kssj vol.34.no.1(eun mee kim&jiwon ryoo))

South Korean Culture Goes Global: K‐Pop and the Korean Wave … 117

South Korean Culture Goes Global:

K‐Pop and the Korean Wave*

Eun Mee Kim(The Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University)

Jiwon Ryoo(Newsweek Korea)

Korean Social Science Journal, XXXIV No. 1(2007): 117‑152.

Key words: Hallyu (Korean Wave), globalization of culture, hybrid culture, Han,

Hanp’uri

＊ This paperwasprsentda the “International Conference onConsuming Korean

Cultur” University of Hawaii, Oahu, USA, October 13‐16, 200; a the SBS

Distinguished Lectur Harvard University, USA, April 13, 200; andat the

Association for Asian StudieChicago, USA, April 2004. W would like to thank

Yooyeon Noh and Yoon Young Cho for theirresearc assistance. We would

like to thank the three anonymous reviewers of KSSJ forthei helpfulsugges‐

tios and comments on the paper. Please direct all correspondence to: Eun

Mee Kim, the Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans

University, Seoul, 120‐750, South Korea; [email protected].

Abstract: This paper is an attempt to understand the explosive con-

sumption of South Korean cultural exports in Asia, and its reproduction

in South Korea. The more commonly available explanations about the

success of Hallyu, which cannot adequately explain why Hallyu has tak-

en Asia by storm while popular cultures from other Asian nations have

not, include the following: (1) cultural proximity; (2) common historical

and cultural legacy; (3) common 20th century experience of rapid in-

dustrialization in the region; (4) rapid increase in intra‐regional trade,

investment, tourism, etc.; and (5) the development of information tech-

nology (IT) industry and other modern industries in South Korea.

We offer three alternative scenarios to help explain Hallyu’s success

118 … Eun Mee Kim and Jiwon Ryoo

using global and local cultural explanations. First, Hallyu is analyzed

from the perspective of an alternative form of globalization of culture

from the South implying the diversification of world cultures. Neither re-

jecting nor reacting to the dominant cultures of the West, we postulate

that Hallyu is more an alternative and revision of the US‐dominated

cultural globalization. Second, taking a more region‐bound perspective,

we analyze whether Asia’s history of colonialism and the fight for su-

premacy between two regional super powers ─ i.e., Japan and China ─,

have led South Korea to become a more palatable cultural hegemon in

the region. Third, the paper uses the Korean concept of “Hanp’uri”

(dissolution of “Han”) to understand how Hallyu has been embraced in

South Korea as a source of national pride and helped its reproduction.

Finally, we argue that the future of Hallyu will rest on whether it can

become identified as a new world culture with distinct traits of its own

and enrich the world’s cultural scene.

Ⅰ. Introduction

Hallyu1. (or the Korean2. Wave) ─ i.e., exports of South

Korea’s popular culture ─ hit the shores of China and Southeast

Asian nations with great force since the late 1990s, and finally

hit Japan like a tidal wave in 2003 with the arrival of Yon‐sam

a3. and Winter Sonata (Kyŏul Yŏnga). Bae Yong‐jun4., the male

star of South Korea’s hit melodrama, Winter Sonata, earned the

1. “ally means Korean Wave or Wave from Korea. Romanization of Korean

words is based on the McCune‐Reischauer System.

2. Korea refers to South Korea, and the two will be used interchangeably in

the paper.

3. This word is a combined word with his first name “Yon‐jun” and “sama,”

which is a Japanese honorific given exclusively to highly respected persons.

4. Korean names will be written as they are commonly used in Korea, with

the family name followed by the given name. However, the names of Korean

authors, who have published in English, will be written as the authors have

done.


nickname of Yon‐sama, and commentators said that the drama’s

extraordinary reception in Japan has thwarted South Korea‐

Japan relations more than any single event since the Japanese

Colonial Period (1910‐45).

Hallyu, however, is as much a domestic South Korean phe-

nomenon as it is an overseas success of K‐Pop5. and South

Korean dramas in Asia and other parts of the world. The news

about the overseas success of South Korean cultural products

were embraced as a source of national pride, and the government,

media and the public recreated the Hallyu boom in South Korea.

Thus, this paper is an attempt to understand the explosive

consumption of South Korean cultural exports in Asia, and its re-

production in South Korea. The more commonly available ex-

planations about the success of Hallyu, which cannot adequately

explain why Hallyu has taken Asia by storm while popular cul-

tures from other Asian nations have not, include the following:

(1) cultural proximity; (2) common historical and cultural legacy;

(3) common 20th century experience of rapid industrialization in

the region; (4) rapid increase in intra‐regional trade, investment,

tourism, etc.; and (5) the development of information technology

(IT) industry and other modern industries in South Korea.

We offer three alternative scenarios to help explain Hallyu’s

success using global and local cultural explanations. First, Hallyu

is analyzed from the perspective of an alternative form of global-

ization of culture from the South implying the diversification of

world cultures. Neither rejecting nor reacting to the dominant

cultures of the West, we postulate that Hallyu is more an alter-

native and revision of the US‐dominated cultural globalization.

The paper asks whether Hallyu is what Wallerstein (1991) named

“differentiation of culture” or what Appadurai (1996) called “a

new global cultural economy.” Second, taking a more region‐

5. South Korean popular music.


bound perspective, we analyze whether Asia’s history of colo-

nialism and the fight for supremacy between two regional super

powers ─ i.e., Japan and China ─, have led South Korea to be-

come a more palatable cultural hegemon in the region. The

growth of Hallyu in China and other parts of Asia can be ex-

plained as a yearning for an alternative regional culture as well

as an “Asian” version of modernity. Third, the paper uses the

Korean concept of “Hanp’uri” (dissolution of “Han”) to understand

how Hallyu has been embraced in South Korea as a source of na-

tional pride and helped its reproduction.

This paper will begin with a brief overview of the history of

Hallyu followed by an analysis of Hallyu using the three alter-

native explanations.

Ⅱ. A Brief History of Hallyu

The term ‘Hallyu’ was first introduced by the Chinese media

as ‘韓流’ to describe the Korean entertainment boom in China

since the late 1990s. The Korea Tourism Organization (2004) de-

fines Hallyu as the recent cultural phenomenon of South Korean

pop culture sweeping through China, Japan, Taiwan, Viet Nam,

Singapore, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries. South

Korean TV dramas, pop music, and their stars are at the center

of this wave. The term’s meaning has now expanded to include

the popularity of anything ‘Korean’ including Korean cuisine and

language.

