Archetype and Stereotype Writing Prompt

Christina Chang, Jaehong Park, Nina Lim

 

Introduction

             As Korean audiences ourselves, we realized that most Korean dramas have certain stereotypical ideas and values in their basic storylines. It is apparent that most of Korean dramas implement stereotypical formulas because those formulas usually guarantee success, as certain things are more likely to attract audiences proven by ratings of different dramas and stereotypes that were shown before. Although Korean drama industry has remains very conservative and reserved compared to many Western, American, or even Japanese dramas, we could cleary see that the Korean drama industry did make quite a bit of progress, becoming much more expressive. While many of the ideas and genres for a certain fixed audiences will continue to prevail in Korean dramas, with the sign of progress that has been shown, it is fair to expect innovative, more expressive, and exciting themes to be introduced in Korean dramas for a wider range of audiences for the future.  

 

Writing Prompt #1

 

                We thought that while most of Korean dramas were essentially stereotypes of something, as most dramas’ storylines are very similar, it is still hard to distinguish which are archetypes and which are stereotypes, as there are so many copies within Korean dramas. As Korean dramas are mostly shown to Koreans, we thought that primary target audience of Korean dramas is the Koreans themselves. However, since so many Asians such as Japanese and Chinese have become fans of Korean dramas, we could see that there is increasing number of dramas that targeted Asians in general. We thought that in Korean dramas, young female adults were most represented by Korean dramas. There were also many dramas that represented young male adults and mothers (“ajummas”) well. We thought that children, either boys or girls, were least represented by the Korean dramas. Older men were also not represented much in dramas as well. Other things relevant in images and videos we found was that as time progressed, more “touchy” subjects such as affair or high school dating were presented more often in dramas, possibly representing the current trend of the Korean society.

 

Writing Prompt #2

 

             After this project, we were able to observe some of things that became the norms in Korean dramas, such as the “bad guy image” and “Cinderella stories”. It was clear that once a new genre or idea introduced in a drama became a hit, many other dramas after it tried to incorporate similar ideas to repeat its success. We believed that while creating such stereotypical dramas to repeat the success of an archetype was not necessarily a bad thing to do. However, making such stereotypical dramas was a reason why so many Korean dramas had essentially same story lines, with very little progress made in Korean dramas. While stereotypes exist even in American dramas, we thought that in the US, there were more innovative ideas or themes incorporated into dramas than in Korea. Thus, we thought that Korean entertainment industries should heed less to the public’s opinion, and try new things for the development of Korean dramas.

Fortunately, we did notice that Korean dramas have become more expressive and liberal, trying new things like American entertainment industries did. Things like bath scenes, fusion-historical dramas, and affair scenes that were limited in the conservative Korean society were shown more and more, indicating that the Korean society has been opening up to such things, becoming less conservative. While some might be concerned that Korean dramas are increasingly becoming Americanized, we thought that by dealing with such “touchy” subjects, Korean dramas will develop more and more to make more interesting and entertaining dramas for the public, enough to make people wait eagerly for what new things will be introduced with every new drama released.

Stereotypically, bad boys in Korean dramas are more attractive and popular than other male protagonists. Although the bad boys are never generous to women, female characters fall in love with them. Bad boys usually dress very tough and talk more directly than other male character. There are some family reasons that make bad boys become bad. However, they mostly do not have happy endings, perhaps warning young men away from this type of behavior.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the picture, Ye-Jin Park is a fashionable, wealthy, and well-educated, alpha-female, but like similar characters in other dramas, she cannot get the man. Characters like her may ultimately de-motivate women from seeking success.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Korean dramas, Stereotypical Korean middle-aged women, or ajumas, are very strong and stingy. They do not spend money on their appearance and sacrifice their lives for their family. The mother in the image has a very curly perm because it lasts over 6 months, therefore requiring only 2 trips to a hair salon per year. Also ajumas wear very cheap and comfortable clothes because they feel no need for expensive and pretty clothe, preferring to save their money. This image persists in dramas to this day, usually for supporting roles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the past, Korean dramas only represented women as fragile and dependent on men. Eunha Sim in “Trap of Youth” represented the fight against men. She planned to get revenge on the man who dumped her and her child. She is dressed a little sharper than other women in dramas in order to show her strength. Her make-up is more prominent and her facial expression shows strength not weakness.

In this photo from "Boys over Flowers", the male character is saving the female character from a dangerous situation, which is little cliche in Korean dramas. In Korean dramas, the so-called Cinderella story often appears. Cinderella story contains the storyline of where a rich, handsome, tall, talented and basically perfect male character falls in love with a poor, bright, normal-looking, and very honest female character. The male character often abandons prettier, wealthier, more talented, and more suitable second female character. This often forms love triangle, but at the end, the male character always stays with the normal girl. This storyline is popular because women or girls who are watching the TV drama can often relate themselves to more "real" and normal female character.

 

Unlike Korean dramas in the 90s, thesedays Korean dramas explicitly illustrates the theme of love affair. This scene is from "First Wives Club" where the male character is running away from his home with the woman he is cheating with. In modern dramas, the ones who cheat are more audacious and brazen, and they even blame thier husband or wife for their acts. Love affair storyline in Korean dramas might have emerged from the reality nowadays, where it is found that more than 60% of married men or women have cheated.

 

In Korean dramas, the weak and innocent female charater often gets some kind of lethal disease, mostly cancer or leukemia, which are hard to cure. In the 1990s, these female characters often died, despite the male character's care and support. However, in modern Korean dramas, these female charaters in one way or another miraculously survives which leaves hope within the atmosphere. This scene is from "Your are My Destiny" where the female character who has leukemia imagines herself dead, but at the end she survives through implementation.

Lastly, another typical storyline of Korean dramas is "Secrets of Birth." It is often the main plot of the whole drama. In these scenes from "East of Eden," the two babies were intentionally switched out of a angry woman's revenge. Because this secret of birth was unrevealed when the babies are already adult, it was more traumatizing. But in the 1990s dramas, the babies were usually swapped by an accident. This shows how modern korean dramas are more dynamic, calculated, and violent.

Wordle

Cinderella Story

Secrets of Birth

Stereotypical

Korean Drama

Cliché

Love Triangle

Target Audience

Social Difference

Romance

Entertainment Industry

Bad Boy Image

Bad Girl Image

Historical Drama

Gender Role

Comical Drama

Expressive

Conservative

Unrealistic

Revenge

Family

Single Mother

Death

Touchy Subjects

Media

Western Influence

Role Model

 

 

 

Our Wordle on Korean Drama stereotypes and archetypes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Resources and Links

www.youtube.com/

http://images.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi

www.naver.com

www.daum.net

The probelm is… since it was about Korean dramas, you would have to research in Korean…..

 

 

My group members’ blogs:

http://ninalim0717.wordpress.com/

http://christinabc.wordpress.com/

 

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