Enhanced by the new communicative technologies, the cultural traffic between the ethnic Chinese communities is plural not only in terms of multilingualism but also in terms of cultural contexts in the regions where pop culture is produced, percepted and consumed. In this sense, the commonscript allows native speakers of different regional Chinese dialects to get access to the crisscrossing cultural products and is aimed at facilitating the overall reception of Chinese language pop culture across the ethnic Chinese communities in different locations.

Thus, the use of common written Chinese script with some occasional local variations makes the plurality of the so-called “Chineseness” very interactive. This common script provides spatial and national intersection of constantly circulating products, practitioners, and Chinese-language pop culture consumption among the ethnic Chinese population dispersed throughout the worldIbidem..Whether the border-crossing Chinese language pop culture with its geographically dispersed ethnic Chinese population can help create a real feeling of transnational Huaren community is still highly questionable.

However, the common written script becomes a “discursively imaginable and materially realizable” “soft-bedrock of shared `Chineseness', of a sense of `community' without a permanent cultural center and not necessarily amounting to a dominant identity for anyone in particular”Chua Beng Huat. Op. cit. P. 40.. This conceivable, discursive and realizable opportunity is constantly being created, manifested and visible through the loosely-integratedcultural and economic social institutions whose activities together constitute the Chinese entertainment industry.

6. Why is China Not the Center?

I believe, so far, we got a quite clear understanding of the decentralized structure of the Chinese pop culture and noticed the marginalized place of China in the East Asian cultural production in contrast to its greater import and consumer market.

Earlier we briefly mentioned the fact that after the Second World War, communist China wasto a great extent excluded from the Chinese language cultural exchange. The closing-up of the borders and strict governmental control led to the underdevelopment of media industries.Another reason is the still flourishing piracy industry, which can produce relatively good quality products that are significantly cheaper than the original ones. This all highly discourages the investment into the media industry.

The commercialization of state-owned media enterprises has not improved the quality and style of cultural products significantly enough for them to be sold to the more advanced consumers in other East Asian regions. In terms of TV and film production, for example, underfinancing led to the poor visual quality, which did not live up to the high expectations of the viewers who by that time had already got used to the products of a higher standard.

In general, changes are occurring in China, which seeks to compete in the regional drama market, although more institutional reform is needed in the television industry, Chua concludes.Ibid. P. 26.In addition to this, there are some other deeper cultural reasonsfor China's relative marginalization in term of cultural production, which are pointed out by Michael Keane.

Firstly, China is perceived as a core site of Chinese traditional culture. In this sense, Chinese classical literature and events of the rich history of China often serve as the material for various media production. For example, the four classic novels of Chinese literature (ËÄ´óÃûÖø) - “A Dream of Red Mansions” (ºìÂ¥ÃÎ), “Romance of Three Kingdoms” (Èý¹úÑÝÒå), “Water Margins” (ˮ䰴«), “Journey to the West” (Î÷ÓμÇ) - have been repeatedly produced as films or historical TV dramas.

Although, these dramas have found their markets among the regions with ethnic Chinese population and beyond, they require from their audience relatively profound knowledge of Chinese history and literaturefor the full appreciation. Thus, their success among the youth and non-Chinese audience “is at best uncertain”Keane Michael. From National Preoccupation to Overseas Aspiration.” In Zhu Ying, Keane Michael, Bai Ruoyun (eds.). TV Drama in China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2008. P. 151..

Secondly, Chinese popular culture production in the Mainland is still deeply inscribed by authoritarianism and its limiting ideology. Such complicated political inscriptions are too heavy for the pop culture and require a moresophisticated audience. Over time, these highly ideological and pedagogical cultural products have become too tiresome even for the minds of China's domestic consumers, let alone the foreign audience.

For instance, the director of China's Propaganda Department Arts Bureau, Li Baoshan stated that in 2003 only 20% of Chinese TV dramas made significant sales, another 20% barely covered production costs or made very low profits, whereas the rest 60% totallyfailed to cover their investmentIbid. P. 147..

