The Korean Historical Drama That is More Popular in Iran than in South Korea: Study of a Cultural Phenomena and a Supernova
2023-12-14The Hallyu or the Korean Wave that has taken the world by storm in the last three decades has left its mark in surprising ways in even more unexpected places and cultures.
One of the most unique and peculiar examples of this is, by far and large, the extraordinary popularity of the epic K-drama Jumong among the Iranian population which has catapulted the show into a status of a cultural phenomena that transcends all that came before and —at least so far— all those that came after it.
The viewer ratings in Iran are a testament to its superstar status: 80%, all the while in South Korea itself did not even come close to the viewership levels in Iran, highlighting the massive following and love that this middle eastern country’s citizens had —and still have— for the heroic epic of Jumong.
One could pass this all as viewer data with not much significance on real events and impacts on society but nothing could be farther from the truth than that since the very reverberations of it could, and still can be, felt everywhere.
“(…) He also mentioned that he has heard that the Jumong TV series has helped reduce traffic jams in Tehran during the time it is broadcast in the evenings”, said the South Korean actor Song Il-gook who portrayed the protagonist, Jumong, in remarks during his trip to Iran in 2009, emphasizing on the popularity of the aforementioned Korean drama.
Needless to say, the trip to Iran was sponsored by the South Korean LG Corporation in order to appease the fans that waited long hours in lines in order to meet and greet —and get an autograph from, of course— the man who portrayed their favorite character.
By all means, one could easily dismiss that information about the reduction in traffic jams as baseless and rumors but the author of the text you are reading through at the moment is an Iranian national that was present in the country at that moment and can corroborate that information.
In fact, many of the Iranians that do have memories of the first time Jumong was broadcasted through national TV can probably remember that a significant reduction in traffic jams all over the country would happen in the final 30 to 40 minute stretch leading up to the series being aired at night.
“If the worst comes to be, then I just hope that it will happen close to Jumong (being broadcasted on TV) so the ambulance would get here fast enough”, an Iranian friend of the author of this article recalled his father saying this sentence years ago when he feared a possible cardiac arrest due to chronic heartaches.
In this age of industrialization of entertainment cultural impacts of this magnitude are rare and increasingly difficult to come by, and even more considering the fact that prior to this Iranians did not have much exposure to Korean culture except for another historical epic titled A Jewel in the Palace which, still being popular enough, never reached the heights that Jumong climbed to.
It might seem that Jumong was a temporary sensation that has seen a decline in relevancy in recent years but that is incorrect in all forms and ways: a recent rebroadcast of the historical epic has seen more viewership than other series being broadcasted even though all the episodes are already easy to come by through streaming websites.
No doubt that Jumong is not currenlty, as it did over a decade ago, increasing the chance of your loved one’s cardiac arrest survivability rate through a reduction in traffic jams at night but the social implications and even references are still there.
Even now you find many so called memes with references to Jumong over at the Farsi speaking social media platforms and if you were to perform a risky action of any kind in public then chances are someone would call you out saying “In Jumong bazia chie?”, the Finglish (Farsi written with Latin alphabet) which roughly translates to a sentence calling you out for behaving in a “Jumong-like” behavior, as in bravery that entails in itself a significant amount of risk.
Although the use of the aforementioned sentence does bear some negative and restrictive connotation, this collection of words themselves showcase part of the reason why Jumong is such a dear character to many Iranians and why the series has had such a lasting cultural impact on Iran: Bravery and freedom.
These two serve as the main pillars of the historical drama in question and the masterful way in which the story is narrated alongside the quality production of the series end up cementing Jumong’s status as a cultural phenomenon in Iran.
During the past decade a great number of shows with similar themes have been broadcasted through national TV in Iran but none comes even close to the historical epic drama that is being discussed.
Lastly, the success of shows such as this have familiarized the Iranian populace with Korean drama even more which is part of the reason why there is a huge population of K-drama and Kpop aficionados in Iran and its roots that, of course, calls for another study.
That though, will be another story for another time.
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