The Korean wave – that is, the diffusion of Korean culture abroad, particularly in Asian countries – also passes through pots for cooking rice. In fact, the electric steamers made in Korea seem to sell like hotcakes and to buy them would be mainly Chinese tourists, for whom owning one of these pans has become a status symbol.
Of course it's not that China is short of steam cookers, but the fact is that Korean ones are thought to be better, both in terms of design and performance. Steamers have thus become one of the three flagship products – together with cosmetics and red ginseng – among those that the Chinese take back home from a trip to Korea.
The doubt arises that, as with cosmetics, it is not so much the intrinsic qualities of the product that fuel the fever of visiting Chinese, but rather the fact that these steamers appear in Korean television series. South Korean 'soap operas', very popular in China, Japan and throughout Southeast Asia, are in fact proving to be a formidable tool for the penetration of Korean culture in Asia, giving life to trendy phenomena in the most varied fields, from furniture to hair styles, from gastronomy to fashion.
Be that as it may, the manufacturers of steamers have seized the opportunity and have launched a particular edition of the product on the market, accompanied by recipe books written in Mandarin Chinese and adapted to Chinese culinary tastes. Furthermore, the opening of after-sales service and customer assistance centers in China is in the planning stage, to meet the needs of those who buy Korean household appliances.
