Hallyu - Korean Wave

Hallyu, or Korean wave, has shown a remarkable sustaining power. The craze for Korean pop culture has lingered for over a decade, a somewhat unexpected development considering that Korea has long been on the receiving side of cultural influences, and is, according to Jung-sun Park, "economically advanced yet not necessarily topnotch."

In her article titled Korean Pop Culture Spreads Beyond Asia (Insight into Korea, Herald Media 2007), the California State University Dominguez Hill scholar traced the global, regional and national changes behind the emergence of hallyu.

The sprouting of a great number of Asian cable and satellite TV stations clearly provided a fertile ground for the development of hallyu. More TV stations meant a greater demand for programs that could be aired, "but many local industries could not produce enough or good enough programs to satisfy such explosive demands."

Consequently, the need to import programs from elsewhere, especially from the West and neighboring Asian countries, increased tremendously.

But at that time few Asian media industries could produce pop cultural products that had "transnational marketability", especially as compared to their Western (mostly American) counterparts. And even though the Hong Kong film industry had transnational appeal, it was experiencing a serious decline by the mid-1990s.

The popularity of hallyu was also due in part to "ideological and political concerns", given the fears of some Asian countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and China over the impact of "Western (mainly American) cultural invasion." In the case of China, even Japanese pop culture was somewhat shunned or at least kept at arm's length, due to "reservations about Japanese pop culture's penetration" of Chinese culture.

"Relatively free from political and historical burdens, Korean pop culture was considered to be a good alternative to the hegemonic and imperialist Western and Japanese pop culture in some countries. Moreover, it is sophisticated and interesting enough to appeal to Asian consumers with diverse preferences and tastes, and could provide the consumers, who are bored with the too-familiar and too-abundant Western and Japanese pop culture, with something fresh and different. In the beginning, the competitive price of Korean pop culture products was an additional attractive point."

Local conditions too, spurred the development of hallyu. These included the saturation of the Korean market, fierce local competition, and the influx of capital in certain media fields, such as the film industry, which prompted the Korean media industry to actively explore overseas markets.

As for fans of hallyu, Park suggested that many young Chinese viewers tend to be fascinated by the "sophisticated and glitzy urban lifestyles frequently portrayed in Korean dramas."

"They pay close attention to the fashion styles, urban sceneries and general lifestyles with the hope that someday such things could be a reality for them as well. For the young Chinese, who live in a rapidly developing and modernizing country, Korean dramas provide fantasies about economic prosperity and cool and luxurious modern life, and indirectly satisfy their desires."

"On the contrary, old Chinese viewers may become attracted to Korean dramas because of the portrayal of close and warm family/social relations, including young people's respect for and care of the elderly, and the lack of overt violence and sex."

And interestingly, just as there are fans of hallyu, there are also opponents of the Korean wave.

A Japanese comic book boldly titled “Hateful Hallyu” was published in 2005 which criticized not only hallyu itself but Korean culture and history as well.

"The fact that it initially ranked at the top of Japanese Amazon's reservation list illustrates that old Japanese biases and negative feelings towards Korea, which have been suppressed in the temporary craze for hallyu, are revealed again as a sort of defense mechanism … These shadows cast on hallyu also demonstrate that old histories, economic interests and current affairs are deeply embedded in the transnational flow of pop culture."