Non-English language TV shows become popular in China
非英文语言电视节目风靡中国
Nova Wang, a 20-year-old sophomore in Wuhan, Hubei Province, is following the third season of a popular Russian comedy Interny, which made its debut in 2010. Broadcast on bilibili.com, a video website famous for its real-time comments, the show features comical stories about a doctor and his four medical interns. So far, he has watched over 100 episodes of the show.
Nova Wang20岁,是一名湖北省武汉大学二年级的学生,她正在追俄罗斯流行喜剧《实习医生》第三季,该剧于2010年首次开播。该剧在以弹幕闻名的B站可以播放。这部电视剧展示了一名医生和他的四个实习生之间的喜剧故事。迄今为止,他已经看了一百多集。
Interny is not the first non-English language TV shows that Wang has enjoyed watching. Since last summer when he was first introduced to How I Became Russian (2015-), a Russian comedy featuring Alex Wilson, an American reporter who is sent to Russia to observe Russian reality, he opened the door of the world of non-English foreign language TV shows. The show gained a 9.1 rating by 14,217 viewers at douban.com, a social networking website.
"Compared with traditional British, American, Japanese or South Korean TV shows that dominate in China, TV shows in untraditional languages such as Russian, German and Italian are something new and exotic to me, as well as their cultures," said Wang.
Like Wang, with a better understanding of the countries and their cultures, and with more emerging TV works from these countries and the promotion of subtitle groups, more non-English language TV shows are becoming favored by China’s young people. Some fans even went to Instagram or other foreign social networking platforms to interact with their favorite stars after watching the shows.
Wang thinks that every character in How I Became Russian has his or her own special personality like people in real life.
王觉得,《我如何成为俄罗斯人》里的每个角色都有自己的个性,就和现实生活中的人一样。
Through this show, Wang has also changed his perception of Russia and its people. Before, he thought that Russian people tended to be fierce and violent, but after watching the show, he found that they also have a more tender side. Except for not liking to smile, they are very enthusiastic, loyal and love sweets.
Another driving force of their popularity is growing civil subtitle groups for untraditional language TV shows. As only a few such works have been imported by China, including How I Became Russian, the languages are not as familiar as English, fans have to rely heavily on subtitle groups.