China’s military lauds hot drama

The popularity of the hit drama “Descendants of the Sun” in China continues to spread.

The official Chinese military paper, Jie Fang Jun Bao, reported Tuesday that the drama surpassed a billion online views in China and generally praised the program.

“The drama based on the Korean military effectively and graphically depicted not only the culture of the country but that of the Korean military,” the report said.

The paper, while noting that the romantic story between the two lead protagonists, Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo, was one of the major factors in the drama’s popularity, also said the high quality and production value of Korean dramas like “My Love from the Star” (2013-14) and “Descendants of the Sun” are indicative of the level of development of Korea’s drama industry.

The paper also called the program great military recruitment propaganda.

“Descendants of the Sun,” which is available on the Chinese video streaming site Iqiyi, registered more than a billion hits as of Monday.

By Jeong Byung-ki