Korean pop culture is on a meteoric rise. It's hard to have missed that from "Parasite" being the first foreign language film ever to win a Best Picture Oscar. We're again becoming the most watched show on Netflix.
"Squid Game" is now on track to become the most watched Netflix show of all time. This was, I think it's fair to say something that was surprise smash hit. It costs less than 30 million Australian dollars to make, and they're expected to reach around $1.2 billion.
And K-pop group BTS becoming the biggest boy band in the world. They had the first K-pop song in history to debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. None of this is a coincidence. It's by design. It's deliberate. It's Hallyu which literally means wave of Korea, Hallyu is the term used to define the ongoing exploitation and globalization of Korean entertainment and culture, and it is a finely tuned strategy orchestrated by the Korean Government. This is why.
Korean society has been heavily molded by conflict, dictatorships and poverty. The Korean War from 1950 to 1953 left Korea divided into North and South. Now what happened to North Korea will be for another video, so let's just focus down South. In order to try and rebuild South Korea, dictator Park Chung-Hee put all his focus into industrialization that left the entertainment industries ignored and censored heavily by the regime. It was only after his assassination in 1979 that Korea started to refocus on cultural exports. But things are moving pretty slowly until the dinosaurs came along.
Jurassic Park was the biggest movie in the world in 1993. It broke all the records and made nearly $1 billion in that year alone. The South Korean government took note and then took action. Key advisers to the president suggested that the government make a bigger investment in media production. They said that the Hollywood blockbuster made as much money as the sale of 1.5 million Hyundai cars, one of South Korea's biggest exports that fired up the South Korean government to refocus their energy and financial mind towards the entertainment industry and they did not mock around.
The Korean Ministry of Culture was immediately restructured, and they enacted a law to encourage massive Korean businesses like Samsung to invest in the local film industry. It was all going smoothly until in 1997, the Asian financial crisis struck South Korea. The country racked up serious debt after borrowing billions from the International Monetary Fund. The president at the time, Kim Dae Jung, spoke at his inaugural address about how he planned to overcome the crisis by doubling down on culture, he said: "We must pour our energy into globalizing Korean culture, tourism, the convention industry, the visual industry and special cultural commodities are a treasure trove for which a limitless market is awaiting". And he wasn't wrong.
The intense rebuilding efforts saw K-pop, K-dramas, and Korean film taking off all over the globe, but it wasn't just pop culture for the masses. A hallmark for almost all releases is addressing social issues; a standout example is the economic inequality South Korea was desperately trying to fix. These messages resonated around the globe, and in 2019, South Korea's entertainment industry was worth an estimated 10.3 billion U.S. dollars.
Today, Hallyu is one of South Korea's main exports and Netflix has just invested over $1 billion in creating original Korean content. But it's not just about making money. Products such as KPOP are a source of careers soft power, which basically means the ability to wield global influence simply through appeal and attraction. Dr. Jindal Young is the go-to expert on the Korean wave and says that this soft power is actively being wielded by the Korean government. For example, with BTS performing at the United Nations. Doctor Jin said that BTS is a symbol of the Korean pop culture and the government, be it liberal or conservative, is keen to seize on the global popularity of the Korean wave to build national image and identity. BTS alone has the power to influence their millions of fans, known as the Army across the Globe. Pre-pandemic, BTS was the reason one in 13 tourists were visiting South Korea.
"What triggered your interest in Korean culture and language?
It was K pop for me actually."
That is wild when you think about it: a boy band slash tourism driver, and Hallyu is only continuing to grow South Korea's gaming industry is a billion-dollar behemoth. K-Beauty is expanding its reach beyond the Asian markets, even watching people eat food or mukbang, as it's known, has become a worldwide phenomenon. Let's just hope that the next tourism boost doesn't come from a real-life version of "Squid Game".
Source:
7NEWS Australia. (2022, February 25). Hallyu Explained | The reason Korean culture is taking over the world | This Is Why [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmkULRHGa40