As Korean TV dramas since the early 2000s (the beginning of the Hallyu, or “Korean Wave” phenomenon across Asia) have been consciously produced with both domestic and international viewers in mind, producers have sought out increasingly exotic foreign filming locations, idyllic rural Korean sites, and historical reconstructions to suit all tastes, defining the nation in the space between urban and rural, Korea and other, past and present. In addition to more obvious changes in variety of locales or production values, subtle changes in portrayals of social relationships are visible through the shifting of spatial relationships or the unfolding of plots in the intimate sphere of home or the public space of work in recent TV dramas. Many of the most popular “trendy dramas” (dramas set in the contemporary moment with plots revolving around romantic and family relationships) play with notions of femininity and masculinity in the workplace or in family life. I argue in this paper that the introduction of various kinds of gender bending in mainstream Korea television dramas brings into relief shifting perspectives on changing family values and alternative social configurations in South Korea. By investigating ways in which the Korean “family values” of these dramas are constructed, this research has the potential to contribute to understandings of subjectivity amidst rapid social change, as well as practices of national and global citizenship through media consumption and production.
In particular I focus on a popular miniseries from the summer of 2007: The Flagship Store of Coffee Prince (Kŏp’i Pŭrinsŭ Il-hojŏm; MBC, 18 episodes). Unlike the treatment of family as a cohesive (if at times exasperating and stress-inducing) unit common in daily dramas, Coffee Prince shares with other recent “trendy dramas” the depiction of physically or psychically broken families that are brought together again by the powerful love of the youthful leads. I choose this program for my analysis for both practical and thematic reasons: on the practical side, I was in Korea for the duration of the period it was airing and thus was able to observe its popularity first-hand, and it was the most popular of all “trendy dramas” of 2007 (surpassed only by long-running daily dramas and historical dramas, both of which attract a broader demographic). More importantly, on the thematic side it was the only South Korean TV drama to date that played with gender-bending and same-sex romance between the lead characters. For Coffee Prince I explore three major themes of post-IMF crisis gender politics, alternative sexualities and socialities, and worker subjectivity in late capitalism, making the argument that while these dramatic depictions of youthful work and play do not at first seem to push back against neoliberal subject formation, they do suggest new forms and venues for alternative sociality in South Korea. For each of the three themes identified in Coffee Prince I combine content analysis with theoretical background, also including a more ethnographic treatment of English and Korean message board comments left on websites about the drama. I look at comments made on a (primarily) English-language blog (“Dramabeans”) about Korean TV dramas that attracted a great deal of traffic throughout the broadcast of Coffee Prince, and also comments on the official Korean website for the drama (a subsection of the MBC network website).