BHC EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION, INC.

KOREAN CULTURE INVASION
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE INFLUENCES ON FILIPINOS
A Research Paper Presented to Mrs. Rhea Jane Serrano-Manalo In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement in English IV

Presented by: Angelica C. Perlas

March 2013

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to give the positive and negative effects of Hallyu or Korean Wave to the Filipino lifestyle. The researcher aimed to analyze the gathered information from articles, theses and other published work. The method used in this study is the descriptive method of research. The researcher gathered information from published articles like K-pop Domination: Good or Bad Influence?, Filipinos Get Hooked on K-Pop Craze, Korean Dramas, Kpop Helped Reshape Philippine TV, Music, Korean Culture in the Philippines, Korean Lifestyle, Korean Wave Hits the Shore of the Philippines, Koreanovela and its Reception among Filipino Audience, Korean ‘Hallyu’ and the Pinoy Invasion, and By Design: A Look at Korea’s Fashion Industry. The researcher concluded that although some benefits of Hallyu contribute to Filipinos eagerness of developing their own culture, there is still a need for Filipinos to control themselves from patronizing the foreign world.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This term paper entitled KOREAN CULTURE INVASION: POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE INFLUENCES ON FILIPINOS was done properly, not only through the efforts of the researcher but also through the efforts of other people who helped her. This term paper was the result of attending classes in English IV and the application of what the researcher learned. The researcher likes to acknowledge Mrs. Rhea Jane S. Manalo, the subject teacher for English IV at BHC Educational Institution, Inc. for teaching the researcher the basics of writing a term paper. The researcher would also like to thank her family who gave considerations and encouragement while doing this term paper. But above everything else, the researcher conveys her gratitude to the Almighty God who bestowed blessings to the researcher, strength and critical thinking capacity that made her study possible. Gloriam Solus Deus Est!

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY For the past decades, invasion of foreign countries to the Philippines is very evident. The country experienced Spanish, Japanese, and American occupation which paved the way for different foreign culture to influence the Filipino lifestyle. Filipinos also do what is trending especially when it comes to clothing, entertainment and behavior. When it comes to clothing, entertainment, and behavior, nobody can deny the Korean culture popularity. Many people pattern their lifestyle to the Koreans. From the way they dress up to the way they act, they adopt the Korean way since it looks creative and somehow pleasing to the eyes of many people. Sometimes, these influences are not really helpful to people especially if they start forgetting their own culture. One good thing with Korea is it can preserve its traditional culture while heading through progress. But for some countries with people who adopt foreign culture, their citizens leave their native culture and start patronizing the foreign one. Although Korean influences are beautiful and creative, there are still disadvantages of adopting these specifically to those who are not compatible with the Korean lifestyle.

B. SCOPE AND LIMIT This study focuses on Korean influences on Filipinos, its positive and negative effects, and some ways on how to control the culture invasion to preserve the native culture. The influences included in this study come from South Korea— popularity of Kpop, K-drama, K-fashion and lifestyle.

C. METHODOLOGY This tem paper used the descriptive method of research. This method includes gathering of information from published reference materials and on the internet. The

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researcher gathered information from books, encyclopedia, some theses and articles, and from the internet. The researcher also had a thorough analysis of the information gathered.

D. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The objective of this study is to define the influences of South Korean culture popularity to Filipinos, its development and its effect on Filipinos’ clothing and behavior. This will help develop the patriotism of Filipinos with their own culture and help them control their response to foreign influences. Furthermore, this study will help Filipinos discern their sense of identity despite the fact that they are living in a boundless world. Since teenagers are the most vulnerable in absorbing pop culture, this study can help inform them of the consequences of these influences. It can also help the parents and educators guide teenagers to control their adaptation of foreign pop culture through embedding native culture in their activities and controlling their exposure to destructive foreign influences. Fashion designers can also have a guide on which clothes to make.

