Finally, a scholarly paper on the Internet

http://www.jamco.or.jp/2004_symposium/en/lisa/

This link leads to the first really scholarly article that I was able to find about hallyu on the Internet. The author touches on many of the themes that we have mentioned in class.
There were a few points she made that I found really interesting. One was the amount of investment that was put into marketing television dramas. "Winter Sonata' cost 3 billion Won (1 billion HK dollars), with 4 million on promotion, 6 billion on sponsorship fees." She goes on to say that this is a lot more that Hong Kong and China have ever invested. I think this is probably the jumping board that was able to push Korean melodramas to the forefront of television, before it gained fame and mass appeal.
Another point I found worth noting was that Leung mentioned the Koreans might not appreciate the melodramas as much. They wait for more socially important melodramas (such as Morae Sigye?). However, the Korean media produces general, black and white plotlines in order to appeal to a foreign audience with more "simple" tastes. However, the question I have is, is this the image the the Korean media wants to portray to outsiders of how Korea really is?

YYZ