The Korean Wave (Hallyu )

Introduction
The Korean wave took a boost in the mid 1999s1. The term itself came, according to a reporter for the Munhwa Ilbo, from the title of a compilation of Korean pop songs that was a smash hit in China. Early events played a key role in the existence of the Korean wave. In The period from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s it all started with an important turning point for the Korean media. This was where the liberalization of the sector was introduced. Before 1987 no other company than Korean companies for itself were allowed to import and distribute foreign movies. But, under pressure from the US, The Korean government was obliged to allow Hollywood studios the right to distribute films directly to local theatres in 1988 and, by 1994, more than 10 Korean film importers had to close their business. The opening of the market to Hollywood affected the local film industry in general. In 1991, the movies produced by the Korean film industry started to fall down heavily. Next was the problem created by the rising import and broadcasting of foreign TV programs and the expansion of television channel availability such as the availability by satellite broadcasting channels. In 1997, Asia knew a financial crisis which also had an effect on the Korean national business and the media industry. This Asian Financial crisis had been caused by an economic bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and drove the entire country into a severe depression. However, once they discovered the capabilities of selling on the internet, they threw themselves into it. 2 factors awakened Koreans to the importance of culture and its industrial development. First in 1993, the film Sopyonje revived the national hope of a revival for the national film industry by attracting the highest number ever of spectators. In 1994, a government report pointed out the potential of the cultural industry in contribution to the national economy. This report suggested the promotion of media production by the government as a national strategic industry. It awakened the

The actual date which denotes the start of the Korean wave, varies from scholar to scholar.

Some say it started in 1999, others say 2001 and again others say its actual start was in the mid90s. This depends on the point of view which they adapt for their paper. Tyas Huybrechts Japanologie 2e Bach.
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people to the idea of culture as an industry. Although this boom was of short period, it had strengthened the national film industry, and by 1999 to everyones surprise a new Korean action thriller called Shiri attracted more audience than the Hollywood film Titanic. Following this current, the Korean film and media industry began its booming and people started talking of the Korean wave.

What is the Korean Wave?

Now that we know that the Korean wave actually came to existence, we still dont really know what it actually is. In short, it is the recent surge of popularity of South Korean popular culture in other countries, especially in Asian countries. In a certain way we can say that the Korean Wave is a phenomenon that is manufactured by the South Korean state itself, especially by the culture industry. The Korean culture industries like the film-, TV drama- and other media industries noticed the positive effect of Korean cultural export, not only on the economy, but also on the nations image. On this basis, they suggested the Korean government to aid them in their surge for a good image of Korea through the export of popular culture. It was only a matter of time before the Korean government started playing a key role in this process. Another reason for the current commercial success of Korean media is that it is an outgrowth of Koreas struggle for cultural continuity when confronted by the threat of global cultural domination. They prevented the threat of a foreign cultural invasion, not by protecting, but by opening up the domestic market. It can even be seen as a way to counter the threat and insensibility of the western-dominated media market. When we think of Korean popular culture, we should note that in this case we should think mainly of Korean drama and film industries. For example, the Korean wave took an extra boost with the TV dramas as Winter Sonata and Jewel Palace. These 2 dramas became extremely popular in Asia, they even where dubbed and subbed to suit their international viewers. For film, we can present Old Boy, Bin Jip, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring, etc. which were extremely popular, even in Europe. Besides Film and drama, Korean pop music deserves a place on the list of exported Korean pop culture, but it is still inferior to film and drama.

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Why did Korean pop culture became so popular?

Why it became so popular has various reasons. It depends on the age, interests and values of the spectators. Common is the fact that Beauty attracts. In Korean drama, film and even Korean singers have to be good-looking to be popular. It is a common know phenomenon that Asian women, young and old, fall in love with their favourite celebrity. It is even so that they collect all their savings and travel all the way to Korea to see the place where their favourite actor played their favourite scene in their favourite drama, or even travel far abroad to see him in live on another live show. Thus this success can be attributed to good looking actors and actresses who embody a number of traits that are very familiar to regular drama viewers and popular fantasies among women. Sensitivity and depth among male characters in Korean drama attracts much of the female drama viewers. For Korean drama, a logic reason can be the fact that importing a Korean drama was a lot cheaper than having to purchase it from any other country. For example, in 2000 Korean TV dramas were a quarter of the price to Japanese ones, and a tenth of the price of Hong Kong TV dramas. But, just being cheap cant explain its popularity among the people. Therefore we have to find other explanations. According to Kim Youna there are four main reasons to Korean dramas becoming popular. First is the fact that Korean dramas are emotionally powerfull, and that is what most Asians enjoy. Next, Korean TV dramas are infused with urban middle-class scenes as representations of modernization and there are many young viewers in the urban cities of Asia whose desires overlap with that way Korean TV dramas are presented. Third, It offers both a nostalgic reminder of what has been lost during modernization and an example of an Asian country that has modernized and has retained its traditions. They are favoured because of their richness on the more traditional Confucian values, which place emphasis on familial relationship, filial piety and sibling love. Last, Koreas historical colonial victim hood is pointed out as an intriguing reason behind the popularity of todays Korean Wave. Political conflicts and socio-cultural tensions of the divided nation has been used to good effect to create emotionally powerful content. Thus, the reason behind the successful phenomenon is a combination of Koreas tragic history, the intensity of Korean emotive culture and the non-threatening nature of its people. We can see that a

