Special Lecture on Hallyu and Korean culture

I just wanted to share a few thoughts about the special lecture held by Dr. Kim last monday about Hallyu and Korean culture for those who couldn't make it. It was a great lecture, which high complemented our course material. He talked about the Hallyu phenomenon in various Asian countries: China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam. What was most surprising was the spread of Hallyu in Egpyt, South Africa and Eastern European countries (where the Korean dramas Winter Sonata and All-In were televised) and.. Kazakhstan (!) He also touched upon the K-pop stars Bi and BoA, the two representatives of the K-pop music scene.

Random interesting fact: NYC and LA have the highest Korean-American population (a total of 2 million)

Some quotes he shared about the Korean language:

-"The Korean Language is the most simple and yet elegant language in the world" (Pearl Buck)
-When considering the rationale, scientific nature and uniqueness properties of world languages, the Korean language ranks at the top" (Oxford University Linguist)

Dr. Kim also shared his innovative ideas for learning the Korean language. He commented that textbook materials were often too dry, and not imitate real life conversations, thus discouraging the learner. He offered practical tips and suggestions: using popular culture to facilitate the learning of a language, i.e listening to Korean music, watching Korean dramas, and of course having Korean friends, as the best way to learn a foreign language is in a natural setting from native speakers.

There was also a question and answer session at the end of the lecture. The questions posed were deep and meaningful, however, Dr. Kim's ability to articulate was much stronger in Korean than in English. A friend commented that it should have been arranged for Dr. Kim to respond to the questions in Korean, and have a translator to translate his responses. It would have been more time consuming, but it would have been worth it, as Dr. Kim was clearly passionate about the subject matter and obviously had a lot to say; but was not able to answer all the nuances of the question with his basic knowledge of English.

For Korean men it's beauty before age

South Korea is rightfully famous in Asia for its pursuit of beauty. Seoul's plastic surgeons, fashion boutiques, hairdressers and cosmetics merchants attract customers from throughout the region. People in the industry attribute the phenomenon to an ultra-competitive society, especially when it comes to jobs.

We've been discussing many aspects of popular culture: music, dramas, food, comics, but we've yet to consider plastic surgery, which I think plays a large role in Korean popular culture. Plastic surgery, especially double eyelid surgery is extremely popular amongst Korean celebrities who feel the pressure to improve their appearances to keep up with the demands of the highly competitive and fast-changing industry; and real women, who in turn, feel the pressure to measure up to the beauty standard. However, men are not immune to the obsession with beauty.

I was pretty surprised, and a little amused to find this article, and thought it would be interesting to share with the class. But more importantly, instead of just reading this as a piece of general knowledge, it is essential to consider what it speaks about the values of Korean popular culture and what it takes to succeed and be happy in Korea: youth and beauty.

Points to take note:

-meshing of two Korean popular culture icons: beauty industry and soccer

--> celebrity endorsement to promote product (soccer star Ahn Jung Hwan)

-according to the article, Korean men are precursors of the Western “metrosexual” type.

--> rumor that even Kim Jong ll colors his hair

-the most widely received audience of male cosmetic products are middle-aged Korean business men who feel that they “need to look younger to succeed”.

For Korean men it's beauty before age

Barbara Demick Los Angeles Times

The handsome young men walk past each other in the blinding sunlight in Seoul, South Korea. Their shoulders lightly brush, and they turn their heads for a closer inspection. "Wow, he's got great skin,'' murmurs one, while the other casually informs him, "It's just that I've changed skin lotion.'' The scene is from a television advertisement, hawking what is euphemistically called a "colour lotion'' for men. Actually, it's a liquid foundation designed, as the ad says, to "cover the imperfections.''

Cosmetics merchants in the West still fantasise about the day that men will wear make-up -- and presumably cough up as much money as women on their appearance -- but in South Korea, the future is the here. Colour Lotion was introduced last year with a lavish advertising campaign starring androgynous World Cup soccer star Ahn Jung Hwan – the David Beckham of South Korea. The lotion chalked up $4 million in sales in the first six months, surprising even its manufacturer. Meanwhile, the chairman of one of the country's largest cosmetics companies recently published his confessional memoirs with the title "The CEO Who Wears Make-up.'' "Why shouldn't men want to look beautiful and take care of their skin?'' asked Yu Sang Ok, 70, the head of Coreana Cosmetics. "Especially as they grow older, they have to wear make-up if they don't want to look shabby.''

