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

17
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’

18
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.

19
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.

20
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.

21
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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.

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