Taiwanese wave () is a

neologism In linguistics, a neologism (; also known as a coinage) is any newly formed word, term, or phrase that has achieved popular or institutional recognition and is becoming accepted into mainstream language. Most definitively, a word can be considered ...

originally coined in Japan to refer to the increase in the popularity of Taiwanese popular culture in the country (including:

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

, fashion,

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

s), and to distinguish it from the

Korean wave The Korean Wave, or ''hallyu'' (; ), is a cultural phenomenon in which the global popularity of South Korean popular culture has dramatically risen since the 1990s. Worldwide interest in Korean culture has been led primarily by the spread of K-p ...

() co-existing in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Many

Taiwanese drama Taiwanese drama (, also known as T.W. drama) refer to dramatic programming of television programming extended stories usually dramatizing relationships through the general range of ten to forty one-hour episodes. They are produced in Taiwan and ha ...

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

s as well as idol actors,

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

s, bands or groups have become popular throughout

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

History

Towards the turn of the 21st century, there was a noticeable growth in cultural imports from Taiwan, one of the

Four Asian Tigers The Four Asian Tigers ( the Four Asian Dragons or Four Little Dragons in Chinese and Korean) are the developed Asian economies of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. Between the early 1950s and 1990s, they underwent rapid industrializ ...

. The spread of Taiwanese popular culture occurred before the Korean wave was known in Asia. In 2001, the Taiwanese drama '' Meteor Garden'' (an adaptation of the Japanese

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series ''

Boys Over Flowers is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoko Kamio. The story takes place in the fictional Eitoku Academy, an elite school for children from rich families. It tells the story of Tsukushi Makino, a girl from a middle-class ...

'' by Yoko Kamio) was released and soon attracted audiences from all over the region. It became the most-watched drama series in Philippine television history, garnered over 10 million daily viewers in

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

alone, and catapulted the male protagonists from the Taiwanese boyband F4 to overnight fame. Their popularity spread throughout Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines. With their success, many other Taiwanese boy bands emerged around this time, such as 5566, 183 Club and

Fahrenheit The Fahrenheit scale () is a scale of temperature, temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the German-Polish physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). It uses the degree Fahrenheit (symbol: °F) as the unit. Several accou ...

. In 2002, a

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

journalist described the members of F4 as previously unknown actors who have "provoked hysteria across Asia" as a result of the success of ''Meteor Garden''. The popularity of ''"Meteor Garden"'' can be attributed to the explicit attention to female sexual desires—departing from conventional dramas that tend to eroticize the female body, ''"Meteor Garden"'' markets the sexual attraction of the male actors (as played out by the Taiwanese idol group F4), giving women a certain freedom of sexual expression. Since 2002, television programming trends in Southeast Asia began to undergo a drastic change as TV series from Taiwan filled the slot originally reserved for Hollywood movies during

prime time Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

. Much of Asia still have their eyes focused on Taiwanese bands such as F4,

S.H.E S.H.E is a Taiwanese girl group whose members are Selina Jen, Hebe Tien, and Ella Chen. They formed in 2001 and are managed by HIM International Music but decided not to renew their contract in 2019 due to having their own management company. Si ...

and

List of groups

Boy groups * 2moro * 183 Club * 5566 * Awaking (duo) * B. A. D. *

Choc7 Choc7 () is a Taiwanese boyband group led by Ah Ben and is the second spin-off group of the Taiwanese variety show Mo Fan Bang Bang Tang (模范棒棒堂). Career A year after Lollipop was formed, Channel is ready to create the second batch p ...

* Comic Boyz * Cool Silly * Eastyle * Energy (Taiwanese band) *

F4 (band) F4 (Flower Four), later JVKV, was a Taiwanese boy group consisting of Jerry Yan, Vanness Wu, Ken Chu, and Vic Chou. The group was formed in 2001 after their fictional group of the same name in the Taiwanese drama '' Meteor Garden'' (2001) had ...

Fahrenheit (Taiwanese band) Fahrenheit () was a Taiwanese boy band composed of members Calvin Chen, Jiro Wang, Wu Chun, and Aaron Yan. They were formed in 2005 by Comic International Productions and HIM International Music and GMM Grammy in Thailand. Their music is ...

