Introduction: Some issues related to contemporary East asian media stars
No one would deny that Korean popular culture has taken a central place in twenty-
first- century Asian show business. Within the last two decades, the Korean media industry
has successfully created many pan-Asian sensations, and been assiduously exporting its cul-
tural products, including TV programs, film, music, talents and many other consumption goods.
Furthermore, Korean stars have become the most desirable assets in contemporary East Asian
media cultural businesses.
Many Korean stars are crossing borders to perform in other East Asian media, including
advertisements, TV dramas, and films. Of course, not all of these commercial productions with
transnational casts succeed. The public seems to understand that the media business mainly
uses transnational casting for financial gain—capitalizing on the popularity of Korean media
culture—rather than for any particular cultural or artistic expression. For instance, Chinese
critics have described the influx of Korean performers in the quickly growing Chinese media
as “the gold rush of Korean stars in China” (Tsai 2013). However, films and TV programs with
Korean casts are usually less commercially and artistically successful than local productions in
terms of TV and box office ratings. They seldom gain overwhelming success. The “transnational
productions,” what Ying Zhu (2008, 94) calls the Chinese clones of Korean TV dramas, seem
only to consume the surplus value of the popularity of Korean popular culture.
Japanese media are recognized for their rigorous criteria and demands for high production
quality so the Japanese public seem to be less concerned about the lack of cultural expres-
sion. Nonetheless, Japanese society seems to have a nationalist backlash against the import of
Korean media and transnational casting. The best-selling Manga Kenkanryū [Disliking Korean
Wave] (2005) further ignited anti-Korean sentiment, including illuminating the territorial dis-
pute concerning a group of islets between Japan and Korea, known as “Dokdo” in Korea and
“Takeshima” in Japan. Japanese nationalists reject Korean entertainers who display a patriotic
pro-Korea stance concerning Korea–Japan territorial disputes and other historical problems
(The Chosun Ilbo 2011). The nationalistic response of ordinary individuals to these foreign stars
is parallel to the Japanese official response to the Korean government in politics. Consequently,
Japanese politicians have called for a reduction in the craze for Korean popular culture in 2012
(Lee 2012).