The Korean wave – helmed by costume soap Jewel in the Palace – is seeing a backlash in China.
CHINESE President Hu Jintao loves it. Chinese TV star Zhang Guoli loathes it.
Among Hong Kong film stars, Chow Yun-Fat and Andy Lau are its fans. But not Jackie Chan, who has reportedly refused to watch it.
That would be the hugely popular Korean costume soap Jewel in the Palace, which stars Lee Young Ae as a palace maid who makes good as a royal physician.
Thanks to its success, the Korean wave has hit Hong Kong, and now the mainland, on an unprecedented scale.
In Hong Kong, there has been a thirst for all things Korean – from its cuisine to tours to South Korea – since the show aired on TV from January to May.
Lee Young Ae and Im Ho in Jewel in the Palace, a hit series that has brought both enjoyment and resentment in China.
In China, where the serial has been topping the TV ratings chart since last month, China Youth Daily has declared that “all Chinese people” love it.
Inevitably, perhaps, a backlash has begun.
Zhang, one of China’s top TV actors, has made headlines in his homeland and South Korea for branding the boom of Korean pop culture a “cultural invasion”.
He sat through an episode of Jewel, he said in an interview last month, and “after I watched it, I wasn’t moved at all, I just felt full of anger”.
He claimed that it said acupuncture was invented by Koreans. He was quoted in a report on China’s sohu.com as saying: “How can it be? It should be that acupuncture was invented by Chinese, no?”
He also chastised the Chinese media for being overly critical of mainland shows and too kind to Korean serials like Jewel.
“If it was a Chinese drama and the pace of its plot was this slow, it would have been thrown to the dogs,” he said.
Likewise, Chan has found fault with the Hong Kong press.
Speaking in Singapore last month, the kungfu star said Hong Kong newspapers would devote four pages to a visiting Korean starlet but “give very little coverage to our own people”.
“When a Hong Kong star goes to South Korea, it’s the opposite. The Korean media will still support their stars,” he said.
He was careful to add, however, that he is not xenophobic.
Still, Zhang and Chan’s comments are causes for concern in South Korea.
Korean lawmaker Chung Eui Yong said that, while there was nothing wrong with Koreans being proud of the Korean wave, they should not assume that Korean shows dominated China.
He called for South Korea to take a more modest attitude in its relations with China, reported Korean newspaper Chosun Daily.
Rising star power
South Korea has not always been known for its cultural exports.
Ten years ago, most Asians associated it with Hyundai cars and home appliances like Samsung washing machines. But these days, they will more likely think of household names like actor Bae Yong Joon.
It was in 2000 that Korean serials like Autumn in My Heart started to gain an enormous following in Asia.
Then came the 2002 show, Winter Sonata, that saw its star Bae conquering hearts even in Japan, where Koreans have long faced discrimination.
The Korean government plays a key role in the phenomenon. For example, it has set up tourist-friendly, multilingual websites like Hello! Hallyu, which lists the filming locations of popular Korean dramas and movies (www.hellohallyu.com).
Such efforts to promote its soft power have been questioned by some parties, however.
Shanghai news magazine, Xinmin Weekly, for instance, has warned of a potential cultural clash between South Korea and China.
It said recently: “South Korea’s government does not see the Korean wave just as a way of spreading its culture, but also wants it to represent Asian culture.”
If that is the case, the Koreans are winning fans for now with their creativity and publicity know-how.
Some players in the Chinese TV industry have wondered why Emperor of the Han Dynasty, a large-scale Chinese period production, lags behind Jewel in TV ratings.
Some Chinese viewers say the reason is simple: The Korean show is better-scripted, reports Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao.
They argue that while Emperor is stodgy and celebrates only people in power, Jewel tells its tale from the palace maid’s perspective.
The Korean serial, in short, “resonates with modern viewers”, wrote Lianhe Zaobao columnist Chong Wing Hong last month.
In the long term, the challenge for the Koreans and the Chinese is perhaps to outplay and outlast Hollywood in its pop-culture game.
As Korean culture expert Seo Jeong Shin says: “It’s called the Korean wave. And the wave flows away.”
Source: The Star 23rd October 2005
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