The Global Influence of K-Dramas

When I received your email, it felt as though I was sinking into a pleasant numbness, and all my tension melted away. I wondered what had happened to you. I was so worried. After you left New York and went to China, I didn’t hear from you at all. Why didn’t it occur to me that the internet might be down in China? Perhaps it’s because we believe the internet is always with us, like electricity. While it offers us convenience, its absence leaves us anxiously waiting for news.

Back when I first came to America, I used to write letters to my father, who lived in Seoul, once or twice a week. He passed away in 2014. If he were still alive, would I still be writing letters? My father never learned how to use email. As we grow older, adapting to a world that changes so rapidly becomes increasingly difficult.

Thinking of you as a young person reminds me of when I first came to New York. There was a time when I, too, was young like you. Of course, my student days in New York (1981–1984) were very different from yours (2011–2014). When I first came to study abroad, there was no internet. When deciding which American university to attend, I thought of The Great Gatsby (1974), a film starring Robert Redford. Its setting is in Long Island, New York. I imagined that moving to New York would mean living in such a glamorous place. Filled with hope, I enrolled at Adelphi University in Garden City, Long Island. Where were the grand mansions I had seen in the film? Instead, I spent gloomy days in a red-brick dormitory with my roommate, who had come from Africa.

When I first saw your slender figure and delicate, charming face, I mistook you for one of the popular celebrities in Korea these days. Could someone as young and beautiful as you collaborate with me on an exhibition project? As I hesitated, you greeted me warmly.
“Hello, unnie. It’s nice to work on this exhibition with you.”
I was amazed to hear that you had learned Korean by watching Korean dramas.
“I even know Queen Mother, Your Majesty, and Grand Dowager Queen, unnie.”
Oh my goodness! I was astonished, and you kept calling me “unnie, unnie,” which opened both our hearts. Despite our age difference, we became friends. Instead of focusing on the exhibition project, we became absorbed in our conversations about the influence and status of Korean dramas.
“When I meet you at next March’s exhibition, I’ll have watched many more Korean dramas and improved my Korean.”
Hearing you say this moved me deeply.