Bin Xiao Week1&2

                                                      Korean popular culture

For an extended period, Korea has never relished regional and international acclaim for its popular culture. Nevertheless, there has been an aura of fear imposed by cultural globalization and Korea continue to feel threatened by Japanese and American culture. However, in the recent past, the popular culture in the nation has started to receive transnational recognition, and at the same time establishing a point of national pride (Lee, 2012). Despite the impact of foreign cultures and reception of globalization in Korea, the nation has magnificently reinvented itself in the recent past, and its culture has started to spread across Asia. The Korean culture is slowly re-establishing itself, and it has been termed as the coolest brand in the world.

In the early 1990s, the Korean popular culture was shunned by its people at the domestic level, and it was never heard of in the international arena.  The Korean film industry stagnated since Hollywood films had taken over in the country. However, in the late 1990s, the situation reversed, and the popularity of the Korean pop culture started to increase. For instance, about 60% of the domestic music market in Korea was dominated by the local Korean pop music (Lee, 1999). Also, the Korean films with local themes penetrated in the market as the market share skyrocketed from 25-39.7% (Joo, 2011). Surprisingly, Korea became a nation with a vibrant film industry as it dominated the position of the Hollywood motion pictures in the local market. 

                There was a time when South Korea was poor and war-torn, but it succeeded in re-establishing itself by enhancing the export of its popular culture particularly TV shows and music.  The nation took time to build the Korean culture which is said to have an influence in most regions in the world. The nation reaped from its effort to promote the popular culture and transform into an economic and cultural powerhouse. The country continues to create the demand for their popular culture to ensure a constant supply that will ensure that their influence is felt across borders (Kaneva, 2011). Korea has become the leading exporter of the popular culture across the universe.  For instance, the Girl’s generation (visual below) is a well-recognized nine-member South Korea girl group that was molded in 2007, and has went ahead to sell more than 100,000 copies of each of their songs (Jin, 2012).

In my opinion, Korea can proceed further and achieve maximum national aesthetics culture. For example, the government can partner with its citizens to conduct food festivals that will promote Korean food to locals and foreigners (Jang & Paik, 2012). Nevertheless, Korea can launch a travel fair that will appeal to the public and encourage them to tour the nation to witness and enjoy the exciting culture and splendid natural landscapes.

References

Jang, G., & Paik, W. K. (2012). Korean Wave as tool for Korea’s new cultural diplomacy. Advances in Applied Sociology, 2(03), 196.

Jin, D. Y. (2012). Hallyu 2.0: The New Korean Wave in the Creative Industry. Retrieved from https://quod.lib.umich.edu/i/iij/11645653.0002.102/--hallyu-20-the-new-korean-wave-in-the-creative-industry?rgn=main;view=fulltext

Joo, J. (2011). Transnationalization of Korean popular culture and the rise of “Pop Nationalism” in Korea. The journal of popular culture, 44(3), 489-504.

Kaneva, N. (2011). Nation branding: Toward an agenda for critical research. International journal of communication, 5, 25.

Lee, J. S. (2002). The Korean language in America: The role of cultural identity in heritage language learning. Language culture and curriculum, 15(2), 117-133.

Lee, Z. N. (1999). Korean culture and sense of shame. Transcultural psychiatry, 36(2), 181-194.