All Around Asia, Love-Struck Women Want Men With a Little Bit of Seoul
TOKYO -- Thin and gorgeous in a slinky black dress, Mikimoto pearls and a low-slung diamond Tiffany pendant, 26-year-old Kazumi Yoshimura already has looks, cash and accessories. There is only one more thing this single Japanese woman says she needs to find eternal bliss -- a Korean man.
She may just have to take a number and get in line. In recent years, the wild success of male celebrities from South Korea -- sensitive men but totally ripped -- has redefined what Asian women want, from Bangkok to Beijing, from Taipei to Tokyo. Gone are the martial-arts movie heroes and the stereotypical macho men of mainstream Asian television. Today, South Korea's trend-setting screen stars and singers dictate everything from what hair gels people use in Vietnam to what jeans are bought in China.
Yet for thousands of smitten Japanese women like Ms. Yoshimura, collecting the odd poster or DVD is no longer enough. They have set their sights far higher -- settling for nothing less than a real Seoulmate.
The lovelorn Ms. Yoshimura signed up last year with Rakuen Korea, a Japanese-Korean matchmaking service, to find her own Korean bachelor. She is hardly alone. More than 6,400 female clients have signed up with the company, which says its popularity has skyrocketed since 2004, when "Winter Sonata" became the first of many hot Korean television dramas to hit Japan. Even in Shinjuku ni-chome, Tokyo's biggest gay district, niche bars with names such as Seoul Man have sprouted like sprigs of ginseng in a Busan autumn.
"South Koreans are so sweet and romantic -- not at all like Japanese guys, who never say 'I love you,' " Ms. Yoshimura said as she waited for her blind date, a single Korean man, in the 50th-floor bar of a chic Tokyo skyscraper. A telephone operator who lives with her parents in Hiroshima, she has spent thousands of dollars on her quest for a Korean husband, flying to Seoul 10 times in the past two years and bullet-training to Tokyo for seven blind dates with Korean men. So far, she hasn't found the one she is looking for.
"Maybe I'm living in a fantasy world," she said. "Maybe I'm looking for the TV stars I can't really have. But we are all allowed a dream, aren't we?"
In part, the new allure of Korean men can be traced to a larger phenomenon known as the "Korean Wave," a term coined a few years ago by Beijing journalists startled by the growing popularity of South Koreans and South Korean goods in China. Now, the craze has spread across Asia, driving regional sales of everything from cars to kimchi.
Meanwhile, the number of foreign tourists traveling to South Korea leapt to 3.7 million in 2004 from 2.8 million in 2003. The bulk of the growth, South Korean tourism officials say, stemmed from Korean Wave-loving Asian women. Partial statistics for 2005 indicate the feminine tide hasn't yet let up.
For the South Koreans -- who have long suffered discrimination in Japan and who have hardly been known as sex symbols -- it all comes as something of a shock.
Korean male celebrities are now among the highest-paid actors outside Hollywood. According to the South Korean media, "Winter Sonata" star Bae Yong Jun -- whose character stood by his first love through 10 years of car accidents and amnesia -- is now charging $5 million a film, the steepest price anywhere in Asia. In a few short years, Mr. Bae is said to have accumulated a merchandising and acting-fee empire valued at an estimated $100 million. At least nine other Korean male stars earn more than $10 million a year, according to a list published in June by the Sports Hankook newspaper in Seoul.
In Seoul, the neon-lit streets are mobbed these days by visiting Asian women, many sporting rhinestone-studded T-shirts emblazoned with images of their favorite Korean stars.
"It's still a little hard to believe that it's gone this far," said Jang Dong Gun, now one of the highest-paid actors in Asia.
Mr. Jang said he was shocked when, during his first trip to Vietnam in 1998 to promote his new Korean TV drama, thousands of women mobbed his plane at the Hanoi airport and an armada of female fans on motor scooters chased his car all the way to his hotel.
In 2001, the Seoul manufacturer Daewoo Electronics Corp. hired him as its Vietnam spokesman. Over the past five years, the company said, its refrigerators' market share in Vietnam went from a blip to 34%.
In China, South Korean programs broadcast on government TV networks now account for more than all other foreign programs combined, including those from the U.S. and Japan, according to South Korean government statistics. Even in Mexico -- land of the telenovela -- a flock of local women stood outside South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun's hotel during a recent visit, holding placards with Korean stars' names. In the U.S., the Seoul singer Rain played two sold-out nights at New York's Madison Square Garden in 2005. Also last year, sinewy Daniel Dae Kim, the Korean-born actor from the hit American show "Lost," was the only Asian to land a spot in People magazine's "Sexiest Men Alive" edition.
