Dae Jang Geum

A Korean TV mega-hit has shed light on the weaknesses of Thai programming

No series in recent memory has been as popular as the South Korean drama Dae Jang Guem or Jewel in the Palace which just ended on Channel 3. A lot of people knew without question where they would be on Saturday and Sunday nights – in front of a TV watching Dae Jang Guem. The series, about the first female doctor in a Korean palace in ancient times, has been the talk of the town, and although the series recently ended, its impact is relevant to some industries and has even triggered criticism of Thai dramas.

Dae Jang Guem was the first Korean series to air on Channel 3 even though many Korean series have been broadcast on other channels since a K-pop phenomenon hit the kingdom. The show, which also enjoyed high ratings in South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan, is considered one of the biggest successes for Channel 3, generating a huge amount of income since October last year. Commercial air time during the series, which aired for two hours every Saturday and Sunday night cost 290,000 baht a minute as Channel 3 earned 3.5 million baht an hour.

“We didn’t expect that the series would be this popular. Before it was aired, some sponsors even turned it down. But today, they are queued up for commercial air time,” says Surin Krittayapongphan, vice president of marketing and sales of Bangkok Entertainment.

Such income, however, doesn’t include the VCD sales which come in three disc sets and cost 1,300 baht a part and are selling like hot cakes. As a result, Channel 3 decided to rerun the series every weekday night during school holidays.

Tourism is another industry that has benefitted from the mega-hit Dae Jang Guem. More and more people are visiting South Korea just because they want to go the studio. Almost all travel brochures from tour companies offer to take you “to Yangjoo City, Gyunggi Province to Dae Jang Guem Theme Park. You can visit locations such as her kitchen, all the kitchen utensils and other rooms in the palace in Dae Jang Guem.”

“It is so popular that the clients will cancel their trip if there is no Dae Jang Guem Theme Park included in the tour,” says Bandid Apijitti, managing director of Discovery Korea.

According to the production company Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), the theme park covers 6,600 square meters and the outdoor studio was set up exactly the way it was when the drama was produced, drawing many foreign visitors who want a direct experience with the series. The MBC website also describes palace food and has recipes of dishes in the series.

“The good thing about this series is that the producers have researched history and psychology in order to make it fun for the audiences while also making them learn something. It is not a cheesy soap opera like many Thai dramas. It gives useful information to the audience about medicine, food, or useful health tips, which implies that the producers did a lot of homework,” says Bandid.

The popularity of the series doesn’t stop there though. Dae Jang Guem comes in four pocket books and had sold nearly 400,000 copies, according to Seksan Sukwattano, manager of Siam Inter Multimedia. It has been the top two best sellers at several leading bookstores such as B2S, SE-ED and Nai In since the books were launched three months ago. Seksan believes that there won’t be enough books to meet demand during the book fair later this month.

The program’s popularity has proved that Thai audiences do not always gravitate to cheesy dramas. The impact of Dae Jang Guem has already triggered criticism of Thai dramas which are full of jealous characters, trite romances and corny scenes such as a jealous woman slapping the lead actress across the face while trying to steal the hero’s heart.

“It is difficult to improve Thai drama. It’s been cheesy and boring like this for a hundred years. Dae Jang Guem proved that a good and realistic romance could also be successful among Thai people. But Thai producers do not realize and keep producing the cheesy ones to please the audience,” says Wirat To-areemitr, a well-known columnist.

Drama lecturer and screenplay writer, Thanawadee Satityuttakarn from Chulalongkorn University’s arts faculty uses the show as a case study for her class.

She said one successful factor is that the series is full of twists or unexpected situations, unlike Thai dramas which have the same plots and guessable endings. Also, the screenplay writing process is normally subject to interference from the broadcasting channels.

“We found that television executives keep ordering producers to advance the plot,” says Thanawadee. “They require the story to move in two days as they are afraid that the audience will not continue to watch if the story doesn’t progress fast. But like in Dae Jang Guem, you can see that sometimes the story doesn’t really progress for one week, but it is still fun because every scene contains unexpected situations.”

