Nowadays, Chinese local fans are unfamiliar with first-generation Korean wave stars of the early 2000s, mainly Jun Ji Hyun and Song Hye Kyo. However, as a second Korean wave hit China once again, the gap between Korean celebrities and local fans is narrowing down as time goes by with Korean stars like Lee Min Ho, Kim Soo Hyun, and BIGBANG gaining wide popularity.
At 7 p.m. on March 22, G-DRAGON, along with TAEYANG, f(x), U-KISS, Kan Mi Youn, RAINBOW, A-JAX, C-REAL, Block B, Jjun, Crayon Pop, and VIXX, took part in a large-scale K-pop concert, “Simply K-Pop Tour 2014 in Shanghai,” at the Shanghai Mercedez-Benz Arena in China.
About 10,000 fans crowded the concert arena that day. The highlight of the concert was of course G-DRAGON’s finale performance. He mesmerized local fans with his hit songs, “ONE OF A KIND,” “GO,” “CRAYON,” and “CROOKED,” singing them nonstop.
On March 23, merely a day after G-DRAGON’s performance, Kim Soo Hyun held a fan meeting at a giant auditorium in Shanghai. All 4,000 tickets for the event were sold out through an online reservation in advance, and there was a great hustle and bustle at the venue of the fan meeting with ticket touts, thus nearly 700 Chinese police officers were dispatched to crack down on them.
Local media outlets reported, “ticket price of 1,250 Chinese yuan (approximately 210,000 Korean won) jumped to 25,000 yuan (approximately 4.3 million won),” which is a whopping 20-fold increase.
The fact that two large-scale events were held during the weekend of March 22 to 23 has a significant meaning. It is also noteworthy that K-Pop and Do Min Jun (Kim Soo Hyun’s character in SBS’ drama, “My Love from the Star”) earned more attention than the Korean wave.
Since the early 2000s, when first-generation Korean wave stars like Jun Ji Hyun and Song Hye Kyo appeared, a Korean wave contents management system has been developing in China. At the time, it was not an easy task to come across the Korean wave culture.
However, Chinese fans can now easily access to Korean dramas and music in real time, thanks to the development of video connection systems, mainly “youku.com” and “tudou.com,” and advanced connection among web portal sites. As for “My Love from the Star,” a website was created that aired the drama almost in real time in China with only a five-minute difference from the actual air time in Korea.
In other words, various means were created that enabled access to Korean media contents as “enjoyable cultural contents,” not just as the Korean wave. Also, coupled with China’s growing economic power, more opportunities have been created to invite Korean stars easily. Even the news on Korean stars, such as Kim Soo Hyun, Lee Min Ho, G-DRAGON, and Jun Ji Hyun, visiting China have become a routine.
Chinese local fans enjoying K-Pop and falling in love with Do Min Jun well show how far the Korean wave has advanced.
Via YG blog
0 comments:
Post a Comment