According to De KoetDe Kloet Jeroen. Let Him Fucking See the Green Smoke Beneath My Groin': The Mythology of Chinese Rock. In Dirlik Arif, Zhang Xudong (eds.). Postmodernism and China. Durham: Duke University Press, 2000. P. 239-274., in China's contemporary pop culture, the political and ideological connotations are mostly visible in rock music. Thus, Chinese rock music is hard to understand for consumers who live outside China's political context. Here we can take as an example “the father of Chinese rock music” Cui Jian (´Þ½¡). For himrock represents not a musical genre, but an ideologyIbid. P. 250., De Koet argues.

So China's pop culture still lacks the “lightness” of the ideological influence embedded in its products. The influence for sure can exist but needs to be imperceptible for the mass consumer andtranslated into the forms that are favoured by the mass audience.

Conclusion of Chapter I

In this part, I defined the notion of Chinese popular culture in the context of East Asian cultural economy. Starting from the 1990s with the cross-border inflow of pop cultures from different centers, there emerged a larger entity of the East Asian Pop Culture as an integrated regional cultural economy, where economic interests have been pursuedbyproducing culture as commodityChua Beng Huat. Op. cit. P. 12..In this sense, Chinese pop culture is not limited to the borders of continental China, but also comprises all the ethnic Chinese population from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and beyond.I mentioned that Chinese pop culture has a complicated long established structure and a multilingual character of cultural production as Mandarin is not accorded as the “official” language of all ethnic Chinese population living in different regions. Besides Mandarin, the main languages of Chinese pop culture are Cantonese and Hokkien Taiwanese.Chinese pop culture is de-centered both structurally and in terms of Chinese identity.The cultural production is dominated by Hong Kong, which hasbeen the major production site of Chinese movies, TV Shows and Cantonese pop music, and Taiwan as a center for Mandopop industry, whileMainland China is still primarily a location of import and consumption, as its creative industries are relatively weak still being in their infancy. However,China is already making huge steps to catch up with its competitors. Its massive consumer market and production potential make it an important future player in this field who will be ableto fully compete with Taiwan and Hong Kong for the domination intheChinese language pop culture production.

As for the de-centered Chinese identity, in this part I stated that imagining the concept of the overseas ethnic Chinese population as “diasporic” community, which looks at China and is united by a sense of “Chineseness”, shared traditional beliefs and Confucian heritage, is highly problematic. This is due to the fact thatthe knowledge about traditional Confucian culture and the system of institutions declined with each consecutive generation of the ethnic Chinese born overseas.

In contrast to the absence of the sense of “Chineseness” on the basis of Confucian values, Huaren population from a different location is still united by the inflows and exchanges of pop culture in different Chinese dialects where the perception and understanding of these dialects are facilitated by the subtitles in common Chinese written script. This high traffic of cultural production, distribution and consumption contains the potential for the emergence of imaginable “Pan-Huaren” community that can become apparent through various communication channels and be appointed as the Chinese pop culture. This makes the sense of “Chineseness” and shared community among the ethnic Chinese population discursively conceivable and materially feasible.

To make the link between Chapter I and Chapter II of my work, I need to say one more thing. As the centrality of the Chinese pop culture in the East Asian pop culture is evident, its well-established structure and distribution channels play a crucial role in the crisscrossing of different East Asian pop cultures. Thus, starting from the 1990s, it became one of the significant factors of the spreading and acceptance of Korean Wave in East Asia. This will be discussed in the next part.

Chapter II. The Phenomenon of the Korean Wave in China

1. The Term “Hallyu” in a Global Context

Firstly, I need to specify what the term “Korean Wave” actually means and which aspects of this notion I will particularly look at in my analysis. “Korean wave” or “Hallyu” (ÇÑ·ùin Korean) symbolizes a rapid growth of Korean cultural industry and its export of popular culture. The so-called “wave” started to rise in 1997 with the popularity of several Korean TV dramas spreading first across East Asia and then the whole Asian region. TV shows became the initial phase of Hallyu leading to the popularity of Korean pop music in the beginning of 2000s. However, it is only after the development of Internet and Social Networking systems that Hallyu became a transnational cultural phenomenon spreading beyond Asia and reaching a global audience in North and South America, Europe, and even the Middle East.

