K-drama fans in the last year must’ve truly understood first hand the acquisition power of Mainland China in dictating the entertainment outputs of some of it’s neighbors. Folks in Taiwan have known that for decades but it’s taken an unofficial ban on K-dramas in K-pop in the last year due to the THAAD political beef to show how much Hallyu projects succeed thanks to consumption to China. When that avenue is turned off the financial results are not pretty and it’ll be interesting to see if there’s another generation of K-stars who will head to China to expand their market reach.

For the Taiwanese stars, working in China has long been the next step in career evolution but success isn’t always guaranteed. The results are out for the top earning TW-stars in China for 2017 and it remains the stalwarts of the industry. Chen Qiao En leads the pack following by Nicky Wu, Bolin Chen, Wallace Huo, and Joe Cheng rounding out the top five. All are extremely active in filming and/or producing C-dramas and it’s nice to see a lady out earning her male counterparts. Continue reading →