Harvard student goes viral for writing Disney-style Korean princess musical

After realizing that there were no Koreans among Disney’s iconic princesses, Julia Riew, 22 years old, decided that she would create one herself – with the right to a musical to accompany the character.

The Harvard University student, who grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, has been writing and composing for years. But with her seventh full-length musical to date, “Shimcheong: A Folktale,” she tapped into her Korean roots and ended up going viral on the internet. TikTokwhere the story and songs are resonating with people all over the world.

“For the first time, I had such a strong sense of community and belonging that I always wanted,” Riew said in a video call with CNN. “I never imagined that something like TikTok […] could take me to a place where I feel such a warm sense of acceptance.”

The first song that led fans to discover Riew on TikTok, “Dive,” garnered nearly a million views, with fans performing their own interpretations in an instrumental version. The inspiring lyrics encourage listeners to be fearless and not let anything stop them.

“Now all the fish in the sea can’t stop me,” sings Riew in the 41-second clip, using a filter that transforms her into a Disney-style animated character. “All the waves in the world cannot rock me. I’m on a mission and, look, just watch me go!”

@juliariew Presenting a snippet from the very first song I wrote for Shimcheong 🥰🇰🇷✨ #korean #disney #princess ♬ original sound – Julia Riew

The one-act musical tells the story of a brave young woman named Shimcheong who falls into the depths of the ocean while trying to save her father. She enters the magical Dragon Realm, seemingly with no way out. Ten years later, she plans an escape, risking everything to find her way home.

It is only at the end of the story that the headstrong Shimcheong earns the title of princess and, like any good fairy tale, this one is full of adventures, a prince and a villain, the Dragon Queen. Riew has released short clips of the Prince and Dragon Queen’s songs on TikTok, but eager fans will have to wait to hear all 16 tracks in their entirety.

The musical is an adaptation of the Korean folktale “The Blind Man’s Daughter”, in which a daughter sacrifices everything for her blind father, whom she loves dearly.

Riew is the third generation of a Korean-American family and started working on the musical more than a year ago for a thesis project, but said he never expected it to take off online. Her dream, she said, is to inspire others with stories that “contribute something good to the world.”

“I think stories are so important to children,” he added. “Especially as someone who, as a young man, never saw himself represented in the media, in film, on TV or on stage – that was something I always wanted.”

fans increasing

When it comes to music in the age of Covid-19TikTok and Gen Z proved to be a powerful combination.

In 2020, the creators of TikTok joined forces to produce “Ratatouille: The Musical” after a professor’s 15-second video about Disney Pixar’s beloved mouse, Remy, went viral. The collaborative production, which took place in a matter of weeks, was online for 73 hours and was streamed by 350,000 people – a number of views equal to an entire year on a sold-out Broadway show.

Other TikTokers, like Katherine Lynn-Rose, have jumped on the bandwagon by writing songs for “Avatar: The Legend of Aang” and the success of Netflix, “Round 6”as if they were musical.

For Riew and other creators, the platform goes far beyond video dubbing and dancing. Fans of her fully scripted musical also created fanart featuring her characters, and while Riew initially envisioned Shimcheong’s faithful sidekick Lotus as a dragon, she loved the fans’ suggestion that Lotus could be represented as a “gumiho”, the nine-tailed fox from Korean folk tales.

@juliariew Reply to @cc_evans00 Pls send me ur art, I can’t wait to see it!!!!! #disney #shimcheong #korean #disneyprincess ♬ original sound – Julia Riew

Riew’s fans – which include parents, children and Disney enthusiasts around the world – say they would love to see the story on the big screen.

“[O burburinho] started in the US and then started to get into the hottest topics on Korean Twitter,” Riew said, adding, “Even before the producers get in touch, that’s when parents say to me, ‘I have a 5-year-old son, 3 years old, or 9 years old – I know they would love to see this movie on screen, and we’re listening to their music.’ This is really what warms my heart the most.”

Although he started writing musicals at age 15, Riew wasn’t sure if he would pursue it as a career, and initially enrolled as a medical student.

“I was afraid of being an artist. I was afraid of pursuing a career that didn’t seem sustainable,” she said. “I think a lot of that came from my desire to fit in with the Asian-American community. I wasn’t really seeing that many other Asian students were doing theater at the time, but a lot has changed over the years.”

During his freshman year of college, Riew participated in Harvard’s “First Year Musical,” which gives freshmen the opportunity to create and produce a musical. At auditions for the show, however, she was dismayed by the lack of Asian representation.

“It made me think, ‘Oh, maybe this isn’t the right thing for me, but at the same time, it fueled my desire to want to create more space for Asian students on campus, who may not have discovered theater yet.’

Riew switched to musical theater in the summer after her sophomore year at the university, and since then her shows have been staged at the American Repertory Theatre, Harvard University’s Farkas Hall and the Agassiz Theater at the UNC-Greensboro School. of Theater, among other stages.

search by belonging

The process of writing “Shimcheong: A Folktale” was challenging but significant, Riew said, as it allowed her to confront many aspects of her identity. After losing her grandfather and her grandmother moving in with her, Riew found herself wanting to get more in touch with her Korean heritage.

“My inspiration definitely came from a lot of different places,” she said. “I would say that, above all, it came from my journey in search of belonging. Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about identity and how that intersects with the art and the stories we choose to tell. I was very inspired by my grandparents, and my college experience – and that’s how I found my way to ‘Shimcheong’.”

When she made her first trip to Seoul, South Korea, at age 18, she discovered things about herself and her own history that helped shape the musical.

“It was an exciting moment. But in many ways, it was an eye-opening moment where I realized that this place that I always looked at and imagined myself belonging to was so much more different than I expected,” she said. “And I was much more of an outsider than I expected.”

Although Riew and her family celebrate Korean and American traditions, she was not surrounded by a large Korean community growing up. In recent years, she has struggled to learn more about her Asian roots, whether through Korean lessons at school or through her music. Now, she hopes that people of all ages can be inspired by Shimcheong’s story.

“It’s always been my dream to be walking down the street and hear a kid singing my song,” Riew said. “I feel like I’m almost living that dream right now, seeing the duets of all different types of people singing the song. It’s been amazing.”

Disney may not have chosen the script yet, but Riew has heard from producers and filmmakers interested in bringing the story to a wider audience. For now, she’s working with an agent to try to figure out what’s next.

“It was probably the craziest three weeks of my life, but it’s a very, very emotional time,” she said. “And honestly, I’m so grateful.”