Why foreign entertainers in Korea set up their OWN agency
Channel: KST by The Korea Times
Date: 2023-03-30

The representation of foreign-born personalities in Korean media has been a mixed bag for the last three decades.

As the country began seeing the number of foreign residents grow in leaps and bounds since the late 1980s ― with the number eventually surpassing 2.14 million as of last January, according to Korea Immigration Service ― broadcasters took note of the change and attempted to reflect it in their programming in varying formats.

Up until the mid-2000s, the role of non-Koreans onscreen was mostly limited to a novelty personality whose given task was to embody the Western fascination with different aspects of Korean culture ― which had yet to see its popularity explode to today's international level.

“They would be treated more as a means to satisfy the local viewers' nationalistic need for validation,” said Ilya Belyakov, a naturalized Korean citizen from Russia, a TV personality and a translator. Or they became the butt of “harmless” jokes for their thick, often exaggerated accents when speaking Korean.

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