By Puja Talwar
Seven years ago a gym accident left me bedridden with a broken foot. The super-active me was bored to death with the content circulating around me. I stumbled upon ‘Descendants of the Sun’, a popular Korean drama. The rest is history, the love story between a soldier and doctor who fight natural disasters, deadly viruses, and hostage situations had me so hooked that I willingly took a lifetime citizenship into the magical world of K dramas.
From slow-burn romances to slice-of-life bittersweet tales, thrillers to laugh-out-loud comedies, and historical to fantasies, there is something in it for everyone. With the seamless writing, slick productions, and of course good looking leads delivering top-notch performances, it’s hard to not find yourself swept into K Drama-land.
As K dramas and stars dominate social media searches and conversations. On my endless K-drama scrolling, I come across Jeanie Chang who goes by the name of Noona’s Noonchi (roughly translated as Big Sister’s Insight) on Instagram.
A clinician and a Executive Coach, Jeanie Chang has not only been creating distinctive content around K dramas but also blending them into therapy sessions.
Talking to the Financial Express on a zoom call, Jeanie Chang, who is followed by drama enthusiasts from across the world, especially India said, “it’s amazing how people have reached out to discuss the latest show, how it impacted them. It’s so special, especially with the loneliness that’s out there right now”.
She further states that though hard to pick one factor that drew people into the K drama verse, 2020 and the global lockdown were turning points. Citing the example of the worldwide hit ‘Crash Landing On You’ the star-crossed love story between a S Korean Heiress and a North Korean officer warmed hearts and was the escapism we all sought.
“We were all cooped at home, the world had come to a standstill. Here comes this love story between two gorgeous people. This show had everything in terms of emotions, love, friendship, and surmounting obstacles, it gave us a chance to feel again. The emotions we needed to express,as we went through the daily humdrum of life. We laughed, we cried and found ourselves invested in the characters and stories. This helped us to come out of the inertia that had set in.”
Jeanie Chang further says, “K dramas come with very powerful storytelling, they are inspirational as well as aspirational and are easy to watch, they are wholesome. Everyone finds a resonance with either a character, a specific emotion, the story or even the actors.”
A second generation Korean American Jeanie Chan who had found herself confluence of two different worlds and cultures said K dramas had helped her discover her roots in the 90’s. So how did she blend dramas into her sessions?
“It happened by sheer coincidence. I had a therapy session with a family and a workshop with college students a few years ago. Everyone seemed frustrated by what they were dealing with, be it culture, peer pressure and family expectations, so typical of Asian cultures. So I was trying to make a point on both sessions, private and public and thinking of what example to give. Boys Over Flowers, the dominating mother and how parent and child dynamics go through a shift and the other was Reply 1988. This was so well received and I was like why not use this more. It made my work fun and also easier as people got to see an example in a drama of themselves or their situations and then I would give them homework,” she says with a smile.
However she does give a word of caution to not get too swept into the make believe world of dramas and characters, that one loses a sense of reality.
“ There are dangers of developing a para social relationship with someone you see on screen, who is not aware of your existence. Please do realize it’s make believe it’s not the real world, the character was made up, the story is not real as long as you are aware that this is not the real thing it’s fine. But, if it goes beyond it then it is disconcerting”.
So we end our session asking for her favorite K dramas which include, “Mr Sunshine”, “Reply 1988’”, “My Mister”, “ HomeTown Cha Cha” and “Coffee Prince”.