Different studies vary a little bit on the origin of the term “Korean Wave”, but most agree that itwas coined by the Chinese pressand used to symbolize the trend for the Korean pop culture in China. The term º«Á÷ (Hanliu, literally “Korean stream”) was first used by Beijing Youth Daily (±±¾©ÇàÄ걨) on November 19, 1999, in the report on the phenomenal success of a famous Korean group HOT's concert in Beijing.Initially used as a pun based on similar pronunciations of the words º®Á÷ (cold stream)º«Á÷ (Korean stream), it was meant to describe the spreading of Korean popular culture in different countries at the end of the 20^th century, including TV dramas, films, pop music, computer games, other cultural industries and their following effects like the popularity of Korean food, clothing, Korean language, Korean cosmetics and makeup, electronics, tourism, etc„¢ÐˆA. ínÁ÷¡¢ín„¡£¬ÒÔ¼°ÄÏínµÄÎÄ»¯®a˜IÕþ²ß. Ø”ˆF·¨Èˇø¼ÒÕþ²ßÑо¿»ù½ð•þ2016Äê11ÔÂ1ÈÕ. (Liu Xin Yuan. Hallyu, Korean Dramas, and South Korean Cultural Industry Policy. National Policy Foundation. November 1, 2016)Retrieved April 8, 2019 from https://www.npf.org.tw/2/16277?fbclid=IwAR3c9vKTr_rXXl_NazEVY-JGduBFt1s2k03rmFDk2IAbxR44km8Wn_DH1c4. Since then the term has been widely used not only by the media but by the Korean government as well.

If we narrow down the focus to the Chinese people's perception of Korean Wave, the results of the online survey I conducted as a part of my thesis show that almost 51% of the respondents chose “Definitely yes” while answering the question whether “watching Korean dramas and listening to K-pop made you want to visit South Korea?” They are followed by 32.7% of those who chose “More likely than not”See Appendix 2, question 23 of the poll..

Moreover, in the question about the Korean language proficiency, the most common answer is “I do not know Korean, but I would like to learn it because I am interested in Korean popular culture” (61.8%), followed by those who know Korean and decided to learn it because of the interest in Korean popular culture (29.1%)Ibid, question 24 of the poll..

Thus, Korean Wave is not simplylimited to the popularity of TV dramas or popular music “but extends to the spread of Korean sensibilities, behavior norms and life styles” Kim Ji-Eun. “Korean Wave” in China: Its impact on the South Korean-Chinese Relations. Master Thesis in political science. The University of British Columbia (Vancouver),November, 2011. Retrieved December 10, 2018 from https://open.library.ubc.ca/media/download/pdf/24/1.0072403/1.Hallyu is also the result that reflects the transformation of South Korea in various aspects: political, economic, and cultural. After the devastation of the Korean War, the country started from scratch in almost every industry in order to catch up with the rest of the world. In only a half of a century, it worked its way up from a “culture importer” and depending on foreign economic aid which it was in the 1960s, to one of the “Asian Tigers” and “The Hollywood of the East”The Korean Wave: A New Pop Culture Phenomenon. Korean Culture and Information Service, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Republic of Korea, 2011. P. 14..

2. The Rise of Hallyu: Television Dramas

By 1990s, the TV and Internet screens of East Asian countries, which are Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and SingaporeAlthough geographically a Southeast Asian country, Singapore with its prevalent ethnic Chinese population has always been a part of East Asian, particularly, Chinese popular culture., were dominated by the Japanese TV urban dramas, also known as “trendy” dramas. The plot of such dramas was usually concentrated around the love story of young urban professionals. Moreover, the story itself was secondary to the visual pleasure of the audience, which was the most important aspect of these dramas. This visual pleasure came from the good looks of the cast, characters wearing beautiful and expensive clothes, living in cozy apartments and eating in luxurious, mostly Western, restaurants. Bearing in mind a very high production cost of such dramas, Japanese creators had no intention to reach potential overseas markets. Surprisingly, Japanese urban dramas gained extreme popularity across the East Asian region, including China, which even allowed Japanese producers to make a profit.However, in the late 1990s and with the beginning of 2000s, the export of Japanese dramas started to decrease as they began to face high competition from the Korean TV dramas. During that time, the niche that Japanese dramas occupied in East Asia was replaced by the products from South Korea.

