The plot of My Love from the Star is far-fetched, dealing with an alien who falls in love with a pop star. But the South Korean drama dominated a morning of debate for a Chinese Communist party committee last month when delegates lamented the inability of homegrown offerings to match the show’s runaway success in China.

“The Korean drama craze?.?.?.?is resulting in a lack of confidence in our own culture,” warned Xu Qinsong, a party official from Guangdong. The alarm is not limited to China: in recent years Taiwanese regulators have intervened to reduce the screening of South Korean soap operas, while thousands marched in Tokyo against the extensive screening of the shows on Japanese television.

The booming industry behind this regional angst is the subject of The Korean Wave – a new collection of academic essays, of varying quality, on the South Korean entertainment sector’s rise to prominence in east and southeast Asia. From Manila to Mongolia, Seoul’s television and music companies have found enthusiastic audiences. Their success reflects the cultural allure of one of the region’s most advanced economies, and has opened doors for other South Korean industries from tourism to cosmetics.