The culture industry6. as a whole grew very rapidly in South

6. The concept of the culture industry is still quite new and yet to be defined.

It was first introduced in the South Korean government documents in

December 1999 and then a more detailed description was introduced in

the revised version of ‘Munhwa Saneob Jinheung Gibonbeob (The Basic Law

to Promote the Culture Industry)’ in 2002. It characterizes culture industry


Korea since the late 1990s. It grew at 21 percent while the South

Korean economy grew at an annual average of 5.5 percent during

1993‐2003 (Ministry of Culture and Tourism 2004). Exports of

cultural products have also grown quite rapidly since the late

1990s with the Hallyu boom in China and later in Japan.

According to The Korea Times article (December 22, 2005) South

Korea’s cultural products ─ e.g., movies, music, games and TV

dramas ─ recorded exports of US $1 billion in 2005, which was

an increase of 31 percent compared to 2004. Thus, the explosive

growth of Hallyu has contributed toward South Korea’s economic

transformation in the post‐industrial, knowledge‐based economy.

The number of foreign tourists to South Korea has also

grown quite rapidly in conjunction with the Hallyu boom. In par-

ticular, the rise of tourists from China has been most rapid, in-

creasing from 28,909 (or, 4.8% of total number of tourists to

South Korea) in 1995, which was before the Hallyu boom, to a

staggering 314,433 (or 11.8% of the total) in 2005 (Korea Tourism

Organization various years).

The number of tourists from Japan has always been the larg-

est in comparison to other countries for over two decades. Even

so, it is interesting to observe that the number of Japanese tou-

rists saw a dramatic rise in 2004 compared to the previous year

(from 1726 in 2003 to 2354 in 2004), and this rapid rise happen

to coincide with the broadcasting of Winter Sonata in Japan in

March 2003.

as a variety of service‐based activities related to development, production,

distribution, and consumption of cultural products, while a cultural product

refers to tangible and intangible goods, services or their combination that

generate economic added‐value using cultural elements (including culture‐

related contents and digital culture contents) (Ministry of Culture and

Tourism 2002). Examples of cultural products include performance, fine art

and literature, and their reproduction, books, journal magazines, newspapers,

film, radio, television, and recordings on disc or tape (Pratt 1997).


In Asia, South Korea’s films and dramas have begun to show

a large following, putting a break on the flow of cultural global-

ization from the West to the East, and from the North to the

South. Suddenly cultural flows within the region are catching up

with global cultural flows from the West (Iwabuchi 2002). And

the sudden expansion of the South Korean culture is attributed

to the low cultural barrier among East Asian countries due to

their geographical proximity and cultural‐emotional similarity

rooted in the region’s deeply embedded Confucian beliefs

(Ministry of Culture and Tourism 2001). Thus, it is not surprising

that more than half (56 percent) of the South Korean film exports

in 2000 was headed to Northeast Asian countries (Ministry of

Culture and Tourism 2001). Such regional concentration of cul-

tural product exports is evident not only in films, but also in on-

line games, broadcasting, and performances (Ministry of Culture

and Tourism 2001). However, as will be noted below, Hallyu

spread far beyond the culturally‐close Northeast Asia.

The West and Japan finally took notice when Hallyu hit the

shores of Japan with great force in 2004. Although Winter Sonata

was originally aired in 2003 in Japan, it was in 2004 when it ex-

ploded on the front page with the rerun of the drama on prime-

time NHK TV. Winter Sonata contributed to rising tourism, hotel

and restaurant business, and wholesale and retail trade, and re-

sulted in nearly US$ 6.24 million7. or 0.1 percent of South

Korea’s GDP in 2004 (Maeil Business Newspaper December 20,

2004).

Hallyu has also continued to add contents to include food,

fashion, computer games, and ultimately, Korea itself. Wiseman

describes the all‐encompassing nature of Hallyu as follows:

“middle‐age Japanese women suddenly are embracing all things

7. Exchange rate of Korean won to U.S. dollars is 1,050 won=US $1 (Korea

Exchange Bank 2004).


Korean. They are trading recipes for Kimchi, enjoying a renais-

sance in Korean films, and studying the Korean language” (USA Today December 10, 2005).

Hallyu has traveled from the culturally close nations in Asia

to culturally remote nations in other parts of the world including

Egypt8., Ghana, Iraq9. and Israel. The cultural proximity argu-

ment does not help explain the growing popularity of Hallyu in

these nations. In Egypt a Korean Studies major was established

for the first time at the Ain Shams University in part due to the

popularity of the South Korean popular culture (The Korea Times

March 6, 2006).

Hallyu has also landed on the other side of the Pacific in

Mexico, California, and even on the Atlantic coast of the US. As

Deborah Sontag and Jon Pareles wrote in The New York Times on

January 29, 2006 and February 4, 2006, respectively, the recent

sold‐out performances of the most well‐known K‐Pop star, “Rain”

in New York City’s Madison Square Garden in February 2006

produced a great deal of fanfare in the US and South Korea

media. Although the actual review of his performance was mixed,

being the first Asian star to have a solo sold‐out performance in

Madison Square Garden with over 10,000 fans was indeed

newsworthy.

8. The South Korean Embassy in Egypt and Korea Broadcasting Services (KBS)

received thousands of fan letters after a Korean drama was shown on TV

(Ki‐tae Kim, The Korea Time May 24, 200).

9. The Korean Heal article on August 12, 2005 reported that South Korean

dramas, ‘Autumn Fairy Tale (Kaŭl tonghwa)’ and Winter Sonata aired in

Iraq by the Kurdish Regional Government, and this was the first time South

Korean dramas were shown in the Middle East.


Ⅲ. Diversification of World Cultures

Waters (1995: 126) defines a globalized culture as “a con-

tinuous flow of ideas, information, commitments, values and

tastes mediated through mobile individuals, symbolic tokens and

electronic simulations.” Since culture is mediated and can be

transformed in the process, globalization is a dialectical process

that can both homogenize and diversify cultures. The homoge-

nization process sees globalization as cultural imperialism or

Americanization brought about by the consumption of its culture

and material products. The asymmetry of power between the

West and developing countries is central to this conceptualization.

On the other hand, the diversifying process of globalization

focuses on the development of a diversity of cultures. According to

this approach, globalization has brought a new level of multi-

culturalism that has not only redefined the traditional dominant

cultures of nation states, but expanded political consciousness in-

to global concerns. As a result, instead of losing one’s sense of

place because of increasing global influences, globalization has

highlighted the importance of local cultures in negotiating its

space in cultural hybridization.

Taking this idea one step further, Wallerstein (1991) identi-

fies a trend toward cultural differentiation or cultural complexity,

which is closely related to the workings of the capitalist world

economy. Wallerstein (1974, 1980, 1986, 1989, 1991, 2004) wrote

extensively about the exploitative nature of the world system,

and extended that argument to “culture” and argued that culture

can be used as a means of such exploitation.

