South Korean National Identity on the Screen in 'Descendants of the Sun'

Volume 16 | Issue 11 | Number 3 | Article ID 5151 | Jun 01, 2018 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus No Country for Blue Helmets: South Korean National Identity on the Screen in 'Descendants of the Sun' Patrick Flamm Summary However, the most interesting aspect of DotS is that the protagonists are deployed as This paper provides a contextualized reading of peacekeepers and medical volunteers to a the South Korean 2016 hit drama ‘Descendants fictional and distant post-war country. The of the Sun’, the most prominent pop cultural drama is thus noteworthy as the first major manifestation of the Republic of Korea’s rising Korean drama to prominently feature status as a global middle power. Through peacekeeping operations (PKO) and South linking the fictional peacekeeping mission to a Korea as a global foreign policy actor in a confidently nationalist conception of South distant land. Because of the drama’s great Korean identity, the drama normalizes troop success in Korea and other parts of East Asia, deployments by circumventing traditional and its immediate entry into political discourse narratives for legitimation. This argument rests as illustrated by Park’s comment, a closer look on observations concerning the omission of any at this pop cultural artefact is warranted. In historical and UN context for the deployment, this article, I follow an increasing body of the Othering of the United States as main critical research in the field of International antagonist, and the unchallenged sense of Relations on the link between world politics righteousness and morality displayed by the and popular culture2 in the wake of the so- main protagonists in an otherwise passive local called “aesthetic turn”, where popular texts are setting. not only seen as reflecting political reality, but also as shaping social reality, cultural meanings, values, identities and consequently governmental policies and world politics.3 Keywords: South Korea, Korean wave, national identity, peacekeeping, military President Park Geun-hye Praises Peacekeepers in South Sudan as ‘Real Descendants of the Sun’ Introduction When former South Korean President Park Geun-hye met South Korean United Nations Apart from cultural representations (UN) peacekeepers in South Sudan in May manufactured explicitly for political purposes, 2016, she praised them as the “realGrayson et al. point out that “[b]eyond formal descendants of the sun”1 in front of media policy statements, press interviews and cameras, alluding to the very popular TV drama traditional forms of propaganda, popular of the same name. Descendants of the Sun culture draws attention to how understandings (henceforth DotS) aired in early 2016 on KBS2 of world politics and the legitimation of policy 4 and follows the unfolding love story between a postures can be generated.” Consequently, South Korean elite soldier and a doctor. politicians have to draw from cultural resources to make sense of political options 1 16 | 11 | 3 APJ | JF and decisions, for themselves but also for their in DotS. I also look at how the drama portrays constituencies.5 These approaches focus on encounters with various Others, most examining the workings of power involved in importantly the fictional host country Uruk, and the production of meaning through cultural the United States of America. My main artefacts, in which a text can both support argument is that the construction of the Korean and/or subvert established powerSelf in Uruk serves to normalize South Korean relations.6 Not only is social and political reality military deployments overseas through framing discursively constructed through pop culture, them outside narratives usually employed to these constructions assume significancejustify such sensitive political decisions. through their subtle omnipresence, “constitut[ing] our everyday common sense.”7 Most International Relations literature National Identity and Peacekeeping in on the link between world politics and popular History and Fiction culture so far has focused on analyzing visual, 8 cultural, and textual representations. th During the 20 century, the Korean Peninsula was colonized, divided into North and South, Given the injunction to study “the object closely ravaged by war, and became the site of one of to see what aspects of our reality it might the first UN interventions as well as normalize, or reinforce, and what others it 9 subsequently locked into a Cold War stand-off might delegitimize, or encourage to change,” I that continues to this day despite the 1953 read DotS within the context of South Korea’s armistice. Hence, South Koreans have often current global foreign policy. Doing so is perceived their nation as a ‘shrimp amongst significant for at least two reasons: first, the whales’, a small country with limited agency in International Relations literature on world its own affairs. This view has been changing politics and popular culture offers few analyses slowly for South Koreans with its rapid of non-Western cultural productions and, economic development since the 1970s and second, overseas troop