Brainwashed by soaps

TV is presenting an idealized caricature of South Korean males as Prince Charmings to the Middle Kingdom's maidens. Matt Hodges in Shanghai looks at the big picture beyond the small screen.

Poor old Psy: He's got the most-viewed video on YouTube, but no one's talking about how hot he is - at least not in my office.

However, he's still enjoying an advantage over the rest of us, because, as imported TV soaps keep proving to women across the nation, South Korean guys are the hottest thing since sliced bread. Just ask my boss, my colleague, my ayi (cleaner) - hell, even I'm considering dating a South Korean guy now, and I'm straight.

Put simply, no one can compare to South Korean guys nowadays, not since the advent of soaps like A Gentleman's Dignity, starring heartthrob Jang Dong-gun; last year's The Heirs, about a group of fu'erdai (second-generation rich) at an elite Korean school; and My Love From the Star, starring Kim Soo-hyun as - wait for it - an alien.

No one even comes close. Not Japanese men (too effeminate, pasty-looking and short). Not Southeast Asians (too many tattoos). And definitely not Caucasian expats (too hairy, and too likely to ditch you and go back to their own country).

Well, you get the picture.

South Korean guys, in contrast, will carry your handbag for you, throw their Armani jacket in a puddle of mud so you don't dirty your Gucci heels, open the door of your taxi and generally act with the kind of suave and debonair demeanor you would expect from your paramour.

They have big hearts, and they often wear lots of makeup, even off-screen.

They are all slim and ripped, with chiseled abs, perfect features and glossy spiked-up hair. No wonder huge swaths of the female population in Shanghai are going gaga, doolally and misty-eyed over them.

It's gotten to the point where I can't even get a date in this city unless I end every sentence in hamnida and promise we'll be having barbecued meat for dinner, or perhaps chicken and beer (affectionately known as chi-maek in South Korea, this is the latest food craze to take off in China after viewers - mostly women aged 20-50 - began idolizing and emulating everything they see on their favorite South Korean soap).

The brainwashing effect of these TV dramas is colossal in scale, and it's doing wonders for sales of South Korean smartphones, cosmetics, handbags and other products.

One of my Shanghainese colleagues is now desperate to purchase a pink Galaxy Note 3, mainly because the female protagonist of her favorite soap acts as a cheerleader for this piece of eye candy.