Wallerstein (1991: 99) argues that “Culture always has been

a weapon of the powerful,” who uses it to gain legitimacy, but al-

so recognizes that the weak can and does use culture as a mean

of resistance. Culture appears to be another place of manifes-


tation of powered hierarchy, and cultural resistance can be co‐opt-

ed by the powerful, for example, by commodifying the practices of

cultural resistance. In this context, culture from the periphery is

understood as a form of resistance and reaction to the core

culture.

This, however, is also the view from the West. Can the pe-

riphery and semi‐periphery exist only as juxtaposed vis‐à‐vis the

core? Can there be cultures that originate from other parts of the

world, in particular the periphery and the semi‐periphery, which

is not resistance or reaction to the cultures of the core? In this

paper, we argue that the cultures of the semi‐periphery and pe-

riphery need not be understood only as resistance to the core, but

as a new form of globalized culture.

Asia and Latin America have become home to many regional

and world cultures. Although their cultural products’ reach to the

world may not be as extensive and pervasive as those from the

West, or in particular, Hollywood, some of these alternative cul-

tures from the non‐West represents a new globalization of

culture. Hong Kong’s Kung Fu movies, Japanese anime, and

South Korean Hallyu should be understood not merely as a re-

jection or reaction to the West. They are more a hybridization of

various cultures and represent a new form of amalgamated cul-

ture in the 20th and 21st centuries. It is neither East nor West,

and at the same time both East and West (Jenkins 2004).

Appadurai (1996: 31) argues that “imagination as a social

practice” is a new phenomenon in the global cultural processes.

And “the central problem of today’s global interactions is the ten-

sion between cultural homogenization and cultural heterogeniza-

tion” (Appadurai 1996: 32). He argues that new global cultural

economy has to be seen as a complex, overlapping, disjunctive or-

der that cannot any longer be understood in terms of existing

center‐periphery models (Appadurai 1996: 32). And arguing that

the complexity of the current global economy is due to “funda‐


mental disjuncture between economy, culture, and politics,” he

presents five dimensions in which the disjuncture can be ex-

plored: (a) ethnoscapes, (b) mediascapes, (c) technoscapes, (d) fi-

nancescapes and (e) ideoscapes (Appadurai 1996:33). These vari-

ous “scapes” suggest an alternative spatial rendering of the pres-

ent ‐‐ one that is not fixed as a typical landscape might be, but

amorphous and flowing in various directions and with various

sizes. These “scapes” are presented by Appadurai (1996: 31‐33) as

the building blocks of the contemporary “imagined worlds” extend-

ing the work of Benedict Anderson (1983) in Imagined Communities. Appadurai (1996) argues that modern media and mass migra-

tion have separately and together produced an increasing degree

of instability in the creation of selves and identities. The univer-

sal access to media by individuals with different backgrounds has

democratized imagination, made it into a daily activity of the

public rather than one restricted to artistic elites. When com-

bined with mass migration, what is imagined is no longer the

“imagined community” of the nation‐state, but numerous “diasporic

public spheres” (Appadurai 1996: 22).

The Yon‐sama craze in Japan can be understood using

Appadurai’s (1996) conceptions of new global cultural economy,

and Iwabuchi’s (2002) study of transnationalism of Japanese pop-

ular culture in Asia. The Hallyu boom in Asia in general, and

Japan in particular, epitomized the Asian experience of in-

dustrialization that was very rapid and compressed, and produced

new global cultural dynamics.

Bae Yong‐jun, the lead actor in the ‘Winter Lover Story

(Kyŏul Yŏnga),’ or ‘Winter Sonata’ (the latter is the title used in

Japan), has become enormously popular in Japan overnight.

Headlines such as, ‘Korean romantic hero holds Japan in thrall;

Frenzy over heartthrob symbolizes changing relations between

peoples’ (USA Today December 10, 2004), and “What’s Korean for

’Real Man?” Ask a Japanese Woman,’ (The New York Times


December 23, 2004) attest to his influence in Japan.

Originally produced and televised in South Korea in the win-

ter of 2002‐03, Winter Sonata became a great success throughout

Asia including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and most recently,

Japan. In March 2003, Winter Sonata was shown on Japan

Broadcasting Corporation’s (NHK) satellite channel as filler. But,

it quickly became a ratings success and made its star, Bae Yong‐

jun, as one of the most sought‐after celebrities in Japan.

There were already signs of Hallyu in pre‐Yon‐sama days. A

report from Mainichi Shimbun on December 20, 2004 noted that

more than 1.3 million Japanese moviegoers watched ‘Shiri,’ South

Korea’s high‐powered action film in 2000. Interest in South

Korean pop culture grew steadily since then, and gained mo-

mentum in 2002 when the two countries co‐hosted the FIFA

World Cup games and promoted cultural exchanges. While the

South Koran pop singer BoA or other previous South Korean pop-

ular culture merely drew attention to individual performers or a

few particular cultural products, Winter Sonata created a boom in

the interest for Korea itself.

Winter Sonata presents a pure romantic hero of Korea’s past

(or, perhaps Asia’s past), who clings to his first love, perseveres

in the face of a triangular love relationship, amnesia, and life‐

threatening illness, to find at last his first love. ‘Junsang,’ the

character that Bae plays in Winter Sonata represented the long‐

lost values of the forgotten Japan ─ i.e., kindness, pure love, gen-

tle manners, and masculinity ─ that most contemporary Japanese

men were seen as lacking. Such traits reminded the Japanese of

the heart‐warming memories of the good old days, and mistakenly

identified these traits as to be common among contemporary

South Korean men.

The dramatic end of Winter Sonata shows the hero and her-

oine meeting after years of not knowing each other’s whereabouts

or even whether the other was alive, by sheer extrasensory per-


ception (ESP) in a remote villa off of a beaten track somewhere

in South Korea. The hero returned to South Korea after being

treated in the US for brain tumor, which had eventually rendered

him blind, to a house he built with only a demonstration model

that the heroine had long time ago made for an architecture

competition.

The drama’s main characters embraced Western modernity in

the sense they are contemporaries of us living in the age of post‐

industrial, globalized world. There is very little “Asian” or the

“East” in the way they dress, the products they use, or the way

they go about their lives traveling and living around the world.

Yet, the ethos and values inherent in the drama is very “Asian,”

and in particular Asia of the nostalgic past. Pure love, quiet, and

even passive perseverance through hardship, non‐aggressive way

of conquering love, chastity, and the proverb that “the good will

always conquer evil” are at the foundation of the drama.

Although these values in their ideal types will be difficult to find

anywhere, including Asia in this era of globalization, Asians

yearned for these imagined values from “their” past.

