What a historical smash hit tells us about China’s strategic focus

As the world watches in horror at death raining from the skies in the Middle East, millions of Chinese are glued to the television watching a turbulent drama that unfolded in their own country, albeit some eleven centuries ago.Swords into Ploughshares, a historical TV drama set during the chaotic Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, has emerged as an unexpected smash hit coming into China’s festive season.Yet it is more than just a television phenomenon. In some ways, it sheds light on the public perception of today’s China and the world, as well as Beijing’s strategy on Taiwan, its stand-offish attitude towards global chaos and the focus of the coming “two sessions”.Throughout China’s recorded history, there have been three major “dark ages” when the civilisation lost its internal cohesion and broke into warring states. These are the Warring States period (475-221 BC), the Six Dynasties (220-589 AD) and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907 to 979 AD). Of these, the last one, sandwiched between the glorious Tang and Song dynasties, is the shortest and least familiar even to the Chinese public.The success of Swords into Ploughshares is therefore a surprise. Since its release, it has hit a five-year high in state broadcaster viewership for series premieres and garnered hundreds of millions of views on China’s streaming platforms.Not only has the series become a trending search term, it has also got the stamp of approval from official media, with the People’s Daily praising its (relatively) accurate, poetic and epic narrative of history.