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13 September 2010

NAME: Thai Thi Huong Giang

STUDENT ID: s3117184

Group: 01

TUTOR: Lukas Parker & Hue, Duong Trong

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Topic: How Korean popular culture presented through Korean TV dramas affects young Vietnamese people’s lifestyle and identity in urban area.

Abstract This study aims to explore why Korean TV dramas attract Vietnamese young people and how

Korean popular culture presented through Korean TV dramas affects young Vietnamese people’s

lifestyle and identity in urban area. Nowadays, besides the catchy eyes screens, young people also

demand various contents with profound stories, additional values, high quality of production and

reflective social issues when watching TV dramas. Thus, Korean TV dramas become popular in

Asia, particular in Vietnam because they meet what audiences want. However, consuming Korean

TV dramas as a part of mass media also lead to some consequence of Vietnamese young people’

identity and behaviors. Changing in beauty standard, confusion of reality and imagination, and

losing of the feeling of belong to nation are three main effects of Korean TV dramas on

Vietnamese young people.

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Table of Content

Introduction ............................................................................................ 4 Literature Review ................................................................................... 5

Korean Wave – Hallyu .............................................................................................................. 5 Why people are attracted by Korean TV drama ......................................................................... 5 Korean Wave’s effect on audiences’ identity ............................................................................. 7

Methodology............................................................................................ 8 Participants ............................................................................................................................... 8 Procedure .................................................................................................................................. 8 Theme analysis.......................................................................................................................... 9 Timeline.................................................................................................................................... 9

Finding & Discussion............................................................................ 10 Why do Korean TV dramas attract the viewers? ...................................................................... 10 � The variety of contents................................................................................................. 10 � The emphasis on Confucianism cultural values ............................................................ 10 � The high quality and the beautifulness ......................................................................... 11 � The reflection of Asian modern society........................................................................ 12 � Discussion ................................................................................................................... 13

The influences of Korean TV dramas on Vietnamese young people’s identity and behaviors... 15 � Perception of beauty standard ...................................................................................... 15 � Follow and adopt lifestyle and behaviors ..................................................................... 16 � Language mixed .......................................................................................................... 17 � Discussion ................................................................................................................... 17

Conclusion ............................................................................................. 20 Limitation and future research................................................................................................. 20

Reference List........................................................................................ 22

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Introduction Over the last several decades, the emergence of East Asian popular culture, known as Korean

popular culture has an important role in East and Southeast Asia. It presents for an era of rapid

modernization and development decolonization of Asian identities that function as a social and

cultural response to the global hegemony of the West (Yin & Liew 2005). Korean wave assists

active exchange of popular culture among neighboring Asian countries that display common

identity of Asian countries in order to displace the “Western” (Yin & Liew 2005). As the

consequence, “Korea has also transformed itself from a passive consumer of American films to

becoming an Asian film production hub, with successes in the regional and international market”

(Yin & Liew 2005, p. 211). Since early 2000s, several countries in Asia including Japan, Taiwan,

Mongolia, Hong Kong, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and China were in Hallyu’s grip

when Korean programs dominate the market in these countries (Onishi 2005 cited in Hanaki et al.

2007)

Although, Korean wave presents for modernity in Asia and shares common values with Asian

countries but it still has effects on cultural nationalism and national identity (Yang 2008). In fact,

many concerns appear recently about young Vietnamese people are aggressively adopting Korean

lifestyle from food, language to cosmetic surgery that might strip away the self-identity of young

Vietnamese (Dang 2009; Tran 2009). Some TV documentaries showed that the eager consumption

of Korean popular culture is partly the reason of the changing in lifestyle of Vietnamese young

people. Personally, I am very interested in Korean pop culture and I have seen many people

adopted Korean pop culture in their daily lives. However, ‘how the Korean pop culture through

Korean TV dramas affects their identities’ is a curious that motivated me to do this research.

In fact, most of cultural imperialism studies are about dominance of the Western such Western-

modern lifestyle on Asian countries or Asian people’s perception of human right. Hence, this

investigation is purposely to widen understanding cultural imperialism in a new context. The

research will help to understand the impact of Korean pop culture in Vietnam and widen

knowledge of transnational culture phenomenon, especially Korean pop culture in Asia.

