Beijing Cishi Culture Media Co., Ltd. (北京次世文化传媒有限公司), often presented in English-facing coverage as “Next Generation Culture” or similar renderings, is a Beijing-based technology-entertainment studio positioned around digital humans and virtual IP development, spanning the creation, packaging, and operation of human-like virtual characters for use in branding, content, and celebrity-linked projects. In the public narrative associated with the company, Chen Yan is described as the founder and as a principal driver of its “virtual human” direction, with credited work that includes the national-style hyper-real virtual KOL LING and the virtual DJ Purple, alongside co-development of celebrity-oriented virtual IP images such as ZTAO'S MAN and NAND Band, and association with a virtual image linked to Dilraba Dilmurat. In the broader digital-human context, the company fits the segment that treats digital humans as media products and scalable IP assets rather than purely enterprise service avatars, emphasizing character realism, cultural styling, and artist collaborations as the pathway to commercialization across entertainment, marketing, and platform-based distribution.
Reporting from late 2021 supports the statement that NetEase led an approximately US$5 million funding round for Beijing-based virtual human startup Next Generation, with participation from The Arena Capital, Shunwei Capital, and CCV Capital, and the company was described as having raised a prior US$5 million Series A in July 2021 before that later round (often characterized as a Series A+). The same coverage attributes to Next Generation the development of celebrity-focused virtual avatars tied to Dilraba Dilmurat and Huang Zitao and the creation or co-development of a virtual persona called AI Merror, with a minor nuance that some reports frame AI Merror as co-developed with Xiaoice and label the later round as “Series A+” rather than simply “Series A.”
Chen Yan (陈燕) is presented in Chinese media and corporate profiles as the founder and principal executive of Beijing Cishi Culture Media Co., Ltd. (北京次世文化传媒有限公司), with her career narrative rooted in entertainment marketing and production rather than purely technical R&D. Public interviews describe her earlier work spanning record-label and media contexts, including serving as music director for the Singing Travelers (《唱游天下》) and working in artist-coordination roles, plus brand-oriented advertising collaborations, which she frames as the practical experience that later shaped the company’s emphasis on commercially deployable digital humans and virtual IP. In the same reporting, she is also depicted as steering the firm’s approach toward celebrity-linked virtual images and original hyper-realistic virtual characters as a pathway to scalable “virtual human” commercialization.
Cui Jing (崔婧), listed in corporate information services as a director of Beijing Cishi Culture Media, is described in investor-biography summaries as a TMT-focused investment professional with domain experience in interactive entertainment, media, traffic distribution, and e-commerce. Those profiles commonly attribute prior roles to major internet-era organizations and investment teams, including work at Shanda Capital and the investment arm of Qihoo 360, and they position her later activity around venture investing in consumer and entertainment-adjacent internet businesses, which is consistent with a board role in a digital-human studio whose outputs are commercial IP assets rather than enterprise-only avatars.
Beijing Cishi Culture Media Co., Ltd.
Room 6480, 4/F, Building 2
No. 9 Xiaotun Road, Fengtai District
Beijing 100040
(It is referred to as “Next Generation Culture” in English because 次世文化 is commonly translated in media contexts as “next generation culture,” using 次世 to convey “next generation” and 文化 to convey “culture.”)
(On Weibo, Beijing Cishi Culture Media Co., Ltd. (北京次世文化传媒有限公司) appears under the verified account name 次世文化, and you can find it at https://weibo.com/n/次世文化.)