Trends

Hallyu in Asia, right now

Page 4 of 6

• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 7, 2026·5 min readFrom Webtoon to tvN Drama — Why Casting News Comes 18 Months Before AirLee Chae Min and Roh Yoon Seo reunite for a webtoon-based time-loop romance on tvN, airing in 2027. Here is the pipeline, and why the gap runs that long.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 7, 2026·5 min readIn 'The Journey to Gyeongju', Gyeongju Is a City — and the Missing Daughter's NameLee Jung Eun, Kong Hyo Jin, Park So Dam and Lee Yeon lead a family revenge film opening August 26. Three layers of the Korean title vanish in subtitles.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 7, 2026·5 min readWhat Time Do K-Dramas Air in Korea? Time-Slot Map'The Husband' airs at 9:20 p.m. KST, 'Flex x Cop 2' at 9:50. Why the times are never round numbers, and what each slot becomes on your own clock.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 7, 2026·5 min readKorean Dramas Have a 'Summer' — How to Read That Screen from a Country Without Four SeasonsViki's editors picked six romance dramas for summer viewing. But in Korean drama, summer isn't a backdrop — it's a narrative device. Here's how it reads where seasons don't change.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 6, 2026·9 min readVietnam Just Became Korea's Top Source of New Arrivals — A Map Drawn by 98,000 PeopleIn 2025, 98,000 Vietnamese nationals entered Korea, more than any other nationality for the first time in 25 years. Here is where that number lands: 107,807 students, roughly 149,000 workers, and the cities of Ansan, Hwaseong and Siheung.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 6, 2026·4 min readTaemin's August 31 Comeback and the [LiMiNaL] TourThe first Korean male soloist to play Coachella returns: 'PHASE 1 : SOFT VIOLENCE' drops 6pm KST on August 31, then a world tour. What both titles signal.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 6, 2026·10 min readSM's Q2: 349.6 Billion Won and 13 ComebacksRevenue rose 15.4% but album and streaming revenue fell; concerts were up 23.6% and merch 22.0%. aespa's new tour covers 25 regions, none of them in Asia.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 6, 2026·5 min read'Sikgu' Means Eating Mouths — Korean Family WordsOne pot of rice, rice money, rice line, cold rice — Korean describes belonging through meals. Yet rice use hit a record low 53.9kg a person in 2025.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 6, 2026·4 min readThe Top K-pop Merch Markets Are Not KoreaOn one global platform, lightsticks ranked first in Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines and Mexico; video-call albums led in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 6, 2026·4 min readKorean Filming Locations: One Site Rose 640%Cheongnyeongpo drew 128,325 visitors in Q1, up 640%; King Danjong's tomb 85,120, up 752%. The cause: a February 2026 film seen by 16.91 million people.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 6, 2026·5 min readWhat 'Saida' and 'Goguma' Mean in K-Drama ReviewsA survey of 3,000 people: 71.5% use 'saida' to mean relief, 56.8% use 'goguma' to mean frustration. Machine translation gives cider and sweet potato.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 6, 2026·5 min readA 40,000 Won Lightstick Costs 10,000 to MakeMargins reach 420%. Four major Korean agencies took 1.1 trillion won in merch in 2025, up over 40%; YG's Q1 2026 merch was double its concert revenue.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 6, 2026·10 min readWhy Korean Company Dinners Are Hard to Refuse — Where the Law and the Custom Come ApartA hoesik is not working time, yet an injury there can be an industrial accident. Workplace harassment complaints hit 16,373, Korea's weekly 52-hour cap meets Vietnam's annual 200 hours, and nunchi turns out to be about seating.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 6, 2026·8 min readKorean Seollal vs Vietnamese Tết: Same Day, Three Times the BreakKorea and Vietnam both start the lunar year on February 17, 2026 — then take three days off versus nine. Twelve points of comparison, from sebae and chúc Tết to white envelopes and red ones.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 6, 2026·5 min read"Can We Speak Casually?" — Banmal vs JondaenmalKorean redefines a relationship by changing one sentence ending. Five signals you can hear — and why Vietnamese and Thai viewers catch what subtitles drop.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 6, 2026·10 min readHow to Check If Korean Cosmetics Are Genuine — Five Lines on the Label Answer Instead of the SellerBarcode 880 does not mean made in Korea. What Korea's Cosmetics Act requires on a package, what a Vietnamese sub-label adds, and the four official routes — with the checks you can run holding the bottle.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 6, 2026·4 min readHow a Korean Plush Toy Crosses a BorderCharacter Licensing Fair 2026: 186 companies, 443 booths. Last year drew 388 overseas buyers from 16 countries and 37 billion won in expected contracts.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 6, 2026·8 min readKorean Age in 2026: The Law Changed, the Exceptions Did NotThe 2023 unified-age law cut three counts down to two, not one. Alcohol, tobacco, conscription and school years still run on birth year — here is exactly which age applies where in 2026.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 6, 2026·5 min readKoreans Watch 20x More YouTube Than NetflixWiseApp Retail, Jan–May 2026: YouTube 113.6 billion minutes a month, Netflix 5.61 billion. Over four years Spotify grew 1,200% and Netflix 19.1%.
• 🇰🇷 Korea·August 6, 2026·5 min readK-Drama PPL: One Quarter of the Screen, by LawThe Broadcasting Act caps placement at 5% of run time, 30 seconds a brand, a quarter of the screen. From October 2026 it becomes a third. A slot: 1bn won.