The Sherlock special included a clue for Chinese audiences. Credit: AP/Press Association Images
“My first thought about the BBC is ‘this is a foreign medium’, and the second is that they are good at making high-end documentaries,” Wang Anzhuo says. “But I really started admiring the BBC for its taste in entertainment after watching the great Sherlock.” Like other Chinese fans of the BBC drama, the 27-year-old photographer calls both the character of Sherlock and the actor Benedict Cumberbatch ‘Curly Fu’, referencing the sleuth’s hairstyle. Before Sherlock gained mass appeal in China, with 98 million people tuning into the third series, Wang thought of the BBC as a medium for elites. Like many in the country, she found it difficult to access due to language barriers and political censorship, but also because of cultural differences. The detective drama has broken through, with the Victorian ‘flashback’ Christmas special showing in cinemas up and down the country, raking in ¥161m (£16.86m). The BBC states on its website that “the ambition is to forge a new collaboration between the British and Chinese creative industries.”
Will it work? According to Shi Lan, the Assistant General manager of SMG Pictures, the Chinese company that imported the Sherlock special, the BBC’s cultural programming is seen by Chinese audiences as “high-class spiritual food”. Shi explains that the BBC was already prestigious among the higher educated population in China due to the reliability of its information, as well as its unmatched documentaries and dramas. Meanwhile, shows like Sherlock have attracted younger audiences. There is particularly high demand for non-commercial, first-class cultural programming in the first-tier Chinese cities, like Beijing and Guangzhou, though the market remains small. Following the success of Sherlock’s ‘The Abominable Bride’, SGM Pictures will co-produce ‘Earth: One Amazing Day’ with BBC Earth Films and BBC World Service, for release in cinemas in 2017.
