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全文如下
Roll Over, Godzilla: Korea Rules
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
Published: June 28, 2005
TAIPEI, Taiwan - Here in one of the first corners of Asia hit by the "Korean
Wave" of cultural exports, a television series about a royal cook, "A Jewel
in the Palace," proved so popular that it is now used to advertise South
Korea on the Taipei subway. A huge hit in Mongolia, the drama also fueled a
boom in tourists from Hong Kong visiting South Korea.
A weepy love story, "Winter Sonata," became the rage in Uzbekistan after
driving the Japanese into a frenzy last year. In Thailand and Malaysia,
people devoured "A Tale of Autumn," and Vietnamese were glued to "Lovers in
Paris." In China, South Korean dramas are sold, and pirated, everywhere, and
the young adopt the clothing and hairstyles made cool by South Korean stars.
South Korea, historically more worried about fending off cultural domination
by China and Japan than spreading its own culture abroad, is emerging as the
pop culture leader of Asia. From well-packaged television dramas to slick
movies, from pop music to online games, South Korean companies and stars are
increasingly defining what the disparate people in East Asia watch, listen to
and play.
The size of South Korea's entertainment industry, which began attracting
heavy government investment only in the late 1990's, jumped from $8.5 billion
in 1999 to $43.5 billion in 2003. In 2003, South Korea exported $650 million
in cultural products; the amount was so insignificant before 1998 that the
government could not provide figures.
But the figures tell only part of the story. The booming South Korean
presence on television and in the movies has spurred Asians to buy up South
Korean goods and to travel to South Korea, traditionally not a popular
tourist destination. The images that Asians traditionally have associated
with the country - violent student marches, the demilitarized zone, division
- have given way to trendy entertainers and cutting-edge technology.
Candy Hsieh, 22, who was browsing through shelves of South Korean dramas at a
video store here, said her parents became fans and visited South Korea last
year.
"I used to think that Korea was a feudalistic, male-centered society," Ms.
Hsieh said. "Now I don't have the same image as I had before. It seems like
an open society, democratic."
South Korea's entertainment industry was born for business and political
reasons in the late 1990's. Increasingly rich Asians were thought to be
receptive to new sources of entertainment. What is more, South Korea, which
long banned cultural imports from Japan, its former colonial ruler, was
preparing to lift restrictions starting in 1998.
Seoul was worried about the onslaught of Japanese music, videos and dramas,
already popular on the black market. So in 1998 the Culture Ministry, armed
with a substantial budget increase, carried out its first five-year plan to
build up the domestic industry. The ministry encouraged colleges to open
culture industry departments, providing equipment and scholarships. The
number of such departments has risen from almost zero to more than 300.
In 2002, the ministry opened the Korea Culture and Content Agency to
encourage exports. By the time almost all restrictions on Japanese culture
were lifted in January 2004, the Korean Wave - a term coined in China - had
washed across Asia.
To South Koreans like Kim Hyun Kyung, a director at Cheil Communications, an
advertising agency in Seoul, feeling the reach of their culture for the first
time was surprising. In 2001, during a trip to Los Angeles, she met a Chinese
woman who brightened up when she learned that she was Korean.
"She was a big fan of Kim Hee Sun," Ms. Kim said, referring to a South Korean
actress who is now more popular in China than at home. "She was happy that I
had the same last name as she did. We were meeting for the first time, but
she had a favorable image of Korea."
South Korean dramas and music have started edging out American and Japanese
ones in Taiwan, which caught the Korean Wave early this decade.
Five years ago, Gala TV here paid $1,000 for one hour of a South Korean
drama, compared with $15,000 to $20,000 for a Japanese one, said the
network's vice president, Lai Tsung Pi. Now, a South Korean drama commands
$7,000 to $15,000; a Japanese, $6,000 to $12,000.
"Korean dramas are considered more emotionally powerful, and their actors are
willing to come here to promote them," Mr. Lai said. "Because of the Korean
dramas, Taiwanese people have become more willing to buy their products."
Sales of South Korean consumer goods and cars have risen sharply here in the
last five years as well. The number of Taiwanese going to South Korea rose
from 108,831 in 2000 to 298,325 last year, even though the overall number of
Taiwanese traveling abroad fell during that period.
South Korea has also begun wielding the non-economic side of its new soft
power. The official Korean Overseas Information Service last year gave
"Winter Sonata" to Egyptian television, paying for the Arabic subtitles. The
goal was to generate positive feelings in the Arab world toward the 3,200
South Korean soldiers stationed in northern Iraq.
There have been unintended effects too. Copies of South Korean dramas and
music are being increasingly smuggled from China into North Korea. One
popular drama in the Communist North was "All In," the true story of a South
Korean gambler who went to Las Vegas with only $18 and became a millionaire.
North Korean women began copying the hairstyle of its lead actress, Song Hae
Kyo, prompting the authorities there to crack down on "untidy" hair, said Kim
Yang Rae, director general of the Korean Foundation for Asian Culture
Exchange.
In mid-June, a 20-year-old North Korean soldier, Yi Yong Su, defected across
the demilitarized zone into the town of Chorwon in central South Korea. The
private said he had grown to admire and yearn for South Korea after watching
its television programs, South Korean military officials told reporters.
But the worry of a possible backlash - Taiwan, for instance, is considering
levying a 20 percent tariff on Korean programs - impelled the Culture
Ministry two years ago to form the cultural exchange foundation, to prevent
Southeast Asian countries from feeling that they are regarded only as markets.
"We've never had this experience of seeing our culture spread outside our
country," Mr. Kim said about Korea's modern history. "I'm very proud, but
also very cautious."
At the New Fantasy Travel agency here, about 80 percent of travelers to South
Korea pick television theme tours, visiting spots where their favorites
dramas were filmed, said the general manager, Louis Wang.
Mr. Wang himself is not a huge fan. But his children, who are, now feel
closer to South Korea than to the country that considers Taiwan a renegade
province. "They've been learning the lifestyle of Koreans, their fashion and
their food," Mr. Wang said. "So now they're more familiar with Korea's
lifestyle than China's."
※ 編輯: Shameonyou 來自: 207.180.157.15 (07/01 00:46)