Abstract
During the 1960s, the term ‘Cultural Imperialism’ was popular in the third world countries which attainted their independence after a lengthy struggle against colonialism. There was an urge for new information and communication order to match up to the Anglo-American culture which had been shaping the global culture until the late twentieth century. In the latter half of the twentieth century, the film industries in India and Hong Kong, Japanese animation and the now Korean wave carved a niche for themselves in the global scenario. In fact, the first two decades of the twenty-first century can be called the years of Korean pop (K-pop) considering the way the K-pop culture has burst on the regional and the global scene. The news media of East Asia have coined the term the ‘Korean wave’ or ‘Hallyu’ to refer to this immensely popular wave of K-pop. In this respect, the book ‘Korean Wave in South-east Asia’ makes a timely effort to understand the dynamics that have led to the popularity of K-pop and its consumption in other parts of South-east Asia.
‘Korean Wave in South-east Asia: Consumption and Cultural Production’ offers fresh perspectives on the popularity of K-pop or ‘Hallyu’ (Korean wave). The authors have focused on the consumption of Korean dramas, films and music in South-east Asia. The book explores the phenomenon of cultural globalization of Korean culture over the last few decades and studies it through a socio-political lens. On a larger level, the book analyses the dynamics of cultural production and dissemination, the role of media and the politics of the popular in the context of South-east Asia.
The early 2000s saw a massive export of Korean cultural products which soon came to replace the ‘trendy’ Japanese and Chinese dramas. In just over a decade, the South Korean popular culture has acquired a Pan Asian dimension becoming the dominant incarnation of East Asian popular culture. However, the political and cultural context behind the current popularity of K-pop reveals the messy dynamics of cultural production and consumption in the globalized world. South Korea underwent a rapid transformation in the last decades of the twentieth century—from a society oppressed by wars and conservative ruling regimes to an urbanized, democratic nation.
‘The Korean Wave’ takes a close look at the way K-pop is inextricably intertwined with the very fabric of Korean economy, society and culture of the twenty-first century and the strengthening ties between Korea and the ASEAN countries.
The main argument of this book can be divided into three spheres. Firstly, how K-pop culture is distributed and circulated. Secondly, its impact on the receiving societies and finally, the book deliberates on K-pop culture as a representative of East Asian cultures, the qualities that help it transcend the national, cultural and communal boundaries, as well as its limitations and its status as a product of a cultural industry. As mentioned earlier, the rise of K-pop in the last two decades coincides with the rapid technological transformation, especially the introduction of the digitalized music and the appearance of YouTube. Apart from the technological aspect, South Korea’s cultural and geographical proximity to China has worked in its favour. Established networks of Chinese language and ethnic communities facilitated the distribution and circulation of K-pop. VCR and DVDs of Korean dramas and movies and their subtitling are often done in Hong Kong and Taiwan before these are distributed through the Chinese community networks in South-east Asia. Resulting in the immense transcultural and transnational popularity of the genre. This book pays special attention to the elements of foreignness coupled with familiarity that play an important role in the popularity of Korean dramas. Depicting traditional cultural values, importance given to families and religious belief systems appeal to collectivist orientations of the most of the Asian cultures. For instance, the practice of Confucianism in Korean dramas has worked as an important factor for the popularity of these dramas. Another factor contributing to the popularity is the representation of South Korea as a model of development and prosperity, setting it up as an example for other South-east Asian societies. The characterization of gender relations in these dramas is important in rural South-east Asia in order to promote gender equality.
Apart from the content, the book turns to the interesting study of the dynamics of reception among the audience groups, especially in the multi-cultural societies across South-east Asia. In a more conservative socio-cultural set up like Malaysia, the censorship board has criticized the Korean dramas and K-pop as a source of increasing ‘deviance’ specially related to the issues of cross-dressing and gender. Thai authorities have shown concern about the K-pop craze among the teenagers who are recreating the doll-like appearance of their idols through surgery and skin whitening products. Moreover initially, the local producers were horrified by the influx of Korean content calling it an instance of cultural imperialism before turning to the production of similar dramas with local stars with storyline and quality of production influenced by Korean dramas. Similarly several boys’ and girls’ music groups have sprouted in South-east Asia following the pattern set by K-pop music. So the impact of the Korean wave is blended with different factors influencing its consumption.
The final chapter of the book discusses the possibilities of formulating a transnational identity through K-pop fan community.
K-pop has become a popular sub-culture among teenagers and young adults across the globe. The authors also discuss the growing number of tourist audience in the Hallyu syndrome.
Starting with Japanese Hallyu fans or Japanese tourist audience who came to Korea in groups to attend the concerts of their favourite groups and acted as transnational consumers of Korean products, in the recent years, the tourist audience number has increased bringing in people from Japan, Taiwan or China and other parts of South-east Asia, Europe and America. This has further spread the popularity of Korean culture into the arenas of lifestyle, fashion and cuisine. However, despite the forays into the global scene, the authors argue, K-pop’s major areas of influence are still limited to East Asia, mainly Japan, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Thus it can be regarded as regionalization of Asian pop culture whose process has been accelerated by social media’s online and offline activities.
The function of the cultural artefacts of this new genre of pop culture is to express the local experiences and emotions. However, cultures streaming across borders, interact with others and producing new configurations and adaptations. Overall, the book argues that K-pop has the potential to create a transnational identity in South-east Asia and emerge as a part of ‘soft power’ cultural diplomacy. The book will be an interesting one for the K-pop fans and also for the researchers studying the K-pop phenomenon from the perspectives of culture studies, sociology and media and audience studies. The first half of the book is very descriptive of events and issues of Korean dramas. The late part turns to larger global and regional issues. The book can be a starting point for a more in depth study of the phenomenon especially from the sociological and media studies angle. It would be very interesting to consider China’s perception over the K-pop consumption and the position of K-pop with respect to American music and sitcoms which rule the roost with the global audience. These are some issues that can be explored further.