Alcoholism in Asian Dramas

I am of the same mind as you on this topic. But I learned a few months ago that most Asians have a very very low alcohol tolerance. (It has something to do with genetics it seems.) So I kind of understand why they try to raise it through company dinners. In international business, one often has to eat and drink with his client. Fortunately, mentalities are slowly changing and people who can't drink can now say it without feeling ashamed.

All I'm saying is that I find it uncomfortable (and very often disgusting) at how often they portray "drinking until you hit the floor" as something funny and cool. I can't even count how many times I've seen such a scene in a Kdrama or Dorama.

It doesn't matter whether they do it for fun or socializing, I still find it disturbing. And I personally do not think it is fun to make a fool of yourself in the public, spurt out nonsense, barely walk and depend on strangers to bring you home. And they obviously do.

I still remember those cringy scenes from Another Miss Oh in which Hae Yeong made a fool of herself and drank like crazy. I'm still cringing.

p.s. the low tolerance of alcohol does not have anything to do with I'm saying - nobody forces them to drink as much as they do, but they still overdo it, especially in dramas. I think that's a poor excuse.

That's the problem Panda, jokes aside, alcohol cannot help you. Alcohol is just like drugs, it ruins both your mental and physical state/

How about instead of drinking they reduce the working hours, and reduce the gender gap?

I'll just quote the comment from the article I posted above. I also believe the same applies to the Japanese.

"With all due respect, you are in denial if you think Korea does not have a drinking problem!  I've lived in Seoul for over 15 years.  My first night I came to Seoul a drunk man crossed the street when the light was green, everyone just waited for him to cross. Little did I know that would be an all too common scene.  Koreans drink because they have no other outlet.  You work more than most countries.  Your education is called a "pressure cooker" that makes students hate their lives.  Your country has the highest suicide rate in the world.  On top of that, Koreans are followers who do not question their system or social makeup because that would go against tradition.  

Then, many of you go out and drink. It is the way most Koreans release their stress. I have witness people left alone drunk on the streets, so your portrayal that you have never seen people left drunk might be your case, but as a foreigner, it seems to be a common sight in the city, esp. late at night.  You do know that alcohol is a drug.  Right?  In fact, it is the leading drug that has caused the most deaths in the world, so to say Korea is a drug-free nation does not hold up.  Alcohol might be accepted by society, but it does not change the fact that it can be addictive and harmful to those who cannot control themselves. Don't get me wrong.  I like Korea!  However, this country has a major drinking problem that cannot be denied.  I'm sorry."

I agree Naksken, please don't get me wrong, it's not as if I've never tasted alcohol or as if I've never enjoyed it - I was referring to how many scenes of people being drunk (like really really drunk) there are in dramas, and dramas can be a good reflection of their real society. What makes it worse (to me at least) is that they find it okay to relieve stress through binge drinking. And I honestly find it disturbing.

"there are normal healthy relationships that people are quite capable of having with recreational drugs, like alcohol."
Are you serious or trolling?

Yes, this problem can be found anywhere, but it is very prominent in S.Korea and Japan. When you drink 5 times in a week and each time get shitfaced then yes, you should be treated because you are an alcoholic.

People are treating alcohol as something "recreational" but it is destructive, especially on your health.

I think, at the end of it all, it all comes down to personal opinions to be honest. Korean dramas (and Japanese dramas) are mainly produced to be watched within their country, or in Asian countries~ people in these countries have loosely the same generalised cultures~ there are often drinking scenes in Korean dramas because that's just their culture. When their Korean viewers watch it~ they can relate and find it more hilarious or relatable than we do. That is because they have been born and have grown up in that culture. That country. 

Frankly speaking every country has things they glorify. Things that can either be okay, or not okay. Based on subjective opinion.


For instance:

Korea & Japan has alcohol. 

Japan also glorifies "run after smart/popular dude while completely forgetting your self esteem and pride". 

America has Marijuana. America also glorifies pedophilia (Pretty Little Liars - Aria & that English teacher) . America also glorifies that it's okay to date between brothers, or even date your best fiend's ex boyfriend (The Vampire Diaries). They also glorify incest and rape. (Game of Thrones)

China has/had women abuse. ( Lee Jun Kai / Sealed with a Kiss) (things are improving) 

Thai has/ had rape (lots of Larkons) (things are improving) 

India? In every Indian drama television(runs 5 days per week) ~ by episode 50 -100, the female lead gets married. This shows: marriage is essential for a woman. And after marriage? Don't get me started on how much torture they endure~ whilst continuing to be the most ideal angelic human being ever. T_T 



I guess what im trying to say is~ every country's drama  will have their good and bad. We may not necessarily like any of these~ but what can we do? Boycott them? It won't matter. They will still have their own country's audience. 

Also seeing the list I've just pointed out~ alcoholism seems like the less of the evil. 

Hi.

I'm Thai.
I understand Ceki's point.
So onto what I wanna say about this:

From my limited knowledge, I believe they don't promote "No Alcohol" or "Alcohol is bad" in South Korea, but we do in Thailand, like, A LOT. Which, is a good thing. Ever since I could remember, when we learned poems or learned to write poems or make these "slogans" for community events in school when I was young, we were always given these three topics: 

1. Alcohol is bad
2. Drug is bad
3. Smoking is bad
- among many other topics like how to keep your family away from dengue fever
- LOL. Why do I remember this so clearly?

Another reason is that we're a Buddhist country. We don't drink on Buddhist holidays (which come often all year round), and Buddhism teaches to not drink or abuse drugs as well. It's still a religion, not law, but people have been acting accordingly for a long time till it becomes a tradition, and so the majority don't find it fun to drink that much.

People still drink. Younger generations think it's cool to know how to drink because we take in Western culture. Middle-age working class people still drink to socialize. It all comes down to the amount of money they have to pay for drinks, and drinks are expensive so they don't drink a lot. There are, still, people who drink until they drop and spurt out nonsense. But in this issue, it's not as common as in Korea because we don't have the culture that trust strangers or taxi drivers or Uber drivers to take us home. We don't even call for designated drivers. We just drink with people we know, and in severe cases we let them take us home, but it's not common. (Taxi drivers in Thailand are famous for being dangerous especially at night LOL)

So, it's not shown or glorified much on TV because it doesn't exist in real life, and if they wish to show like so on TV, they'll have to deal with censorship anyway. For this same matter, I still have no idea why they like to glorify rape so much, but it becomes just a plot device (which is disappearing) and Thai people/kids don't really get influenced to rape anyone at all.

On the other hand, I'm a fan of Korean stuff and I visit Korea very often. I've been there 5 times already in this year. It seems like drinking is a tradition in Korea, much more common than what user Panda or other users are saying about the drinking tradition in their respective countries. I mean, my Korean friends almost came down to forcing me to drink Soju on my first ever dinner in Korea. After that, I just played along by voluntarily drinking. They drink it like water, and sometimes they drink during the day as well. I don't have much to say about alcohol tolerance level because we never drink till we drop, but they do rely on letting strangers take them home after dinner. It's so normal for them to the point that I was scared. Haha. Culture shock. Still shock till today.

So, because they drink that much in real life, I think they view it as a common plot device to use in Korean dramas. It's like, we drink everyday anyway, and this is a "drama" so why not use this as a point to reveal secrets and confessions and weakness and stuff. I think they don't even question themselves about these choices on TV. And I think it's about soju sponsor too.

Sorry this is long.