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Literature Review Korean Wave – Hallyu The term “Korean wave” or Hallyu was first called by Chinese mass media in early 2000s that

refer to the cultural impacts on neighboring countries of Korean pop culture when the

performances of Korean artists included H.O.T., Baby Vox, and the National Ballet Company

swept across China beginning in 1996. (Korea Times 2005 cited in Kim et al. 2007)

‘Hanryu or Hallyu or ‘Korean wave’ as a ‘cultural tsunami’ is referring to the current fad for all

aspects of South Korean popular culture such as TV drama, movies, pop music, online games,

fashion, hairstyles and cosmetics that is sweeping across East Asia (Hanaki et al. 2007). Korean

wave is the rise of needs to experience Korea culture through tourism, foods, TV shows, fashion,

or cosmetic surgeon among many Asian countries (Kim, et al 2008). When sparking off by the

regionalization of Korean television dramas in the late 1990s, the Korean pop culture is widely

embraced and shared among Japanese, Chinese, Hong Kong, Taiwanese, and other Asian that

created ‘a substantial part of the estimated 100 million Asian consumers of South Korean dramas,

movies, and concerts daily (Yin & Liew 2005; Han & Lee 2008). Cho (2005) and Yin & Liew

(2005) stated that by enjoying the Korean pop songs and Korean TV dramas, the consumers

percept Korean pop cultures as the “Korea tribes” when excitingly embracing and adopting Korean

lifestyle from fashion, food, studying Korean and consumption patterns, to even plastic surgery.

Why people are attracted by Korean TV drama The power of Hallyu wave is facilitated by many different elements including content, cultural

proximity, artists and characters, beautifulness, advanced technique and high quality.

According to Yin & Liew (2005), Korean stars and their characters as “Trojan horses” push the

fad of Korean pop culture. For example, actors Bae Yong Jun became one of the most popular

people in some Asia countries, especially in Japan after Winter Sonata broadcasted because of his

an old-fashioned gentleman characters included courtesy, good looks, devoted care for woman,

and warm-hearted humanity (Kim et al. 2007; Kim et al. 2009). Moreover, the beautiful

appearances from face, skin to clothes of characters and artist, as well as beautiful scenes of the

TV series are other attractive points of Korean pop culture (Yin & Liew 2005)

The most important elements for the success of Korean cultural products in Asia are the content

and cultural proximity (Kim et al. 2009; Huang 2009). Huang (2009) also stated that in popular

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culture studies, when mentioning about imperialism, it means the cultural proximity. The author

also explained that language as well as religion, dress, music, non-verbal code, humor, story line,

and ethnicity, and history are regarded as parts of cultural proximity that influence the acceptance

of a program. ‘Cultural proximity function as an identification of Asian people’ assists an easy

path for audience to follow and understand the background of the programs (Wabuchi 2001 cited

in Huang 2009).

Today, the language barrier is not a prior problem for transnational culture when almost each

movie will be either translated or given sub-titles (Huang 2009). Thus, other elements of cultural

proximity will be decidable points of acceptance of programs. As the result, in fact, some

Hollywood movies are popular in Asia, but the fascination level of Korean popular culture and

Western popular culture are clearly different due to dissimilar cultural proximity (Huang 2009).

Asian would like to watch the programs that share their interests and culture such as Confucian

culture, daily stories round friendship, colleagueship, and family rather than the violence and

unpure love in the movies/ film of America and Japan because they are able to understand the

characters and somehow see themselves in the characters.

“The conflict and tensions between Confucianism socio-cultural values and modern cosmopolitan

living, working style or conditions might be the attractiveness because tension is something that

many women in East Asia can readily identify with” (Lin 2002; Lin& Kwan 2005 cited in Lin &

Tong 2008, p94)

Moreover, the line story of TV series are beloved because of the dreamy roman, ideal love, tales of

lost love, family matters, women as center of story, story with women’s perspective, unexpected

relationships and circumstances such as fateful break-up due to blood relations between the couple,

a romantic love triangle, and the hero’s amnesia from a car accident (Kim et al. 2007; Lin & Tong

2008; Kim et al. 2009).

Better-designed and packaged products and higher quality are the consequences of sophisticated

development of music production included production, design, and music technologies that

pursued audiences in the region (Yin & Liew 2005).

“The famous director YOU Xiao-gang explained the basic model of South Korean as the formula

“Japanese structure + Chinese Confucian cultural background + the handsome and beauty +

advanced techniques” (Xiong & Li 2007).

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Korean Wave’s effect on audiences’ identity According to Huat (2008, p. 85), “It is fashionable to say that the identity of an individual is

always multiple and complex and open to changes with each new knowledge input.” In fact, for

each person’s identity, national identity that is obtained early in life is the framework for people

instinctively use to distance themselves from on-screen character and his/her action (Huat, 2008).