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Korean dramas and movies have themes that treat all sorts of spectators, regardless of culture and geographical location. They typically deal with topics such as love, family issues, filial piety, etc. in times of changing technology and values.

Effects of the Korean wave

When the Korean government started aiding the Korean media industries in exporting Korean pop culture, they did this with the view on improving the national image and increasing the Korean economy. In both cases it did work out fine. Mainly, Korean pop idols are the key element to attract international attention to other commercial sectors in Korea. So, for example, has it had a tremendous influence on the Korean tourism sector. Thanks to the success of various dramas such as Winter Sonata, Many foreign (mainly Asian) visitors come to Korea to visit the locations where the dramas where filmed. Even, travel agencies see big business in this and sell TV drama-themed group tours to Korea with titles like Best of Korean drama trailer deluxe tour. Korean pop idols even had a big impact on consumer culture, including food, fashion, make-up trends and even plastic surgery. In the streets of large Asian cities we can see members of the so called Korean tribe, wanna-bes of their favorite Korean idol. They adapt the way of dressing, hairstyles, make-up, etc. all the way up to plastic surgery, just to look like their idol. They decorate their backpacks, mobile phones, notebooks, rooms, etc. with posters and photographs of Korean stars. The regional fans are even eager to learn the Korean language. For example, at Inlingua school in Singapore, the number of students learning Korean has increased by 60 percent in 2003, compared to 2001 because of the interest generated by Korean dramas. Furthermore, the faces of popular actors are used in publicity campaigns for certain companies. This with the result that the fans start buying products from this company. But, not only for the profit of the companies, they are using their popular faces, also for their own profit they are doing the same thing. Actor Kwon Sang Woo for example charged $200 for some seats at a fan meeting in Tokyo. Some tickets were even going for as much as $500 on online auction sites.

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Most of the Korean wave fans are women. This is because of the wrong perception these women has got of Korean men. In the movies and dramas, these men are pictured as the perfect lovers, sweet and romantic. Its a type of character that doesnt exist much in Asian movies and television, and now its what Asian women think Korean men are like, but to tell you the truth. I still havent met a real one who fits that description. Kim Ok Hyun, director of Star M, a major star management company in Seoul, said. This has had as an effect that Rakuen Korea, a Korean match-making service, has had its popularity rising very fast. More than 6400 female clients have signed up, all looking for such a sweet and romantic Korean lover. Given this context, Korean big business is making efforts to transform Korean wave fans into consumers of Korean products and services. The Korean wave didnt have impact only on the consumers and Korean economy, but also on the pop idols themselves. For example, Korean male celebrities are now among the highest-paid actors outside Hollywood. In this context, Bae Yong Joon, starring in the drama Winter Sonata, earns now $5 million a film and at least nine other Korean male stars earn more than $10 million a year. Next, the spread of Korean media is tremendously big and varied. We can note that in 2006, South Korean programs on Chinese TV networks accounted for more than all other foreign programs combined. Other, We see Korean artists appearing in the J-pop market. For example, the best selling international artist from Korea, Boa, and others such as Shinhwa and TVXQ. When we look at this export of Korean culture to various countries, we can notice that it has to have more implications than simply earning foreign currency. Especially considering that the country has had some diplomatic frictions with its neighbors in the past decades. The Vietnamese still vividly remember that Korean soldiers fought against their Liberation Army during the Vietnam war. The Taiwanese have felt betrayed by Korea ever since Seoul suddenly severed its diplomatic relations with Taipei in order to establish new ties with Beijing in 1992. In this respect, Korean pop stars have contributed to improving Koreas foreign relations. But, besides these rather positive effects, recently there are rising some negative opinions and criticism on this wave. A Chinese news magazine for example, has accused the South Korean government of wanting not just to spread Korean culture,
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but to present itself as the essence of Asian culture. And the Chinese media is reporting plans to limit the amount of airtime given to Korean dramas and limit the import of Korean imports in the entertainment sector in general. Vietnams government threatened to ban the broadcast of Korean shows if Vietnamese shows were not broadcasted more on Korean TV stations. Taiwan considered limits on the broadcast of foreign shows. All these elements were signs of a nascent backlash against the wave.

