Resistance in korean soap opera
Posted in Art & Culture, Media, South Korea on May 8th, 2007I shamelessly admit that I got addicted to Korean soap opera after 15 years of absence from Korean TV. Maybe this is age or something else but I have been missing home lately. Unfortunately (or fortunately) my homesickness led me to watch Korean soap operas in a perverted attempt to reconnect with my own culture. I know I am getting a warped view on Korean society but at the same time I’ve glimpsed some cultural changes in Korea that I wasn’t aware of.
I noticed that in soap operas, issues like homosexuality, AIDS, single mothers, divorce etc. that used to be taboo to discuss in Korean culture are now often part of storylines. For example, I’m currently watching a drama called “thank you” which is a typically-formulated Korean drama; however, it deals with AIDS and addresses people’s prejudices and the social stigma surrounding AIDS patients. Actually I found an AP article on this drama mentioning about how this drama is used to educate people with HIV.
Despite the limitation of construction of stories in soap opera, I think this demonstrates how cultural, social and political resistance take place in popular culture. It will be interesting to explore how resistance in popular culture connects to real social and political movements.