North Korean Refugee Women’s Consumption of South Korean TV Dramas and Movies

Introduction

From the early to mid-1990s, North Korea experienced extreme food shortages due to internal and external reasons. A series of natural disasters including drought and flooding hit North Korea around the same time economic support from the former socialist allies discontinued due to the collapse of Eastern European socialist bloc. Such pressures from in and out of the destitute nation-state resulted in a massive emigration of North Koreans (Oh, 2011). Around the mid-1990s, when the death rate from starvation in North Korea was soaring, North Korean mothers or wives went out of their family residence areas to look for food and resources from outside sources since fathers or husbands were under the government’s direct surveillance and could not leave their homes. Some of these women began to cross borders to China to secure food, medical supplies, and money. These wives and mothers progressively took the role of the breadwinner in the family, and the number of North Korean women crossing borders to and staying for longer periods in China began to increase. These North Korean women in China lived in fear for their safety and life and were vulnerable to repatriation to North Korea and possible persecution afterwards. To obtain security, these North Korean women gradually chose to seek asylum in South Korea. It can be pointed out that one of the reasons these women wished to go to South Korea was due to their knowledge about South Korea’s economic affluence and cultural background they learned from television and the Internet while staying in China.

Statistics supports this trend of feminized migration pattern. It shows that over 67% of incoming North Korean refugees are women (Statistics Korea, 2012). Even though there has been a steady increase in number of incoming North Korean refugees in South Korea, only a few studies have focused on North Korean refugee women. Moreover, given that a large number of North Korean refugee women in South Korea experience a great deal of difficulties with adjustment to new cultural structures and meanings and undergo a transformation of perceptions toward gender roles, there has not been much discussion about their new experiences and other aspects of gendered identity as newly migrated women.

This research delves into North Korean women’s gender issues and attitude changes in perception of South Korean women’s gender identity with particular interests in the connection between their migration experiences and media consumption. As such, this paper aims to analyze the role of the media in North Korean refugee women’s identity formation. For this purpose, the study explored North Korean women’s consumption patterns of South Korean popular culture media contents. Based on that examination, the study analyzed the impact of media consumption on North Korean women’s attitude toward gender identity.

Consumption of Media Contents and Cultural Proximity

Mass media plays a key role in socialization process of members of a society. Immigrants, as a means to adjusting to a new culture, also prefer cultural assimilation via mass media and rely heavily on them for gathering information about the new society (Bahk & Jandt, 2004; Kim & Gudykunst, 1987; McGuire & Mcdermott, 1987; Walker, 1999; Woo & Dominick, 2001). In the process of immigration, the consumers of cultural contents begin to project their lives from what they see on the screen, and these mass-mediated cultural contents provide a projected reality for individual consumers. In this way, immigrants consume media contents as a means to obtaining their new identity. A similar pattern is found among the North Korean migrants in South Korea. Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) reported (1998a, 1998b) that North Korean refugees have watched South Korean television programs prior to arriving in South Korea, and over 89% of those in South Korea selected television as a helpful medium for adjusting to life in South Korea. In addition, Lee and Woo (2004) reported that South Korean television dramas influenced the most as a frame of reference for human relationships between a husband and wife, man and woman, families and friends.

On the other hand, one of the characteristics of viewers who consume mass mediated cultural contents from a different country or culture is that the viewers tend to internalize the contents by using his or her own cultural frame of reference (Chua, 2004; Liebes & Katz, 1986). In other words, the viewer interprets the contents of the mass mediated information according to his or her cultural values. For example, dramas that are televised in East Asia are often consumed for commonly shared cultural values, lifestyle, and Confucian beliefs (Do, 2012; Yoo & Lee, 2001; Yoon & Na, 2005). These common values become an appealing point to consumers in different countries with somewhat similar values.

Cultural proximity theory can best explain such characteristics of cultural content consumption. Cultural proximity was first suggested by Hester (1973) who hypothesized that cultural and historical similarities between countries affect the volume and direction of the international information exchanges. The success of Telenovela gave a boost to the theory of cultural proximity (Rogers & Antola, 1985). In the midst of Hollywood’s dominance in media market world-wide, South America’s Telenova has become an examplary of global distribution/circulation of television programs in Spanish-speaking media markets. Rogers and Antola (1985) illustrated that the example of Telenovela’s success proved that local production companies were at a more advantage than a foreign corporation in terms of attracting a larger number of viewers for their media contents.

