Chapter 7 Into the Heart of the Korean Wave in Banjong Pisanthanakun’s Hello Stranger and Poj Arnon’s Sorry, Sarangheyo Liew Kai Khiun * ‘When Thai people like or love something, they go seriously crazy about it, like the case of liking Korean artistes, they even go to the extent of going to Korea to see them.’ Thai tour guide in Korea played by DJ ‘Moddam’ Kachapa Tancharoen in Poj Arnon’s Sorry Sarangheyo (Kao Rak Tee Korea) Introduction: ‘Going to Korea’ From the late 1990s, South Korean popular culture, particularly television programmes and pop music, known subsequently as K-dramas and K-pop, has been making significant headway into the region from neighbouring Japan and China to Southeast Asia. Popularly known as hallyu, or the Korean wave, screen artistes and pop singers from the republic have charmed an entire generation of fans outside the Korean Peninsula. Among these countless numbers, two such female fans from Thailand are finally given the opportunity to travel to Seoul and be part of the Korean wave. For a moment, the televisualscapes that they have seen in South Korean soap operas and romantic dramas become realities where they are touring filming sites that have been turned into tourist attractions. Coming from the humid tropics, the experience of winter with the touch of snow is perhaps the most important signifier of their presence in the heart of the Korean wave. The fantasy world gets more real when they can actually meet the male heartthrobs who they would otherwise be only able to watch on the small screen from the confines of their homes. The travelscapes of these two women are part of the new consumer desires spurred by the hallyu wave that Thai directors Banjong Pisanthankun and Poj Arnon tapped into in their * Assistant Professor, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication & Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. 1