The Korean Wave

Korean Popular Culture in Global Context

Y. Kuwahara, Y. Kuwahara

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781137350282
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Asian Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The rise in popularity of South Korean entertainment and culture began and is promoted as an official policy of the Korean government to revive the country's economy. This study examines cultural production and consumption, glocalization, the West versus. Asia, global race consciousness, and changing views of masculinity and femininity.

Part I

Production

1

Hallyu as a Government Construct: The Korean Wave in the Context of Economic and Social Development

John Walsh

Introduction

Commonly regarded as the popularity of Korean¹ popular culture overseas, Hallyu—the Korean Wave—is also considered a phenomenon of cultural production that has been used to promote Korean interests overseas, particularly in East and Southeast Asia. The Hallyu has so far consisted of various forms of production, which have, to some extent, been able to work synergistically with each other.² Productions include film and television presentations, pop music and dance, fashion and cosmetics, video games, and food. Many of these sectors are combined within a single production through product placement and endorsement. They are part of a new phase of economic development that emphasizes the role of intellectual property and creativity in the production process and, hence, the decoupling of the cost of production and retail price. The marketing component of Hallyu products is instrumental in widening the cost-price gap and has also been used to promote Korea and Korean society in a friendly and nonthreatening manner, thereby promoting tourism and the consumption of other Korean products. The result has been a blossoming of interest in the country verging in some cases on hysteria and the elevation of its thoughts and deeds to a higher level—Korea joined the rich person’s club, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in 1996, but it is the Hallyu that has persuaded Asian countries at the societal level that Korea is really part of the developed, western world. This has had considerable impact on the soft power that can be deployed overseas in further promoting national interests in the areas of diplomacy, investment, education, and trade. This has been facilitated by such developments as the liberalization of media around Asia from the mid-1990s, when the Hallyu first became notable. Two television dramas from this period, What Is Love All About? and Stars in My Heart, as well as the Korean content on the music video station Channel V led the way in China and other nations that were showing such foreign content for the first time.³ Prior to this, international awareness of popular Korean cultural production was almost zero.

That the Hallyu has unfolded in this way is neither a surprise nor a coincidence. Instead, just as in the case of the first phase of the rapid economic development, the conditions for development were put in place by the state and its agencies while private sector corporations and individuals have taken advantage of those conditions in inventive and sometimes unexpected ways. Again, just as in the case of the first wave of development, Hallyu practitioners have eventually become sufficiently internationalized as to free themselves from the influence of the Korean state and to act independently. However, even as independent international actors, many Hallyu practitioners prefer to remain consistent with the methods that brought them their success because of the benefits of joint branding across different products and sectors. Those who ignore their home support in favor of devoting themselves to their international supporters have found themselves criticized and their popularity wane.⁴ Actor Kwon Sang Woo, for example, star of the television series Stairway to Heaven, was forced into public apology for what was perceived to be an overly brief “hit-and-run” visit to Korea, when fans felt they deserved more chance to interact with him and that he should have demonstrated more love for the country.

This chapter investigates the Hallyu as a deliberately fostered manifestation of economic development and considers its purpose, development, and nature as a marketing phenomenon and as the result of a distinctive form of industry policy. It is argued that understanding the nature of Hallyu requires accepting that it is seen as a deliberate policy to internationalize Korean cultural products in a variety of different fields in a way that enables different media to act in synergistic ways with each other. Products include television drama and pop music, cinema and animation, computer games, classical music, food, and fashion. There are clear commercial advantages to having a variety of elements within the overall brand of “Korean culture,” not least of which is to attempt to capture support from different segments of the target market. These different sectors of the same industry are promoted through a strong online capability that has been facilitated by the early and substantial commitment of the Korean government to investing in its internet capacity. The Korean Culture and Information Service (KOCIS) makes this clear:

We have long since come to view culture and arts as “industries,” and as popular culture has assumed pride of place, pure art has sometimes been dismissed as culture for a small minority. But popular culture has a hard time flourishing without a foundation in pure art that traces its history back into the past. That art provides the roots, and solid roots lead to richer and sweeter fruits of popular culture.⁵

The vision is, therefore, one of authentic Korean culture that will give rise to a flowering of cultural productions in different but related fields that can be marketed to the world as part of a unified, fully realized brand.

Industry Policy

Industry policy may be broadly defined as the set of actions and policies that a state is able to enact to promote the efficient and successful operation of businesses operating within its jurisdiction. This includes the provision of infrastructure (hard, soft, and virtual), specialized government agencies and funding bodies, tailored educational opportunities, and incentives to companies to undertake more research and development and value-adding activities. Originally, industry policy was intended to promote the specific interest of home country companies but since membership of the World Trade Organization and agreement of bilateral and multilateral treaties require equal treatment to all firms, it has become more common for industry policy to offer more or less similar treatment to everyone. In any case, internationalized companies are now frequently detached from attachment to a specific country as had once been the case. Instead, states may use special economic zones (SEZs) as places where particular privileges will be offered to all who wish to invest there on the graduated sovereignty principle⁶ that means a differential relationship between state and firm based on location.

Often derided as “picking winners,” at which governments are considered to be less effective than market transactions,⁷ industry policy has been regularly used in East Asia as a means of promoting rapid economic development with considerable success.⁸ Chang,⁹ reviewing industrial policy as it has been practiced in the region, identified nine specific areas in which government has been active, including the coordination of complementary investments, the coordination of competing investments, policies to ensure scale economies, and regulations on import of technology and investment that were appropriate to the very specific conditions appertaining at the time of enactment. Government acts in a number of ways, therefore, to promote certain types of economic activities and provides access to enabling technology (e.g., infrastructure) and general purpose technology (e.g., digitalization, computers) such that firms entering the market have a better chance of overcoming constraints to efficiency and to growth that so many companies would otherwise face and so are able to contribute to national economic and social development. An example of how this has worked successfully is with the online computer game industry. The Korean government provided incentives to companies to enter the market, made advanced educational opportunities available in relevant fields, provided support to national-level competitions and media exposure to help to overcome societal resistance to games-playing as a career choice, and enabled coordination with other industrial sectors to ensure the competencies and skills obtained could be embedded in the economy as a whole.¹⁰

Despite laws that have been instituted to limit game-playing,¹¹ which for some people is dangerously addictive, in a way similar to gambling, the video or computer game industry has continued to flourish. Companies such as Nexon and NCsoft have flourished in this environment and have demonstrated their capacity to provide hugely popular game environments through innovations such as the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) and the use of the microtransaction business model to replace subscriptions.¹² In 2010, US$1.6 billion worth of video games accounted for more than 50 percent of the country’s exports in the contents (i.e., intellectual property) category and this sector was by far the most important sector of the creative industries. Continued investment and innovation in this area remains considerably important as the games industry has begun the migration to mobile platforms and more open business models—that is, the ability of individuals to market and sell apps through easy-to-access international markets—which has brought new means of growth and change. Computer application also offers a platform for merchandising creative and media content of all sorts, and the ability to enable the public to connect more conveniently and comprehensively with media figures is an important component of the overall experience. It is argued here that effective use of governme...