Brace yourselves, because this mini K-drama I’m going to introduce you to is one for the books.
The Curious Case of Oh My Grace
Oh My Grace (2017) was DramaFever’s first original K-drama/K-web series starring Grace Subervi and Kyung Hwan Kim. The plot goes something like this: aspiring fashion designer is failing at achieving her dream career in New York, alcohol makes her magically appear in South Korea, she meets a wealthy boutique owner, then an aspiring K-pop idol, and all three fight for their dreams. Please go ahead and cringe through this teaser:
Cute concept. Poor execution.
But that’s not so important! What’s interesting here is that Warner Bros (owner of DramaFever) was looking for a Latina actress to star in a K-drama because they were aware of the growing fans of Hallyu within Latin America.
Here enters Grace Subervi: a Dominican actress raised in New York who’s been involved with the Korean Entertainment industry in America for over a decade. As you would expect, she speaks Korean fluently and travels to South Korea often enough. She’s worked as a host and interviewer for MTV K, KCON, and DramaFever (which is why she was considered for the role in Oh My Grace).
If, like me, you had the same reaction to this headline, then you might be wondering: does the curious case of Oh My Grace mean that a K-drama can be called as such even if one or more main actors are not Korean? Would the introduction of other non-Korean/Asian ethnic groups into doramas affect the appeal of the genre to foreign communities?
These are valid questions to ask during this new era of global media ecosystems, where the flow of visual media is multidirectional and slowly becoming less U.S./Euro-centric.
Although there is no right answer to these questions, a central issue of this case is the assumption that non-Korean fans want to see themselves represented K-dramas. The appeal of Hallyu to fans from around the world is not just about good pop songs or feel-good dramas. I would argue that the shared experience of learning Korean and exploring Korean culture is central to the globalized euphoria for Hallyu.
Social Media and the Adaptation of Korean Dramas
Thanks to social media, language barriers and cultural differences have served as benefit, rather than a hindrance. Social media has allowed for non-Korean fans to create their own online communities where share their love, knowledge and translations of their favorite K-dramas.
Sites like Soompi.com have a Spanish counterpart (Soompi.com/es) for Spanish-speaking fans around the world to access and discuss the latest Hallyu news and content.
In fact, K-dramas have been so prominent in Mexico for the past ten years that they are starting to influence Mexican productions. The Mexican telenovela Mi Marido Tiene Family (My Husband Has Family) is an adaptation of the South Korean series of the same title.
The Mexican version, which is one of the most watched shows in Mexico, aired its first episode in 2017 and culminated this past February after two seasons and 256 episodes. It would be interesting to explore in detail what aspects of the Korean original are replicated and which ones are, indeed, adapted to suit a general Mexican/Latin@ audience.
It’s clear that the consumption of Korean entertainment is no longer just expanding within online fan communities. The Korean formula is starting to impact local entertainment in other countries and Hollywood is no longer the only place where artists are heading to for opportunities.
Waves come and go. K-dramas (at least) are here to stay.
Side note: Yes, I share the same last name as Grace Subervi. Yes, I am Dominican too. No, I don’t know if we’re cousins.
The Politics of K-Pop 
I agree with you in that one of the main attractions about K-dramas and Korean entertainment is that it is done with Korean actors and is in Korean. In context to our recitation discussion today, we questioned what makes K-entertainment Korean when idol groups go to China and Japan and sing in Chinese and Japanese respectively; is it still K-entertainment? I would say that it is. The fact that it is Korean people singing or performing in other languages is not lost on fans and consumers. It is the transnational commodity and performance that makes K-pop more appealing. In terms of K-dramas, it is the fact that K-dramas is mainly Korean production that is transnationally consumed through subtitles that fans are able to enjoy.
In terms of representation, Oh My Grace’s team seemed like they were trying follow a method that the U.S. would typically do in order to boost audience membership. In context to U.S. racial-cultural politics, it makes sense economically for production companies to cast people of color in order to create more representation, especially because there is a lack of representation of people of color who considers themselves American. However, in terms of K-dramas, that need for representation does not fall into place within the transnational scope of its consumption. What makes K-dramas appealing to foreign fans is that it is a cultural commodity that reveals and displays a world outside one’s own rather than be representative of one’s experience.
Finally, many authors in Hallyu 2.0 edited by Sangjoon Lee and Mark Abe Mark Nomes analyze if K-entertainment like K-pop needs to diversify in order to keep its moment, and Oh My Grace seems to be a direct example in that attempt. Although it is misses the mark, the show represents K-production ever growing pursuit in gaining a foothold of the global entertainment market.
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I often worry about Korea’s decision to make culture a product of global consumption. While I see the clear benefits of this decision as we have discussed in class (how it pulled Korea out of the IMF Crisis and other problems), I fear that some people may forget to consider their position in the consumption of Hallyu, and could wrongly claim a Korean identity.
