Why China is So Uncool

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https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/03/0...soft-power-beijing-censorship-generation-gap/

China?s music, movies, and fashions are relatively unpopular. Put another way, China is not seen as cool; its pop culture and pop stars lack global swagger.

Despite high levels of nationalism and rising income in China, people there still turn to the United States, Europe, South Korea, and even erstwhile wartime enemy Japan for entertainment. (Pop culture from Taiwan and Hong Kong, with relatively tiny populations, is also considered much cooler than that from the mainland.)

One trend that must be particularly baffling to Chinese bureaucrats is how comparatively tiny South Korea has reaped the economic and social benefits of hallyu, meaning the flow of South Korean culture abroad. As in China, the Korean government invests heavily in its domestic entertainment industry, with the ultimate goal of exporting its cultural products. It seems to work in Korea, while China, with more than 20 times as many potential pop artists to nurture, flails.
 
I think their first mistake is looking toward Japan to help set the bar on what's cool.  That's like counting on Urkel to get you into a frat party.

Steve_Urkel.jpg
 
If you want to look at Japanese and Korean entertainment industry for comparison, you can draw a pattern from 1980s-2010's.

In 1980s Japanese anime on US TV was chopped and dubbed over, like Space Cruiser Yamato (Star Blazers), Macross (Robotech), Gatchman, etc.  Only hard core fans went to local Japanese video stores to rent Kimagure Orange Road and listened to j-pop bands like Wink.

By 1990s fans progressed to fan-subtitling Japanese anime, manga, and movies.  My first subtitle station was an Amiga 1000 with 2 floppy drives, A1300 genlock, 2 VHS VCR's and a Betamax VCR.  They were eventually replaced with pro-consumer gear by late 1990s.  But by 2000's anime had gone mainstream.  Now we just watch them on crunchyroll.

At the same time, Korea turned into an out-source destination for Japanese animation studios (as well as American, like Simpsons by AKOM in Seoul).  Korea was running behind Japan and even when they dropped a bomb with Winter Sonata in early 2000's, only small numbers of hardcore fans were watching it on DVD here as it exploded in popularity across Asia.

It took another decade for K drama to really take off here in the States with its own segment here in the mainstream.  Today you can watch them on viki and drama fever on Apple TV, PS4, etc.  By 2013 we had our first Korea-US co-produced K Drama "The Heirs" with Lee Min-ho and Park Shin-hye (XOXO!!! Whoever gave her the role in Pinocchio should be rewarded with his/her weight in gold).

As Korean drama become popular, Korean manhwa also slowly gained popularity here as many dramas like W and Cheese in the Trap came from Korean webtoons.  While I still watch Japanese dramas with Ayame Gouriki, but let's face it, she is weak sauce compared to Kim Go-eun's performance in Goblin (Guardian: The Lonely and Great God).

For those who watch dramas on Viki, you'd note a recent trend of Chinese dramas being better promoted.  China is slowly catching up from behind and if the author thinks their TV dramas are uncool, he should probably revisit the market in the next decade.


p.s.  if you're reading this and have no clue what I'm talking about, visit Drama fever or download app on Apple TV, Playstation 4, or iPad and watch this show:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian:_The_Lonely_and_Great_God
 
momopi said:
If you want to look at Japanese and Korean entertainment industry for comparison, you can draw a pattern from 1980s-2010's.

In 1980s Japanese anime on US TV was chopped and dubbed over, like Space Cruiser Yamato (Star Blazers), Macross (Robotech), Gatchman, etc.  Only hard core fans went to local Japanese video stores to rent Kimagure Orange Road and listened to j-pop bands like Wink.

By 1990s fans progressed to fan-subtitling Japanese anime, manga, and movies.  My first subtitle station was an Amiga 1000 with 2 floppy drives, A1300 genlock, 2 VHS VCR's and a Betamax VCR.  They were eventually replaced with pro-consumer gear by late 1990s.  But by 2000's anime had gone mainstream.  Now we just watch them on crunchyroll.

At the same time, Korea turned into an out-source destination for Japanese animation studios (as well as American, like Simpsons by AKOM in Seoul).  Korea was running behind Japan and even when they dropped a bomb with Winter Sonata in early 2000's, only small numbers of hardcore fans were watching it on DVD here as it exploded in popularity across Asia.

It took another decade for K drama to really take off here in the States with its own segment here in the mainstream.  Today you can watch them on viki and drama fever on Apple TV, PS4, etc.  By 2013 we had our first Korea-US co-produced K Drama "The Heirs" with Lee Min-ho and Park Shin-hye (XOXO!!! Whoever gave her the role in Pinocchio should be rewarded with his/her weight in gold).

As Korean drama become popular, Korean manhwa also slowly gained popularity here as many dramas like W and Cheese in the Trap came from Korean webtoons.  While I still watch Japanese dramas with Ayame Gouriki, but let's face it, she is weak sauce compared to Kim Go-eun's performance in Goblin (Guardian: The Lonely and Great God).

For those who watch dramas on Viki, you'd note a recent trend of Chinese dramas being better promoted.  China is slowly catching up from behind and if the author thinks their TV dramas are uncool, he should probably revisit the market in the next decade.


p.s.  if you're reading this and have no clue what I'm talking about, visit Drama fever or download app on Apple TV, Playstation 4, or iPad and watch this show:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian:_The_Lonely_and_Great_God
Click to expand...

Guru Meditation
 
On the contrary, I think China is actually on a tier by itself in terms of recent reality TV shows and different types of drama.  They seem like they have a limitless amount of money/resources/crew to create really good products.  I honestly think they've surpassed the Koreans.  Taiwan can't do anything similar to be honest

In the example of Chinese dramas, they like to do old martial art films/palace dramas of kings, and the amount of money towards costumes is ridiculous (often thousands of outfits)
http://www.whatsonweibo.com/overview-of-chinas-2016-top-tv-dramas/http://m.chinadaily.com.cn/en/2016-07/15/content_26104290.htm

In the case of the reality tv shows, they have the money to invite all the top tier artists from Asian countries.  Popular artists like jay chou etc are all there now
 
One unscientific indication is to look at number of episodes.  China is still playing catch up and shows like Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms ran 58 episodes:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Love_(TV_series)

In comparison, Korean dramas typically only run 16-20 episodes like Hwarang:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwarang:_The_Poet_Warrior_Youth

Japanese dramas run like 8-12 episodes:http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Gu_Ra_Me!http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Tenshi_to_Akumahttp://wiki.d-addicts.com/Biblia_Koshodou_no_Jiken_Techou


There are of course exceptions, but note that as Korean dramas become more popular, it's also more expensive to make long series like Dae Jang Geum (54 episodes).  China studios have money to throw at productions today, but as they become more successful you will also see the average # of episodes shrink from current numbers, like Imperial Doctoress @ 50 episodes

I'd also like to add that I'm very thankful for shows like Descendants of the Sun to only run for 16 episodes.  If they were like 50+ episodes each I would die as a couch potato.  Couple years ago I had to install a stationary exercise bike in my garage along with a wall mounted TV, in effort to get my blood pressure down while I watch K Drama.
 
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