The Korean wave and Japan.

In Japan, similar to other Asian countries, it mainly are the women ho contribute to the popularity of the Korean media and the rising of the Korean wave. It is because of the false image of the perfect lover and the handsomeness of the Korean actors that these women fall in love with them. They continue following their dream and start looking for a Korean husband like the TV stereotype they are looking for. They think they can find sweetness and romanticism in the Korean man, but mostly it turns out in an disappointment. On the contrary, there is the Korean hatred, mainly by men. As said earlier, women are attracted by the handsomeness of their favorite actor, but Japanese men dont really like this. Japanese men might fear of getting on the background when Japanese women keep chasing their imaginative ideal image of the perfect husband. Besides, it isnt really easy for Japanese men these days because of the decreasing number of women willing to marry. Others say that the Korean wave may help erode discrimination of Koreans in Japanese society, but knowing that the Korean wave is mainly a womanish thing and that men have the actual power in Japanese society, this rather seems an un-logical hypothesis. Another remarkable side-effect of the Korean wave in Japanese society might be the manga called The anti-Korean wave (ken-kanry, ). This is a controversial manga written by Sharin Yamano, themed on Korean-Japanese disputes and the anti-Korean sentiment in Japanese society. The manga was released in the context of the Korean wave, leading to increase positive awareness of Korea, but since it also increased the awareness of various Korean-Japan disputes such as the dispute around Takeshima, the abductees question, etc. and the previously existing anti-Korea sentiment in Japan, it has had a rather negative effect.
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Another remarkable fact is that while the Korean wave is on the wane, the Japanese wave [in Korea] is waxing. Koreans arent chasing their national fans anymore, instead, they are dying for a glimpse of their favorite Japanese star. Since Korea opened its doors for Japanese media in 2004, it steadily maintained its popularity. Main reasons for this are that Japan continuously delivers fresh stars to be adored, in comparison to the handful of stars Korea has produced. And these Japanese stars frequently shoot several films a year. Next to this, Japans creativity is an important element. First of all, Korea depends on Japan for its creative juice in case of film making. Japanese films usually focus on one ordinary person in strange, bizarre situations, this in comparison to the stereotypical Cinderella stories which dominate in Korean film making. Second is the fact that some Japanese film and drama are based on poplar comics (manga) of novels or popular series appear in comics afterwards, creating a kind of synergy effect. In Korea, hit dramas hardly ever appear in any other media form.

The Korean wave in the future

Due to the repetitious drama and film plots and cultural hostility by some countries triggered the decline. In 2005, the backdrop of cultural export has started. Export of music, films, etc. started dropping for about 20% in just one year. Even the number of travelers to Korea has plunged by about 40% over the last two years. More concretely we can put the decrease in popularity of Korean media to the following points. First there is the re-use of plots. Christopher Booker, said in his The Seven Basic Plots that stories are based on seven basic plots being: overcoming the monster, rags to riches, the quest, voyage and return, comedy, tragedy and rebirth. Because of the continuously re-use of the same plots, dramas are becoming boring and people get the feeling when they are watching a new drama, that theyve already seen it because they know how it is going to end. Second there is Chinas increasing hostility towards Korea. Chinese people are beginning to believe South Korea is trying to settle its historical vieuws and even its cuisine culture through dramas, wich nurtured antipathy toward the Korean wave. President and CEO Ko Suk-man of the Korea Culture Content agency presented plans to step up the status of the nations culture industry from the current ninth in the world to fifth. He said his agency will make the utmost effort to reinvigorate the
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Korean culture industry through commercialization, popularization, selection and concentration strategy. He even promised to support comics and animation industries, considering them as an higher value-added business.

