Abstract

Over the last few years South Korea has been responsible for a television phenomenon known as Hallyu ('the Korean Wave'). Its popularity has spread to a number of East Asian countries including Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Mongolia, China and especially Japan and has made celebrities out of its stars. Bu what exactly does Hallyu mean? What are the implications for an indigenous Korean television culture and for its international reputation as well as sense of national identity? This article focuses on television drama to analyse what the term relates to, but also what it has come to mean , particularly to Koreans.