Is the spread of the Korean Wave advantageous for Korea?

 

BY Hwang Yeon-Ju

Seodang Elementary School

 

 

Korean and Chinese broadcasting stations have recently started working together to coproduce popular TV programs, including “Run Brother”, and “Papagena,” which are Chinese versions of the popular Korean shows “Running Man” and “Daddy, Where Are We Going?” respectively. Will this prove beneficial for the Korean entertainment industry? The answer is a definitive and resounding “No.”

The first problem is that many Korean directors and writers are moving to China due to higher wages. The producer from the popular show “You Who Came from the Stars”, Jang Tae-yoo, has signed on for a five year contract with Yuehua Entertainment. Although this will bring in a lot of money in the short-term, it will cause major problems in the long term, because Korean knowledge and expertise will leak into China. This will result in the weakening of the Korea’s competitive television programs.

Next, many stars might avoid appearing in Korean programs because of the difference in pay. Due to the vast size of the Chinese media industry, actors in China would receive higher wages. For example, Kim Soo-hyeon was recently paid 500 million won for appearing once on a Chinese program. The Korean entertainment industry simply cannot compete with China’s huge budget.

In order to prevent any further harm to Korea’s media industry, we need to incentivize Korean writers, producers, and actors with a good environment and better pay. If we don’t, we risk losing our creativity and ‘knowhow’ to China.

clarehwang@naver.com