China’s first K-drama approvals in years come under cloud of Yoon’s foreign policy

China’s iQiyi video-streamer is showing Something in the Rain, starring popular South Korean actress Son Ye-jin, and other platforms are also listing Korean dramas

However, South Korean president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol has said he intends to deploy another controversial US-made missile-defence system, which would invite Beijing’s ire

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Jung Hae-in smiles in Something in the Rain, one of the K-dramas that has been approved in China after a five-year ban. Image: Handout

Published: 9:00am, 19 Mar 2022Updated: 12:18pm, 19 Mar 2022

When a major Chinese video-streaming platform added a hit Korean romantic drama to its programming slate this month, South Korean content producers were elated and perhaps a bit cautiously optimistic.

Something in the Rain is the first Korean TV series to obtain approval from Beijing’s broadcast regulator in five years, after Korean content was blocked in mainland China following Seoul’s 2017 deployment of an American-made missile-defence system.

China’s iQiyi started offering the show – starring actress Son Ye-jin, one of South Korea’s most bankable stars – on March 3, and another platform offered two other Korean TV dramas.

Video-sharing site Bilibili subsequently listed the 2017 South Korean drama, Prison Playbook.

The shows are arriving in China as South Korean dramas and films have been riding a wave of international success. And expectations are high that more will find their way to China.

Something in the Way’s listing did draw some negative responses from Chinese commenters, amid fresh anti-Korean sentiment in the country not long after various disputes at the Beijing Winter Olympics last month sparked online skirmishes between netizens of both countries.

But Korean TV series have found big fan bases in China, and this appears to still be the case. Prison Playbook, released in China on March 6, ranked third in views in the TV series section of Bilibili’s website as of Friday.