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CHAPTER II PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS I. KOREAN CULTURE INFLUENCES A. TYPES Hallyu or Korean wave became so popular since 1990s in many countries such as China, Vietnam, Singapore and other East and Southeast Asian countries (Kwon, 2006). Here are the most prominent types of Korean influences which made people like the Korean way. 1. K-POP AND K-DRAMA. K-pop, which is an abbreviation of Korean Pop Music is a musical genre originated in South Korea and is very popular since it is sung by systematically trained K-pop idols. K-drama (Korean drama) refers to televised dramas produced in South Korea that became popular throughout the world and had greatly contributed to Hallyu before K-pop became so popular (Wikipedia, 2013 para 1). 2. CLOTHING. Hanbok, the traditional clothing of Korea is still worn by Koreans especially for special ceremonies or during holidays. But today, Koreans are already influenced by the western style of clothing and they have developed their own fashion style. Koreans are now recognized for their high sense of fashion that’s why many young people choose the Korean way of clothing to go with the trend. Korea has also been known as a producer of high quality textiles (Stangarone, 2013). Young Koreans became so fashion-conscious that trends come and go and even change from season to season (Korean Lifestyle, para 9). 3. LIFESTYLE. In Korea, bowing is a normal way of greeting especially when you meet older people or those who have higher status than you. In addition, it is a customary Confucian tradition to perform the jeol, a deep bow on bent knees, chest touching the floor and the arms stretched forward to show respect to parents or older relatives on special holidays.

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It is also very acceptable in Korea for members of the same sex (not homosexuals) to place an arm around each other’s shoulder or to hold hands to show close friendship. Howbeit, it very offensive for members of opposite sexes to express affection in public. Korean meal consists of bap (boiled rice), guk or tang (soup), kimchi and other side dishes. Kimchi is the most popular and most essential of all. Kimchi and Koreans are inseparable. Some households eat in a Westerner way but there are still families who continue to eat a traditional meal. Korea was partly affected by Chinese culture. Because of this, the number ‘4,’ which has the same sound as the Chinese letter symbolizing ‘death’, is considered to be bad luck. Most buildings in Korea do not have fourth floor like other countries that do not have thirteenth floor for the same reason (Korean Lifestyle, pars 1, 2, 4, and 10). Koreans also had their own martial art—Taekwondo. It combines combat and self-defense techniques with sport and exercise. It became as the world’s most popular martial art in 1989 and was included in the Olympic since 2000 (Wikipedia, 2013).

B. DEVELOPMENT Korean way of life before the 1900s was an agricultural society built on strong family ties. Korean lifestyle changed after Japan invaded the country in 1910. After the World War II, the communists brought great changes in Korea particularly the Southern part. From traditional style most Koreans have adopted the Western style (The World Book Encyclopedia, 1994). Hallyu have reached the Philippines in 2003 by the popularity of Koreanovelas or K-dramas when the first k-dramas were aired locally (Kwon, 2006). According to Dr. Crisanta Flores, a professor of Filipino Literature at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Korean soap operas were very different from locally-produced series. Filipino

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dramas usually focus on poverty-ridden stories while K-dramas are light. In addition, Filipinos also like the way the stories are told. It is told in a creative way and very unpredictable unlike most of the common Filipino plots. Florinda Mateo, another professor from UP also said that many Filipino viewers are amazed on how fast a story could be told, how fast a plot can develop and the kind of acting— which is very different from the brand of acting that we know from Filipino actors. On the other hand, K-pop became more popular among Filipino youth at around 2009. Through the use of Internet and crowdsourcing, the popularity of K-pop grew faster in a smaller period of time than that of K-drama. Crowdsourcing enables the fans to feel closer to their idols in a way that Western music cannot give them. Crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers. Through