In fact, Korean men have been touching up their appearances long before the term "metrosexual'' was coined by trend-spotters in the West to describe heterosexual men who willingly spend money on their looks. Most politicians older than 50 dye their hair. President Roh Moo Hyun and his predecessor, Kim Dae Jung, are distinguished by prominent heads of jet black hair -- as is North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, although his regime is sufficiently secretive so that one cannot say with certainty whether his hair is dyed. Kim Min Yoo, an Estee Lauder salesman at a department store here, says that prominent figures have been using makeup as well, but discreetly.

"It's always existed. Men would wear a little of their wives' or girlfriends' makeup. It is just that now it is out in the open and respectable,'' said Kim, who wears his hair streaked with copper highlights and admits to applying a little powder and eyebrow pencil on special occasions. South Korea is rightfully famous in Asia for its pursuit of beauty. Seoul's plastic surgeons, fashion boutiques, hairdressers and cosmetics merchants attract customers from throughout the region. People in the industry attribute the phenomenon to an ultra-competitive society, especially when it comes to jobs.

The advertising for men's make-up here features young, girlish models –called "kkotminam,'' or flower men. But market research indicates that the best customers are middle-aged businessmen. "We thought this would be popular with teenagers and men in their 20s, but we discovered to our surprise that it was men in their 40s who were most concerned about their skin being rough from the effects of aging, heavy smoking and stress,'' said Chong Pu Kyung, who helped develop Colour Lotion for Somang Cosmetics. "This is Confucian society that respects age, but men feel they need to look younger in order to succeed,'' she said.

Dramas and consumer culture

A few weeks ago, I thought about why some of the Korean Dramas have become so popular in many countries. So I thought about Jewel in the Palace for example and tried to think of a similar type drama in the US. All I could think of was a show called Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman which aired in the late 90s. It was quite popular in the US and other countries as well so I thought that maybe there was some innate desire to watch female-centered stories unfold. However now I think I have a better understanding of Korean dramas and why their content is more generally speaking appealing to consumers.

After the arrival of the drama, "Spark", Korean dramas became increasingly trendy and essentialy transformed into "pop" dramas. They are products in the physical sense but are also products of the popular or consumer culture. I'm currently taking a class in consumer behavior and we always talk about brands wanting to represent the consumer culture. So Nike tries to understand the athlete's culutre: where he goes, which sports he plays, for how long, etc. But ultimately Nike offers just sneakers which although may perfectly fit in with the athlete's culture, are still somewhat separate from the culture itself. Dramas and Korean Pop drams in particular are much different. Not only do they represent the popular culture but often are the pop culture. This is one of the reasons why I think that the dramas have become the most popular korean cultural export. So in Korea, the dramas may have a reinforcing effect. Consumers might watch the dramas and say things like, "Those are the clothes I wear. Those are the foods I eat. Thats how I have fun with friends." In other countries the content does not necessarily reinforce the pop culture but rather activates existing culture which is not expressed explicity. So in Taiwan for example, Spark was very popular especially among woman mainly because it included elements of women-centrism.

So the popularity of these dramas makes sense from a consumer culture stand point, but many dramas often dictate the consumer culture rather than reflect, represent, or reinforce it. Korean dramas especially are highly stylized and very materialistic. I once wrote a paper on materialism being the most dangerous part of American culture. I still believe that statement but it is also often the most profitable part of American culture and now Korean culture as well.

Hallyu Backlash

There was an editorial last week in the Korea Herald about how countries such as Vietnam, China, and Taiwan are beginning to push back against the hallyu wave as they resent the "nationalistic messages" expressed by Korean dramas. They are placing restrictions on how many Korean dramas can be shown on their television stations and requesting that Korea import some of their dramas in return. This growing anti-Hallyu sentiment has sparked Park Jin-young - the singer-producer who groomed Rain for stardom - to call on Korean pop culture producers to "eliminate nationalism from Hallyu" in order to enable it to continue it's spread. In an interesting side note, Park Jin-young is engaged to speak at Harvard sometime next week about the Hallyu wave and it's geopolitical ramifications.

I think this is a very interesting consequence of the success of Korean pop culture, and I'm not surprised at the backlash from other countries. As we've discussed before, the Hallyu wave is certainly wrought with nationalistic sentiment and is a source of pride for the Korean people. The television and music coming out of Korea is very entertaining and has attracted a diverse, dedicated audience, all of whom are subject to the pro-Korea messages contained within the media (and as we've mentioned before, often anti-Japanese messages). It's only natural that the governments of non-Korean viewers would be concerned with any message which is nationalistic towards any country other than their own, especially when Korea has not been promoting the popular culture of other countries to its own people (granted, this is a probably a result of the dramas from other countries being of lower quality than the Korean ones, but I don't think that that is what the other countries want to hear from Korea in response).

