The British television series Sherlock has become a global phenomenon, but nowhere more than in China, where fans’ devotion is so intense that the BBC says it was the first country outside Britain where the new season was shown. Holmes is known in China as “Curly Fu,” after his Chinese name, Fuermosi, and the star Benedict Cumberbatch’s floppy hair. Watson, played by Martin Freeman, is Huasheng, a name that sounds like “Peanut” in Mandarin. They have become two of the most popular terms in China’s vast social-media world.
“The Sherlock production team shoot something more like a movie, not just a TV drama,” said Yu Fei, a veteran writer of TV crime dramas for Chinese television. Scenes in which Holmes spots clues in a suspect’s clothes or picks apart an alibi are so richly detailed that “it seems like a wasteful luxury.”
Even the Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily is a fan. “Tense plot, bizarre story, exquisite production, excellent performances,” it said of the third season’s premier episode.
The series has given a boost to Youku.com, part of a fast-growing Chinese online video industry. Youku.com says that after two weeks, total viewership for the Sherlock third season premiere had risen to 14.5 million people. That compares with the 8 to 9 million people who the BBC says watch first-run episodes in Britain. The total in China is bumped up by viewers on pay TV service BesTV, which also has rights to the programme.
Appearing online gives Sherlock an unusual edge over Chinese dramas. To support a fledgling industry, communist authorities have exempted video websites from most censorship and limits on showing foreign programming that apply to traditional TV stations. That allows outlets such as Youku to show series that might be deemed too violent or political for state TV.
Meanwhile, Chinese fans have fallen in love with Cumberbatch.
“I am always excited to see him on the screen and murmur, ‘Wow, so beautiful’ every single time,” said Zhang Jing, 24, who works for an advertising company in the eastern city of Tianjin.
When prime minister David Cameron visited China last year, fans appealed on microblogs for him to press the BBC to speed up the release of the third season – the three episodes were finally broadcast on January 1, 5 and 12 this month, after nearly a two-year wait. Today, a popular online comment aimed at Cameron is “Thank you for Sherlock”.
* AP
