Long before Psy’s hit, “Gangnam Style,” catapulted to radio-waves worldwide, South Korea already had a massive fan base in China due to the latest TV series mania that captured Chinese viewers.
China’s obsession with South Korean television show,“My Love From the Star,” has reached such a frenzy that online streaming companies were sent racing to buy licensing rights for other South Korean television programs, inflating their prices almost tenfold, leading to Chinese regulators imposing greater limits on foreign television content.
The impact has been big on Korean dramas. Previously Korean dramas were available online in China within hours they were aired in Korea. Now China censors must approve shows meaning the price has come down, shows are not readily available and illegal downloading and piracy is rife.
Demand for South Korean-influenced shows has risen rapidly in recent years, with technological developments accelerating the influx of South Korean pop culture into the country. Many in the online video industry in China suspect the new guidelines were issued at least partly because of the popularity of, “My Love From the Star.”
“My Love the Another Star,” a quirky Korean television series about a 400-year-old Harvard-educated alien who falls in love with an actress, was watched by millions of viewers in China last year. Fans were hospitalised for binge-eating fried chicken and beer, the star actress’s favorite food on the show, and it was reported that even the first lady of China, Peng Liyuan, became swept up by the show.
It was streamed more than 2.5 billion times in the first three months after its premiere in December 2013.
Chinese cultural critic, television host and producer Ma Xue helps companies create television shows for the Chinese market and says Chinese viewers have long been interested in South Korean TV dramas.
“In 2001, there were one or two Korean dramas that were aired in China, and there was an upsurge in interest then,” she said. “Starting in 2009, there was a huge expansion of Korean TV dramas on Chinese video websites. Before this, people downloaded a lot of television shows illegally, including Korean dramas. But video websites came under pressure to eliminate pirated content. This encouraged the demand for legal, licensed content.”
And for years, Chinese entertainment industry observers have tried to explain South Korean television’s foothold in China, saying it comes down to packaging.
“The Koreans continue to do well because of the details,” said Fan Xiaojing, Chinese journalist and long-term analyst of the South Korean entertainment industry. “China just can’t capture the romance.”
While South Korean production companies are continuously finding ways to take advantage of the fast-growing online market in China, television production is still at an earlier stage in China.