As Shim argues in his work, “relative ease of entry of Korean pop culture into the region was facilitated by the earlier popularity of Japanese pop culture because of their similar aesthetic and cultural styles to the eyes of the regional audience” Shim Doobo. Globalization andCinema Regionalization in East Asia // Korea Journal. 2005.- ¹45 (3-4). P.248..

In addition to pure urban dramas, Korean dramas introduced the concept of family relationship, combining such genres as romance and family dramas, and were, in fact, cheaper than the Japanese ones. The high-quality Japanese productions, however, set the industry and became the standard not only for the Korean producers but also for TV drama producers everywhere in East Asia. Thus, Japanese popular culture was“copied”, “mixed”, “partially integrated', and “reproduced”in Korean productsIbid. P. 247..Korean dramas quickly earned their place on the East Asian market, replacing pricy Japanese productions and creating what is now called the Korean Wave.

By the end of the 2010s, Japanese and Korean TV dramas had been aired across East Asia on a daily basis and became routine in TV programming. Alongside the inflow of TV dramas, there was the inflow of Japanese and Korean films and pop music. According to Chua Beng Huat, although films are aimed at exporting to the international market, the number of Japanese and Korean films actually reaching that market is still considerably small. So it is television dramas that created the basis for the cross-cultural exchange in East Asia at the turn of the century having “the greatest presence and impact on the regional cultural geography”Chua Beng Huat.Op. cit. P. 2.

Regarding the success of the Japanese and later Korean dramas in East Asia, we need to take into consideration several reasons. Firstly, it was partly the result of the pivotal changes in the telecommunication technologies, which allowed TV stations to expand quickly and massively, and changed the predominate modes of transmission and reception from cable to satellite stations and later to downloads through the Internet.Secondly, at the end of the 1980s, authoritarian regimes in the region, including the People's Republic of China, started to liberalize their media industries, thus allowing fast development of legal and illegal TV stations and increasing airtime which needed to be filled rather inexpensively and fast. Importing TV dramas was one of the most convenient ways to fill a considerable amount of airtime. Significantly, before being legally broadcast, many dramas first crossed national borders in the physical form of DVD and were then aired on illegal cable TV stations, (like the first Japanese dramas in Taiwan in the mid-1980s). Later, Korean dramas were legally purchased by the new TV stations in Hong Kong and Singapore (STAR TV è Channel U.) as an alternative to already existing local stations that made dramas for the local market.

In the case of China, it is important to mention that one of the conditions of joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) for this country was to open its local media industries for the competition from abroad. Importing Korean TV dramas met both the conditions of WTO and China's domestic market.

Moreover, the spreading of Korean dramas throughout most of East Asia and Singapore was also facilitated by the prevalence of the ethnic Chinese population. Here the well-established structure of Chinese pop culture introduced in Chapter I, played a crucial role.Namely, once translated or dubbed into Cantonese or Mandarin, Korean dramas could be easily re-exported to different Chinese speaking areas like Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore without any additional production cost. In fact, Korean pop culture would not be able to become the regional phenomenon if it was not for the existence of the ethnic Chinese population as consumers of this pop cultureChua Beng. Huat.Op. cit. P. 15..

The fact that by the time Japanese and then Korean dramas rose to popularity, Chinese speaking community had already had long established commercial structure through which Chinese language pop culture was created, spread, and perceived, greatly facilitated the distribution of TV dramas to the locations with the ethnic Chinese population. In terms of structure, Japanese and Korean popular culture may be claimed to be grafted onto the historically well-established core of Chinese pop culture, “to constitute a transnational regional East Asian Pop Culture”Ibidem..

