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S.Korean soap opera sparks boom in China
By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-09-30 06:22 Spill-over effect
Chinese audiences swooning over Korean pop culture has created an industry
bigger than box office receipts and high television ratings.
 It is said that, Bae Jong-joon, the bespectacled star of many popular
South Korean movies and TV shows, helped an export boom in 2004 that experts
pegged at US$2.3 billion.
Its pop culture has added an aura to anything Korean. This applies not only
to cultural or lifestyle products such as books, recordings, food and clothes,
but also to home electronics and high-tech.
The penchant of South Korean actresses and actors, too to have a facelift has
had a palpable effect on the cosmetic surgery business in China. As people
marvel at the "before" and "after" photos of Korean beauties, the stigma about
surgically changing one's appearance is quickly dissipating.
Others have expressed that the "cultural mecca" of China's Y Generation is
now Seoul. It has replaced Europe and the United States as a place of
inspiration.
South Korea is currently China's fifth largest trading partner. In 2004,
bilateral trade reached US$90 billion, from a mere US$5 billion 13 years
earlier. It has an accumulative 32,275 investment projects in China, totaling
US$25.9 billion while China's investment in South Korea is US$900 million with
only 91 projects.
(China Daily 09/30/2005 page14)
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