"In the Name of the People," a 55-episode TV series debuted on Hunan Television, China's second most watched channel, last month, focusing on power struggles between government officials and their ingenious schemes for embezzling money and lining their own pockets.
To many Chinese, the series encapsulates their own personal experiences at the hands of corrupt officials.
REALITY NO LESS DRAMATIC
"Stories in the TV series are so real," said Yang Guosheng from Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu province.
"The scene of forced demolition was reminiscent of what I have personally witnessed," he said.
In the TV series, a demolition team wearing police uniforms forced their way into a factory and attempted to pull down the building, until workers lit a fire to block their way.
"We have met with demolition teams disguised as police officers several times," Yang said. "They used all kinds of measures to try to drive us away and take over the land."
In 2006 and 2009, Nanjing witnessed two demolition campaigns, when Feng Yajun was head of the Qinhuai district. Feng was placed under "coercive measures" and investigated in 2014.
The anti-corruption campaign shifted up a gear after the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012. Most cases in the TV series are based on reality.
Writer of the series Zhou Meisen, 61, was himself is a victim of corruption. In the main plotline of the drama, workers lose their equity rights in their factory go on a mass protest.
"I was among the victims of the same kind of scam, when our employees' equity shares simply evaporated during a takeover," he said, adding the lawsuit over the dispute has yet been settled.
Zhou published a novel with the same name as the series in January. The support of the Supreme People's Procuratorate allowed him to interview corrupt officials in jail.
"Reality is no less dramatic than what appeared on the screen," said an official in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province who declined to be named.
In the drama a city police chief makes an ostentatious display of weeping profusely at the funeral of a high-ranking official's father, and does garden work in an attempt to curry favor with a much revered retired procurator.
