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In Catching up to Hallyu, Kim described how soft power is related to a country’s economy and politics, which I find very surprising. While the economy of a country can be measured by currency, which allows the country to be compared and to compete with other countries, the amount of soft power in a country can hardly be measured, even if soft power can generate huge contribution to a country’s economy. One of the quotes from the article, which mentioned soft power, economy, and politics are interrelated and utilized by each of them, said, “Sometimes the Korean government is trying to use the popularity of Korean idols to increase its own power but at the other moments it is using its power to help the Korean wave”(Kim, page 537). Indeed, every country on one hand uses its soft power to stimulate its economy and intervene its politics; on the other hand, a country will help develop its soft power through politics, because they are mutually beneficial. It surprised me that it was mentioned in the article that a single film produced by Korea generated more revenue than a whole year’s revenue from Hyundai, which further answered the question why countries would want to stimulate its soft power industry through governmental intervention. Since Korea had Hallyu, China and Japan pushed their soft power development in response, not only as an intention to compete for the market shares, but also to regain their economic and political power in the international stage. Therefore, the Chinese government developed its own soft power through historical contents in order to improve its international reputation; whereas the Japanese government developed its Cool Japan campaign to prevent its own citizens from leaning too much to Korean culture. As we can see, soft power benefits not only a country’s economic growth, but also its political issues, which make it worth investing and helping by the government.
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- ASPA 3970: Popular Culture in East Asia Jiajun Chen