Remembering my former MA thesis while watching a Korean drama, Coffee Prince.
Episode 7: the Japanese waffle cooker (most handsome guy in the whole serie, which is not filled with eye candies except for that Japanese guy) at Coffee Prince reveals that he used to date a Korean girl, and had a baby with her.
This is the very first time -I suppose. And, if you disagree and have evidence, you are more than welcome to write a comment below!- that in a Korean drama, a Japanese guy dates a Korean girl.
Until now, Korean men would date Japanese women. The reverse (Korean women dating Japanese men) would represent a definite "no no", an impossible happening on television.
Lee Dong-Ho, professor at Incheon University contended, in articles, a book chapter (see her contribution to Feeling Asian modernities, edited by Koichi Iwabuchi), and during an interview which was part of my field work, that it is unthinkable for a Korean drama director to let a Korean women fall in love for a Japanese man because such love configuration would recall the unbearable diplomatic relationship between Japan and Korea. Letting the Japanese male actor dominate the relationship with a Korean female actor would be tauntamont to recalling the Japanese imperialist domination over Korea in some ways.
By letting a Japanese male character have an affair/long lasting relationship with a Korean female character, Coffee Prince is announcing a profound improvement in the Japanese-Korean diplomatic relations. The so-called "profound scar" of the Japanese imperialism has then been slightly erased, by the power of a drama, by the magic of a secondary character in a drama...
Analysis to be continued...
2 commentaires:
Interesting!There is certainly still a healthy amount of bad feeling toward the Japanese here but it would be nice to see more open investigation on inter-Asian relations and hopefully this is a sign of more to come - also to look into, the continual snubbing of the Chinese by both Japanese and Koreans.
Nice to see you've returned to your old prolific blogging.
Good post.
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