JEANIE Y. CHANG ON WHY THERE IS A LOT TO KEEP IN MIND WHILE WATCHING K-DRAMAS

The second-generation Korean-American mental-health expert creates unique content on K-dramas from a mental-health perspective

- DEBASHREE DUTTA

LET ME EXPLAIN why I got hooked on to K-dramas in the first place. They hit my life like a breath of fresh air, not only during the bleak time we’ve lived in for the past few years (that could be one of the causes), but they also became my retreat during a rough patch in my life. I stumbled across Boys Over Flowers (as a matter of chance, you may say). And that one story changed everything for me; it restored my faith in far too many things, but most importantly, in myself. Subsequently, I became more invested in the genre than ever before.

Now, it’s almost as if, if you offer me anything noteworthy about a K-drama, I’ll be all ears. So, recently, while I was casually scrolling on Instagram, I chanced upon a user named Noona’s Noonchi! “Wait, what?” I thought. “That is an intriguing name!” (The expression translates to an elder sister’s sense of understanding or power of observation in Korean). I went to the profile and was surprised to see the posts. Jeanie Yu-Gin Chang (aka Jeanie Y. Chang) runs the page, a second-generation Korean-American mental-health expert who creates unique content on K-dramas from a mental-health perspective. I promptly texted her, expressing my desire to conduct an interview concerning her creative process and how she employs K-dramas to inspire and educate people about its profound influence on mental well-being. To her credit, she was sweet enough to react quickly with a “yes.”