Christianity Vs. Buddhism In K-Dramas: Exploring The Portrayal And Representation Of Religions In Korean Dramas

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K-Dramas have shown us various sides of Korea including history, pop culture, general culture, and more. They also sometimes show us other aspects of life in Korea like religious practices. For example, we can often see representations and portrayals of Christianity and Buddhism shown in K-Dramas.

In December 2022, we at Kpopmap published an article about what Christmas is like in South Korea. In the article, we explored the role that K-Pop and K-Dramas play in Christmas traditions. One fan, upon reading the article, left an interesting comment that prompted us to write this article.

The fan asked, "Why do K-Dramas only show Christmas as the main festival and we barely get to see Buddha's birthday? I have watched 70+ K-Dramas and it's always biased towards Christmas and Christianity."

To read the original article, check it out below or at this link.

So, we'll take a look at some of the reasons for varying representations of Christianity and Buddhism in today's article. Make sure to leave your opinions in the comments at the end of the article.

Note: This article may contain spoilers for the K-Dramas mentioned.ย 

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What the Christian & Buddhist Landscape of South Korea Looks Like: Then vs Now

Firstly, it's important to take note of the fact that according to a government survey conducted in 2005, 46.5% of Koreans claimed to be non-religious or atheis