{"id":15956,"date":"2013-08-12T02:08:48","date_gmt":"2013-08-12T02:08:48","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-15T11:50:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T11:50:54","slug":"south-korean-wedding-companies-woo-rich-chinese-eager-for-touch-of-seoul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=15956","title":{"rendered":"South Korean wedding companies woo rich Chinese eager for touch of Seoul"},"content":{"rendered":"

China is the source of one quarter of all tourists to South Korea, and a handful of companies in South Korea\u2019s $15 billion wedding industry are wooing an image-conscious slice of the Chinese jet set happy to drop several thousand dollars on a wedding album with a South Korean touch.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The draw for many of the well-heeled Chinese isn\u2019t Seoul\u2019s ancient palaces or the fiery cuisine.<\/strong> It\u2019s an elegant urban style exemplified by Gangnam, the tony Seoul district made globally famous by South Korean rapper PSY\u2019s \u201cGangnam Style.\u201d Helping shape that image is the popularity of South Korean cosmetics and fashion and the many South Korean stars whose looks are widely copied in China.<\/p>\n

South Korea\u2019s tourism ministry estimates that more than 2.5 million Chinese visitors spent an average of $2,150 per person in 2012, more than any other nationality.<\/strong> That\u2019s helping companies such as iWedding, which is the largest of the South Korean wedding planners hosting Chinese tourists, to flourish.<\/p>\n

\u201cChinese look up to South Korea for its sophisticated urban culture, style and beauty,\u201d<\/strong> said Song Sung-uk, professor of South Korean pop culture studies at the Catholic University of Korea in Seoul. \u201cRather than visiting traditional palaces or shopping for antiques, they would rather go to Gangnam to experience state-of-the-art shopping malls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Song said South Korea, which built the fourth largest economy in Asia from the rubble of the 1950-53 Korean War, is synonymous with the good life that middle-class Chinese aspire to. South Korea\u2019s pop culture plays a big part in cultivating that image.<\/p>\n

www.washingtonpost.com<\/a>
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