How "Korean Kraze" was introduced in the Philippines?

Korean Kraze suddenly came to our country like a lightning that hits the most of us and got struck in our hearts. So let’s go back to the root or the main source of this Korean syndrome in the Philippines. It all started in 2003 where the production of k-dramas on Philippine television caught our interests because of their different, fresher, and light stories unlike to our local telenovelas where it always talk about betrayal, poverty and vengeance that brought a heavy feeling to the viewers.

We had our first oppa because of F4 from Boys Over Flowers followed by Coffee Prince, Secret Garden, Lovers in Paris, Stairway to Heaven, Dream High, The Heirs and the big success of Jewel in the Palace. In present time, instead of only depending on televisions and wait for our favorite k-drama to be aired, we started on streaming our favorite series online or some of us bought CDs to watch our preferred k-drama like Weightlifting Fairy: Kim Bok Joo, Descendants of the Sun, K2, Cinderella and Four Knights, Let’s Fight Ghost, Scarlet Heart: Ryeo, and Cheese in the Trap.

By 2009, the Nobody entered our country and this song by Wonder Girls was being played almost on repeat across our country. We even do the dance steps while singing it on karaoke, Christmas party, and even on class group presentations. Nobody is literally everywhere.

In 2012, Gangnam Style by Psy became a global phenomenon and it sprawls like a wildfire where it became the first Youtube video to reach 1 billion views. The reason why did song become viral is because of us, Filipinos. We have a stronger link to other countries because of the English language. So you better thank us Psy-oppa! Hehehe.

Gwiyomi was released in 2013 and definitely the third Korean song, after PSY’s Gangnam style that captured Filipinos' hearts. It became another social media trend where thousands or even millions of Filipino uploaded their own version of this song with cute facial expressions and hand gestures that will surely make you cringe because of too much cuteness.

And now, even the children song called Baby Shark is a trend in our country. The Baby Shark dance has been making a noise on social media and even on local television because most of us just can’t help to dance along to this bouncy and cute song. Baby shark doo *claps* doo *claps* doo *claps* doo *claps*

Most importantly, who will forget about their girl groups and boy groups? Today they have made their own music line called Korean Pop or popularly known as KPOP. Boy groups like EXO, BTS, GOT7, Super Junior, BTOB, INFINITE, and BIGBANG and girl groups like TWICE, GFriend, Red Velvet, BLACKPINK, APink, EXID and without any doubt, Girls’ Generation who broke the barrier between boy groups and girl groups are widely known because of their synchronized dancing, highly-skilled singing, appealing looks and extraordinary they inspire the fans to dream high like them. Another reason why we are hooked to these idols is because we feel closer to them through SNS where we can express our love to them through fanarts, fancams, and fan projects. It also brings us a family or also known as fandom where people with same interest form a harmonious group to support their idols.

I think Korean Wave or Hallyu is not a bad thing to our country because this will challenge the Philippine media to be more creative and aspiring to reach Filipinos’ different social status like what Korean media is doing to their people. They inspire them to be more hopeful and

just enjoy life. So, I hope we can learn this way of thinking from them.

#photo