Research On The Masculinity Of South Korean Trendy Drama

South Korea is the country exporting the largest number of entertainment programs to China market.After 20 years rise and fall,the South Korean drama still has strong vitality since it entered to the Chinese market in 1993,gradually penetrating into the Chinese people's basic necessities of life and challenge the development of Chinese native culture as well.The construction of male role is the most important thing in South Korean trendy drama with female as its creative subject and target audience.Since this,this paper is arguing about the concept of trendy drama extracting from the general concept of South Korean drama,selecting the representative male actors as objects who are attractive in both China and Korea,considering from the perspective of Western masculinity,generally using literature research,case study and comparative analysis to study the construction of masculinity in South Korean trendy drama and comb the development vein,in order to explore the cultural factors of the transition.This article is divided into five chapters.The first chapter is Introduction.It briefly introduces the history of South Korean drama's development in China and South Korea.Then it summarizes papers about South Korean drama study over the world,points out that family drama,historical drama,trendy drama are for different market groups and have different emphases.Some studies are too macroscopic,they didn't have a classification for South Korean drama.Educational circles' study on medium as well as gender is mainly based on women.It simply thinks that gender research on South Korean drama is the same as studies on women and ignores the focus under female perspective--male.Last but not least,the chapter talks about the reason of choosing certain cases and the study methods.Chapter 2 mainly talks about the history of western masculinity theory,discussing the relationship between body and temperament.It introduces the definition and classification of masculinity of R.W.Cornell,a famous scholar on this field,and illustrates that masculinity is of historic significance in essence,while it also has diversity and dynamic nature.Chapter 3 will analyse the three presentative elements shared by male protagonists in South Korean trendy drama-appearance,private cars and house property.Also,this chapter will illustrate the male protagonists' rebellion and compromise under the great man's doctrine from the perspective of career selection and amour/marriage choice.In the end of this chapter,I will divide the male protagonists into two types according to their professional ethical temperament-immediately dominate(e.g.Collective stewardship or military command)and technical expertise(e.g.proficiency or scientificity).Chapter 4 diachronically divides the temperament of male protagonists showing up in the South Korean trendy drama from 1992 to the present into three stages-perfect Prince Charming,childish bossy bosses and mysterious hero with super power/morbid elites with nervousness.The chapter will focus on the analysis of case studies of masculinity in each stage,as well as change of the relationship between males and females in the works of different stages.The last chapter will analyse cultural reasons for the transition of masculinity in South Korean trendy drama from the dimensions of violence aesthetics,consumer culture,modernity and nationality,discussing aestheticisation of violence?dissimilation of male bodies?yearning forwestern modernity and the tragic,alienated and rebellious national temperament rooted in "hate."This paper concludes that the new male temperament,which is constructed by the South Korean trendy drama,not only liberates the traditional "oppressed" body,but also creates a new "oppressive" body".To a certain extent,this oppression is obscured by the popular entertainment culture.