Boys over flowers, a recently broadcasted Korean drama is popular among Singaporeans and many others around the world. The storyline of the movie centres on an ordinary girl from a low income family who gets sponsored to attend Koreas’ prestigious school where she meets 4 rich boys, the F4. The drama will illustrate the friendship she shares with the F4 as well as the trials and tribulations of her romantic relationship with the F4’s leader.
Like many other Korean dramas, Boys over Flowers serves to entertain and invite its viewers into a world of fantasy which is void of reality. Still, Korean drama fans, young and old, continue their support for these dramas. In Singapore, the Internet and cable networks have made Korean dramas accessible to many. As such the viewership and support for these dramas have increased in recent years.
Singaporeans who do not know the Korean language are attracted and some obsessed over Korean dramas. This is because these dramas often feature a family-centred storyline which is favoured by many in our Asian collectivist culture. Also, the lead character, often a regular person, winds up in extraordinary romances or whimsical experiences and in the end, lives happily ever after. As viewers can identify and sympathize with these ordinary characters, they continue their support for these dramas.
Singaporeans, hit by the Korean drama wave, are studiously learning the Korean language, replacing traditional food for Korean cuisine, jumping on planes to see the drama sets in Korea and wearing fashionable clothes as seen on their Korean stars. The influence and increase in support for Korean popular culture may cause cultural imperialism to occur.
Singapore, though diverse in race, religion and culture share subsets of our traditional cultures. As a follower of a few Korean dramas, i was attracted to the Korean culture. However it did not prompt me to emulate the culture as i was content and unwilling to give up mine. Therefore, should Singaporeans continue to be influenced by other cultures and give up our Malay, Indian or Chinese cultures? Should we allow the imperialism of Korean or American cultures to occur? Will char kway teow or roti prata make way for kimchi in the future?
the problem that i notice when discussing cultural imperialism in Singapore by another Asian culture is that Singapore in itself, as a society is made up of migrants. Most of us are probably just 2nd generation Singaporeans meaning our own grandfathers were not born in Singapore. We do not have a truely distinct culture but rather a culture brough by our grandfathers who originated from mostly India, China and the Malay. So there is really no distint culture that we can truely call as Singapore's.
ReplyDeleteOnly the shallow minded, gullible and impressionable would be influenced to allow another country's culture to take over their own, just by watching television programs. I can say the same for those impressionable kids who watch japanese anime and get influenced by it.
ReplyDeleteIt depends on how well one is brought up in accepting one's cultural background.
Our diversity is our Singaporean culture. The day Singaporeans are united under one "country culture" would be the day Singapore culture, as it currently is, dies.
We should not allow cultural impersialism to occur. But you know how impressionable children are, hence cultural imperialism would always be present. It is up to us to teach our children well.
Singaporean culture? how about excelling at everything and placing utmost importance on education? something I find unique in singapore is that no mattere how useless a person can be, the sg govt will still continue to drive the person so that he can hoold a respectable job. you don't see that in other countries. if you fail, you'll be put on welfare.
ReplyDeleteweird culture to have but i guess that's uniquely singapore
Watching a show as a past time is fine as long as you don't go overboard.
ReplyDeleteAs for myself I like other movie from diffferent race, religion and culture too.
It helps me learn about their lifestyle and I am more open to the various cultures and customs.
I am open to any religion as I believe it is made to help us progress and respect each other then to fight with each other since we're from the different race or religion group.
“Only the shallow minded, gullible and impressionable would be influenced to allow another country's culture to take over their own, just by watching television programs.” I have to disagree with you Xamuel. Cultural imperialism on most account happens subconsciously. It mostly revolves around the change in mindset that one goes through to reflect similar takes and views as what have been portrayed in the media. Impressionable may be apt to describe such people, but shallow minded and gullible? I am not too sure about that.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that we are adopting too much into PROTECTING our culture and REPELLING other cultures. Smells a bit like Xenophobia to me. Instead of focusing on the negative of cultural imperialism, why do we not see the good that it might bring?
Hey parvin, I am also a korean drama fan who is trying to learn the korean language after being "hooked" to quite a number of korean dramas. Dramas offer us a form of mental escape: its slow pace makes us forget the fast paced reality; the perfect endings gives us hope (no matter true or false) that we can also have such happy endings in our lives. Hopefully, as we learn their language, eat their cuisines, we can still preserve the roots of our own culture. We have our own cultures definitely, though i must admit that we as a country do not have cultures as strong as others. Offhand, cultures like food culture and cultures of racial harmony are as many POSITIVE cultures as i can think of. We are still a young nation which needs more time to mature.
ReplyDeletewhy not?
ReplyDeleteit is up to the individual to choose wat he wants to do with his life...not the other way around...
to me its very simple...im like a feet(me) fitting in a shoe(world)i find my size!( my place in this world allowing the world of others to co-exist with mine in harmony)...
Different cultures and religions make up this earth. Whatever religion and culture we follow are what we learn from our parents. But when we mature, we grow curious and explore other cultures.
ReplyDeleteThis is where I feel that an individual will make a decision. If they like the culture that is portrayed to them and they’ve become bored of their own, they would then most likely make the switch of culture. The choice depends entirely on the individual.
As for me I like briyani and mee goring. No matter what kind of cultures I’m exposed to, no other food can replace them.
Culture and religion is a choice that we can choose to take or not to take.Ultimately,the integration of different cultures is what makes singapore culture so unique.
ReplyDeleteI believe I'm as much a fan of Korean culture;eating korean food often,if i were to travel to Korea though,I would miss the local foods like laksa.The grass is always greener on the other side of the field.Koreans are probably fans of singaporean drama and food too.
In my humble opinion, i do not think that this korean wave will lead to cultural imperialism. rather, i feel that this is more of people just being curious about another culture and would like to experience something different from what they are used to from time to time. also, i certainly dont think we should give up our culture since this is what distinguishes us from others. it is human nature to feel that the grass is always greener on the other side as a fellow poster mentioned. but for most parts, i feel that even though we may want to have a taste of other cultures, we will always go back to what we are familiar and comfortable with since it's what we grew up with and what we've always known.
ReplyDeleteHAHA...i totally love korean dramas but i don't think i would trade in my own culture values for korean ones. Sure, because of all the influence the drama has on us, we would want to change ourselves according to it but only to a certain extent. Like learn to talk and dress like thme maybe. But no way am i going to exchange briyani, fried rice and what not for kimchi. No thank you.
ReplyDeletei think taking abit of culture here and there and instilling it into ourselves is more likely to come in handy as we live in a country where various cultures co-habitat.and of course, we all get hit by the latest sensations but like always they die down and we go back to what we are more used to.
So all in all, i do not think that the korean or culture is string enough to shake that root of ours is it. =)