“In each individual citizen, however, the national identity – culture is complicated by the other

culturally salient inputs to identity formation , namely, gender, ethnicity, profession and age, the

standard sociological package of ‘social economic status” (Huat 2008, p.85). He also stated, “As a

leisure activity, the consumption of TV drama has some additional features that are likely to dilute

its effects on stable identity formation.”

For example, after Winter Sonata crossed Asia, in Japan, number of people study Korean language

increase double over past several years. Moreover, more and more Japan woman want to get

married with Korean male that lead to the proliferation of matchmaking service for Japanese and

Koreans (Hanaki et al. 2007; Kim et al. 2009).

After doing the research for this study, I recognized that there are few academic sources, which

invest on Korean Wave effects on audiences’ lifestyle in Asian countries, especially in Vietnam.

Almost, they are about the Korean wave effects on consuming behaviors of audiences. While

many personal essays and newspapers mentioned about the Korean wave effects on young

Vietnamese people’s perspectives and lifestyle, there is not a good academic source about it. Thus,

my research question is:

RQ: How Korean popular culture presented through Korean TV dramas affects young Vietnamese

people’s lifestyle and identity in urban area.

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Methodology In the research, the qualitative method was used to get result and understand the findings of

Korean wave’s influence on young Vietnamese people through Korean TV drama because it

required different opinions about effect of Korean wave on young Vietnamese people. According

to Keyton (2006, pp. 59), qualitative method was suitable because it “emphasize empirical,

inductive, and interpretive approaches applied to interaction.” Therefore, this methodology helped

me to describe and capture the different opinions intimately. Particularly, I conducted an in depth

interview with RMIT students about the attractive features of Korean TV dramas and how it

affects young Vietnamese people’s behaviors, lifestyle and identity. Different viewpoint of

interviewees were helpful for answering the research question.

Participants I interviewed seven people with age range from 18 to 25 years old who are RMIT students and

alumni. Both female and male were participants. This sample did fit well with the required

demography of the research as Vietnamese young people in urban area. In addition, the

participants were people who highly consume Korean TV dramas because the questions focused

on Korean TV dramas. Thus, the participants were people who experienced Korean TV dramas

and have knowledge of Korean TV dramas. Although, they have been interested in Korean popular

culture but the way they have applied it on their daily lives was quite different. Therefore, they

would probably provide different views on the research question. In this research, I concentrated

on Korean TV drama because it has created big effects in Asian countries, accordingly to the

research above.

Due to the required characteristic of interviewees, I used snowball method to seek for the

participants. Generally, I asked my friends at RMIT to introduce their friends who match well with

the requirements. The reason for using this way in this research was that it would take less time to

find the right target participant. Keyton (2006) stated that an advantage of snowball is to recognize

people who share similar characteristics or hobbies.

Procedure I sent the personal messages via email to eight target participants to invite them joining in the

interviews. Seven participants (5 females and 2 males) agreed to join the interview while one

person cancelled one day before his/her interview day due to the personal business. The separated

interviews were taken in coffee shops because its friendly environment would make the

interviewees feel more comfortable to talk. The brief of the research topic was sent to the

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interviewees before the interviewee day because I could get more information when the

interviewees had time to understand to topic and prepare for some answers.

Each interview took 30 minutes for five main questions included the personal experience with

Korean popular culture and the personal opinions about the Hallyu phenomenon such as why did

they like it, what effects on the teenagers.

Theme analysis The interviews’ information was translated from the note in local language to put in the finding

and discussion part. In order to analyze the data, the first step was to read carefully the transcripts

several times to highlight key words, phrases, or repeated ideas (Baxter & Babbie 2003). Next,

McCracken suggested to break down and classify “the general properties and emergent themes of

interview data” (McCracken, 1988, cited in Angela & Stella 2002, p.144). Based on the transcripts,

there are two main themes included personal opinions and personal experience with Korean TV

dramas.

Timeline In order to complete the research effectively, I followed the timeline below. It helped to have a

good preparation before each stage.

In week 7, I reviewed and finalized the methodology for this study. Later, in week 8, I prepared the

interview questions that were approved at the beginning of week 9 in order to move to next steps.

At the same time, I also sent the invitation to the target participants and arranged the interview

schedule in week 9. During week 10, I worked on translating transcript and collecting data before

writing the report. The analysis and research finished in week 11 in order to process the written

report in week 12.

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Finding & Discussion Based on the research question, I focused to investigate two main themes included the reasons why

Korean TV dramas are popular in Vietnam as well as the influences of Korean TV dramas.

Why do Korean TV dramas attract the viewers?