The ways two countries make contacts through popular cultures tend to be formed according to cultural and domestic constraints of each country. Iwabuchi (2002) analyzed the Japanese TV drama consumption patterns in Taiwan and found that Japanese TV programs became popular through the process of history between Japan and Taiwan. He suggested that local audience does not simply accept media contents from similar linguistic and cultural group. Local audience must recognize ‘perceived cultural proximity’ while processing the media contents. By the notion of perceived cultural proximity, Iwabuchi stresses that local audiences experience jointed reception of symbolic images that have born out of historical and cultural contexts.

To examine the ways in which North Korean refugee women consumed South Korean dramas and movies, this study used the notion of cultural proximity as a tool for the analysis. We examined North Korean refugee women’s consumption patterns of South Korean media products. The study extended the time frame of viewing experiences of the research subjects and asked North Korean refugees their media consumption experiences during the time when they lived in North Korea, when they were in a third country, and shortly after they entered South Korea. By investigating North Korean refugee women’s consumption of South Korean TV dramas and movies across time, we will obtain a better description of the ways in which they consume South Korean media contents. Therefore, Research Question 1 is set as follows:

Research Question 1:

What are characteristics of North Korean women’s consumption patterns of South Korean TV dramas and movies prior to coming to South Korea? Specifically, how does cultural proximity between North and South influence the ways in which these women consume the media content products?

Media Content Consumption and Gender Identity Negotiation

In South Korea, sexuality and familism are two typical elements with which gender identity of migrants, especially that of North Korean refugee females, are associated (Lee, 2006). These elements suggest that the gender of migrants plays a significant role in their social integration and that women must negotiate and actively engage in a new gender role prescribed by the capitalistic patriarchy of a new nation (Glascock, 2003; Frieze, Parsons, Johnson, Ruble, & Zellman, 1978).

In this context, North Korean refugee women undergo changes in the attitude toward gender identities and gender roles within their families. One of the important studies conducted in 1998, Report on North Korean Refugee Women’s Living Conditions (as cited in Yoon, 2009), revealed that North Korean refugee women showed a tendency to be family-oriented and traditional. This study illustrated that compared to South Korean women, North Korean refugee women considered it more important to protect virginity before marriage, marriage was an essential part of life, a woman should be a wise mother and submissive wife, and a woman should be sacrificial to protect her husband and children.

Other studies found that North Korean refugee women experienced conflicts with their spouses as they progressed to settle into a new life in South Korea. Lee (2006) argued that such a conflict was due to the cognitive changes that occurred among these women which altered her expectations for family relationship and the husband’s role in the family. Lee (2006) found that North Korean refugee women in her study expressed dissatisfaction with their North Korean husbands who showed stronger tendency of being patriarchal and dominating than South Koreans and complained about their husbands expectation that wives be submissive. In combination, these factors contributed to conflicts in their relationship.

Gender roles reflected in TV programs sometimes become models for establishing gender roles for members of a society. Studies on women’s images and roles reproduced in television programs pointed out that the portrayal of women in television was predominantly stereotypical and unrealistic, and most of these televised programs reproduced stereotypical images of women (Kim, Jang, & Jung, 2007; M. H. Kim & H. S. Kim, 1996; McCauley, Thangavelu & Rozin, 1988). One study analyzed the relationship between watching South Korean media and changes North Korean refugee women experienced afterwards and showed that these women began to admire the aggressive images of South Korean women the more they watched South Korean movies. This attitude change resulted in their challenging against patriarchal authority (Park & Kang, 2011).

Even though the few studies we discussed above illustrated attitudinal changes in North Korean women and the media, there are not enough studies done on the relationship between South Korean media content consumption and changes in perception and attitude of North Korean refugee women to reach a conclusive consensus about which kind of programs produces what kind of change. Moreover, previous studies mainly focused only on the time period of after entering South Korea, excluding the time periods such as when they were North Korea, or after leaving North Korea before entering South Korea. As set in Research Question 1, this study set the scope of the time frame of the exposure to South Korean media contents from their life in North Korea, after leaving North Korea, and after arriving in South Korea to evaluate the effects of media content exposure to gender identity and gender roles in the family. Therefore, Research Question 2 is set as follows:

Research Question 2:

What is the impact of having an experience of watching South Korean TV dramas and movies prior to arriving in South Korea? How does the pre-experience of watching South Korean TV dramas and movies influence North Korean refugee women’s perceptions of gender identity?

