Heroes

In recent years, however, the popularity of Korean soap operas has cooled as audiences prefer to watch fast-paced American TV dramas. They buy DVDs of American TV series such as Sex and the City, Ugly Betty and Heroes and watch them all evening. Actor Zhang says that though he has seen many American TV soap dramas, "none of my works have been seen by American TV makers".

"Watching soap operas is a good way to learn about a country's culture and the lives of ordinary people. Foreign TV series have influenced our viewers but not the other way."

According to Zhang, entering the global television market requires a lot of effort and cannot be achieved in a short period of time, as DVDs with English subtitles need to be made and media promotion has to be done. "However, we are still lucky that China has such a big market and we have so many loyal TV fans," Zhang says.

By Chen Nan

Editor: Hu Zhicheng