After tensions between South Korea and China have grown due to the deployment of the THAAD and other issues in previous months, South Korean actress Jun Ji-Hyun is featured in a new Chinese advertisement for China's biggest online mall.
On Monday, Jun was featured on the product page of health brand Mentholatum on Alibaba's Taobao. Her appearanceis seen as a positive turn for South Korea's entertainment industry as they have suffered a massive drop of Chinese demand after Beijing objected in the deployment of US' anti-missile system THAAD and Beijing banning all South Korean promotions in the mainland.
Several companies, such as K-pop agency YG Entertainment, S.M Entertainment Co. and CJ E&M Corp, reported that they were unable to hold any events in China since July 2016
On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that he was not aware of any restrictions made on South Korean cultural exports and said that "China will work hard with South Korea to promote the early return to the correct and healthy track of bilateral exchanges and cooperation."
In late October, Beijing and Seoul agreed to end their year-long stand-off due to the THAAD issue. It is expected by experts that the ending of the stand-off would help improve the earnings of entertainment firms affected as early as the first half of 2018.
Jun Ji-hyun is well-known for her appearance in top dramas such as 2013's "My Love from the Star" and 2015's "Legend of the Blue Sea" which earned high praise from Chinese viewers upon their release.
