Roald Maliangkay Keep Your Enemies Closer: PROTECTING KOREA’S POP CULTURE IN CHINA1 Cultural histories usually revolve around people and the group or institution they are associated with. After all, any study of the develop- ment or adoption of cultural ideas or concepts would be meaningless without some idea of what drives those involved. But whereas cultural exchanges have long involved vari- ous degrees of human interaction, it is unlikely that they were ever as instant and ‘anonymous’ as they often are in popular culture today. Ideas and concepts are disseminated through the Internet to large num- bers of people from different cultures without any direct involvement from the creators, and while the aspect of anonymity may not necessarily be new, to cultural studies, and in particular to studies of mainstream popular culture, this implies that the concept of agency and ownership has become even more contentious. Korean pop acts are popular in China South Korean popular culture is no exception. What is more, while many of its aspects remain acts and stars are emerging in this region that defy a sin- inextricably linked to South Korea’s (hereafter Korea’s) gle national association, and often intentionally mask it. culture and society, it is part of a realm of activity that Across the Asian region, sales of Korean popular enter- stretches across East Asia and is marked by increasing tainment are likely to have been underpinned by some mimicry. Perhaps because of the notion that national degree of cultural proximity and notions of a shared association may jeopardize commercial profit, many pop history. In its efforts to compete with other industries 1 I am very much indebted to Dr Stephen Epstein, to my colleague Dr Geng Song, and to Ms Ai Chen for their invaluable comments during the writing of this article. 34 KOREAN HISTORIES 2.1 2010 ROALD MALIANGKAY KEEP YOUR ENEMIES CLOSER in the region, the Korean industry has not had to make Since the late 1990s, when Korean pop stars began to significant adjustments to its products. One reason is regularly perform to large sold-out stadiums in China, that because strict censorship had for long been institu- Korean media executives have often engaged in difficult tionalized and firmly embedded in Korean culture until negotiations with Chinese media executives and govern- 1998, Korea’s mainstream pop was virtually void of gory ment administrators. Although at first these negotiations violence, profanity or nudity. Another is that most of were primarily concerned with artists’ fees and permission the elements one might associate with Korean products to perform, as the popularity of teenage pop acts such as today, such as the frequent use of meaningless English H.O.T., S.E.S., Clon, and Baby VOX grew, the widespread rap in R&B songs, the often – from the author’s perspec- breach of the Copyright Act in China urged the Korean tive – effeminate styling of male stars, and the category- government to increase its appeals to its neighbour for defiant genre-crossing of screenplays, already existed. more effective countermeasures. In China foreign prod- These elements have certainly proven successful abroad ucts are subject to stringent censorship and high import and have thus been encouraged and emphasized, but tariffs, but in the case of music, for example, pirated CDs they have their roots in Korean society and the domestic are still believed to account for as much as 85 per cent of entertainment industry and were not introduced to add to all products sold.3 Since estimates suggest China’s dig- the respective products’ overseas marketability. Perhaps ital music market will grow to 12.7 billion yuan (US$ 1.6 the only necessary adjustment was that as screenplays billion) in 2010,4 this implies, of course, an increase too and lyrics began to involve Korea’s neighbours, strong in the generally licit — i.e. socially accepted — but illegal criticism of these neighbours’ treatment of Korea or its exchange of media files. The situation causes concern people in the past was avoided.2 among production companies, who can easily find illegal From a legal point of view, however, the marketing of copies of their products being sold even before the official Korean popular entertainment abroad has necessitated ones have been launched. Korean companies have been a number of important changes in the way the industry frustrated by the volume and speed with which counter- operates. Although the Korean government had for long feit copies of their products flood the Chinese markets showed little concern over the loss of revenue incurred and, on one occasion in 2005, Korean national TV sta- by foreign companies as a result of domestic piracy or the tions KBS and MBC ended up cancelling contracts with production of counterfeits, over the last decade it has had Chinese counterparts after large numbers of illegal cop- to take proactive measures to ensure the Korean industry ies were intercepted before they could launch legitimate would not suffer great