Universal issues and themes such as power, marriage, beauty are seen through the eyes of Asian women in a new locally filmed series, "Her", which unites different experiences and perspectives under a shelter of common ground. “We don’t need to be ‘empowered’,” says DW’s Petra Schneider ahead of the series May 2021 release. “We need to tell our stories”. 

“There are times in your life as a woman where, no matter where we are, we face the same issues as women everywhere. Power. Beauty. Relationships... We went looking for universal themes that, no matter how different our situations, perspectives or experiences, tie us all together,” says DW’s distribution director, Petra Schneider, ahead of the premiere of the German broadcaster’s six-part Asian series Her.

"Her" airs on multiple platforms across the region from mid-May this year, including TVB’s myTV Super in Hong Kong; Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom; multiple platforms in Indonesia, including MaxStream, Vidio, Genflix and MNC’s VisionPlus; and Vietnam’s FPT, among others.  

The series covers Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, along with DW’s South Asia strongholds of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. 

All filming was done by local crews and production houses, including the Kuala Lumpur-based Pik Film, which did the Malaysia and Indonesia episodes. DW executive produced and co-ordinated the stories, and post-production was completed in-house in Germany. 

A second season is in the works, with enhanced production tech, including the use of drones. The final number of episodes is still in discussion.  

A couple of years in the making, "Her" is part of DW’s long-standing commitment to local relevance underpinned by its public broadcast mandate. 

In a bid to tap demand for local/vernacular content that would work across the region, “we went looking for common ground, topics that are local but can be appreciated across the region,” Schneider says. 

In addition to another local series "Unseen", which looks at environmental issues in Asia, DW’s multi-country brainstorming sessions emerged with a show that asks woman in Asia to talk about their experiences and perspectives on common issues. “We believe that all women have the same events in their lives, but different experiences,” Schneider says. 

DW, which has been operating in Asia for more than two decades, then created a pilot as a reference point, and commissioned the episodes from local filmmakers, as well as DW’s bureau in Taipei for the Taiwan episode. 

Each episode of "Her" combines three women from different parts of Asia with different backgrounds talking about the same issue or event. The broad search for stories took the team from a same-sex-mixed-nationality couple living in Taiwan, where gay marriage is legal but their union is not because one half of the couple is Malaysian; to a polygamous marriage in Malaysia; and a lone female professional baseball umpire who found herself on the field with no appropriate protective gear... until some was developed especially for her.  

Nothing in the "Her" bible talks specifically about “empowering women”, Schneider says. “We don’t need to ‘empower’,” she says. “We need to tell our stories.” 

Published in ContentAsia May 2021 magazine