Why was Korean drama ‘Sky Castle’ such a big hit in China?
The drama explores the challenges facing anxious parents in Korea as they struggle to get their kids into top universities – many of which are familiar to parents in China
Sky Castle, a new Korean drama has become immensely popular in China.
The drama shows the struggles of four housewives to get their children admitted to prestigious universities in South Korea. They live in a luxurious neighbourhood called Sky Castle, which is restricted to those wealthy and honourable individuals who work in esteemed professions. SKY is an acronym for the country’s top three universities – Seoul National University, Korea University and Yonsei University.
The competition to enrol in the top universities is not limited to children. There is a saying in Korea that four things are needed for children to be successful: a mother with prowess and knowledge of the admission strategy, a wealthy grandfather to fund the education, a nanny’s love, and a father with no interest. The drama brings this joke to life as it describes the parents’ responsibility and conflict in a realistic way, earning empathy from the audience.
Viewers have commented that the plot of the drama was better than the average romance story. The final episode, aired on February 1, recorded a viewership rating of 23.8 per cent, according to Nielson Korea.
Korean media has covered China’s enormous response to the drama. On January 21, Joongang Daily reported on the rapid growth of Sky Castle’s popularity, despite the Chinese government’s ban on Korean content. The drama was uploaded on Weibo, the largest online portal in China, soon after it aired in Korea. According to the coverage, on January 19, the night after the release of the 18th episode aired in Korea, the Chinese hashtag of Sky Castle recorded 350 million clicks and 323,000 comments in a debate thread on Weibo. The article said that about 20 million online users in China had access to the new episode of Sky Castle just 12 hours after it aired.
