 Women from around the globe are flocking to South Korea in hopes that they meet and date a guy who reminds them of their favorite K-drama heartthrob. The question is, is this the beginning of a huge shift for Asian men everywhere? Welcome to the Hot Pop Boys, everybody. David and Andrew here. David, what's going on? CNN just dropped an article on romance tourism to South Korea, but it wasn't white men going over there to get Korean women, Andrew. It's actually women from around the globe looking to start a long-term romance with somebody who reminds them of a K-drama guy. All right, we're gonna answer the burning questions in a micro-mid-macro type of situation, guys. Is it actually working? Are women finding love? Or are they finding disappointment? And how does this affect Asian guys everywhere in the world? Let's talk about it. If you guys are excited by this conversation or interested or you think it'll help, you please hit that like button right now and check out other episodes of the Hot Pop Boys. David, let's get into the micro, the everyday situation. What are people seeing? I think both on a statistical and anecdotal level, this is happening. There are more women going to South Korea to find romance with South Korean men than the other way around. That's like unheard of. No, usually it's more men seeking love overseas than women. Well, it was that way for like 60, 70, 80 years. That was like that way for maybe forever, until now. This literally has broke the curse. I saw this really interesting quote. It said, what Hollywood did for white men for the past 100 years and what hip-hop and sports did for black men over the past 50 years and what Ricky Ricardo did for Latin men for the past 60 years in the West is what K-pop and K-dramas now is doing for Korean men. Ricky Ricardo, seriously? Lucy, I'm home. He was an appealing product. Yeah, he was cool. Okay, so I guess, yeah, I mean, there was also some other interesting stories that came out of it. It doesn't work out all the time, right? There's some disappointing stories from like, for example, a Moroccan girl came out and said, like, ah, you know, it didn't really work out like how I thought. And maybe, you know, because at the end of the day, yeah, to be honest, like the person who's gonna fare the most, the best is probably like a cute white-looking girl. To be honest, because in the world. I mean, that is evidence to be fair by most of the couple channels you see on YouTube that are wildly popular. Yeah, because you're usually a good-looking, whitish-looking woman and then like a tall, good-looking, skinny Korean guy. I mean, you know, guys, trust me, as an Asian guy, I can tell you, tall white guys, for the longest time, we're doing the best by far too. So anyways, so it's not weird to say that. Well, basically, long story short, it's like anything in life that is nuanced with social-human interaction and power leverage, why MMV? Your mileage may vary. And I think the truth is, like, everybody's got different stats and the person that you're chasing after, they're looking for different things and you gotta have like some sort of Venn diagram overlap for it to like actually work, you know? But what I will say is this flying overseas to find love nowadays, especially with international dating apps, the internet, ways to meet people, all this culture, shared culture, plane tickets being a little cheaper, people traveling again, it's very, very common. So I'm not knocking women at all for doing this. I would just say, obviously, manage your expectations because not everybody's experience is gonna be the same. And also, not to mention, obviously, not every guy in Korea acts like the K-drama guys. Let's be real. They exist. For every girl that I've seen, like at least they're just anecdotally right, let's say they have a K fetish. So they're going over to Korea to get with a bunch of Korean guys or find their dream guy. There's like guys in America who do the same thing too. For example, Andrew, I knew this nerdy Chinese guy in the Midwest from Michigan and he was like never around like ABGs and all this thing. You know, like- And he loved ABGs. Easy on guys. Let's be honest, they love ABGs, like, anyway. They moved, he moved to like San Gabriel, right? When I know there's not as many ABGs as San Jose and Garden Grove, but there's still quite a few. And I remember it was like, it's not like just because he moved from a place with no ABGs and he loved ABGs, he didn't just hit the ground in Alhambra and just become Kevin Nguyen, you know? But I always say, listen, if maybe your opportunities to meet this type of guy or girl is only 2% in your hometown, but you moved to that environment and it 10X's, so it's 20%, that's still a humongous increase. It doesn't mean that your chances are amazing. Right, 20% is still way below 50%. It doesn't guarantee you anything, but it gives you a shot. So that's just to break down the micro guys. Those are the things that like the everyday person can see from romance tourism. Getting into the mid Andrew. You know, like we were saying, there's a various outcomes that could happen. Some people are happy, some people are mixed, some people feel