‘Story of Yanxi Palace’ ranked as world’s most Googled television show
BEIJING: What is the world’s most Googled TV show? It’s not Game of Thrones. Surprisingly, it’s the Chinese period drama Story of Yanxi Palace.
The 70-episode series edged out Netflix’s sci-fi hit Altered Carbon and Thai romance Love Destiny to claim the top spot.
Google’s by-region analysis shows that netizens in Singapore showed the most interest in Story of Yanxi Palace, followed by their counterparts in Malaysia, Brunei, Macau, and Hong Kong. The search engine cannot be accessed on the Chinese mainland without a proxy server.
A large part of the show’s appeal comes from its protagonist: Actor Wu Jinyan plays the role of Wei Yingluo, a young woman on a quest to catch her sister’s murderers. Unlike the submissive, ultra-feminised Mary Sue archetype prevalent in many Chinese period dramas, Wei is a strong character who relies on a combination of determination and ferocity to triumph over adversity and endear herself to fans.
The series has been viewed over 15 billion times on iQiyi, China’s Netflix-like video site.
The Chinese drama also made an indirect contribution to a list of the country’s top slang terms of 2018, published by the Chinese search engine Baidu.
A popular “bullet screen” comment — one of the usergenerated messages that scroll across the video as it plays — referred to the Yanxi emperor and the other bumbling, indecisive male characters on the show as “big pig’s trotters.” Other netizens have repeated and widely popularised the phrase since.
Since its release in mid-July on iQiyi, Story of Yanxi Palace has been well-received, with many viewers admiring over the realistic-looking sets, as well as the characters’ elegant costumes and picture-perfect makeup. Unlike many of China’s abundant period dramas, Story of Yanxi Palace is known for its attention to historical details. For example, the wives and concubines on the show wear three earrings, as was the custom among Manchu women who lived during the 18th century Qing Dynasty, when the show is set.