Promotional photo of the movie Photo: Maoyan

After six years of waiting, Chinese mainland moviegoers will finally have the chance to watch South Korean film Oh! Moon-hee in cinemas on Friday. The film's release is an obvious signal of improved cultural communication between China and South Korea amid the China-South Korea Cultural Exchange Year in 2021. 

Most Chinese netizens have expressed high anticipation to watch the cute Korean granny's story in Oh! Moon-hee in theaters.

Chinese netizens have always been tolerant and welcoming of overseas cultures. If some South Korean scholars and netizens could face up to the far-reaching influence of Chinese culture and stop seeking out topics that incite national sentiment such as the dispute about China's Hanfu and Korean Hanbok, cultural exchanges between China and South Korea will be able to continue developing smoothly. 

The year of 2022 will mark the 30th anniversary of China-South Korea diplomatic relations, and cultural exchanges will surely play an irreplaceable and important role in celebrating this anniversary.

For instance, China's CCTV and South Korea's public television network KBS signed an agreement on February 22 to cooperate in various aspects of the cultural industry.

Another optimistic sign, on Thursday, Tencent Music announced that hit K-pop boy brand EXO will be an online guest at the Tencent Music Entertainment Awards on December 11. 

But whether hit K-pop brands such as Black Pink and BTS will come to China is still unknown. 

In 2016, South Korean stars have stopped attending any events in the Chinese mainland after South Korea deployed the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system that same year.

If these idols get a passing ticket, China and South Korea might start cultural exchanges and cooperation in an all-round way. However, this is sure to be "the end of the world" for Chinese idol groups.

Chinese talent shows have done well profiting off the growing idol market in China, but they did not implement the same strict selections and intensive training that South Korean competitors go through, resulting in domestic idol bands that have not been able to capture the attention of the public for long. In this case, domestic idols and South Korean idols are simply incomparable.

Media has reported that more than 60 Chinese-South Korean coproduced film and TV dramas have not been released in the Chinese mainland since 2016. Which film or drama will get a passing ticket today is difficult to predict. 

Many film insiders have expressed great interest in the possible release of Oscar-winning South Korean film Parasite, but this movie has some erotic scenes, which may create a challenge to a mainland release since the market does not have a film classification system.

The pending release of Oh! Moon-hee is an optimistic signal that international exchanges between the two countries is normalizing, but imports like these will not have much of an impact on the current rise of the Chinese movie industry.

While South Korea's idol industry is well developed, the film market in China has grown into the world's largest film market, and Chinese filmmakers have already won the hearts of Chinese moviegoers by continuing making good Chinese stories. 

Promotional photo of the movie Photo: Maoyan

After six years of waiting, Chinese mainland moviegoers will finally have the chance to watch South Korean film Oh! Moon-hee in cinemas on Friday. The film's release is an obvious signal of improved cultural communication between China and South Korea amid the China-South Korea Cultural Exchange Year in 2021. 

Most Chinese netizens have expressed high anticipation to watch the cute Korean granny's story in Oh! Moon-hee in theaters.

Chinese netizens have always been tolerant and welcoming of overseas cultures. If some South Korean scholars and netizens could face up to the far-reaching influence of Chinese culture and stop seeking out topics that incite national sentiment such as the dispute about China's Hanfu and Korean Hanbok, cultural exchanges between China and South Korea will be able to continue developing smoothly. 

The year of 2022 will mark the 30th anniversary of China-South Korea diplomatic relations, and cultural exchanges will surely play an irreplaceable and important role in celebrating this anniversary.

For instance, China's CCTV and South Korea's public television network KBS signed an agreement on February 22 to cooperate in various aspects of the cultural industry.

Another optimistic sign, on Thursday, Tencent Music announced that hit K-pop boy brand EXO will be an online guest at the Tencent Music Entertainment Awards on December 11. 

But whether hit K-pop brands such as Black Pink and BTS will come to China is still unknown. 

In 2016, South Korean stars have stopped attending any events in the Chinese mainland after South Korea deployed the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system that same year.

If these idols get a passing ticket, China and South Korea might start cultural exchanges and cooperation in an all-round way. However, this is sure to be "the end of the world" for Chinese idol groups.

Chinese talent shows have done well profiting off the growing idol market in China, but they did not implement the same strict selections and intensive training that South Korean competitors go through, resulting in domestic idol bands that have not been able to capture the attention of the public for long. In this case, domestic idols and South Korean idols are simply incomparable.

Media has reported that more than 60 Chinese-South Korean coproduced film and TV dramas have not been released in the Chinese mainland since 2016. Which film or drama will get a passing ticket today is difficult to predict. 

Many film insiders have expressed great interest in the possible release of Oscar-winning South Korean film Parasite, but this movie has some erotic scenes, which may create a challenge to a mainland release since the market does not have a film classification system.

The pending release of Oh! Moon-hee is an optimistic signal that international exchanges between the two countries is normalizing, but imports like these will not have much of an impact on the current rise of the Chinese movie industry.

While South Korea's idol industry is well developed, the film market in China has grown into the world's largest film market, and Chinese filmmakers have already won the hearts of Chinese moviegoers by continuing making good Chinese stories.