Chinese TV series "Nirvana in Fire" (Lang Ya Bang) has become a hit in South Korea and ignited a wave of Chinese fever.

A still of Chinese TV series "Nirvana in Fire" [Photo / People's Daily]

The "Korean Wave" has been a part of the Chinese entertainment world for years, with popular TV series such as "Descendants of the Sun" and "Dae Jang Geum." Now there is a Chinese series that may start a “Chinese Wave” in South Korea.

Based on author Hai Yan's popular Internet novel of the same name, "Nirvana in Fire" tells a story of revenge and political struggle among the princes of an ancient Chinese kingdom.

Since the end of 2015, "Nirvana in Fire" has been broadcast with Korean subtitles on the Chinese TV channel Chunghwa TV, owned by the CJ Entertainment & Media. The ratings for the series reached record highs for the channel, while online purchase was at No. 7 in the Sourth Korean TV show chart.

Other products related to "Nirvana in Fire" have also become hot. Tourist agencies have promoted tourism products to get South Korean tourists to visit filming locations of the series. The translation publishing rights of the original novel have also been hotly pursued by various South Korean publishing houses.

People's Daily reported that younger generations of South Korean audiences, especially women, were increasingly drawn to Chinese TV series. CJ's Chunghwa TV now features "The Empress of China" and "The Disguiser" on their prime time broadcast schedules.

Chunghwa TV representatives told People's Daily that they chose Chinese TV series for several reasons. First, they wanted to select shows with faces that familiar to South Korean audiences, such as Fan Bingbing, Ruby Lin, Hu Ge and Angelababy. Second, they selected the stories which have a background that audiences are familiar with, such as the Han Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period.

Besides Chunghwa TV, there are other networks in South Korea that broadcast Chinese series, such as Ching TV and TVB Korea Channel. Also, more and more South Korean people are learning Chinese and Chinese TV shows have become one of their learning materials.

Han Sukhee, South Korea consul general in Shanghai, said China and South Korea have had closer communication and cooperation in film and TV production since last December, when the China-South Korea free trade zone agreement took effect.