BEIJING SOUTH Korean actor Song Joong Ki is so popular in China that some merchants printed his image on joss papers and sold them as part of offerings by families to their late kin this tomb-sweeping festival.
The boyish-looking hunk has become all the rage in China since the television drama Descendants Of The Sun, in which he plays a special forces officer on an overseas peacekeeping mission, began airing in late February.
“This is really an extreme business move,” a netizen wrote in Weibo, China’s most popular microblogging site, in a comment on the joss papers bearing Song’s image and denominated as 50,000 won (S$58) notes – the highest value in South Korea’s paper currency.
Another quipped: “His name calls for it,” suggesting that the 31-year-old’s name bears resemblance to the Chinese term for “papers for the departed”.
But Song’s female fans seem to be unamused, with one slamming the design as “uncivil”.
Another follower lamented angrily that “the makers of ghost money have gone overboard”.
Descendants Of The Sun, which has been viewed more than a billion times in China, is expected to continue to draw viewers even after April 16 when the whole show is completely streamed.
This year’s tomb-sweeping day fell on Monday.
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