EVERY WEEKDAY, myriad office executives who may have otherwise hung about after work in bars are dutifully heading home to sit in front of the TV to watch it. University professors are discussing it over dinner. A Baptist minister has brought it up in his Sunday services. One woman is even reported to have attempted suicide after viewing it. 'Last Saturday, when we had dinner, all my professor friends talked about it and laughed at me for not having watched it,' says Eric Ma Kit-wai, associate professor of the School of Journalism and Communications. 'I'll have to buy the tapes.' Ma is referring to War and Beauty, an unusual TV drama attracting just over two million viewers tuning in each weekday evening. Set in the Qing dynasty, its success appears to ride on its analogies with contemporary office politics in Hong Kong's increasingly competitive post economic-crisis era. First broadcast in August, the TVB drama centres on the lives of the many wives of Emperor Jiaqing (1796-1820), their bitter relationships and squabbles. Murder and intrigue play their part, as do the more recognisable traits of everyday office life, backstabbing and mind games designed to vie for attention and power. Reverend Enoch Lam, who recently discussed the show in a weekly service, says its popularity stems from people being able to relate to the problems and politics they face at work. 'In big or small companies, people use various methods to keep their jobs,' he says. 'Society has become cruel. Office life is exactly the modern version of War and Beauty.' Since 1997, after the economic downturn, many people in Hong Kong have been living in the shadow of pay cuts and redundancies, and office politics is playing a significant role in protecting their rice bowls. The series' producers, however, say they didn't set out to make a drama mirroring elements of office life. 'We were very surprised people have reacted to the show the way they have,' says script supervisor Chow Yuk-ming. His partner and executive producer Chik Ki-yee says although the analogies with modern working life were unintentional, they have helped propel the series to success. 'Society is now unstable and people have become more calculating,' he says. 'Employers are demanding better performances from their employees and competition at work is great. Viewers feel that the fights between the palace women in the series are similar to what is happening in their departments. They feel close to the characters.' Stockbroker Justin Lee Kwok-wing, 33, does. As he watches the show each night, he feels as if his life is playing out in front of him, he says. 'It is related to our lives and what is happening in our companies,' Lee says. 'My friends say the same - that they can find the same characters at work as in the series, with each having their own motive. Some want to stand out and others are protective of themselves.' First proposed by Chik and Chow to TVB two years ago and filmed in Hong Kong and Hangzhou, the series is helping to raise local drama from a lacklustre decade marked by cost-cutting and the import of Japanese, South Korean and, more recently, mainland productions. 'War has helped turn a new page for Hong Kong; it means a chance for development,' says media researcher Joseph Chan Man, a professor of Journalism and Communication in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. 'We can use mainland resources to enhance our TV productions and develop the overseas and mainland market. It is a way out for us.' Chik says their attention to detail, such as the payroll and promotion systems of eunuchs and other palace workers, helps set the series apart, but the fights and double-crossing between the wives seem to captivate the viewers. In one scene, wife Yu Fei, out of favour with the emperor, tries to impress him by calming their baby daughter with diluted milk. But the empress, wary of her rival, spikes the milk with alcohol making the baby sick. The emperor, of course, reacts with fury and banishes Yu Fei from his presence, much to the empress' delight. 'Most of the characters are tough,' Chow says. 'But to survive in a palace you had to be. The women had no choice but to fight.' The show has turned 37-year-old Sheren Tang Shui-man, who plays Yu Fei, into one of the hottest actresses in town. 'This is the biggest response I have received in my life as an actress,' says Tang, who has been acting for 19 years and is now mobbed by autograph-hunters wherever she goes. 'Even our colleagues all watch it. When I walk past their desks in the office, they all called me 'Yu Fei Leung Leung' [a term reserved for emperors' senior wives].' Gigi Lai Chi (who plays another favoured wife, Yuk Ying, says she too has been overwhelmed by viewers' reactions. 'People are so involved with it,' she says. 'When some office ladies see me on the street, they call me 'Yuk Ying Siu Chu' [Miss Yuk Ying], as if they were in the drama. Many of my professional male friends watch it daily - quite a rarity for such a drama.' Chan does too. He says War and Beauty is one of the first local dramas that has interested him. 'Now, while I still read my newspapers at the time, I also watch it,' says the professor. 'It is very similar to our daily life. At work, our boss is like the king, he is the only one at [the] top. To please him or her, people fight for power and benefits, cheat each other, and take sides.' Influenced by the War fever, hotel-events manager Ian Tan, 37, is enjoying a new lifestyle. Each day after work, he no longer hangs around bars, but rushes home to sit in front of the TV. 'All of my workmates, men and women, watch it,' he says. 'When they miss it, they ask me what happened the night before. I love it so much that I won't miss one episode. The costumes, makeup and cast are all striking. And the storylines are changing each day.' But the drama is not everyone's cup of tea. Office clerk Yeung Yin-mei, 27, says she prefers the usual comical detective stories to War. 'I don't like it; there is no positive message,' she says. 'To fight for power and position, they use different faces to different people. This makes me uncomfortable.' Yeung is concerned that the show will influence people to fight with each other and be devious, and may have negative consequences. Indeed, a restaurant worker was recently reported to have attempted suicide after she watched the show as it reminded her of her recent fight with a co-worker and arguments with her boss. Chow says, however, that he didn't intend to make the drama negative, but to show the realities of human nature. That's something Lee says he has taken from the series. 'The show is not necessarily negative,' he says. 'I have learned the lesson from it that even some people in high positions can fall from grace, so what was the point of fighting?' War and Beauty, weekdays, 9.35pm, TVB Jade. Ends October 2