Despite ban in China, popularity of K-pop remains robust
SEOUL: Despite an on- going Chinese ban on entertainers from South Korea, K-pop acts remain in demand.
G-Dragon of boy band Big Bang sold 762,000 copies of his latest solo album Kwon Ji Yong in June on release day alone, while groups EXO and EXID are also among the top-tier artistes on major music streaming charts.
Industry experts say that in order to better appease China in general, creators must prioritise the quality of their content.
“Most of the time, China tends to be engaged with the US and Japan in geopolitical issues. But it’s not as if, for example, American and Japanese animation movies perform poorly because of pending issues,” said Kim Ki-heon, head of Korea Creative Content Agency’s Beijing office.
Others say that Korea should also focus on exporting its skills and technology in culture, alongside selling packaged cultural products to China.
“Rather than stressing that this or that is a ‘ Korean’ movie, more companies should try to apply their ideas and technology within the Chinese market and try to increase their clout in China,” said Kim Pil-jeong, head of the Korean Film Council’s Beijing office.
Back in 1992, South Korea’s entertainment industry was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the diplomatic normalisation with China. Its pop songs, dramas and movies flooded into the once banned communist country, which has become the springboard for “hallyu,” or the growing popularity of South Korean popular culture.
China had its first taste of Korean pop culture in 1993, when the South Korean drama Jealousy was bought and aired by China’s state-run CCTV. Since then, over 100 Korean TV series were broadcast in China, mostly to positive reaction.
Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, hit its stride in China through TV shows during the early-tomid 2000s with hit series such as Autumn Tale ( 2000) and Daejanggeum ( 2005). But the presence of Korean television shows later waned in China after Beijing imposed a cap on foreign TV dramas aired in the country.
It wasn’t until The Heirs, starring Lee Min-ho and Park Shin-hye, was made available via the online streaming platform iQiyi in 2013, that hallyu entered a renaissance phase. Lee became one of the most sought- out celebrities, appearing on “New Year’s Gala,” one of China’s premier television events on CCTV.
Demand for Korean TV shows soared with the airing of My Love from the Star, a time-travel alien fantasy series starring Kim Soo-hyun and Jun Ji-hyun, and later skyrocketed with last year’s Descendants of the Sun, featuring Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo.
“In my view, Korea has relatively more appealing and talented actors. Also the Korean production industry’s tight screenplays and films seem to have attracted demand from Chinese viewers,” said a South Korean producer who is currently working for a Chinese satellite TV network.