My critical opinion to views on the Korean wave by others

The view Cho Hae-Joang adapted to write her paper was a post-colonialist view. Her view though isnt a classical one. She does start from the colonial domination they had to undergo and points out the compressed period of modernization that came after it. This is still fitting in the classical view, but then she points out other drastic changes that had a kind of a shock effect as well. Here we can note the IMF crisis with which they had to cope with. Her main point is about the effect the Korean wave has had on the Korean people. Just as the IMF crisis gave the Koreans some new perspectives on the world, the news of the Korean wave enabled them to develop new senses of globalization, the culture industry and a newly forming Asia in a short time. Both the IMF crisis and the news of the Korean wave are drastic changes they had to learn from by experience. Because theyve hadnt had time to prepare for them due to the compressed period of modernization. In this light she is talking about the Korean wave as one of the shocks they didnt expect and gave them some fresh views on the world. The Korean wave as a sort of learning process. To my view, I think she is victimizing the Korean people a bit to much. It can be true that theyve had a hard time finding their selves after the occupation, but saying that all problems they encounter are due to the fact that theyve havent had time to prepare for them because of the compressed period of modernization seems a bit harsh. A crisis throughout the world like the IMF crisis provides a shock in all countries and all countries have to cope with it some way. The evidence that Korea got back in the running is enough to know that they were able to cope with it. Second, she pictures the Korean wave as a bit of a bad thing. She puts it on equality with the IMF crisis and says that the Koreans had to learn a hard lesson from it. This gives it a bit of a bad image. According to the most discourses on the Korean wave it is being pictured as a really good development.

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Kim Youna for example shows us the many good things the Korean wave has created. His way of analyzing the wave is completely different from Chos way, he looks at it more objectively, but still pictures the Korean wave as a good development, pointing out the positive economical and touristic evolutions. It was really difficult to embed this kind of critical comments in my paper. When I wrote my paper, I selected the useful parts to give the reader a good image on the Korean wave when he reads my paper. Herein I havent found room for a discourse on post-colonialism, nor for the critical commenting on a certain paper. What I wanted to achieve with my paper was to give the reader an overall view on the wave. Therefore I havent talked about this matter in the paper itself and did I have to put it in a separate section.

Conclusion
By studying the Korean wave we can notice that since Korea started exporting its culture a more positive opinion on Korea has spread throughout Asia. Korea noticed this positive influence too and made an effort to make out of it. Doing this, they even strengthened their international political ties and improved the nations cultural image. Korean pop stars have even been used to promote foreign companies. But, besides these positive effects of the wave, it has recently caused a few negative opinions too, which may be the cause of the waning of the cultural booming. The main point which has the most effect on the fans, is the repetitious storyline / plot. This causes them to get bored watching it and start looking for something else. People want new, fresh, surprising things to watch. Because one theme has been popular once, it doesnt mean that it is going to be popular for ever. This may be the main reason why the wave is on its way back. Perhaps the Korean Culture industries should follow Japan in making renewing and interesting media content instead of falling back on what has been popular in the past. Following Doobo Shim, we can conclude that Koreans have emulated and appropriated American cultural industries with learning from Hollywood as a slogan. Considering that the wave is waning in popularity, this strategy doesnt seem effective anymore. In Why the Japanese Wave Just Keeps on Coming, we can read various reasons why Japanese film is more interesting and why it can be, to my opinion, useful to learn from. This is why we can conclude that, When the Koreans
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want to revitalize their wave, they should be more creative in all aspects of media creation and maybe instead of learning from Hollywood, they should now start learning from Japan. This leaves a new possible field of research open with my own opinion as a base to start from. It seems a reasonable new approach to make Korean culture interesting again.

Bibliography
Cho, Hae-Joang (2005). Reading the Korean Wave as a sign of global shift, Korea Journal, 45(4), pp. 147-182. Shim, Doobo (2006). Hybridity and the rise of Korean popular culture in Asia, Media, Culture & Society, 28(1), pp. 25-44. Kim, Youna (2006). Rising East Asia Wave: Korean media go global, in Thussu, Daya (ed.). Media on the Move: Global Flow and Contra Flow, London: Routledge, pp. 135-152. Dickie, 04.html> Faiola, Anthony. Japanese 2006. Women Catch the Korean Wave. Lance. The Korean wave.

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Digital Chosun. Why the Japanese Wave Just Keeps on Coming. The

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<http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200711/200711290009.ht ml> Thompson, Nevin. Inside the Japanese Blogosphere the Anti-Korea Wave. Global Voices. 2005. <http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2005/07/29/inside-the-japaneseblogosphere-the-anti-korea-wave/> Wikipedia. Manga Kenkanryu. Wikipedia. 2008. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga_-_The_Hate_Korea_Wave>

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