Just for fun

This is just for fun.

Apparently “all Asians look alike”.(I blame the media for this.) So here’s a quiz to see if its easy to distinguish between Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese.

http://www.flixster.com/quizzes/korean-japanese-taiwanese-1464904

Conclusions

It would appear indeed that Japanese rise as a leader has caused it to take on a form of cultural imperialism in the Asian context. The case studies of Taiwan and Korea show that generally, Asian audiences are open towards a Japanese structure of idol dramas.

However, in order to remain a leader, Japan has continued to pioneer and develop its own unique dramas while Taiwan and Korean dramas tend to veer to typical drama forms. The case of Japan being the leader shall continue as long as Japan reinvents itself. However, if Taiwan and Korea begin to develop their own unique forms of programming structures to reach a wider target audience, it could prove that the Taiwanese and Korean media can become leaders.

The example of Meteor Garden as being one of the most popular idol dramas inspiring Korea and Japan to come out with their own adaptations show that despite it being based on a form of Japanese media (manga) it could be viewed as something distinctly Taiwanese. If Taiwan manages to do the same with another form of entertainment on television, the audience for Taiwanese television can only grow larger.

Korea – following in Taiwan’s footsteps?

Moran and Keane (2004) brings up Korea as being yet another media giant in the Asian region. Like Taiwan, Korea has lifted its ban in 2003 for Japanese cultural products and to many, it would seem that Korea is rife with Japan-inspired programming. Lee Dong-Hoo has argued that Korea, which lacks financial resources, is choosing to imitate Japan programming as a way as banking in on the success of Japanese dramas. However, a discussion on cultural attitudes towards copying of program structures show that Korean producers tend to favour American media.

How true is all this? Well, speaking as an audience of such media, Korean dramas tend to have either really sad stories and fiercer female leads. But this may be true.

Remember Meteor Garden and Hana Yari Dango?

Say hello to Boys Over Flowers, which was released only this year, which is yet another adaptation of the same thing, only Korean. And perhaps arguably better looking.

The new preppy makeover.

Interestingly, previous consumers of Meteor Garden were interested in watching the story being retold from a different view.

Some of the differences are outlined here.

Something much commented on were the lack of passion in love scenes. Which brings about the main difference that sets Korean dramas apart from Taiwan and Japanese ones – the risque factor involved is lower.

This shows that once again, another culture is attempting to emulate what has been done before and localizing it in a country-specific context. This seems to be the winning formula in Asian media, given the presence of Japan, Korea and Taiwan. While Boys Over Flowers may show this rather clearly, Korean dramas also have offerings on dramas which have a local flavour: Dae Jang Geum (which is based off Korean history) comes to mind.

The fine balance between copying and localization is what makes each country – Taiwan, Japan and Korea distinct in Asian media. However, Moran and Keane feel that Japan and Korea are more competitive as a whole rather than Taiwan. For example, Japan’s dramas focus on more issues other than romance and therefore tend to have a little more edge – for example, 2005′s Nobuta Wo Produce was a drama themed around the issue of bullying.

Taiwan’s culture and modernization

Pipes (1991) puts forward the notion that in order to modernization to occur, it is not necessary for all nations to go through all the steps, using Taiwan as an example of a country following in Japan’s footsteps.

In other words, Pipes is saying that Taiwan’s development would not be where it is today without the Japanese model.

What requires modernization to occus? According to Pipes this is not a clear cut question. Japan used to have a different image before the 1960s came – feudal, unstable and authoritarian and yet it managed to beat the West at its own game.

Confucianism used to be seen as a hindrance to modernization, which was proven wrong by Japan. The ethos of hard work, education, austerity, group loyalty and respect to authority is now seen in a more positive light.

It is then no surprise with Japan paving the way as the first to promote such Asian values that other countries like Taiwan soon followed suit.

Pipes sums it up very nicely in the following paragraphs:

“Convergence. First, the leader extends its influence. Though superior force is not strictly required (as the Indian influence on China and Chinese influence on Japan make clear), it is most often the catalyst for modernization. Absent such a threat, the common practise is not to learn from aliens, for this is a painful process.

Second, the laggard absorbs the leading country’s culture. This is achieved through a wide variety of mechanisms: learning the leader’s language, sending students to its schools, importing its teachers, adopting its curricula, emulating its culture, and even converting to its religion µ or at least adopting its religious style.

