Confucian heroes in popular Asian dramasIn the cases of My Love from the Star and Hanzawak Naoki, it is the union of money and politics
that creates programs to guide the emotive responses of viewers in search of entertaining edifica-
tion. In addition to approving the censorship of transgressive women, autocratic men, and liberal
ideas, viewers accept prominent product placements such as Samsung smartphones, Hyundai
cars, LG TVs, and Canon 60d cameras embedded in many scenes, because they are perceived as
markers of prosperity.^25
Staggering special effects, lavish tech gadgets, and fashionable characters all seem to impress
upon the audience the progress of time, but these productions profess a narrative desire to return
to the past and transform the world into a more readable text, as flashbacks of both shows have
demonstrated. Naoki, in particular, embodies an intellectual mission of speaking for the social
victims struggling to recover from economic downturns. His mixed language of revenge and
compassion resonates with Asian viewers across national borders, be they the Japanese wage
earners having to endure a long-term recession since the 1990s or the Korean workers trauma-
tized by the Asian financial crisis in 1997–1998 or the Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Filipino,
and Thai laborers suffering from continuing economic exploitation. Naoki brings to one’s home
screen the moral courage to be bold and just.
Although I compare Min-joon and Naoki to Confucian heroes, their elitism is not much
different from the kind of uncompromising public intellectualism outlined in Edward Said’s
argument about politics and representations. For Said, the most important task of a public
intellectual is to “speak truth to power” and to uphold such universal principles as freedom and
justice for all.^26 This humane position is similar to the Confucian conception of how a virtuous
junzi (“scholarly gentleman”) should act:
Now the man of altruistic virtue, wishing to establish himself, also seeks to establish
others; wishing to enlighten himself, he also seeks to enlighten others. To be able to
judge others by how we judge ourselves—this is the way of virtue.^27This self–other division helps solidify a perspectival hierarchy where only a select few are able
to define what “truth” means for us. This top-down structure gives TV producers unmitigated
liberty to envision noble leaders as the legitimate offspring of a forceful marriage between
Confucianism and Capitalism, who are able to leap over any conceptual gaps between virtue and
greed, altruism and self-centeredness. Ultimately, Min-joon and Naoki represent a self- fulfilling
fantasy for an Asian viewing community, drawn to a less complicated multicultural society
where good men lead the way to perform filial affiliations as symbolic acts to make the world a
more orderly, intelligible place.
Notes
1 China News Net. Accessed February 1, 2015. http://www.chinanews.com/gn/2014/07-22/6409764.
shtml.
2 Chua Beng Hua explains that “soft power,” according to Joseph Nye, “rests on the ability to shape the
preference of others” (Nye 2005: 5). It is a cultural and ideological form of persuasion, convincing
others that your views are better than theirs and they should follow your lead (Chua 2012, 119–120).
3 Several media outlets have reported on the record-breaking rating of the show in different countries. See
http://article.wn.com/view/2013/10/31/Into_Asia_TV_drama_Hanzawa_Naoki_a_hit_inChina
Taiwan/. Accessed February 2, 2015.
4 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/season-finale-show-bankers-draws-635399. Accessed
February 10, 2015.
5 Alan Wheatley, “Asian Style,” in International Monetary Fund, June 2014, Vol. 51, No. 2. http://www.imf.
org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2014/06/wheatley.htm. Accessed February 20, 2015.