The Korean Wave as a Synthesis of Global and Local, Research Paper Example

The rise of the so-called ‘Korean Wave’ of popular culture represents both a permutation of, and an alternative to, American-dominated global popular culture. Fundamentally, this hallyu or hanryu is an example of the phenomenon of globalization, one that joins Japanese popular culture and Bollywood films as an example of highly influential non-Western popular culture (Shim 25-26). The Korean Wave represents a synthesis between the forces of globalization as dominated by Western popular culture, and Korea’s own national culture. Korean movies, television shows, and popular music have succeeded in South Korea and throughout East and Southeast Asia because of the way in which they synthesize a globalization that better reflects a sense of Asian-ness.

As Shim explains, globalization may be conceptualized in three main ways. The first is globalization as cultural imperialism, which portrays globalization as a primarily American project that takes the form of hegemony over other national/cultural identities (26). The problem with this approach is that it is fundamentally simplistic, both in its view of what constitutes national/cultural identity, and in how it views cultural interactions across national and cultural lines (26). As K-Pop and the whole Korean Wave demonstrate, it is simply no longer the case that the flow of mass-produced popular culture is unidirectional, emanating from the West to the rest, as it were (26).

The second way in which one can view globalization is as an outcome of modernity (Shim 26). This, however, conflates modernity with capitalism, which is arguably quite a simplistic view as well. One ramification of this view, in particular, is the portrayal of global capitalism as simply inevitable. The third approach is the approach of discourses of identity and power relations. This discourse argues that globalization encourages a paradoxical engagement on the part of peoples occupying a peripheral position in the global order with the very identities that it threatens to erode (26-27). There are two main ways in which non-Western groups may seek, and have sought, to do this: firstly, with culturally revanchist efforts to ‘purify’ their societies from Western influences, and secondly, with hybridity, blending Western modern influences and local ones (27). The first route is the route taken by the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hindu nationalists in India. The second is embodied in the Korean Wave (27).

As Hogarth explains, there is a very real sense in which the Korean Wave can be understood as an Asian, and specifically Korean, reaction to the Western dominance of popular global culture. Korean television dramas led the way for the Korean Wave (hallyu) in the mid-1990s, although they were following in the trail already blazed by Japanese films and television shows (illyu) (137). The Korean television shows achieved runaway success both in South Korea and in China. Hogarth cites a number of factors behind their success: their high quality, outstanding cinematography, excellent casting of attractive actors and actresses, and their Asian-ness (137). They featured all-Asian casts, and the stories clearly embodied Asian values, including moral values about sex, as well as a fundamentally Asian negotiation of tradition and modernity. In essence, Hogarth argues, the Korean television dramas were successful in South Korea and China because in addition to being extremely well-done as shows, they were Asian, offering Korean and Chinese audiences entertainment that connected with them more fully and authentically than Western movies and shows, with their foreign values and paucity of Asian characters (137-139).

The rise of the Korean Wave has been precipitous. Until about the mid-1990s, the landscape of Korean popular culture was overwhelmingly dominated by foreign influences, namely Japanese and American popular culture. But within a relative handful of years in the mid-to-late 1990s, Korean popular culture largely displaced foreign influences, and began making inroads into both the United States and Japan (Joo 489-491). This has been true of both K-pop and Korean films and television shows. In 1997, total Korean film export sales stood at only $472,000. In 2001, they reached $11 million, and in 2004, $58 million. Both Hollywood and independent distributors have picked up Korean films for limited releases and remakes (491-492). Korean television dramas have done even better, especially in Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China, and Japan. In Japan, the Korean TV drama Winter Sonata was the first Korean drama to achieve blockbuster success. Its romantic focus on true love overcoming obstacles helped it to gain immense popularity from middle-aged Japanese women. As Joo explains, while Chinese audiences love Korean dramas because they represent a style of more modern and comfortable living, Winter Sonata succeeded with middle-aged Japanese women by playing on their nostalgia (492-493). The two countries are similar enough that Winter Sonata spoke to many women’s understanding of how they believe Japan used to be like (493).

The success of Korean films and television shows demonstrates a distinct approach to globalization. They have succeeded both because of their modern qualities, such as high quality filming and cinematography, and because of their Asian-ness. A similar phenomenon is observable in K-pop. Korean popular music, or K-Pop, is another major aspect of the Korean Wave. K-Pop appears to be more Westernized, although some of its borrowings from Western popular culture are African-American and Afro-Caribbean in origin (Hogarth 143-144). Indeed, K-pop star BoA has explicitly acknowledged her debt to, and love for, Michael Jackson (Jung 111-112). As Jung explains, BoA is a prime example of cultural hybridity or hybridization: her management company, SM Entertainment, promoted her as a cultural mixture. BoA learned Japanese, Chinese, and English in the service of boosting her popularity with fans in the main foreign markets for K-pop, which is growing in popularity in China, Japan, and even the United States (111). Both her music and her image draw on Japanese pop elements as well as American, especially African-American, ones. Her choreography draws on Michael Jackson and his sister, Janet Jackson, and she uses hip-hop visual styles. Additionally, her look borrows from visual stylings of Japanese pop stars, like Amuro Namie and Hamasaki Ayumi (111-113).

