WHAT I LEARNT ABOUT KOREA FROM KOREAN DRAMAS
I have always been a lover of Korean dramas and movies. I started watching Korean movies about 3 years ago while in Paris France. I can’t remember watching any French TV movie from beginning to the end; they were always boring to me, this lead to my quest for something decent to watch. The discovery of the Arirang TV channel, a Korean English Channel, because it was new in France then so there were a lot of Korean dramas with English subtitles. Later on Kbsworld was airing too. From these dramas I was able to learn some of Korean history, am going to write about these dramas in no particular orders. Am not going to narrate the story in the movies but what I learnt from them. This is going to be in series.
The king Dae Joyong
The T’ang dynasty of China attacked the ancient Korean kingdom of Goguryeo; this was in the mid 7th century. The Koreans fought several wars both internal and external, when the Chinese could not defeat them, the Chinese tried many unsuccessful times to destroy
Goguryeo. The Tang china used Shilla also an ancient kingdom of Korea to defeat the other
two kingdoms Goguryeo and Baekche.Shilla were not able to control the whole territory of Gogurgeo which was very large.
Tang China drove away the Goguryeo’s last king, his officials and about 200,000 thousand citizens of Gogurgeo were taken captive to China.
Tang China also removed Baekche royals and assigned a Tang general to govern them. China also appointed Tang generals to rule Gogurgeo.China also instigated the people of Goguryeo and Baekche to rebel against Shilla.These made Shilla to start fighting against China’s control, they later occupied all Baekche territory by taking over the Tang’s administrative headquarters.
The Koreans brought the invasion of the Chinese upon themselves because these three ancient kingdoms were competing with each other and engaged each other in wars in pursuit of territorial expansion. The irony of the whole gist is that the Chinese Emperor at that time was a woman, the first and only female emperor in China.
This epic drama is about a young guy who was born during that era; who dreamt about reviving Goguryeo, how he overcame difficulties in politics, military and diplomacy. The movie was an effort in recognising the contributions of Dae Joyoung who was the founder of Balhe kingdom, which played a great role in the continuation of the Korean lineage in Asia.
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Posted By 
tyna 
May 14, 2008 
great piece you’ve written about your take on korean history as you gleaned from dramas and movies…
rich…very rich.
yes they have a great culture just hoping they realise that,and retain part of it.I am seeing them becoming too Americanised if there a word like that.
sure, there’s a word like that.
you shan’t disagree that every second
every inch of every part of everywhere
in the world is fusing into what we fondly
call “global village”…
that “global village” has its headquarters
at america and other pivotal european countries.
it’s a fever not only suffered by them…it’s suffered
all over the world!
you either get americanised or europeanised…or,
become extinct in the global village!
i should add, that, the fundamental issue isn’t
their getting americanised; the issue is: are they
getting positively americanised?
ask beibee, how much does he know about his culture?
how much can he speak his native language?
how much can he write his native language?
how often does he wear his native cloths?
there’s no need to stick to culture when it’s losing
its relevance in the scheme of things and in the stream
of time.
what is culture? a way of life?
is man’s way of life static? evolving?
what do you think?
you got me thinking,actually i don’t know much about my culture.The question is the one we are embracing is it better than what we had?
Man’s way of life is evolving both positively and negatively.
it’s more than whether it’s better
or not?
i think it’s more of is it positive
or not?
as implied in my comment, the most important
thing is to find oneself relevant in the scheme
of things…
well…i ain’t sad about what i’ve missed about
my culture but am glad what i’ve learnt from other
culture!
just being a citizen of a global village!