South Korea has quietly emerged as Hollywood's most formidable rival, producing globally popular music, TV dramas, and beauty and fashion trends. ELLE is celebrating the K-World we all live in this week. Visit KissAsian site for more information about Asian drama.

When the pandemic halted foreign travel and the country was compelled to shelter in place, many people turned to entertainment to see the world outside their homes. South Korea, maybe more than any other country, has shone brighter in the global limelight over the last year and a half. As individuals spent more time online, K-pop musicians such as BTS and Blackpink became household names. Korean food exports achieved a historic high, with the United States becoming the leading importer of Korean food in 2020, thanks to social media posts from Asian celebrities and the success of the film Parasite, while Korean culinary fads like mukbang and dalgona coffee provided welcome quarantine distractions. When fans ran out of shows to watch, many turned to Korean dramas, which they haven't stopped watching since.

Korean dramas, or K-dramas for short, are South Korean scripted television productions. K-dramas are sometimes referred to as Korean soap operas, but this is a misnomer because they cover a wide spectrum of genres, from science fiction and romance to horror and history dramas, and everything in between. With a few notable exceptions, most consist of a set number of episodes (typically between 16 and 24), and are usually completed in a single season (though some—especially family-oriented and historical dramas—run for 50 or more) (more on that later).

K-dramas are noted for their high production value, strong and frequently fascinating plots, and great acting that helps the characters and the audience connect emotionally. They also tend to be more PG-friendly than western TV series (nudity and sex, for example, are practically non-existent), making K-dramas more appealing to a wider range of age groups and countries, particularly those with more conservative social values. At the same time, the daring and skilled storytelling with which K-dramas approach societal challenges, personal struggles, and universal themes like family, friendship, and love results in insightful entertainment that resonates with fans across borders. To put it another way, K-dramas make us feel less alone by tapping into our common human experiences and emotions.

They're also interactive in various ways. Dr. Dal-Yong Jin, a communications professor at Simon Fraser University and one of the world's leading authorities on Korean pop culture, adds, "Korean creators still develop dramas day by day." If the show's ratings are low, the plot will be changed, and if the numbers are great, the show's creators may opt to increase the number of episodes from, say, 16 to 24, Jin explains. This not only ensures that the series is well-received by viewers, but it also means that episodes are frequently shot and edited the same week they appear.

Though K-dramas have just lately gained popularity in the United States, they have long been popular in Asia. In fact, K-dramas have long been a driving force behind the Korean Wave, or "Hallyu," a phrase coined by Beijing journalists in the 1990s to describe the rising popularity of K-dramas, K-pop, and other Korean cultural exports. Since then, the Korean Wave has quickly expanded to every corner of the globe, but it's difficult to say when K-dramas first gained popularity outside of South Korea. According to some sources, Hallyu began in 1997 with the success of the family drama What Is Love? and the romance Star in My Heart (aka Wish Upon A Star) among Chinese audiences; however, Jin claims that it began even earlier, in 1993, when China televised the Korean serial Jealousy (Jiltu).

Even before that, the seeds for Hallyu's development were sown. According to Dr. Jung-Bong Choi, a former professor of cinema studies at New York University, Korean network executives in the 1980s and 1990s frequently traveled to Japan on business to be inspired by the style and structure of the country's dramas, which "pioneered the 12-episode miniseries format" and encompassed a wide range of genres.

The South Korean government also contributed to the emergence of the Korean Wave by improving the country's broadcasting infrastructure and allowing programs to compete with one another. "In the early 1990s, Korea only had three network channels, but the Korean government chose to allow another network—SBS in 1991—and various cable channels in 1995," Jin explains. Read more at https://kissasian.cx/.

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