Vocabs：

Anti-corruption：n. 反腐，反贪污

Far-reaching：意义深远的

Intrigue：n. 阴谋；vi. 私通

Lure：n. 诱惑；饵 vt. 引诱

Appal：vt. 惊吓；vi. 变得苍白

Applaud：vt. 赞同；vi. 喝彩

Crackdown：n. 镇压；制裁

Reputation：n. 名声，名誉

Reap：vt. 收获；vi. 收割

Cadre：n. 干部

Weep：vi. 哭泣；vt. 悲叹

Pardon：n. 原谅；赦免 vt. 宽恕

Protagonist：n. 主角，主演

Competent：adj. 能干的；胜任的

Prosecutor：n. 检察官；公诉人

Prostitute：n. 妓女；adj. 卖淫的

Depict：vt. 描述；描画

Unprecedented：adj. 空前的

Catchcry：n. 引起别人注意的话

In The Name Of The People: China's new political thriller is no House of Cards

During a state visit to the United States in 2015, President Xi Jinping publicly dismissed the comparison of China's far-reaching and eye-popping anti-corruption campaign with the hit American television drama House of Cards.

In China, Mr Xi said, there is no power struggle, no behind-the-scenes political intrigue. Yet when the corruption-centred political television drama In The Name of the People started in March — luring billions of viewers each week — media outlets were quick to compare it to the Netflix series.

Appalling and applauded

The 55-episode series is China's latest effort to tap into pop culture to showcase its resolution and achievements in the extensive corruption crackdown that Mr Xi launched when he came into power in 2012.

The show was an immediate hit, developing a reputation as the hottest thing on Chinese screens both locally and globally. Its ratings recently reached seven per cent, breaking a 10-year record for China's domestic television drama market.

On just one of the licensed online viewing platforms, iQiyi, it has reaped almost 59 billion views.

Viewers are alternately appalled by and applauding scenes of a sort rarely seen in China: a corrupt government cadre kneeling and weeping for pardon when mounds of banknotes hidden in his secret villa are uncovered by the protagonist, a competent young prosecutor; a corrupt local judge caught in bed with a blonde foreign prostitute, paid for by a businesswoman.

Political motives behind the scenes

Such high-level dirt has been the source of much gossip in China, but has never been so vividly been depicted.

China's cultural production is highly controlled and heavily censored. Beijing's omnipotent media watchdog, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) dictates what Chinese audiences are to watch.

In the Name of the People has made it onto screens because it's more on a political mission than a market-driven cultural product. The show is commissioned and financed by China's national prosecutor's office, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, at the cost of 120 million yuan ($23.5 million), which is twice the average of other locally-produced TV shows.

A public official from the Supreme People's Procuratorate told Chinese media they were given instructions from the media watchdog to promote "positive energy" by showcasing the resolution of China's anti-corruption campaign, rather than the scale of corruption in the country.

Compulsory viewing

For now, it has become obligatory to watch In the Name of the People in China. That's actually literally the case in some cities where state cadres are required to watch and write reviews of no less than 1,500 words.

Perhaps others watch it in the hope of learning how to survive political power struggles. And the whole nation seems to be following the show to catch up on trending topics of national relevance, both online and offline.

But public discussion about the drama appears to be herded towards the Government's preferred direction: positive. On Zhihu, a Quora-like knowledge-sharing Chinese website with more than 20 million users, of 169 answers in the thread "how to comment on In the Name of the People", 145 answers have been removed. Most were taken down for being "politically sensitive" according to the website.

The show is unprecedented in China because it tackles the delicate matter of official corruption. But what and how much is revealed on the show are dictated not by viewer interest or the market.

The show's title echoes Beijing's official rhetoric of "serving the people". Unsurprisingly, this has been a decades-long catchcry in media narratives, which are themselves told to "serve the party".

Perhaps the comparison to House of Cards is a long bow after all.

Yuan Zheng is a PhD candidate in journalism studies at the City University of Hong Kong

This article was first published on The Conversation