Kim Tae-hee chosen as top ‘Hallyu star’

Survey of Asian university students from 27 nations… and the best Hallyu films and drama productions were..?

Which star comes to mind when you think about the Korean Wave(Hallyu)? What’s your favorite movie or drama? Magazine N conducted a survey on the Korean wave of 202 university students from 27 Asian nations. They were asked who their favorite K-pop singer or group, Korean actor/actress and Korean movie or drama was. Girls Generation was chosen as the favorite K-pop group (12.0% excluding N/A) and Kim Tae-hee as favorite actress (8.2%). Iris (5.9%) was chosen as the favorite film/drama production.

Kim Tae-hee (Photo: Newsis)

“I chose Kim Tae-hee because she is the most beautiful and innocent looking Korean actress. Her acting makes the act alive to watch. She is a versatile actor who can take on a mature role as well as a cute one like in the ice cream song! She is very 예뻐요…. All the best for her!” -Ganesh Sable, India

Following Girls Generation, Big Bang (11.0%) was chosen as the second favorite K-pop group, followed by Super Junior (6.3%), Psy (5.2%), IU (4.7%), CNBLUE (4.2%), and SISTAR (3.1%) respectively. Tied for 8th place were 2NE1, EXO and BoA (2.6% each). A good amount of the singers were part of SM (Girls Generation, Super Junior, EXO, BoA) and YG (Big Bang, Psy and 2NEI) agencies.

When taking a look at favorite individual singers that were part of an idol group, Big Bang’s G-Dragon (2.6%) received the most votes. G-Dragon was followed by Girls Generation’s Tae-yeon (1.6%), JYJ’s Park Yoo-cheon, Girls Generation’s Yoon-a, Super Junior’s Kyu-hyeon, and MBLAQ’s Gio (1.0% each).

Girls Generation (Photo: Newsis)

“Girls Generation was the first Korean girl band that I knew with lot of members. I am amazed at the 9 beautiful girls with their own distinctive characteristics and how they have harmonious relationships among each other. Also, their songs and dances are very catchy. It’s fun to sing along. That’s why I like Girls Generation.” -Amelia Indriana, Indonesia

After Kim Tae-hee, Asian university students chose Lee Min-ho (7.1%) and Song Joong-gi (6.0%) as the second and third actors respectively. Following, came Hyun Bin (4.3%), Song Hye-gyo and Lee Seung-gi (3.8% each), Lee Byeong-heon and Won Bin (3.3% each), and Moon Geun-young and Park Shin-hye (2.7% each). As many singers have also gone on to acting, we see singer/actors such as Lee Seung-gi ranked as the number 5 actor and others voted for Park Yoo-cheon and Suzy (2.2% each), and Rain and Yoon Eun-hye (1.6% each). 14.3% of actors chosen happened to also be singers.

Favorite Korean movies/dramas after Iris, with leading actors Lee Byeong-heon & Kim Tae-hee, were Secret Garden (Hyun Bin & Ha Ji-won), A Gentleman’s Dignity (Jang Dong-gun & Kim Ha-neul), My Sassy Girl (Jeon Ji-hyun & Cha Tae-hyun) (4.8% each). Korean movies/dramas with singers starring such as Full House (Rain & Song Hye-gyo) (4.3%), Rooftop Prince (Park Yoo-cheon & Han Ji-min) and Gu Family Book (Lee Seung-gi & Suzy) were popular among Asian university students as well.

Tied for 7th place were Autumn Fairy Tale (Song Seung-heon & Song Hye-gyo), Boys Before Flowers (Lee Min-ho & Goo Hye-seon), Dae Jang Geum (Lee Young-ae), Dream High (Kim Soo-hyun & Suzy), City Hunter (Lee Min-ho & Park Min-young) and Reply 1997 (Seo In-kook & Jeong Eun-ji) (2.2% each). Dramas are much popular than movies since there was only one movie, My Sassy Girl, among the top 13 ranked movies/dramas. After My Sassy Girl, Windstruck (1.6%) was the second popular Korean movie respectively. Interestingly, Jeon Ji-hyun starred in both movies. On the other hand, dramas aired on cable TV channels did well, making up 4.8%. They included Reply 1997, Queen In-hyun’s Man, Dating Agency: Cyrano and Panda and Hedgehog.

Most popular drama, Iris

Iris (Photo: Newsis)

“I was just wondering about relations between the two Koreas when my friend suggested Iris to me. There were a lot of interesting things in it. I like the way the actors and actresses acted and the many beautiful scenes in South Korea and abroad. I also liked the theme song of this movie. I sometimes sing this song and it is so sad.” – Vatsaphonh Sivilay, Laos

When looking at all the leading actors/actresses in the dramas and movies chosen, Kim Tae-hee and Hyun Bin were most popular. Iris, Love Story in Harvard and Jang Ok-jung, Live for Love productions in which Kim Tae-hee starred in, made up 8.1% of the total responses. Secret Garden, My Lovely Sam-Soon, A Millionaire’s First Love and Worlds within in which Hyun Bin starred, made up 7.5%.

University students from 27 Asian countries participated in this survey from June 26 to July 7 through an online Google survey and paper survey at university campuses. A total of 202 students participated in the survey and the majority of the respondents were in their 20s, making up 75.7%. 14.4% of the respondents were in their teens while 9.9% were in their 30s. Female participation (63.9%) was much greater than male (36.1%).

When looking at the distribution of nationalities participating, Malaysians made up 21.8% of the participants, followed by students from Indonesia (16.8%), the Philippines (12.9%), India (8.9%), Vietnam (5.4%), Myanmar (5.0%), Singapore (3.5%) and China (3.0%). Other nationalities participating in the survey included Japan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Iran, Turkey, Bhutan, Brunei, Laos, Egypt, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.