2.1 The Rise of Hallyu: China Focus

Let us now have a closer look at the highlights of the rise of Korean popular culture in China.It is generally assumed that the Korean Wave tookover China in 1997. That yearthe main state TV channel China Central Television (CCTV) broadcasted the Korean drama “What is Love” (»ç¶ûÀ̹¹±æ·¡) which became the second most popular TV series of all time on the Chinese television gaining up to 15% of the audience share at its height. The Korean Wave: A New Pop Culture Phenomenon. P. 21.It means that the actual spreading of Korean popular culture started two years before the term for it was coined by the Chinese press. The plot of the drama was centered around the story of a one big family living together in one place. By that time, socialist China had been already accustomed to nuclear family structure and individualism, so the story of everyday life of a big family made many Chinese people nostalgic. Particularly, the main character - a charismatic and patriarchal grandfather, the head of the family - became the envy and a role model for male viewers.Such success of the show was incredible as before its broadcast Chinese peoplehad mostly watched Taiwanese, Hong Kong, or American TV dramas and soap operas. “What is Love” open a great unknown world to them. Indeed, it was the first Korean drama broadcast nationwide in China. Chinese audience was delightedby the freewheeling attitudethat they had never encountered under socialism, and the sophisticated way of life of modern Koreans.Moreover, the Chinese audience could relate to this Korean drama more easily as it showed Confucian values and was oriented to the family, while Western dramas mostly advocated individualism.

Another Korean drama “A Wish Upon the Star”(º°Àº³»°¡½¿¿¡, 1997) became a hit first in Hong Kong after its broadcast on Phoenix TV, and then was aired in China in 1999. It also heated up the Korean drama craze within Chinese society.

The number TV shows imported from South Korea grew significantly and by September 2000, at least 24 Korean dramas were broadcast on Chinese Television. Various themes and types of these dramas attracted different groups of viewers. Starting from the 2000s, due to the combination of financial and political support of the South Korean government and a quickly growing number of Chinese fans, Korean dramas' share on Chinese market continued to increase.

Besides “What is Love”, among other family dramas that became popular in China were“See and See again” (º¸°í¶Çº¸°í,1998), “Miss Mermaid” (Àξî¾Æ°¡¾¾, 2002), and “Be Strong, Geum-Soon” (±»¼¼¾î¶ó±Ý¼ø¾Æ, 2005).All of these productions arebased on the stories of three-generation ordinary Korean middle-class families. Each generation demonstrates their different values and lifestyles, and the plot is centered around the members of the family overcoming the generation gap and searching for harmony.

Another genre of Korean dramas which became popular in China is historical drama. Such dramas usually focus on historical figures and events often adding some fictional and fantastical elements to keep viewers' interests. The most famous representative of this genre that became hugely popular in China is “Dae Jang Geum” or “Jewel in the Palace” (´ëÀå±Ý;´óéL½ñ, 2003). After its broadcast in Taiwan in 2004, the drama achieved high ratings in Hong Kong and Mainland China causing “Dae Jang Geum fever” in the Chinese speaking world. The drama was airedin China in 2005.It is based onthe story of a real historical figure Jang Geum who was the first female royal physician in the annals of Joseon Dynasty in the 16^th century. The drama's realistic depiction of the traditional royal cuisine and medicine particularly caught the attention of the Chinese viewers. The drama recorded the largest audience share in 13 mega-cities of Mainland China. “Streets became empty when the show ran, and newspapers would make colloquial references to the `Jang Geum spirit' and philosophy”. Moreover, Korean products and cuisine rose to an unprecedented popularity which was a phenomenon for a country like China that proudly presents itself as a “culinary superpower” The Korean Wave: A New Pop Culture Phenomenon. Op. cit. P. 28..

