Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bovinerebel]

This might be pretty funny to some of us who live here and know the reality of our at times "quirky" male hosts...but none the less..

Japanese Women Catch the 'Korean Wave'
Male Celebrities Just Latest Twist in Asia-Wide Craze

By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, August 31, 2006; Page A01

TOKYO -- Thin and gorgeous in a slinky black dress, Mikimoto pearls and a low-slung diamond Tiffany pendant, 26-year-old Kazumi Yoshimura already has looks, cash and accessories. There's only one more thing this single Japanese woman says she needs to find eternal bliss -- a Korean man.

She may just have to take a number and get in line. In recent years, the wild success of male celebrities from South Korea -- sensitive men but totally ripped -- has redefined what Asian women want, from Bangkok to Beijing, from Taipei to Tokyo. Gone are the martial arts movie heroes and the stereotypical macho men of mainstream Asian television. Today, South Korea's trend-setting screen stars and singers dictate everything from what hair gels people use in Vietnam to what jeans are bought in China.



South Korean men are the latest stars to rise with the "Korean Wave," a trend that has marked growing popularity of South Koreans and South Korean goods in China and throughout Asia.

Yet for thousands of smitten Japanese women like Yoshimura, collecting the odd poster or DVD is no longer enough. They've set their sights far higher -- settling for nothing less than a real Seoulmate.

The lovelorn Yoshimura signed up last year with Rakuen Korea, a Japanese-Korean matchmaking service, to find her own Korean bachelor. And she is hardly alone. More than 6,400 female clients have signed up with the company, which says its popularity has skyrocketed since 2004, when "Winter Sonata" became the first of many hot Korean television dramas to hit Japan. Even in Shinjuku ni-chome, Tokyo's biggest gay district, niche bars with names such as Seoul Man have sprouted like sprigs of ginseng in a Pusan autumn.

"South Koreans are so sweet and romantic -- not at all like Japanese guys, who never say 'I love you,' " Yoshimura said as she waited for her blind date, a single Korean man, in the 50th-floor bar of a chic Tokyo skyscraper. A telephone operator who lives with her parents in Hiroshima, she has spent thousands of dollars on her quest for a Korean husband, flying to Seoul 10 times in the past two years and bullet-training to Tokyo for seven blind dates with Korean men.

So far, though, she hasn't found the one she's looking for.

"Maybe I'm living in a fantasy world," she said, pouting her blood-red lips. "Maybe I'm looking for the TV stars I can't really have. But we are all allowed a dream, aren't we?"

In part, the new allure of Korean men can be traced to a larger phenomenon known as the "Korean Wave," a term coined a few years ago by Beijing journalists startled by the growing popularity of South Koreans and South Korean goods in China. Now, the craze for all things Korean has spread across Asia, driving regional sales of everything from cars to kimchi.

Meanwhile, the number of foreign tourists traveling to South Korea leapt from 2.8 million in 2003 to 3.7 million in 2004. The bulk of the growth, South Korean tourism officials say, stemmed from Korean Wave-loving Asian women. Partial statistics for 2005 indicate the feminine tide has not yet let up.

For the South Koreans -- who have long suffered discrimination in Japan and who have hardly been known as sex symbols -- it all comes as something of a shock.

Korean male celebrities are now among the highest-paid actors outside Hollywood. According to the South Korean media, "Winter Sonata" star Bae Yong Jun -- whose character stood by his first love through 10 years of car accidents and amnesia -- is now charging $5 million a film, the steepest price anywhere in Asia. In a few short years, Bae is said to have accumulated a merchandising and acting-fee empire worth an estimated $100 million. At least nine other Korean male stars earn more than $10 million a year, according to a list published in June by the Seoul-based Sports Hankook newspaper.

In Seoul, the neon-lit streets are mobbed these days by visiting Asian women, many sporting rhinestone-studded T-shirts emblazoned with images of their favorite Korean stars. Some fans have been known to stake out famous eateries for hours in the hopes of catching a glimpse of their celluloid beaus

[Froggy Parker]

[browneyedgirl]

[plus99]

i didnt even read this post but what i think is most interesting is the number of women who feel any attraction at all to asian guys.

in the west, where women can choose from whichever look they want, asian guys are at the bottom of the list. the fact that these percentages dont match with what happens in korea shows one of two things:

korean women are basically desprate and date korean men because they have to or

korea is out of touch with what actually happens in the world.

[mindmetoo]

It's a little old but the article never gets tired. Then again, how many North American males came here because of hot Korean chicks they've seen in movies?

[Ukon]

[bassexpander]

[IMF crisis]

So Japanese women are as quick to believe whatever they see on TV, movies, Internet as Koreans. I think Orson Welles did us a favor when he pulled that "War of the Worlds" hoax. I don't think we're as gullible because of it. One poster compared it to teachers coming over here because they saw hot Korean actresses or something. I don't know anyone like that. And besides, it's one thing to see hot Koreans on TV and think that Korean look that way and it's another to see Koreans being kind on TV and thinking they act that way. I mean, the actor and the character he plays look the same, so what you see is what you get. But the way character acts and the way the actor acts in real life are probably not the same. What you see is just an act. Who concludes that men from a certain country are kind and gentle because they some actors playing characters in that way? Idiots. And there seems to be no shortage of them.

[Cedar]

Why do some people find it so hard to believe a white/American woman would want to date an Asian/Korean guy? Sorry, just because the Asian male doesn't float your boat (presuming you're a hetero male) that doesn't mean that a hetero female can't feel the allure of an Asian man. The whole "why would anyone be attracted to an Asian man" thing is just such a ridiculous stereotype.

[sistersarah]

[Draz]

[pkang0202]

In the West, the A-hole gets the hot girls.

In Korea, the A-hole with MONEY gets the hot girls.

[doggyji]

[Draz]

[Julius]