New age of hallyu goddesses emerges

(From left) Im Yoona, Park Shin-hye and Victoria Song

By Ko Dong-hwan

When the term "hallyu," or Korean wave, was coined in the late 1990s and China started paying attention to Korean A-listers from TV and movies, the first to become sensations were actresses Song Hye-kyo and Jun Ji-hyun.

But those "first age of hallyu goddesses" are handing over the title to a new wave of stars who, after building careers in the Korean entertainment industry, have moved to China and built strong fan bases. The emerging hallyu stars are singers Im Yoona and Victoria Song and actress Park Shin-hye.

Im from Hunan TV's "God of War, Zhao Yun"

China is hailing Im, a member of K-pop girl band Girls' Generation, for her role in Chinese TV historical drama "God of War, Zhao Yun" on Hunan TV, which began Apr 3. She plays a female lead, and the show has recorded a rating of more than 2 percent, which is considered a huge success in a country of 1.3 billion. The drama's online replays on Chinese video sites such as Iqiyi and Sohu have recorded over 6 billion hits.

Im's fame has led to a host of commercial and variety show offers. She flew to Shanghai on Apr 18 to appear as a guest in Hunan TV's variety show "Happy Camp," her second appearance in a month.

Park from SBS's "The Heirs"

Park began her overseas career with Taiwanese TV drama "Hayate the Combat Butler" on FTV in 2011 and has become one of few hallyu stars with more than 10 million Weibo followers.

She won the Popular Foreign Actress category in the Anhui TV Drama Awards for her role in the 2013 Korean TV drama "The Heirs" on SBS.

Song from photo shoot for "High Cut" magazine

Song, a Chinese member of K-pop girl band f(x), built her entertainment career in Korean variety shows. She entered the Chinese market using her Chinese name Song Qian and nailed her first TV drama "When Love Walked in" on GTV in 2012. Further works include "Cocoon Town Romance" on GTV, "Beautiful Secret" on Hunan TV and the coming Korean comedy movie "My New Sassy Girl." Her acting career in China has boosted her stardom.

Song has also done photo shoots for fashion brands, filmed commercials and represented China at international luxury fashion brand events.

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