China suspicious about Korea’s Goguryeo history dramas www.csuchen.de/bbs
Yonhap News is reporting that China is unamused by the fact that Korea’s three biggest terrestrial broadcasters—KBS, MBC and SBS—have decided to run historical dramas dealing with Goguryeo or the Goguryeo successor state of Balhae at roughly the same time. www.csuchen.de/bbs
MBC recently started up “Jumong,” a 60-part drama on the founder of the Goguryeo kingdom, while SBS will start a 100-part drama on Goguryeo from July. KBS will begin airing a 100-part drama on the history of the Balhae kingdom from September. www.csuchen.de/bbs
The Chinese reportedly suspect this to be a government-backed response to Beijing’s “Northeast Project,” which Koreans accuse of being a Chinese attempt to appropriate Goguryeo history. www.csuchen.de/bbs
Chinese broadcasting officials at the 2006 Shanghai Television Festival (STVF 2006), which ended Wednesday, apparently believed the stations to be under the influence of the government, said a KBS official who was at the trade fair. They also believed that three broadcasters’ producing of dramas dealing with Goguryeo history amounted to a Korean government response to China’s Northeast Project. www.csuchen.de/bbs
Chinese reporters and broadcasting officials were also said to have reacted sensitively to MBC’s extensive promotion of “Jumong” at STVF 2006, including its conspicuously displayed poster for the show at the broadcaster’s booth. The drama has been quite popular in Korea, garnering viewer ratings of over 30 percent. www.csuchen.de/bbs
The KBS official said there’s already considerable suspicion within China concerning the intention behind Korea’s Big 3 broadcasters running dramas on Goguryeo and Balhae at roughly the same time. He expressed concern that as we’d seen in the past with the drama “Daejanggeum,” if the broadcasters actively promote the dramas as part of the Korean Wave, the Chinese government could respond. www.csuchen.de/bbs
Yonhap pointed out that since January of the year, China’s State Administration of Radio, Film & Television (SARFT)—apparently upset about the one-way nature of “Korean Wave” imports—has stopped screening Korean dramas for import. www.csuchen.de/bbs
An official from Korea’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism said there’s been some strange things going on pertaining to the “Korean Wave” and “Goguryeo historical dramas.” For example, when Unification Minister Kim Myung-gon visited China last month, the head of SARFT, whom Kim was scheduled to meet, abruptly informed the Korean side that the meeting was being canceled four days ahead of the scheduled sitdown. www.csuchen.de/bbs
An official with the Korean Broadcasting Commission said the thing of which the Chinese government is making the biggest deal is the trade imbalance resulting from one-way Korean exports of “Korean Wave” cultural products, and that imprudent sales and promotion strategies by some Korean broadcasting companies were also a problem. He warned that broadcasters shouldn’t extensively promote in China historical dramas dealing with Goguryeo history, and that if broadcasters try to link the dramas to China’s Northeast Project, it could cause diplomatic problems. www.csuchen.de/bbs
