Or, the “Korean Wave” washes upon American shores. Anyway, AP has a story about the growing popularity of Korean TV dramas in the United States. Here’s some of it:
When “Chang Nok Soo” aired in 1995, it was the year’s top-ranked dramatic show in South Korea. But even with English subtitles, the chronicle of medieval court intrigue in Korea was hardly noticed in the United States.
Paulus, now 31 and the financial officer of Chicago’s Uptown Baptist Church, was among the few. (He said he began watching “Chang Nok Soo” because he was curious about the culture of Korean-born friends he met in a campus Christian group.)
Now he’s part of a small but growing U.S. fan base for South Korean serial TV dramas, which are so popular in their native country that the military recently sent several series to Iraq to preserve the morale of Korean troops stationed there.
Korean dramas also reach hundreds of millions of daily viewers in China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia. The Seoul government estimates that 200,000 Asian tourists visited South Korea last year to see the studios and locations where the shows were shot.
U.S. audiences for Korean television drama are small, but vocal and devoted. Stations in Chicago; Philadelphia; Honolulu; Los Angeles; Seattle; Washington and New York offer several shows daily. Those areas have sizable Korean-American populations, but Korean-Americans are not the sole audience.
That surprised Kwang Dong Jo, vice president of Chicago’s WOCH-TV, which specializes in Korean programming.
“We knew that most viewers of the dramas were first-generation Korean-Americans, but we worried about the second generation, who were losing the language,” said Jo. “We started subtitling to reach those younger people, and we asked viewers a year ago for feedback to see if they liked the subtitles.
“We got nearly 500 e-mails from English-speaking Americans,” Jo said. “We never expected non-Koreans to write, and it was a shock to us. I know these dramas are becoming popular even in Latin America — but in the U.S? We are still surprised.”
It horrifies me to imagine that Lee Yeong-ae, star of Daejang’geum, is torturing audiences in my native land as well. Anyway, read the rest on your own — for English-speaking fans of Korean dramas, there are two good links at the bottom of the piece (although the afore mentioned Mr Paulus should seriously rethink his site’s background image).
4 Comments
Yes, my Korean wife and I watch a bunch of great shows on the “Korean Channel,” KBFD Channel 4, here in Honolulu, Hawaii. A lot of the islanders of Asian ancestry watch too, but I was surprised at the number of my Haole friends that watch them.
I just don’t understand the interest. Yes, my wife watches many of the ‘mini-series’ that Korea spews out. I find them completely unwatchable.
I live in Chicago and I’m a big fan of Korean historical dramas. Have been for a couple of years. Can’t get enough of them. Good production values. The acting is totally over the top. How can you not love this stuff? I’m hooked. My friends think I’m nuts when I try to explain these shows to them. I am, but that’s beside the point. I also enjoy reading your blog. Go figure. Keep up the good work.
Over the top acting? More like maniacal hysteria. These guys make Al Pacino seem understated. I love it though, along with the amusing subtitles. Funny bit about Lee Yeong-ae, but turnabout is fair play. After all the Big-Noses tortured Koreans with Jason Priestly and David Hasselhoff for years.
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- Thanks to the Marmot for drawing my attention to Korean Historical Dramas. My television watching is limited to .html”>????????짚??쨈 ?흹???쨔 and the occasional episode of Law and Order, so the historical dramas will just have to wait.