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Korea's Soft Power (Hallyu)

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In starter, Hallyu is a Chinese term that if translated, means “Korean Wave”. It is a collective term used to refer to the phenomenal growth of Korean culture and popular culture encompassing everything from music, movies, drama to online games and Korean cuisine just to name a few. The Korean wave, known as Hallyu, was indeed South Korea’s soft power to invade the rest of the world. Almost all of them are spread through all the world with the help of internet. Now what about Korean dramas? As mentioned in Catching Up to Hallyu, the South Korean breakthrough is through their dramas and pop music. Their group bands are successfully penetrate the barrier between Asian and Western music culture. Moreover, their K-drama is certainly not of the same quality as soap opera. Storylines can be sentimental, with tales of love triangles and tear jerking scenes, but characters are well-developed as not being black and white. They knew how to arouse our emotions and heat up our curiosity towards the ending of the series. And personally, I think this is why so many people, especially women, are addicted to this. There is certainly no age range to this because all my relatives, grandmother and aunts are all addicted to it. They even have their own collection of K-dramas. An example to this is their main breakthrough K-drama, Winter Sonata. I don’t really follow the Korean movies and their culture, but since I was a kid I am familiar with Winter Sonata. In my country, this movie was translated into so many languages, their merchandises were sold anywhere, and people in my country started to visit their setting place in South Korea. It is so amazing that only through movie, South Korea could increase their development throughout tourist visit. But apart from the story lines, Korean dramas are also designed as a tool to advance their soft power. It is not enough to bring Korean culture to the world, but Korea also needs to understand how the world moves.

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