Manila's K-Pop Invasion

     The Philippines has had so many colonizers...

     First it was the Spaniards. We became a colony when Miguel Lopez de Legaspi landed in Manila in 1571 and Fray Andres de Urdaneta immediately undertook evangelization of the locals. Then there was this British interlude in 1762-1764. The British invaded Manila as an offshoot of England's Seven Years War with France. When that war had ended... the colony was returned to Spain.

      Then just as the Philippine revolution was gaining the upper hand in wrangling independence from Spain, the Americans come into the picture complete with a mock battle with the Spanish armada. For $20M, the entire archipelago was bought by the US government earning the ire and the distrust of the Filipino revolutionaries. After 42 years of US governance as a colony, WWII breaks out when Japan, as an emerging  imperialist power bombs Pearl Harbor. A week after, the Japanese takes the Philippines and entices the nation to join them with the Japan-East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

     Of course, the US will have none of it... so they retaliate by bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki with Albert Einstein's atom bomb. Japan surrenders... and in 1945, the Philippines is free of them. Then nation-building takes place until the new republic is born...

      These days, a new kind of invasion's taking place... it was quite weird when TV stations in Manila started airing dubbed versions of Mexican telenovelas in the 80's... after that came the Meteor Garden phenomena and a whole slew of chinovelas... now what? Well, it's K-pop! Not that we mind, the Koreans are so cute and wholesome. All of a sudden, they seem to be everywhere. You see them all over Manila hanging out in coffee shops and malls... in Baguio in their own little community up in the summer capital... even in Hawaii and Los Angeles their presence can be felt...

     Their boy-bands and girl acts have evolved to such a degree that Filipinas screech and scream in those ear-splitting, high-pitched tones it's a dead give-away they've either just seen Rain or Choi Si Won coming out on stage. Animax has a nightly 8 p.m. time-slot geared specifically for K-pop fans. TVN and Arirang have cashed in on the K-Pop invasion as well... what surprises me most is how Filipino fans with nary an understanding of the Korean language sing along with their SuperJunior and 2ne1 idols complete with lyrics and intonation...

     Sarangheyo, everyone!!!!