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As a Chinese drama suddenly gained attention in Korea, how are Korean netizens reacting?

Chinese martial arts drama “Who Rules The World” is surpassing many K-dramas to gain popularity in Korea. 

According to the ranking of Top 10 Series in Korea, released by Netflix on July 27th, the Chinese drama “Who Rules The World” was ranked 5th.

“Who Rules The World” (also known as Qie Shi Tianxia) is a 40-episode martial arts historical drama (wuxia), which was uploaded to the Chinese OTT platform WeTV back in April, and is now being serviced in Korea through streaming platform Netflix. 

who rules the world

As Chinese cinematic works very rarely enter Top 10 charts in Korea, often losing to K-dramas, many people are growing curious about the ranking of “Who Rules The World”. 

Previously, many other Chinese dramas and movies have been released on Netflix Korea, but did not gain popularity due to culture differences and intense competition. In addition, Chinese and Korean netizens also have feuds against each other, especially after the “kimchi war” and “hanbok war” last year, with China claiming hanbok and kimchi as part of their own culture. 

netflix drama

Furthermore, Koreans have also been giving Netflix original contents the cold shoulder. In fact, among the Top 10 series on Netflix Korea, only “Remarriages & Desires” is a Netflix original, as all other works can be viewed on TV and other OTT platforms as well. 

With original Netflix K-dramas falling off their past pedestals, Chinese contents, which used to be ignored, started to rise. 

squid game

The total Netflix viewing hours of Koreans have also decreased, with last month recording 91,666,657 hour of usage, according to Mobile Index. This is the lowest number since July last year, which recorded 84,034,557 hours. 

Last year, Netflix’s original series “Squid Game” and “All Of Us Are Dead” were big hits, but since then, no notable projects have been made, drowning domestic viewers in great regrets. 

All Of Us Are Dead,

“Who Rules The World” follows male lead Hei Fengxi (played by Yang Yang), who pretends to be a weak prince on court, but has excellent martial arts skills and great intelligence. His first love is Bai Fengxi (played by Zhao Lusi), who he later saved while she was on the verge of dying on the battlefield.

Source: insight

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