THE award-winning U.S. political drama “House of Cards” became one of the most talked-about TV shows in China this week as the 13 episodes of its second season racked up more than 8 million views on Sohu.com by Tuesday morning.

    The show was released Friday on Sohu, the same day as its debut on Netflix’s online video-streaming service in the United States. It became an instant hit as Chinese fans said they were enthralled by the show’s flawless acting and a dramatic storyline that heavily featured U.S.-China relations.

    The scheming U.S. Vice President Frank Underwood, played by Kevin Spacey, has to deal with a corrupt Chinese billionaire Xander Feng in the second season. Feng is played by Canadian actor Terry Chen.

    In the latest season, Underwood tackles politically sensitive issues like Chinese cyberespionage, currency manipulation, a trade war over rare-earth minerals and escalating tensions between China and Japan in the East China Sea.

    “The show would have had a more realistic touch if Xander Feng was played by a fat and ugly actor instead of an attractive one,” a microblogger commented.

    The popularity of “House of Cards” in China comes at a time when U.S. filmmakers and television creators are looking to China to broaden their audiences. Talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres became the first to air a U.S. talk show in China this January on Sohu, which also signed on comedy sketch program “Saturday Night Live.”

    Once a home for pirated movies and content, China’s online-video industry has cleaned up. Companies like Sohu compete to stream licensed content to the growing ranks of Chinese with smartphones, tablet computers and set-top Internet boxes, often with advertising but free of charge.

    Revenue from China’s online-video market surged 42 percent to 12.8 billion yuan (US$2.1 billion) in 2013 when compared with a year earlier, according to Chinese consultancy iResearch. Ad revenue alone for Chinese video sites hit 9.6 billion yuan last year, doubling from 2011, iResearch said.

    Film studios and filmmakers say they have adjusted film content to please both Chinese viewers and Chinese officials. But U.S. television appears to be coming into China with less oversight and with provocative story lines that Chinese viewers don’t get from State broadcasters.

    “When we chose to purchase the rights to the show, we didn’t expect that the second season would have so much to do with China,” said Sohu’s chairman and chief executive, Charles Zhang.

    Although the second season paints an unflattering picture of Chinese diplomacy and Chinese officials, “House of Cards” wasn’t prescreened by Chinese regulators and airs uncensored, Zhang said. He added that Sohu hasn’t received any feedback from regulators about the show’s content since the episodes were released Friday.

    The new episodes of “House of Cards” have about 9 million combined views on Sohu, which is significant but still low compared with Chinese hits such as the reality show “Dad, Where Are We Going?” Zhang said. “Dad” was viewed more than 1 billion times online last year.

    Still, “House of Cards” was the most-watched U.S. television program on Sohu over the weekend, surpassing “The Big Bang Theory,” which is one of the most popular U.S. shows in China.

    Zhang said strong online-video competition in China has created more demand for high-quality TV programs from the United States, including Sony Corp.’s “Breaking Bad” and 20th Century Fox’s “Homeland,” both of which were available on Sohu hours after broadcast in the U.S. last season.

    Zhang said ad revenue from the first season of “House of Cards,” which has racked up 24.5 million views since making its debut on Sohu in March 2013, is more than the cost of licensing the program from Sony, which sells the series overseas on behalf of Media Rights Capital, the studio that makes the show. Zhang said Sohu has the rights to stream future seasons of “House of Cards” if they are produced.

    Sohu’s budget to purchase U.S. TV shows was US$80 million in 2013, according to a Chinese website Huxiu report.

    Sony and Zhang declined to comment on the financial terms of the deal, according to Wall Street Journal. MRC didn’t respond to requests for comment.

    Kenneth Lin, a staff writer on “House of Cards,” said the China plot line couldn’t be avoided. “‘House of Cards’ is an exploration of power at the highest levels,” Lin said. “Today, you can’t tell that story without considering China.”

    Meanwhile, Chinese publishers, who seem eager to cash in on the popularity of the show, are launching Chinese copies of “House of Cards,” the original novel by British author Michael Dobbs. The U.S. show is an adaptation of a BBC miniseries of the same name that was based on the book by Dobbs.

    Major Chinese online book vendors like Dangdang and JD.com, are taking pre-orders from buyers and have promised that books will be delivered as soon as Friday.

    “This show has been repeatedly recommended by Wang Qishan and Barack Obama,” touted an advertisement on Dangdang.com promoting the coming book. “Read the book on which the hottest political drama of last year was based.”

    Wang Qishan, head of the Communist Party’s anti-corruption body and a member of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee, is a fan of “House of Cards,” according to the Hong Kong-based magazine Phoenix Weekly.

    (SD-Agencies)