Third, laggards imitate institutions of the leading country. The soverign, the bureaucracy, the judicial system, and the military all adapt themselves to the new model. Businesses and financial institutions do likewise.”

In this sense, Taiwan’s media has gone through the second stage and art is indeed imitating life.

Besides, who can resist this?

Taiwanese media part two – Why Japan?

Su(1999) describes the Taiwanese market as going through major reforms since the deregulation of the media in 1992. What Herng describes as an ‘infatuation’ with Japanese culture is attributed to Japan’s ascendance as a top political and economic power, as well as Taiwan’s growing economic power in the mid 1980′s, with the most significant barrier being television. Herng attributes the influence partly due to the fact that Taiwan was colonized by Japan in the Second World War.

Before idol dramas were popular, children in Taiwan were continually exposed to Japanese anime or cartoons, as well as the accompanying merchandise, which could have been a factor that helped the popularity of 2001′s Meteor Garden. Previously an country independent from foreign media in the 1970′s the shift that took place in the 90′s is still evident today.

A comparison can be done on different programmes like game shows. Japan’s wild style of game show is well-known across the world, even inspiring its own television series in the West I Survived A Japanese Game Show.

Japan’s over the top style has been mimicked by Taiwanese media. Perhaps the major differences between the two videos is that (other than language), Taiwanese game shows seem to rely on sex appeal as well.

It is interesting that what started out as popularity in terms of children’s programming has come much further. Moreover, such inspired content from a different country is considered something distinctly Taiwanese.

Moreover, it is surprising that the Asian market may prefer the Taiwanese version of something based off Japanese media.

Taiwanese media part one – Idol dramas

According to Moran and Keane (2004), Taiwan opened its cultural borders in 1992, which allowed greater cultural flows into the region, in which Japanese genres and formats proved itself to be popular in the region. Of note were idol dramas, which were mentioned earlier. In particular, idol dramas based on Japanese manga (or comics, if you will) were particularly popular. This led to the localization of idol dramas.

An example to note is Meteor Garden, an idol drama based off Hana Yori Dango (or Boys over Flowers), a successful Japanese shoujo manga (comics which were written to appeal to girls.) It was a classic high school love story in which a poor girl fell in love with a selfish rich guy from the infamous clique F4. (Flower Four. Frankly, I wonder why a more masculine name wasn’t chosen.) Instead of writing the characters as Japanese, the drama was written in a Taiwanese context which made a few changes to the plot and the content itself.

For those non-Asians who have no idea what on earth I am talking about, this was all the rage when I was in secondary school:

The era when centre partings were still cool, and it was okay for men to rebond their hair.

Its popularity was good enough for the drama to inspire a serial and for the four male leads to form a boyband called F4. Apparently, Christine Sun says that they outrank Hello Kitty (which is also Japanese!) in terms of popularity among Taiwanese youth. Strangely enough, the Japanese later released a drama based off the same manga and it did not match the popularity of the Taiwanese one.

From here, we can see that the popularity of F4 was owed not only because it was a Japanese/Asian influence, but because it was localized to suit a local context.

Foundations

As the name of the weblog implies, this blog will mainly address Asian media’s role in a global media industry, mainly the cultural influences that Asian media provides as well as what influences Asian media.Banerjee (2002) describes Asia as a place characterized by a rapid proliferation of domestic and local media services, which brings about the concern of cultural imperialism. Banerjee also describes the global cultural markets as becoming increasingly saturated. However Keane’s (2004) findings show that Western influence is waning in Asian television markets. In fact, Keane’s case studies show a strong Japanese and Korean influence in the Asian market, particularly when it comes to drama serials.

Cultural imperialism in a nutshell is when a dominant culture promotes and injects the culture of a society into another. Usually, the culture that is affected is one of a lower economic standing. The rejection of American culture by certain Asian countries (e.g. Taiwan) show that this theory is not entirely correct as it shows that economic status is not the deciding factor which makes one country adopt the culture of the other.

Considering the large influence Japan has on the region as well as it is a relatively wealthy Asian country shows that the theory has a ring of truth to it. Speaking as a consumer of Asian media, it is understandable that it has a large presence for several reasons 1) the originality of the media content and 2) that it appears to be more relevant in an Asian context  (e.g issues one might face in a traditional Asian family.) For purposes of the media project, I will focus on the influence of Japanese media on the Taiwanese. (expect videos and cringeworthy accounts of secondary school idol drama worship.)