Everything Korean

I didn't know where I caught it from. It must've been MTV. Or it could the alluring magnet attraction of Jaejoong but I caught it. I'm under the spell of the Hallyu.

Hallyu is the korean term for Korean Wave. It is most noticeable here in Malaysia in our choice of TV drama and pop music. I think it all started with Winter Sonata. Although melodrama is a staple genre in Malaysia, it only revolves around abusive family affairs. We Malaysian had no primetime hero until the soft spoken bespectacled architect arrived into our TV screen (and our hearts)

I was very cynical at first about this obsession. It was all just too surreal. I know for a fact that Korean men do not rent an ice rink just to celebrate an annivesary. They also do not buy bouquets of flowers and put them on the street in front of the girlfriend's house just because of a misunderstanding. Merepeklah.

But you girls, you girls believed them liars don't you? Nah nah nah, don't you deny it. I saw your faces when you suddenly heard a man speaking korean at the post office. Sepet eyes check! Neanderthal nose check! Olive skin check! Is he single?

The chinese girls waiting to pay their bills giggled but you, you and your tudung clad friend had to help him post his letters didn't you? Never mind that I was also looking for the bloody mailbox, you chose him over me. And just because he's korean, you didn't bother to whisper "Hensemnya Oppa ni, kahwin jelah dengan I!" Oh, kelakianku terguris...

Although I am pissed, I can't help but to feel that I will score better with the girls if I look more Korean. I've never fit into the typical malay demographic and have always been slanted towards girls who like chinese looking malays. Maybe if I speak korean and tell them that I'm a mixed malay-korean, they will surely fall for me! Maybe not.

Pop bands like DBSK and BigBang made me rethink of my definition of manliness. When I was teenager, caucasions like Leonardo DiCaprio and Kevin Zegers(Airbud anyone?) were my measure of a man. Now it's okay to be sepet. It's okay to have a cute personality. It's okay to be bratty. Unfortunately I am not all that. My eyes are considered round and folded.

Cynical as I am, I am also a sucker for almost everything korean. Proof:

Fav director: Park Chan Wook

Fav boyband: DBSK

Fav singer: Ajoo

Fac actor: Lee Byung Hun.

Two years ago my popular interests would've been dominated by orangputehs.

Our local TV channels acknowledged the korean big bang so more korean dramas are being screened today. The problem is though, all the major dramas were translated into Mandarin.

You see, we like koreans because they are koreans. Why in smoldering hell would you make koreans sound chinese? Chinese is for chinese. Korean is for all. 1Korea. Even a lot of my chinese friends are irritated that they dubbed korean dramas. Now they all sound like the cast of soaps like The Realm of Eternal Jealousy and what have you.

I don't know when this wave will end but I'm having a roll dancing to tunes like Wealthy Second Generation and Mirotic. We should all learn from this korean wave because maybe one day, we will have a Malay wave and people will be bothered to learn BM just for the sake of sounding cool. Maybe. Maybe not.

But that won't be possible in my estimated existence. Even chinese malaysians speak malay like they have just finished a 3 months crash course.

Let us not dwell into these depressing matters shall we ?(us? you're the one yang tiba-tiba emo)

The moral of this blog entry is... if you want to be cool, don't be yourself. Be Korean!

Fighting~