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Tasting the mirage-like 'Korean wave' (2008)

Tasting the mirage-like 'Korean wave'

In the last few years, Korean films, TV dramas and pop music have become immensely popular abroad, a phenomenon known as the Korean Wave. This is the first in a series of essays by a select group of foreign scholars and journalists looking at the spread of Korean pop culture in Southeast Asian countries and beyond. - Ed.

By Jennifer Pai

Korea was hard-hit by the Asia-wide financial crisis in the late 1990s, which sent its economy in a tailspin. Korea's face-loving people were rather ashamed. Not too far away, fellow tiger-economy Taiwan heaved a sigh of relief that it was not embroiled in the financial turbulence. Some people in Taiwan probably were gleeful that their economic rival would be going down the drain. Little had they imagined that the Koreans would be demonstrating their perseverance in a fighting spirit, staging a rapid comeback by standing together at home and overseas while donating what resources they could - including personal jewelry - to rescue the nation's economy. Korea's national campaign to tide over the difficulty enabled the country to clear its debts to the International Monetary Fund ahead of schedule. What was even more exciting was yet to come. Emerging from the financial crisis, Korea went on to surprise its Asian neighbors by creating, in a graceful manner, what is now known as the "Korean Wave" of cultural exports that won the respect of its neighbors.

In Taiwan, the story of how the Korean Wave hit the island started with the import of Korea's TV dramas. The professionally made and artistically packaged Korean soap operas whipped up Taiwanese interest in Korean history and culture. On the other hand, any exports, cultural products included, must win a permit from the importing country before they are allowed in. The importing country needs also to be quite open and inclusive - and mature, too - to accept cultural imports. Taiwan is exactly such a country. An island that is 36,000 square kilometers in size, Taiwan has been overlooked for much of the past 400 years. However, its geographic position as a trade and military point d'appui has attracted sea voyagers, international traders, military adventurers and all sorts of settlers who now make up the main population on the island.

For whatever reasons, those who settled in Taiwan were mostly adventurous pioneers with little interest in entrenching cultural roots. This explains why Taiwan does not have a deep-rooted culture of its own. It also explains why there is no social atmosphere to resist foreign culture in Taiwan - a tradition that forms its generous and accommodating character. An absolute majority of Taiwan's inhabitants have their cultural roots in China, making the island a good stepping stone and testing ground for all foreign exporters trying to sell their products to China. Korean Wave products are no exception. Exchanges across the Taiwan Straits that began in the late 1980s, and China's rise as an economic power since the 1990s, have attracted a huge amount of Taiwan's financial and human resources, those in the entertainment industry included. Most of Taiwan's artists and performers, who share the same cultural roots with the Chinese, are doing quite well in China, partly because they enjoy a pop culture advantage over local Chinese, who look upon Taiwanese entertainers as their "compatriots". When Taiwanese suddenly realized that their favorite singers and entertainers had not appeared in the local media for some time, they knew they had moved to new stages and new theaters in China.

Before Taiwanese audiences became entranced by Korean TV dramas, they were not aware that they might have heard some Korean songs, or even sung K-pop in karaoke lounges. A typical example is the singer Hsu Huai-yu, who came to prominence in 1988, had helped popularize scores of Korean songs in the early stage of her career. Of the 10 songs on her first album, four - including "Fly Up" (original: "Sang Sang Sok Eui Nur" by Noise) and "Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful" (original: "Do Si Tal Chul" by Clon) - were Korean songs. Five of the 11 songs on her second album, titled "Rushing Forward", (origina song composed by Kim Chang-hwan) were Korean songs, including one bearing that same title, and "Weird Animal" (original: "Wae Bul Rur" by Diva), to whose tune even kindergarteners sing and dance. "Ducks", (original: "Na Nun Na" by Zoo Zoo Club) a song made popular by Su Hui-lun, had its origin in Korea, as did many other famous songs sung by well-known Taiwan pop singers such as Jeff Chang, Jolin Tsai, Show Luo, Shin Band and so on.

"When I was a ninth grader, I first saw from cable TV what was being broadcast on Korea's Channel V: hit songs and music performed by H.O.T., Fin.k.l, Sechs Kies, Shinhwa and other bands. I was intoxicated by Korean performers' cool and dizzying styles; I immediately fell in love with their looks, singing and dancing. I have been enamored with them ever since", said Miss Chuang, an office girl in her 20s, of her first encounter with Korean pop culture.

She noted that it was around 1998, when she was struggling with the upcoming university entrance exams, that K-pop songs and dances, with their touching tunes and moving lyrics, gave her great comfort in the midst of great pressure to move ahead academically. She said it gave her great pleasure to realize that she was immensely surprised by the H.O.T. idols whose "damn cool" make-up and outfits were packaged as "the most evil juvenile group" - a most daring slogan. When she graduated from high school with high honors, she decided to continue her pursuit of her Korean knowledge by choosing Korean language and literature as her major at National Chengchi University, the only national university that offers such courses in Taiwan; there is one private university that also does so. Miss Chuang continuously won scholarships during her university years, a prime example of learning Korean in Taiwan.

