Korea Is Prospering. Are Taiwanese Panicking?

Research into Taiwanese psychoanalysis

Yu An, Lin

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Table of Contents
I. Introduction..P3-P4 II. The goal of the research III. The definition of hallyu...P4 IV. The main factors of Korea prosperity IV-1. Technology IV-1-1. Samsung.....................................................P4 IV-1-2.LG......P4-P5 IV-1-3.Hyundai.......P5 IV-2. Entertainment IV-2-1. Music....P5-P6 IV-2-2. Drama...............P6-P7 V. The goal of the research.......P7 VI. Key reasons for panicking VI-1. Koreans arrogant personality......P7-P8 VI-2.Afraid of losing......P8 VII. Conclusion..........P9 VIII. Reference.......P9-P10

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I. Introduction

In todays highly international and technological world, countries and countries are strongly connected. What happened to a country can dramatically affect another one or even all the others. Without a doubt, the phenomenon has come to the face of Taiwanese. A buzzword named hallyu, which is the Korea word for Korean Wave, is now spreading throughout Taiwan. Gradually, more and more people like things or celebrities from Korea. For example, some like to use Korean brand electronics such as LG and Samsung. Some like Korea pop singers like Super Junior or Girls Generation. Whats more, there are even websites especially for Korea lovers. For instance, a website called Kpopn (picture 1) is very popular among Korea lovers that everyone who likes Korea pop music can not miss it if you dont

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(Picture 1)

want to lose tract of Korea entertainment industry. However, on the other hand, some people are strongly opposed to Korea. For example, compared to competing with other countries, some people would want Taiwan to win more desperately. Another example is that some people prefer every other brand products to Korean brand products. There are many other examples of Taiwanese opposing Koreans.

II. The goal of the research

Although hallyu is now striking Taiwan, there are still people that are really opposed to Korea, no matter its technology, entertainment, or anything else. Therefore, in the research, I want to discuss about why they are opposed to Korea? Are they panicking about losing Korea or something else?

III. The definition of hallyu

Hallyu, Korean word for Korean wave, refers to a worldwide popularity boom of Korean culture or entertainment. It is a large-scale craze follows after the Japanese craze in Asia, especially countries such as Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Philippines, and Taiwan is no exception. In addition to Asia, Korea craze is spreading to America and Latin America in a fast pace. It began in the late 1990s and continues to this very day.

IV. The main factors of Korea prosperity

IV-1. Technology

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Technology plays an important role in the prospering of Korea. Without technology, Korea would not have made such a legend. There is a huge gap in the acceptance of Korean products among Taiwanese. Some people love Korea made products so much that almost all of their 3C products are made in Korea. However, on the other hand, some people would rather choose anything else than Korean products. Now, I am going to introduce three of the most representative companies in Korea. One is Samsung, another is LG, ant the other is Hyundai.

IV-1-1. Samsung was founded as a trading company in 1938. Throughout the next twenty years, Samsung had been changing its main industry no matter as a grocery shop a fabric factor a hospital or a component companyetc. In the 60s, Samsung started to enter 3C industry and began its amazing legend. It is now one of the biggest 3C companies in the whole world. Samsung has a competitive relation with HTC, a 3C company from Taiwan. Because they sell similar things, the competitive relation between them is really severe. Some people even claim that whether you respect and love your country depends on what company products you buy.

IV-1-2. This is LG, a company that covers products from household appliances, 3C products, and economic investment to

mobile telecommunications. First started as a chemistry corporation in 1947, and began its household appliance industry in 1958. It is the first household industry company in Korea, and has a competitive relation with Samsung as well.

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IV-1-3. Hyundai was first an architecture company established in 1947. In 1967, it changed its way to a car company. It has been voted as the top 100 companies in the world, and the top 5 car companies. As a result of manufacturing same character of cars, Hyundai has a competitive relation with Taiwanese car company, Yulon Motor, just like the relation between Samsung and HTC.

IV-2. Entertainment

Entertainment without a doubt stands a really important role in the prosperity of Korea. The craze for Korea entertainment first started as the TV show, Autumn in My Heart, was introduced into Taiwan in the year of 2000, and this show drew lots of attention. Since then, many other dramas have been introduced into Taiwan as well, including Fireworks, Full House, and Hotelier. The introduction of these TV shows pushed the fashion of Korean movie, music and food in Taiwan forward. Here in Taiwan, there are even singers became popular because of resigning Korean famous songs. Now, Korea entertainment is still so popular, even much more than it used to be, that stocks of Korea have risen nearly thirteen times more than before.