Winter Sonata epitomized the nostalgia of the “Asia” past, in

which rapid and compressed industrialization in Japan and East

Asian newly industrializing countries (NICs), has erased it from

their lives, but very much alive in their memories. Fro example,

South Koreans beyond the age of 45 vividly remembers (even if

they lived in Seoul, the most advanced and cosmopolitan city in

the nation) their youth with ox‐drawn carts and muddy streets

that became unpassable during the yearly monsoon season.

Hallyu dramas that depict a modern exterior with traditional val-

ues provide a nostalgic relief for the Seoulites’ ultra‐modern cos-

mopolitan life. The story of compressed industrialization is an ex-

perience shared by many Asian nations, and thus helps explain

the popularity of dramas such as Winter Sonata among so many

people throughout Asia.


Winter Sonata and Yon‐sama resulted in an impressive eco-

nomic impact in Japan generating US$1.1 billion10. in 2004 most-

ly through the sale of items related to the drama including

DVDs, and products featuring the two main stars (The Japan Times December 30, 2004). NHK was one of the major beneficia-

ries of the Winter Sonata boom as its publishing arm sold

860,000 novels based on the drama’s screenplay, 280,000 program

guidebooks, and 150,000 DVDs and videos. The soundtrack from

Winter Sonata sold over 1 million copies, which is unprecedented

for a drama soundtrack in Japan (Mainichi Shimbun October 13,

2004). Travel agencies began to offer tour packages that featured

visits to the shooting locations of the drama and opportunities to

meet the actors, and this resulted in a dramatic rise in tourism

to South Korea by 40 percent compared to the previous year

(Mainichi Shimbun December on 20, 2004). Bae himself grossed

about US $20 million, while his entertainment management com-

pany, Boundaries of Forest, earned US $44 million in 2005 (The Korea Times February 20, 2006.

This boom did not stop at popular culture. The number of

universities, which offer Korean studies, saw a sudden rise from

143 in 1995, to 285 in 2001, and to 335 in 2004 (Hyundai

Research Institute 2004). And NHK broadcasted an unusually

long 8‐hour special program on Hallyu on its satellite channel

(BS2) on December 19, 2004. It was the first time that the public

broadcast company allocated such a long time for another coun-

try’s cultural phenomenon (Hyundai Research Institute 2004).

Before Hallyu and Yon‐sama, Japan’s popular culture had al-

ready penetrated Asia. Iwabuchi (2002: 2) was motivated to con-

duct the research about Japanese popular culture’s reach in Asia

due to “the sense of surprise and curiosity” he felt when

10. Exchage rate of Japanese Yen to U.S. dollars is 104 Yen = US$1 (Korea

Exchange Bank 2004).


Japanese popular culture was embraced in Asia in spite of the

troubled history of Japan in the region. He quotes headlines from

several sources including, “Export machine–while Asia’s older

generation is still haunted by Japan’s wartime brutality, Hello

Kitty culture is hot with the region’s youth, who are happy to

snap up all things Japanese” (Export Machines 1999: 30‐31 quot-

ed in Iwabuchi 2002: 1).

Japanese animation (or, better known as “anime”), comics,

characters, computer games, fashion, pop music, and TV drama

have been well received in Asia since the late 1970s, but more

conspicuously in the 1980s and 1990s (Iwabuchi, 2002: 1‐3).

Iwabuchi (2002: 3) argues that the 1990s’ media globalization and

the growth of other Asian economies have led to increases in in-

tra‐regional cultural flows in Asia, and in particular the circu-

lation of Japanese popular culture in Asia. Iwabuchi (2002) exam-

ines both the growth of Japanese popular cultural products’ ex-

port boom throughout East and Southeast Asia, as well as the

growing acceptance of the other Asian nations’ cultural products

in Japan. This latter trend contributed to the acceptance of South

Korean popular culture in Japan since the 1990s. However,

Hallyu appears to be much more mainstream and widespread

compared to the inroads of other Asian cultures in Japan.

Iwabuchi (2002) develops the concept of “odorless culture,”11.

to explain how Japanese popular culture could so easily spread

throughout Asia and later to the world without much resistance

even from its former colonies with brutal histories. Unlike Hong

Kong’s Kung Fu movies, which had a very distinct Chinese char-

11. However, this notion of odorless culture does not adequately explain the

current Japanese anime or games sold worldwide, in which many explicitly

show their Japanese heritage. Iwabuchi’s (2002) concept helps explain the

earlier exports of Japanese cultural products. There is an assumption that

the initial cultural penetration started out as “odorless” and then gradually

became to show Japanese traits once the products were received.


acter, Japan’s anime and other popular cultural products did not

have a strong sense of “Japan” in them. Odorless cultural prod-

ucts, such as animation, cartoons, and characters, which do not

readily render their nation of origin, were used by Japan in its

early phase of cultural exports in Asia (Iwabuchi 2002). Hallyu in

this sense is more similar to Kung Fu than Japan’s popular

culture. K‐Pop and Hallyu from the start had a sense of “Korea”

in them, albeit it was also in many cases a hybrid of the East

and West.

On the other side of the globe, “Rain” hit the streets of New

York City on February 2 and 3, 2006. A K‐Pop star, “Rain” (or

“Bee” in Korean) has become a mega star of the most recent

Hallyu wave in Asia. Before New York City, “Rain” had sold‐out

performances in many large Asian cities in 2005 totaling more

than 130,000 seats ─ starting with three sold ─ out perform-

ances in Japan with 12,000 in Tokyo in July, 8,000 in Osaka in

August, and 20,000 in Budokan in September; 40,000 in Beijing

in October 2005, and 20,000 in Hong Kong in October, and finally

in Taipei with 30,000 sold out seats in December

(http://www.jype.com; The New York Times January 29, 2005). The

South Korean media played up the story of Rain’s 10,000 sold out

performances in the Theater at the Madison Square Garden in

New York City, noting that one of the US’s pop icons, Billy Joel

also had a performance at the Madison Square Garden on the

same evening. The South Korean media repeatedly mentioned

this fact as to prove that “Rain” or “Korea” itself had captured

the heart of the US as Billy Joel has (or had), and conveniently

ignored the fact that Billy Joel performed in a much larger ven-

ue, The Arena.

Although Rain has been embraced by Asia as its super star,

his reception was decidedly mixed in the US. In The New York Times article on February 4, 2006, unlike an earlier article

(December 24, 2005), which was a much more positive story


about the first Asian popular star to perform at the Madison

Square Garden, Jon Pareles wrote that Rain failed to develop a

unique style that is not just a copy of the old US pop singers like

Michael Jackson, or his contemporaries such as Justin

Timberlake and Usher. In other words, he was not “exotic” or

“Asian” enough to the critics’ eyes and a mere copy of the US

stars.

