On “The Rising East Asian Wave: Korean Media Go Global” by Youna Kim

A straightforward read, I felt that this article would have been great at the beginning of the semester. It gave an overview of what this entire class is about! Starting from the explanation to how the Korean wave started, to even breaking down each section to surrounding countries and how they have been affected by Korean media and music, it was a nice way to sum up our class.

I was especially interested in Korean popular culture influences in Japan, since we’ve read articles and comics about Japanese detestation of Korean characters in pop culture works. Perhaps the article only chose to recognize a major Korean drama leaking into Japan and being a hit because Winter Sonata became well-liked in the surrounding countries in general. However, Kim writes, “This explosive popularity of the Korean drama has baffled the Japanese media, entertainment commentators and social analysts” (141) which shows that Winter Sonata in particular had this kind of effect on Japan in a way that probably would not have happened with other Korean media.

What was really fascinating was what happened after the explosion of popularity of this drama. It said in the article that Japanese women became attracted to Korean men and “Some Japanese women have even registered with matchmaking agencies to get a Korean husband…” (141). I actually remember coming across an article regarding the growing interest of Japanese women in finding Korean husbands. (check out http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083002985_2.html).

Towards the end of the section, Kim writes that awareness and interest of Korean media has led to the interest of the culture as well, and has even led to the self-reflection of the Japanese. While this seems like a positive way to look at Korean-Japanese relations, is this really the overall indication of Japan as a whole?