Netflix and Korean drama: Cultural resonance, affect and consumption in Asia

This chapter explains the popularity of Korean television/online dramas, from Boys Over Flowers to Squid Game, under a broad framework of Asian cultural resonance. South Korea has shared similar social conditions with many Asian cities/countries, such as rising living costs and high social inequality. The social conditions have become the backdrop of television dramas in that class differences are the obstacles to romance, marriage and achievement. For the past 20 years, Korean dramas have constructed affective and imaginative solutions to these social problems, while the recent co-productions of Korean dramas (e.g. Squid Game) between the local productions and Netflix have chosen to foreground such power relations and inequality as the main narratives, thereby interrupting the long-existing harmonious discourse framed by Korean’s own productions. Copyright © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Youna Kim; individual chapters, the contributors.