Below is the full text of the article, with some notable quotes highlighted.

"Hallyu, communication" - The Korea Herald - 2/10/07

The popularity of Korean popular culture in Asia and beyond commonly referred to as Hallyu, or Korean Wave, is being mined for all it is worth. The boom which started casually as Korean dramas that were aired in China attracted a huge following, has now become an all-out endeavor at the national level to push all aspects of Korean culture.

Singer-producer Park Jin-young's recent call to eliminate nationalism from Hallyu is timely as Korean popular culture is facing growing resistance from Korea's Asian neighbors.

Park, who groomed the singer-actor Rain to become Korea's world star and is at the forefront of the Korean Wave phenomenon, has been invited to speak next week at a discussion about the nature of the Hallyu phenomenon and its geopolitical ramifications in Asia at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

In an interview with a local daily ahead of the lecture, Park blamed the media for the Hallyu hype and the subsequent anti-Hallyu sentiment in other Asian countries. Politicians, he said, do not view popular entertainment as a form of cultural communication but put it in the frame of nationalism.

Nationalism in Korea became pronounced during the Japanese colonial period. Faced with the annihilation of Korean culture and language, nationalist sentiment was a natural response, becoming a focus of resistance against colonial rule.

However, we must now be wary of systematically pushing our culture on other countries. Many of the Asian countries where Korean pop culture enjoys a following are countries that have also experienced colonial rule. Needless to say, promoting Korean culture excessively in these countries will raise the specter of cultural colonialism.

Moves are already underway to counter what has been described as a Hallyu "invasion" by the Korean media. In Vietnam, authorities are demanding that Korean broadcasters import Vietnamese dramas to balance Korea's drama exports. In China, state reviews of Korean dramas are being delayed. Taiwan has moved to limit the number of Korean television dramas.

This should not come as a surprise. Consider how we react when a Japanese movie does well at the box office here or when Japanese books translated into Korean enjoy notable success. Immediately, there is a frenzied call urging people to be on their guard against the flood of Japanese culture.

Culture Minister Kim Myung-gon rightly said that Hallyu will now be a cultural exchange that includes the acceptance of diverse cultures as well as introducing Korean culture to other countries. In this age of globalization, communication and understanding among cultures is imperative. Park's remark that cultural communication in Asia may prevent such unfortunate incidents as World War I that took place in Europe is a food for thought.

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/02/10/200702100007.asp

Manga? Manwha?

Whether you go into Borders or Barnes and Noble these days, you’d see at least several bookcases devoted to manga and manwha. Given if this was few years ago, these publications might have taken up only a bookshelf or two. About 80-90% still consists of manga rather than manhwa. An article [link] wrote that even though you see the manhwa is getting more popular in the US as well as overseas, the domestic market itself isn’t doing very well. The imported Japanese manga still dominates the Korean readers market. However, this is balanced by the ballooning manhwa export to other countries all over the globe. Even with this rise in exporting, the article below mentions that “manhwa is still a subculture rather than a primary culture” because the Koreans are missing the massive anime market that the Japanese has over them.

* * *

The Koreans Are Coming: Manhwa in America

[http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6403518.html]

It shouldn’t be a surprise to American comics professionals that manhwa, or Korean comics, have become an increasingly important component of the competitive and ever-evolving manga market here in the United States. After Japan, Korea is the second-largest producer of original manga-style comics, and for major U.S.-based manga publishers such as Tokyopop and Dark Horse, or for smaller indie presses like Central Park Media and Drama Queen, Korean comics represent a fresh source for potentially lucrative properties. For Korean publishers such as Netcomics and Ice Kunion that have come to the U.S. to set up shop, the U.S. market promises an opportunity to reinvigorate an industry undermined by faltering domestic sales.

If your interests run toward shoujo (girls’) or shounen-ai (boys’ love), both of which are typically targeted toward young female audiences, chances are that you’ve probably already picked up a manhwa at some point, though you might not have realized it. Manhwa generally looks and reads very much like manga, with serialized stories covering such genres as kiddie adventures, teen rebellion and gothic romance. Although manhwa is read, like English-based comics, from left to right, little else distinguishes it in terms of form or content from its more popular Japanese counterpart. Even the word “manhwa” is just the Korean pronunciation of the same characters that the Japanese pronounce as “manga.”