Even the then president of PRC Hu Jintao gotswept into the net of “Dae Jang Geum fever”. During a meeting with the leader of the South Korean ruling party in 2005, Hu said he felt sorry that his busy schedule did not let him watch every single episode of “Dae Jang Geum”Song Ui Dal. The Highest Audience Rating in 31 Cities… President Hu is Also a Fan// Chosun Daily, Sep 29, 2005. Retrieved March 2, 2019 fromhttp://www.chosun.com/culture/news/200509/200509290320.html. This story widely advertised by media reflected the popularity of the drama in ChinaIt is worth mentioning that the so-called “Dae Jang Geum fever” spread well beyond Asia attracting audience North and South Americas, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. According to Korean Culture and Information Service, the drama was broadcast in dozens of countries including the Chinese speking world (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore) Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Turkey, Israel, Nigeria, Romania, Hungary, Bosnia, Russia, Sweden, Colombia, Peru, Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and Iran (with the astonishing audience share of 86%)..

However, at the beginning of 2006, the Chinese government tried to suppress wave-like spreading Korean dramas by cutting the number of Korean TV shows allowed to broadcast on Chinese TV by 50%. As a result, the overall export revenue of Korean dramas dropped from 101.6 million to 85.9 million USDº«Ã½Ìå·´Ê¡¡°º«Á÷¡±£º³Æº«Á÷Í⻪ÄÚÐé¿°ÓÇ. ÈËÃñÍøPeople. 2007Äê01ÔÂ04ÈÕ (Korean Media Reflects on the Korean Wave: The Korean Wave is too Weak to Endure Troubles // People¡¯s Daily Online, Jan 4, 2007.) Retrieved April 3, 2019 from http://art.people.com.cn/GB/14759/21864/5243783.html. Nevertheless, despite the government's attempt to limit Korean TV production on the local stations, Chinese people's thirst for Korean dramas has not gone away. Instead of watching dramas on TV, they turned to major online video sharing websites like Tudou (ÍÁ¶¹) and Youku (ÓÅ¿á) where various foreign and domestic TV shows could be easily accessed.

These websites were launched in 2005 and 2006, respectively, and initially focused on user-generated video content (UGC, like YouTube) but did not have any length limit for the uploaded videos. Subsequently, long videos, including Korean dramas and films were quickly uploaded by users. More and more people started to use these online platforms to watch dramas and movies, which made the websites turn their attention to providing legal access to domestic and foreign TV and film content, instead of UGC. They came out with various ways of resolving the copyrightissue. For instance, Youku signed a partnership contract with SBS (one of the top 3 biggest broadcasting corporations in Korea) for buying over 200 Korean dramas, including the ones to be produced within the upcoming 3 years. Moreover, Youku and Tudou even shared the ownership of the most popular video content. Under these conditions, with the help of online video sharing services Korean Wave found its way to survive and flourish in China.

To find out what sources Chinese viewers use to watch Korean dramas and TV shows nowadays, I included the relevant question in the online survey I conducted as a part of my thesis. The results show that the online platform Bilibili (ßÙÁ¨ßÙÁ¨) or its short name BÕ¾was mentioned more times than any other (39 times), followed by º«¾çTV (Korean Drama TV - 23 times), and Baidu services (7 times).Such sources as the Vlive (Korean streaming app), ÈËÈËÊÓƵ (Chinese video hosting), º«¾çÍø(Korean Drama Net), Youtube, Youku, Weibo, and Tencent video were also mentioned by someSee Appendix 2, question 5 of the poll..

Another popular genre of Korean dramas exported to China is contemporary drama. The plot of such dramas is usually fictional and takes place in the everyday life of contemporary South Korean society. Most of them are romantic stories that focus on the daily life of people from urban areas. Some of the examples of such romance dramas widely loved in China are “Autumn in My Heart” (°¡À»µ¿È­, 2000), “Winter Sonata” (°Ü¿ï¿¬°¡, 2000) that first became extremely popular in Japan and then is believed to launch the Korean Wave in Asia and beyond;“Full House” (Ç®ÇϿ콺, 2004),“My Lovely Sam-soon” (³»À̸§Àº±è»ï¼ø,2005), “Secret Garden” (½ÃÅ©¸´°¡µç, 2011), and “My Love from the Star” (º°¿¡¼­¿Â±×´ë, 2013-14). The latter became a massive hit in China breaking records in terms of commercial success with more than 2.5 billion views on the online video streaming platforms within just three months after its premiere and rising to the top of China's viewershipQin Amy. China's Love Affair with Irresistible Korean TV // The New York Times, July 20, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2019 from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/21/arts/television/chinas-love-affair-with-irresistible-korean-tv.html. The drama tells a story about an alien who came to the Earth 400 years ago. He lives in modern day South Korea and falls in love with an arrogant and beautiful actress. The drama was so appealing to the Chinese audience that it provoked a frenzy online, leading to the top streaming platforms competing for buying other South Korean shows. The craze was so obvious that it even provoked political discussions during the annual session of the National People's Congress onwhy China could not make a show as good and attractive asthe Korean hit.Moreover, the state-run newspaper People's Daily quoted China's first lady Peng Liyuan commenting on the resemblance between the leading actor of the drama and her husband President Xi Jinping in his youthIbidem..