like, you know, they're sad about it. What's the term? It's called Paris Syndrome or Halo Effect. So basically, Paris Syndrome is like people go into Paris and apparently Paris is like not as impressive as everybody romanticizes it in their minds from like the 1880s. So basically Paris doesn't live up to people's expectations and apparently a lot of Japanese tourists, especially get sick and like nauseous at having their like cognitive dissonance in their worldview like wrecked when they go to France. And I think a lot of guys out there who don't look or act like the K drama guys are wondering like, yo, why are so many women flocking there? Like, yeah, I guess the guys are popular, but is that really what they're looking for? And what a lot of these women are saying is that in their home countries, they're starting to feel like that it's hard to find those sensitive, emotionally connected and emotionally available men who are not hyper masculine because they feel like maybe in certain like, especially Western countries or European countries, whatever that a lot of the men are turning into like, I don't know, like a Pete Davidson or machine gun Kelly type Chris Brown, you know, anything sort of like toxic masculinity. They would, you would say that the guys represented in K pop and K drama, they are represented to be very appealing and still have some man traits, but also mitigate the downside of being a man, being problematic and dominant and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, right? Now, the halo effect is because Andrew, a lot of women actually write K dramas, so they write them to be popular, not necessarily based off the reality of the situation. So honestly, these women are writing like romance novels, but they're all movies, and a lot of people are believing them, but I will give them some credit, like the YouTuber couples, do the YouTube couples actually kind of make it seem like that there are a lot of these Korean guys? No, honestly. That they actually do exist? I mean, I'm sure some do and enough do, but. You know, that's when culture starts to become the chicken or the egg argument. Like, did these female writers write these guys, or do these guys just fit themselves to be the K pop stars and K drama stars that were popping and fit their personality as they were being molded, as they were upbringing to be that? Dude, do you think South Korea is now the world's capital for this sensitive prince charming that doesn't exist in London anymore? I do agree because long story short guys, it's not like women are going to like end the patriarchy because I believe South Korea ranks 118 out of 144 in terms of it being theoretically like a hyper-patriarchal country. However, I do think a lot of these women want a genteel British aristocratic man. You know what I mean? Similar to this Darcy guy from this Jane Austen novel, Hugh Grant, a lot of Hugh Grant's historical characters. The closest thing in North America I can compare it to is definitely not Bieber. Bieber's more in that Chris Brown, MGK Lane. I would say Ryan Gosling and Ryan Reynolds, but without the wokeness. Like imagine them like kind of their, I guess whimsical, but still kind of like weird masculine personalities, but without always talking about social issues. And plus adding a whole big load of cute and like egg yolk. Because you know, the Korean guys, they're still playing like the, like they're still like nice and like cute to them. You know? And they'll like play the games that like all girls like to play, but they'll play it in good faith with the girls. Not just making the girls play beer pong and stuff. You know what I mean? Anyway, I would say other people that used to fit it in the old days, Andrew, young Tom Cruise, John Cusack. You know what I mean? Like basically it's like a like dashing Air Force pilot more than like a Rambo or Super Thug. And I think that that's the thing that contributes it to be seven to three in terms of like for every 10 foreigners that go to Korea looking for romance, maybe seven are women and three are men. If you look at other Asian countries, for sure you're gonna have to flip that to be like seven or 80% men, 20% women. Going off that point though, I mean, even when we visited China, we would actually meet a lot of like foreign women visiting China who had zero intention of, you know, gaining a Chinese guy. Yeah, no, honestly for China, it might be like 95 to 0.5. Granted that there is just way more tourism in China because it's a big country. But anyways, guys, all that aside, let's move on to the macro of the big picture. How does this affect everybody else? Let's talk about it. I mean, I think that it affects Korean guys the most. Obviously, they're closest to the blast zone. I think that Bad Bunny helps Puerto Rican guys the most. You know what I mean? I think that it's just like, how close are you to this thing that's like at the ship head of the movement? Listen, there was some debate about this being a negative fetish or a harmful fetish. Listen, fetishes are fetishes, but it kind of takes two to tango. I think that the women going there for romance tourism are kind of fetishizing Korean men. And I still