IV-2-1. Music

Korea has really strong entertainment background. There are few countries which have as strong entertainment background as Korea in the world, even in neither the USA nor Japan. In Taiwan, for example, a singer wok together with an agency
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company to manage with his or her career, work with an album company when he or she is going to release a new album, and cooperate with a drama company when shooting a film. On the other hand, Korean companies do the exactly different way. In Korea, agency companies manage the whole process from performing, album to drama. In this way, its entertainment industry is much more organized than any other else. Therefore, this is one of the main reasons why Korea can make its entertainment industry so successful. Amazingly, there are almost ten entertainment agencies at the same time, such as SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, CJ Entertainment, J.Tune Entertainment, Mnet Media, Cube Entertainment...and so on. If a person wants to be an artist, he or she needs to first take an enrollment contest. Artist agencies will choose those who they think have the potential of being extraordinary celebrities. As for those who are not chosen, they would have to wait for another chance for enrollment if they want.

Things do not get easy once being chosen to be interns. Instead of enjoying the happiness of being chosen, they are planned to have a series of training, including dancing, singing, working out, and interacting. It does not mean that you will be a professional artist at last. Instead, only those who are the best and have more ability can. In my opinion, this is why the music industry in Korea can be so thriving.

Korea entertainment is now so thriving in the whole world that every time a celebrity visits a different place brings huge profits to his or her company. Take the year of 2012 for example. Last year, many groups of entertainers came to Taiwan, including Sir Elton Hercules John, Lady Gaga and even Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise former wife. However, none of them gained as many profits as Korean entertainers. Instead

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of worrying about not selling out tickets, what Korea companies worried about was whether the tickets were enough. Bigbang, a superband in Korea, sold out all its tickets in only two hours, earning ninety million totally.

Bigbang

Founded:2006 Members:5 people Agency: YG Entertainment Famous Song: Fantastic Baby

IV-2-2. Drama

According to some data, the main reason why Korean dramas can be so popular in Taiwan is because Taiwanese have always had a habit of watching dramas. Before Korean dramas

introduction to Taiwan, Taiwanese had already watched dramas for decades. Therefore, when there was another choice for entertainment, people could highly accept Korean dramas. Also, because there is no snow in Taiwan, the appearance of snow in Korean dramas makes them famous as well. One of the most popular Korean dramas is Jewel in the Palace, a story about a woman succeeded in being an extraordinary doctor. This TV show has the most audience rating among all the Korean dramas which are introduced to Taiwan. What is crazier is that although this show has already been rebroadcast for many times, it still wins many other new Korean dramas and the same-time Taiwanese dramas.

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VI. Key reasons for panicking

VI-1. Koreans patriotism for their country

It is widely known that Koreans have strong patriotism. It is good to feel positive about his or her country, but sometimes some Koreans may use vicious means to show their love for their country. For the past several years, there has been lots of negative reputation about Korea. Now, I am going to introduce some of them which just happened recently. From these incidents, we can totally understand why Koreans are hated and why some Taiwanese are against to Koreans.

One happened in the year of 2008 in Singapore. There was a video contest at that time, and both Taiwanese and Korean were competing there. At first, Taiwanese delegation was using Taiwan national flag as the representative flag. However, we were asked to change the flag at last because of Korea protesting. Finally, we failed to encourage the authority to accept our national flag and were asked to withdraw back the flag.

Another happened in 2010 when one of the biggest companies, Samsung, betrayed others. Some companies violated the monopoly provision, including Samsung. Because Samsung first snitched about the violation, it was not punished and sentenced. However, what it did led to many other companies were fined severely, especially CEIMEI, a company from Taiwan which was fined three hundreds billions Euro.

Lastly, one of the most impressive incident happened in Asian Games in 2010. The
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Taiwan representative Yang, Shu-chun was disqualified because the Korean Philippine referee claimed that the equipment that Yang used did not conform to the rules. The truth is the accusation was wrong. Yang had already taken the old-model sensor socks off. Last, it happened to be that the referee used tricks so that the person whom he wished to win could get the prize. This has been one of the most sinister ways for a reversal victory.

