LayarHijau — A Chinese costume drama, How Dare You!? (成何體統), recently shook the digital sphere across Asia, not for its dark court intrigues, but for a piece of remarkably familiar English dialogue: ‘How are you?’. The series, starring Wang Churan and Cheng Lei, instantly went viral in South Korea and China thanks to the absurd scene set right in the middle of the ancient imperial palace.
The hilarious sequence features the modern office worker’s soul, Wang Cuihua, who transmigrated into the body of a wicked concubine, Yu Wanyin (played by Wang Churan). In a moment of tension, she attempts to test the true identity of the Tyrant Emperor, Xiahou Dan (Cheng Lei), who she suspects is also a modern transmigrator. Yu Wanyin throws out the mandatory school textbook phrase: “How are you?”.
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Xiahou Dan’s spontaneous reaction triggered global laughter: he immediately replied, “Fine, thank you, and you?”. The dialogue was hailed as accurately capturing the ‘DNA of Nine-Year Compulsory Education’ shared by many Asians, from China to Korea, who all memorized the standardized phrase.
Supported by actors like Daddi Tang Xiaotian and Hu Yixuan, How Dare You!? (成何體統) is a romantic comedy adapted from a novel of the same name. The story focuses on the efforts of Yu Wanyin and Emperor Xiahou Dan, who now form an alliance to tear up the original evil fate script and change the predefined storyline.
The sensation created by the ‘How are you?’ dialogue led the drama to be nicknamed ‘The Spiritual Code Exchange Location’ on social media. The topic ‘Your Majesty How are you,’ coined by Chinese netizens, was immediately picked up by popular South Korean forums on June 6, registering hundreds of thousands of views in a single day. Korean netizens responded humorously, proposing the next ‘secret code’ using the Korean language, sparking cross-cultural excitement and synchronized meme creation between the two countries.
Thanks to the resulting buzz, How Dare You!? (成何體統) made history on the iQIYI platform. On its first day of broadcast, its popularity level reached the third highest in the platform’s history. Specifically, the character Xiahou Dan, played by Cheng Lei, became the first character in iQIYI’s history to successfully break the 100 million popularity index barrier on the premiere date. Wang Churan’s portrayal of the cold, yet secretly modern, concubine also fueled this surge, promising a highly anticipated royal fantasy comedy.
