Produce Camp (Chinese: 创造营; pinyin: Chuàngzào Yíng), officially known as Chuang (Chinese: 创; pinyin: Chuàng; lit.'Produce' or 'Create'), is an idol reality televisiontalent competitionfranchise created by Chinese entertainment conglomerate Tencent, based on the South Korean franchise Produce 101. It is the officially sanctioned spin-off of the original South Korean Produce 101 franchise, and CJ E&M is listed as one of the production companies for each season of Chuang. In contrast, iQiYi's rival idol survival show franchise Idol Producer, which features a nearly identical show format, was never officially sanctioned by CJ E&M, and caused CJ E&M to accuse iQiYi of plagiarism and copyright infringement.
In 2021, following the milk-wasting scandal in May, where a video showing several people dumping boxes of milk purchased to support trainees on the third season of iQiYi's idol competition show Youth With You went viral,[1] and reports of fans of singer Kris Wu planning to rescue him from detainment after his arrest for allegations of rape in July,[2] the Chinese government enacted a ban on the production and broadcast of idol competition shows in the country in September, in an effort to control the behavior of idol fandom which may go against societal values in China.[3] This marks the end of the original Chuang series.
Tencent began working on bringing the franchise outside of China to circumvent the ban. This came into fruition in 2024 with the beginning of the Chuang Asia series, with plans of producing the show in different Asian countries each year.[4]