crowdsourcing, the fans are able to share their fan art, get information about their idols, and the idols themselves are able to be in touch with their fans in a personal way through online. Katherine Choy, an employee for music events organizing company Astroplus, stressed that K-pop should now be considered a musical genre on its own, particularly now that it is infiltrating the global scene beyond Asia (Santamaria, 2012). On the side of Korean fashion, traditional Korean clothing is still worn by Koreans during holidays and special gatherings, but since they have been influenced by Western style of clothing, Koreans became very fashion-conscious and they had developed different styles of clothing which most Filipino youth describe as “cute” or “creative”. Korean way of clothing is usually colorful, sometimes full of design such as stripes or polka dots. They also wear thick clothes since the weather in Korea is cold. Koreans popularized the fur coats through the K-drama Boys Over Flowers aired in the Philippines in 2009. K-pop idols also popularized the use of colored high socks and unusual hair color and hairstyles such as having full bangs.

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Although Koreans still preserve their traditional lifestyle, they have developed some unique characteristics that we can say to be “the modern day Korean way”. One characteristic that they popularized is the way they pose on photos. We know that the “peace sign” was already popularized by the Japanese but the Koreans made it more well-liked by the youth through again, the K-pop stars. They also popularized the duck face and pouty lips which most young people make as their profile pictures in some social networking sites. It can be observed that they do “cute” poses that made them somehow vain.

II. POSITIVE EFFECTS A. FILIPINOS’ WAY OF LIFE 1. CLOTHING It is very obvious that hallyu had brought great changes to Filipinos’ fashion. Filipino youth became more concerned on how they look and they want to be “in trend”. Filipino fashion designers also became more creative in designing clothes to match the trend that Korean fashion had started (Korean Wave, 2010). Most Filipino youth who are fashion-conscious who lack budget for buying new clothes make use of their creativity skills just to go with the trend (Korean Culture in the Philippines, 2011). On the observation of the researcher, wearing K-pop inspired clothes is compatible to most teenagers. The vivid colors of the clothes suit their age. 2. BEHAVIOR Before the emergence of Korean dramas in the Philippines, Filipino dramas were first influenced by Mexicanovelas which have heavier conflicts compared to light and romantic comedies portrayed in K-dramas. Mexicanovelas also focus on explicit images of women while K-dramas focus on family-oriented

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teenage characters. With these reasons, Filipinos behavior towards producing TV shows became more creative and fresher to the eyes of the audience than those of the traditional shows that had very predictable endings. Kimmy Dora, Budoy, My Binondo Girl, I Heart You Pare, Together Forever are only some of the Filipino production which adopted the Korean style of storytelling. The popularity of K-pop also paved the way for the emergence of P-pop or Pinoy Pop which is a proof to the vast popularity of K-pop groups which provided a drive to young, aspiring Filipinos, to organize themselves as a group of performers who dance and gyrate like the K-pop idols. Some of the P-pop groups are XLR8, Down to Mars, Eurasia, and Pointen (Hicap, 2012). Since Koreans are so polite in a way that they greet people with a smile saying Annyeong Haseyo (Korean term for ‘hello’), many Filipino teenagers have adopted this kind of greeting. Based on personal experience, the elders cannot relate to the joy a teenager can feel when saying the Korean term to people he or she meets. On the researcher’s point of view, being a fan of K-dramas, one always likes to imitate the lead characters resulting to a happier person that faces a problem with optimism just like the characters in K-dramas do.

III. NEGATIVE EFFECTS A. FILIPINO’S WAY OF LIFE 1. CLOTHING Due to the want of most Filipino teenagers to go with the trend that Korean fashion has popularized, they are willing to sacrifices some things. One factor affected by wearing K-pop inspired clothes is that teenagers are eager to look weird as long as they tried to copy the Korean hair, clothing style and shoes.

