Chinese fans cry ‘shame’ for Game of Thrones end but still love US shows
- ‘Rotten ending’ and anti-American sentiment fuelled by trade war fails to dent enthusiasm in China
- Young people find much to love in US popular culture
Many Chinese fans of Game of Thrones were as disenchanted as the rest of the world with the HBO fantasy blockbuster’s ending, with a farewell party for the show in southeastern China chanting “shame” in unison to the ringing of bells.
The fans, at the party in Shenzhen, Guangdong province on Monday night, were invoking the Season 5 scene in which Queen Cersei Lannister, played by Lena Headey, was forced to walk the streets naked as a stern-faced, nun-like character shook a bell and cried “shame” with every step she took.
But if they were angry and disappointed with the “rotten ending” there was no loss of affection for the long-running show, with many expressing their gratitude for the eight-year journey which had just concluded. “It has been part of our youth,” one fan said at the gathering.
The popularity of Game of Thrones and other American shows among China’s young people appears to have been unaffected by the continuing trade war, in which the US recently raised tariffs to 25 per cent on US$200 billion of Chinese imports and is preparing to add tariffs to nearly all remaining Chinese-made goods as soon as July. China is set to put additional retaliatory tariffs in place on June 1.
When Tencent Video, one of the country’s biggest streaming video service providers, postponed showing the finale because of a technical issue on Monday, online Chinese fans were in uproar.