The variety of contents Firstly, five interviewees shared the similar opinions about the contents of Korean TV dramas,

which are very various, interesting and new-fangled. Korean TV dramas have different types of

content as well as different genres that focus on different target audiences from teenager,

housewives, young adults to elder people, but most of them are still appropriate for everyone to

watch because they always contain many moral values. Generally, parents also can see the dramas

for teenagers because they can understand more about their children such as teenager’s lives,

perceptions, relationships, and behaviors. Moreover, Korean TV dramas bring a new taste to

audiences by combining hilarious elements with dramatic circumstances. For example, even

audiences are watching a drama about a war; they can be entertained by humorous situations in

this drama.

“I watch episodes of two or three Korean TV dramas everyday. They are so

diverse that show different aspects of life. I am watching two dramas with

different contents. One drama is about family relationship, especially in law

relationship while another is about the love story of a young woman. Although I

saw many Korean TV dramas with similar topics, I have not been tired of them

because the storyline in each drama is usually new. Moreover, I love comedy

scenes in the dramas. When I feel tense or upset for a situation or a character’s

story, normally some funny things happen to relax me. Thus, I feel excited when

watching Korean TV dramas.”

The emphasis on Confucianism cultural values Three interviewees also agreed that the Confucianism cultural values are a prominent theme in

Korean dramas in comparison with other Asian TV dramas. Rather than the foreignness and

unfamiliar cultures, cultural proximity of Korean TV dramas is a main attraction. Most

interviewees think that Confucianism cultural values should be treasured as social foundation.

Traditional values in Korean dramas are the good moral lessons for youth. The way the dramas

express those values to viewers is very open when they do not tell directly what is right or wrong

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but they show the consequences of decisions or behaviors. Some interviewees also said that

Korean dramas have more depth contents than Japanese dramas or Taiwanese dramas because the

values of compassion for family, friends, life partner, college, and people are usually heightened in

Korean dramas through dramatic situations instead of only using pretty/handsome artists. The

sophisticated way of expressing relationship and emotion of characters that shares the common

values with Asian people is another reason for the popularity of Korean TV dramas. In addition,

beautiful and pure love stories are an attractive element that the audiences enjoy Korean TV

dramas. These loves stories are not only about romantic love, but they were also diverged on a

wide range of topic, such as family love, school love between students and teachers, friendship

love or simply passion for life or work.

“I am really attracted by the love stories in the Korean dramas because they are

so beautiful and pure. Without sexual scenes, I still feel the spirit and passion in

those love stories. Moreover, I can feel the love between family members, friends,

and people through tension or dramatic situations. For instead, whether how big

the conflicts between parents and children are, the way that they sacrificed to

solve those conflict shows that how much they love each other. There are multi

sides of love in Korean TV dramas that some make me happy while some make me

cry. In addition, when seeing daily rituals such as bowing to seniors, being polite

and respecting the elders, I feel close to Korean cultures because I usually do it,

too. Thus, after watching Korean TV dramas, I have admired Korean people for

preserving traditional values”

The high quality and the beautifulness Secondly, the quality production of the dramas and the beautifulness in the dramas are other causes

that have kept five participants watching Korean TV dramas. Professional acting skills, high

technology of production, and the trendy sound tracks are the factors of high quality TV dramas.

Therefore, the portrait of characters, tension and dramatic situations, and stories in Korean TV

dramas are realistic and lively that make the viewers feel for them. Moreover, each detail in the

dramas is developed carefully and reasonably from the situations, emotions of characters, their

interactions, and the solutions for problems.

“Comparing with Japan dramas or Hong Kong dramas or Taiwan dramas,

Korean artists’ acting skill is much better. When I watch Korean TV dramas, I

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feel like the characters is the artists in real life. It likes I am watching the real life

of the actor/actress, not a story in a drama. Thus, it is so persuasive and

sympathetic. For example, when watching ‘Cinderella sister’ drama, I felt that

there is no boundary between the actress and her character. In different

situations, the order of emotions presents lively and rational. I am sure I would

interact like her if I was in her situation.”

Beside that, good-looking actors/actress, pretty costumes, beautiful scenes as well as amazing

scenery in the dramas give big contribute in attracting the viewers.

“Besides the contents of the dramas, I enjoy hearing their soundtracks. I even

save those songs on my Ipod, so I can hear them regularly. I also put many

pictures of actors/actresses on my cell phone, set it as background pictures

because I admire their beauty. Even they put on the makeup, but they look so

natural and beautiful. When hanging out with my friends, our conversation is

usually about beautiful Korean artists and their fashion.”

