Why Is Korean Wave Popular In China?
Nowadays, Korean culture is influencing young Chinese people very much, and it is called “Korean Wave”. Why is Korean Wave so popular?
Firstly, South Korea is a close and friendly neighbour of our China. The wars between two countries were before more than 1000 years. For the past one thousand years, the two nations have been on familiar terms. In the Ming Dynasty, Chinese army supported Korea and fought against Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豐臣秀吉)’s army of Japan. Later, the Ming Empire was destroyed by the Manchus, but the Lee Dynasty (李朝) of Korea still kept the year-title (年号) “Chongzhen” (崇祯) which was the year-title of the last emperor of Ming, and Korean still kept the hair-style and clothing-style of the Ming Dynasty. In more than two hundred years, Korean prepared in secret for supporting Chinese people to expel Manchu invaders. Our Chinese have a word “Friends in adversity”, and Korea was such a friend. Even if in the future the two nations have some conflicts, we can’t forget the past sincere friendship.
Secondly, Korean culture comes to China, and it shows the great influence of the civilization of ancient China. From the Zhou Dynasty to the Han Dynasty, from the Tang Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the civilization of Huaxia (another name is Han) had influenced deeply the whole East Asia including Korea, Japan and Vietnam. The national flag of Korea is called "Taegukgi" (太极旗), and its design was from the Taichi (太极) and Eight Trigrams (八卦) of ancient Chinese philosophy. Now, Korean culture is very popular in China, because it awakes the far memory of nowadays Chinese about the civilization of their ancestors.
Thirdly, Korean movies and TV dramas show virtue and kindness. In Korean movies and TV dramas, people are friendly, and families are harmonious. Juniors respect elders, elders cherish juniors. Lovers love dearly each other, and spouses care for each other. Even if the historical movies and TV dramas such as “Dae Jang-Geum” (大长今), directors don’t spend much time on showing political conflicts. In fact, not only ancient China but also ancient Korea, there were many political conflicts all along. However, the most of the historical movies and TV dramas of Korea still show the harmonious and pure-hearted feelings. Every one wishes to have a harmonious family and live in a harmonious society. Therefore, Korean movies and TV dramas are very popular in China.
Fourthly, many famous TV stations often ardently publicize new Korean movies and TV dramas, because they want to profit from these programs. Hunan TV Station bought the Chinese version of “Dae Jang-Geum” from Korea, and then this station publicized this TV drama with exaggeration. So very quickly all young Chinese knew “Dae Jang-Geum” and wanted to watch it.
Korean people believe in Confucius thoughts. For Confucius thoughts, the three nations China, Korea and Japan inherited three different sides. Chinese misinterpreted the meaning of “Moderation” (中庸), and regarded it as a slick and sly way to keep human relations. Korean inherited peaceable thoughts, but their peaceful ideals were often broken by foreign aggressors. Japan inherited loyal and warrior thoughts, and then they developed the Bushido and became belligerent. Japanese didn’t dive into Confucian doctrines, so they were not influenced by the ossified doctrines of Confucian scholars. However, Chinese and Korean became the victims of the ossified doctrines. So in the history, China and Korea were in a same way, but Japan was in another different way. Why are Chinese and Korean harmonious? Why are young Chinese people willing to accept Korean Wave? An important reason is that, China and Korea are so similar.