STUDY 1
Research Methods

Results

Analysis on North Korean Women’s Consumption of South Korean TV Dramas and Movies

Analysis on consumption of South Korean TV drama and movies showed that the respondents watched on average 3.65 drama episodes (SD = 5.41) and 3.07 movies (SD = 4.00) in a week when they were in North Korea, 10.03 dramas (SD = 20.82) and 10.65 movies (SD = 20.80) per week during their stay in a third country after leaving North Korea, and 3.84 dramas (SD = 4.24) and 3.31 movies (SD = 3.61) in a week after they entered South Korean. The majority of the respondents thought South Korean dramas and movies positively. The respondents answered South Korean dramas and movies were enjoyable (M = 4.04, SD = .98) and they also expressed that they learned about South Korea through watching dramas and movies (M = 3.65. SD = 1.09) (See Table 1).

Regarding perceived cultural proximity to South Korean TV dramas and movies, the respondents reported that they felt South Korean movies were somewhat foreign to them, in that the story lines were different from North Korean movies and dramas (M = 4.12, SD = 1.15). More specifically, the respondents said they saw most of the background scenes for the first time (M = 3.40, SD = 1.04), and they thought South Korean actors looked differently from the way North Korean actors looked (M = 3.04, SD = 1.16). Interestingly, the respondents answered the language was not as unfamiliar as backgrounds or actors’ appearances (language, M = 2.87, SD = 1.12; look, M = 3.04, SD = 1.16) (See Table 1).

Table 1.

Summary of Variables

To investigate the ways in which cultural proximity influences North Korean refugee women’s consumption of South Korean dramas and movies, researchers performed a statistical analysis. From the results of regression analysis, it was revealed that the variable of ‘South Korean movies were fun to watch’ can be explained by cultural proximity variables, F(5, 89) = 5.75, p < .01, R² = .24. More specifically, the respondents reported that the more dissimilar the story lines were from North Korean movies (ß = .31, t = 3.22, p < .01) and the less familiar the backgrounds were (ß = .33, t = 3.12, p < .01), the more interesting South Korean dramas and movies were. Meanwhile, the variable of ‘I learned about reality through dramas and movies’ is explained partially by cultural proximity (F (5, 89) = 3.87, p < .01, R2 = .18). The respondents answered as South Korean dramas and movies are similar to Chinese dramas and movies, they felt that they learned about the reality of life in South Korea through dramas and movies (ß = .34, t = 3.34, p < .01) (See Table 2).

Table 2.

Analysis of the Impact of Cultural Proximity on Consumption of South Korean TV Dramas and Movies

STUDY2
Research Methods

After the survey, the authors conducted focus group interviews to provide more meaningful understandings about North Korean refugee women’s media consumption and the ways they thought about women’s roles and images.

A total of six interviewees were selected from a group of North Korean refugee youths in the age groups between the late teens to late twenties. All of them have been enrolled in an alternative educational institution. These interviewees were divided into two groups. The first group comprised of young North Korean refugee females whose migration motivation was due to the dire economic conditions in North Korea and left North Korea approximately from the mid-1990s to early- 2000s. The second group was formed with young female interviewees who left North Korea after mid-2000s with a help of family members who had already settled in South Korea and were exposed to the news about quality of life in South Korea through various channels while living in North Korea. In-depth interviews were conducted with both groups².

Interview questions were designed to further scrutinize the results from the survey. Specific interview questions included such as how the interviewees felt and thought about South Korea and South Korean women after watching South Korean TV dramas and movies. Interviews were conducted in two groups of three interviewees, and each group interviews lasted for approximately two hours.

Results

Conclusions

This research explored and analyzed the interrelatedness between North Korean refugee women’s South Korean media content consumption during their migration phases and their views on women’s gender identity and roles. In doing so, this study utilized both qualitative and quantitative methods. In the quantitative study 1, it was revealed that North Korean women enjoyed South Korean media products and also used dramas and movies as a means to learning about South Korean society. In addition, the findings showed that North Korean women felt dramas and movies were more enjoyable when the contents contained greater cultural difference from North Korean dramas and movies, and the respondents thought these media contents were more helpful to learn about South Korea.

