News

News

TV role creates bad image in Korea
By Asif Fuard
A South Korean comedy that portrays a Sri Lankan worker named "Blanca" as being disrespectful of his superiors could be turning things sour between the two countries.

Sri Lanka's Ambassador to Korea G. Wijayasiri said there is nothing funny about the portrayal of a Sri Lankan worker in a popular TV serial called "Laughter Club" as someone constantly complaining about his boss.

Ambassador Wijeyasiri has written to the TV station asking him to withdraw the programme but so far there has been no response. The ambassador stated that this TV programme gave a bad image about Sri Lankans who find employment in Korea or even in other countries. Sri Lanka was selected as one of six foreign countries from which workers could be recruited under the Employment Permit System (EPS).

If a bad impression of Sri Lankan workers was created, it would seriously affect the recruitment, Mr.Wijeyasiri said in the letter. South Korean employers have hired 240 Sri Lankans this year but many more had been selected from the other five countries mainly due to Blanca's unfavourable attitude towards his employers, the Ambassador was quoted as saying.

The programme aired across Korea every Monday for 70 minutes with a 24-year-old popular Korean comedian Jung Chul-Kyu playing the role of the Sri Lankan Blanca is a sharp satire on foreign workers in poor working conditions. One of his frequent phrases is, "my boss is bad, my boss is bad".

When The Sunday Times spoke to the Foreign Ministry's Acting Director of Publicity Himali Arunathilake, she said the objection had not been referred to either the Foreign Ministry or the Korean Embassy in Colombo.

Top

Back to News