It is hard to overestimatethe popularity of this show. After itsmain female character mentioned her favorite food was “beer and chicken”, it immediately became one of the top searched phrases on the Internet, following the craze, restaurants in China started to sell this mealWan William. Chinese Officials Debate Why China Can't Make a Soap Opera as Good as South Korea's//The Washington Post, March 7, 2014. Retrieved February 28, 2019 from

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinese-officials-debate-why-china-cant-make-a-soap-opera-as-good-as-south-koreas/2014/03/07/94b86678-a5f3-11e3-84d4-e59b1709222c_story.html?utm_term=.d3a6d3497d76, a report in Washington post stated in 2014. Even today, after nearly 6 years from the start of the show, it is still among the top three shows in the Korean drama section of the major Chinese video streaming platforms iQIYI(°®ÆæÒÕ) with 37 thousand commentaries in the discussion sectionThe information retrieved on April 9, 2019 from http://www.iqiyi.com/a_19rrgja8xd.html?vfm=2008_aldbd.

“`My Love from the Star' was a very exceptional show, just like `Friends' in the 1990s and early 2000s” Qin Amy. Op. cit., said Grace Guan, who is in charge of video streaming website Sohu's Korean content strategy. According to her, China would love to make a show with similar success but too many elements are involved.

Another hit in China was a 2016 South Korean drama “Descendants of the Sun” (žçÀÇÈÄ¿¹)which was broadcast simultaneously in Korea and China as the online platform iQIYI had purchased the rights.The drama about the romance between a soldier and a female doctor during a military operation in a fictional country achieved more than 2 billion 680 million views on iQIYI overcoming the crazy of “My Love from the Star” and making the actor Song Joong Ki a top Hallyu superstar Wei Junxiong. Why Korean Dramas are Popular in China //International Journal of Arts and Commerce Vol. 5, December 2016. - No. 9. P. 21. Retrieved on April 9, 2019 from https://ijac.org.uk/images/frontImages/gallery/Vol._5_No._9/3._21-25.pdf.Like the 2014 hit, “Descendants of the Sun” also spurred Chinese people's interest in Korean fashion products, cosmetics and smartphones featured in the drama. The popularity of the show even made the Chinese Ministry of Public Security issue a warning on its official Weibo pagestating that “watching Korean dramas could be dangerous, and may even lead to legal troubles”Tan Huileng. Descendants of the Sun smash hit prompts Beijing to warn on South Korean dramas// CNBC,March 16, 2016. Retrieved February 20, 2019 fromhttps://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/16/descendants-of-the-sun-smash-hit-prompts-beijing-to-warn-on-south-korean-dramas.html.Among the potential troubles and harmful effects of the obsession with the Korean show there were named several extreme cases of domestic violence, a story of a couple that divorced because of the drama and a case of a man's plastic surgery in his attempt to regain the heart of his wife who fell for the male character of the drama.Such concerns of the officials may seem a bit funny at first glance but obviously have some backgrounds, especially taking into consideration the 2014 Korean drama craze when a pregnant Chinese woman reportedly almost suffered from miscarriage after overeating Chicken and beer, which was the favorite food of the female character in “My Love From the Star”. Other reports told that another 20-year-old Chinese woman was diagnosed with acute glaucoma after a watching the Korean drama non-stop for 18 hours.

