‘Korean Wave’ – The Pop Culture Comes As Cultural and Economic Imperialism in Asia

2PM

Some of you might argue that you can’t stand watching the ‘beautiful’ 2PM sings and dances on the stage and refuse to save ‘My Girlfriend is Gumiho’ or “I’m sorry I love you’ in your laptops because they are irrational and manipulating, however, you cannot avoid that you are actually already infected by ‘Korean’ fever as you cannot deny that you enjoy the horse-riding dance, called ‘Gangnam Style’. Gangnam Style hit YouTube chart to be number one the most visited video since it was officially released on July 15, 2012 (the number of viewers were 1,164,892,360 per January 12, 2013). Psy and his ‘Gangnam Style’ is only the tip of the iceberg of the powerful ‘Korean Wave’. The term “Korean Wave” was coined in 1999 by a Chinese journalist commenting on the recent influx of Korean music and movies into his country, but it wasn’t until 2003 that Korean dramas, the early driving force behind the Korean Wave, fully exploded onto the international market. Korean Wave or Hallyu is not simply seen as a natural phenomenon but it becomes cultural and economic imperialism in South East Asia, Including Indonesia.

Youth generation listen to Korean pop music, watch Korean movies, Korean television dramas, and be the fans of Korean stars. It brings Asian youngsters towards a shift of definition on popular or pop culture. Popular is defined by Oxford Dictionary as being suited to the taste and knowledge of ordinary people. When we refer to this definition, popular culture is further defined as the beliefs, way of life, art, and customs that are shared and accepted by ordinary people. Further, Karl Marx viewed the production of popular culture as the commodities of a capitalist market. Marx critically suggests that the main concept of the producer is to make profit. Then, we may further conclude that the quality of the cultural products will be the second consideration. In short, popular culture can be defined as the beliefs, way of life, art, and customs which are massed produced to be suited to the taste and knowledge of many people. Korean Wave products, such as pop music, TV dramas, and films might be categorized as the products of popular culture since they are massed produced through televisions, internet, social media, etc. for the purpose of entertainment. Popular culture is sometimes called as left-over culture. Meanwhile, high culture as opposed to popular culture might be defined as the beliefs, way of life, art, and customs which are shared and accepted by a certain society. They are not massed produced to be suited to the taste of many people. The works of Shakespeare, Goethe, and Cervantes are examples of high-end products.      

 In the late 80s and early 90s, pop culture would refer to Westernization or ‘Americanization’ as Hollywood and McDonald were overwhelmingly favored by the Third World countries people, such as Indonesian people. However, the epicenter of pop culture has shifted onto Korean. Despite its success, McDonald did not run smoothly without any rejection from Asian people. Some people might think that McDonald’ food are unhealthy, exploitative, and have different ways in cooking it. However, Korean Wave seems experience the different story to McDonald. Indonesian people, for example, react positively towards Korean pop culture. This can be seen by the gained acceptance of Korean traditional foods, called Kimchee and Ramen as import foods. These ‘instant’ foods can be easily bought by many people as they are sold in the nearest supermarkets. One of the reasons of this acceptance might be because Indonesian people and some other Asian people value Koreans as their own ‘brothers and sisters’ who come from the same continent and thus, possess more or less the same culture with more ‘familiar’ faces compared to American or British people.

Despite its fresh air that Korean wave brings, Korean pop culture also ‘injects’ cultural imperialism. The term imperialism refers to the benefits were brought back to Korea after many popular dramas, pop music were exported to neighboring countries. Television is believed to have a tremendous effect towards the expansion of Korean pop cultures. Television is not only to provide entertainment to its audiences, but is also to change the audiences’ attitudes and standards of life. Huang from Beijing Institute of Technology (2009) noted that audiences are not only fascinated by the plot of the drama, but also intend to visit its shooting location after watching the drama. According to a survey conducted by the International Travel Fair in Korea, Seoul ranks as the most popular city for tourists, including the drama’ shooting locations. Korean tourism has become popular only after exporting popular culture to other neighboring countries. General speaking, there are different purposes for visiting Korea, as the figures shows from the Korean National Tourism Organization, 71.9% of the total number foreign visitors went for pleasure in 2002. Japanese tourists accounted for 43.4% of the total number of foreign visitors. China ranked second with 539,466 visitors in 2002. Using TV dramas to promote Korean tourism is one aspect of cultural imperialism. On one hand, Korean food is also promoted through the dramas, such as Kimchee. On the other hand, Samsung and Hyundai as other economic assets of Korean are also promoted through TV dramas.

