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As of Thursday, some 163,890 people had signed
a petition to the presidential Blue House asking for drama "Joseon
Exorcist" to be pulled from channel SBS since the petition was
launched on Wednesday.
The drama, which began airing on Monday, is set in ancient Korea
with historical figures as characters but is a "fantasy"
depicting exorcism, according to a statement by SBS and the
drama's production companies.
It became the centre of controversy immediately after it
depicted the third king of the Joseon dynasty (1392-1897)
killing innocent people and the fourth, King Sejong, the creator
of the Korean language, as a prince receiving a guest in a room
with Chinese foods such as mooncakes.
Viewers claimed this was a "gross historical inaccuracy" and
"inaccurate depiction of Chinese influence", according to the
petition and posts about the drama on South Korea's dominant
search portal Naver.
Seo Kyoung-duk, professor at Sungshin Women's University and
"Korean PR" activist, noted in a social media post on Wednesday
that the drama exacerbated Korean ire over recent Chinese claims
that some aspects of Korean culture such as kimchi, a Korean
side dish made with fermented cabbage, are of Chinese origin.
Companies such as telecom company KT and top soju maker
HiteJinro were among the 24 firms to have pulled commercials,
while regional governments involved with the drama's filming
have canceled agreements, newspaper Kookmin Ilbo reported.
"Korean dramas have already become global, and many around the
world are watching... We shouldn't show distorted history to
overseas viewers," Seo wrote.
The drama's first two episodes were available for viewing on
WeTV, Chinese tech giant Tencent's video streaming platform, as
of Thursday.
SBS and the drama's production companies denied rumours of
Chinese investment in the drama, saying in the statement that it
was produced with Korean capital, and pledged to "completely
modify" subsequent episodes with fictional characters and "edit
and re-shoot the problematic parts as much as possible".
(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Kim Coghill)
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