Rhizome in the shadows: transplantation of Korean Running Man in the rise of screen-capitalism

ABSTRACT

In a potentially volatile policy environment as Mainland China, Korean Wave (hallyu) has penetrated into and continued survival in China through a new pattern of remakes in the context of bilateral tensions. Through a comparative examination of the Korean variety television programme Running Man and its Chinese remake Hurry up, Brothers, as a case study of the remakes, I explore how hallyu has become an amnyu (undercurrent) in the Chinese context. In this article, I conceptualize screen-capitalism to analyse and theorize emergent challenges and possibilities in a global context where collaborations flourish while conflicts remain, arguing for ‘transplantability’ as a rhizomatic quality that allows one screen culture to be connected or plugged into others outside of it, and that can be efficiently compatible with heterogeneous elements—other cultural, political, ideological, and linguistic communities—in diverse modes.

KEYWORDS:

• Transplantability
• screen-capitalism
• Chinese remake
• Korean variety television programme
• hallyu

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Regarding the Sino-Korean co-productions and technological outsourcing in post-productions, see, for instance, Brian Yecies’s (2016).

2. The term soft power was coined by Joseph Nye in his book Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power. Soft power here refers to using a noncoercive way to further develop one state’s national brand and build its global impact through appeal and attraction.

3. Xiazhi Li, ‘Sina Visitor System’ Economic Observer, 4 April 2015. Also reported by Beijing Daily, 17 April 2015. Cited in Kyung Hyun Kim and Tian Li, ‘Running Man: Korean Television Variety Program on the Transnational, Affective Run,’ Telos no.184, 2018.

4. ‘프듀 표절 논란 “우상연습생” 주제곡 무대 보니’ (‘p’ŭdyu p’yojŏl nollan “usangyŏnsŭpsaeng” chujegok mudae poni’, ‘When Looking at the Title Song of “Idol Produce”, the show that has been Scrutinized for Copyright Violations’) Seoul TV, 27 January 2018. http://stv.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20180127500011&wlog_tag3=naver (accessed on 3 May 2018).

5. Jie Zhang, '去年’爸爸去哪儿’火了 今年’花样爷爷’要红 (‘qunian ‘baba qu naer’huo le jinian “huayang yeye” yao hong’, ‘Last Year Dad! Where Are We Going? Shot to Fame, This Year Grandpas Over Flowers Will Rise to Fame Too.’ Chengshi kuaibao, 22 March 2014.

6. Named fee is one kind of sponsorship fee in which the sponsor’s name is displayed at the beginning of the show.

7. See, for instance, Sherri L. Ter. Molen (2014); also see Xiaowei Huang (2009).

8. Many scholars in Chinese studies have centred their inquiries either on the ‘Chinese alternative’ (Dirlik 1989, 2013) or on the way to seek a ‘Chinese alternative’ (Lin 2006; Liu 2004; Gong 2012).

9. See Chinese audiences’ online appraisals of Chinese remake Hurry up, Brother Season one on Douban: https://movie.douban.com/subject/25899362/discussion/?start=0&sort_by=time (accessed on 29 August 2019).

10. ‘奔跑吧兄弟总制片人：韩国人有所强我们有所长’(‘benpaoba xiongdi zong zhipianren: hanguoren you suo qiang women you suo chang’, ‘Koreans have their strength we have ours’). The Paper, 22 December 2014. http://www.zjstv.com/news/zjnews/201412/323194.html (accessed on 31 August 2019).

11. Ying Chen, West China City Newspaper, 15 February 2015. Also cited in Kim and Li, ‘Running Man: Korean Television Variety Program on the Transnational, Affective Run’ Telos no.184, 2018.

12. See the top answer published in the online discussion of ‘如何评价奔跑吧兄弟?’ (Ruhe pingjia benpaoba xiongdi? How to evaluate Hurry Up, Brothers?) at the Chinese question and answer social platform, Zhihu, 20 December 2014. https://www.zhihu.com/question/25922015 (accessed on 30 August 2019).