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Aside from “annoying” expressions Filipino teenagers can see from people who feel weird for their clothes, is the mismatch of clothes they wear to the climate that the Philippines has. Koreans made use of fur coats or leather jackets for their winter season but in the case of the Filipino youth, they wear these kinds of clothing even during summer just to be said that they are “in” with the K-pop and K-drama trend. Wearing K-pop inspired clothes are sometimes “OA” since Filipinos are used to wear simple shirts and jeans while today’s youth wear clothes with so many accessories that are sometimes hinder the ease of movement (Korean Culture in the Philippines, 2011). The researcher’s perspective regarding on Filipinos who wear K-pop Fashion a lot, popularizes the Filipino slang “jologs” which means those who go with the trend but doesn’t look good on what they wear. 2. BEHAVIOR K-dramas are very popular for Filipinos with the fact that girls go crazy when they watch cute actors on TV. Its fame affected the Filipino producers by adopting the concept of most K-dramas. With this activity, Filipinos nearly forget the beauty of originality on television. Imitation of Korean idols also let Filipinos to disregard their true personality just to feel the pleasure of being called “cute” when people see their photos doing the duck face and the pouty lips pose. There is also a fact that not all Filipinos look “cute” when they do Korean poses (Korean Culture in the Philippines, 2011). In addition to these negative effects, the researcher also observed that some Filipino women now do not appreciate the charisma of Filipino men since they have found handsome, cute, and crazy-looking (or other out-of-this-world description) K-pop stars. Most Filipino today also wanted to spend indiscriminately just to buy their newest albums. This affects the patriotism of Filipinos to their own country.

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CHAPTER III SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION A. SUMMARY This study is done to know the positive and negative effects of Hallyu or Korean Wave on how Filipinos act on their everyday life. It also analyzes the effects given and how they can be beneficial or dangerous to the patriotism of Filipinos. Based on the gathered information about the positive effects of Hallyu, Filipinos learned to go with the trend and base their lifestyle to the happier lifestyle of Koreans especially the Kpop idols. Most positive effects presented were about the consciousness of Filipinos to fashion and when it comes to behavior they develop OPM (Original Pilipino Music) basing it to the Kpop style. The negative effects of Hallyu include the decrease of patriotism among Filipinos particularly when they spend indiscriminately on Korean products— K-pop albums and Kdrama DVDs. The Filipinos, based on the article Korean Culture in the Philippines, remove the simplicity and practicality in wearing clothes.

B. CONCLUSION Based on the ideas from the past chapters, Hallyu has really brought great changes to the Filipino lifestyle. It changed how Filipinos act toward things. It is not bad to like foreign culture especially the now-popular Korean Wave. Maybe there are some benefits that can help Filipinos’ creativity on things. It is beneficial in the sense that we make use of their influences to improve Filipino products and to somehow divert the attention of Filipino K-pop fans to P-pop and P-dramas. However, these benefits would also cause more Filipinos to patronize Korean Wave especially when Filipinos are not able to match what the Koreans can do when it comes to performance level. We can never remove the fact that Filipinos easily like foreign culture. The

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only thing or remedy we can do towards Korean craze is to control ourselves and put limits on what we imitate from them to avoid future possible conflicts.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

“Crowdsourcing”. Def. by Merriam-Webster.com. 2013. Giannelli. “K-pop Domination: Good or Bad Influence?”. 12 October 2010.

Hicap, Jonathan M. “Filipinos Get Hooked on K-Pop Craze”. Korean Times. 6 September 2009. Hicap, Jonathan M. “Korean Dramas, K-pop Helped Reshape Philippine TV, Music”. Manila Bulletin. 7 October 2012. “K-drama”. Wikipedia. 2013. “K-pop”. Wikipedia. 2013. “Korean Culture in the Philippines”. 4 September 2011. “Korean Lifestyle”. . “Korean Wave Hits the Shore of the Philippines”. 2010.

Kwon, Dong Hwan. “Is it too Early to Talk about Hallyu in the Philippines? Koreanovela and its Reception among Filipino Audience”. Cultural Space and Public Sphere in Asia. (Seoul: 2006) Santamaria, Carlos. “Korean ‘Hallyu’ and the Pinoy Invasion”. 19 September 2012. Stangarone, Troy. ”By Design: A Look at Korea’s Fashion Industry”. 14 February 2013.

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