Rendezvous with power

Kevin Spacey portrays the cold-blooded Frank Underwood who climbs his way up the political ladder in the hit US series House of Cards.

TV drama rattles notions about US politics

Popular US series uses Chinese elements

'Chollywood' goes arty

According to a report by Phoenix Weekly, even Wang Qishan, secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China, mentioned House of Cards several times during meetings to emphasize the importance of whip, Underwood's role at the beginning of the series, to keep discipline within a political party.

Perhaps, one of the most frequently discussed topics now is Netflix's unconventional release of the series via cyberspace, abandoning television channels, and even chose the cast and director based on the analysis of its users' habits and references.

"Almost every online media provider in China now uses big data to make their own shows in different degrees," Ma says. "Netflix has made a good model for its Chinese counterparts."

Zhang Guoqing, a researcher with the Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, explains House of Cards has become popular in China because the dark side of US politics reminds Chinese audience of similar plots in costume dramas about concubines' conflicts in ancient royal families. But he considers it as far beyond entertainment.

"Through the series, we find the stereotype of China's image has changed among US media and public. It surprises me that China is no longer a villain in the series, because many American movies previously tend to depict China as a cold war enemy like former Soviet Union. It is encouraging to see the demonization of China has lessen on US screens.

The show explores Sino-US trade, cyber attack and currency disputes, for example, and they even include an important clue throughout the whole season, which is unprecedented among American television series. There is divergence among US high-level decision makers on China policy in the story. It shows the US has gradually accepted the fact that China and the US are not only competitors, but also cooperators.

"China and the US need a fresher and closer bilateral relationship. Though the series still reveal some ambiguous bias against China, it at last releases a signal that the public has an objective view on China's development," Zhang says.