Shakespeare in Asian Dramas

      We can all agree that Shakespeare's plays and characters have long had much impact on English/American society as he has been heralded as one of the many classical writers. Shakespeare in terms of his impact ranks along with Charles Dickens and Mark Twain. However, Shakespeare's popularity is not limited exclusively to Western culture.
     
       As Sydney Van Dyke points out in her post, American culture is saturated with Shakespeare, whether it be an adaptation of one of his plays or using his themes in new contexts. However, Shakespeare is also heavily referenced in media in Eastern culture as well. Two specific examples include the Korean Drama, Strong Woman Do Bong Soon as well as the Taiwanese Drama, Lion Pride. While there are elements in both dramas that are akin to Shakespearean themes, I chose to include them as they reference Shakespeare directly through a few of his most infamous characters.

In Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, there are several instances of the female lead imagining herself in the time of Romeo and Juliet. Of course, she is dressed in attire that would suit any woman playing the role of Juliet, with her dress being similar to what noble ladies would have worn in Shakespeare's time. The drama even has her recite several lines from the play Romeo and Juliet during Juliet's balcony scene, where she calls out to Romeo.

However, in following scenes where the characters are placed into Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet script, the characters deviate from Shakespeare's original play. Since the scenes featuring Shakespeare's two most infamous characters are meant to be comedic, in the following scenes both male leads argue about which one of them is Romeo. However, it could be argued that the second male lead is meant to portray the character of Paris in Romeo and Juliet as there are many similarities between the two characters. 

In Lion Pride, Shakespeare is referenced much more subtly. As the male and female leads begin to interact with one another during the drama, the female lead begins to aptly nickname the male lead Shylock, based on Shakespeare's character Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. As the drama continues, viewers find that the male lead has more redeeming attributes than that of Shylock in Shakespeare's play. Yet, the nickname stays with him for most of the drama. In this drama, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character, Sherlock Holmes, is also heavily referenced as the male lead thought that the female lead called him Sherlock instead of Shylock. However, as the male lead shows his more redeeming qualities, she begins to call him Sherlock instead of Shylock, which helps viewers see the different sides of the characters. Needless to say, some of Shakespeare's wit is in some of these dramas along with a few adapted versions of his characters.

Although we all know the plots and characters of Shakespeare's plays, it is interesting to see how many references there are to Shakespeare in modern media both in the United States and in other cultures as well. While Shakespeare's original characters are still displayed in his plays, other forms of entertainment have molded some of his characters into a new, modern version that has grown from his original ideas.