One of South Korea’s biggest stars has found herself at the centre of a storm after a line from her latest drama branded offensive by Chinese viewers led to a wave of anger in the country, prompting calls for boycotts and the removal of her advertisements from Chinese platforms.
Jun Ji Hyun’s latest drama Tempest, a political thriller from Disney+, was released on 10 September in South Korea and features the actor playing former United Nations diplomat- turned-presidential candidate Seo Mun Ju investigating a political conspiracy after an assassination.
The series also stars Korean actors Gang Dong Won, Lee Mi Sook, Park Hae Joon, Kim Hae Sook, Yoo Jae Myung, Oh Jung Se, as well as John Cho, Christopher Gorham, Alicia Hannah-Kim, and Sebastian Roché.
Jun first gained massive popularity in 2001 through the romantic comedy My Sassy Girl, which became a pan-Asian hit and her comic timing and screen charisma cemented her reputation as one of South Korea’s most bankable stars.
Her television roles, especially in 2013’s My Love from the Star, reached huge audiences in China, where the show sparked fashion trends, generated enormous streaming numbers, and raised demand for products she endorsed.
Chinese viewers have taken offence to a line in episode four, where Jun’s character asks: “Why does China prefer war? A nuclear bomb could fall near the border.” Viewers have construed it as an insult to both the country and its people, and it has now become the focal point for larger complaints about the drama’s depiction of China.
Critics of the series have also said that scenes that are purportedly set in China’s Dalian city instead depict dilapidated neighbourhoods allegedly filmed in Hong Kong, and some accused the production of deliberately “uglifying” the city.
“If China truly loved war, you wouldn't be here filming TV dramas,” one comment online read, according to The South China Morning Post.
“They made Dalian look terrible. Even though I've never been there, I always thought it was a tourist city,” wrote another.
Viewers have also pointed to a scene in which a group of characters sit at a table laid out on a red carpet with yellow stars, which many said resembled the Chinese flag, as well as Jun’s recital of Li Bai’s classic poem Bring in the Wine delivered in what they criticised as an awkward accent.
On Douban, a Chinese social networking site similar to IMDb, Tempest sits at a rating of 4.2, with 58.8 per cent viewers giving it a single star.
“The dialogue smears us as crazy for favouring war, the villains frequently speak broken Chinese, and the use of Hong Kong's old neighbourhoods combined with a gloomy filter to portray Dalian as a slum. The targeting is self-evident,” reads one comment, originally in Chinese, on Douban.
Disney+ is not officially available in mainland China, but Tempest has managed to find viewers who use a VPN or unauthorised streaming routes to watch content not easily or legally available in the country.
Luxury brands like US skincare giant La Mer, French fashion house Louis Vuitton, and Swiss watch and jewellery house Piaget, for whom Jun is a brand ambassador, have scrubbed her presence from their platforms, according to Jing Daily. Louis Vuitton deleted every Jun-related post from its Weibo account, La Mer removed all Jun-related content from its Weibo and Xiaohongshu accounts and simultaneously cleared its global Instagram feed, and Piaget followed by deleting her ambassador profile from its global website and pulling advertisements from its China flagship store.
After some of Jun’s previously scheduled ad shoots and events in China were cancelled, her management agency responded, denying that the “anti-China controversy” was behind the cancellations.
“It is baseless to claim that Jun Ji-hyun's Chinese advertisements were canceled due to Tempest,” a spokesperson from her agency told The Chosun Biz on Tuesday.
“The agency communicated with the local Chinese agency, which confirmed the claims were untrue. Scheduled events and advertisement shoots had been postponed even before Tempest. After several delays, they were ultimately cancelled without extension at the time, the reason cited was local circumstances.”
The Independent has reached out to representatives at Disney+ for comment.
The rising tensions are indicative of the uneasy reception of Korean entertainment in China, where the Korean cultural wave known as hallyu has alternately flourished and faltered depending on political currents and whether the content passes the government’s strict regulations.
China has for years imposed what is often called an “unofficial ban” on hallyu, which analysts trace back to the deployment of the US THAAD missile defence system in South Korea in 2016.
Many K-pop concerts have been cancelled, TV dramas blocked or removed, and promotional events for Korean stars called off. The 2016 romantic dramas Uncontrollably Fond, starring Suzy and Kim Woo Bin, and Descendants of the Sun, starring Song Joong Ki, Song Hye Kyo and Kim Ji Won, were immensely popular on streaming platforms, but had promotional activities in China cancelled entirely and its stars were not allowed to visit the country.
Even classical musicians from South Korea, like Grammy-winning soprano Sumi Jo and pianist Paik Kun Woo, have had performances cancelled without clear explanation.
Jun, who previously remained popular in China despite the unofficial restrictions, is now facing boycott calls within the country, with many asking for the “ban” to be reinstated.
Earlier this year, there were hopeful signs that the restrictions on Korean content might be easing. In April, the hip-hop trio Homies performed in Wuhan, becoming the first Korean act to hold a concert on the mainland in about eight years.
In May, boy band EPEX was set to hold a landmark solo concert in Fuzhou, which was cancelled two weeks later, with their agency citing “local circumstances.” Similarly, girl group Kep1er’s 13 September show in Fuzhou was also cancelled due to “inevitable circumstances,” as was the Dream Concert, a massive event planned in the 40,000-seat stadium in Hainan that was set to feature multiple K-pop groups.
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