Drama ‘Sky Castle’ a surprise hit in China
BEIJING: Korean drama Sky Castle has surprised showbiz insiders because it has become such a huge hit among audiences in China.
The drama explores the challenges facing anxious parents in Korea as they struggle to get their kids into top universities.
Perhaps the struggle resonates with parents in China, who are constantly worried about how their one-child families shall fare.
Parents in China are paranoid over a huge number of issues, from whether their children will get the best academic qualifications to whether they will have the best spouses.
Synonymous with this paranoia is the Marriage Market in Shanghai. Almost every weekend, anxious parents show up by the hundreds to matchmake their children.
Perhaps that’s why they can easily identify with the same travails portrayed in Sky Castle.
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, gaining the empathy of audiences.
Seoul-based Joongang Daily has 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, 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.
Notably, the drama gained an 8.9 ranking on popular Chinese social networking site Douban, with Chinese reviewers posting comments every day. Huanqiu shibao said on social media: “Sky Castle is a black comedy that aired silently, and it made a hit by the plot. It started a huge reflection and discussion on the issue of youth education.”
Another comment went: “I finished watching the final episode today. I didn’t stop watching the whole episodes while I usually give up watching dramas before the ending.”