K-pop I don't follow because the music seems like it's for kids and I'm in my 60s. K-drama, on the other hand? I've developed an addiction. I grew up in the USA during a time when Asians did not even play the lead role when the part was about an Asian. People like Boris Karloff and Katherine Hepburn played the lead roles, and it wasn't because America did not have Asian actors who could have taken the lead. It was racial discrimination, plain and simple.

I only started watching Japanese and Chinese movies because “someone” made a decision to air them on local television. They were all English-dubbed so I did not have to read subtitles. I thought to myself: 'Finally! Real Asian people playing real Asians.' That was around the 70s.

Then in the 2000s, my kids subscribed to Netflix and I found a historical Korean drama series. If you say K-pop changed the game for Korean men, I'll believe you. But since I didn't know anything about Korea or Koreans, watching Korean dramas is what changed the game for me.

I was a truly ignorant American who only knew about Shogun and Samurai warriors (Japanese) and Kung Fu (Chinese) and Hop Sing, the Chinese cook on the TV show “Bonanza”. Later on, it was Kato (played by Bruce Lee) on the Green Hornet. It was K-dramas that opened up a whole new world for me. It is very likely K-pop and K-dramas changed the game for both Asian men and women.