Koreanovelas, Teleseryes, and the “Diasporization” of the Filipino/the Philippines
Article

In a previous paper, the author had begun discoursing on the process of acculturating Korean/Hallyu soap opera aesthetics in television productions such as Only You (Quintos, 2009), Lovers in Paris (Reyes, 2009), and Kahit Isang Saglit (Perez & Sineneng, 2008). This paper attempts to expand the discussions of his “critico-personal” essay by situating the discussions in what he described as the “diasporization” of the Filipino, and the Philippines, as constructed in recent soap operas namely Princess and I (Lumibao, Pasion, 2012) A Beautiful Affair (Flores, Pobocan, 2012), and Kailangan Ko’y Ikaw (Bernal & Villarin, 2013). In following the three teleserye texts, the author observes three hallyu aesthetic influences now operating in the local sphere—first, what he called the “spectacularization” of the first world imaginary in foreign dramatic/fictional spaces as new “spectre of comparisons” alluding to Benedict Anderson; the crafting of the Filipino character as postcolonially/neocolonially dispossessed; and the continued perpetration of the imagination of Filipino location as archipelagically—and consequently, nationally—incoherent. The influences result in the aforementioned “diasporization”, an important trope of simulated and dramaturgically crafted placelessness in the process of imagining Filipino “communities” and their sense of “historical” reality, while covering issues relating to the plight and conditions of the diasporic Filipino.