A gracefully poised woman dressed in a form-fitting qipao that accentuates the elegant lines of her body sings a traditional Chinese opera song in a restaurant's private room.

This is the opening scene of Roses in the Shadows, an espionage micro-drama consisting of 48 episodes, each around eight minutes long, recently streamed on Hongguo, a micro-drama platform owned by internet giant ByteDance.

Set during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), the story follows a 36-year-old opera star who must conceal her true identity as an underground resistance fighter while attempting to assassinate an enemy military official. Tragically, she sacrifices herself to save her adult daughter, who then takes up her mother's mission.

Some critics have said that the drama, which has garnered over 5.8 million views, demonstrates the potential of micro-dramas, an emerging sector generating an impressive market scale of 50.4 billion yuan ($6.93 billion).