192 Gong, Haomin. Forthcoming, 2011. ''Beyond the 'Geo-politics' and the 'Geo- economics': Reading the Unevenness in Wang Xiaoshuai 's Beijing Bicycle." Quarterly Review of Fil,rz a11d Video. 28.3. Tho111pson, Kristin. 1999. ''The Concept of Cinematic Excess." In Film Theory a11d Criticisn1: Int1·oducto1·y Readi11gs, Fifth Edition, edited by Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen, pp. 487-498. New York: Oxford University Press. Stewart, Susan. 1984. On Longing: Narratives of the Miniat11re, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collectio11. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Xu, Jian. 2005. ''Representing Rural Migrants in the City: Experimentalism in Wang Xiaoshuai's So Close to Pa,·adise and Beiji11g Bicycle." Screen. 46.4 (Winter): 433-449. Haomin Gong is an assistant professor of Chinese and Asian Studies at St. Mary's College of Maryland. He has published articles in Quarterly Review of Fil,r1 and Video and Joitrnal of Chinese Cinemas. Asia11 Cinema, Fall/Winter 2009 ) ' ' • ' . Cultural Proximity and Distance: The Reception of Korean Films in China Through the Lens of My Sassy Girl Ying Huang and Kwang Woo Noh Introduction 193 This article explores the reception of Korean romantic comedy, M_1: Sa.~s.i· Girl, among Chinese youth. Through the lens of this popular movie, the at1tl1ors attempt to explain the complexity of the popularity of Korean films and otl1cr cultural products in China in recent years. By analyzing the outcome of on line questionnaires and depth interviews regarding the reception of M;• Sa.~.~_,, Girl, the authors argue that although the strong presence of Korean films in China is contributed by the significant growth of the film industry in South Korea since the 1990s, the current conditions of China society and its movie market, and the cultural proximity the Chinese youth as movies viewers perceived among these two nations in comparison with Western media products, especially Hollywood movies, facilitates Korean films' popularity at the personal level. The authors also argue that the artistic representation and the themes the Chinese youth found in Korean films are apparently what are missing in Chinese films and their daily reality, which function as a co1nfortable distance for them to desire. Background My Sassy Girl and Beyond The Arrival of H anliu Popular culture in China has been taking on a different look duri11g different periods of time after the Cultural Revolution and the initiation of Open-Market policy in the late 1970s. In the 1980s, Hong Kong martial arts film and gangster TV drama, and Taiwanese romantic TV dramas were very popular. A few Japanese TV dramas, such as Ashin (Oshing in Japan and Ko'rea) in the early 1980s, also had an imprint on the memory of millions of Chinese TV viewers. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a Japanese romantic TV drama, Tok;·rJ Lo1·e Story, was a smash hit. Since the late 1990s, Korean TV dramas and films are introduced into tl1e China market and ended the absence of Korean mass culture. The importation of Korean media products into China came after Korea and China established a diplomatic relationship in 1992. In 1997, Chinese Central Television (CCTV) for the first time broadcast a Korean TV drama, Wl1at Is Love? It has impressed many Chinese audiences from their 20s to 50s. Soon after tl1at, Korean fil1ns Asia11 Cinen1a, Fall/Winter 20()9