In the era of globalization, when identity and culture experi-

ence both homogenization and heterogenization (Appadurai 1996),

it is no longer possible to make a simple dichotomy of “my/our”

versus “your/their” culture(s). Shin (2006) discusses the paradox

of globalization in South Korea by observing two seemingly con-

tradictory trends: “nationalist appropriation of globalization” and

“intensification of ethnic/national identity in reaction to globaliza‐

tion.” Shin’s (2006) conceptualization of globalization and the

South Korean response to it can be extended to the globalization

of culture, in which South Korea finds both the forces of homoge-

nization and heterogenization in play.

Hallyu and other cultures from the South should be under-

stood as an alternative to the US or West‐dominated cultural

globalization. The new hybrid form of popular culture has in

them elements of both the West and the East (Jenkins 2004).

Asian fans appeared to have embraced this new hybrid culture.

However, some of the Western media has only recognized what is

familiar to their eyes ─ i.e., the Western footprint ─ and failed

to notice that this is probably the new face of globalization, in

which the East and West are chemically mixed to produce a new

hybrid culture.

Unlike Japanese culture’s earlier inroads to Asia and the

world with “odorless” cultural products, Hallyu has distinct

“odors” or “fragrance”12. that identifies their place of origin in

12. Odor has a negative connotation of a smell that needs to be erased. We


Asia and Korea. Because earlier Hong Kong’s Kung Fu movies

had become absorbed into mainstream global culture (especially

with recent adoption and adaptation of Chinese movies and stars

into Hollywood movies), and widespread reception of Japanese‐ori-

ented transnational cultural products in the world, perhaps South

Korea’s Hallyu is able to penetrate the world of world cultures

even without the processes of deliberate and explicit “de‐odoring”

and “adaptation/absorption” to the West.

Ⅳ. “Asian” Modernity

Hannerz (1996) argues that although globalization is identi-

fied as an important part of modernity, it is obvious that where

theorists are really at home is still the West ─ i.e., Western

Europe and North America. Possibly Japan has by now been add-

ed, but on the whole theorists are still based in the North and

the West. The media has also implemented a world ─ view of ex-

clusion in which different cultures and societies are defined as

‘foreign.’ As pointed out by Volkmer (1999), “the world view gave

order to world communication and its effectiveness by employing

terms like ‘First World’ or ‘Third World’ in designating communi-

cation structures” (Volkmer 1999: 104). This world order origi-

nated from an imperialistic perspective of the world as a settled

and global hegemonic power based on the model of ‘core‐

periphery.’ This model has been criticized as ‘an abstract ex-

pression of an idealized imperial system’ (Canclini 1992: 40) that

does not recognize the complexity of cultural globalization as a

decentralized process, suggesting that the world cannot be under-

stood in the monolithic terms that the core‐periphery dualism

suggests.

prefer the term “fragrance” which connotes of a more positive concept for

smell.


The literature on media representation of race shows that

ethnic groups still tend to be represented in stereotypes.

Stereotyping constitutes a representational practice which, ‘reduce

people to a few, simple, essential characteristics’ that are deemed

to be unchanging (Hall 1997: 257). To claim that stereotypes of

ethnic groups are the norm in the media implies that complex

differences are ignored and are thereby defined as the others. For

example, Cottle (2000: 7‐8) argues in relation to race/ethnicity

and the media that “the collective findings of this research effort

generally make for depressing reading. Under‐representation and

stereotypical characterization within entertainment genres and

negative portrayal within factuality and news forms, and a ten-

dency to ignore structural inequalities and lived racism experi-

enced by ethnic minorities in both, are recurring research

findings.”

Hallyu and other cultural trends from Asia gained popularity

in the region since they represented something that is closer to

home without racial or ethnic stigmatizing of their race and eth-

nic groups often found in cultural products from the West. The

yearning to belong and to become a part of the mainstream

drives the popularity of Hallyu in Asia. There may be many dif-

ferent forms of suffering and exploitation in Hallyu dramas and

movies, but they are different from what we see in Hollywood

movies, which tend to parallel discrimination based on race and

ethnicities present in the US.

Featherstone (1995) and Turner (1994) propose that global-

ization is a stage for global differences pointing out fragmented

and de‐centered globalization of cultures, which suggests cultural

exchanges and complexities. Turner (1994) suggests that the dis-

cussion of the binary opposition of the West and the rest becomes

redundant in a global multicultural world (Turner 1994: 183). For

him “globalization brings about increasing diversification and

complexities of cultures by interposing a variety of traditions


within a given community” (Turner 1994: 184). Put differently,

globalization has increased a tendency for internationalism and

globality, which has replaced the ‘foreignness’ of events which

happen beyond the West.

Giddens (1990: 19) discusses the consequences of modernity

as follows: “In conditions of modernity, place becomes increasingly

phantasmagoric: that is to say locales are thoroughly penetrated

by and shaped in terms of social influences quite distant from

them.” Giddens (1990) argues that the separation of space and

time is critical since it is the prime condition for disembedding,

the “lifting out” of social relations from local contexts of inter-

action and their restructuring across indefinite spans of time‐

space.

Iwabuchi (2002) uses the term, “Asian modernity” to explain

the popularity of Asian popular culture in Japan since the 1990s.

The Japanese slowly changed their perception of the other parts

of Asia from “a culturally and racially similar, but always

“backward” Asia” to “modernizing Asian nations are nostalgically

seen to embody a social vigor and optimism for the future that

Japan allegedly is losing or has lost” (Iwabuchi 2002: 159). Thus,

the term Asian modernity refers to Japan’s perception of other

Asian nations’ economic development and catching‐up with Japan

in material as well as cultural terms.

However, we will use the term, Asian modernity to refer to a

form of Asian modernization and modernity that are different

from that of the West as the latter experienced industrialization

and modernization. Compressed industrialization in less than two

to three decades what the West experienced in a century; co‐ex-

istence of traditional values and institutions with modern/

Western values and institutions; relatively peaceful co‐existence of

different religions and value systems; and often in the face of en-

croaching global influences are some of the traits that make

Asian industrialization distinct (see Kim 1997).


Hallyu represents a case in which a culture from the non‐

West, non‐advanced industrialized nation has resonated with a

region marred with conflict and tension in its history. Cho‐Han

(2003) examined the Hallyu fever from the perspective of a differ-

ent kind of globalization than that of the West‐based

globalization. She argues that Hallyu should not be interpreted

as mere diffusion of culture from the superior to the inferior, but

that it should be viewed as part of a complex and dynamic ‘trans‐

culturalization’ phenomenon and process of ‘power‐rearrangement’

led by the flow of transnational capital, media and people (Cho‐

Han 2003).

