Bo-eun leads the digital content team. She has covered foreign affairs, North Korea, tech, economy and gender issues at The Korea Times. She did a short stint at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where she obtained a new perspective on news production and life. Small sources of joy for her are lounging in the sun, having a good latte and swimming.
Yoon's foreign policy casts cloud on China's reopening to Korean cultural content
A scene from Korean romance drama “Something in the Rain” / Korea Times file
By Kim Bo-eun
Prospects uncertain despite Beijing's recent airing of Korean TV dramas, due to Korean President-elect's THAAD pledge
By Kim Bo-eun
HONG KONG ― Korean content producers were excited to hear earlier this month that a major Chinese video streaming platform added a hit Korean romance drama to its programming. When China's iQiyi started offering "Something in the Rain" starring actress Son Ye-jin on March 3, along with another platform offering two other Korean TV dramas, expectations grew that more would follow. And yet another, “Prison Playbook,” was subsequently listed on China's video sharing website, Bilibili.
“Something in the Rain” was the first Korean TV series to obtain approval from Beijing's broadcasting regulator in five years, after Korean content was blocked there following Seoul's deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD) in 2017.
The drama's listing drew some negative responses from Chinese commenters, amid fresh anti-Korean sentiment in the country not long after various disputes at the Beijing Winter Olympics last month sparked online skirmishes between the two countries. But Korean TV series have enjoyed popularity in China, and this appears to still be the case. "Prison Playbook," released in China on March 6, ranks third in views in the TV series section of Bilibili's website as of Friday.
Korean content had been restricted for years in China since the THAAD deployment, which was made upon the agreement of South Korean and U.S. military officials to counter missile attacks from North Korea. Beijing was angered based on the claim that the anti-missile system enables the U.S. to spy on its territory.
China subsequently took moves to curb Korean businesses operating there, banning Chinese package tours to Korea and restricting Korean media content. Although China has not directly associated the series of actions with the deployment, they were widely seen as forms of economic retaliation against THAAD.
The poster for the Korean film “Oh! Moon-hee” showing its China release date on Dec. 3, 2021 / Korea Times file
Plans to release multiple films and TV series coproduced by both countries were derailed after 2017. But the soured relations improved eventually, with Beijing starting to lift restrictions in 2020 by issuing game licenses for Korean companies.
Last December, China's movie theaters began playing the Korean film "Oh! Moon-hee," after it obtained approval from the authorities six years after applying.
The Global Times, a state media outlet of China, referred to the release of the film starring veteran actress Na Moon-hee as "an obvious signal of improved cultural communication" between the countries.
"Cultural exchanges will surely play an irreplaceable and important role in celebrating this anniversary," the media outlet stated, referring to the 30th anniversary of the two countries' diplomatic relations that falls this year. 2021 and 2022 have been designated as a period for boosting bilateral cultural exchanges in TV shows and films.
This year will prove to be a critical juncture, as it marks both the 30th anniversary and the start of a new presidential administration in South Korea under Yoon Suk-yeol in May.
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, right, receives a letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered by Chinese Ambassador to Seoul Xing Haiming at the headquarters of the People Power Party in Seoul, March 11. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geun
Yoon of the conservative People Power Party, however, has pledged rather to boost Seoul's alliance with Washington, its traditional security partner, and reduce Korea's dependency on China, its largest trading partner.
The former prosecutor has gone as far as stating his plans to deploy an additional THAAD system to counter growing provocations by North Korea. This plan is posing uncertainty for the detente that has been unfolding recently, enabling the increased release of Korean cultural content in China.
“I anticipate that any additional deployment of THAAD will lead to a crackdown on Korean products, including Korean cultural products, in China,” Aynne Kokas, an associate professor of media studies at the University of Virginia, said in an email.
Kokas, also a nonresident scholar in China Studies at Rice University's Baker Institute of Public Policy, added, “It is also possible Chinese social media users will lead media boycotts of their own.”
In an article published Thursday, The Global Times, citing experts, stated Korea's next president should be cautious about his decisions.
Korean government agencies promoting Korean culture around the world also shared their concerns.
"It would be best for culture policy not to be associated with foreign policy," Kim Jin-gon, director of the Korea Cultural Center in Beijing, said via phone.
"We are hoping the latest developments of (China) opening up to Korean culture will continue under the new administration."