In K-dramas, Africa is a place to ‘build character’, ‘rebel’, and in need of a Korean saviour

The success of South Korean popular music or K-pop continues to power the Hallyu Wave, a term that describes the global obsession with the country’s pop culture production.

But before K-pop came the spread of K-drama, TV series from the country, starting in the late 1990s. By 2024 the melodrama Queen of Tears ranked as the most watched Korean series on Netflix, becoming the 14th most watched show of all time on the streaming service. It followed on the success of many other hits like Crash Landing on You and Marry My Husband.

K-drama has led to the development of another trend: Africa repeatedly appears as a homogeneous place full of savage danger or childish immaturity, and in need of a Korean saviour.

As a scholar of film and media, with a specific interest in global Black art and film practices, I recently studied how and why Africa became this trope in K-drama. This is particularly true in rags-to-riches romance stories and melodramas.

I traced Africa’s presence in three K-dramas – Shooting Stars (2022), Marry My Husband (2024) and Queen of Tears (2024). In them, Africa appears in three different negative ways:

• in need of charity

• a place of rebellion and savagery

• a place of punishment for a “troubled”...

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