As there is not always a clear distinction in the lines between cultural appropriation and appreciation, it’s often hard to say who can claim what identity. However, I have constantly seen people claim an identity that doesn’t belong to them, simply because they enjoy certain aspects of that identity. Obviously, this happens in more than just Korean culture, but I feel more strongly about Hallyu because I am a Korean adoptee. I have often been told that I am “not Korean enough” by Koreans and Korean Americans, so I feel very uncomfortable when I see groups like EXP Edition able to make a career out of Korean culture when none of them belong to it.
With the examples of Oh My Grace and Mi Marido Tiene Family, I wonder what benefit can be gained for the consumers and producers of these shows? While I agree that representation matters and being able to see people like you be represented in a field that you want to be included in is inspiring, I think that the product’s overall worth can sometimes be overshadowed by the request for inclusivity. I can’t be certain because I haven’t watched them, but if these shows are just copying a KDrama’s plot and replacing the language and actors, what is that doing for creativity? A different example of this is how “The Masked Singer” is now a show on Fox, and I imagine that most of the American audience has no idea that it came from Korea. Shows like this are mostly what I am afraid of.
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You pose the questions: “Does the curious case of Oh My Grace mean that a K-drama can be called as such even if one or more main actors are not Korean? Would the introduction of other non-Korean/Asian ethnic groups into doramas affect the appeal of the genre to foreign communities?”
I think such a show would qualify as K-drama if the producers and filmmakers of the show are Korean and given two out of three lead characters are also Korean. To answer the second part of your question, I think yes, the introduction of non-Korean/Asian ethnic groups into the dramas does affect the appeal of the genre to a foreign audience like myself — especially given the protagonist is non-Korean. I say so because, for instance, I am a huge fan of Bollywood cinema and so when I watch any content that comes from that industry, I as a viewer want to see Indian Bollywood actors and not Caucasian characters — as supporting or side actors, sure, but not in lead roles. This is because I watch a lot of Hollywood films as well where I am exposed to white actors, so when I go to Bollywood, I look for purely authentic Indian actors and characters in the drama or cinema. Some Bollywood directors, for instance, have created films for both Bollywood and Hollywood, however, they don’t interchange Indian and white actors between the two industries because they’re aware that the appeal does somewhat get lost in the hybridity.
Lee states, “…emotional involvement with drama happens through the development of affective dispositions about characters” (140). When a foreign audience dips its toes into the world of K-drama, I think they for the most part expect a Korean character for that “emotional involvement” rather than a non-Korean one, because if not, I think it does to a certain extent take away from the drama’s authenticity, especially in the case of K-dramas, which to a viewer like me who’s so foreign to the culture altogether, when I enter the space of Korean content consumption, I prefer to view content that’s fully Korean because I already am exposing myself to something that is so foreign (K-drama), so adding hybridity to it (inclusion of non-Korean actors) almost just increases the amount of foreign(ess) of the consumption, which in turn loses the drama’s appeal for me. Additionally, I know a lot of people (foreign audiences) who are trying to hop onto the K-pop train to be “a part of the fad,” hence from that perspective I imagine a foreign audience wanting to expose themselves to pop and drama that really is fully Korean in order to truly be a part of this wildly popular club that is K-drama.
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Oh My Grace seems like a TV-drama with an interesting conception with regard to its attempt to combine certain elements of different ethnicities in it. This can be interpreted as the Korean popular industry trying to develop the growth of K-dramas in places other than Europe and Asia. In Hallyu versus Hallyu-hwa, its authors explored the Korean popular industrying’s effort of connecting with a diverse range of audiences of different races and ethnicities through flexible text. And, by translating its content into different languages and including various cultural elements through the selection of languages and actors, this has greatly contributed to the increasing growth of Korean popular industry commodities like K-dramas on a global basis to the point where it influences its fans daily routines and lives.
So, to answer the question posed in the blog, the introduction of other non-Korean/Asian ethnic elements into K-dramas or doramas would not negatively affect the appeal of the genre to foreign communities but would instead increase its spread of influence. However, although it’s good to attempt to gain more international attention, it is also vital to keep in mind that it’s not enough to just translate some drama content into another language or using actors of different ethnicities to reach out to a larger fan base and thus create profit.
In regard to Oh My Grace casting decisions with its lead actress being a Latina woman, Grace Subervi, who speaks fluent Korean and is also a frequent visitor of South Korea, it can be further inferred that it is an example of the K-dramas that are attempting to reach out to more international representation and audiences. Additionally, the involvement of social media also plays an important role in providing more routes for international audiences to access K-dramas, and consequently increasing these dramas’ global immersion.
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