My Sassy Girl

Although My Sassy Girl was one step behind Friend as the second highest film in 2001, it had a mega impact in the entire Asian region. When I googled My Sassy Girl, there were Korean drama, Japanese drama, and Chinese drama, as well as Chinese remake film and even American remake and Hollywood remake film.

Doobo said it was not until 2006 Korean cultural productions have become consumed by audiences in Asian. I thought that it was way much earlier, because personally I started watching K-drama in 2000, and my friends were also big-fans of it. Maybe it was just the case in China, but I clearly remember how much impacts it has continually exerted on Chinese teenager and adolescents. For instance, a lot of shops would change their name into something that has relation to Korea in order to appeal people to go in, and the clothing companies would add Korean subtitle to their labels to make their brands look like they’re imported from Korea. One of a sudden, you hear Korean songs all over the place, you see Koran stars on the news and papers, and the primetime shows were dominated by K-drama. Even older generations like my mom enjoyed watching it. We just felt like Korean people were at the edge of fashion, their culture was so modern and different from ours. As I grew a little bit older, I started to notice the negative comments on this cultural import. Some people describes it as cultural imperialism, they argue that it’s a strategy to infuse Korean culture and values into young Chinese psyches, which is extremely dangerous since our own culture will probably be neglected and ignored during this process. I don’t necessarily agree with this statement, but it actually gets me to think about the importance of these cultural products as profound mediums in socialization. Nowadays, the transnational mode becomes more and more prevalence; therefore it’s no longer Korean authentic but fused with local Chineseness. It’s usually a Chinese character pairing up with a Korean character, and the director is usually come from Korea while the filming takes place in China. However this kind of integration is only a way path since these films or dramas would probably have big successes in China but could hardly make to Korea.

As we know the globalization is inevitable, and the distinct cultural boundary keeps breaking down. How can one culture survive in this merging environment becomes a crucial question for identity.