Super Korean Power Dazzling Greatly by “Stars”
“Obba, obba!”
Tens of thousands of fascinated teen girls with blushed pink-rose cheeks scream out their idol’s names as loud and high as they can with their best soprano voices. Crowded Korean restaurants full of customers of different looks shouting out the same name for their meals. These are some of the results of nowadays’ ‘Han-ryu’, which is ‘a colossal hurricane of Korean cultures’ capturing and intriguing innumerable global fans, especially here in China.
By the January of 2011, in a book store in Nanjing, China, a book called “동방신기- 신이 세상에 준 기적 (东方神起- 神遗落在人间的奇迹, TVXQ- The miracle God granted to the world) recorded the Top 1 bestseller. The book is about the past seven years Korean top Han-ryu group band “동방신기”(English abbreviation: TVXQ) has lived as singers and stars. Despite of different nationalities, Chinese readers passionately purchased the biographies. “The sales rates between TVXQ’s book and the Top2 best seller book differ very much. It is the first time to see customers being so excited over the biographies of singers,” said Fensiwang, a Chinese web portal site. “Some customer still asks the publisher about TVXQ’s biography.”
<The Miracle God granted to the World> ranked No.1 bestseller book
TVXQ's 7-year biography, <The miracle God granted to the world> on the web site of Hunan wenyi publisher.
My “Short Han-Ryu Journey” on a Weekend
Countless Korean characters seen anywhere in Beijing
As a Korean high school student who have dwelled here in Beijing for five years, I could feel the heat and passion of ‘the Han ryu effect’ in my daily life. While strolling along a street in Beijing, I encountered “삼겹살”(Sam gyup sal, Korean barbecue), “노래연습장” (No rae yeon seup jang, Karaoke) and “한국 화장품”(Han guk hua jang poom, Korean cosmetics) written on numbers of places. As I entered one of “Korean” buildings, a man’s eye full of confidence immediately captured my attention. “The Best, 2011 Rain Asia Tour Concert”, the poster of a Korean singer Rain’s concert was attached to the wall. With slight laughter, soon I could see several Chinese customers at “Casting”, a Korean beauty salon satisfyingly receiving hairdressing services.
The combination of Korean characters and Chinese characters
To the way back home, a familiar melody of a song called “Gee” by Korean girl band “Girl’s Generation” merrily entered my ears. This was not even an amazement, since I even have heard of the more brand-new Korean song in a local Chinese village, isolated from the foreign influence. After having passed by “Artbox”(Korean stationery brand) and “Paris Baguette”(Korean bakery brand) full of customers, I got home. With a slight sigh in coziness, I turned on computer and surfed on the most popular and well-known Chinese video web sites, “Tudou” and “Youku”. With a curiosity, I typed “韩国” (Han guo, means “Korea” in Chinese) on both sites. Tudou came up with 329,812 videos, 108,945 of them related to entertainment. Youku showed up with 404,660 videos, which is even more than Tudou.
Han-Ryu Molten into My Friends’ lives
“Anything ‘Korean’ is always awesome!”
Fei, my best friend in the same class with me from Macau is an enormous fan of Korea, infected by the ‘Han-ryu effect’ her friends offered her. Fei has lived in Beijing and several other Chinese cities for the most of her life. She has been influenced by Korean influences in her surrounding circumstances. She is particularly crazy with Korean food and clothes. “Korean food is extremely yummy! I love the kimchi your mom makes. Korean moms are excellent at cookery, really!” Fei got trapped into Han-ryu hurricane without any intentional purposes. Although she did not have any Korean friends before, via her Chinese classmates, she fell in love with Korea. “All of my Chinese classmates are accustomed to Korean products. I naturally got influenced by them. I often go out and grab the ones from Korean clothes shops and stationery stores.”
Beaming her blue eyes and blond hair, Eri from France got particularly excited with the talks over Korean celebrities and songs. She just came to my school in Beijing this semester. Eri emphasized, although she has lived in New York, Shanghai, Beijing and so many other cities, her only passion has been Korea. “I love Korean celebrities, especially! I love ‘Wonder Girls’(A Korean girl band) and their songs. When I lived in Shanghai, all my best friends were Koreans and they invited me to the ‘Han-ryu’ world.” Having glanced at her pinky i-Pod touch, numbers of Korean characters could be seen. “Oh, almost half of the songs in my i-touch are Korean. I don’t listen to French music at all.” Unable to understand such thought as a Korean, I asked Eri why she does not even look at her home country’s stars and music. “Koreans have their own unique styles. They have diversity of attractions to watch, feel and listen to. I especially love such creative and interesting Korean pop-dances! These are the reasons why I am fond of Korean culture.”
Asking “Korea”
Via the popularity of Korean cultures and via their Korean friends, numbers of my buddies from China, France, USA, Japan, Singapore, Hong kong, South Africa and so on often get opportunities to encounter Han-ryu. For such reason, I surveyed my friends from my class!
Korea makes me think of…
l Hard-working students at academies after school!
l TV shows, movies and dramas!
l Plastic surgery!
l Fashion, make-up, stylish hair-styles and lovely items!
l Karaoke bars!
l Korean food, especially Kimchi, kimbob, tteokbokki and Korean barbecue!
l Parents who decide children’s future (excessive emphasis on education)!
l Polite youngsters!
l Patriotism!
l Small land with good climate!
l Busy people with their works or studies!
“When wandering around the shops and stores, you can see most of the Chinese women purchasing Korean make-up equipments, lotions, creams, clothes and accessories,” said Ms. Wu, my Chinese teacher in thirties. “Generally, my friends and neighbors love Korean electronics and cosmetics. I agree that they have high-quality.
A housewife shopkeeper working at “한국미”(Han guk mi, a Korean accessories brand) answered, “I also like Korean accessories. Do you see how these jewels are so equally and firmly embedded?” She kindly explained about the style and quality of Korean products.
Korean characters written on products; wrong term
Han-Ryu, Keep Moving On!
There is a Chinese word “哈韩”. Pronounced as ‘Ha han’, its definition goes: “A colossal fan of Korea whose life is full of everything related to Korea”. It is not a false that I actually have seen numbers of ha-hans here in Beijing. Holding up LG mobile phones, spraying Misha perfumes and listening to Rain’s (A world-widely very well-known Korean singer and actor) songs, countless people from my school, neighbors and Beijing citizens have asked me about Korea with sparkling curiosity in their eyes. By now, it is no exaggeration that Korea has offered fresh style of life, fashion, entertainment, eating, and interests to Chinese people’s everyday life and much.