* JPM (band) * L.A. Boyz *

Lollipop F Lollipop F () was a Taiwanese people, Taiwanese Mandopop boy band gaining popularity throughout Asia. The group started off with six members, all chosen from Channel V, Channel Taiwan's show ''Bang Bang Tang'' (), a show which sought to cre ...

New Formosa Band New Formosa Band () is a Taiwanese pop music ensemble. Its members include Bobby Chen and Ayugo Huang. The group was established in 1992 and are important musicians in the genres of Hakka and New Taiwanese Song. They released several albums in t ...

* K One *

SpeXial SpeXial is a Taiwanese boy band formed by Comic International Productions in 2012. The group name is a combination of "eXtra" and "Special", which expresses the desire of the group to be unique. The group started off with four members and debu ...

* Superband (band) * Tension (Taiwanese band) * W0LF(S) * Wu Hu Jiang (band) * Xiao Hu Dui Girl groups * 4 in Love (group) *

AKB48 Team TP AKB48 Team TP, formerly known as TPE48, is a Taiwanese Chinese idol, idol group and the sixth international AKB48 Group, sister group of AKB48, after Indonesia's JKT48, China's SNH48 (''former''), Thailand's BNK48, Philippines's MNL48, and Chin ...

* Beauty4 * Dears (band) * Dream Girls (band) * Frances & Aiko * Hey Girl (group) * I.n.g * Ice Creamusume * Popu Lady *

* Sweety * Walkie Talkie (band) * Weather Girls

Popularity

In Japan

K-pop K-pop (; an abbreviation of "Korean popular music") is a form of popular music originating in South Korea. It emerged in the 1990s as a form of youth subculture, with Korean musicians taking influence from Western Electronic dance music, danc ...

is one of two popular trends occurring in Japan, the other being Taiwanese pop (sung in

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...

). This phenomenon is called 台流 (pronounced Tairyū) in Japanese, which literally means the influx of Taiwanese pop culture in Japan. This trend has been prevalent in Japan for at least twenty years, with Taiwanese idol dramas like '' Meteor Garden'', '' It Started with a Kiss'', '' Hot Shot'', and soon ''

Autumn's Concerto Autumn's Concerto () is a 2009 Taiwanese Drama (modern genre), drama series starring Ady An, Ann Hsu, and Vanness Wu of F4 (band), F4. It was produced by Sanlih E-Television and directed by Chen Wei-ling (director), Chen Wei-ling. The series was ...

'' making waves in Japan, and Japanese artists like

Gackt , better known as Gackt (stylized in all caps), is a Japanese singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actor. Born in Okinawa Prefecture, Okinawa to a Ryukyuan people, Ryukyuan family, Gackt learned the piano at a young age and was rai ...

making frequent visits to Taiwan for pleasure. Up to now, Taiwanese male singer

Show Lo Show Lo Chih-hsiang (; born July 30, 1979), is a Taiwanese singer, actor, and television host. Lo debuted as a member of Taiwanese boy group Four Heavenly Kings in 1996 after winning a singing and dancing competition. When the group disbanded ...

has been regarded as leading the ''Taiwanese wave'' in Japan. On 15 February 2012, he made his foray into the Japanese music scene, with the release of his first Japanese single ''

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

''. The single peaked at number 10 on the Oricon chart within the first week of its release. He is the second Taiwanese singer to make it into the Oricon chart in the past 25 years after the veteran singer

Teresa Teng Teng Li-Chun ( zh, t=鄧麗君, s=, p=Dèng Lìjūn; 29 January 1953 – 8 May 1995), commonly known as Teresa Teng, was a Taiwanese singer, television personality, musician, and philanthropist. Referred to by some as the "Honorific nicknames i ...

, and the first Taiwanese male singer to make it into the top 10 positions on the chart.

In Vietnam

At the end of 2010, ' proclaimed a list of the top 5 C-pop boybands of the 2000s decade, all are from Taiwan. They are: F4, 183 Club, 5566,

(Fei Lun Hai), and

Lollipop A lollipop is a type of sugar candy usually consisting of hard candy mounted on a stick and intended for sucking or licking. Different informal terms are used in different places, including lolly, sucker and sticky-pop. Lollipops are avail ...

(Bang Bang Tang).

References

External links

Taiwan cultural wave to set the world alight - Taiwan News

Sugoideas.com - Taiwan Entertainment
{{Cultural appreciation Culture of Taiwan