China fans of Wong Kar-wai’s Blossoms Shanghai TV series spark demand for bespoke suits, food dishes that appear in hit show
- Shanghai’s famous Peace Hotel cashes in, themes dishes, suite on series
- Show’s popularity sees companies flock to sell wares in multiple ad breaks
Businesses in China are making a killing by replicating, in a variety of sellable forms, the lifestyle depicted in the hugely popular new TV series Blossoms Shanghai.
Produced by Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai, the series is based on the award-winning novel of the same title written by Jin Yucheng and stars top mainland star Hu Ge.
It tells the story of a self-made millionaire in 1990s Shanghai as China’s economy went into overdrive.
Such has been its nationwide popularity, particularly in Shanghai, since it was launched at the end of December, people in the city where it is set are said to greet each other by asking if they have watched it, according to a report by the news outlet, The Paper.
Viewing figures are so high that each episode has as many as 10 advertising breaks.
A key setting in the series is Shanghai’s famous Peace Hotel, where the lead character Boss Bao opens a company and regularly meets friends.
The hotel, on the city’s Bund, has exploited the huge popularity of the show by offering a 1,460 yuan (US$204) Blossoms Shanghai set meal.
The two-person package includes dishes from the TV series such as rib and rice cake, and dry-fried beef Hor Fun.
A hotel employee told the media that they prepare 20 sets per day and have received are large number of bookings.
The hotel has also renamed one of its suites, where Boss Bao’s company is located, the “Blossoms Shanghai Suite”, which, priced at between 15,930 and 16,888 yuan, is 30 per cent more expensive than other suites.
The suite has been fully booked for the first half of January, said the hotel.
A restaurant called Tai Sheng Yuan, where scenes in the series are also shot, has been sold out for the past two weeks and is magnet for tourists who take photos of the outside of the building.
Many diners have ordered the restaurant’s 10-person Blossoms Shanghai-themed nostalgic set meal for 1,680 yuan, although it has been getting mixed reviews.
And it is not just accommodation, food and tourist businesses that have piggy-backed on the success of the series.
Fans of the show have noticed that the suits worn by Boss Bao are made by tailors from Ningbo in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
As a result bespoke tailors in Ningbo have been flooded with enquiries from people keen to have the same type of clothes worn by the main character.
“This TV drama is awesome! Although I was born in 2000 and didn’t know what Shanghai looked like in the 1990s, this series is pretty in line with what my parents described about old days in the city,” one online observer said on Douyin.
“It is worthy of Wong Kar-wai’s production values. Each scene is filled with cinematic quality. I think it is the best TV series of 2023,” said another.