Assistant professor Surin Ronakiet of the psychology department at Thammasat University said successful dramas are usually those which show people’s intellectual and emotional needs. They should have a mix of different elements such as culture and sociology.

“Thai series are not creative, but they allow the audience to release stresses and forget problems in daily life. But good drama should benefit the audience’s brain and improve their thoughts. It would be great if the producers understand the psychology of human nature,” Surin says. “Creativity in drama is very beneficial and could change society. But it depends on the producers – whether they discover this or are able to bring it out to the audience.”

Source: IHT ThaiDay 24 Mar 2006

Events trying to capitalize on the fever in China surrounding a Korean TV drama series are being organized by two Korean public corporations in a bid to promote Korean cuisine and tourism among Chinese tourists.

The Korea National Tourism Organization (KNTO) said on Friday (Sept. 30) that it will hold a string of sessions first in Shanghai to promote Daejanggeum among the Chinese press and travel agencies next month after China’s national holiday ends. After Shanghai, the session will move to Beijing and other major Chinese cities.

Daejanggeum is a historical TV drama set in the 16th century royal court of the Joseon dynasty. It has a storyline similar to other famous historical TV soap operas: the main character, Janggeum (starring actress Lee Young-ae) overcomes all difficulties facing her and works her way to success.

In the explanatory sessions, Gyeon Mi-ri, who plays the arrogant and ambitious Lady Choi, and other performers will show up to promote Daejanggeum, which has been aired on Chinese TV channels beginning in September.

A spokesman for the KNTO said it had been organizing a Daejanggeum travel package in partnership with the Shanghai Airlines and a Chinese travel agency since June in hopes that the Daejanggeum fever will be translated into a fever of Korea visit in light of a growing increase in the number of Chinese touring Korea after the drama began to be shown.

The Korea Agro-Trade Corporation, for its part, is planning to hold an autograph-signing meeting by Yang Mi-gyeong, one of main performers of the drama series, soon on the occasion of the World Food Fair to be held in Shanghai. The event was intended to provoke a fever of Korean food in China, where, unlike elsewhere in Asia, Yang is more popular than the title-holder Lee Young-ae.

The Shanghai media gave a prominent coverage to Yang with a headline “A meeting with Lady Han,” when she stopped in Shanghai early this week following her visit to Changsha, Hunan Province, to mark the beaming of her work there.

Saying that a cuisine market is where the fever of Daejanggeum can matter most, an official with the agro-trade corporation in Shanghai expressed the hope that the drama’s success could explore the possibility of Korean food making inroads into the Chinese market.

Source: Korea.net 1 Oct 2005

South Korean movies and television series have been popular in China for almost a decade. What is the secret behind this and other shows that have Chinese fans scrambling for the nation’s food and fashion?

“Han liu” a transliteration of “cold front” is the Chinese acronym for “Korean trends,” referring to the appeal of pop culture from South Korea. It’s recently reached a new peak with the airing of “Dae Jang Geum.”

Also called “The Great Jang Geum” or “Jewel in the Palace,” “Dae Jang Geum” is a 2003 television soap opera produced by South Korean TV channel MBC. It has been sweeping across much of the Chinese-speaking world Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Chinese communities in San Francisco, Chicago as well as in Malaysia.

In the San Francisco Bay Area alone, more than 100,000 people watched the series, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The figure exceeds that of ABC’s “Extreme Makeover,” the WB’s “Starlet” or PBS’ “Live from Lincoln Centre,” which are shown in a similar time slot, according to the daily.

Now the show has come to the Chinese mainland.

Hunan Satellite Television paid 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) to buy the mainland distribution rights. It purportedly has already doubled its investment by simply reselling the rights to other regional stations. This does not include revenues from commercials. Its claim to first airing in the mainland market, however, was sabotaged by China Entertainment Television Broadcast Limited, a Tom Group company. The satellite television channel started airing the show on August 15, half a month before its debut on Hunan Satellite TV.