Thus, Hallyu appears to be more than just resistance and re-

action to the core culture. In fact many Hallyu dramas embrace

the West, but in a way that is palatable to the other parts of the

world. For example, the Chinese took to their hearts the South

Korean dramas because they depicted an Asian version of mod-

ernity, one that they felt was more real, tangible, and something

that they too could attain (Hong 2001). Some have noted that the

reason why the Chinese embraced Hallyu is because Hallyu skill-

fully wrapped Asian culture with Western sophistication. The

Chinese are not excited about Hallyu just because of its ex-

cellence or cultural affinity, but because they have found a way

to advance into Western culture through the sophisticated urban

images represented in Hallyu. Thus, Hallyu is seen an interme-

diary between the East and the West, and a roadmap of how

China can join the ranks of “modern,” “cosmopolitan” new world

in the era of globalization.

Hallyu was born in China in 1997 when China’s CC TV sign-

ed an import contract for a South Korean drama, ‘What is Love?’

(Sarang i mogil rae). The show became an instant hit as soon as

it started broadcasting, enjoying ratings of 16.6 percent, which

was the highest viewing record among overseas dramas in

Chinese TV history (Korea International Trade Association 2004).


Several mega‐hit dramas followed, which resulted in the burgeon-

ing stardom of South Korean actors, and singers from the shows’

original soundtracks. The 1998 hit drama ‘Wish Upon a Star

(Byôl ŭn nae kasŭm eh)’ has made the leading actor, Ahn Jae

Wook, one of the top stars in China. Ahn, who is also a singer,

released his music albums and had huge concerts with other

South Korean singers who had also become popular in China. K‐

Pop concerts, which quickly followed the hit dramas, helped sus-

tain and boost the Hallyu boom throughout greater China.

The influx of South Korean cultural goods to greater China

intensified with the beginning of the new century. Even new

words were created to capture the relentless craze about South

Korea, including, ‘Korea‐loving People (哈韓族): the frantic people

who admire anything Korean,’ and ‘Korea Mania Group (韓迷)’

(Korea International Trade Association 2004).

The Hallyu fever and the 2002 Korea‐Japan World Cup

Games have contributed to huge increases in tourism from China.

Although Chinese tourists numbered only 32,761 in 1996 and

comprised 5.4% of total tourists who visited South Korea in 1996,

the figures rose to 137,816 and 6.8% by 1999, and reached

392,142 and 14.6% by 2006 (Korea Tourism Organization various

years [1995‐2006]). If you include those from Hong Kong and

Taiwan, the numbers are even more impressive, and by far make

up the sharpest rising tourist‐sending nations to South Korea

since the mid‐1990s.

The Chinese were also enjoying South Korea without travel-

ing, since South Korean restaurants were opening upon every

other block, South Korean dramas were dominating primetime

TV, and South Korean celebrities were appearing on downtown’s

gigantic billboards in major Chinese cities. South Korean culture

was rapidly blending into their everyday life. A focus group inter-

view conducted by the Korea Culture and Content Agency (2004)

found that a large number of Chinese people perceived Hallyu as


a stabilized element of the Chinese culture.13.

Hallyu’s acceptance in Asia is related to the troubled history

of Asia. Japanese Colonialism and Chinese invasions in Asia have

left strong historical memories in the region, which has led to the

embracing of Hallyu as a more palatable cultural hegemon in

Asia. Taiwan experienced Japanese Colonialism for about 50

years in the first half of the 20th century, and it has been ex-

posed to Japanese culture ever since. South Korea’s cultural ex-

ports to Taiwan presented an alternative to the pervasive

Japanese culture.

It is interesting to note that while the South Korean dramas

served as a main channel to introduce South Korean pop culture

in China and Hong Kong, it was the South Korean pop music, or

so‐called K‐Pop, that was on the front of Hallyu in Taiwan. The

South Korean dancing duo, ‘Clon’ sold out 450,000 copies of their

album in 1999, and a year later their hit song was used as the

campaign song for Chen Shui‐bian, the Presidential candidate at

the time (Korea International Trade Association 2004). K‐Pop was

very different from the Japanese culture that the Taiwanese had

been exposed to. South Korean culture did not come with the

same baggage as massive Japanese cultural invasion in the

1990s, which reminded them of the troubled history with Japan

even when earlier cultural flows from Japan tended to be

“odorless,” and “has been credited with a sense of being able to

‘Asianize’ Western culture into a form that is palatable and ap-

pealing from Singapore to Beijing” (Duerden 2004). Furthermore,

K‐Pop’s dynamic and modern style symbolized (or was perceived

to symbolize) the ‘new and improved South Korea’ and, it led to

many more K‐Pop artists being invited to Taiwan. The success

led to other genres of popular culture including South Korean

13. The target group of this focus group interview was 48 Beijing citizens from

the age of 14 to 34.


dramas.

However, the success of Hallyu in Asia has also brought

backlashes. The Chinese government recently endorsed re-

strictions on foreign broadcasting programs during primetime TV

slots, and established an annual import quota for foreign films

(Korea International Trade Association 2004). In Taiwan, the en-

tertainers’ labor union submitted a petition to the Taiwanese gov-

ernment calling for governmental action against Hallyu. The per-

centage of televised South Korean dramas on Taiwanese cable TV

stations, Weilai and Bada, were 59 percent and 42 percent, re-

spectively, while Taiwanese dramas recorded 7 percent and 5 per-

cent, respectively (Yonhap News December 1, 2004). However, the

total on‐air time of South Korean TV dramas in Taiwan has de-

creased from 903 hours in 2002 to 356 hours in 2004 after the

petition (iM News January 11, 2005). It is too early to conclude

that the Hallyu in greater China has subsided, yet it should be

noted that governmental control over South Korean cultural im-

ports will most likely intensify in the future.

In the midst of backlashes against Hallyu in greater China, a

new wave of Hallyu arrived in the form of another TV drama,

‘Jewel in the Palace (Tae jang gŭm),’ which is based on a real

story of a historical figure (Jang‐gŭm), who was a royal cook and

then rose to become the first and only woman to serve as the

head physician to the King in the rigidly hierarchical and male‐

dominated social structure of the Joseon Dynasty. The drama

caught the attention of South Korean TV viewers with the combi-

nation of two powerful stories: the successful rise of a female,

which is rarely covered in historical dramas, and the story of tra-

ditional food and medicine, which gained popularity with the

South Koreans’ “well‐being” movement.14. Unlike the earlier

14. South Koreans embraced the health craze, which had recently swept

through the US and other Western European countries, with emphases


Hallyu dramas, this drama was set in a historical period. Yet it

appealed to Asians and in particular, to the Chinese showing

them an “exotic” history of Asia with the portrayal of intricate

plots, historical imagination, and well‐developed characters.

