Mainland TV drama scores crossover success in Taiwan

"Nirvana in Fire," or "Lang Ya Bang," a tale of revenge and political struggle among the princes of an ancient Chinese kingdom, has begun airing daily on Taiwan's Chinese Television System (CTS).[Photo provided to China Daily]

A hit mainland period drama is enjoying similar popularity in Taiwan, in the latest example of cross-Strait TV success.

"Nirvana in Fire," or "Lang Ya Bang," a tale of revenge and political struggle among the princes of an ancient Chinese kingdom, has begun airing daily on Taiwan's Chinese Television System (CTS).

Since the first of the 54 episodes was shown on Nov. 3, it has consistently had one of the top three primetime audience ratings in Taiwan. It even maintained that success rate on Tuesday and Wednesday, when it went up against live baseball matches involving a team representing the island.

"We expect the audience rating to continue to soar as the storyline unfolds," CTS chairman Frank Teng told Xinhua.

Such crossover successes are quite few and far between. The last was "Empresses in the Palace" in 2012, which not only earned high audience ratings on its premiere in Taiwan but has been rerun several times by Taiwanese channels.

CTS normally puts on four or five mainland TV dramas a year, said Teng, whose network approached the producer of "Nirvana in Fire" even before its debut in the mainland.

It began airing in Taiwan about two weeks after the last episode was shown in the mainland.

Many Taiwanese have already watched the whole of the drama online, and they have been busy discussing it on social media.

Taiwanese Twitter user "@RingDarkness_TW," for example, complained that the CTS trailers for the show failed to show how good it was.

Taiwan exported many TV dramas to the mainland in the 1980s and 1990s. The trade has reversed since then, as the quality of mainland programs caught up.