Koreanovelas, Teleseryes and the 'Diasporization' of the Filipino/The Philippines

Abstract

In a previous paper, the author had begun discoursing on the process of acculturating Korean/Hallyu soap opera aesthetics in television productions such as Only You, Lovers in Paris, and Kahit Isang Saglit. This paper attempts to expand the discussions of that ―critico-personal‖ essay by situating the discussions on what may be described as the ―diasporization‖ of the Filipino, and the Philippines, as constructed in recent soap operas namely, Princess and I, A Beautiful Affair, and Kailangan Ko‘y Ikaw. In following the three ―teleserye‖ texts, the author observes three hallyu aesthetic influences now operating in the local sphere—the ―spectacularization‖ of the first world imaginary in foreign dramatic/fictional spaces as new ―spectre of comparisons,‖ quoting Benedict Anderson; the crafting of the Filipino character as postcolonially/neocolonially dispossessed; and the continued perpetration of the imagination of Filipino location as archipelagically—and consequently, nationally— incoherent. The influences result in the aforementioned ―diasporization,‖ an important trope of simulated and dramaturgically crafted placelessness in the process of ―imagining‖ Filipino ―communities‖ and their sense of ―historical‖ reality, while covering issues of the diasporic Filipino.