50,000 Signatures Later: Why a K-Drama Is Facing a National Crisis

[TV Daily reporter Hwang Seo-yeon] The dispute over alleged historical distortion in MBC’s drama 21st Century Grand Empress has moved to South Korea’s National Assembly. A public petition calling for the show to be pulled and removed from streaming services rapidly gathered enough signatures to trigger a parliamentary review.

On the 26th, the National Assembly’s public petition board reported that the petition titled \”Request to Suspend Broadcasting and Remove Content from Media Platforms over Historical Distortion and Northeast Project Controversy in the Drama ’21st Century Grand Empress’\” reached 100% of the required signatures and exceeded 50,000 as of that morning. The petition hit the threshold just four days after it went public on the 22nd, and it will be referred to the Assembly’s relevant standing committee for review.

The petitioner argued that, although the drama is set in a fictional Korea, the production excessively employed Chinese-style costumes, rituals, and vocabulary, which they say amounts to historical distortion and harms cultural identity. Because the series is distributed globally via major OTT platforms, the petitioner said simple subtitle fixes or minor edits were insufficient and called for the broadcast to be suspended and for the series to be removed from VOD and OTT services.

Under the public petition system, any petition that collects 50,000 or more signatures within 30 days is automatically forwarded to the Assembly’s standing committee. At that stage, lawmakers are expected to examine how the production was made, the verification and fact-checking process, and the broader broadcasting review system.

Still, sources inside and outside the industry say it is unlikely that VOD or OTT services will actually suspend or delete the series even if the petition reaches a standing committee. The show has already finished airing, and the committee lacks the authority to directly ban a broadcast.

MBC 21st Century Grand Empress

The controversy erupted over the coronation scene in Episode 11, which aired on the 11th. In the sequence where Prince Ian (played by Byeon Woo-seok) ascends the throne, the production used a guryum-style crown rather than the traditional imperial crown (sip-yeom men-ryugwan), and officials were shown shouting \”cheon-se\” instead of the customary \”manse.\” Some viewers criticized the staging as evoking the etiquette of Joseon as a vassal state within a China-centered order. A Chinese-style tea ceremony in a later scene also drew criticism, and the backlash spread.

Following the backlash, IU, Byeon Woo-seok, director Park Jun-hwa, and writer Yoo Ji-won issued apologies. Director Park said in an interview that he accepts responsibility on behalf of the production, and writer Yoo acknowledged shortcomings in the verification process on her official website. The production team revised the subtitles and audio for the contested scenes and removed those scenes from OTT and rebroadcast services. The show’s offline pop-up store, originally scheduled to run for two weeks after the finale, also closed a week early.

[TV Daily reporter Hwang Seo-yeon news@tvdaily.co.kr / Photo=DB, Disney+]