Hong Kong hoping for tourism fillip from K-drama tie-up

Hong Kong

HONG Kong has seen the heyday of its entertainment industry come and go over the years. Now the city wants a piece of contemporary action, with ambitions for a slice of South Korea's burgeoning entertainment market that has already eclipsed its own.

Even as Hong Kong's movie production industry has slid into decline and lost its cult reputation, the city's famous skyline, bustling streets and globally renowned cuisine have been immortalised into a unique cultural identity, thanks to countless kung fu and classic movies.

Many aspects of Hong Kong from cha chaan tengs (local cafes) to electric neon signs still possess the intangible value of nostalgic appeal that's familiar to audiences around the world.

A new initiative to feature aspects such as the iconic cityscape as a backdrop to South Korean variety shows and dramas could revive both cinematic allure and tourism interest that are slated to expand post-pandemic.

A three-year deal inked last week between the Hong Kong Tourism Board and Seoul-based entertainment giant CJ ENM looks to ride on South Korea's highly successful pop culture wave, known as Hallyu, which has exploded into a multi-billion dollar market.

If all goes according to plan, Hong Kong will be seen by a global audience as shows produced by CJ ENM are present in more than 200 countries and on popular streaming platforms such as Netflix.

The company owns 12 TV networks that have made popular K-dramas including Crash Landing On You, Goblin: The Lonely and Great God, Hospital Playlist and Vincenzo, as well as reality shows Youn's Kitchen and New Journey to the West.

Such partnerships between Hong Kong and South Korea are not new, according to Aaron Han Joon Magnan-Park from the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Hong Kong.

Both sides share a cinematic connection, most notably dating back to the early 1970s with a Shaw Brothers production, King Boxer, also known as Five Fingers of Death.

South Korean director Chung Chang-wha directed the Hong Kong martial arts film featuring South Korean actors. The movie topped the US box office and eventually launched a global kung fu craze, before Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury debuted in America.

Such partnerships could also reinvigorate Hong Kong's ailing homegrown entertainment industry, which witnessed a golden age in the 1980s and coincided with the city's rapid economic growth that gave rise to the cultural identity of Cantopop and the Hong Kong film industry.

From producing over 400 films in the early 1990s, the industry produced just 46 in 2019.

In contrast, fortunes for the South Korean cultural industry are on the rise. Music, movies and TV dramas accounted for over US$12.3 billion in South Korea's economy by the end of 2019, from US$9.5 billion the year before.

The Korea Foundation, a public diplomacy organisation, estimates that fans of Hallyu have exceeded 100 million globally.

The sheer size of the South Korean wave's fan base would potentially open up opportunities to viewership for a multitude of Hong Kong businesses.

These range from consumer items, restaurants and places of interest who could grow revenue and exports in the same way South Korean brands gained popularity with product endorsements.

Hong Kong certainly has much to gain by learning from BTS, or Beyond the Scene, a seven-member South Korean boy band with a merchandising and endorsement empire that has catapulted sales of everything from lemon tea to LG smartphones.

Judging from the vast numbers of tourists to South Korea who often replicate the experiences in popular K-dramas, Dr Magnan-Park adds that embedding Hong Kong's cultural aspects into K-projects could just be the secret ingredient to restoring Hong Kong's struggling tourism industry.

"These K-entertainment can effectively restore the allure of all things Hong Kong, including tourism when the local entertainment industry itself is less able to do so," he said, referring to Hong Kong brands advertising their products or services onto the popularity of the Korean wave.

Harking back to the King Boxer collaboration with South Korean talent from the early 1970s that wrote a new cultural beginning for kung fu, there is at least some light at the end of the tunnel as Hong Kong looks to give its ailing tourism industry the boost it so desperately needs.