The show is about Jang Geum, a royal physician in the early days of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). Many assert that the character is based on the real life of the first female royal physician in Korean history. Others argue she is more likely a composite of several historical characters.

Audiences, however, hardly care for the details. They have been swept off the ground by the exquisite beauty of Lee Young-Ae, the actress who plays the title role, and more importantly, by the delicate craft of Korean cuisine and medicine.

Secret formula

Why are so many people glued to a glacially paced Korean show about a person who lived hundreds of years ago?

The formula is not a secret and opinions do not diverge. Both experts and viewers agree, “Dae Jang Geum” grabs, tickles and warms us because it seems exotic. Yet it has such a familiar ring to it that makes viewers comfortable.

The Chinese culture and the Korean culture overlap in many ways. So Chinese audiences can easily identify with the characters and their behaviours, said Jiao Yan, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “We see a purer form of Confucianism and are refreshed by it because we feel a sense of belonging.”

Wang Li, a Beijing publisher who is on the South Korean bandwagon and has the Chinese rights to several South Korean best-sellers, concurs: “The Confucius tradition reflected in these Korean dramas and books are like dj vu to us because we cannot find it in our own writers and artists. Besides, a whole family of several generations can enjoy a show together as it is devoid of sex and violence.”

Melodrama is a staple to soap opera fans everywhere and this show is no exception. Jang Geum goes through some tough times, such as palace politics, misunderstandings and persecution, but she endures.

On top of everything, in the show, the preparation of Korean food is shown as meticulously presented as in a cooking programme. It is so instructive that it has become something like a Martha Stewart episode on how to eat well and eat healthy.

Increasing influence

The first South Korean drama arrived in the Chinese mainland in 1993, but it hardly made any ripples. In 1997, when CCTV aired another series, literally translated as “What Is Love?,” it garnered 4.2 per cent in ratings, much higher than an average show.

That year was considered the official beginning of “han liu.” Since then, China has been inundated non-stop by popular dramas from South Korea.

The trend reached a crescendo in 2002. When CCTV aired shows like “Lady Mermaid” in the night-owl slot of 11 pm. They were consistently rewarded with ratings as high as 10 per cent. That year, a total of 67 South Korean television shows debuted on screens nationwide.

It was also during 2002 when “My Sassy Girl (Yeopgijeogin geunyeo),” a Korean film portraying a gorgeous but somewhat sadistic girl, stole the hearts of millions across China. The film reaped tens of millions of yuan at the box office. The feat was achieved despite bootleg DVD that had flooded the market.

In 2004, import of South Korean television drama series reached another apex with 104 shows, and 13 Korean films participated in the Shanghai International Film Festival.

Spill-over effect

Chinese audiences swooning over Korean pop culture has created an industry bigger than box office receipts and high television ratings.

It is said that, Bae Jong-joon, the bespectacled star of many popular South Korean movies and TV shows, helped an export boom in 2004 that experts pegged at US$2.3 billion.

Its pop culture has added an aura to anything Korean. This applies not only to cultural or lifestyle products such as books, recordings, food and clothes, but also to home electronics and high-tech.

The penchant of South Korean actresses and actors, too to have a facelift has had a palpable effect on the cosmetic surgery business in China. As people marvel at the “before” and “after” photos of Korean beauties, the stigma about surgically changing one’s appearance is quickly dissipating.

Others have expressed that the “cultural mecca” of China’s Y Generation is now Seoul. It has replaced Europe and the United States as a place of inspiration.

South Korea is currently China’s fifth largest trading partner. In 2004, bilateral trade reached US$90 billion, from a mere US$5 billion 13 years earlier. It has an accumulative 32,275 investment projects in China, totaling US$25.9 billion while China’s investment in South Korea is US$900 million with only 91 projects.

Source: China Daily 30 Sep 2005