Hallyu

and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 1

Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave

Marissa Trunfio

Professors Chun/Cobb

Suffolk University


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 2

Abstract

This paper seeks to explain the phenomenon of the Korean Wave, as well as its history of
development and its progress in evolution. The Korean Wave (termed Hallyu)
comprises a series of pop culture mediums including music, movies, and television
shows that convey South Korean social values and are used as mechanisms of soft power
towards countries in surrounding regions and overseas. Generally, the Hallyu style is
more readily appreciated by countries that are already familiar with the Buddhist and
Confucian principles integral to South Korean culture, and these countries often prefer
South Korean influence over historically aggressive military and soft power dominance
by the United States. South Koreas use of pop culture as soft power improves the
countrys ability to gain trust, notoriety, and preference in trade internationally that
transforms into dynamic political and economic strength.


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 3

Introduction

Hallyu is a Korean adaptation of the Chinese term

Hnliwhich directly

translates into the flow of Korea, used to describe the recent phenomenon of Korean

pop culture, also known as the Korean Wave. Most of the cultural exports facilitate

Korean-inspired pop culture trends, which aggregates into soft power expansion for

South Korea into international marketplaces and political spheres. The South Korean

government has invested millions of dollars since the economic crisis of 1997 to

developing its pop culture mediums, mainly in television dramas, music groups, and

video games. Other sectors of the economy that have improved under the growth of the

Hallyu industry include food exports, cosmetics, and plastic surgery, which has

increased in popularity within South Korea and among populations of surrounding

countries as citizens seek to look more Western or attempt to model the looks they see

from actors and music icons. Although Western media trends have notably impacted

South Korean perceptions of beauty, fashion, and wealth, South Korea is seeking to form

its own independent image amidst Western soft power dominance and entice

international powers to its influence. However, if South Koreas culture-heavy soft

power initiative is to maintain its force, the figures of the industry must do their best to

remain relevant, and evolve according to changing perceptions and demands of

consumers. South Korean industries must find ways to maintain their advantage over

competitors in technology sectors, while crafting uniquely South Korean soft power

agents who are able to subtly empower the interests of the country.


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 4

Literature Review and Data Analysis

Online news articles have most frequently contributed to the development of

scholarship on Hallyu due to the nature of the Korean Wave content, its growth in

popularity through predominantly online sources, and its recent and rapidly changing

dynamism. Most online articles chronicle the development of major industries that

comprise the Korean Wave, with special emphasis on their economic impact. For

example, the article Games Take Up Over Half of South Koreas Cultural Exports in

2012 by Yonhap News Agency shows the total value of South Korean games exports as a

portion of its cultural overseas investment, including the percentage of mobile and

games products shipped to international markets. Dramatic increases in profits from

cultural trade are explored, as revenues have increased five times since levels from just

one year prior. As of 2013, South Korean games exports totalled 6.3% of the

international market share, bringing in $2.6 billion in revenues for the country. Since

features of K-Pop and K-Drama are typically associated with the Hallyu phenomenon,

the extreme success of the gaming exports is surprising by South Koreas capacity, but is

not surprising in a world that increasingly values electronic entertainment, and has

boosted the global market of gaming to be worth $111.7 billion as of only 2012.1

In regards to the music industry of Hallyu, the force of K-Pop has been nothing

short of tremendous or astounding to all that have been caught up in its sway. However,

there are noticeable patterns that have emerged among K-Pop groups that both

all-female and all-male groups have followed closely, and entertainment companies

1
Yonhap News.Yonhap News Agency,
"Games Take Up Over Half of S. Korea's Cultural Exports in 2012."
14 Apr. 2014. Web. 28 June 2015.


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 5

have dedicated themselves to sustaining the lure of K-Pop under a steady system of

carefully cultivated practices. The music scene in South Korea is mostly dominated by

groups of all-female and all-male pop stars that are selected by corporations during their

early teenage years and are developed to meet the demands of the entertainment

industry under a process dubbed nurturing2 . From the onset, these stars must endure

strict dieting, highly intense exercise regimes, long drills of choreography, and frequent

plastic surgery alterations. In an attempt to be as conceptually engaging as possible,

both all-female and all-male groups are carefully designed to work in unison, from their

harmonies in dance and music to their iconic matching fashions. The unified fashion

