In the few days since its (legitimate) release on Netflix, video pirates around the world have fired up their torrents and snagged bootlegged copies of the hit show House of Cards. More than 50,000 people have downloaded the show illegally in the US (presumably people without Netflix subscriptions) while more than 60,000 have done so in China.
China tops the list of pirate downloaders, followed by the US, India, Australia, Poland and the UK. Most of this list is fairly easy to parse: four of those nations are English-language hubs, and Polish director Agnieszka Holland directed several season 3 episodes. So why China?
Since its first season, House of Cards has been a massive hit in China. The show debuted in February 2013, and was able to stream for free, legally, via Sohu. It was allegedly a big hit with Communist Party Standing Committee member Wang Qishan. Wang "repeatedly brought up" the show in high-level government meetings, and was a big fan.
Theories range as to why HoC is such a phenomenon in China: is it schadenfreude over Americans also having a (albeit fictional) hyper-corrupt politics? A throwback to classical Chinese stories of back-room meetings deciding the fates of millions? Or just plain, good ol' enjoyment of a well-made TV show?
Regardless, we hope that Wang has learned the in's and out's of torrenting, as season 3 of the show has yet to hit legal Chinese streaming services. The last season of the show included a pretty substantial China-related sideplot, and it's certainly possible that the program fell out of favor with national authorities.
If outright piracy isn't exactly your thing, then let us kindly point out that an estimated 21.6 million Chinese internet users access Netflix each month via their VPNs. Expect that number to only grow if the show doesn't pop up on Sohu soon.
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