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Asia rides wave of Korean pop culture invasion

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Asia rides wave of Korean pop culture invasion

YANGJOO, South Korea – A farm, even a fake one, is cold this time of year, so the Japanese retiree had some trouble wriggling his many layers into the king’s costume. His wife, in a matching get-up, primped excitedly for the photos.

Like many Japanese and Chinese visitors, Takahara Uetani and his wife, Kaiko, traveled to this television theme park on the edge of Seoul for the chance to don royal Korean robes, wander the set of their favorite soap opera and savor a culture that suddenly enchanted them.

“We like this show much more than the Japanese dramas,” said Takahara Uetani, looking every bit the 16th Century Korean king, save for his bifocals.

In a surprising sidelight to Asia’s evolution, the hottest thing in Asian pop culture these days is Korea. Even as China grows in stature, the cult success of South Korea’s television shows, movies, online games and pop music abroad is generating billions of dollars in annual trade and is drawing an unfamiliar spotlight on a culture colonized or overshadowed for centuries by its brawnier neighbors.

The Korean Wave, as it is known, is popular among some unlikely audiences. A crowd of Japan’s reliably understated middle-aged women caused a near-riot in excitement last year when a Korean leading man set foot in Tokyo.

Chinese brides are choosing traditional Korean robes for their wedding photos. And even the president of China, known for his formality, reportedly gushed to a South Korean dignitary that he was chagrined to have missed some soap opera episodes.

More: chicagotribune.com

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