By Leela Ting
Korean media, and film in general, has been acknowledged by the West like never before.
Film is a powerful tool, with the ability to work as propaganda. Squid Games, Physical 100, and Parasite are a few of the incredibly popular examples. These three broke viewing and nominee records quickly after their releases. One month after its release, 142 million of newly subscribed Netflix families immediately streamed Squid Games and broke countless records.
Asian media has been long neglected by Western audiences. If acknowledged at all, it would fit Asians in one of the two classically prejudiced roles- the oversexualized Female Dragoness or the stoic Kung Fu Master. K-Dramas are also adored far and wide. In a study addressing dating apps, the statistics show that “Most men respond to Asian women – except men. For a while now, we’ve heard of the (popularized? stereotyped?) plight of Asian men lamenting about how Asian women mostly date white guys, with videos like Wong Fu’s “Yellow Fever.” This is a long existing plague of White men sexualizing Asian women, stripping them of their humanity and using them for validation and pleasure. This brings about an underlying question- is the attention towards Korean media fetishizing or appreciative?
To understand the modern role of Korean film recently it is essential to evaluate past roles it played in the West. Hollywood has incredible power, often shifting and implanting general opinions. With this power comes prejudice. The centering of Whiteness in Hollywood set major precedents for other cultural arts such as visual arts and literature. Phillipa Gates writes in her essay “Asian Americans in Pre–World War II Cinema” that, “More notoriously, however, American films often cast white actors in Chinese roles, especially when those characters were more prominent in the narrative. This practice of “yellowface” contributed to the continuance of stereotyped representations of Chinese characters in film and exposed the systemic racism of a film industry that rarely allowed Asian Americans to represent themselves.” White people could profit off of yellowface because they were acting from a natural position of power. No matter what roles Asians were placed in, social conditioning would place them in harmful places no matter what.
This attention is not being ignored. In fact, there is a term for it- “Hallyu”, literally translating to Korean Wave in Chinese. Hallyu was even addressed by Barack Obama in 2012 during his state visit to Korea. Joseph Nye, a Harvard political scientist at Harvard, created the term “soft power” to describe less literal ways that a country’s cultural hold on the world could expand. This could be through celebrities, cuisine, film and more. There is no clear explanation for the change in attention towards Korean media but it can be traced back to a few factors. For one, although racism is a persisting horror, communities have gathered to protest it like never before. And, most obviously, the beauty of Korean culture is often mirrored in its TV and movies. There are cultural differences displayed in this media such as the general respect and ambition displayed by Korean people. Americans are fascinated (whether positive or negative) by differences. While this can promote respect, it can also lead to the fetishization of Asians.
Korean film should continue to be appreciated despite the simultaneous xenophobia that Asians face in Western culture. Many academic institutions have begun addressing Anti-Asian hate in a political way. It could be interesting for these places to address Korean media- past and present. The beginning of this journey in acknowledging Korean media in the West is long awaited. There is no end to this, just an infinite space to appreciate unspoken voices and beauty.