think that there's a lot of Korean men in Korea that may be studied abroad or also in their own way, fetishize foreign women. So now they're just starting to match up a lot more now. So like now they're coming to Korea, they're instead of the Korean men going out to other countries and seeking them. But yeah, overall, I think the sentiment from non-Korean guys or Asian guys who don't look like Korean guys, overall they're just like, hey man, like, you know, it might be a fetish, but overall it does help the image of Asian guys because maybe liking South Korean men is still a gateway to liking other Asian guys. People from homogeneous countries, essentially like not America, not Canada, you know, not wherever, like people from homogeneous countries are gonna generally have stereotypical images of the other person. But sometimes you could like their stereotypes and they could like your stereotypes. And then that's when there's like a stereotypical both fetish relationship, but it works out. The dual fetish. I think long story short guys, I do think if you're not Korean, you can still benefit from this if you fit that look. I mean, I think you gotta fit the look though. The K-Drama, K-Pop look. You gotta have one of those lanes. All right, everybody, we're wrapping it up right there. Leave a comment below if one has popped up in your mind so far. But what I would say to a lot of guys out there and they're like, I don't know if they feel left out or whatever, but I'm like, hey man, like we said, going overseas to find love, to find an actual relationship that you feel like you're gonna enjoy better or maybe you're tired of like the American dating scene or whatever, that's totally okay. And I see a lot more Asian guys doing that nowadays, you know, going out to not only Asian countries, but even like South America or Europe, you know, anywhere where they're like more gonna see you as the man that you wanna be seen as. Obviously going there with right intentions and manager expectations and don't feel entitled and I would tell the women this that are going to South Korea, don't feel entitled either. Or else you're gonna set yourself up for disappointment too. But I wanna gym in, I deserve one. None of these men are good to me. I don't know. They're not treating me, I mean, long story short guys, I have two thoughts. One, I gotta give props to South Korea because they did the work. So all the things now that they're getting from the global society and the soft power and the positive imaging, they did the work. You know what I mean? And number two, I do think there is something really interesting about like Korean guys because I know a lot of Korean people and they're like the most adventurous and outgoing of the East Asians. Like they're the least like scared. I don't know if it comes from the Mongolian side or like whatever, but like, I don't know. I always noticed my like more nomadic friends even in China from like Inner Mongolia or from like Dongbei, they were always chasing after the foreigner girls when I used to study there. But like other guys were like too shy and not, you know, they weren't getting after it. Not by the way, I'm not saying it's good or it's bad. I'm just, that's just my observation. Yeah, they're more, I guess not scared of it. Yeah, because I think Japanese guys, I think Japanese guys in the 90s had a lot of opportunities too. Because like some like more geeky girls were like into the anime cosplay and stuff like that. They were like, oh, no, no, no, I decline. Amen, you think a lot of like Vietnamese and Chinese guys are thinking like, man, I just hope my country pours millions of dollars into the music and movie industry. Please man, we could use the bomb. Amen, the lines moving guys, but make sure when you get to the line, if that club's got standards about what you're wearing and how to act, you gotta hit those standards. Oh, David. Not to say that, you know, that's the greatest thing in life. But I will say this Andrew, it's unfortunate that we have to see each other as members of groups and those groups comes with rankings and those rankings of that group that we're a part of can either boost, neutralize, or downside your micro traits. But it is what it is. There was this comment I read it, there was like, yeah, it's really unfortunate that we're all associated with these groups with this other additional score beyond who we are as individual. But until the world changes, then I'm just glad some Asian guys are up. Amen, we're gonna leave it at that. Let us know in the comments down below what you think about all this. Are the women setting themselves up for disappointment? Who's up next? Who's the next Asian country that's gonna get the bump? Also, is this something that you're interested in? Would you travel overseas to seek your dream relationship? Or is that a little too risky for you? Let us know in the comments down below. Please hit that like button and you are watching the Hot Pop Boys always talking about interesting topics. You know what we do here. 20 people sent me this article so I knew we had to talk about it. All right, everybody, thank you so much for watching and until next time, we out. Peace.