The reflection of Asian modern society Finally, three participants pointed out Korean TV dramas reflect an Asian modern society when

presenting both traditional values and modern values in characters, especially in female characters.

Generally, the characters in Korean TV dramas usually show the ideological struggles to balance

traditional and modern values in their lives. Besides romance love, audiences can see how

characters decide what traditional values that they should give away to adopt new modern values

and vice versa in order to achieve the success in career and family. Therefore, those characters

create an ideal image of a modern woman that many Asian women want to be. On the other hand,

the stories in dramas are realistic and sophisticated reflection of the social experience and issues

that Vietnamese people have currently experienced. Therefore, the audiences could identify their

personal experience with the situations in the dramas, and synthesis their emotions and feeling into

those dramas.

“I was a fan of Hong Kong dramas and Taiwanese dramas, but now all I watch

are Korean TV dramas that usually reflect what are happening in our real life.

Thus, I feel closed to and interested in them. Most of dramas dramatize the

tension between traditional and modern values in society like parental decision

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and personal decision on love, study, work. I love to watch the way characters

solve their conflicts such as the conflicts between family and career pursuit. My

favorite one is ‘the stories of daughter in-law’, which mentions about a modern

woman’ life in her husband family. A young woman has to overcome traditional

social barriers to succeed in her career but she still maintains her in-law

responsibility as a part of Confucianism cultural values. I sympathized with the

female character because my sister was in the same situation. I think those values

conflicts are happening a lot in Vietnam as developing country because we are

receiving modern values from the world but can’t give away all the traditional

values.”

Moreover, Korean TV dramas create the images of the ideal urban life when showing supreme

lifestyle and image of a glamorous city. Other three interviewees are hypnotized by the images of

high living standard, high working conditions, fashionable people, interesting nightlife, luxury

malls, and modern and beautiful buildings. Generally, most Asian countries are developing

countries, thus, having a modern life as same as in Korean dramas are what people are dreaming

for. In other words, watching those dramas is a way to escape from their original lives and look for

the dreamy lives as considered as another stimulus to watch Korean TV dramas.

“I heard a lot about social development of Korean but I can’t really imagine it.

Thus, Korean TV dramas are likely a virtual answer. I really love Seoul in the

dramas because it is so modern but it is also very romantic. The images of young

women characters working in professional environments and beautiful building

are what I want to be in the future. Sometimes, I imagined myself wearing

fashionable suits and working for a big company as a manager. I also admire

some characters because of their abilities and energy.”

Discussion One of dominant factors that encourages Vietnamese young people to watch Korean TV dramas is

the mixture of contents. Due to the strong development of TV programs, today, young people

demand higher quality of what they watch, especially the content because they feel easily bored by

clichés stories and superficial contents. Therefore, people choose Korean TV dramas because they

bring new experience to audience with different genres, diverse themes, unique stories, and

unexpected situations. Moreover, in comparison with other Asian dramas, most Korean TV dramas

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are the combination of ingenious morality-oriented lessons and entertainment that are suitable for

every audience. Besides sharing the similar Asian cultural values, Korean TV dramas have

addressed more amusing situations and humorous character’s interactions to make people feel

more relaxed and comfortable when watching the dramas. According to Arnett (1995),

entertainment is one of the five major reasons for media consumption of adolescents. He explained

that young adults usually use of media merely to amuse and relax as a way to fulfill their leisure

time. Thus, the hilarious elements combining with the wide range of contents are to increases the

entertainment level in Korean TV dramas.

Furthermore, sharing common Asian cultural values is another dominant cause of popularity of

Korean TV dramas because audiences feel sympathetic to and are able to identify themselves with

the characters in the dramas. According to Jung (1981, cited in Steven 1999), the idea of common

Asian cultural values as Confucianism cultural values is a kind of archetype. It is an ideological

model of people that established the universal resonates with all humanity and implied certain

behaviors’ pattern in order to orient ourselves into the world. The idea of respecting the elder is

one example that people are idealized through folktale, stories, or personal experience. It suggests

the pattern of being polite with elder, bowing when greeting and obeying their advices. In fact,

Vietnamese people have similar archetypes of traditional values with Korean people because as

one of East Asian countries, both countries have experienced Confucian ideas through many

stories, myths, legends, and folktales. Moreover, Korean TV dramas mirror common social issues

in modernity period, which Vietnam are experiencing. It is usually about combining and balancing

traditional values and new values. Thus, Vietnamese audiences enjoy watching Korean TV dramas

because they can someway see themselves through characters with many similar interests and

values. Klapper (1960) also stated, “Consciously or unconsciously, people tend to expose

themselves to media messages that confirm or support their existing attitudes and interests.”