Many of Taiwan's Cable TV channels and radio stations featuring variety shows would air programs about Korean pop music and entertainment news. These include the Channel V, MTV, English-language ICRT (International Community Radio Taipei), pop music radio HitFM, and other broadcasters. They regularly broadcast hit songs from Korea and Japan, helping fans in Taiwan to keep abreast of their Korean and Japanese counterparts, thus contributing a great deal to promoting Korean pop songs, and fanning the vogue of Korean language study.

A widow in her 40s who cleans houses for a living and who has to raise two kids, Miss Hwang is a great fan of the Korean singer Rain (Jung Ji-hoon), the male star in "A Roomful of Romance" (original: "Full House"). How entranced is she by Rain? She is willing to fly to Korea on a buying spree for ALL of Rain products before the Korean versions of his CDs and MVs are exported to Taiwan - with her own hard-earned money. When Rain performs in Taiwan, just like a 20-something fan, she buys the highest-priced ticket for the "honor" of being "touched" by her great hero, in the very front row. She explains that K-pop and Korean soap operas are "a miracle" that has added spice to her life and made her feel much, much younger.

Music knows no national boundaries. So K-pop naturally mixes into Taiwan's pop music. How about Korean TV dramas? Cultural affinity dictates that Taiwan's audience can easily catch the fine points in the similes of the shows - be they about traditional ethics, in love stories, about humor and comedy, husband-wife relationships, or those between kings and lords or among brothers and sisters. Some people may say that history is boring. But audiences' responses to Korean histories vary a great deal. The Taiwanese love ancient Korean history dramas for different reasons: some look at the stories as actual historical happenings, while others look at them from a more rational standpoint. Some even get angry over how the shows extol Koreans as "the greatest people on earth". No matter what, the fans all in unison in being drawn into the touching plots and the excellent skills of the actors. Mrs. Shen is a successful career woman approaching 50. She did not start to enjoy Korean TV dramas until people around her strongly recommended them to her. When she met the parents of her son's classmates, all she heard was about Korean TV dramas. Not wanting to be an odd woman out, she rented the whole series of "Dae Chang Geum" (original: "Dae Jang Geum" ("Jewel in the Palace")). She was almost immediately attracted by this court politics story full of human interest and ethical issues - as well as by the slit-eyed, scholarly looking male star who has the nickname of "women killer". She simply could not pass up this intriguing TV series.

A senior journalist, surnamed Chou, said, during a seminar on the history and theatrics surrounding Queen Min after a Korean TV drama series of that title (original: "Myung Seong Hwang Hu (The Lost Empire)", had been aired in Taiwan, that he would love to heap praise on the series. Chou, a history major who has served as chairman of a public radio station in Taiwan, said he could not resist the lure of the Korean TV series which so delicately and artistically tells a great Korean story. "As I have been too busy with my work, I have chosen to record each and every part of the series for a close look during my leisure time", he said.

While Taiwanese audiences were happily enjoying Korean TV dramas, Taiwanese actors had to take to the streets to bring attention to the threat to their livelihood. These actors were mostly those who could not speak local Taiwanese dialects. A majority of them were forced out of the job market because the ruling party that took power in 2000 promoted the mother tongue (Minnanese or Taiwanese) - a language spoken by the majority of people in Taiwan, and which is quite different from the Mandarin spoken by the so-called mainlanders.

Some of the Mandarin-speaking actors, sandwiched between government-promoted Taiwanese programs and the increased imports of Korean and Japanese TV dramas, had no other resort but to seek a new leash of life in China.

In 2002, some people in Taiwan called for a boycott of Korean TV dramas. The government was asked to ban prime-time programs of foreign content. Such calls, however, failed to dampen Taiwanese enthusiasm for Korean TV shows. It looks like Taiwan, as a market economy, will not shut its doors to foreign competition. Those who've been at ease for too long in Taiwan, enjoying a sort of protected cultural market, might actually be awakened to the harsh reality that real competition is coming from abroad.

Mr. Wang, who teaches Korean at the National Taiwan Normal University's Language Training Center, said he himself is not so impressed by Korean dramas or pop culture, but added that he was quite encouraged by the Taiwanese people's acceptance of the Korean Wave. In this phenomenon, he sees not only Korean TV dramas but also Korea's pop culture as a medium through which Taiwanese get in touch with Korea's overall culture - an exposure that helps them realize that Koreans have a different "taste" than theirs and that they can enjoy creative cultures from other places.

Taiwanese fans have found that Korean TV dramas are played out in quick tempo by highly professional actors. There are, to be fair, stereotypes of young and handsome "great lovers" with huge wealth, and beautiful and pitiable female characters who, tear-jerkingly, fall incurably ill. But it's not their sin to be handsome and beautiful if they act out life in all its forms and fashions professionally, bringing out the joy and laughter and tears from the hearts of an admiring audience. As for the K-pop lovers, they know that Korean singers and dancers far outdo their Taiwanese counterparts.

The success of the Korean Wave in Taiwan can be attributed to the cultural similarities and geographic proximity between the two countries, Taiwan's social milieu that welcomes foreign cultures, and the fine content and creative ideas of Korea's TV dramas and pop culture. Any particular popular culture usually will be phased out, sooner or later. But the Korean Wave may continue to sweep Taiwan because, in its various genres and styles expressed against the background of traditional Oriental culture, Taiwanese sense a different taste from that of their seniors. As long as the Korean Wave enables people to "enjoy dreaming" and to "taste mirages", it will keep gaining ground, even as a second wave pushes it toward the beach.

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