VI-2.Afraid of losing

It is a common sense that once we see those who used to be worse than us catching up with us, we are afraid that one day they may actually win. This may be the concern of some people in Taiwan. In the past when Korea was not as prospering as it is now, Taiwan was better than it no matter in technology, entertainment, tourism or economy. However, as the Korea government is trying very hard to become a better place, the developed distance between Taiwan and Korea, which used to be long, is lessening.

It makes sense why Korea can be so successful in such a short period. The government invests a lot into their industries. For example, in order to make Samsung a larger company, the government borrowed money to lend to Samsung. Now, Samsung is a company that is too big to collapse. Whats more, the Korean government even invests in the entertainment. They help the entertainment agencies become stronger, and ask for assistance when it is needed. For instance, if one day the government wants to prompt its tourism, they ask singers to perform and can catch more attentions. In these ways, Korea is a well-developed country now. However, many Taiwanese can not accept the truth now, so they just claim against Korea.

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VII. Conclusion

At first, I wanted to do the research because I was curious about a phenomenon happening in Taiwan. Why can Taiwan be full of people who extremely hate Korea and people who extremely love Korea? Wondering how such a weird thing could happen, I did the research and tried to understand what are Koreans and Taiwanese thinking. I found that some Taiwanese being opposed to Korea for two main reasons. One is the strong patriotism of Koreans, and the other is because those Taiwanese are afraid of losing. However, it is unhealthy to love or hate a thing too much because it can lead to being irrational, which is a fatal wound to making some important decisions. Also, in my point of view, it is useless to just being opposed to it because it is not going to solve anything. What we need to do is make ourselves better. Taiwan is no worse than Korea, and we have our advantages. For example, we are friendly and honest, which is the characteristic that Koreans do not have. Whats more, we have our own features. Take for example; we can see both the ocean and the mountains in a day. With this feature, we can stimulate the tourism industry in Taiwan. Apart from what I have stated above, we still have many merits. Maybe havent been found yet, but will be one day. In the paper, I provide some of my viewpoints and hope that people can think twice about their opposing to Korea. Taiwan is an outstanding country. As long as we try, why should we panic?

V III. Reference

1. Kpopn website (Picture1) http://kpopn.com/ 2. Samsung logo http://tw.image.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A8tUwJsWczdR.EwAPyVt1gt.? p=samsung&fr=yfp&ei=utf-8&n=30&x=wrt&y=%E6%90%9C%E5%B0%8B -11-

3. LG logo http://tw.image.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A8tUwYAVczdROhQAtohr1gt.? p=LG&fr=yfp&fr2=piv-web 4. Hyundai logo http://tw.image.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A8tUwJuXczdRMGoAwBNt1gt.? p=Hyundai+logo&fr=yfp&ei=utf8&n=30&x=wrt&y=%E6%90%9C%E5%B0%8B 5. Girls Generation http://tw.image.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A8tUwJu3czdR.EwAmEht1gt.?p=girl %27s+generation&fr=yfp&ei=utf8&n=30&x=wrt&y=%E6%90%9C%E5%B0%8B 6. Super Junior http://tw.image.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A8tUwJv6czdRnFQAoNNt1gt.? p=Super+Junior&fr=yfp&ei=utf-8&n=30&x=wrt&y=%E6%90%9C%E5%B0%8B 7. Bigbang http://tw.image.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A8tUwJiBdDdRQAoAzJht1gt.? p=bigbang&fr=yfp&ei=utf-8&n=30&x=wrt&y=%E6%90%9C%E5%B0%8B 8. Jewel in the Palace() http://tw.image.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A8tUwJigdDdRaA8A4lJt1gt.?p= %E5%A4%A7%E9%95%B7%E4%BB%8A&fr=yfp&ei=utf8&n=30&x=wrt&y=%E6%90%9C %E5%B0%8B 9. Youre Beautiful() http://tw.image.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A8tUwJnrdDdR2SkA83Ft1gt.?p=%E5%8E%9F %E4%BE%86%E6%98%AF%E7%BE%8E%E7%94%B7&fr=yfp&ei=utf-8&n=30&x=wrt&fr2=sggac&sado=1

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