Philippine E-Journals

Hallyu Like That?: Exploring the Narratives of Filipino Late Middle-Aged Adults and Their Korean Culture Consumption

Beatrice Jillana D.C. Arejola | Inero Ancho | Melissa P. Ferido | Helga P. Vergara | Rufo Gil Z. Albor

Discipline: Cultural Studies

 

Abstract:

This study explored Korean cultural consumption among Filipino late middleaged adults, focusing on their motivations for watching K-dramas and the meanings they attach to sustained viewing. Using an interpretive phenomenological approach, in-depth interviews were conducted to elicit participants’ lived experiences of K-drama engagement in late middle age. The findings show that sustained consumption is influenced by several interconnected motivations, such as emotional regulation and narrative relief, social connection and relational bonding, cultural curiosity and selective identification, feasibility through evolving platforms, and pandemic intensification as a situational trigger. Participants also described Korean cultural consumption as a meaning-laden practice structured by emotional, social-relational, and cultural meaning domains embedded in midlife routines and role demands. This study extends Hallyu and media consumption scholarship by centering Filipino late middle-aged adults, an underexamined audience segment in largely youth-focused Korean Wave research, and by articulating the interpretive phenomenological meaning structure that organizes sustained K-drama engagement. In the Philippine context, the findings demonstrate how Korean cultural consumption is woven into midlife work and family routines as an accessible resource for emotional restoration, relational maintenance, and culturally mediated learning, with implications for more inclusive audience framings and culturally responsive engagement. The study underscores the value of examining transnational media consumption as a lived, socially situated practice and offers insights for future research on aging, media use, and cultural consumption in the Philippines.