In addition, the images of ideal Asian modern society are a motivation to watch Korean TV

dramas. In some way, it is understood as ‘escaping from the real life’ that could be regard as one

stimulus for exposing to media (Westerwick, Hastall & Rossman 2009). Through the modern

lifestyle and beautiful cities in the dramas, the audiences experience what they are dreaming rather

than a real society they are living. It creates a good time for people to get away from the unhappy

things and stressful lives, and relax in those dreamy worlds. According to Flexner (1987, cited in

Westerwick, Hastall & Rossman 2009), escapism is “the avoidance of reality by absorption of the

mind in entertainment or in an imaginative situation, activity, etc.” In other words, after watching

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glamorous cosmopolitan city in Korean TV dramas, the audience will probably feel more hopeful

of their future that will encourage them to overcome the difficulties.

To sum up, the findings of this part are not so different with previous statements. In the previous

studies, the researchers found out that Confucian cultural background, the beautifulness, and

Japanese structure are the dominant reasons for watching Korean TV dramas (Xiong & Li 2007).

However, the results of this research bring a wider view of the attractive features in Korean TV

dramas. In fact, the informants judge that the qualities of Korean TV dramas are higher than other

Asian dramas such as Japanese dramas, Hong Kong dramas and Taiwanese dramas. These results

indicate that besides beautifulness, today, people also concern about the various contents with

profound stories, the quality of production and actors/actresses, and the reflection of society when

watching TV dramas.

The influences of Korean TV dramas on Vietnamese young people’s identity and behaviors

Perception of beauty standard All interviewees said that the changes in beauty standard are the biggest influence of Korean Wave

when talking about the effects of Korean TV dramas on Vietnamese young people. They agreed

that Korean fashion trend, Korean hairstyle and Korean appearance are inspiring Vietnamese

young people, especially teenagers. They adopt or copy those trends in order to look alike Korean

stars because today, many people percept the beauty of Korean stars as the standard to judge the

beauty of other people. Three interviewees confessed that besides wearing Korean fashion trends

they, sometimes, thought about applying plastic surgery. Some interviewees shared that they feel

great and very proud when someone said they look alike a Korean because they percept that the

word ‘Korean’ usually implies to the beauty of Korean stars. On the other hand, two interviewees

accepted that the beauty of Korean stars could be a beauty standard but it is not suitable for

everyone to follow. One interviewee remarked:

“I do not have any defensive opinion about the Korean beauty but I do not like

the way Vietnamese young people apply it in the context of Vietnam. We can see

those effects everyday and everywhere. It could be your friends, or some hot girl

and hot boy on the internet and magazines. I recognized a common point of

those hot girls and hot boys is the ‘Koreaness’ from their fashion style, hair

style, make-up or their poses. People, especially teenagers voted for them as hot

girls or hot boy just because they wear like Korean stars, have similar haircut

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with Korean stars and look cute like Korean stars. However, it is not always

perfect. Some people look weird and inappropriate when applying those styles

on them. They look worse than their original appearances.”

Follow and adopt lifestyle and behaviors Four interviewees stated that watching Korean TV dramas also brings some bad consequences to

young people’s behaviors and lifestyle, especially teenagers. The young people might think that it

is cool to imitate some Korean lifestyles and cultures and apply them on their real lives. The

informants pointed out that anti- fan culture is a negative adoption of Vietnamese young people.

The anti-fan culture occurs recently in Vietnam when Korean popular culture has developed

strongly in Asian. Generally, young people insulted each other and others’ idols in attempt to

protect and promote their own idols. Moreover, school violence issues could be the result of

fighting screens on Korean TV dramas. One interviewee addressed the trend of showing weird

facial expression when taking pictures among Vietnamese young people is another copy from

Korean stars. Generally, people observe and follow these actions through characters in the dramas

as well as the pictures of actresses/actors.

“Frankly, I think that besides the beautiful images of the modern urban lifestyle,

Korean TV dramas also want to show some imperfect sides to create the most

realistic portrayal of society. Thus, the fighting screens of characters in the

Korean TV dramas present for flawed characteristic of characters. It likes when

I watch those fighting screens, I always think that Korean people are so spitfire

and quite violent, no matters how gentle and polite they used to be. However,

some teenagers might think it is a cool way solve problems and conflicts by

their power, just like on the screen.”

