Political parties of all stripes are fond of quirky surveys with a usually small sample size, but this one released this week by Choy So-yuk of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong takes the cake. Jumping on the bandwagon of TV viewers' infatuation with the Korean hit soap opera Jewel in the Palace (starring Lee Young-ae, picture below) on TVB, the legislator decided to survey why people liked it. Of 712 people polled, almost half agreed with the statements that the miniseries promoted moral virtues and that local TV productions should focus more on such topics. In an interview with LoDown, Ms Choy spoke knowledgably about the nightly series and its characters, even though she admitted she had never finished watching a single episode. 'I don't need to watch it. My mother follows it like she is glued to the tube. She is obsessed with Korean TV dramas,' she said. The veteran legislator, who is in charge of DAB cultural and artistic affairs, blasted local TV stations for producing too much sex and violence. Instead, she said, they should aim to promote virtue, faith, fidelity, endurance and idealism with their dramas. 'I think we need less sensationalist programmes with less sex and violence,' she said. Somehow we don't think this will happen - there are easier ways to commit hara-kiri in the ratings war.
