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Final Reflection

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For my final reflection, I chose to analyze South Korea and its popular culture articulations. South Korea is an interesting country as it is the only one that dedicates a lot of their energy in exporting their culture. The South Korean government places a great emphasis on developing and spreading their soft power through their cultural exports. This effort has become a great success for South Korea as it has a profound economic influence on them that generates a lot of revenue. South Korea’s main popular culture products they produce are K-Dramas, K-Pop, literature, films, and food. The medium that South Korea uses to export and spread their cultural products vary based on the product. For K-Dramas and K-Pop, the medium that is usually used to spread it is through DVDs, television broadcasts, and the internet. Now currently, the usage of the internet is becoming more widely available for people to use. This allows more ease of access for consumers to access K-Dramas and K-Pop. This means that sharing and spreading K-Dramas and K-Pop through the internet is extremely easy and influential. Literature and films are also in the similar category. As E-books become more popular, Korean literature is a lot easier to spread to the global market/consumer. Korean food, on the other hand, is a concept that is spread through soft power or the image of Korea. People exposed to the idea or knowledge of Korean cuisine would try and purchase it in their local area. Food itself is an easy cultural product to spread as it does not need to be a physical export, but rather could be word of mouth or idea. The usage of internet as a medium is considered to be the norm in this day and age. It is easy and effective to use the internet to spread South Korean popular culture. In this globalized world, we are all connected to one another through the internet which allows ideas and trends to spread quickly over the world.

In the past, South Korea had a harsh censorship on its own media which stagnated the spread of their soft power. It is only when they revoked that censorship did their cultural economy took off. The growing global popularity of South Korean culture is known as the Korean Wave or Hallyu. The Hallyu has greatly benefited South Korea’s economy as it has influenced people to purchase their cultural products. According to studies, the Hallyu effect has generated $1.87 billion USD for Korea in 2004 and $11.6 billion in 2014. (Martinroll) This number is expected to increase greatly as South Korean culture has currently become more popular recently these years. The Hallyu is important to South Korea as “in 1965, Korea’s GDP per capita was less than that of Ghana.” Now currently due to the Hallyu, South Korea is the world’s 12th largest economy. The Hallyu does not generate all its revenue through cultural exports. Through the spread of their soft power, it has influenced numerous people to visit and tour South Korea. The amount of tourism in South Korea is significant and generates a sizable amount of revenue for them.

South Korea’s government has invested significant amounts of funds on their internet infrastructure. “About one-third of all venture capital in Korea is spent on the entertainment industry.” (Martinroll) This has provided Korea with a solid infrastructure that allows them to spread and produce quality cultural products. The majority of the idols in South Korea are formed and fostered by major television broadcast companies. This strategy creates a streamlined process to form and create idol groups which appeal to the consumers. Another thing to note is that South Korea is currently focusing on the global market and this has translated to them using foreign nation citizens in K-Pop groups. An example of this is shown in popular K-pop groups such as EXO, Twice, Seventeen, and Super Junior who all have several foreign members to appeal to different demographic groups. This creates a sense of transnationalism that is aimed to appeal to different ethnic regions.

South Korea has taken the liberty to remake popular foreign dramas and rebrand them into K-Dramas. An example of this would be Boys Over Flowers and recently the remake of the American televisions series, Suits. Through these remakes, South Korea is able to infuse their culture into these dramas while keeping the main story the same. This allows different regions to experience the dramas in a different fresh perspective. However, the Hallyu is not always so smooth in its spread. Certain regions have placed limits and bans against South Korean media exports to prevent their spread of soft power. Regions such as China believe that the Hallyu is an invasion against their own culture. The spread of soft power is not always apparent as it is not a physical manifestation rather a psychological one. The spread of ideas and knowledge is always hard to censor now in this globalized world.

Sources: https://martinroll.com/resources/articles/asia/korean-wave-hallyu-the-rise-of-koreas-cultural-economy-pop-culture/
 

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