The rise and fall of Korean drama export to China: The history of state regulation of Korean dramas in China

Abstract

In October 2016, approximately 3 months after the Korean government agreed to host the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, TV stations and online streaming platforms in China stopped airing Korean dramas, movies, TV shows and commercials that featured Korean celebrities. While the post-Terminal High Altitude Area Defense blockade of Korean cultural products received much attention, the restriction should not be taken as an idiosyncratic case of cultural retaliation over the deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense in the Korean peninsula. Chinese government regulation of Korean TV shows should be understood in the larger context of restricting the inflow of capitalist culture, which is viewed as a threat to socialist ideology and national security. We discuss the historical trajectory of the rise and fall of Korean drama export to China (1996–2018) to discuss the continuing role of the state in transnational cultural flows.