The vice president of Huanqiu Film and Television received a message from the operations manager and immediately led his team to find Director Zhang.
Chairman's Office.
"Cultural invasion?"
Looking at the screenshots on the file, Zhang Zhiwei frowned deeply.
The operations manager analyzed, "Whether it's cultural invasion or not, I can't be sure, but Zero Degree Film and Television has been deleting comments related to it, so the authenticity is probably high."
As he spoke, the vice president on the left presented another document, adding, "This is the latest analysis I obtained from the data department.
Within two months, one-third of domestic film and television companies have been remaking or imitating Zero Degree Film and Television's three works.
Currently, in the online drama market, there are no less than a thousand online movies with similar themes to Zero Degree Film and Television's productions."
"According to statistics, the male and female leads of Zero Degree Film and Television's three films, even without social media accounts, have garnered over ten million fans, with very high online support.
Moreover, on three social platforms, netizens have spontaneously created communities where they imitate the fashion and styles of those leads, with students forming the majority of the audience."
After listening to the vice president's analysis, Zhang Zhiwei took the file and began to read it carefully.
After a moment, he put down the file and said seriously, "Currently, merely remaking and imitating Zero Degree Film and Television's films, and imitating the male and female leads in the dramas, does not yet constitute cultural invasion.
At most, it can be considered cultural encroachment and cultural influx.
However, the issue of Zero Degree Film and Television deleting comments can be utilized."
With that, Zhang Zhiwei took a USB drive from his drawer and instructed the vice president and operations manager, "There's a small exposé on this. Spend some money to generate buzz."
"Should we use the company's name?"
"No, if the company gets involved, some netizens will surely accuse us of being jealous or seeking attention."
"Alright, I know what to do."
The vice president and manager left with the USB drive.
After they closed the door, Zhang Zhiwei took out his phone, and several unread messages appeared on the screen.
These messages were largely consistent, all inquiring if he intended to use the topic of cultural invasion to suppress Zero Degree Film and Television.
Zhang Zhiwei's reply was the same as before: the topic of cultural invasion should not be brought up directly; it was too sensitive.
He instructed his allies to allude to the cultural invasion topic by using the incident of Zero Degree Film and Television deleting comments, combined with the small exposé he provided, to make a preliminary statement.
...
Inside Feihe Film and Television Company.
Gao Fei recalled the "Korean Wave invasion" of his previous life and could roughly guess Zero Degree Film and Television's future plans.
After conquering the film market, they would move on to music and actors.
Then, they would leverage the "handsome but effeminate" image of Korean men to alter the mindset of Chinese men towards the outside world.
The aesthetic of surgically enhanced faces among Korean women would also deeply influence Chinese women, leading to an era of artificial beauty.
Once these perceptions changed, Korean culture would have thoroughly infiltrated China.
Zero Degree Film and Television's current efforts were merely cultural influx, not yet invasion.
Gao Fei clearly remembered that in his previous life, it was the government that intervened, issuing a ban on Korean content. It took a year or two for the outflow of Korean culture to be completely blocked.
Currently, in China, the infiltration of Korean culture was still in its preliminary stages.
If it were to escalate, it would quickly follow the path of his previous life.
In this era, bloody wars were indeed rare.
However, cultural invasion was essentially the beginning of another kind of war.
"If it weren't for Uncle Zhang's information, I would probably still be in the dark. This Zero Degree Film and Television is the vanguard of the Korean government."
Gao Fei muttered to himself while sitting in front of his computer.
However, his current influence was not enough to change the minds of hundreds of millions of people in China with a mere gesture.
Otherwise, no matter how they invaded, he could stop them.
Fortunately, for Korea to achieve cultural invasion, it would require time to develop, which should be enough for him to grow.
Even if he couldn't achieve it himself, with his ability to copy and paste, he was confident in making a top star popular.
(Why stop cultural invasion?)
(Just think about how Christmas is now celebrated more grandly than Spring Festival to understand the terrifying nature of cultural invasion.)
Just as Gao Fei was preparing to contact Huo Dongcheng to use his connections to screen "The Impatient Ghost" in Hong Kong.
A trending news item suddenly popped up in the lower right corner of his computer screen.
"Zero Degree Film and Television's persistent deletion of comments: Intentional or malicious?"
Gao Fei silently read the news headline and clicked on it to view.
The news was posted by a gossip account.
The text was the same as the headline, accusing Zero Degree Film and Television's official account of controlling comments.
The photos below the text were screenshots of Zero Degree Film and Television deleting comments.
The screenshot of the comment Gao Fei had posted with his alt account was placed first.
Subsequent screenshots of deleted comments were also from those questioning Zero Degree Film and Television's cultural invasion.
As the page refreshed, four or five other media accounts posted similar articles.
Gao Fei immediately recognized who was behind this veiled operation.
Only Zhang Zhiwei, that old fox who loved to speak sarcastically, could be so subtle.
