The aim of the Korean Wave is the popularization of the Korean culture, its expansion to the strategically important regions, and the establishment of the strengthened cultural relationships among the nations to have an indirect influence on the political decisions of the governments of these countries.
Scenario
The Korean Wave initiation was the response to the growing cultural problem in South Korea during the 1970-90s. The expansion of the Western culture, American in particular, began to transform the native Korean culture and blend with it rapidly. Radio, television and other means of entertainment were filled with American media production. Cinemas demonstrated Hollywood movies mostly. The European philosophy of living and the Japanese approach to modernization of it had become part of the Korean culture, and it affected the uniqueness of Korean self-identification along with the disruptive economic effect.
For example, by 1994, the share of foreign content in theaters was about 80% (Jang & Paik, 2012). Such an overall pressure of the foreign culture became possible after two wars in the region and the permission from the Korean government to distribute American movies straight forward to the movie theaters of Korea. The flow of the foreign culture depicted in these movies was supported by the relevant products.
The report prepared for the government indicates that Hollywood movies bring as much money to the distributors from the USA as the Korean carmaker Hyundai selling 1,5 million cars. The decision was made to redirect the substantial financial flows in the reverse direction and develop the Korean cultural program that would attract youth to the theaters and become the new push to the Korean economy. In 1995, the Culture Industry Bureau was established to control the processes in the cultural sphere. At the same time, the financial crisis of 1997 provided the media industry with unexpected growth of financing from the Chaebol, Korean large conglomerates such as Samsung, LG, and Hyundai (Jang & Paik, 2012).
Program Activity
The approach of Korea to spread its public diplomacy vision using the Korean Wave appeared to be utterly successful. The country started to generate content, suitable and attractive for very different regions of the world. The Asian countries like China, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have welcomed the TV dramas, produced within the Korean Wave program, as these countries and their cultural vision were and are still close to the one that the Koreans have. Asians see the lifestyles close to theirs but different, in a good way, so the desire to have such a lifestyle as depicted in these TV dramas grows among the consumers outside Korea (Cho, 2012).
American viewers recognize Korean media products as relaxing and very funny, yet tremendously different from their cultural values. Even the Middle East countries find Korean dramas suitable for their culture since they depict romance and passion no addressing to the exposed sexuality (Lee, 2009). The government of Saudi Arabia broadcasted particular thematic TV dramas to promote the need for loyalty to the government, using the Korean Wave products as soft propaganda.
TV dramas are not the only product presented by the Korean Wave. It is also world famous with idol bands such as Wonder Girls’, H.O.T, NRG, and others. Single singers have astonishing popularity worldwide also (Jang & Paik, 2012). It should be noted that vocal bands are utterly popular in Asian countries mostly while the Western world has less interest in this side of the Korean culture. However, the increasing popularity of social networks and various video hosting services (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others) have made the expansion to Europe and America possible (Jang & Paik, 2012).
The number of views of such type of content online grows incredibly. The internet users from France, the United States, Australia, and England, watched the YouTube broadcasted video “Bubble Pop” for more than 160 million times (Jang & Paik, 2012).
The success of the Korean Wave and its soft penetration to the media space of the targeted countries have improved the relationships with such countries as China, for example, and Malaysia. With Japan, however, despite the popularity of the Korean Wave there, the relationships are still tense, considering the past of these two countries. It is worth mentioning that Korea tends to distant its culture from the American one and move towards China’s cultural space (Lee & Lim, 2014).
There is a negative reaction to Korean Wave’s success as well. In Japan, for example, there is an “anti-Korean Wave” movement protesting against the overwhelming presence of Korean content in the country’s media and cyberspace. The Chinese government decided to limit the presence of the Korean Wave content on air to 50% and show more Taiwan-made and Hong-Kong produced soap operas to support the domestic culture (Lee, 2011). These obstacles on the way of spreading Korean Wave show that public diplomacy also has limitations in its implementation. The public diplomacy of Seoul implemented in the Korean Wave demonstrated excellent results and the image of the country improved substantially after the single noticeable event in the 20th century related to South Korea – the Olympics of 1988.
Analysis
The ingenuity of the Korean Wave developers is in the universality of the content they proposed to generate. As it can be noticed, the Korean Wave gained popularity in very different regions, from China to Europe, the United States of America, and the Eastern world. The mix of the American and Korean cultures resulted in the Korean Wave and showed excellent results in the increase of the awareness of people around the world regarding Korea, its culture, and people (Lee, 2009).
It is a decent example of the public diplomacy when the image of Korea is improved through the cultural penetration into the media space of other countries by using attractive images, nice music, and simple but interesting soap operas. The major benefit of the Korean Wave as the diplomacy tool is its focus on youth (Cho, 2012). Younger generations are attracted by all of the above and the image of Korea as the country producing such kind of content is shaped appropriately. It can be said that the Korean Wave is more than just a diplomatic tool, using the public approach as the method of resolving current issues (Kim, 2012).
The public diplomacy of Korea is focused on the future and the establishment of the strong, positively shaped relationships with its neighbors and partners overseas. Additionally, the Korean Wave serves as the boost for the economic development of the country, exporting the content and shaping the buyers’ habits and behavioral patterns.
Learning Point
The Korean Wave case is an excellent example of the public diplomacy use aimed at the creation of the positive image of the country, increasing awareness regarding it, and boosting economic growth through the export of its culture.
References
Cho, Y.Y. (2012). Public diplomacy and South Korea’s strategies. The Korean Journal of International Studies, 10(2), 275-296. Web.
Jang, G., & Paik, W.K. (2012). Korean wave as tool for Korea’s new cultural diplomacy. Advances in Applied Sociology, 2(3), 196-202. Web.
Kim, T. (2012). Paradigm shift in diplomacy: A conceptual model for Korea’s “New Public Diplomacy.” Korea Observer, 43(4), 527-555. Web.
Lee, G. (2009). A soft power approach to the “Korean wave.” The Review of Korean Studies, 12, 123-137. Web.
Lee, S.J. (2011). The Korean wave: The Seoul of Asia. The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 2(1), 85-91. Web.
Lee, H., & Lim, L. (2014). Cultural policies in East Asia: Dynamics between the state, arts and creative industries. New York, NY: Springer. Web.