[Wōdnes-dæg] The Korean Wave: Soft-Power-ful K-Pop Culture

Introduction
Soft Power
Soft Power too Soft?
Closing

{A visualization of the Korean Wave. Image from eyeswideopen21.wordpress.com.}

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Introduction

Something that's been in the news here and there over the past few years is the presence of a cultural Korean Wave.

This Korean Wave, or Hallyu, refers to the slow spread of Korean pop culture throughout Asia, Europe, and North America.¹ When the National Post reports on something, you know it's got to be good, right? Plus, there's even a North York couple that moved to Korea, started out as teachers, but that now blog full time about Korean culture and music.¹

In some sense, this trend could be compared to the rise in the popularity of Japanese culture abroad in the 80s and 90s in the form of increasingly easily accessed anime and the console wars between Nintendo, Sega, and Sony. Perhaps Korea has less that's unique to offer in the realms of animated TV shows and video games, but both cultural spreads are definitely prime examples of "soft-power"

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Soft Power

Soft-power "is the ability to obtain what one wants through co-option and attraction."² This definitely describes the kind of cultural influence that foreign lands have had on Western culture and aesthetics for quite some time. Rather than trying to do what the West itself did in many colonial instances and force their culture back on the West, places like Korea and Japan are merely creating things that appeal to Western consumers.

In some cases, this means creating a hybrid culture. As Kim Seong-Kon points out, the Korean Wave is just such a hybrid form since K-Pop and K-Drama tend to be combinations of traditional Korean and Western cultures.³

Kim argues that this sort of hybrid culture is not a true representation of traditional Korean culture (the "high brow"), but he also cedes that the hybrid culture that's set off the Korean Wave is something like "John the Baptist, preparing the path for Jesus’ arrival."³

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Soft Power too Soft?

Yet, with soft-power, and the appeal of hybrid cultures, is introducing someone to a 'lite' version of a culture really going to entice them into a full-blown interest in more traditional forms? Not everyone who watches anime is going to try to learn about the Sengoku period or try to find out just who Bashō is.

Likewise, the current rise of Korean pop culture isn't going to necessarily lead people to delve deeper into traditional Korean culture. At least not in the numbers that people who say that "hallyu will conquer the world" or that compare the current Korean Wave to John the Baptist imply. Watching My Girlfriend is a Gumiho or listening to the latest by Super Junior, won't necessarily bring people to look into Dangun or research the poetry of the Goryeo period.

That's the thing with soft power, it can be the hand that brings a horse to water, but the horse is ultimately the one who will either dip its tongue in the water, slurp a few waves, or just stare at its own reflection.

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Closing

Check back here Friday for a search for the good in the series stalling I Am Number Four.

And for some insight into what the big news stories are in South Korea itself (the dark side of hallyu, some may say), check out KoreaBANG

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References

1. Donnelly, Aileen. "Riding the Korean Wave: Latest cultural trend driving Kanadians krazy for music, dance moves." National Post 8 April 2012.

2. "Soft Power." Wikipedia.

3. Kim Seong-Kon. "Future of hallyu: Pop to highbrow." The Korea Herald 4 April 2012.

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