Dálný východ Far East Ročník V číslo 1 Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci Olomouc 2015 Redakce Vedoucí redaktor: Mgr. David Uher, PhD Členové redakční rady: Prof. Zdeňka Švarcová, Dr., Doc. Lucie Olivová, Ph.D., DSc., Doc. Ing. Ludmila Mládková, Ph.D., Doc. Mgr. Roman Jašek, Ph.D., Doc. Ing. Miloslava Chovancová, Ph.D., Doc. Ing. Jan Sýkora, M.A., Ph.D., Doc. PhDr. Miriam Löwensteinová, Ph.D., Mgr. Ivona Barešová, Ph.D. Adresa redakce: Dálný východ Katedra asijských studií, Katedra aplikované ekonomie Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci Křížkovského 14 771 80 Olomouc www.kas.upol.cz Technická redakce a obálka: Jiřina Vaclová Odpovědná redaktorka: Mgr. Jana Kreiselová Vydala a vytiskla: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Křížkovského 8, 771 47 Olomouc www.upol.cz/vup email: [email protected] Zpracování a vydání publikace bylo umožněno díky finanční podpoře udělené roku 2014 Ministerstvem školství, mládeže a tělovýchovy ČR v rámci Institucionálního rozvojového plánu, programu V. Excelence, Filozofické fakultě Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci: Zlepšení publikačních možností akademických pedagogů ve filologických a humanitních oborech FF UP. ISSN: 1805-1049 MK ČR E 20430 Olomouc 2015 OBSAH This issue comprises papers presented at the conference Winning Central Europe: Spread and Reception of the Korean Wave in the Czech Republic. The conference was supported by the Academy of Korean Studies Grant (AKS-2014-C18). Understanding the K-magic: Korean Popular Culture in Europe and Beyond (Introduction to the Special Issue on Hallyu) Jana Hajzlerová 5 On the Spread and Perception of Korean Popular Culture in the Czech Republic Vladislava Mazaná 9 Geographies of East Asia in Europe: Ways of Perceiving and Assessing the Uniqueness of Hallyu Valentina Marinescu 22 Conditions of Positive Acceptance of Korean TV Drama abroad: Cultural Proximity and Diversity Anna Jarchovská 39 Prague: Imagining the Metropolis of Romance Alexandra Lichá 61 Perception of Korean Political History through Modern South Korean Cinema Alexandra Urman 72 The Role of Soft Power in Defining the Image of the Republic of Korea Lucie Šarmanová 87 The Effect of the Korean Wave in Medical Tourism: Japan, China, Russia and Poland Pawel Kida 107 Legends with Superpowers: Religious Elements in the Debut Strategy of the K-POP Band “EXO” Renáta Hanó 116 Recenze Uher, David: Hanská grammatologie. Zuzana Pospěchová 124 Benedictová, Ruth: Chryzantéma a meč. Vzorce japonské kultury. Pavel Šindlář 127 Slaměníková, Tereza: Ideogramy v moderní čínštině. David Uher 133 Švarný, Oldřich a David Uher: Prozodická gramatika čínštiny. Zuzana Pospěchová 137 Slaměníková, Tereza a Guo Yiying: Čínská obchodní konverzace. David Uher 140 – 3 – UNDERSTANDING THE K-MAGIC: KOREAN POPULAR CULTURE IN EUROPE AND BEYOND “When you put ‘K’ in front of something, it suddenly works magic.”, said a Swarovski senior vice-president at the International Luxury Conference in Seoul earlier this year, joking that he wished for ‘K-crystal’ to be developed because it would surely become very trendy soon. 1 Indeed, not only K-pop and K-drama, but also K-food, K- -fashion and even K-books have been identified as new areas of cultural production, developed for and served to a foreign audience, riding on the wave of ‘everything Ko- rean’. Well into its second decade, the Korean wave (hallyu, 한류, 韓流) has been an omnipresent scholarly topic when debating modern Korea for years. Perhaps because the term itself is wide enough or because the consequences of cultural consumption are so diverse, the phenomenon of hallyu has invoked numerous analyses, not only in the field of cultural and Korean studies, but also in economics, international rela- tions, media studies, tourism studies, anthropology and other areas. As such, these debates, conducted in foreign academia, media or elsewhere, and those debating have themselves turned into vehicles of this ‘hallyu hype’. The Korean wave therefore has somewhat the feel of a self-fulfilling prophecy to it. However, concert tours of the K-pop boy-band TVXQ in East and South Asia gross tens of millions USD and attract an audience of hundreds of thousands, 2 the number of college students in the US taking a Korean language course has almost doubled in recent years, 3 and 1 out of 10 incoming tourists in Korea visit the country inspired by hallyu. 4 Though the line between the real and the perceived may be blurry sometimes, hallyu has established itself as a phenomenon worth a serious academic reflection. In the Czech Republic too, Korea is no unknown, though our attention shifted dramatically in the course of the eventful 20th century, from the socialist fraternity with the North to a prosperous business partnership with the South. And culture followed. While in the 50’s and 70’s, for instance, books of the North Korean poet Cho Ki-cheon were being translated into Czech and the North Korean movie Flower Girl awarded a special prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film, respectively, these days we read Kim Young-ha in Czech and watch Kim Ki-duk on our main TV channels. Meanwhile, South Korea has become our fourth biggest non-European 1 The Korea Herald, on-line, 27.5.2015. Accessed 29.4.2015. Available at http://www.korea- herald.com/view.php?ud=20150527000856. 