In a university class, students always need to refer to everyday life examples to support theories. Years ago, I found that characters and dialogue from TV shows were very useful for this, particularly shows from Hong Kong’s TVB channel, particularly catchphrases, which always resonated with students. But I found a big change in the last few years. No matter how closely I followed TVB’s new shows, I found at most only half of the class had watched it, and the number keeps falling year by year. It’s very difficult to find a TV show that most of the people in the class have watched. Last year, I decided to ask students what they were watching. A lot of students spend time “window shopping” online on sites like Taobao. Many had turned to watching Korean content entirely, like TV dramas, music videos, concerts and variety shows featuring famous celebrities.

The Korean wave is very popular. But how did it get to this stage?

This goes back to when the Korean government started to extend strong financial support to the country’s film industry, particularly the role of the Korean Film Council in commercialising and industrialising the industry. It manages the film promotion fund to effectively allocate resources and support film production. It also promotes training for industry talent and opens new markets. The KOFIC also helps auxiliary industries such as animation technology and projection, establishing a fund to support and expand the projection industry. Most people think the success of the Korean film industry can be attributed to money. In fact, money is only a small, and even final, part of the overall strategy. In fact the success of the industry in Korea today is the result of decades of development, allowing Korean films to command over half of the market share in the domestic box office and Korean culture to dominate all around Asia.

A predecessor to KOFIC was established already in 1973, and the event is seen as the critical moment for the development of the Korean film industry. In the early days, even with funding, the success of the film industry was always in doubt because of political instability in the country including many restrictions on creative content. Protection of intellectual property was also a problem. Therefore, even with a dedicated body to support it, the 1970s was in fact a backward period for Korea’s film industry, with a decrease in the number of films exported outside of Korea.

Developments in the 1980s set the scene for the prosperity of the industry of the 1990s, when many laws friendly to the film industry were amended in Korea, including ones that liberalised the production and import of films. Previously, the law had restricted imports to protect the domestic market, but the market opened up in 1988, allowing Koreans to be exposed to more films and unleashing their creativity. The fruits of that can be seen in the diverse wave of Korean productions in the 1990s, with My Sassy Girl even beating Hollywood blockbuster Pearl Harbourin the domestic box office in 2001. The movie, a refreshing take on the romantic comedy genre, kickstarted a new golden age for Korea’s film industry. Of course, money and commercial considerations are important, but without nurturing native talent, freedom and creativity, there will not be movies like My Sassy Girl in Korea. Without learning these lessons, building a competitive TV industry in Macao will only be a pipe dream.