HotpotTV — Stream All the Chinese Shows and Dramas!

Hello, hello BAYOG Fam! I’m back from my vacation in the motherland!
I apologize, as I originally wanted to post this before I went on vacation. I did have it basically started before I left, but was unable to finish the article until my return. Anyway, let’s get right into it! We all know how I’m BAYOG’s live action media expert. I’m a hella basic Asian girl, so we all know that I’ve been an Asian drama/movie addict since 2000-2001. Like many drama and movie fans, DramaFever was my go-to for Asian movies and dramas. I basically watched my movies and series from DramaFever since the very beginning. As much as I loved Viki, DramaFever was still my favorite place to stream Asian dramas and movies. DramaFever basically had more of the types of series I liked, and there was a great selection to choose from.

I was even a premium member! Like everyone else, I was devastated by the sudden shut down back in October [MORE INFO HERE]. I didn’t know where to go for my Asian series. Alot of the other options were pretty limited, and/or didn’t really have the content I was interested in. I also felt really bad for the DramaFever team too. They were the most affected by it, and they were completely powerless to do anything about it. It was honestly just an overall awful situation for both fans and the staff.

So imagine my surprise when I suddenly received a message from Dan Acton, the former head of social at DramaFever. Not gonna lie. I was skeptical at firs because why would anyone related to DramaFever message -ME-??? Apparently Dan had seen my post on the shut down. He wanted to tell me about a new streaming service that some of the former DramaFever team members have been working on! Dan was also kind enough to give me a code to try out the service before it’s official launch!

So let me spill the tea. The new service is called HotpotTV. HotpotTV is basically focused on movies and dramas from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. A great plus to the service? It’s going to be FREE. However, there will be ads playing throughout the videos every now and then. But I don’t mind if that’s all I gotta do to watch great quality dramas for FREEEE. Dan tells me that they’re basically going to start off with 100 different titles, but they do plan on adding more titles over time. So you’ll have a plethora of choices~ I was also told that there are plans for a mobile app release. The android version should be dropping soon, and there are plans for the iOS version to be released in the future. Not only that, they also plan on having a section that will keep you up to date with the news. Basically, the other extra fun things that DramaFever had for the community.

To be honest, I started my Asian drama addict life with Taiwanese dramas. Some of the first Asian dramas I got into were Meteor Garden, Peach Girl, and It Started with a Kiss! Yes, I’m hella old school… Shortly after that, I got into Japanese dramas. Soon after that, I got hellaaaaa into Korean dramas; Which, as we know, blew up in popularity. Honestly, Taiwanese and Chinese dramas used to be incredibly popular back in the day. Then K-Dramas blew up and took over. I’m guilty of switching over to K-Dramas.

I haven’t watched as many Taiwanese or Chinese dramas since. I still watch them on occasion, but not as much as K-Dramas. However, since K-Dramas blew up, I feel like it’s become pretty over-saturated, and often repetitive, at times. In recent years, there have only been a handful of titles that I really enjoyed. Many dramas have been hit or miss, and I considered only a couple titles to actually be amazing. So this really gave me a great opportunity to get into something different.

HotpotTV gave me some hella nostalgic feels. The site is somewhat reminiscent of the DramaFever site and content. Although, it’s a much more simple looking website. I mean that in a good way though. It’s a clean looking site, and not confusing at all. It’s pretty easy to navigate. There are a bunch of different options for TV series and movies. I see that It Started With a Kiss was up there; Although, I didn’t see any of the episodes available yet. Pretty excited for that since it was one of my favorite Taiwanese dramas! You’ve got plenty of choices in Mandarin and Cantonese! There are dramas, movies, and documentaries. You also have a variety of genres: historical, romance, drama, comedy, mystery, supernatural, etc. There’s a convenient filter to help you find what you’re in the mood for. Everything also has subtitles in your choice of: English, Spanish, or Chinese. Streaming was also pretty smooth for me. I had no issues, and no real complaints. You can also toggle the light or dark theme for the website as well.

Of course, the choices may seem a bit more limited when compared to other long-time streaming services like Viki. However, for a small start-up, I think HotpotTV is pretty great. Despite being a streaming service that’s just started, they have a really good amount of titles to choose from. In some ways, this really reminded me of how DramaFever started off. Which isn’t a surprise, considering how one of the founding members started this project.

If you didn’t know, DramaFever started off as a very small project in New York. Eventually, they kept growing. As they grew, so did their content. They helped cultivate more interest and demand for Asian media (specifically Korean dramas and movies). I take this as HotpotTV is going back to bring that kind of exposure and popularity for Chinese and Taiwanese media. I’m have no doubt that HotpotTV will continue to grow as well. I gotta say, I’m here for it. I see the potential, and I’m excited to see HotpotTV improve and grow.

The DramaFever shutdown was devastating. However, I felt awful for the staff. It affected them most, yet they were incredibly apologetic to the DramaFever fans and subscribers. Still, they were powerless. Dan told me that HotPotTV was already in the works before the shutdown. After the shutdown many of the former DramaFever crew joined the efforts in focusing on the new project. They wanted to make something that could bring the same enjoyment as DramaFever. I gotta say that I think they’ve done a wonderful job so far. So show some support and give the new service a try! HotPotTV started launching March 11, and has officially launched as of March 18. It’s available on desktop, iOS and android now too! Let me know if you find any interesting titles to watch!

You can find HotPotTV [here] [Android][iOS].