevant enterprises should continue to monitor local government official websites, cultural and tourism public accounts, and communications from the overseas Chinese federation system, distinguish between the two types of signals—‘spontaneous grassroots response’ and ‘policy-led activation’—and avoid investing resources too early to build an unsustainable cooperation model.

Pay Attention to the Compliance and Interpretive Boundaries of Qiaopi Cultural Content

Qiaopi is part of the Memory of the World heritage, and its historical narrative must strictly follow the UNESCO application document for Qiaopi Archives—Silver Letters of Overseas Chinese and authoritative domestic research findings. Route design, teaching aid development, and multilingual explanatory copy must be reviewed by local archives or university research teams specializing in overseas Chinese history, in order to prevent cultural misinterpretation and dissemination risks.

Prepare Standardized Content Package Delivery Capabilities in Advance

In response to the procurement demand from overseas Chinese-language schools and cultural foundations for ‘film and television + routes + content packages’, it is recommended to prioritize sorting out three types of reusable assets: ① authorized 10-minute highlight clips from the film (with Chinese-English bilingual subtitles); ② high-definition real-scene image collections of filming locations with GPS coordinate annotations; ③ a Chinese-English glossary of basic Qiaopi cultural terminology and a 5-minute audio guide script. Such assets do not depend on one-off cooperation and can be incorporated into the regular product catalog.

Differentiate Between Short-Term Traffic and the Rhythm of Long-Term IP Operations

The popularity of a film naturally follows a decline cycle, and at present it is more appropriate to understand this as a ‘cultural touchpoint testing period’. Enterprises should not concentrate their bets on the life cycle of a single film, but should use this momentum to verify the methodology of combining local overseas Chinese hometown resources with film and television IP, and build a rapid response mechanism applicable to subsequent Chaoshan-themed works such as Shantou Port and Stories of Chaoshan Merchants.

Editorial Viewpoint / Industry Observation

Observably, this phenomenon is not yet a mature export model but serves as an early-stage signal of how domestic film IPs are beginning to function as ‘cultural access keys’ for overseas Chinese communities. Analysis shows that the current impact remains largely demand-initiated rather than supply-structured: interest is rising organically among end users (schools, foundations), but standardized products, cross-border payment terms, and regulatory alignment (e.g., outbound group travel filing for minors) have not yet been formalized. From an industry perspective, it reflects a transitional phase — where cultural authenticity and commercial scalability remain in active negotiation, not settled equilibrium.

Conclusion

At present, this event should not be regarded as indicating that a mature cultural and tourism export model has already taken shape, but should instead be understood as an early signal of end-user demand forcing supply-side upgrading. Its core value lies in verifying the feasibility of the chain ‘film and television IP—cultural symbols—physical scenarios—educational applications’, but scaled replication still requires the coordinated development of policy collaboration, content compliance frameworks, and cross-border service standards. Industry participants should maintain an observant pace, focus on accumulating controllable content assets and interface capabilities, rather than rushing to tie themselves to a single trending topic.

Information Source Notes

Main sources: publicly available reports from the Southern+ client, theatrical release information for the film Love Letter to Ah Ma, and the publicly available list of filming locations from the Shantou Cultural Tourism Development Center. Items pending continued observation: whether the Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism will introduce supporting policies, actual procurement implementation cases by overseas Chinese-language schools, and progress on the signing of the first orders for cross-border cultural content packages.