However, some claim that important distinctions do exist. Tran Nguyen, the owner of Drama Queen, an all-woman-run indie publisher that has made manhwa a primary component of its girls’ comics lines, explains that she was attracted to manhwa because “On the whole, female lead characters in manhwa tend to be stronger, more modern women than their Japanese counterparts.” According to Ju-Youn Lee of Ice Kunion, one of two Korean publishers of manhwa based in the U.S., Korean manhwa tends to be more personal than “industrial,” or studio-system Japanese manga. “The greatest power of Korean manhwa is that it is closer to the creators,” says Lee.

Korean manhwa is also less explicit in content than Japanese manga, due in large part to stringent censorship laws that have been in place in Korea until only recently. Those laws have relaxed over the past few years, but as Jeremy Ross, editorial director for Tokyopop, explains, “Manhwa meets the kinds of standards that are expected in America. You don’t run into the kinds of problems that you might with Japanese manga that would have to be shrink-wrapped [because of explicit content] in the U.S.”

Still, it’s the similarities between manhwa and manga that have made manhwa increasingly important. As more and more Japanese publishers are bringing their own titles directly to the U.S., manhwa has become a key source of new materials for non-Japanese publishers. “We don’t have the open playing field that we did when Tokyopop was one of two or three people out there,” says Ross. He estimates that since Tokyopop first introduced manhwa to the U.S., the publisher has gone from publishing one or two titles to 85 licensed series, of which 45 to 50 have already been released in the U.S. Roughly 20% of Tokyopop’s list now consists of manhwa. CPM has also been publishing manhwa for years, and Dark Horse, released its first two manhwa titles this fall. The Korean Culture & Content Agency (KOCCA), a government-sponsored organization that seeks to promote Korean culture and content abroad, estimates that about 100 manhwa titles are currently being distributed in the U.S.

Manga vs. Manhwa

U.S. publishers often find it easier to work with Korean publishers and artists. “I think Koreans think more globally than the Japanese,” Ross explains. “Just look at the culture—it’s much more focused on ‘how do we make products to sell to the world, how do we get things out to the world,’ rather than how do we create for the home audience.”

This translates into differences in licensing of rights: Japanese publishers tend to restrict rights to very specific media, while Korean publishers automatically include online rights along with print rights. For Tokyopop, this has meant more of the cross-media licensing and property development deals that Tokyopop sees as essential to its idea of manga as a global phenomenon. Probably Tokyopop’s biggest success with this kind of licensing has been Priest, a Wild West–themed gothic horror written and drawn by Min-Woo Hyung, which was sold to Sam Raimi’s production company, Screen Gems, and is scheduled to be distributed by Sony Pictures—possibly the first time for an Asian-style graphic novel to be made into a Hollywood film. “Korea is not as closed a market as Japan,” says Ross. “In Japan, the artists are almost bonded with their publishers and editors for life. It’s very hard to try and get them to do anything different. We’re seeing a bit more experimentalism and flexibility in Korea.”

A huge incentive for this increased openness has been the steady decline of the print market for manhwa in Korea itself. One factor in this decline has been the ever-increasing popularity of illegally scanned manhwa available on the Internet. Another important fact has been the proliferation of reading libraries in Korea, called manhwabang or “comic rooms,” where visitors can rent a manga for a fraction of a book’s purchase price. According to some estimates, the rental market for manhwa in Korea is three times that of manhwa sales. According to Drama Queen’s Nguyen, “Artists have an incentive to do well in the U.S. They know... they can get more revenue for their work.”

Getting manhwa into the U.S. market via licensing deals hasn’t always been easy. One overambitious U.S.-based animation distribution company was forced to cut series and return licenses after initially licensing whole catalogues. As a result, Korean publishers have been eager to get into the lucrative U.S. market themselves.

In October 2005, three of Korea’s largest manhwa publishers—Sigongsa, Seoul Cultural Publishers and Haksan—joined forces to create Ice Kunion. “Seeing how Viz was doing inspired us to start bringing Korean contents directly to the U.S. market,” says Lee of Ice Kunion. Ice Kunion currently has about 12 series out and plans to add a series each month, slowly increasing the numberof titles it will publish in 2007. Its bestselling titles include Angel Diary, written by the creators of one of Tokyopop’s most successful shounen-ai titles, Demon Diary. Its December releases includes Goong, a current bestseller in Korea that has already been turned into a TV show there. “We can provide the market with the newest titles,” says Lee.

Netcomics, another Korean publisher of manhwa, came to the U.S. in January 2006 with a slightly different strategy. Korea is one of the most wired nations in the world, with a broadband penetration of 80%–85%. Despite the problems with illegal scanning, online comics publishing offers new opportunities. “Web comics and online manhwa services have been flourishing in Korea,” explains Heewoon Chung, president of Netcomics.