As soon as the news broke and was amplified by paid internet trolls from capitalists, it immediately climbed into the top thirty trending topics on the three major platforms.
In the trending topics section, the comments quickly exceeded ten thousand.
[I checked the comment section of Zero Degree Film and Television's latest post, and it's all anticipation for their new movie. I couldn't find any of the comments in these screenshots. Could it be a publicity stunt?]
[Are you blind? It clearly states that those comments have already been deleted. What are you looking for?]
[I just tried it. I commented "Cultural invasion?" and was immediately blacklisted by Zero Degree Film and Television's account.]
[Me too, I was blacklisted by the account.]
[I thought Zero Degree Film and Television just wanted to offer us high-quality movies, but I didn't expect them to harbor malicious intentions.]
[Why are all three online dramas from Zero Degree Film and Television set in Korea? Seeing this trending topic and thinking back, it's truly chilling.]
[I thought they were a conscientious film company, but it turns out they are a bad apple. I'm going to create another account and give their three online dramas a bad review.]
At this moment, the news that posting "cultural invasion" would result in comments being deleted by Zero Degree Film and Television's account immediately made many netizens resentful of the company.
After all, China has a nine-year compulsory education system, and while people enjoy surfing the internet, not everyone is brainless.
Cultural invasion, a seemingly simple four-word phrase, but netizens understood that it was the beginning of a modern, bloodless war.
Suddenly, due to this trending topic, the ratings of Zero Degree Film and Television's three online movies plummeted.
In just five minutes, films that had high scores of 9.0, 8.9, and 8.8 all dropped below 8.0.
Regarding minor trending topics, netizens might have differing opinions.
However, when it came to major national issues, especially topics related to cultural invasion, tens of thousands of netizens stood united.
There were no fans, anti-fans, or casual netizens.
Although there were a small number of netizens who fawned over overseas culture, under the impact of nearly a million netizens, those fawning netizens were like small drops in the ocean, insignificant.
...
Zero Degree Film and Television Company.
Qiao Zheng, who had just finished a meeting, was so furious upon learning about the trending news online that he nearly spat blood and fainted.
The staff responsible for managing the account and comments today were temporary replacements from Korea, fervent nationalists.
Because he saw Chinese netizens mocking Korea for having little culture and daring to engage in invasion, he had set up keyword filters on the account.
Any comment that triggered these keywords would be deleted immediately.
After Qiao Zheng understood the situation, he promptly kicked this fervent nationalist out.
He had spent so much time laying the groundwork in China according to the methods provided by his behind-the-scenes benefactor.
The goal was to pave the way for two upcoming movies.
As long as the two movies sold well, he would receive immense rewards.
However, he never expected that all this careful preparation would be ruined by an impulsive hothead.
Looking at the thousands of angry curses online, Qiao Zheng felt like crying without tears.
To salvage the situation, before the fervent nationalist was kicked out, he recorded a video of apology.
He intended to apologize to Chinese netizens by claiming he had fired an employee with nationalistic hatred.
However, he never expected that another trending topic related to Zero Degree Film and Television would emerge online.
Qiao Zheng received the news and hurriedly opened his computer.
When he saw another trending topic related to the company, he quickly realized that Zero Degree Film and Television's mysterious background had likely been exposed.
This was because the trending topic was clearly manipulated by capital.
Trending News Headline.
"Why were the male and female leads of Zero Degree Film and Television's three online dramas not popular in their own country? The reason has finally been revealed."
Clicking into the trending news, the content was straightforward.
The article directly stated the background of the male and female leads of the three online dramas in Korea, which company they were from, and so on.
Among them, a section with special font directly answered netizens' questions about why these actors could not be found.
It turned out that the male and female leads of the three dramas, after becoming famous in Korea, became arrogant due to their popularity, drove under the influence during filming, and so on.
Finally, they were blacklisted and shelved by the company for violating the law and going to prison.
At the same time, the trending news reporter also made another comment.
Although the male and female leads of these three dramas were blacklisted and shelved in Korea, they were now extremely popular in China due to the online movies.
Therefore, after they were released from prison, they could directly cash in on their popularity accumulated in China.
The trending news immediately caused a huge stir online.
Chinese netizens were shocked to learn that the male and female leads of these three dramas had served time in prison for violating the law in Korea and now intended to debut again in China to make money.
Upon verifying the authenticity of the matter, netizens immediately condemned the male and female leads of the three dramas online.
Although these six individuals were Korean actors, Chinese netizens had a strong sense of morality.
As long as they violated the law, they should not expect to make money here. Get out of China.
After the trending news caused an uproar, Zero Degree Film and Television's three online movies were immediately taken down by the websites.
...
Gao Fei, who was following the trending news, also did not expect that Old Zhang's move would almost kill Zero Degree Film and Television.
Now that Zhang Zhiwei was targeting Zero Degree Film and Television, he could also focus on arranging the release of "The Impatient Ghost."
That afternoon, Gao Fei and Jin Qiqi directly flew to Hong Kong.