The 55-episode drama was China’s most recent attempt to use pop culture as a way to show its resolve and achievements during the massive corruption crackdown launched by Xi after he took power in 2012.
It was an instant hit and quickly gained a reputation for being the most popular show on Chinese screens, both locally and internationally. The show’s ratings reached 7% recently, breaking a 10-year record for China’s domestic TV drama market.
iQiyi is one of the licensed online platforms that has seen nearly 5.9 billion views.
The scenes are both shocking and uplifting. A corrupt local judge is caught with a blonde prostitute paid for by an entrepreneur.
Political Product
This high-level dirtyChina’sen is the subject of much gossip, but it has never been shown so vividly.
The trailer of In The Name of the People.
China’s culture is heavily censored and highly controlled. State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, SAPPRFT, is the Party’s all-powerful media watchdog. It dictates to Chinese audiences what they should watch.
The show In theChina’sof the People is a cultural product that has a more political purpose than a commercial one. The show was commissioned by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of China and cost 120,000,000 yuan ($17.4,000,000). This is more than twice the average price of local TV shows.
An official of the Supreme People’s Procuratshow’shas told Chinese media that the media watchdog had given theChina’suctions to promote “positive energies” by showcasing China’s anticorruption campaign rather than the extent of corruption in the nation.
Anti-graft dramas
The show’s leading actors have been eager to spread the “positive energy,” but they have done so by overacting, according to critics on social media.
One of the episodes, which has been viewed over 350 million times, featured a corrupt chief and aChina’stute. Quartz
This kind of defect, however, has not stopped viewers from watching this show because it is so political. It’s a rarity for ChinParty’s days. In 2004, anti-graft shows were popular but were later banned for being ” of low quality.”
In China, in the absence of political dramas, television shows have dominated. These include family values or Chinese soldiers heroically fighting the Japanese during the Second World War.
As China’s political landscape evolves, so does its entertainment.
Since the 1950s, television has been a powerful People’s political mass manipulation in the majority of countries. This is still true today, despite media ages.
Television “is the most effective way to influence public opinion and gain public support for Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign.
Sshow’s016, we have seen tear-stained corrupt officials confess their”crimes on news programs and in documentaries created by the government’s corruption watchdog agency.
The government is now focusing on entertaining dramas that are aimed at mass audiences. In addition to the current smash, eleven additional primetime dramas about China’s anticorruption sweep will be shown on screens across millions of homes later this year.
Netflix’s hit TV drama House of Cards. Zennie A”aham/Flick, CC”BY-SA
The public narrative about the anticorruption campaign of the Xi Administration and its achievements will be shaped by this deluge.
Watches that are compulsory
It is now required to be watched iChina’s. In some cities, Party cadres must watch the show and then write a review of at least 1,500 words.
Others may watch in order to learn how to survive power struggles. The whole country is watching the show in order to keep up with the latest trends of national importance, both online as well as offline.
Jinping doesn’t have a preference for positive discussion of the drama. On Zhihu – a Chinese knowledge-sharing website similar to Quora, with more than 20,000,00 government’s5 of the 169 responses in the thread ” How to Comment on In the Name of the People” have been removed. According to the website, most were removed because they were “politically-sensitive”.