Entertainment-industry leaders in Seoul credit the phenomenon to good marketing coupled with an uncanny response throughout Asia to the expressive nature of the South Koreans. A hearty diet and two years of forced military duty, industry leaders and fans insist, also have made young South Korean men among the buffest in Asia. Most important, however, has been the South Korean entertainment industry's perfection of the strong, silent type on screen -- typically rich, kind men with coincidentally striking looks and a tendency to shower women with unconditional love.
"It's a type of character that doesn't exist much in Asian movies and television, and now it's what Asian women think Korean men are like," said Kim Ok Hyun, director of Star M, a major star management company in Seoul. "But to tell you the truth. I still haven't met a real one who fits that description."
Though the Korean Wave hit Japan relatively late, washing ashore only within the past 24 to 36 months, the country has quickly become the largest market for Korean stars.
Almost all the major Korean male stars have opened lucrative "official stores" in Tokyo. In the three-story boutique of Ryu Siwon, a baby-face Korean actor-crooner who sings in phonetic Japanese for the local market, the top floor boasts a recreation of his living room. It has become a meeting place of sorts for his Japanese fans, where a gaggle of women sat and stared longingly at his statue on a recent afternoon.
Some call it a fad. Ms. Yoshimura -- whose latest blind date turned out to be a slightly paunchy Korean computer programmer -- says she is nevertheless digging in her extraordinarily high heels for the long run.
"I intend to keep looking until I find the right one," she said.
日本女子中意韩国郎君
身穿一袭尽显玲珑曲线的黑色套裙，佩戴着御木本（Mikimoto）珍珠和Tiffany钻石项坠，26岁的Kazumi Yoshimura已经拥有了美貌、金钱和漂亮的饰品。这位单身日本女性认为自己的终生幸福还欠缺一样东西──一位韩国男人。
要实现这个愿望，她必须耐心等待。近几年，从曼谷到北京，从台北到东京，韩国男星取得的巨大成功重新定义了亚洲女性对梦中情郎的标准──敏感而极富男人味。武打片英雄和亚洲主流电视剧中的老套男子汉已经不再吃香，如今，引领潮流的韩国影星和歌手们主宰着一切，从越南人用什么定型发胶到中国人买什么样子的牛仔裤。
而成千上万像Yoshimura小姐那样被潮流击中的日本女性不再满足于仅仅收集几张海报和DVD，她们有更远大的目标──找一个地地道道的韩国伴侣。
