Recently, I've been watching "Heart Signal", a South Korean variety show about eight strangers who live together for a month to see if they can potentially find a romantic partner. Among the eight participants are four females and four males. Each participant lives out his or her life during the day and come together for the night in a luxurious home that comes with amenities such as automobiles, swimming pools, stunning views of the landscapes near the home, and etc. While on the show, the participants are free to go on dates with one another, but are not allowed to explicitly state their intentions until the last episode of the show. This rule creates a sense of anticipation for viewers and keeps them guessing about the love interests of the participants. This show has two completed seasons and an ongoing third season. After completing the first two seasons, I was able to understand the subtle ways in which Koreans prefer to express their interests to one another. I found the participants' methods to be somewhat different from the straightforward method that Americans prefer. Because of this, there were times when I was very frustrated with the participants.
As I was watching "Heart Signal", I began to wonder why there was any demand for a dating show like this. The show is edited to feel like a Korean drama. For example, the producers select background songs that evoke a certain emotion and choose participants who meet Korea's high standard of beauty. I began to wonder why the producers have to edit and select participants to such lengths rather than just selecting average people to be in the show. After researching for a few minutes, I realized that Korean culture tends to romanticize relationships not only because of media portrayals, but also because many Koreans in their twenties find relationships difficult to pursue due to stress from work and an aging society. Like Japan, South Korea faces an issue with employing younger individuals because the elderly tend to work longer than those in other countries. According to studies, 1/3 of South Korea's population will be 65 or older if current trends continue. Another reason why South Koreans in their twenties are not dating or getting married is that they find relationships too expensive to maintain. According to an article, South Korea's average wage was slightly above $30,000. For comparison, the average wage in the United States was slightly above $60,000. Considering that the average cost of a wedding in South Korea is around $90,000 , it's understandable, from an economic perspective, that South Koreans would forgo marriage.
While "Heart Signal" may pull on heart strings of viewers with their romanticized edits, the show highlights an ongoing issue in South Korea. While the issue is somewhat trivial now, it will become a major obstacle for politicians and citizens to overcome. I hope to study this issue further and make some recommendations for politicians to follow to start correcting this issue. For now, I think that politicians should give the elderly incentives to retire and start restructuring their education system so that it trains their students to choose diverse areas of study to diversify the job market. This will lessen the competition within a certain industry and create jobs in new ones.
Comments
Very interesting post Brandon! I have also watched the second season of "Heart Signal" and I also noticed a drastic difference between Korean dating shows vs. American dating shows like "Love is Blind" or "Too Hot to Handle." While "Heart Signal" asks their participants to not explicitly state their feelings until the last episode, shows like "Love is Blind" openly encourages their participants to consult about marriage (after 2 weeks of meeting) and their sexual desires. I think it's really interesting to see this cultural difference between these two countries.
Hey Jaewan, I’ve watched “Heart Signal” myself! It was so popular in Korea at the time, and I fell into the trend. I found the people who were casted to seem to come from a Korean romance drama because of how privileged and stereotypically good looking they all were. It’s sad to think that part of the popularity of this show can be attributed to many citizens’ difficulty to find time or financial leeway to date.
Reading about your cultural post was really cool. I thought it was interesting how Korean culture differs from American culture on marriage and love in the early twenties. I didn't realize how difficult it is for younger people to find relationships in the twenties. I also didn't realize how low the average income was in Korea in comparison to America.