A recent Facebook status by a Myanmar netizen spread a set of photos showing television screens that displayed tons of Korean dramas being aired by various local TV channels. To underscore the massive presence of Korean TV series on Myanmar domestic channels was the motive for the post, according to the photo uploader’s remarks for his status. A couple of similar postings lately appeared on social media, pointing out a flourish of Korean dramas on local television.
A follow-up wider look-over to these posts should find out that current television in Myanmar is entangled with Korean-themed content. Not drama series only are thriving, other types of TV content such as reality shows, variety shows, reality-variety programmes, game shows and other forms of entertainment programmes from Korea also have been gaining a strong grip on domestic television – pay or free, channels by TV networks or channels by TV stations, broadcast channels or non-broadcast channels such as direct-to-home (DTH) satellite and cable television.
Especially dramas have been playing a role on Myanmar television and this is particularly evident in free-to-air telecasting. Today, a commonplace for the non-specific free Myanmar TV channels is the incorporation of Korean series to their daily programmes. Television dramas from South Korea are now an integral part of the non-specific free-to-air television channels in Myanmar, it is observed. Meanwhile, the improved access to the Internet and the unprecedented increase in mobile penetration thanks to the recent opening-up of the telecommunications market allow the K-pop fanbase in Myanmar to be able to make Korean entertainment much more accessible. K-pop addicts can now pursue their amusement in a way more favourable than ever. The remarkable rise in digital literacy triggers a new chapter for Korean drama maniacs and K-pop devotees in Myanmar to indulge in so-called Korean fever.
A Retrospect
Myanmar was no exception when the Korean Wave started to swamp East Asia and Southeast Asia in early 2000s, hitting most of the countries in the region. The first Korean TV drama that arrived in Myanmar to introduce the modern Korean pop culture would be Autumn in My Heart. The series was broadcast in late 2000 in the original country and aired in Myanmar in subsequent years by state-run television. Like in every Asian country it was aired, the drama gained breakthrough popularity in Myanmar and launched the Korean drama mania there. Autumn in My Heart was one of the four television dramas installed as a set of season-themed melodramatic series named Endless Love directed by a single director. Other drama projects in the Endless Love series also grabbed major popularity across the neighbouring countries and they altogether aroused the Korean fever in the region, which afterwards infected wider parts of the globe. After Autumn in My Heart, the second instalment Winter Sonata was released in early 2002 in Korea and subsequently in other East and Southeast Asian nations, followed by Summer Scent in 2003 and Spring Waltz in 2006. In terms of TV series, Autumn in My Heart pioneered the Korean Wave and the rest three consolidated the phenomenon along with other trendsetting dramas during an early stage of the far-reaching spread of modern Korean culture, concurrently powered by K-pop music.
All of the above four series hit Myanmar television, and since then people in Myanmar have turned into K-drama fans. Started from early 2000s, Korean dramas have stormed Myanmar television to kick out Chinese and Japanese series which had long prospered as a regular foreign TV series choice in Myanmar prior to the rise of the Korean Wave. That marked the beginning of an alien culture intruding into the culturally orthodox Myanmar society.
Korean Wave or Hallyu
The Korean Wave refers to the phenomenon in which modern Korean culture diffuses through various available media channels. The activity, also called Hallyu which is the more common Romanisation of Korean term 한류 (Hanryu) literally meaning ‘flow or wave of Korea’, originates from Korean television series and modern Korean pop music labelled as K-pop that spans contemporary electro, R&B, pop ballads, techno, rock, dance-pop, hip-hop and so on. In addition to drama series and K-pop music, Korean films also are contributing to promotion of Hallyu worldwide.
Initiated by the spread out of K-dramas and K-pop, the ‘Korean Wave’ craze at present has gone beyond modern pop culture to expand into Korean traditional culture, food, social character, language and literature. Presently, Hallyu has developed from a regional buildout into a global evolution, driven by the Internet and social media mainly through video-sharing platform YouTube which enables the proliferation of K-pop music videos and digital content of K-drama series. Global Hallyu fanbase is increasingly enlarging, and internationally there were 987 Hallyu-related organisations with a combined membership of 9 million people according to the figures released by an international cultural watchdog in 2013.
Comparing with Regional Neighbours
While Myanmar was among the regional Asian countries first touched by the inceptive diffusion of the Korean Wave, the influence had not become so much strong in the country compared to its more developed and socially more advanced neighbours. Although various reasons can be in place for that, economic deprivation and generations-long digital gap might be assumed to be the main justification for the relatively limited booming of Hallyu in Myanmar which had been lagging behind in several aspects.
The Opening-up and Culture Shock
But circumstances have greatly changed since recent years when Myanmar commenced opening to the outside world under the previous government. The continuous, striking developments in political, social and economic dimensions have engendered the socio-cultural paradigm shifts in Myanmar and the nation’s traditional and societal norms become more and more challenged by new-arrival internationalised cultural practices – embraced mostly by urban populations. Society encounters various occasions of culture shock caused by particularly changed cultural behaviours that have not been widely imported or accepted/practised before.
The Korean Wave Upsurges
In this setting, the Korean Wave in Myanmar also has been quite different from the past, more strengthening than ever. Several K-pop artists fly to the country to the delight of thrilling Myanmar addicts who accept the chance to meet their idols alive as a golden opportunity in life. The first K-pop concert in Myanmar was held in early 2014 with the rendering of some renowned K-pop acts including Girl’s Day and Dal Shabet. Then, world-famous girl group 2NE1 arrived in Myanmar in mid-2014 to deliver their first-ever performance in the country where 70 percent of population is rural and around 25 percent lives below the national poverty line. Later, a few other K-pop bands came on to Myanmar, and most recently Myanmar enthusiasts enjoyed SISTAR and a group of Korean acts played a concert in June 2016.
Korean star or idol look alike contests and Korean style contests are nowadays more common than the past in Myanmar; events being mainly organised in Yangon, the country’s biggest commercial city and socially most advanced centre. Yangon is where all the K-pop concerts in Myanmar performed by actual K-pop stars have taken place. As in most cultural and societal topics that concern Myanmar, Hallyu is predominantly active and best noticeable in Yang0n. Myanmar’s Hallyu fanatics who once had electronic communication constraints to hunt Korean entertainment as desired can now acquire the stuff as easily as in outpacing neighbouring countries due to the recent digital revolution. The enthusiasm is found strongest among teenagers and under-25s who are tech-savvy generations. Not like the predecessor generations who usually fancy American rock music and were subjected to Americanisation, younger generations generally become devotees of Korean pop culture and Korean idols. The process is powered by mobile literacy, an advantage easily available by newer generations.
Myanmar is no difference from other countries that the craze for Korean pop culture is chiefly prevalent among young female fans. Myanmar girl fans engage themselves in K-pop idol obsession and show such attitudes and behaviours that are normal to international female maniacs of K-pop idols – the likes of claiming idol guys as theirs and sharing fancies about relationships with idols, attacking other idols they dislike and their fans on social media, writing fan fictions online, blogging idol-related content, participating in K-pop related activities, adding their posts and photos to mashup threads created for idol-related chatting and so on.
It has not been so long Myanmar was emancipated from a decades-long international isolation. With the opening-up, striking socio-cultural paradigm shifts have been obvious in the rapid-changing society. Among the changes, a notable development that is worthy of attention for cultural perspective is the upswing of the Korean Wave – a very powerful phenomenon that has been exporting an oriental pop culture to many parts of the world. An alien culture is tapping on Myanmar’s doors.