In addition, the confusion of reality and imagination is another outcome of watching Korean TV

dramas. Two informants said that they sometimes copy and apply character’s behaviors and

interactions in some real situations. When people sympathize or like someone, they tend to share

some similar things with them in order to feel closer to these people.

“I usually observe the situations and characters’ behaviors as a way of learning

experience. I used to think about my life like these characters. Thus, when I am in a

situation that is similar with the situation in the dramas, I will try to act and behave

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similarly as the characters did because I think if I do that, the good things can

happen as what I saw in the dramas. Moreover, the main female characters are

outstanding and perfect, so I think their interaction could be a pattern to follow. I

also used to act like the female characters such as the way to talk, smile, and

gesture.”

Language mixed Two interviewees mentioned about the influence of Hallyu on the way using language of

Vietnamese young people. It is easy to see the mixture of Korean words and Vietnamese sentences

in many forums for teenagers as well as in their daily conversations. Besides the coolness,

teenagers use this kind of language because it might make them feel closer to Korean cultures.

This result is effecting negatively to the values of our national language. Other informants said that

they would like to learn Korean as a new language because it is not only their interest, but it might

be also helpful for their future careers. They also agreed that they have recognized the values of

Vietnamese language and have never mixed them up with Korean. However, all of them had

similar point of views about arbitrary language usage among teenagers. In generally, teenagers

usually use whatever they want for their communications when combining different languages,

particular English with Korean words in Vietnamese sentences.

“Honestly, I love Korean culture and also inspired by their fashion but mixing

Korean words with Vietnamese does not sound great at all. It does not sound

like Korean people either Vietnamese people when using this language.

However, my sister does not think so. She usually use some words such oppa,

yunni, and saranghae when talking to her friends and sometimes to me. She

probably feels like she was a Korean when talking like this. I think this problem

happens mostly at the teenagers who are easily affected by transnational

cultures.”

Discussion The cultivation theory will explain the influences of Korean TV dramas among Vietnamese young

people. Chander (1985) stated that mass media influence on audiences’ perception formation that

means the way people percept the world is shaped by the messages from mass media because they

are considered as learning sources of people. Therefore, repeating watching television contents of

viewers will lead to the changes in their perception of reality, which probably affects on the way

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they behave and look at the real world (Gerbner & Gross 1969). In fact, from the images of ideal

urban lifestyle and images of luxury city in the dramas, the viewers are idealized that the

characters’ behaviors, personalities, and beauty in dramas are preventative of modern Asian

people. Generally, many Korean TV dramas’ viewers have percept those behaviors, personalities,

and beautifulness as a pattern and standard to follow. Therefore, the fighting screens, and

characters’ interactions and beauty are inspirited Vietnamese young people.

Moreover, people aware the ideal Korean cultural society as similar as the real Korean cultural

society and vice versa. It means that they are also conscious of Korean values in reality as the ideal

values. According to Gerbner & Gross (1969), people do not have chances to go everywhere for

learning, so they use television programs as the source for increasing knowledge, news and

information. As the consequence, first-hand experience people are affected easily by what

television tells. Adopting anti-fan culture of Vietnamese young people, especially teenagers are the

typical example. After watching Korean TV dramas, most of people might think Korean cultures

represent for modern Asian country, so some Vietnamese young people might percept anti fan

culture as a part of modern lifestyle of Korean young people and try to adopt this culture.

Generally, national identity as known as cultural identity is the framework to defines who we are,

and how we are viewed by other people that is constructed by the differences of family, ancestor,

race, place of residence, language, economic position, and ethnicity (Huat 2008 and Tomlinson

2003). Thus, the change in appearances of people is considered as a damage of the ethnicity

identity of people because people cannot recognize some Vietnamese young people are

Vietnamese or Korean people when looking at their hairstyle and fashion. In addition, mixing up

languages does not bring big confusion as changing appearance but it damages to the value of

Vietnamese literature as seems as a feature of national identity. It shows the low respect of some

Vietnamese young people for the national character when combining Korean words and other

languages with Vietnamese sentences. In other word, the feeling of belonging to Vietnamese of

some Vietnamese young people is reducing when they prefer using foreign languages to

Vietnamese language.

