Soap operas from South Korea have been popular in China for two decades now. So, it is not the first time Chinese TV dramas have paled in comparison. But this time, the one-two punch  from The Heirs and My Love From the Star really hurts. A senior official freely admitted to being an occasional participant in the vast club of Korean soap watchers. It has also been reported that he follows House of Cards, an American political thriller that would understandably fascinate him. His remark opened the flood gate of complaints about why we are falling behind in the creative industry. Most seem to agree that, given some content limits, China's television industry is not able to produce something like House of Cards, which is very dark and filled with conspiracy . But there is a concern about our inability to make something as entertaining as My Love from the Star, a Korean love story about a time-traveling professor and a proud movie star. Judging from Chinese shows in recent years, time travel is not strictly forbidden, but allowed when it is used as a background and handled with kid gloves. A series of palace dramas is built on the plot that the female leading character is transported from contemporary times back to ancient China, playing the game of an unhappy girl and a real prince coming to her rescue. There are many reasons why Chinese soap operas have become the favorite punching bag. Among them is the most important one that the industry itself has never set right its mechanism  for operation. The role of the creator, the most important job for American TV series programming that is often taken on by the head writer, is vacant in China. Because Chinese television came from the film industry, few have realized that, unlike director-dominated films, TV is the art of the writer, which is accepted in almost all countries with highly developed television industries. What can we learn about time travel?
Time travel is forbidden in Chinese shows. Time travel can be used but not freely. Time travel is only used in palace dramas. Time travel stories are often about princes and princesses.