While most manga and manhwa companies have been experimenting with different ways of using the Internet to market their titles, Netcomics has gone a step further by trying to figure out how to transform those Internet hits into profits. In response to the problem of illegally scanned manhwa, Netcomics’ parent company, Ecomix Media, began paying artists a per-page rate for their work. Netcomics has in turn constructed an ingenious pay-per-view system for its English-reading audiences: customers have access to the first chapter of a book for free and are allowed to read the rest of the book online for a charge of 25¢ per chapter. The total cost of reading a book online is usually about $1. Since U.S. customers tend to want to buy the physical books as well, this service has been combined with the print publishing program, with the most popular online titles being released as books.

“Our online service allows us to serially publish brand-new titles,” Chung points out. “With this, we can accumulate the contents and at the same time build a fan base before the title is ready for publication.” According to Chung, user response has been very good. “Since our service is the only one of its kind available in the U.S., they don’t have anything else to compare it with.” By the end of 2006, Netcomics had 58 volumes of a total of 25 series, the most popular of which have been the shounen-ai titles Boy Princess, Let Dai and Not So Bad. Netcomics’ books are distributed by Ingram to bookstores and by Diamond and AAA Anime to the direct market.

Manhwa in the U.S. Market

For both Ice Kunion and Netcomics, selling manhwa to the U.S. market has produced as many problems as opportunities. Even differences in the relative sizes of Korea and the U.S. can have unexpected consequences. Ice Kunion’s Lee explains: “Compared to Korea, the U.S. is a really large country. This means that it takes a longer time to get books out there into bookstores, and that we have to move way ahead to keep up the publishing schedule.”

Even more difficult has been getting books onto the already crowded manga shelves of major bookstore chains. “In Korea, readers are well aware of not just what’s being published, but also about authors and titles,” Netcomics’ Chung says. “So when some new title receives good reviews, word gets spread fast, and retailers will stock the title in response.” Readers in the U.S. have less influence. “In the U.S., the market is driven by the national bookstores. And if your books are not on their shelves, readers will just not notice them. Even titles that receive great reviews can still be almost unknown to readers if they don’t get shelf space.”

Lack of name recognition has been a problem for U.S. and Korean publishers alike. That’s compounded by the fact that manhwa are rarely turned into animated films, often an important predictor of a title’s success. (Manhwa are often turned into live-action films or TV miniseries. While these may be extremely popular in Japan and Taiwan, they often do little to generate sales in the U.S.) “Kids aren’t rushing out to learn Korean and translating and putting up scanlations [online English translations of popular series] in Korean as much as they do Japanese,” points out Tokyopop’s Ross. “Manhwa is still a subculture rather than a primary culture.”

Even so, manhwa provides an important model for the future of U.S. manga. This is certainly true in terms of technology, where Koreans have been at the forefront of digital innovation with cellphones and other mobile content as well as with the Internet. “We’ve seen the Koreans as forging the way in terms of both a creative programming paradigm and also a technological paradigm for being able to do [the kind of things] we want to do,” says Tokyopop’s Ross.

It’s also true of basic manga culture, which continues to grow and influence new generations of artists, writers and readers. Netcomics’ Chung puts it this way: “What we’re seeing now in manga is [the influence of] Japanese culture,” says Chung. But he quickly notes, “U.S. manga culture will have its own identity when manga is no longer foreign to general book readers. Americanized manga titles will create their own culture that is both similar and different from other manga cultures.”

Being Choosey

As Raymond Williams warned the public, selection and interpretation play an instrumental role in concocting ideas, images, or even the essence of a culture. For one, those who directly engage themselves in the process of perpetuation will actively seek to disseminate a certain aspect of the society while neglecting other possible presentations. Dramas can serve as a medium to depict a filtered view of one’s society. After reading Kim Hyun Mee’s “Korean TV Dramas in Taiwan: With an Emphasis on the Localization Process,” the readers can see the multitudes of different ramifications depending on a particular portrayal of the Korean society. Hence, the topic of the drama becomes the nuance of that society. This finding should alarm the drama producers, writers, or people in the entertainment business because it suggests that dramas do not just provide entertainment; they can shape one’s view even if that view consists of erroneous ideas.