According to my survey, the dramas “My Love from the Star” and “Descendants of the Sun” were mostly mentioned as “the most popular Korean TV dramas in China that I watched or heard of” with the first one mentioned 23 times and the latter - 22 times. These were followed by the 2018 drama “Sky Castle” about the lives of housewives in a luxurious neighborhood (mentioned 6 times), 2013 school drama “The Heirs” (6 times), and another 2018 drama “What's Wrong with Secretary Kim”See Appendix 2, question 8 of the poll. (4 times). The results show that none of the recent dramas still have not overcome the popularity of the 2014 and 2016 hits in China.

2.2 Reasons for the Popularity of Korean Dramas in China

So what are the reasonsfor such popularity of Korean dramas in China? Are they somehow different from the ones produced domestically and why they provoke such a craze? Chinese entertainment industry experts have long tried to find the explanation for Korean television's success in China. A deeper analysis would let us outline several crucial factors that lay behind the Korean TV's foothold on the Chinese market.

One of the important reasons for Korean dramas' popularity and overall success of Korean popular culture in China is that from the very beginning it has served as an alternative to US and Japanese pop culture. Since the 1990s, when China opened up its economy to the world, Chinese society has experienced a great inflow of foreign firms, products and cultures.

Besides Beijing's strict control over any type of cultural import, the development of the Internet and social networking systems only speeded up the clash. Nonetheless, the two dominant pop cultures from the US and Japan did not manage to reach a wide audience in China. Although the country has accepted some of the Western values, Chinese society in its everyday life still can-not easily relate to American or even Japanese cultural products which often contain a lot of violence and issues connected to sex. Moreover, widely spread anti-American and anti-Japanese sentiment, related to negative memories from past conflicts and colonization also stands on the way of China's positive perception of these two cultures.

Regarding the alternative function of Korean dramas, there is also an economic aspect worth being mentioned. Some experts argue that the main reason for the rise of Korean Wave in China was the privatization of media enterprises which swept over Asia in the 1990s. In these circumstances, especially considering the erupting Asian economic crisis, private broadcasting companies started to look for cheap and quality products as alternatives for the pricy American and Japanese, Korean drama met these criteria perfectly. In the case of Taiwan, for example, Korean dramas were even cheaper than domestic ones the price for which could sometimes reach 20 thousand dollars per hourKim Ji-Eun. Op. cit. P. 8..

Such Korean companies as LG and Samsung also contributed to the popularization of Korean dramas supplying Asian radio stations with free copies in order to promote their own products featured in the shows in the mid-1990s. Thus, gradually many Chinese TV stations and broadcasting companies came to believe Korean dramas were low-cost yet assured quality products.

Another very important reason which is crucial for understanding the popularity of Korean dramas in China is cultural affinity or cultural proximityIn fact, cultural affinity has played important role in the spreading of Korean culture not only in China but in the whole Asia. According to Korean Culture and Information Service, studies have shown that Asian audience relate more to Korean culture than to Western or even Japanese culture. . It means that China and South Korea in many aspects share a common cultural origin and identity.It is clear that close contacts and communication between the two countries in the past centuries has brought a hugeinfluence of Chinese culture, especially Confucianism, on Korea.While the May 4^th movement and Cultural Revolution in China in a way diminished traditional Chinese culture with its strong Confucian values emphasizing the importance of relationship andbrought individualism at the center of attention through the course of the 20^th century, South Korean society for its part, stayed the stronghold of Confucianism. Korean dramas prove that by reflecting Confucian values such as family-oriented behavior, commitment to hierarchy and respect for the elderly. That is why some Chinese viewers of Korean dramas consider Korean society depicted in those dramas “more Chinese than Chinese”Kim Ji-Eun. Op. cit. P. 6..“The core and soul of the Korean [soap] opera is a distillation of traditional Chinese culture. It just propagates traditional Chinese culture in the form of a TV drama” Wan W. Op. cit., - Washington Post quoted Wang Qishan, head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of China's Communist Party. The official argued that the popularity of Korean dramas in China reflects the high degree to which the Chinese treasure aspects of their traditional culture that are shown in the drama.