eThe Chinese television drama "Story of Yanxi Palace" tops Google's trending list in Hong Kong. The tech company announced its top trending searches for this year on Wednesday, wherein the TV series topped the chart, followed by World Cup, while Typhoon Mangkhut - powerful storm recorded to hit the city in September - was fourth on the list.
The "Story of Yanxi Palace" consists of 70 episodes and co-produced by Huanyu Film and iQiyi Pictures. The TV series, set in the court of Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799), is a story about a smart girl Wei Yingluo (played by Wu Jinyan) who entered the palace as a servant to investigate the real cause of death of her older sister. The hit TV series is available in more than 70 markets globally, making it be the most widely distributed period series produced in China.
The drama is, in fact, very popular wherein one episode in August clocked up 530 million views online - setting a single-day viewership record in China, the South China Morning Post reported. In Google ranking, on the other hand, it actually looks at searches that garnered high spike in search volume this 2018 over a sustained period from last year, so it can't be interpreted in just a most searched ranking.
Among Google's top 10 trending keywords this 2018 in Hong Kong, six of them were dramas or movies, including the Story of Yanxi Palace (Mainland Chinese TV drama) at first spot, Life on the Line (Hong Kong TV drama) at sixth spot, Royal Love in the Palace (Mainland Chinese TV drama) at seventh spot, Along with the Gods (South Korean movie) at eighth spot, Flying Tiger (Hong Kong TV drama) ninth spot, and Daddy Cool (Hong Kong TV drama) at 10th spot.
Meanwhile, in the category of top trending Hong Kong news, the Fire Services Department's mascot "Anyone" - where detractors said it looked like a character in Japanese porn films - was on the fifth spot. Typhoon Mangkhut was on the first spot, followed by Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, and then the Faster Payment System.
In the category of top international news ranking, the first on the list was the World Cup, followed by the US Midterm elections, Osaka earthquake, US-China trade war, and the Thai Wild Boars soccer team who spent three weeks trapped in a flooded cave. For the travel destination category, Kaohsiung, a city in Taiwan, topped the list. Another city in Taiwan, the Taichung city, was on the second spot, followed by Seoul in South Korea, and the Hualien, another Taiwanese city.