From May to July 2004, Tae jang gŭm aired in Taiwan and

quickly became the most watched program of the season, doing

much better than the Taiwanese dramas (Korea Tourism

Organization 2006). Although there were signs of Hallyu‐fatigue

among the Taiwanese, Tae jang gŭm appears to have changed the

tide. When it aired on Hong Kong TV from January to May 2005,

according to The Korea Times report on October 27, 2005, its final

episode was recorded as the most‐watched TV show in Hong

Kong’s history with more than 40% of Hong Kong viewers glued

to the TV set. Jewel in the Palace also aired in the US with 60

episodes on WOCH‐Channel in Chicago in Spring 2004, and in

Japan’s NHK satellite TV in October 2004.

Jewel in the Palace has also attracted tourists to South

Korea. Tourists from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan have in-

creased since the drama aired in their countries, and the drama’s

fans flock to the filming locations in Jeju Island, the Korean Folk

Village, Suwon Hwaseong Haenggung Palace, and Changdeokgung

Palace.

Although the Vietnamese were initially drawn to Hallyu be-

cause of curiosity for the “exotic” and “modern” sophisticated im-

ages, they soon recognized the similarity between their culture

and the South Korean culture. A strong sense of morality and

family‐centered values in South Korean dramas helped South

Korea to shed the negative image of ‘Taihan’ earned during the

on the well‐being of humans and environment. Interest in organic produce,

environmentally‐friendly eco‐system, healthy eating, alternative medicine,

aerobic exercise, and etc. has grown in recent years. Thus, naturally, there

was growing interest in Korea’s traditional cuisine and medicine, which

were in line with the well‐being movement.


Viet Nam War.

The driving force of the Hallyu in Viet Nam as well as other

Southeast Asian countries and even Muslim countries such as

Malaysia and Indonesia has been the TV dramas. The drama

‘Brother Doctors (Ŭiga hyôngje)’ was introduced nationwide in Viet

Nam in 1999 with great success, and turned the main actor Jang

Dong Gun as the most popular actor in the country (Hyundai

Research Institute 2004). Kim Nam Ju, the actress from another

hit TV drama ‘Model,’ became a fashion icon in Viet Nam. And

LG Debon, a South Korean cosmetic company, became the market

leader after it quickly cast Kim in its TV advertisements

(Hyundai Research Institute 2004).

South Korea’s rapid industrialization spearheading the re-

gion’s economic growth along with Japan; rapid increase in intra‐

regional trade, and in particular South Korea’s exports of in-

formation technology products such as digital TVs and cell

phones have all contributed to the success of Hallyu in Asia. This

Asian version of modernity was embraced in the region as a more

palatable alternative to the West and to the troubled powers in

the region. Thus, the success of Hallyu in Asia should be under-

stood within a broader context of global and regional political and

economic dynamics.

Ⅴ. Hanp’uri (Dissolution of “Han (한, 恨)”

While Hallyu inundated Asia and hit the shores of far‐away

lands such as Mexico,15. Egypt, Israel and most recently the US,

15. In 2002, Mexico’s public broadcasting company Mexiquense aired two South

Korean TV dramas resulting in a small South Korean cultural boom. The

department of Korean Language Studies was established in the top national

university Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mxico in February 2004

is a result of such interest in South Korean culture (Korea International


the South Koreans were having a euphoric moment of their own.

As the reports of overseas success of Hallyu reached South Korea,

the South Koreans attached meanings beyond a cultural pheno‐

menon.

Hallyu led to the dissolution of the long‐held Han after cen-

turies of being invaded by surrounding super powers, colonialism,

and war. Han can be translated as “bitterness and anger, un-

fulfilled wish, unrequited resentments, or long accumulated sor-

row and regret over one’s misfortune” (Shin 2003). “Hanp’uri”

means releasing Han, and in the Korean context, the ways of re-

leasing Han can include dance, music in Shamanist rituals, and

direct revengeful acts. The collective forms of Hanp’uri can be

presented in labor movements, anti‐government protests, and

even in the zeal for economic development (Shin 2003). Suddenly

centuries‐old “Han” was lifted as South Koreans were ridding

themselves of the deep‐held resentment and forced sense of in-

feriority vis‐à‐vis its neighboring super powers of China and

Japan.

Historically the Chinese empire had invaded the Korean pen-

insula numerous times, and Korea was subjugated as its subject.

Many important schools of thought, culture and religions origi-

nated from, or passed through, China to Korea. The historical re-

lationship between China and Korea were that of the core and

periphery. Thus, China’s embrace of Hallyu gave a sense of supe-

riority at last to South Koreans ‐‐ Koreans were giving culture to

China and not vice versa.

Japan’s influence on Korea includes historical invasions as

well as the 20th century colonialism (1910‐45) and economic dom-

ination in the post‐WWII era. The harshness of the colonial leg-

acy, which extended much beyond politics and economy to the

arena of culture and education, had left an indelible mark on the

Trade Association 2004).


Korean ethos. Thus, when the Japanese were showing their ut-

most adoration and respect to Yon‐sama, it was felt as if the

Japanese were finally accepting the fact that South Korea was a

superior culture, as it was historically Korea that gave Japan its

royalty, and passed on Buddhism, ceramics, and so on from

China often with a distinct Korean rendering as in the case of

ceramics. Hallyu cut the Gordian knot16. of the historical tragedy

and colonial legacy, putting South Korea on par with Japan.

Iwabuchi (2002) found that there was a common discourse in

Japan that laments the fact that Japan did not have cultural

power, which conferred upon Japan a curious “quasi‐Third World”

status, even with its economic prowess (Iwabuchi 2002: 2). This

lamentation of the paradox between the levels of economic versus

cultural influence and recognition in the world runs parallel to

the idea that economic success is not enough to quell the yearn-

ing to attain global success and recognition found in South Korea.

The fact that this lamentation of the paradox was also found in

Japan, which had long been historically ruled by the Samurai

(the warriors), implies that for South Koreans this would be an

even stronger desire due to the greater value it placed upon the

literati and culture. Thus, Hallyu was the Hanp’uri, which was

elusive even after South Korea’s remarkable economic success.

Now South Korea was at the helm not only for its material prod-

ucts, but for its culture and ideas.

Popular dramas such as Winter Sonata and Jewel in the

Palace were aired again in South Korea when the news about

their overseas success was reported.17. While the public was en-

16. “A knot tied by Gordius, a legendary king of Phrygia that, according to

a prophecy, was to be undone only by the person who would rule Asia:

Alexander the Great, not able to untie the knot, is said to have cut it with

his sword” (Random House, 1996).

17. Winter Sonata was shown again in South Korean TV after the drama, and

its two stars ‐‐ Bae Yong‐jun and Choi Jee Woo‐‐ gained enormous popularity


joying the news and watching reruns, the research centers were

busy calculating the economic gains and conducting research

about ways to sustain the Hallyu boom. Numerous research proj-

ects on Hallyu were conducted by government‐funded research in-

stitutions as well as private research centers.18.