deployments are subsequent democratization from the late sensitive and often contentious issues, which 1980s. In 1996 South Korea became a member demand heightened efforts for legitimization of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and political support. This is also the case in and Development (OECD) and has been invited South Korea, where Hong has observed a to G20 meetings since 2006, a development tension domestically between a “paying back which is seen as marking a transition for the syndrome” to the international community for nation from a ‘rule taker’ in international the UN support for the South in the Korean affairs to becoming a ‘rule maker’.11 War and a “Vietnam syndrome” about the infamous participation by South Korean troops The country, however, is still recalibrating its in the U.S. war against the Vietcong.10 Against regional and global roles in an ongoing process, this historical background, Hong sees the with its underlying collective self- legitimization of peacekeeping operations as a 12 understanding also “at a crossroads,” feeding major political challenge. the hopes of some that South Korea will help serve as a cornerstone of the international After providing background on the show’s 13 production and an overview of South Korea’s liberal order. A South Korean nationalism involvement with international security and related to its successes in sport and the Korean 14 peace efforts, I analyse representations of Wave has also emerged, as well as President Korea as an international agent ofLee Myung-bak’s 2008 national security peacekeeping and developmental cooperation strategy with desires for a ‘Global Korea’ to act 2 16 | 11 | 3 APJ | JF as an influential, strong, and responsible member of the international community. The goal of these efforts is to leave the status of a KBS World Trailer for ‘Descendants of less developed country (hujin’guk) behind and the Sun’ move over the threshold to become an “advanced country” sŏnjin’guk( ).15 Also, in the last 15 years Seoul has been The show’s writer, Kim Eun-sook, a veteran investing heavily in the creation of pop cultural screenwriter mostly known for romantic plots content, especially TV dramas, to promote centred on the theme of pure love overcoming Korean products and tourism and to connect adversity, revealed that the Uruk mission in audiences abroad positively with South Korea DotS stands as a symbol for Seoul’s troop and its culture.16 Few studies that bridge deployment to Iraq in 2004. Critical International Relations (IR) and Koreancommentators have also been quick to interpret Studies, however, have thus far addressed the the show as a fictional attempt to “overcome cultural underpinnings of this new, rising Korea the sense of historical inferiority of the Korean as an agent in international affairs beyond the people,”20 while especially appealing to the North-South conflict or Seoul’s bilateralyounger shinsedae (new generation) relations with Beijing, Tokyo and Washington. demographic that is said to be conservative on The link between world politics and popular issues of security but more confidently culture, with DotS as an obvious testing nationalist than previous cohorts.21 ground, offers a different way to address these underpinnings. Many military-themed Korean dramas have focused on the more glamourous aspects of DotS’ first season screened in 16 episodes from spies, intelligence, special ops and Feb. 24 to Apr. 22, 2016 and was an instant international crime in South Korea, such as Iris success not only in Korea, where it scored a (2009) and its spinoff Athena: Goddess of War consistent audience share per episode of (2010), but these productions have mostly around 30 percent, but, more surprisingly, in drawn on the North-South conflict rather than other parts of East Asia. Fans pointed to its comparably uneventful regular peacekeeping. original storytelling, well-crafted dialogue, In fact, the first Korean network presented with strong acting and an unusual, pre-recorded DotS declined it, because its focus on foreign production style.17 The latter aspect iswar and disasters was not seen as a likely noteworthy for its contrast to the usual practice success. Reportedly, there were also concerns of scripting and filming only a few days before that a drama in which most protagonists wear broadcast to reduce production costs and to military uniforms would not allow ready use of change storylines according to audience product placement.22 reaction in the hope of boosting ratings.18 DotS, however, was also supported and nearly In contrast to the British miniseriesWarriors simultaneously broadcast by a Chinese(1999), however, one of the few television network, for which prerecording was crucial to series primarily concerned with peacekeeping, win approval from the Chinesewhich tried to make sense of British authorities.19 The drama’s production was deployments to the Balkans in the 1990s, DotS supported by the South Korean army as well as is anchored in the romantic genre, with the the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, and peacekeeping serving as background.

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