‘House of Cards’ Does Its Homework on China

Not since counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer stormed the Chinese consulate in the fourth season of “24” has there been a major story line about China featured on a mainstream U.S. TV series.

U.S.-China relations are front and center in the new season of “House of Cards,” which has scheming U.S. Vice President Frank Underwood, played by Kevin Spacey, backchanneling with a corrupt Chinese businessman. The show’s 13-episode second season was simultaneously released Friday on Netflix Inc.’s online-video-streaming service in the U.S. and on Sohu.com Inc.’s service in China. The first episode of the new season had racked up more than 3.5 million views in China by Monday afternoon.

The show deserves kudos for the unusual authenticity of its China story line, which has plot points ripped straight from the headlines. Chinese cyber-theft, currency manipulation, a trade dispute involving rare-earth minerals, and escalating tensions between China and Japan in the East China Sea all make an appearance in the show, rendered in the kind of detail that will ring mostly true with China watchers.

“When we created the story lines, we were certainly keeping our eye on what was happening (in China), and the happy result, I believe, is a story line that earns its relevance by resonating with the headlines,” Kenneth Lin, one of the writers on the show, told China Real Time by email.

The attention to detail even extends to a Chinese foreign ministry news briefing early on in the show, which replicates the real thing almost exactly, from the familiar blue backdrop to the terse and irritated tone. The only inaccuracy – it has the Chinese spokesman delivering his comments in English, which almost never happens – was likely introduced for expedience.
How did they get so many details right? By doing their homework, according to Mr. Lin, who said the writers spoke beforehand to a variety of China experts, including Columbia University political scientist Xiaobo Lu.

Mr. Lu told CRT he met the “House of Cards” writers on campus a year ago to discuss Chinese politics, society and U.S.-China relations. After watching the entire season “I thought, overall, the writers were successful in putting in the China storyline with a mix of sensational fiction and possible reality,” he said.

“House of Cards” isn’t the most popular U.S. TV show in China (the first season only has 23.5 million views when compared with No. 1 ranked “Nikita,” whose first season has almost 270 million views). However, the new season of “House of Cards” was the most-watched American show on Sohu between Sunday and Monday, and ranked fifth overall for drama after four Chinese programs during that period. Viewership will likely rise once Sohu finishes adding Chinese-language subtitles to every episode (the Chinese video service is adding them at a rate of two episodes per day).

Chinese Internet users largely seemed to embrace the prominent role their country plays in the show’s second season, though one user of Sina Corp.’s Weibo social media platform took the show to task for misrepresenting China in a crucial manner. “The most irritating thing: Chinese representatives aren’t nearly so young or handsome,” he wrote.


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