HanRyu/China

Original Link : http://www.skynews.co.kr/skynews_main/english/culture/culture_023.htm

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CULTURE- Korean Pop Fever Hits China</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=euc-kr"> <style type="text/css"> </style> </head>

2001. 2. 11. (Vol.2 No.23)

Korean Pop Fever Hits China The success of Korean popular entertainers in China is helping to promote Korean culture and trade, although a recent ban on live performances by Korean musicians is causing concern.

Clon

Last June, Lee Hee-Ho, wife of president Kim Dae-Jung, expressed deep thanks to Sun Wei, a Chinese pop singer, at a Korean tourism promotion event she hosted to promote the 2001 Visit Korea Year. The young Chinese woman was invited to the occasion in appreciation of her pioneering activities to propagate Korean popular music in her own country. Through her efforts, the image of Korea has been boosted throughout China.

        When she introduced “Cheerful Boys,” a Chinese adaptation
     of “Kungdarai-sabara,” which was originally recorded by the Korean song       and dance duo two years ago, it caused a sensation in the country where       the slow and melancholy melody was dominant in the pop music genre.
        As a result, Clon, the muscular duo, held a giant debut
     concert to a packed house in Beijing in November 1999 on occasion of the       50th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
        They were the first Korean pop artists ever granted the

official right to perform by the Chinese government.Also the five some H.O.T. (High Five of Teenagers) performed their dark raps and silky ballads in front of an audience of some 12,000 in Beijing last February. The audience swayed their hands and sang in the Korean language while the five young men were performing under floodlights. <img src=" " width="252" height="194">

Chang Dong-Gon

Korean girls, too, dominate the pop music scene in China, and the top ten music chart frequently listed Baby Vox, S.E.S., Finkle, Lee Chong-Hyun and Om Chong-Hwa in the foreign popular music category last year.

        A Korean music program regularly aired by a Beijing radio

station paved the way for the Korean wave. Also, unlicensed copies of cassette tapes, compact discs and video discs, which are still dominant across China, also contributed to the spread of Korean music even though the copyright owners earned no extra money.

H.O.T

The popularity of the singers is giving rise to a new social and trade climate favorable to Korea, dubbed the "current of Korea" by the local Chinese media. In downtown Beijing, a music cafe dedicated to H.O.T. swarms with young Chinese fans eager to listen to their favorite Korean group and check out paraphernalia featuring their idols' handsome young faces.

        And H.O.T.'s signature costumes and outlandish fashion
     coordination has fueled brisk sales of Korean-made clothing. Despite their       exorbitant prices, boots priced at 200 U.S. dollars andjeans retailing for       100 dollars have been selling like hotcakes, according to the Korea Trade-Investment       Promotion Agency (KOTRA) office in Beijing.
        This territorial expansion is hardly limited to singers.

Some of Korea's heartthrobs and drama stars are proving that they are just as attractive in China. Driven by the robust sales of Korean TV soap operas, some leading characters have become more adored in China than in Korea. <img src=" " width="198" height="259">

Ann Chae-Uk

Chinese young girls spent their monthly wage to see Ahn Chae-Uk at his solo concert at the spacious Beijing Gymnasium, and this was followed by concerts in other big cities. He gained wide exposure in China via “The Star in My Heart”, a trendy melodrama in which he performed as the black sheep of a family who wins the heart of a female protagonist who was supposed to marry his elder brother.

         Business group Samsung has made a commercial with Ahn,
     a pop icon in China, in order to promote sales of its electronics goods       in the country.
        While girls develop motherly affection towards Ahn, a
     fragile looking cheerful figure, they are smitten by Chang Tong-Gon, another       Korean star, for his handsome face, muscular body and strong touch of chic.       The latter became known to Chinese TV viewers through dramas, “Brothers       in Medicine” and “Model.”                   The Chinese
       girls wear character badges featuring their Korean idols, decorate the         dormitory walls with their photos and furthermore study the Korean language         in order to better understand the meaning of the songs and to enable them         to say hello to the stars in Korean.
          Over 30,000 incoming Chinese tourists during the lunar
       New Year holidays last month included young people from newly-affluent         families eager to buy the original discs of their favorite Korean musicians.
          The Korean fever is, regretfully, in jeopardy after
       a Beijing concert studded with Korean star musicians was aborted last         November a few hours before it was due to start. It is not yet clear who         is really responsible for the incident, but Beijing has banned Korean         pop musicians from taking the stage in China for the time being. Insiders         in the Korean pop music industry hope that their government will mediate         and solve the problem as soon as possible.

By Libera Hong, culture writer

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