And numerous projects were created to help sustain the mo-

mentum of Hallyu boom. The local government of the Gyeonggi

province announced the plan to build a 2‐trillion Won entertain-

ment hub, to be known as “HallyuWood,” in Ilsan, a satellite city

northwest of Seoul by 2008. In March 2005, South Korean au-

in Japan. Jewel in the Palace also was shown again after its success in

Japan was reported in October 2005.

18. Public sector research included the following: (1) Ministry of Culture and

Tourism (February 1, 2005). “Hallyu jisok hwaksan bangan (Policy Recom‐

mendations for the Sustainability and Dissemination of Hallyu)”; (2) Korea

Chamber of Commerce and Industry (February 2005). “Hallyu yŏlpung ŭi

silch’e wa kiŏp ŭi jŏnryak jŏk hwalyong bangbŏp (The Facts of Hallyu and

the Corporate Strategies to Make the Best Use of It)”; (3) Korea Chamber

of Commerce and Industry (February 2006) “Kyŏngje jŏk gwanjŏm ehsŏ bon

Hallyu ŭi hŏ wa sil (Strength and Weakness of Hallyu from an Economic

Point of View)”; (4) Korea International Trade Association (April 28 2005).

“Hallyu ui kyeongjejeok hyogwa bunseok (Economic Analysis of the Hallyu

Effects)”; (5) Korea International Trade Association (September 16, 2005).

“Choegŭn Hallyu hyŏn hwang kwa hwalyong jŏnryak (The Current Status of

Hallyu and Strategies for Application)”; and (6) Korea International Trade

Association (October 14, 2005). “Hallyu marketing hwalsŏnghwa rŭl wihan

7dae jeonryak (Seven Strategies to Vitalize Hallyu Marketing).” Private

sector research included the following: (1) Samsung Economic Research

Institute (November 2005). “Hallyu jisokhwa rŭl wihan bangan (Policy

Recommendations for the Sustainability of Hallyu)”; (2) Samsung Economic

Research Institute (June 2005). “Hallyu jisok kwa kiŏpwi hwalyong bangan

(Policy Recommendations for the Sustainability of Hallyu and Corporate

Strategy)”; and (3) Hyundai Research Institute (December 22, 2004).

“Hallyu hyŏnsang kwa munhwa saŏphwa jŏnryak (Analysis of the Hallyu

Phenomenon and Strategies for Developing it as a Culture Industry).”


thorities announced support for the broadcast of 20 locally ac-

claimed TV programs and films in five Asian nations, including

Viet Nam to Indonesia, to provide further momentum for Hallyu.

The website for ‘Hallyu’ information was opened by the Korea

National Tourism Organization (KNTO) ‐‐www.hellohallyu.com‐‐ in

order to provide foreigners access to the profiles of 68 top celebri-

ties and information on South Korean television dramas and

movies in Chinese, Japanese and English.

Hallyu has come full‐circle. Hallyu hit’s re‐consumption in

South Korea is an important element feeding the Hallyu in Asia

and the world. Hallyu has become a strategic industry for South

Korea with a hope that this will not only lead the cultural global-

ization from South Korea, but will also lead South Korea’s future

economic development efforts.

Ⅵ. Concluding Remarks

Hallyu’s popularity in Asia and elsewhere in the world as

well as in South Korea has been quite remarkable. Cultural and

geographical proximity, South Korea’s rapid economic develop-

ment and its booming IT industry and the forces of globalization

are not enough to explain this newest addition to world cultures.

In this paper, we utilized various perspectives on the global-

ization of culture to understand Hallyu (Appadurai 1996; Cho‐

Han 2003; Cottle 2000; Giddens 1990; Hannerz 1996; Iwabuchi

2002; Jenkins 2004; Volkmer 1999; Wallerstein 1991). Hallyu rep-

resents a culture from outside of the core that has gained popu-

larity because it offered a cultural alternative in a region led by

two super powers with tainted historical memories. More in line

with what Appadurai (1996) called “a new global cultural econo-

my,” rather than Wallterstein’s (1991) “differentiation of culture,”

we argue that Hallyu is more a hybrid culture that contains ele-

ments of both the Western and Asian cultures. Hallyu is neither


a rejection nor reaction to the US‐ and Western‐Europe‐oriented

culture, and it represents a new hybrid culture that has captured

the influences of both the West and the East. Thus, it is not sur-

prising that “Rain” has in it elements of Asian and Korean mar-

tial arts combined with Michael Jackson’s moonwalk. This ap-

pears to the winning formula for some of the Hallyu hits ─ i.e.,

a skillful mixing of the East and the West, and in the end brew-

ing something quite distinct.

Compared to other nations that have experienced in-

dustrialization and economic development in the 19th and early

20th centuries, the façade of Asian modernity included the most

sophisticated and modern architecture, infrastructure, electronic

products, but at the same time adhered to the elements of its tra-

ditional society. Japan and the East Asian NICs’ rapid economic

development in the second half of the 20th century showed this

duality ─ this is in part due to the “compressed” nature of its de-

velopment and in part due to the hybrid nature of the society

and culture. The former refers to the rapid speed of development,

which made it difficult for people to shed their traditional values

and mores in the time their economies shed the signs of

tradition. The latter refers to the way in which different cultures

and religions have been fused together in many Asian nations.

Rather than experiencing “conflict” and “tension” among different

religions and value systems, many Asians have found a way to

embrace different religions in their cultures. Hallyu is another

case that exemplified the Asian culture and the Asian version of

modernity.

Finally, Hallyu was as much a domestic South Korean phe-

nomenon as it was a regional cultural trend. Appreciating the

overseas success of South Korean popular culture as a true sign

of its regional hegemony, the South Korean society ─ i.e., the

government, businesses, and the people ─ reproduced the Hallyu

boom in South Korea. Hanp’uri was introduced to help explain


this boomerang boom of Hallyu in South Korea. Hallyu was the

symbolic hegemony that South Koreans yearned for after cen-

turies of invasions it withstood from its neighboring super pow-

ers, rendering it always a receiver and powerless. Hallyu gave

the nation its pride and confidence that it lost. Public and private

initiatives to bolster Hallyu in South Korea have been as im-

portant as the Hallyu boom outside of South Korea in fueling the

Hallyu success.

Whether Hallyu can become another world culture with a

sustained following in the world will depend on its ability to de-

velop its culture with distinct traits that captures the imagi-

nation of the world. Whether Hallyu can help South Korea up-

grade its industrial structure and its national pride will also de-

pend on how well Hallyu can continue to mesmerize the people of

the world and not just Asia.

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kssj vol.34.no.1(eun mee kim&jiwon ryoo))

Documents

south korean culture

hallyu korean wave

globalization of culture

success of hallyu

hybrid culture

cultural legacy

cultural proximity

tidal wave