There is shady and there is flat out a violation of intellectual property rights. Sadly the Chinese government is basically allowing a black market sweep of hit Korean shows after it imposed an unofficially announced but officially in place screw tightening on Hallyu entertainment after the South Korean government went ahead and installed the THAAD missile defense system last year. This year C-netizens have noticed two hit shows that bear striking if not total resemblance to popular Korean programs – China Has Hip-hop is a ripoff of Show Me the Money and food program Chinese Restaurant is a copycat of Youn’s Kitchen.
All C-shows have to receive filming approval prior to production kickoff and a new C-drama called My Teenage Years has submitted a synopsis that C-netizens have noted is a complete carbon copy of ratings monster hit Answer Me 1988. In previous years China has remade hit Korean variety and dramas but with proper licensing and I’ve enjoyed both the original and the Chinese spinoffs for adding different takes but straight up copying without paying royalties and attribution just because the Chinese government has an unofficial wrench towards South Korean entertainment is so beyond the pale I can’t even. These shows are totally worth skipping for this alone.
That is honestly foul and shame on the Chinese government and everyone involved in this mess. The lack of artistic integrity and originality will keep a dent in all the producers careers. One must know that China and South Korea wont remain like this forever and so when all things are chummy again I wonder where they will all hide their faces.
I am honestly embarrassed for all parties involved. The level of respect I once held for Chinese entertainment is slowly going down.
China is suppose to be a world leading power for goodness sake they cant be as creative as South Korea?
There are two main reasons why China doesn’t have the artistic talent
1. It has been a communist country for far too long. The people were never encouraged or allowed to express their own thoughts creatively so they are very far behind in terms of drama/film arts
2. They are still not allowed to express their artistic talents freely.
It is a real shame and l feel sorry for SK writers/PD’s because they never get the copyright fees owed to them.
Can’t they sue them, or something?
Is this even confirmed that the production teams didn’t buy the rights for the remakes? Didn’t they just not announce the remakes to the public because of the Hallyu ban?
I honestly usually don’t watch remakes on the Chinese side because they usually over exaggerate the acting.
I am really appalled as how they will ban Korean dramas but in turn remake them in chinese without permission it is such a cheap thing to do
I hope they get sued or they get humiliated by doing such a cheap thing
But is anyone really shocked by this? I’m not. I’m actually just glad that the public in China has actually noted and voiced disapproval about the theft of these creative ideas.
China has been making remakes of hit Korean dramas and variety shows for years, and although some did buy the rights to remake them, most did not. I’ve been a fan of Chinese entertainment (mostly dramas) for my whole life, but what I’ve noticed recently is that there is a great lack of creativity. A large majority of the dramas produced now are all adaptations of novels, manhuas, or video games. I do enjoy watching adaptations (as long as they give the original source material justice), but do writers not have any ideas anymore? And with the scandals of adapted popular novels of being works of plagiarism, will there be any original scripts and dramas in the future?
As long as lousy movies/dramas/programs with beautiful, zero-talent but big-pay actors/actresses still get high ratings in China and go down well with most of the Chinese public, things will not change.
this is totally shameful and cheap. I feel really sorry for the Korean PDs and the writers. I hope somehow they get compensated otherwise this is ridiculous.
I’m not even surprised especially after dealing with Qidian shit (straight up coying people’s translations and lying about it) in the novel translation world.
@Clau, I agree with you re: the acting and it’s especially true with variety shows.
I feel like the appeal of these (Korean) shows is the blurred line between real and staged. But when the Chinese versions are blantsntly 90% fake, the shows really lose their magic.