Week 5: Leslie Do

Leslie Do
ASA 189F, Dr. Valverde
13th February 2016

South Korean Popular Culture as Cultural Policy 

"FUTURE HUMAN" - Wearable Technology [2014 Documentary]

After fighting North Korea in the Korean War, South Korea used Korean popular culture and cultural policies to set South Korea’s cultural identity apart from Japan and the United States in global markets (Yim, 2002, 38.) To develop its national aesthetic of South Korean popular culture, South Korea’s film industries and government worked together to adopt Hollywood-style films and fill them with Korean actors; this strategic move protects South Korea's economy by influencing Korean consumers to prioritize the consumption of Korean popular culture over the consumption of American Hollywood films (Joo, 2011, 490.) For instance, the South Korean film industry and South Korean government borrowed the concept of Hollywood to create Hallyu-wood, which projects the Korean wave of popular culture onto international markets (Joo, 2011, 498.) Therefore, by applying South Korea’s model of developing its national aesthetics to Japan’s current evolution of its national image of creative high-tech culture, what cultural policies and economic strategies can Japan implement to market its national image of robotized modernity and practical, innovative artificial intelligence? How can Japan rectify its national identity of “future, robotized humans” through implementing AI technology in businesses, homes, industries, and landscapes of its cities -- such as building restaurants and hotels operated and staffed by robots? 

Bibliography 

Joo, Jeongsuk. "Transnationalization of Korean Popular Culture and the Rise of “Pop Nationalism” in Korea." The Journal of Popular Culture 44.3 (2011): 489-504. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.

Yim, Haksoon. "Cultural Identity and Cultural Policy in South Korea."International Journal of Cultural Policy 8.1 (2002): 37-48. Web.