Such findings show that North Korean women critically consumed and evaluated the contents through her own cultural lenses. According to the theory of cultural proximity, North Korean refugee women should rate the contents that are closer in cultural proximity when receiving South Korean dramas and movies. Yet the result of the research revealed that the interviewees highly rated the contents as enjoyment when the programs they were watching were more different from North Korean dramas and movies. This result illuminated that the concept of cultural proximity was broadened from the original theory of cultural proximity. Cultural proximity should be understood the system that allows recognition of similarities and articulating what have been recognized by the consumer. Particularly, this research utilized both survey and interviews to illustrate the cognitive process of cultural proximity of the research subjects in more concrete detail.

Qualitative analysis of this study revealed more specific parameters of cultural differences between the audience and media contents. The first cultural difference the respondents expressed was the absence of political ideologies and a thematic usage of everyday life as materials and subjects of the South Korean stories. Secondly, popularity of South Korean culture in China provided North Korean refugee women with a meaningful outlet which transcended a mere act of consuming popular media contents and constructed a newly adopted identity. In other words, fluency in Korean language and affinity to South Korean culture provided a channel to feel somewhat superior to Chinese people. In this process, these women developed a newly constructed identity that was closely affiliated to South Korea.

Thirdly, the interviewers commented on the representation of detailed behaviors of villains in the story as culturally strange. Interviewees responded to the villains with sentiments like strange, unfamiliar, and unacceptable, instead of thinking of villians as an element of fun in the story. The interviewees evaluated South Korean female villains negatively and remembered the bad behavior of characters in close details.

On the other hand, in understanding marital and parental relationship with family, North Korean women who grew up in patriarchal North Korea maintained male-dominant ideas. However, as these women spend more time in South Korea, they began to understand that there was a wide range of representations of women in dramas and movies. At the same time, the study respondents began to realize some representations in South Korean dramas and movies could be misleading and misunderstood by North Koreans due to portrayal of fictitious characters and unrealistic roles assigned to these characters.

The results of the study revealed that the quantitative analysis of the Study 1 needed to be elaborated with qualitative analysis. Quantative approaches assume that novel attitudes and behaviors TV programs contain are presented unilaterally to the audiences, and this assumption failed to shed a light on the influential power of consumer’s reality and experiences on the ways in which these audiences received the newly presented attitudes and behaviors (Gauntlett, 2005). Through qualitative analysis it was possible to draw out the conclusion that North Korean refugee women did not watch these media contents without any active participation, but rather, individual audience’s experiences and contexts within which these media contents were viewed influenced the ways in which the audiences digested the media contents.

Lastly, the results of this research can be read in terms of transnational feminism. Mohanty (2003) claims that we must pay attention to the process in which sexualized, ethnicized, and stratified female bodies are subject to recolonization under neoliberal globalization. Transnational feminism allows North Korean refugee women to be the agent of carving out their own place in society according to their unique experiences of crossing ideological and socio-structural borders, in the midst of South Korean context that validates globalization logic. According to transnational feminist argument, these North Korean refugee women have not only crossed the physical border but also attempt to overcome symbolic borders that constricts the ways and views that label them. Therefore it is essential to take a close look at these women’s identity formation process that are closely related to their particular experiences and contexts of migration. This research, which focuses on North Korean refugee women’s reception of South Korean culture and process of assimilation, can be summarized as a study that attempted to illuminate on understanding multitude of physical environment and experiences of women in their unique positions even though their cultural scenes may appear to be similar.

This study’s limitation lies in that the study attempted to reconstruct media consumption experiences and conceptualization about South Korean women’s identity and gender roles from the memories of North Korean refugee women who settled in South Korea. Some women had to go as far back as ten years of time to retrieve their memory about watching South Korean dramas and movies. Some of their perception and attitude could have changed in that time period as they spend more time adjusting to life in South Korea, which might have influenced the ways in which they evaluated South Korean dramas and movies at the time of this research. In addition, as it was revealed in literature review, it was difficult to draw out a general consensus about North Korean refugees’ television consumption patterns and attitude toward gender, and this study confirmed that future studies are in dire need.

Acknowledgments

* This Research was supported by the Sookmyung Women’s University Research Grants 2010.

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