Two sides to documentary Super China

China's President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with South Korea's President Park Geun-hye in front of Chinese and South Korean national flags during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People, on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings, in Beijing, November 10, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

A China-themed documentary titled Super China, which was aired by the Republic of Korea's state broadcaster KBS from January 15 to 24, received a high viewing rating in the ROK, which caught Chinese attention.

Different from Western looks at China that are usually focused on peeping at China's "dark side" through tinted spectacles, the seven-episode documentary seemed to be trying to present viewers in the ROK with a more accurate picture of China from different perspectives, including its demographic size, economic development, political system, military and culture. That it was complimentary of China's political system and the leadership of the Communist Party of China, led to some interpreting the documentary as China-friendly propaganda or envy for China's rising national power.

KBS did refrain from looking at China-related issues from the critical perspective adopted by Western media, but did the ROK broadcaster want to promote China's image to its audiences as China's own State-run media outlets do, as some Chinese have claimed?

There have been a lot of reports on China in the ROK in recent years, but most of these reports were from a narrow perspective. As a result, some in the ROK have failed to grasp an accurate picture of China and its development. At the same time, the large-volume exports of vehicles, cellphones, TV sets and other electronic products from the ROK to China, as well as the popularity of ROK films and TV dramas among a large number of Chinese viewers, especially young ones, have contributed to a sense of cultural superiority among some in the ROK. As a result, some ROK scholars and researchers have from time to time cooked up ridiculous viewpoints such as the argument that some aspects of Chinese culture that are universally confirmed to have originated in China were introduced from the Korean peninsular.

Such prejudices about China have caused concern among those in the ROK with an unbiased view. The lack of full and dynamic information about China, they believe, will exacerbate misunderstanding about ROK's fast-growing neighbor and thus negatively affect the ROK's relations with it.