The media representation of a culture or an ethnic group has its historic roots. The events leading up to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II is such event that was unjustly depicted by the media. During the years preceeding Pearl Harbor, Japanese in America, aliens and citizens alike, contributed to the growing threat to national security in the eyes of the white Americans. The Memorandum proposed by the Commanding General and the Final Report by the U.S. Department of War reflected the brewing suspicion against the Japanese, which finally escalated to the internment. In echoing the climate of American wartime mentality of the 1940s, a Hollywood film entitled Little Tokyo U.S.A. presented the Japanese in America as untrustworthy and disloyal. This film functioned as wartime propaganda. A close examination of the film and the two articles revealed that these three works collaborated to disseminate the images of the Japanese as “un-American” and calculative people with only one goal in mind – destroying the United States as a part of their pro-Japanese agenda. By highlighting the cultural incompatibilities between the Japanese and Americans, and the potentials for sabotaging the U.S., the filmmakers collaborated with the writers of the proposals for an expedited Japanese exclusion.

The discourse of Korean dramas in Taiwan, although not as abominable as the Japanese internment case, revealed that dramas have the ability to instill distorted representations of one’s culture. It emphasizes the point that dramas should not be relegated to mindless entertainment with no grave consequences. As a Korean Wave behemoth, Korean TV dramas not only provide entertainment, but they also represent Korean culture to foreigners. The association of the elements of the drama and Korean culture may be done inadvertently. However, that does not excuse these dramas as one of the key players in disseminating “Korean culture.” For instance, Kim argues that dramas such as The Widow (Mimang) made an impression on the Taiwanese minds that Korea was still an impoverished country under male dominance. The stigma on Korean culture perpetuated with the import of historical Korean dramas. Because the early wave of Korean dramas to Taiwan dealt with more conservative and male-centered themes, the Taiwanese developed a biased view of Korean society as a male-centered society with a constant political turmoil. In order to erode this stigma, dramas that depicted a drastically different Korean society needed to be introduced. Spark in 2000 did the trick. This drama elevated women as key players, and this shift in gender power play became an icon in representing contemporary Korean society. As Kim points out this “new image of gender has been interpreted as a sign that Korean society has transformed itself from a male-centric society to a new womencentric one” (P.192). Her argument solidifies the question of the role of TV dramas. These dramas do serve as a representation of “contemporary” Korean society whether or not it is true.

This comment might be a bit disconnected but after writing my post, I thought about the earlier newspaper article on the obsession of the Japanese women on Korean men. The images these women have of Korean men were all created vis-à-vis TV dramas. Do these dramas really have significant amount of influences that the makers should be consciously aware of the topics that they use to make them? Or can we just resort to the fact that the viewers are gullible and pay no attention to it?

The translatability of Korean dramas

I thought that "A Touch of Translation" by Samuel Weber was very applicable to Kim Hyun Mee's "Korean TV Dramas in Taiwan" and the idea of Korean dramas in general. Weber focused on how the goal of translation is meaning that transcends place, media, and language. But, something is always lost in translation because of the transformation in meaning that occurs because of movement and the shift in place. Because of this, some works are more "translatable" than others. Kim Hyun Mee talked about how Korean dramas became popular in Taiwan partly because they underwent a localization process. For example, the Korean background music in dramas was exchanged for Taiwanese pop songs and dialogue was dubbed and even intentionally changed. So, Korean dramas were not strictly translated on a very basic level. Still, they were able to become successful in Taiwan because they were translatable in Taiwanese contemporary culture on a deeper level. The Korean Wave that Korean dramas are a part of allows Asian audiences to participate in a culture that is an alternative to Western culture. Korean dramas are based on Confucian values that allow for "cultural proximity" (Kim 187). At the same time, while Korean dramas may not have been created to show "woman-centrism," that is how they have been translated to a Taiwanese audience, resonating with the daily experiences of Taiwanese people.

This idea of translatability also may account for the pockets of popularity that Korean dramas experience in the U.S. For the most part, it seems that Korean dramas are most popular in communities of Asian immigrants and their children. These dramas allow audiences perhaps to vicariously experience what they think life is like in Korea. At the same time, they are a more "wholesome" alternative to sex-filled, violent American media. In the following articles, it seems that this is part of the reason why even non-Asian Americans are feeling the Korean Wave.

"Korean Wave Washes over USA"
"Addicted to Love"
"South Korea Soap Operas Find Large Audiences"

Mo' Money, Mo' Problems

Hello Class. Sorry to add another dismal blog but I think it is important for the class to understand the dark-side of Korean show-biz. In class, we see the glamorous, polished side of Korean dramas and Korean music; however, I think it is also important for the naive Hallyu enthusiast to fully understand the whole story behind the Korean popular culture business in order to completely appreciate what these celebrities do and what they put up with. Anyways, so yea, in the recent past, two Korean celebrities committed suicide within three weeks of each other. Had the powers of Popular Korean culture affected these women to the point where they resorted to suicide-a comment element in the melodramatic Korean dramas? Don’t answer that. Well, another thing I wanted to mention was that according to my Korean FOB friends, a lot of celebrities are involved with the Korean mafia to pay off the litigation problems the celebrities face. Hence, I wonder how and what the Management agencies are going to do to really protect their clients better. Sorry for the sad post. Enjoy Goong!

