K-Drama, Julia Hoang

K-Drama

Julia Hoang

Korean dramas (K-dramas) are an increasingly chosen form of entertainment in adolescents, notably East Asian American adolescents. K-dramas grew globally in popularity following the Korean Wave, coined in 1990s to represent the worldwide spread of South Korean culture. Despite that each K-drama has no more than 24 episodes, with each episode being approximately an hour long, the range of stories that K-dramas portray tap into many cultural and societal themes to which many viewers can connect and relate in their own lives. Today, through streaming sites such as Netflix and Disney+, K-dramas can be easily accessed from across the world. Korean dramas have become increasingly more popular in the West, with KDramas such as Squid Game and Crash Landing on You recently becoming hit series on Netflix. K-dramas can help us understand the experiences of young people as K-dramas have developed in appealing to an adolescent and young adult audience and East Asian adolescents also lean towards watching K-dramas for representation. Appealing more to an adolescent and young adult audience, K-dramas now reflect cultural and societal issues within Korea and across the globe. For example, SKY Castle depicts the struggles of a student and family life, expectations in academics, and mental health and depression. The complexity of issues and themes that are reflected in K-dramas allow for the youth audience to connect with and better understand themselves through these stories. Additionally, East Asian adolescents, in in search of accurate representation, lean towards K-dramas as opposed to Western depictions of East Asians. In the Western film industry, East Asian actors are still often seen playing stereotypical roles or are underrepresented. Even though there has been more inclusion of East Asians in Western media in the more recent years, there is still quite a lack of accurate representation of East Asians. There is still a dissonance between how East Asians are portrayed in media as opposed to real

life. As a result, East Asian adolescents seek representation elsewhere and watch Korean dramas to see East Asians in a multiplicity of roles; seeing East Asians in the role of a journalist (Twenty-Five, Twenty-One), a depressed teen (Seasons of Blossom), or a weightlifter (Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo) — to name a few — show adolescents of this minority group that people who look like them can be more than just a stereotype. Furthermore, secondgeneration Asian immigrant adolescents look towards K-dramas to better understand the culture of which they take part. K-dramas show adolescents people who look just like them, but also the stories within K-dramas reflect Eastern cultural norms that can serve as a bridge between a second-generation Asian immigrant’s identity and allow them to embrace this aspect of themselves. K-dramas nowadays cater to the youth audience in reflecting the struggles that adolescents can relate with and learn more about themselves. The research of K-dramas and its

relation to East Asian adolescents is also worth further study on the minds of youth and their health and well-being as this concept is an increasing topic amongst Asian youth in understanding their cultural identity and finding representation.

Academic Sources:

To learn more, please see this link on the definition of K-Dramas and its growth and read this journal article about how newer Korean dramas represent social issues and promote discussion in Korean society.

Muñoz, A. (2022, August 23). The Rise of K-dramas: How K-dramas Took The World By Storm:

'Squid Game', 'Crash Landing on You' & More. Hollywood Insider - News Entertainment & Culture. Retrieved November 5, 2022, from https://www.hollywoodinsider.com/k-dramas-rise/

Baldacchino, J. P., & Park, E. J. (2020). Between Fantasy and Realism: Gender, Identification and Desire among Korean Viewers of Second-Wave Korean Dramas. European Journal

of East Asian Studies, 20 (2), 285-309.

Non-Academic Source:

Also, this forum post on Reddit helps explain more on how Asian Americans in general lean towards K-dramas to find representation, overcome internal bias and understand more about their cultural identity.

[deleted]. (2020). Representation heals: How watching K-dramas lifted the weight of white

supremacy and freed my tongue [Online forum post]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/KDRAMA/comments/mbii2k/representation_heals_how_watc hing_kdramas_lifted/