When is comes to countries and the subject of rebranding, Korea is what some may call "a cinderella story". In present day it is the 15th largest economy and continues to produce a culture that has impacted the rest of the world in a dramatic way (Hong, 3). However, what most of the world forgets is that just over five decades ago, Korea was not "cool".
In my previous post, I raised the question of whether or not the consequences of rebranding is worth the economic growth or desire to enter the market as a "top" country. When it comes to Korea, I would argue that their benefits outweighed the cons. Of course, it is important to keep in mind that there were consequences, its almost impossible to reinvent a country without some criticism and judgement. For example, Korea had faced backlash from the Chinese and Vietnamese who "are now critical of the Korean Wave as cultural imperialism (Joo, 497). The reason in which they have specifically received this criticism as opposed to other countries is because while "other countries have gone from rags to riches in the last century, but among these, only South Korea has the cheek to set its sights on becoming the world's top exporter of popular culture" (Hong, 2). I believe that Korea's aim to make impact via culture, specifically entertainment, as opposed to something concrete as food makes them a bigger threat as they are able to impact the rest of the world in a more lasting and bold way. It is easy to forget which country you got this apple from but impossible to remember that you are listen to K-pop from KOREA.
A lot of the positives that comes from Korea's rebranding seems to have resulted from Korea's ability to twist the consequences into benefits. Instead of resulting to "critical reexamination of globalization, nationalistic fear of foreign cultural invasion is largely replaced by equally nationalistic pride in the transitional advance of Korean popular culture, or pop nationalism (Joo, 496). by the people learning to embrace this change and view it as an opportunity to restart the country after the devastation of the war, Korea say benefits that came for their own people, not just economically. For example, after the division in 1945, Korea was homogeneous for the most part. However, they were able to grow in heterogeneity and differences in terms of not just race, but also language, culture and arts (Yim, 39). This is only one of the many countless examples of the positive change that occurred in the journey to Korea's rebranding and it is a perfect example to reflect the idea that a country cannot be able to successfully rebrand itself without the cooperation of its people.
Works Cited
Eung Hong. “The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation Is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture.”
Haksoon Yim. “Cultural Identity and Cultural Policy in South Korea.”
Jeongsuk Joo. “Transnationalization of Korean Popular Culture and the Rise of ‘‘Pop Nationalism in Korea”.
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