Showbiz Suicides Alarm Management Agencies
ChosunIlbo
Feb. 13, 2007

Alarm bells are ringing in Korea’s entertainment business after the apparent suicides of pop singer U;Nee and actress Jeong Da-bin within three weeks of each other.

Agencies are clearly worried. While the stars ostensibly enjoy wealth and fame, they are also more at risk than ordinary people because their kudos can vanish in an instant. The fickle nature of the business brings its attendant anxieties, especially for women, experts say.

The actress Choi Jin-sil recalls the envy of other performers when she was a teen star. “You may think that the happiest moments come with the ‘golden time’ of celebrity,” she says. “But the mental stress is extreme as well.” She admits she suffered from great insecurity not knowing if her fame would last.

Then there is the threat of litigation. As a star’s popularity soars and their fees rise, lawsuits become commonplace, especially from management agencies. Jeong was being sued for pulling out of a contract with her former management agency in February 2005. Already in 2002, she was accused of failing to hand over part of her pay to the agency. She lost. Min Sung-kil, a psychiatrist from Severance Hospital said celebrities in many cases are more exposed to stress than ordinary people. “As a last resort, depressed celebrities may choose to kill themselves.”



From left: Jeong Da-bin, U;Nee and Lee Eun-ju

Management agencies are reassessing their role to protect the celebrities they represent. Namoo Actors, the agency of the actress Lee Eun-ju, who committed suicide in 2005, is taking more time with its star entertainers. Fantom Entertainment Group, which represents the actresses Han Hyo-joo and So Yu-jin and singer Ivy, is taking particular care with its female clients, including ample consultation time.

Meanwhile, the National Institute of Scientific Investigation (NISI) after a postmortem on Monday tentatively concluded the death of Jeong Da-bin was suicide. It said there was no evidence of foul play and Jeong’s body showed clear evidence of death by hanging. Jeong’s boyfriend, identified by his last name Lee, who discovered the body and called police, said the actress first tried to kill herself by cutting her wrist in Sept. 2006. Jeong’s family and her new agency had requested the postmortem, asserting that the scar on her wrist was the result of a suicide attempt in her teens, not last year, and saying she had no reason to kill herself.

Jeong’s funeral service was delayed by a day due to the postmortem and will now be held at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday at the Asan Medical Center.

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200702/200702130015.html

Monday's Hallyu Lecture

I am writing about Monday's presentation by Dr. Jungsup. I was rather let down, since the lecture was disorganized and filled with statistics that he admitted to making up. However, I will focus primarily on the content.

Some of the lecture’s main points were sound, although fairly obvious. For example, it suggested that Hallyu, defined primarily in terms of dissemination of cinema and music, could serve as a vessel for transmitting Korean culture and raising awareness of Korea to the rest of the world. This is certainly true, as I suspect the majority-Korean audience already knew. It is also likely true that the rising international prominence of Korean entertainment will generate an increased interest in Korean language.

That’s about all I agree with.

I think his assessment of the current Korean language situation in the United States is very wrong. He used strong language to condemn the state of Korean language instruction in the US, which forces me to question his familiarity with the subject. To use Penn as a case study, the burgeoning participation in Korean language recently led to the creation of a new, separate department, on par with the Japanese and Chinese language programs. The suggestion was that there is an ambiguous “something” fundamentally wrong with current teaching techniques, a claim which the speaker did not substantiate and which I contest from personal experience.

I disagree with the idea that instruction based on Hallyu materials should replace current methods of Korean language teaching. The very simple reason is that the use of movies and music to teach language requires a large requisite amount of prior knowledge of Korean. An audience member asked a very valid question about how analysis of song lyrics, for example, would be productive for students that are just learning grammar fundamentals. This question was not answered. I think teaching Korean based on content from entertainment materials is generally an unsound practice. For example, extensive analysis of Daejanggum would teach me how to argue like a 16th century Chosǒn woman, but might leave me unable to ask a simple question like “Does the #53 bus stop here?”

Movies and music also typically commonly use colloquialisms or otherwise compromise grammatical integrity for the sake of rhyming and whatnot. As such, they should be viewed dubiously as mediums of language education, not openly embraced. There is also the issue of the tendency for some (not all) mainstream Korean pop artists to lapse into English for a chorus, whole verse, or even an entire song. I wonder how many people will actually start the arduous, lifelong road to learning Korean on the basis of appreciation of music, especially when considering that many popular hits are “bilingual.”