Almost the interviewees have consumed Korean popular cultures after watching Korean TV

dramas. However, the influential levels of Korean wave in informants as Vietnamese young people

are different that depend on their personal characteristics such as age, gender, and education

background. While some informants are inspired by Korean fashion trends, some informants’

19

perceptions and behaviors are affected. In fact, the age group that is influenced mostly is probably

teenager who seems like having unstable cultural identity. Generally, teenagers are not affected

only by Korean popular culture, before Korean wave, Chinese celebrities and Japanese culture

fascinated Asian teenagers. They are adaptable and willing to learn new things, hence, they are

considered as the subject of the transnationals cultures. In contrast, these effects above among the

informants as Vietnamese young people might be not only the results of Korean TV dramas, but

they could be the outcomes of the sophisticated contribution of media. In fact, Korean TV dramas’

fans also watch other Korean programs such as variety shows, music, game shows, and

documentaries. Moreover, many Vietnamese newspapers and magazines such as Hoa Hoc Tro, 2!,

or 14channel usually publish many articles about Korean fashion trend, and tutorial of mixing

clothes, and doing make up to look alike Korean stars that might have encouraged Vietnamese

young people to follow. Furthermore, a strong development of PR campaigns and advertisement

for the cosmetic products and fashion might have promoted the popularity and consumption of

Korean popular culture.

20

Conclusion The findings of this research answered mostly the research question about the effects of Korean

popular culture presented through Korean TV dramas on Vietnamese young people’s identity and

behaviors. Moreover, this study also opened knowledge of the reasons for the popularity of Korean

TV dramas in Asian countries, particularly in Vietnam. Consequently, it helps to gain the deeper

understanding about Korean wave in Vietnam.

The research shows the main elements of Korean TV dramas that help to understand about how

Vietnamese young people consume Korean popular culture. Besides the beautifulness and high

quality production, addressing Confucianism values and reflecting modern Asian society in the

dramas are the reasons that attract viewers’ attention. Generally, those findings will benefit for

media industries understanding about the market in order to develop the appropriate media

products.

In addition, this research found out some common effects of Korean popular culture on

Vietnamese young people’s identity and behaviors. Changing in beauty standard, confusion of

reality and imagination, and losing of the feeling of belong to nation are three main effects of

Korean TV dramas on Vietnamese young people. However, the study also raises another question

about the relationship between those effects and other media such as internet, newspapers,

magazines, and advertising. Consequently, other researches should focus on particular effects

above in attempt to have deeper understanding and minimize the effects of transnational cultural

phenomenon.

Limitation and future research There are some shortcomings in the research can be improved for better results. The first weakness

of this research is the sample size and the diverse of sample. Although seven interviewees were

very interested in Korean TV dramas, the small number of participants could be a cause of narrow

generalization. Moreover, the participants were only RMIT students who have similar education

standard and learning environment, so it might lead to biased results in the finding. In general, the

topic is about Vietnamese young people, it means the research should focus on different people

with diversified demography and geography such as age, cities, and education status. Last but not

least, this study is about the national identity that is considered as the hard term to understand.

Some interviewees as commerce students do not have foundation knowledge about the

globalization, identity, and mass media, so it could lead to the limitation in expressing ideas and

opinion about this topic.

21

Based on the findings and limitations of the research, there are some suggestions for future

direction. Firstly, the number of participants and the demographic background diversification of

interviewees should be increased to improve the quality of the research. The participants should be

from different cities or areas, different education background, and wide range of age. Moreover,

the researches can focus on particular effects of Korean TV dramas as the future topics. For

example, a research about the perception and behaviors of Vietnamese people toward cosmetic

surgery could be conducted to have deeper views about changing beauty standard in Vietnam.

22

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Appendix Interview Protocol

Thank you for your time. I would like to ask you mostly about your perception and experiences

about some of the issue around my topic. With your permission, I would like to take a note of the

interview, but you can ask to skip the information at any time. Your identity and the names of

anyone you mention will be kept strictly confidential. Only pseudonyms will be mentioned in the

writ-up report. Can we begin now?

Firstly, I will explain some special term in my topic included Korean wave and identity.

1. Firstly, what do you think of Korean TV drama?

2. How often do you watch Korean TV dramas?

3. What do Korean TV dramas attract you? Which attractive features in Korean TV dramas

that you like most? Explain why.

4. What type of Korean TV drama that u like? Why?

5. Do you obtain any Korean actresses/actors/singers as your idol after seeing dramas? Why?

6. How Korean TV dramas affect your perception, behaviors, or lifestyle? Please explain and

tell me what happened.

7. What is your opinion about the Korea popular culture in Vietnam today in relation to young

people’s lifestyle, behaviors, and identity through storylines or characters in Korean TV

dramas? Can you tell me about your experience with this?

Clearinghouse questions:

8. Are there any issues we have not talked about that you concern about Korean Pop culture,

Korean TV dramas and identity (attitude, lifestyle)

9. Do you have any queries about my topic before we finish the interview?

Thank you so much for your participation.