On the one hand, TV dramas used for promoting Korean tourism are one of the typical examples of how people are influenced by the power of television programs. Although the strategy of selling seems different from direct advertising, it is a new way of economic imperialism. As Ang (1996) argues ‘the conflation of commercialism as an economic principle of production, which is utterly capitalistic, with commercialism as a cultural system of producing goods for consumption, which certainly has connections with the popular’ (cited in Moeran eds, 2001: 31).

Recent years, Koreans realized that social media will support their promotion agenda that they embraced YouTube to spread the pop culture. Psy phenomenon is one from million examples of the powerful media hold in shaping someone’s preference. Korean films, TV dramas and variety shows, online games, comics, and popular songs are now being shared, distributed and consumed in cyberspace at an unprecedented pace.

As the national image of Korean getting flourish, the national economic of Koreans are increased. Cultural tourism as a promising industry helps Koreans to increase their national income. From music sales and concert tours, as well as the licensing and sales of Korean dramas to foreign broadcasters, Korea’s entertainment industry generated $3.8 billion in revenue from overseas markets in 2011. The presence of Korean stars in the American entertainment industry is certainly not bad for business, either, as American films with Korean actors tend to do exceptionally well in the Korean market. For example, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009), which starred popular Korean TV and movie star Lee Byung-hun in a major role, earned more than 10% of its total overseas sales in South Korea alone. In the same year, Ninja Assassin starred Korean singer and actor Rain as its protagonist, over 26% of the movie’s overseas earnings came from South Korea, equivalent to roughly 7% of its total revenue. Furthermore, the presence of a Korean music idol in the movie brought it significant attention in other Asian markets where the Korean wave has made an impact. The figures become even more revealing when considering the relative populations and cost of the average movie ticket in the various nations in which it profited.

The strength of cultural and economic aspects of Korean cannot be separated from the success of the government master plans for 2012. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade announced in its 2012 policy that promoting the Korean Wave abroad would be a major aspect of its mission for that year. Government as the policy maker has a powerful and strategic force to shape the cultural tourism as the best asset to increase national income. The government is also supported by Korean citizens in maintaining the local cultures as their identity. Further, the government also educates their people to be positive and open minded people in which they can accept good changes towards the better of life.

In order to accomplish a good end of this Korean mission, the Korean government needs to distribute the national budget to every department fairly. The Korean government uses the national budget to develop the infrastructures, create jobs and developed regions in poorer areas. For instance, The Korean government increases the budget in the culture and tourism affairs. Also, the government expands infrastructures for cultural industries including films, media, games, newspaper, and animation. As a result, cultural tourism may also create a valuable stimulus in promoting trade and cultural wealth.

In the beginning of 21^st century, Indonesia through its motto, Visit Indonesia, has been promoting its cultural tourisms. However, it seems that we still need to learn from the success of Korean. We cannot over generalize that Korean Wave is the stereotype of Asia that we should imitate their way to success. We should not, either, think that South Korea is a ‘very’ prosperous country which is far away from national and international conflict. People might still note that South Korea is still facing the same conflict with its neighbor country for years. However, this conflict does not make tourists are afraid or phobia to visit South Korea.

Korean does not only export their pop culture products through pop music, TV dramas, films but they might change the preferences of their audiences. Preferences here might be defined as the suggested choices that are indirectly offered through TV dramas or pop music. As the evidence, many tourists visit shooting locations after they watch TV dramas. Simultaneously, it affects the Korean national economic. Though pop culture is notoriously changeable, global interest in Korean popular culture shows no sign yet of decline, at least for this several coming years.