Korean Wave Essay

Introduction

Korean wave refers to the exponential growth of Korean culture globally, beginning in East Asia in the 1990s. It has recently spread into the United States, Latin Continent, Middle East, and a large part of Europe (Lee, 2011). Also, the Korean wave is referred to as "Hallyu" in Korean. It is both a national and transitional phenomena since it entails the exportation of Korean culture to the world. It is presented in two main forms of media- pop music (K-pop) and television serials. Television serials include K-drama and K- variety show.

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The outbreak and development of K-pop music can be traced the to late 1990s, following widespread coverage in East Asia countries. State broadcast powerhouses such as MBC-TV, Chinese CCTV, and others set a stage for the K-pop music and Korean drama to gain popularity in the region (Lita & Cho, 2012) As a result, Korean pop culture boomed significantly across neighboring Asian countries. Between 2000 and 2002 the Korean culture through K-pop music even spread further to more diverse Asian regions, including Central and South East Asia. The wave peaked by having active penetration stage across the globe, especially in the United States and Europe.

Currently, the Korean wave has undergone tremendous changes. This is because of the development of digital technologies and social media networks, such as YouTube and smartphones' social network applications. Therefore, the new wave has had great support and popularity than it was in the last decade. Korean creative industry has benefited uniquely since such channels such as YouTube, social network sites have commercialized the wave. K- Pop culture has been incorporated into the advertising industry as well, commercially benefitting the country (Jin, 2012).

Why Korean Wave Is Famous and Its Significance in Asian Countries

The K- wave is famous because of numerous reasons. These reasons include efforts by the Korean entertainment industry to proactively feel the pulse of the masses and producing quality and appealing soap operas and movies to satisfy the masses' needs and interest. Giving appealing images and music to the people has certainly helped in making the K-wave very popular in the world. The Korean Tourism Board (KTO) has come up with a way of incorporating this huge interest in Korea by providing very attractive tour offers to tourists. For example, such offers are trips to sites made famous by K-pos musicians, soap operas. Also, traveling to shooting locations to experience the first hand the making of K wave movies and soap operas is one of the packages offered.

The Korean Government has helped popularize K-wave by Building "K-Culture Valley", a Hallyu themed park. This Valley houses film studios, Korean restaurants, music festivals, and movie galleries. The importance of this park is to bring together the appealing and interesting components of Korean wave culture. This move has significantly made K- wave more appealing and attractive to Asians and other foreign tourists than it was before. K-wave has increased the number of tourists visiting the country and the other Asian countries. This has had a positive impact especially commercially, contributing a huge amount of money to the country's GDP (Lee, 2011).

Additionally, Korean Wave has brought about less animosity in South Asian Region. Historically, the wave has positively changed the political climate of the region. Many Asian nations were former colonies of Japan during the World War era. The result has been continuous animosity amongst these countries. However, as the whole region has embraced the K- wave culture, there has been remarkable tolerance as a result of cultural interchange and exportation. The culture has helped the region to almost identify with a similar culture, which is the K-wave.

Other spillover effects of the K-wave have been a huge contribution to the Korean economy. In 2014, K-wave injected $11 billion into the Korean economy (Lee, 2011). This has helped in boosting the country's image and development of key infrastructure. It has contributed immensely as well to the Korean tourism industry. A research conducted in 2013 concluded that 60% of tourists visited the country to experience K-wave culture (Jin, 2012). In turn, it has fueled the growth of Korea economy and expansion of K-wave.

Moreover, K-wave culture has helped in growth and Popularity of Korean brands globally. Korean brands have been elevated to world-class brands; such brands include Samsung and LG. These brands are highly ranked in the world, hence, giving South Korea soft power and influence. Generally, the global acceptance of these brands has improved the perception of the country of origin. Interest in Korean products and pop culture globally has been influenced by the growth and expansion of K-wave.

Korean wave has developed significantly since the late 1990s. Development and popularity of this culture are attributed to its high investment in the production of quality pop music and K-wave drama (Jin, 2012). Also, media across the Asian countries has had a great influence in widespread of the K-wave. Media's role has ensured steady development and acceptance of the culture across the globe, elevating it from a regional phenomenon to a worldwide phenomenon.

Currently, K-wave has been incorporated into digital platforms where it has further gained recognition worldwide. Such digital platforms include YouTube and other social media platforms. With technology development, Korean culture has gained remarkable sensation among many countries in the world. Asian countries have accepted this culture since they can easily access and experience it with the use of smartphones. It is not necessary that people have to travel to Korea experience it instead; they can access it with just exploiting digital platforms.

Further, it has been noted that the Korean wave has had a positive influence in the East and Central Asian regions culturally. The culture assimilation amongst these countries has helped reduce animosity and bring peaceful coexistence. This has been made possible by widespread of K-wave. Not only has the K wave has an influence on other countries' culture, but it has helped tourism growth in regions mentioned. People all over the world travel to Korea, Japan, China, and other Asian countries to get the feel of the culture, hence, supporting the region's tourism industry.

Conclusion

In my view, the Korean wave is a good example of a country branding itself in the world by investing in its culture. Korea culture now is a global brand accepted by foreigners. Many countries can learn from this wave on how to preserve and promote the heritage of its people. Generally, art has been accepted across the globe and it is only imperative investing in it can add value to a country's image and outside perception. The benefits of the wave, in this case, is outstanding, from giving Korea soft powers to be level with other global powerhouses such as the United States and European country. It has improved the region commercially by injecting a huge amount of money to the region's economies. This has improved the infrastructure and development of modern K-wave for later generations.

References

Jin, D. Y. (2012). Hallyu 2.0: The new Korean wave in the creative industry. International Institute Journal, 2(1), 3-6. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444814554895?journalCode=nmsa

Lee, S. J. (2011). The Korean Wave: The Seoul of Asia. The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 2(1), 85-93. HYPERLINK "http://www.elon.edu/docs/e-web/academics/communications/research/.../09suejin.pdf

Lita, R., & Cho, Y. C. (2012). The influence of media on attitudinal And Behavioral Changes: Acceptance of Culture and Products. The International Business & Economics Research Journal (Online), 11(12), 1433. https://clutejournals.com/index.php/IBER/article/view/7617