In this Indian city, locals love K-pop and K-dramas while Koreans love Indian food and weather – but not the doctors
- Chennai has the largest South Korean community in India, which has been growing ever since auto giant Hyundai opened its first factory near the city in 1997
- After trade and commerce came Korean food and then culture, with locals learning to love Korean music and TV, especially millennials
Weekend visitors to the popular Amma Naana supermarket in the upmarket Boat Club district of Chennai might think they are somewhere in South Korea. Groups of Koreans walk the aisles and stock up on Korean groceries such as noodles, sauces, seafood and vegetables.
Choi Bobae, 30, arrived in the southern Indian city in 2008 and now works for a trading company, while her husband has his own trading business there.
“I love Indian people and their warmth to foreigners, and I also enjoy Indian food, especially typical South Indian meals served on a banana leaf,” Choi says, adding that she also watches Tamil movies on Netflix and shops at the local malls.
South Korea’s tryst with Chennai, a coastal city in the state of Tamil Nadu, began in the late 1990s when the auto giant Hyundai established factories in the country. The first facility opened in Sriperumbudur, 40km (25 miles) southwest of Chennai, in 1997, and the company launched its first vehicle, the popular Santro small car, in 1999.
Other companies, including Samsung, LG, and Lotte, followed. Smaller firms dealing in automotive parts sprang up to support the conglomerates, and South Korean employees brought their wives and children to join them in Chennai.
“Today, Tamil Nadu is home to over 500 Korean companies, making the state rank among the largest Korean hubs in India, and Chennai has the largest Korean expat community in India with over 5,000 Koreans,” says Kwon Young-seup, South Korea’s consul-general in the city.