[KS] Re: Korea-mania in China

[Hyungsub Choi]

Hello,

Being a Korean, and coming to the US only a year ago, I have had some
close observation of the Korean media about the "Dai Han Liu" trend. Let
me jump in and give a few comments on the Korean entertainment industry.

One factor I think we shouldn't underestimate is the transformation of
Korean entertainment from a small-scale to a "ultra-large scale
industry." Represented by a singer-manager called Yi Su Man, and his
company SM Entertainment Agency, the Korean singers began to be
"manufactured" and thoroughly "marketed" by professionals. A big 
proportion of the "Han Liu," I believe, are those young, dancer-singer
groups, i.e. H.O.T, S.E.S, etc. (Of course, there are exceptions.)

Thus, two factors, the susceptibility of the Chinese to trendy
entertainment, and the ability of the Koreans to perceive and provide what
the Chinese wanted, should both be analyzed in order to understand this
phenomenon.

Postscript) This is my first posting to this listserve. So let me
introduce myself. My name is Hyungsub Choi, graduate student in history of
technology at Georgia Tech, Atlanta. I am interested in Modern Korean
history, especially in keywords such as "industrialization", "technology",
and "modernity." Currently I am working on a paper titled "Efficiency and
Ideology: The Rise of a New Management System in North Korea,
1955-1967."

Hyungsub Choi

685 Cherry Street (D.M. Smith Bldg)
School of History, Technology, and Society
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0345
Email: gte141x at prism.gatech.edu
Phone/fax: 404-315-1450 (home)