《紙牌屋》在中國真的有那么紅嗎？

????早在《紙牌屋》(House of Cards)第二季登陸中國之前，這部美劇就獲得了一波好萊塢制片人做夢都不敢想的免費宣傳。

????香港某周刊報道稱，中共中央政治局七大常委之一、中紀委書記王岐山非常喜歡看這部由奈飛公司(Netflix)制作的劇集。擔任美國眾議院多數黨黨鞭的主人公在確保黨的紀律性方面發揮的作用給這位鐵腕反腐的政府官員留下了尤為深刻的印象。

????這段軼事在新浪微博、微信等中國社交網絡猶如野火一般迅速蔓延開來。《紙牌屋》終于在兩個月后登陸中國第三大視頻內容網站搜狐網(Sohu.com)【相較于優酷(Youku)和百度(Baidu)旗下的視頻網站，生機勃勃的搜狐視頻目前尚處于弱勢地位】的時候，美國媒體紛紛報道稱，這部劇集在中國大獲成功，引發轟動效應，中國觀眾尤其喜歡該劇極具現實感的故事情節——一位中國億萬富豪逃離腐敗指控，最終導致中美兩國爆發外交爭端。

????但媒體炒作和人氣終究不是一回事。盡管《紙牌屋》在中國備受好評，但收視數字顯示，它并不是一部萬人空巷、人人追看的超級劇集。《紙牌屋》就像布魯克林區制作的手工奶酪：有影響力的人士都愛吃，但這并沒有讓它成為風靡全美的美味佳肴。

????根據搜狐提供的數字，《紙牌屋》第二季目前累計獲得了2,900萬的點擊量，每一集的點擊量大約為220萬次。對于一部觀眾很難跟上情節主線（哪怕你了解美國參議院的議事程序）的外國電視劇來說，這樣的收視成績相當不錯。但說它是一部收視爆紅的神劇就很牽強了。《鄉村愛情7》，一部講述中國東北地區農村生活的喜劇，在搜狐視頻上獲得了3.6億次的點擊量，每一集的點擊量大約為600萬次。

????“這些數字并不支持《紙牌屋》的收視率超高這種論斷，”常駐北京的咨詢師金玉米這樣說道。金玉米一直為他的公司單位網(Danwei)追蹤中國傳媒動態，他本人最近也如癡如醉地看完了《紙牌屋》最新一季。然而，他說，這部美劇“深受有影響力的受眾歡迎，比如說都市白領、知識分子、記者，顯然還包括政府官員。”

????美國也出現了類似的情形。《大西洋月刊》(The Atlantic)網站給《紙牌屋》是一部傳統的熱播劇集這種說法潑了一瓢冷水。作者德里克?湯普森點出了問題的要害：

????“有些電視節目專門用來取悅少數文化程度高的觀眾，它們能得到到少數文化程度高、無視別人收視喜好的電視評論人的喝彩，這種現象其實并不是什么巧合。”

????與美國一樣，絕大多數中國觀眾正在收看那些容易跟上故事情節的劇集。由于中國政府不允許發布電影和電視劇收視率前10名榜單（部分目的是為了阻止制作公司無休止地模仿最受歡迎的節目，而不是潛心創作新節目），局外人很難追蹤中國的熱播影視動態。盡管如此，我們依然可以從搜狐視頻發布的流媒體內容收視榜單中看出一些端倪。排名前7位的電視劇分別是：《屌絲男士》、《鄉村愛情》、《大丈夫》、《隋唐英雄》、《封神英雄榜》、《新閨蜜時代》和《父母愛情》。

????這些劇集吸引的觀眾數量數倍于《紙牌屋》的粉絲，但并沒有受到西方媒體關注。金玉米說，CBS（哥倫比亞廣播公司）的劇集《生活大爆炸》(Big Bang Theory)與《紙牌屋》具有一定的可比性。兩者都是在中國很方便收看的美劇。與《紙牌屋》不同，《生活大爆炸》并沒有因為它在中國備受歡迎而受到媒體連篇累牘的報道。但《生活大爆炸》顯然更受青睞——根據搜狐的數據，這部劇集單是最新一季就斬獲了1.15億次的點擊量，每一集的點擊量大約為700萬次。

????我的大部分中國朋友都曾經向我提起過《生活大爆炸》；我還沒有跟他們討論過《紙牌屋》。但在媒體上，你幾乎看不到這一點。金玉米說：“《生活大爆炸》似乎沒有獲得同等的關注。”