为了找到自己的韩国爱人，满怀爱情憧憬的Yoshimura去年与Rakuen Korea公司（一家日韩交友公司）签了合约。而像她这样的日本女性不在少数。和这家公司签约的女客户超过6400人。这家公司称，自从2004年《冬季恋歌》成为在日本最受欢迎的韩国连续剧以来，公司的人气也直线上升。甚至在东京最大的同性恋地区──新宿区，以“首尔男人”为名字的酒吧像雨后春笋一样冒出来。
Yoshimura在位于东京一座摩天大楼50层的酒吧内等候她的速配对象──一位韩国单身汉。“韩国男人甜蜜，浪漫，一点儿都不像日本男人，他们从来不会说‘我爱你’。” Yoshimura是一位电话接线员，和父母住在广岛。为了找到韩国男友，她不惜花费数千美元。在过去两年，她十次飞往首尔，七次乘新干线前往东京和韩国男士见面。
但她至今还没有找到心目中的人选。
“也许我生活在一个幻想的世界里，”她撅起红唇说道。“也许我寻找的那些电视剧中的理想男人在现实中根本不存在。但我们都有权做梦，不是吗？”
韩国男士的部分魅力源自时下所称的“韩流”。惊叹于韩国明星和韩国货在中国的流行，北京的记者几年前造出了“韩流”一词。眼下，韩国热遍及整个亚洲，从汽车到泡菜，韩国货的销售如火如荼。
与此同时，前往韩国旅行的游客数量也急剧增加，从2003年的280万人猛增至2004的370万。韩国旅游局官员称，这个增长主要得益于热衷“韩流”的亚洲女性。2005的部分统计数字显示，这种趋势在去年也没有减缓迹象。
对于长期受日本人歧视并难以成为性感偶像的韩国男人来说，这股潮流让他们受宠若惊。
韩国男星已跻身于好莱坞以外身价最高的演员之列。据韩国媒体报导，《冬季恋歌》(Winter Sonata)的主角裴勇俊（在片中扮演一名痴情男子）目前拍一部电影的片酬是500万美元，位列亚洲第一。据说在短短的几年，裴勇俊通过商业活动和演出赚取的身家估计已经达到1亿美元。根据首尔的Sports Hankook报6月公布的一份名单，除裴勇俊以外，至少还有九位韩国男星的年收入超过1000万美元。
近来在首尔，霓虹灯辉映下的街道到处可见来自亚洲各地的女性，很多人身着仿钻石T恤衫，上面印有她们喜欢的韩国男星的头像。据说，有些“粉丝”长达数小时守在一些着名餐馆的门口，盼望着能见上偶像一面。
“居然狂热到这种程度，还真有点难以相信，”身材高大、有着古铜肤色的张东健在首尔接受一次采访时说。张东健眼下是亚洲身价最高的男星之一。
1998年张东健第一次到越南宣传自己的新电视剧，有数千女“粉丝”聚集在河内机场迎接他，有的甚至骑着摩托车跟在他的轿车后面，一直追随他到宾馆。此情此景让他震惊不已。
2001年，首尔的公司Daewoo Electronics聘请张东健担任公司在越南市场的形像代言人。公司称，在过去的五年中，公司在越南电冰箱市场的占有率从不起眼的一小点猛增至34%。
“如果说我们给当地人的生活带来了多一点的欢乐，向他们展示了韩国的另一面，我个人认为，不管是对他们还是对我们，都是好事，”他说。
韩国政府统计数字显示，在中国，电视网络上播放的韩国节目数量超过了包括美国和日本在内的所有其他外国节目数量的总和。甚至在拉美电视连续剧大行其道的墨西哥，当韩国总统卢武铉最近访问该国时，也吸引了一大群当地妇女站在其下榻的宾馆外面，举着写有韩国明星名字的标语。在美国，首尔歌手Rain 2005年在麦迪逊广场花园上举行了两个晚上的演唱会，门票一售而空。去年，出演热播剧《迷失》的韩国裔健美男星金代(Daniel Dae Kim)成为《人物》(People)杂志“最性感男士”排行榜上唯一一个亚洲人。
韩国娱乐行业的高层把“韩流”现象归功于良好的市场运作，以及整个亚洲对于韩国人善于表现天性的出人意料的好感──韩国人一直被誉为亚洲的意大利人。行业人士和“粉丝”们都认为，丰盛的饮食和两年强制兵役使得韩国男青年成为亚洲最强壮的年轻人之一。然而，更为重要的是，韩国娱乐界完美地塑造了强健、深沉的男性荧屏形像：他们通常都是富有又善良，而且碰巧又都有俊朗的外表，对女人都是无条件地倾注真爱。
“这种类型的角色在亚洲电影和电视作品中是不多见的，而现在亚洲女性都认为韩国男人就是这个样子的，” Star M的总监Kim Ok Hyun说。Star M是首尔有名的明星经纪公司。
“但说实话，”她说，“我至今没有在真实生活中碰到一个符合这些条件的男人。”
虽然“韩流”登陆日本的时间相对较晚，不过是近两三年内的事，但日本很快就成为韩国明星最大的市场。裴勇俊是其中首屈一指的大腕，但他的地位正面临挑战。比如，男星权相佑即将在东京举办的影迷见面会上的某些座位就卖到200美元一个。成千上万的日本人挤破头，无非想一睹他和影迷一起玩游戏、聊天和表演歌舞。在拍卖网站上，有些票甚至被炒到500美元一张。
几乎所有的大牌韩国男星都在东京开设有颇为赚钱的“专营店”。在韩国明星柳时元(Ryu Siwon)的三层楼专营店里，最高一层据称是模仿柳时元的起居室而造，里面有一个用高科技塑料做的真人大小的柳时元像，休闲地躺在一个白色皮沙发上。这个房间已经成为柳时元的日本“粉丝”聚会的地方，最近的一个下午，一群年龄在17至61之间不等的女粉丝在这里闲坐，无限憧憬地盯着他的塑像。
有人说这不过是一时的热潮，但Yoshimura还是表示自己会坚持下去，尽管在最近的一次约会上发现对方不过是个略微发福的韩国程序员。
“我会一直寻找，直到找到满意的人，”她说。