losses due to similar copyright- ones. Because, moreover, many of these counterfeit cop- related issues abroad. Although the issue of piracy is also ies of Korean entertainment media look official to the very much a domestic one, and certainly not limited to non-Chinese, one can find a large number of them being one overseas market only, in this article I analyse the sold at seemingly legitimate outlets abroad. major factors involved in the piracy of Korean media in In the middle of 2010, the popularity of Korean pop China, one of Korea’s most important markets for Korean culture in China shows no signs of abating. Surfing pop entertainment. I argue that while cultural proximity the so-called ‘Korean Wave’, the Korean industry has and national association are important factors behind the been exploring China’s market potential, and charting popularity of popular entertainment among the Chinese, its performing talent, film locations and cultural his- they do not affect piracy per se, as it is driven mostly by tory. Besides pop acts such as Bada, TVXQ, Rain, BoA practical and economic factors. and Lee Hyori, Korean directors have also been flying 2 Despite being painfully formulaic in its depiction of good and evil, the 1999 blockbuster Swiri (Shiri), which is often considered South Korea’s most blatant attempt at emulating the American blockbuster-style movie, nevertheless depicted North Koreans as human beings. See Michael Robinson, “Contemporary Cultural Production in South Korea: Vanishing Meta-Narratives of Nation,” in New Korean Cinema, edited by Chi-Yun Shin and Julian Stringer (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), pp. 27-28. 3 Contrary to the situation in the US, in Korea it is only in recent years that significant losses have been incurred in the field of audio-visual entertainment prod- ucts. Member associations of the International Intellectual Property Alliance have estimated that the losses incurred by US copyright-based industries due to Chinese piracy in 2005 amounted to $1.28 billion for business software, $589 million for entertainment software, $244 million for motion pictures and $204 million for records and music. See James F. Paradise, “China’s Intellectual Property Rights Honeymoon,” AsiaMedia, 14/11/06 (online article, www.asiamedia. ucla.edu). 4 See Hong’e Mo (ed.), “Digital Music Market to Expand to 12.7 Bln Yuan by 2010,” China View, 29/5/06 (online article, www.xinhuanet.com). 35 KOREAN HISTORIES 2.1 2010 ROALD MALIANGKAY KEEP YOUR ENEMIES CLOSER to China regularly to work on productions there. Early examples of Korean movies shot in China are Pich’ŏnmu (Heaven-flying Dance, 2000) and Musa (The Warrior, 2001). While the former used the talent of Hong Kong-based action director Ma Yuk-Sing, the latter starred the celebrated actress Zhang Ziyi and Korea’s heart-throb Jung Woo- sung. In 2008, the Barunson Production Company released director Kim Ji-woon’s The Good, the Bad, the Weird, a movie that was shot partly in Mongo- lia and Manchuria, and stars three of Korea’s most popular male actors. Examples of TV dramas that have been very popular in China include MBC’s Taejanggŭm (The Jewel in the Palace, 2003), KBS’s Pulmyŏr-ŭi Yi Sun-shin (The Immortal Yi Sun- shin, 2005)5, about Korea’s legendary general, SBS’s Yŏn Kaesomun (2006), about the life of mili- tary dictator Yŏn Kaesomun in the later Koguryŏ period, and KBS’s Taejoyŏng (2006), which tells the story of how the founder of Parhae united refugees after Koguryŏ’s fall. More recent successes include MBC’s Chumong (2007) and Taewang sashin’gi (Four Guardian Gods of the King, 2007). While the former relates events at the time of the Koguryŏ kingdom’s foundation, the latter chronicles the history of the kingdom up until its final days. Back of an illegal DVD copy of Kung Fu Hustle, sold at two Asian DVD stores in central The Korean popular entertainment industry’s Sydney in 2009. The dark brown section at the bottom of the back cover was copied successes in China do not, however, depend only from a The Mask of Zorro DVD on sales of entertainment media. The Korean film industry — the fifth largest in the world in terms of duction house iHQ set up its first foreign subsidiary in ticket sales with a total turnover amounting to approxi- Beijing with the intent of promoting the many Korean mately US$ 1.1 billion in 2006 — seems keen to increase stars in its portfolio, and developing Chinese-Korean co- its involvement in the Chinese cinema market, whether productions.7 One month later, iHQ’s parent company through ticket sales, DVDs or digital TV subscriptions.6 SK Telecom entered into an agreement with the state- Korea’s CGV, Megabox and MK Pictures, for example, controlled China Film Group Corporation to cooperate are building Multiplex cinemas in China, while Korea’s on film projects and nurture Chinese talent.8 On 5 March largest film distributor CJ Entertainment is increasing its 2008 it was announced that SK Telecom had acquired a direct investment in Chinese movie production.