In the last few years, Korean films, TV dramas and pop music have become immensely popular abroad, a phenomenon known as the Korean Wave. This is the 26th in a series of essays by a select group of scholars and journalists looking at the spread of Korean pop culture in Southeast Asian countries and beyond. - Ed.
The term "Korean Wave" or "Hallyu" was initially coined in China to describe a newfound interest in Korean pop culture in China in the late 1990s. At the center of it all was the now-defunct boy band H.O.T. (High-five of Teenagers), two of whose albums were exported to China in 1998.
Many people underestimate the strategic side of the iconic band's success in China, though, assuming that the quintet was simply lucky to become the first Korean pop musicians to be active in China, at a time when the country's music scene was not very well developed.
Until last year, Ahn Chil-hyun - lead singer of the band, and better known by his stage name, Kang Ta - was one of them.
The charismatic singer and songwriter, who has written more than 100 songs for H.O.T. and other popular K-pop bands such as NRG and Fly to the Sky, remembers their first concert in Beijing in July 2000 as something wonderful, even magical. "I thought like, 'Man, I'm one heck of a lucky guy'," Ahn told The Korea Herald, recollecting their Chinese debut, which attracted more than 13,000 people. "Before then, we had never performed in China, and besides, Korean pop stars were not very popular outside Korea".
It was only recently that Ahn, who now spends some of his time as a director of H.O.T'.s management company, SM Entertainment, came to know that the company had worked to promote the band in China for about three years. According to Ahn, the production house was targeting Asia long before they emerged as one of the most influential entertainment companies in the region, with the success of Boa in Japan.
"When we were first selected for H.O.T. after the auditioning process, there were only five people working for the company", said Ahn, who originally debuted as a back-up dancer with Moon Hee-jun (another H.O.T. member) for singer Yoo Young-jin.
Although the legendary boy band - which sold over 5 million albums - disbanded in 2001, all the members pursued solo careers. Ahn has been active in singing and acting, not only here but also in China, where he is still as popular as he was as lead singer of H.O.T.
"In China, a trend is slow to take off, but it also lasts longer than in any other country. You can hear a song for almost two to three years in China, once the song becomes a hit there", Ahn said. That may explain his long-lasting popularity in the country. Until he released the "Eternity-Forever" album earlier this month, he hadn't recorded a new album for three years.
"Here, on the other hand, changes are faster, and so is the development of a music genre, in general, but it also works adversely to the profound development of the genre", he said.
The singer, who made his acting debut with KBS drama "Loveholic" in 2005, has so far acted in three Chinese television dramas, including one that has yet to be aired. The CCTV drama "Love in the City 2", which aired over last year's Mid-Autumn Festival holidays, ranked first in viewer ratings.
Considering that the government-run CCTV operates 18 different channels, and the enormous population must have gathered in front of the television during the holidays, it proved that his popularity in the country was not a passing fad. "I don't think I'm acting. I'm still learning", said Ahn with a smile.
In the television series, Ahn plays a popular Korean singer who loses his memory after he has an accident while touring China, and falls in love with a Chinese girl who helps him recover his memory. Ahn also sang the ending song of the drama.
When H.O.T'.s album was first released in China in 1998, the Chinese pop-music industry was about one-tenth of that of Korea, but almost no one, including Ahn, doubts that China will grow to have the biggest entertainment market in Asia in the near future.
"I have been amazed by the speed of changes in the Chinese system. In about five years, the feeling of superiority some Korean entertainers and their fans might feel toward their Chinese counterparts could be gone", he said. By then, he expects, the Korean entertainment industry will lose much of its edge over China, unless it finds a new way to continue the Korean Wave by using its sta-management expertise.
"It would mark a new phase of the Korean Wave if Korean agencies turned their eyes to China and other Asian countries to make local talent and cultural content big in Korea and elsewhere in Asia", Ahn said. "That's what I'd like to do with SM later", said the man who once formed a cross-national pop duo named Kang Ta & Vaness, together with Taiwanese pop music sensation Vanness Wu.
To achieve his goal, he has to finish his military duty first. He is scheduled to join the military on April 1. "I'm not nervous. I think it will bring me a fresh perspective on society". The new "Eternity-Forever" album, which contains eight pop ballads, including the title song, "Eternity", is the last gift from the K-pop star to his fans across Asia. "I tried to create an easy feel throughout the album because I want to be remembered as such", he said.
On March 29 and 30, Ahn will give his last concerts before joining the military, at the main auditorium of Yonsei University in western Seoul. During the concerts, he will perform his H.O.T. hits, as well as songs from the new album. "I want to produce a film someday, as an actor and music director at the same time. But I should finish my studies first, and military duty, of course", said Ahn who studies film making at Dongguk University's Graduate School of Film and Digital Media.
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