2 Hankuk kyŏngchae [Korean Economy], on-line, 2.5.2013. Accessed 30.4.2015. Available at http://www.hankyung.com/news/app/newsview.php?aid=2013050261471. 3 Voice of America, on-line, 24.4.2014. Accessed 30.4.2015. Available at http://learningenglish. voanews.com/content/more-us-students-learning-korean/2732095.html. 4 Korea Tourism Organization, on-line, Korean Wave: Treasure of Korea Tourism. Accessed 30.4.2015. Available at http://dtxtq4w60xqpw.cloudfront.net/sites/all/files/docpdf/koreanwave. pdf. – 5 – Dálný východ / Far East trading partner, employing over 12.000 people locally and priding itself on having made the largest ever single investment in the country (a Hyundai car manufacturing plant). 5 And finally, perhaps most importantly for our debate, the Czech cover dance girl-band O.M.G. won the Grand Prize in the final round of the K-pop Contest in Korea in 2012. Not only that, Czech K-pop performers have scored top positions at this world championship ever since. K-pop has found its fans among young people and hallyu-focused events, such as flash-mobs, contests and gatherings, have been organized in various cities. The number of Korean restaurants in Prague has reached ten and Missha shops, offering cosmetic products of this popular Korean brand, have been opened both in Brno and Prague. On top of that, applicants for the Korean studies major at Charles University have been steadily growing in number, as are the learners of Korean language in language schools. Has hallyu hit us then? Depending on the criteria one sets, the answer may be both yes and no. Korean popular cul- ture products, mostly (or perhaps even exclusively) K-pop and K-drama, have been enjoyed by a certain socio-demographic group, whose number we now count in hundreds and who, through the increase of their interest in anything Korean, com- municate among themselves as well as towards others a new image and perception of Korea. However, for the general population this has arguably an impact close to zero. The patterns of spread and acceptance of hallyu in the Czech Republic as compared to other European and Asian countries are interesting research material, however. In an attempt to elaborate on the many aspects of hallyu discussed above and to reflect on the influence of Korean popular culture in the Czech Republic and the rest of Europe, an international academic conference was organized in November 2014 jointly by the Czech-Korean Society and the Korean Studies Department of Charles University in Prague. Entitled ‘Winning Central Europe: The Spread and Reception of the Korean Wave in the Czech Republic and the Adjacent Countries’, the multidisciplinary conference gathered 18 speakers from 9 European countries, who focus their research on hallyu in their particular fields of academic study, ranging from Asian studies though diplomacy to musicology. Thanks to the generous support of the Academy of Korean Studies that enabled the organization of this event, and to the speakers who shared their academic expertise, an important addition to the scholarship on hallyu in Europe was produced 6 and the discussions shared among the top European hallyu studies scholars shed light on how to assess the current state of hallyu in the Czech Republic. This special issue introduces a series of eight papers presented at the conference by senior scholars, PhD candidates or graduate students. The issue starts with the reflection of hallyu in the Czech Republic by Vladislava Mazaná (Charles Univer- 5 Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on-line, Republic of Korea: Business and Economic Cooperation. Accessed 30.4.2015. Available at http://www.mzv.cz/jnp/cz/encyklopedie_statu/ asie/korejska_republika/ekonomika/obchodni_a_ekonomicka_spoluprace_s_cr.html. 6 Hallyu in Europe has been discussed in the recent years most importantly at a conference called ‘Years of Radical Change: Conference on Korean Screen Culture’ at SOAS (London, 2013) and in the book Global Impact of South Korean Culture : Hallyu Unbound edited by Valentina Marinescu (Lexington Books, 2014). – 6 – Ročník V / číslo 1 / 2015 sity in Prague). Rich in factual data, her sociological study provides a great overall picture of the popularity of Korean pop culture and explains the specifics of Czech K-pop fandom, such as the influence of the Vietnamese community, the largest non-European minority in the Czech Republic. Next are two pieces focused on the various differences in the acceptance patterns of Korean popular culture in the West and in the East. Valentina Marinescu (University of Bucharest), one of the most prominent European hallyu scholars, explores the unique characteristics that differentiate the reception of Korean cultural products among an Eastern Europe- an audience as compared to the reception of other Asian cultures.