Field Trip to Korea 2014
7-12 July 2014
"After she finishes her degree, she will further her education in Korea, and she also has a Korean boyfriend right now," he said. "Many young people are just crazy like this. Younger generations want everything Korean." Yvain Lu, a graduate student in Shanghai, wears a purple jacket from a Korean clothing brand called Thursday Island. Her favorite K-pop band is called 2AM. Secret Garden, a drama about a man and a woman who go into the mountains and mysteriously change bodies with each other, and We Got Married, a reality show, are her favorite Korean TV programs. Song Hye Kyo is her favorite Korean actress. Yet there is one problem with Lu's infatuation with Korean culture: Patronizing Korean culture is perceived as unpatriotic by some in China -- so much so that female fans of K-pop boy bands say they have to form password-protected online groups to fend off accusations that their fetish with cute Korean singers is antiChinese. The backlash means Lu has to hide her infatuation. "I am not proud to tell people I love Korean things," she said. "It's complicated, actually. Just like Japan, Korea is not very friendly with us [China]. Many people think Korean series are silly."
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Source B2 (extract) Korean Pop Culture’s Considerable Influence on Chinese Shoppers June 2 2014 | in Media & Entertainment Trends | by red luxury w http://red-luxury.com/trends/korean-pop-culture-considerable-influence-on-chinese-shoppers-22819
Korean pop culture has taken China by storm, and it’s having a big influence on Chinese shoppers. The phenomenon, known as Hallyu, includes Korean pop artists and television shows, and retailers are starting to take notice. The Korean drama My Love From the Star has led to a shopping craze for products featured on the show as well as goods endorsed by the show’s stars. When Song-yi, a main character on the show played by Gianna Jun, celebrates the first snowfall with the traditional chimaek, a meal of fried chicken and beer, Chinese imports of Korean beer hit $1.04 million in March, a 201% increase compared to the year before. In fact, Breweries in Korea are now “aggressively targeting the Chinese market,” and Chinese beer drinkers now have a number of Korean beers to choose from, including a variety of beers from Hite Jinro and OB Beer. Samsung Mobile in China has already inked the show’s two stars to a $2.5 million endorsement deal and Kim caused a near riot as fans squeezed in to see him at his appearance at the Beijing Auto Show. According to Want China Times, Kim has earned at least 110 million yuan (US$17.6 million) from his appearances in Chinese commercials, and he earned an additional US$480,000 for a single appearance on a quiz show on Jiangsu Satellite TV. Kim Soo-hyun and Gianna Jun aren’t the only Korean stars finding fame in China. According to Inside Korea, Lee Min-ho, the star of the Korean drama The Heirs, recently beat out Kim Soo-hyun for the title of most popular Korean actor in a March survey by Kugou.com in which he won 510,764 votes out of 1.35 million cast in total. The popularity of Korean soap operas in China has led to crossovers in other popular Chinese shows. According to KpopStarz, Korean pop stars Fei of MissA and Nichkhun and Chansung of 2PM will appear on the Chinese dating show If You Love. China Daily has a reasonable explanation for the increasing popularity of Korean shows in China: “Chinese TV screens are flooded by knock-off and/or poorly made soap operas. Most of the Chinese TV dramas either distort the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, which is a distortion of history, or blindly copy foreign programs. The lack of good stories has of late resulted in loads of TV series on time travel or fights in the harems of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) emperors. These, in short, are the bane of Chinese TV productions.”
City of Seoul
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