The use of English in K-pop also reflects the simultaneously global and national/regional aspects of the Korean Wave. On the one hand, use of English enables K-pop to have a wider audience. On the other hand, the use of English is often quite selective: in fact, it is frequently used as some form of code-switching, often to express sensuality or identity conflicts. Sometimes English words are used, sometimes whole phrases. The form of English varies, too: English may be Koreanized, colloquial America, or African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) (Lee 434-438). This is a prime example of cultural hybridization: Korean pop stars are borrowing forms from the West, especially from African-American culture, and repackaging and repurposing them. K-pop is simultaneously an integral part and product of globalization, and representative of something more particular: an Asian, and specifically Korean, phenomenon. As such, it provides the basis of an imagined regional community, one which is especially accessible in East Asia (Ryoo 142-144).

Aspects of this phenomenon can be seen both in Taiwan and in Thailand. In Taiwan, Korean popular culture rapidly outcompeted Japanese popular culture from about 1999 on, with television dramas and dance music the leading Korean cultural imports (Sung 30-32). Sung identifies the primary factor behind the popularity of Korean popular culture in Taiwan as ‘confidence’: they see South Koreans as confidently modern, something that comes through in their pop singers in particular (33). Taiwanese are also fascinated by South Koreans’ nationalism, something they admire because they believe that they themselves are lacking this regard (33-34). Like Taiwan, Thailand has also shifted from an emphasis on Japanese popular culture to South Korean popular culture. Key factors behind this seem to be a sense that South Korean popular culture is “hip” and “trendy”, and a shared sense of Asian-ness. As Siriyuvasak and Hyunjoon explain, Thai-Korean cultural relations are “essentially transmetropolitan in the Northeast and Southeast Asian region” (111-112). Thailand’s music scene was pluralistic and diverse, with rural versus urban scenes, as well as a mixture of Western, Japanese, and Taiwanese pop, when K-pop entered the market. The success of K-pop has a great deal to do with successful marketing: it appeals to urban middle-class youth because of its image, which is that of an Asian pop music scene (114-120).

The success of the Korean Wave rests on a synthesis between Western, and Western-influenced Japanese, popular culture on the one hand, and Korean culture on the other. Of course, this does not adequately describe the phenomenon, because in becoming globalized the Korean Wave has fundamentally changed Korean popular culture: it is simultaneously Korean, an Asianized popular culture, and a fundamental part of globalization. What the Korean Wave reveals is the complexity of globalization: the ways in which globalization provokes encounters between not only tradition and modernity, but between the national and the international. The Korean Wave has succeeded in part because of the way in which it repackages Asian-ness, while drawing on the West. In this, it is quintessentially representative of the phenomena produced by, and concomitant with, the multifaceted processes of globalization.

Works Cited

Hogarth, Hyun-key Kim. “The Korean Wave: An Asian Reaction to Western-Dominated Globalization.” Perspectives on Global Development & Technology, 12.1 (2013): 135-151. EBSCOhost. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.

Joo, Jeongsuk. “Transnationalization of Korean Popular Culture and the Rise of ‘Pop Nationalism’ in Korea.” Journal of Popular Culture, 44.3 (2011): 489-504. EBSCOhost. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.

Jung, Sun. 2013, “K-Pop beyond Asia: Performing Trans-Nationality, Trans-Sexuality, and Trans-Textuality.”Asian Popular Culture in Transition, London and New York, ed. Lorna Fitzsimmons and John A. Lent. Routledge, 2013. 108-130. Print.

Lee, Jamie S. “Linguistic hybridization in K-Pop: Discourse of self-assertion and resistance.” World Englishes, 23.3 (2004): 429-450. EBSCOhost. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.

Ryoo, Woongjae. “Globalization, or the logic of cultural hybridization: The case of the Korean Wave.” Asian Journal of Communication, 19.2 (2009): 137-151. EBSCOhost. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.

Shim, Doobo. “Hybridity and the Rise of Korean Popular Culture in Asia.” Media, Culture & Society, 28.1 (2006): 25-44. Print.

Siriyuvasak, Ubonrat, and Shin Hyunjoon. “Asianizing K-pop: Production, consumption and identification patterns among Thai youth.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 8.1 (2007): 109-136. EBSCOhost. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.

Sung, Sang-Yeon. “Constructing a New Image: Hallyu in Taiwan.” European Journal of East Asian Studies, 9.1 (2010): 25-45. EBSCOhost. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.