????電視評論人往往把一部劇集在北京和上海的人氣等同于它在整個中國的受歡迎程度。這是一個很容易犯的錯誤。北京和上海是中國內地最大、最富裕的城市，擁有許多《紙牌屋》粉絲，但這兩座城市的居民人數僅占中國全國總人口的3%。電視評論人這樣做，其實就相當于用紐約市和半個芝加哥來描繪整個美國。

????不過，不能說《紙牌屋》并沒有激起中國觀眾的收看熱情。僅僅幾年前，我們還難以想象一部在美國網絡獨播、以華府政治斗爭為主題的情節劇竟然能夠在中國同步播出，而且還能受到數百萬觀眾的垂青。但在中國這樣一個擁有13億消費者的國家，感覺和現實往往是兩碼事。（財富中文網）

????譯者：葉寒

????

????Before House of Cards' second season arrived for streaming in China, the show got the type of free publicity that Hollywood producers can only dream of.

????A Hong Kong magazine reported that China's anti-corruption tsar, a member of China's powerful seven-man Politburo Standing Committee, was a big fan of the Netflix (NFLX) drama. The tsar was particularly impressed with the main character's role in ensuring party discipline as Majority Whip in the U.S. House of Representatives.

????The story spread like wildfire across China's social networks Sina Weibo, WeChat, and others. When the show finally became available two months later on Sohu.com, China's third-largest video content site and a scrappy underdog to Youku and Baidu's video site, stories in the U.S. press labeled it a huge hit and immensely popular with the Chinese, especially the realistic storyline involving a Sino billionaire fleeing corruption charges and growing diplomatic tensions between China and Japan.

????But media hype and popularity are different beasts, and for all the goodwill House of Cards gets in China, viewership numbers don't tell the story of a mega-hit. The show is like artisanal cheese made in Brooklyn -- the influential love it, but that doesn't make it a phenomenon across the U.S.

????According to Sohu's figures, House of Cards' second season has 29 million views, which works out to 2.2 million views per episode. For a foreign show with plotlines that are difficult to follow even if you know U.S. Senate procedures, that's impressive. But a hit? Country Love, a comedy about rural life in China's northeast, recorded 360 million views in its latest season on Sohu, roughly 6 million per episode.

????"The numbers don't support the argument that House of Cards is super important," says Jeremy Goldkorn, a consultant in Beijing who tracks Chinese media for his firm Danwei and recently binge watched House of Cards' new season. He says the show is, however, "popular amongst a demographic that is influential and significant -- urban white collars, intellectuals, journalists, and apparently government officials."

????In the U.S., a similar pattern has emerged. The Atlantic's website threw cold water on the idea ofHouse of Cards being a conventional TV hit. The writer, Derek Thompson, has it right:

????"It's no coincidence that the programs selected to please a small, educated audiences are celebrated by the small, educated TV writers who ignore what everybody else is watching."

????In China, what everybody else is watching is the same kind of easy-to-follow fare that works in the U.S. Although tracking what's popular here can be tough because China's government doesn't allow top 10 lists of movies and television, partly to discourage producers from endlessly copying the most popular shows in lieu of creating new ones, Sohu does release a list of its most popular streaming content. Its top seven TV shows: Diors Man, Village Love, Real Man, Heros of Sui, andTang Dynasties, The Heroes, The Ladybros, Love of Parents.

????All those generate many multiples more viewers than House of Cards, but get little press in the West. Goldkorn says CBS's Big Bang Theory is the show to compare to House of Cards in China. Both are foreign and widely available. Unlike House of Cards, Big Bang doesn't get loads of press for its popularity in China. But Big Bang is easily more popular -- the latest season alone recorded 115 million views, according to Sohu, or 7 million per episode.

????Most of my Chinese friends have at some point mentioned Big Bang to me; I haven't yet talked about House of Cards. But in the press, you rarely read this. "Big Bang doesn't seem to push the same buttons," says Goldkorn.

????Writers often equate popularity in Beijing and Shanghai, China's biggest cities and where manyHouse of Cards viewers live, for popularity in China. It's an easy error to make. They are the Mainland's richest cities, but their populations amount to just 3% of the country as a whole. That's the equivalent of using New York City and half of Chicago to describe America.

????You can't say House of Cards hasn't piqued interest in the Middle Kingdom. The prospect of a Washington political drama, distributed exclusively online in the U.S., being released simultaneously in China, and gaining millions of viewers in the process, was unfathomable a few years ago. But in China, perception and reality are often different in a country of 1.3 billion consumers.