I do think that the Hallyu phenomenon can generate increased awareness and interest of Korean language and culture. However, these materials should be used only sparingly in Korean language education for all the reason I mentioned. In other words, music and movies should be an occasional complement to traditional methods, rather than a substitute as Dr. Jungsup suggested.

Korean manhwa and animation: Goong and Full House

For this post I will talk about the manhwa (Korean comic book) and live-action dramas based on them. For general information about the manhwa art form read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhwa. I feel that they are really similar to Japanese manga (comic book) but the art style (at least the ones I read) are quite different...

As many of you probably know, the drama Goong is based on a manhwa (Korean comic book). What may be new to you though is the fact that there is another very popular Korean drama - Full House based on a Korean manhwa.

Full House is based on a premise that a girl's house is bought by a movie star without her knowledge and because the house was built by the girl's father she refuses to move out so she works for the movie star as a housekeeper and they live together and fall in love. The manhwa is by Sooyeon Won and I read it in Chinese (Lang4 Man4 Man3 Wu1) 2-3 years ago.

The drama is based on the manhwa with some changes... It stars Rain and Song Hye Kyo (who I think is one of the prettiest Korean actresses out there) and first ran in 2004 (though I watched it in Chinese in summer 2005). It was, I believe, the most popular drama of that year and in my opinion, is a classic for the Korean romantic comedy genre.

More interesting though are the changes they made when they adapted the manhwa into drama. The manhwa took place in England and Rain's character and his rival are both supposed to be British... In addition, there wasn't really a rival for Song's character (Kang Hye Won didn't exist in the manga)...as far as I remember. Therefore, it was interesting to see that the drama localized (made Koream) the manhwa (took out all the European references) and formulated the drama so it followed the 2 main girls and 2 main guys classic formula that I mentioned in my last post. Finally, there was no trip to China in the beginning and Song's 2 friends who betrayed her aren't in the manga either. Overall, however, I still feel that this was a good drama even with the changes.

The main point of this entry is to comment on the phenomenon of making comics into dramas which seems to be going on throughout Asia. As many of you probably know, Japan has been doing this for a while with its own comics (manga). GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) is a classic example of this. So is Gokusen, Kimi wa petto, Nodame Cantabile, etc (and it has been doing a very good job as these dramas are amoung some of my favorites). In addition, Taiwan, does this extremely often too, though using Japanese comics (as it really doesn't have its own comic industry...but if anybody is curious there is a decent, in my opinion, Taiwanese comic series called Youth Gone Wild) in the examples of Meteor Garden, It started with a kiss, Tokyo Juliet, and HanaKimi (which xiaokang mentioned last week). Even China makes dramas out of comics too if you think of Pink Ladies (涩女郎) which is based on a comic by a Taiwanese artist 朱德庸 (Zhu1 De2 Yong1).

So the question remains is why are so many dramas being made out of comics? Are these countries trying to promote their own comic book industries? If so why are Taiwan and China jumping on the bandwagon since they don't really have comic book industries? Finally, does anybody have an opinion on the future viability of Korean manhwa. Do you think if will be as popular as the Japanese manga and be able to as Korean dramas are these days, replace the Japanese medium/version of it?

PS. if anybody wants to read some Korean manhwa in english you can look at http://koreanmovies.free.fr/, to download some free, UNLICENSED (thus hopefully NOT illegal), korean scanslations though you might have to use IRC.

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cartoon to drama

Kim Hyunmee’s “Korean Dramas in Taiwan” really reminded me of something else I'm watching on youtube. It's actually a new Taiwanese drama called Hua Yang Shao Nian Shao Nu (花樣少年少女) which is based on a Japanese Manga: HanaKimi about a girl from the United States who saw a high-jumper on television and goes overseas to be able to be closer to him. Unfortunately the school this high jumper is in is an all boys school and drama ensues when this girl have to pretend to be a guy. The main characters are Taiwanese music stars (Ella from S.H.E. and Wu Zun and Jiro Wang from Taiwanese boy band, Fahrenheit) Personally I think this is an amazing show and highly recommend to those who enjoys kdrama since it seems to follow the formula. However, back to Hyunmee's article, it was very impressive on page 186 that South Korea earned US$12,356,000 worth of broadcast programs by exporting to other Asia countries. Although it's not suprising that 20.1% of this sum is to Taiwan because Taiwan has been more open minded to new pop culture and the people there seem to be very modern minded and very much like the South Koreans today but I'm also happy to see that Taiwanese companies are working with other Asian countries to collaborate on projects like Hana Kimi.