SEOUL, South Korea (AP) 鈥� The freshest faces among South Korean influencers are no longer the usual, 20-something celebrities. Instead, entertainment and social media are focusing on a new generation: the elder generation.
Older women were once invisible in South Korean entertainment as the industry stuck to rigidly conservative traditional female roles and cast them only as devoted mothers.
But older women are front and center in recent advertising and entertainment series.
A pioneer in the trend is Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung, the 74-year-old 鈥淢inari鈥� actor who promotes Oriental Brewery beer and the Zig Zag shopping app in two recent ad campaigns.
The beer highlights the novelty of its spokesperson, who says: 鈥淔or someone like me to be on a beer ad, the world has gotten so much better.鈥� With a Cass beer in her hand, Youn says she makes friends by being her authentic self and alludes to the beer helping people to dissipate their social awkwardness.
South Korean producer Kim Sehee said Youn鈥檚 Oscar win earlier this year inspired his entertainment series, 鈥淲assup K-Grandma." He said South Korean young people have a new interest in their elders, birthing a new word 鈥渉armaenial鈥� 鈥� a portmanteau of the South Korean word 鈥渉armoni,鈥� or grandmother, and the English word 鈥渕illennial.鈥�
The series broadcast in May was one of the first Korean shows to feature grandmothers as main characters, according to Kim. It brought international guests to live as temporary sons-in-law with Korean grandmothers. The color of the series came from the grandmothers' attempts to communicate with their foreign in-laws and homemade meals and decades-old ginseng alcohol.
Park Makrye, , said the country鈥檚 attitude towards gender and age has been rapidly changing.
鈥淏ack in the days, people thought women were supposed to be only housewives cooking at home but that鈥檚 once upon a time. People must adapt to the current era,鈥� she said.
Park, 74, is one of the leading lights in the South Korean frenzy. Her YouTube channel 鈥淜orea Grandma鈥� has over 1.32 million subscribers. In her videos, Park throws expletives while reviewing a Korean drama and screams her lungs out while paragliding for the first time.
Park鈥檚 success has paved the way for others. Jang Myung-sook gives out fashion and lifestyles tips on her channel 鈥� ,鈥� a nonagenarian known as Grandma 鈥淕ganzi鈥� and shares personal stories about living through the Japanese colonization, and a 76-year-old YouTuber flaunts her 鈥渟ingle life鈥� on 鈥� 鈥�
鈥淚 would like to tell grandmothers to try everything they want to do and not be concerned with their age,鈥� Park told The Associated Press.
鈥淔or young people...You鈥檒l be OK as long as you are healthy,鈥� she said. "Please fight on and best of luck.鈥�
Juwon Park , The Associated Press
