Foreign women, who liked actors Park Seo-joon and Lee Dong-wook, expressed disappointment in Korean men they met on the street in Korea. Why?
It is said that the K-content craze has created a kind of optical illusion for foreign women.
Not long ago, foreign media reported that Western women visited Korea expecting to see the image of friendly and romantic Korean men depicted in dramas, but was disappointed by those they encountered in reality, who are far from their fantasies. How about the opinion of women from Japan, the neighboring country that shares the same Confucian culture as Korea? It is likely that they suffer a similar disappointment.
Recently, a video titled “Is it true that Korean men are popular among Japanese women?” was uploaded on the Youtube channel “Awesome KOREA”, which has 630,000 subscribers, and drew attention.
In the video, the Youtuber approached young Japanese in their teens and 20s on the streets of Japan and asked, “What do you think about Korean men?”.
The women who were interviewed poured out favorable comments, such as “Affectionate”, “They have good styles”, “Have good skin”, “They are gentlemen”, “Many of them have broad shoulders”, “Tall”, “Handsome”, etc.
The Youtuber then asked, “Who comes to mind when you think of Korean men?”.
In response, Japanese women began to name famous celebrities, such as Park Seo-joon, Lee Dong-wook, Ji Chang-wook, Lee Jong-seok, Nam Joo-hyuk, Kim Soo-hyun, etc.
Of course, some may have actually met Korean men before and had good impressions. However, rather than that, this situation is attributed to the overlapping image of Korean men and top stars created by the “Netflix Effect”. Japanese women, who are into Korean dramas like “Crash Landing on You” or “Itaewon Class” on Netflix, believe that ordinary Korean men have the same image as the male protagonists, who are often drawn with affectionate personalities and sculptural visuals.
This Youtube video is in line with a recent report by CNN about Western women, who dream of a beautiful romance with Korean men, being disappointed by the reality they faced.
In particular, CNN found a number of women who did not share the general habit with other tourists at accommodations for foreigners in Seoul. After visiting 8 accommodations and interviewing 123 women, CNN discovered that these female tourists are mainly from North America and Europe and they tend to watch Korean dramas in their accommodation during the day and go out after the sun sets. They are reportedly visiting Korea with the hope of meeting Korean men with the friendly and romantic image portrayed in K-dramas.
The number of female tourists surged from 2.3 million in 2005 to 10 million in 2019, when the K-drama craze began to blow in earnest. It is more significant compared to the increase in the number of male tourists, which rose from 2.9 million in 2005 to 6.7 million in 2019.
However, some belatedly realized the difference between fantasy and reality. Western women were disappointed as they experienced meeting men who show behaviors that are different from that of the male leads in Korean dramas, such as trying to touch their bodies on the street at night or making racist remarks toward them, etc.
Source: wikitree
