The second season of award-winning Netflix series House of Cards debuted this month, to cheers on both sides of the Pacific because, despite several potentially controversial plots concerning America's biggest rival, China still loves Frank Underwood.
The show, which is available to stream for free in China on Sohu, was very popular in China when its first season debuted in February 2013, including, allegedly, with Communist Party discipline chief and standing committee member Wang Qishan.
China plays a major role in the show's second season, as the US government has to react to territorial disputes in the East China Sea and suspected cyber espionage, while behind the scenes characters deal with a corrupt Communist Party insider who claims direct links to the leadership.
"We didn't know the second season would have so much to do with China -- probably because of the increasing importance of China in global affairs," Charles Zhang, Sohu's chief executive, told CNN's Steven Jiang on Tuesday. "Many Chinese people -- including officials -- are watching it now and we have had no problem."
Both seasons of the show have been hugely successful for Sohu, ranking first and second on the site's most popular US TV shows list. Perhaps the popularity of the show is to be expected, it is, after all, hugely popular in the US too. What's more surprising is that it made it onto a Chinese site with lines such as: "Everyone in China who works on this level pays who they need to pay," and "Mao is dead, and so is his China."
According to Tea Leaf Nation, Weibo users were urging each other to "hurry up and download" the show before it falls foul of the censors. For now, however, everyone, including perhaps Wang Qishan, is watching the show without interference.
[Image via Netflix]
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