13. Chel-kwan Kim, ‘어린이 예능만화로 태어난 “런닝맨”’ (ŏrini yenŭngmanhwaro t’aeŏnan ‘rŏnningmaen,’ ‘Running Man’ as a children’s entertainment comic), Daily Korea, 2 April 2013. http://www.dailykorea.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=83 (accessed on 10 September 2017).

14. Rui Zhang, ‘Chinese TV Shows Invade Cinema,’ China Internet Information Center, 3 February 2015. http://english.entgroup.cn/news_detail.aspx?id=2886 (accessed on 17 May 2018).

15. See Appadurai and Coe (1996). Arjun Appadurai explores that the joint effect of electronic media and mass migration in a ‘work of imagination’ not only contributes to the deterritorialization of the world landscape but also causes the formation of ‘sodalities’ within this new landscape.

16. Regarding the nationwide emulative game fever, see, for instance, ‘奔跑吧兄弟引发游戏热 民间智慧自制 “撕名牌”’ (‘Bengpaoba xiongdi yinfa youxi re minjian zhihui zizhi “si mingpai”’, ‘Hurry up, Brother initiates a game fever, audience-created “tag tearing”’). ZJSTV, 27 November 2014. http://www.zjstv.com/news/zjnews/201411/321916.html (accessed on 27 January 2015).

17. See note 19 regarding the game fever among Chinese colleges.

18. Yu Yue, ‘跑男’到大学录节目遭抵制, 网友: 没营养的东西, 不要玷污大学’ (‘“paonan” dao daxue lu jiemu zao dizhi, wangyou: mei yingyang de dongxi, buyao dianwu daxue,’ ‘Hurry up, Brother’s on campus filming was counteracted, Netizen: non-nutritious stuff, do not tarnish universities’) Tencent News, 25 May 2018 https://xw.qq.com/cmsid/20180525A1U1U000 (accessed on 1 September 2019).

19. See harsh online accusations of Hurry up, Brother being lacking in ‘nutritious value’ or ‘core socialist value’ in, for instance, audiences’ discussion on Zhihu ‘为什么跑男这么低级趣味而又没有营养的节目会有那么多人喜欢’ (‘weishenme paonan zheme diji quwei eryou meiyou yingyang de jiemu huiyou name duo ren xihuan’, ‘why there are so many people who like Hurry up, Brother, such a program of vulgar taste and non-nutritious’) Zhihu, 23 May 2015. https://www.zhihu.com/question/30599383 (accessed on 1 September 2019); also see the discussion fomented by Zude Song’s allegation of Running man standing aloof from core socialist values on Weibo, 25 May and 6 July 2018. https://www.weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404245448025112183&mod=zwenzhang?comment=1 (accessed on 30 August 2019). Song’s allegation was also covered by other media, see for instance, at Wemedia, 9 July 2018. https://wemedia.ifeng.com/68360842/wemedia.shtml (accessed on 30 August 2019).

20. See Korean media’s analysis ‘“런닝맨” 열광하는 중국 사람들 “1박2일” 감흥없는 이유는’ ('rŏnningmaen’ yŏlgwanghanŭn chungguk saramdŭl “1pak 2il” kamhŭngŏmnŭn iyunŭn’, “The reason that Chinese are enthusiastic about Running Man but not interested in 1 Night 2 Days) Media Today, 8 February 2016. http://www.mediatoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=127899 (accessed on 30 August 2019).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Korea Foundation (Ref. 1022000-1178);

Notes on contributors

Tian Li

Tian Li completed her Ph.D. in East Asian Studies at the University of California Irvine in September 2019, specializing in Korean and Chinese film, media, and cultural studies. Her writings on Sino-Korean screen media interactions have appeared in peer-reviewed journals, such as Telos and China Perspectives. Her dissertation Screen-capitalism: Transnational Korean Screen Culture in Postsocialist China investigates the shifting cultural paradigms of cultural dynamics within Chinese and Korean screen media, at their intersection with affect, aesthetic, gender, and ideology ([email protected]).