대장금에 대한 기사를 실은 Chicago Tribune 의 기사 원문입니다 . - 믿지 못하는 분들이 많아서 올립니다 ...

[bbryan]

Korean soaps lure unlikely audience By Monica Eng Tribune staff reporter Published July 9, 2004 On a recent Saturday night a group of white, middle-class TV fans gathered at a Northwest Side cafe to watch the final episode of their favorite show and to say goodbye to a cast of ethnically homogenous characters who had come to feel like friends. Their names, however, were not Joey, Chandler, Phoebe or Rachel. But rather Jang Geum, Jung Ho, Geum Young and Joong Jong . They were the main players of the Korean-language drama "A Jewel in the Palace" (or "Dae Jang-Geum"), a 60-part dramatic serial shown on WOCH-Ch. 28 that has turned scores of non-Korean Chicagoans into junkies. "Many of us stumbled on the shows on 28 while flipping channels and wound up getting addicted," says J.P. Paulus of Chicago, who runs one of a handful of English-language Web sites for Korean drama addicts looking for an online fix. Although "Dae Jang-Geum" wrapped up last week, Korean drama junkies needn't panic. The next Korean series, "Firebird," kicks off its run with subtitles at 8 p.m. Friday Chicago's Albany Park-based, low-power station, Ch. 28 (which is not available on any cable systems) started subtitling the dramas a few years ago, primarily to reconnect second-generation Korean Americans to their culture. But when the station did a viewership survey last year to see how the endeavor was working, station managers discovered they had attracted a sizable non-Korean fan base. "We got about 500 e-mails from people who were not Korean but who were fans of the show," says Kwang Dong Jo, vice president of the station that is also known as KBC-TV. "We never expected that the non-Korean Americans would be watching these shows." But they were, each falling into it in similar accidental ways and getting hooked. "I was flipping through the TV, and there was this historical drama with subtitles that I just started following, and I got hooked," says Darinka D'Alessio. "My husband originally would walk past while I watching and say, 'You're nuts,' but now he is sucked into it too." Many viewers assumed they were alone in this odd secret pleasure until they found fellow obsessives online. "I was watching Asian dramas for the better part of 10 years, and I just stumbled on the Web site accidentally," says Nancy, a Southern California resident who asked not to reveal her last name. "It's like a secret society that I had no idea about. It was like a veil was lifted and I was really able to get into them and understand them. Then I realized that there was this whole strata of non-Asians watching." Non-Korean fans cite many reasons they're hooked on the shows, including an emphasis on family, minimal sex and violence, high production values and the chance to peek into another culture. Tired of rude kids on TV "I am interested in how the family gets along, what the grocery store looks like, how old are they when they get married and do they go to college," Carolyn Hazzard of Chicago says. "Even though they are non-violent for the most part, the parents do slap the kids a lot. I got tired of regular TV with rude kids on sitcoms, saying things that I would never allow my kids to say." Kathleen Wrobel of Oak Park says she appreciates the show's no-nonsense approach to discipline and morality. "There seems to be such a focus on doing the right thing without any political correctness," Wrobel says. "People just get whacked in the head, and the parents and grandparents will even smack the adults. Everyone is not running around with everyone else's wife -- and if they do, they pay dearly." But Chicago fans aren't alone. If you go by the traffic on national Web sites, you find fans cropping up in every market where Korean television stations broadcast the shows -- sometimes without subtitles. Clusters in New York, Southern California, Seattle, Hawaii and Philadelphia (where it is shown on PBS) jump online to kibitz about the latest episodes. Paulus' Web site features a chart of recent dramas as well as links to other English language fan sites, while www.koreanwiz.org, explain Korean family customs, business standards, foods, drink, architecture and gestures. But Americans are only a tiny -- if unintended sector -- of the international Korean drama fan base. In the past half decade Korean culture has flooded Asia in what has been dubbed "Hallyu," or the "Korean wave." Films, food, fashion, music and especially TV dramas from South Korea have emerged as major cultural and economic forces in China and Japan. "Things like Chinese clothing companies and beauty shops are affected because immediately the people want the clothes and hairdos they see on the Korean dramas," notes Jo. "And in Japan, about three months ago, for the first time a major Japanese network put the Korean drama `Winter Love' on in prime time. The Japanese are very proud of their culture, and so this is such a big step." Second-generation viewers Many parents of Korean-American kids hoped these shows would also boost the morale and cultural interest of their children, but Jo says the second generation hardly responded to the call for e-mails about the subtitling. "The second-generation boys don't watch because there is so much romance and they think it is woman stuff, but I know that many second-generation girls are watching," he says. "They just don't give us a lot of feedback, and I attribute that to a passiveness in our culture." A group of non-Korean fans, however, spent the twilight hours of a warm Saturday last month riveted to a big-screen TV at a cafe as "Dae Jang-Geum" departed from their lives with an action-packed final episode. In it, the plucky heroine ( 이영애 ) who had worked her way up from lowly royal kitchen worker to the king's personal physician navigates a sea of treachery in the royal court. She informs the king that his frequent bouts of diarrhea have left him with damaged intestines and that she must operate. Knowing that his advisers will kill her if she attempts the controversial (for the 16th Century) surgery, the king has a group of eunuchs kidnap her and take her to China. In a letter he explains that he did this out of love for her. "You get sad when a show ends," says Ken Morris of Chicago who was at the cafe with his wife and fellow fan, Joan. "But at the same time, that is another thing we like about them. Unlike a lot of American shows, these ones do have an ending." In addition to "Firebird," which airs at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, WOCH-Ch. 28 broadcasts other subtitled dramas: the hour-long "The Age of Warriors" at 8 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays; and the 30-minute daily drama "One Million Roses" at 6 p.m., Mondays through Fridays. - - - 70% of Koreans tune in to Ch. 28 KBC-TV (WOCH-Ch. 28) is an independently operated and owned Korean station located in Albany Park. When it is not showing Korean news, variety shows and dramas during its 16 hours of broadcast each day, it plays host to a variety of ethnic shows from Chicago's communities. Other programming includes shows from local Indians, Czechs, Slovaks, Bosnians, Romanians, Filipinos, Greeks and Lithuanians. The low-power station started broadcasting in 1996 and reaches households in about a 40-mile radius from the John Hancock Center. KBC-TV Vice President Kwang-Dong Jo estimates that of the roughly 100,000 Koreans in the Chicago area, about 70 percent tune in to the station. Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune >> Save 47% off the newsstand price - Subscribe to the Chicago Tribune

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[레디오]

근데 뭐라는거냐구........................................ㅡㅡ;;

[deep sorrow]

윗님에 조금 동감... 어쨌든...

[▒히싱▒]

댓글들이 왜 이래? 참...이런식의 댓글 떄문에 뭐 하나 기사나 글도 올리고 싶지 않겠군.

[지니어스 KiM]

해석을해놔야지해석을 !!

[보나다다다다다]

흠, 뭐 그래봤자 50개 주에서 겨우 5개주밖에. 그것도 모든 미국인들이 좋아하는것도 아니구요. 하지만 왠지 뿌듯한 느낌이^-^

[高飛遠走(고비원주)]

역시 나라는 도덕성이 바로 서야 돼용 -ㅅ-b