{"id":65231,"date":"2015-01-05T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2015-01-05T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=65231"},"modified":"2015-03-16T16:08:24","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T21:08:24","slug":"a-korean-hallyu-threatens-american-cultural-dominance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2015\/01\/05\/a-korean-hallyu-threatens-american-cultural-dominance\/","title":{"rendered":"A Korean Hallyu Threatens American Cultural Dominance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To many Americans, globalization may mean Americanization but, in China, globalization is Koreanization. This is the impact of <em>Hallyu<\/em> (the Korean word for \u201cKorean wave\u201d), which began in 1997. Hallyu began with Korean television dramas and today extends throughout Chinese life: k-drama, k-pop, movies, fashion, food, and beauty. \u00a0It is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.koreatimes.co.kr\/www\/news\/opinon\/2014\/11\/197_168617.html\">argued<\/a> to be the only example of a cultural power \u201cthat threatens the dominance of American culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Its influence is impressive. For example, when a star on a Korean soap opera ordered chicken and beer for dinner &#8212; Korea\u2019s chi-mek (or chi-meak) \u2013 and claimed it as her favorite food, Chinese audiences went crazy for the combination. Korean beer exports rose by over 200%:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n-E1Twwp9cI\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Even the standard of beauty in China has been altered due to Hallyu. During this year\u2019s National Day holiday (10\/1-10\/7), about 166,000 Chinese visited Korea. They flocked to top shopping districts to purchase a wide range of Korean products like cosmetics, each spending an average of $2,500.\u00a0 Some of these Chinese tourists visited the Gangnam district (Apgujeng-dong), the capital of plastic surgery in Korea. They <a href=\"http:\/\/travel.cnn.com\/seoul\/visit\/ideals-beauty-plastic-surgery-capital-world-389581\">want to look like k-drama stars<\/a>. They want to have Korean actresses\u2019 nose or eyes.<\/p>\n<p>The obsession with Korea has caused Chinese leaders a great deal of angst. It was a major issue at the country\u2019s National People\u2019s Congress where, according to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/asia_pacific\/chinese-officials-debate-why-china-cant-make-a-soap-opera-as-good-as-south-koreas\/2014\/03\/07\/94b86678-a5f3-11e3-84d4-e59b1709222c_story.html\"><em>Washington Post<\/em><\/a>, one committee spent a whole morning pondering why China\u2019s soap operas weren\u2019t as good as those made by Korea. \u201cIt is more than just a Korean soap opera. It hurts our culture dignity,\u201d one member of the committee <a href=\"http:\/\/news.xinhuanet.com\/shuhua\/2014-03\/03\/c_126212587.htm\">said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Their concern isn\u2019t trivial; it\u2019s about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Soft-Power-Means-Success-Politics\/dp\/1586483064\">soft power<\/a>. This is the kind of power states can exert simply by being popular and well-liked. This enables a country to inflluence transnational politics without force or coercion.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the Korean government <a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/news\/books-and-arts\/21611039-how-really-uncool-country-became-tastemaker-asia-soap-sparkle-and-pop\">nurtured<\/a> Hallyu. The President pushed to develop and export films, pop music, and video games. As <a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/news\/books-and-arts\/21611039-how-really-uncool-country-became-tastemaker-asia-soap-sparkle-and-pop\"><em>The Economist<\/em><\/a> reports:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Tax incentives and government funding for start-ups pepped up the video-game industry. It now accounts for 12 times the national revenue of Korean pop (K-pop). But music too has benefited from state help. In 2005 the government launched a $1 billion investment fund to support the pop industry. Record labels recruit teens who undergo years of grueling [sic] training before their public unveiling.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019s working. According to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.koreatimes.co.kr\/www\/news\/opinon\/2014\/11\/197_168617.html\"><em>Korea Times<\/em><\/a>, China has made a trade agreement with Korea allowing it an unprecedented degree of access to the Chinese people and its companies, an impressive win for soft power.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #444444;\">Sangyoub Park, PhD is a professor of sociology at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washburn.edu\/faculty-staff\/awards-recognition\/plaudits\/current\/park-s.html\" target=\"_blank\">Washburn University<\/a>, where he teaches Social Demography, Generations in the U.S. and Sociology of East Asia. His research interests include social capital, demographic trends, and post-Generation Y. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><em style=\"color: #444444;\">Lisa Wade, PhD is a professor of sociology at\u00a0<a style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #990000;\" href=\"http:\/\/lisa-wade.com\/\">Occidental College<\/a>\u00a0and the co-author of\u00a0<a style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #990000;\" href=\"http:\/\/books.wwnorton.com\/books\/detail.aspx?ID=4294986320\">Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions<\/a>. You can follow her on\u00a0<a style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #990000;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lisawade\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #990000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lisawadephd\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Cross-posted at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.psmag.com\/navigation\/books-and-culture\/korean-hallyu-threatens-american-cultural-dominance-98071\/\" target=\"_blank\">Pacific Standard<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To many Americans, globalization may mean Americanization but, in China, globalization is Koreanization. This is the impact of Hallyu (the Korean word for \u201cKorean wave\u201d), which began in 1997. Hallyu began with Korean television dramas and today extends throughout Chinese life: k-drama, k-pop, movies, fashion, food, and beauty. \u00a0It is argued to be the only [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":65234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[218,230,15,36,2124,2089,64,343,1772,1788,85,304,868,212,1759,23641],"class_list":["post-65231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bodies","tag-cosmetic-surgery","tag-culture","tag-economics","tag-foodagriculture","tag-gender-beauty","tag-globalization","tag-tvmovies","tag-nation-china","tag-nation-south-korea","tag-politics","tag-the-state","tag-power","tag-alcohol","tag-raceethnicity-asianspacific-islanders","tag-raceethnicity-beauty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/11\/221.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65231"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65667,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65231\/revisions\/65667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}