Woori Magic Shop: Jeanie Y. Chang on K-drama and Mental Health

Jeanie Y. Chang, CEO of Noona’s Noonchi, author, speaker, clinician, brings a new level to the term “healing” in k-dramas. Jeanie proposes that watching k-dramas can be good for one’s mental health. Longtime k-drama and k-pop fans have known this for a while now, but it hits different when a professional therapist tells you so. 

Jeanie was in the Philippines this past week, visiting Manila and Cebu, meeting with k-pop and k-drama fans in small, intimate gatherings, organized by Hi Events, and talking about mental health, k-dramas, and her book “How K-dramas Can Transform Your Life: Powerful Lessons on Belongingness, Healing, and Mental Health.” Through an interactive lecture, Jeanie engaged her audience with her stories and the plots of k-dramas expertly woven together to help us make sense of our personal narratives. 

Most k-drama discussions are often shared over private group chats, comments sections, and comfortable meals. Sometimes they’re talked about in lecture halls for academic conferences that perhaps only acafans (academic fans) can fully appreciate. Other times, they’re screamed and gushed over in fan meets. But this little gathering was somewhere in between—in that tentative space between meeting someone and becoming their friend, between escapism and complete immersion,  between the life we have and the life we still dream of. It was the space of possibilities. 

“Woori,” Jeanie claims, is the most beautiful world in the Korean language. Literally translated in English it means “us,” “our,” or “we.” Jeanie explains that it is much deeper than that though and that it is “fundamental in Korean culture” because it “conveys community and togetherness.” But keen rom-com enthusiasts recognize this word all too well. When soon-to-be couples use it to refer to each other, we can tell that there is already a shift in the relationship, a beginning of “us” instead of just a “you and I.”

At the end of the talk, she walked us through a mindfulness exercise using BTS’ “Magic Shop” song to explain the concept of a safe space inside all of us. Its poignant lyrics console: “You gave me the best of me/ so you’ll give you the best of you.” RM was reportedly inspired to write the lyrics after reading a book written by James R. Doty: “Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s True Story of the Life-Changing Magic of Mindfulness and Compassion."

I resonated deeply with much of what Jeanie said, particularly because Gwenchanoona was a safe space for me when it first came into being during the pandemic. Through our little project, a group of noonas came together over a shared love of k-drama and good writing. It helped me navigate the uncertainty and stress of the lockdowns and gave me something hopeful, joyful, and purposeful to while away the time. The pandemic came and went, thank God, but the noonas and k-dramas remained. Ultimately, k-dramas helped me find and build a little community whose support has gone beyond k-truamas and k-crushes. Gwenchanoona, like many k-fandoms and k-communities, is a safe space for me and for many people, too, I hope. Gwenchanoona is woori magic shop.