A CRITICAL REVIEW OF

“CRUEL TEMPTATION”:
A Case Study of a Korean Drama and its Reception in the Singaporean Community
Written by: Kellie Chen

Ni Putu Desi Wulandari

Nim.
Tittle of article : “Cruel Temptation”: A Case Study of A Korean Drama and Its
Reception in the Singaporean Community
Writer : Kellie Chen
Year of Publishing : 2011
Number of pages : 38

It’s Not Merely the Korean Drama

The main discussion of this article is not the Korean drama itself, as the reader could obviously
see on the tittle. Korean drama is the initial point to elaborate the Hallyu or Korean Wave that
changes several things in Singaporeans’ interest, however. The writer starts her writing by her
personal experience while turning back to Singapore to visit her grandparents. She witnesses
different social interest to entertainment compared to what she had ever known as a six-year-old
child several years before. Singaporean used to love Chinese or Japanese drama, but in the year of
her turning back, Singaporeans were the loyal viewers of Korean drama, especially the female
citizens. It is not only a-so-called loyal or love, or simply the fans, the female Singaporeans, at
that time are best matched to a “Zombie” of Korean drama. They cannot leave even a second while
watching Korean drama.
“Cruel Temptation” phenomenon is one in the million that is picked by the writer to “sketch”
the huge influence of Korean drama to social interest changes in Singapore. “Cruel Temptation”
is a Korean drama that was first aired in 2008 in South Korea. This drama is one of the K-Dramas
that was successfully got high rating of viewers in South Korea. This drama presents an “easy-
understanding” story and matches every viewer’s personal life, thus, it has gained huge popularity.
As the raising popularity of this drama in its mainland, many Asian countries would love to buy
its broadcasting license. One of those Asian countries is Singapore. As a multicultural country,
Singapore is accustomed by various culture of Asian countries. Singaporean is an integration of
three main nation; Chinese, Malay and Indian. Those three nations have been lived together for
more than 50 years. The multiculturalism created a wide acceptance of the Singaporeans to other
Asian “things”, including Korean culture. A culture the Singaporean comprehend through Korean
dramas they love to watch.
Pinpointing one K-drama is an unwise thing the writer did on this article. She tried to create an
impression that the discussion of “Cruel Temptation” K – Drama would dominate the whole
article. In fact, the general discussion of Hallyu (Korean Wave) steals the turn of discussion from
the second phase until the end of the article. “Cruel Temptation” is only a shocking opening to
gain readers’ interest to read this article, even though it is potential enough to dominate the
discussion about the influence of Korean entertainment to the Singaporean.

A Spicy Critics for The Hallyu Phenomenon – Neo Colonialization

Modern colonialization is not identical to what everyone knows about the past colonialization.
The colonial countries in the past invaded lands and fight with the inlanders to colonialize the
land. The colonials impulsed the inlanders to follow their law and rule and live a life as they do.
They also took over inlanders’ economic and trade activities and resources. The modern
colonialization does not expending the same pattern as the old colonialization yet seems effective
and comprehensive to “conquer” a nation. The writer of the article considers that Hallyu is an
invisible neo-colonialization to the Singaporean.
The writer presented invisible deep critics about the Hallyu in Singapore. She started by her
personal experience about the “real image” of Hallyu influence in Singapore by presenting a story
of her grandmother who was a total “freak” for “Cruel Temptation” Korean drama. She assumed
that a phenomenon taken from a real story would create readers’ good initial understanding about
the article. She, then elaborated several data taken from various sources regarding the process of
Hallyu in Singapore. She explained that the trade of Korean drama discs on early 2000s from China
to Singapore became the preliminary point of Hallyu widespread.
The movies and serials on discs which was imported from China was dubbed Chinese. Therefore,
Singaporean – Chinese could easily understand the stories of the K-Drama. The names of the
character in the Korean drama is also changed into Chinese (as China and Korea are historically
related and Korean names were influenced by Chinese names), thus, the Chinese – Singaporeans
feel that they have similar background with the Korean.