K-Pop groups promote is almost always trendsetting and provocative, and is designed to

enhance the theme of a groups performance or promote the concept of a group as

generally being either extremely cute or extremely sexy. (The cute concept is so popular

in South Korea, and is so markedly South Korean, that the term

aegyo has been dubbed

in order to categorize its effects.) As blogs and news sources have pointed out, there are

generally two ways that groups evolve: upon their debut, new groups choose cuteness in

order to ease into mass markets without controversy, and then re-vamp themselves with

sex appeal to stand out against competition (though this transition is much more

dramatic particularly if previous group concepts have failed); and more established

groups such as Girls Generation and Super Juniorthat have already become incredibly

aegyo
successful with the cute image at the height of re-market themselves with

overt sex appeal in order to remain among the most relevant and popular groups3 .

2
JiSook,Bae."HallyuSeeksSustainability."TheKoreaHerald,12Feb.2013.Web.04July2015.
3
Nabeela."TheKpopFormula:CuteorSexy,PickYourPoison." Socio.SeoulBeates,29Oct.2012.Web.
04July2015.


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 6

K-Pop groups are able to attract such intense, devoted popularity because their

songs often sample different styles of music (sometimes within one track) and their

videos employ a variety of dance techniques and fashions in order to appeal to multiple

preferences within audiences and maintain as diverse a fan base as possible. Songs are

pop-heavy but usually incorporate electronic, hip-hop, and rock influences, and group

members are stylized to represent different ranges of physical preference and emotional

connection4 . In the music video for I Got A Boy by Girls Generation, for example, all

each girl wears a different hairstyle, adopts a different social expression (ranging from

aegy
o cute to overtly sexy to pop-punk and semi-alternate), and all represent slightly

different fashion styles while maintaining the overall emphasis of sexual power.

The video even exemplifies the shift the group members made in their public

evolution with initial

aegyo cuteness (a pink-dominated environment with the girls

looking and acting youthful, innocent, and playful) followed by a dramatic switch at :30

to synth-heavy instrumentals, deep vocals, and tight choreography5 to enhance a newly

developed, intense sexual prowess. English-language interjections in a hip-hop inspired

call-and-response style cue listeners in to stylistic shifts: Hey yo, GG! at :30, Hey let

me introduce myself! at 00:57, and Here comes trouble! at 1:00 carry the song from

its saturation in
aegyo to an eclectic mix of electropop, dance, and hard rock influences,

with prominent drum and bass to accompany the chorus6. After the 2:05 mark when one

4
Articles/Reviews
Benjamin,Jeff."Girls'Genearation,'IGotaBoy':TrackByTrackReview." .Billboard,04
Jan.2013.Web.4July2015.
5
GotaBoy
I .Prod.WillSimmsandYooYoungJin.Perf.Girl'sGeneration. YouTube. S.M.
Entertainment,K.T.Music,31Dec.2012.Web.01July2015.
6
BillboardStaff,andBillboardKoreaStaff."20BestKPopSongsof2013:KTownPicks."Articles/News|
List|KTown .Billboard,23Dec.2013.Web.4July2015.


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 7

of the group members interrupts the flow with spoken-word Hey yo stop, let me put it

down another way, the song transforms into a dubstep-like house breakdown before

another group member exclaims, Dont stop, lets bring it back to 1:40 (at 4:07) and

the song resumes its earlier hybrid of EDM, hard rock, and pop-rap.7 By experimenting

with a variety of genres in one song, entertainment companies seek to prove that the

music groups they support have diverse, genuine, and original talent, while ensuring

success through many styles of musical preferences that their fans may pursue.

Yet despite the devotion of their fanbase, and the wide range of international

appeal that these pop groups experience, there has been an increasing amount of

backlash reported against the companies that manage supergroups like Girls

Generation, A Pink, Super Junior, and EXO. These concerns have ranged from human

rights abuses (mainly involving complaints against stars being overworked against the

security of their health), and leaked reports of stars being forced on dangerously

low-calorie diets despite their heavy exercise and performance obligations. According to

articles by Yonhap News Agency8 and the Korea Herald9 , five members of three separate

all-male groups have filed lawsuits to nullify their contracts with SM Entertainment

(South Koreas largest entertainment management company) and reports from

entertainment news sources KPopStarz.com, AllKPop.com, and HelloKPop.com have

7
Overview'IGotaBoy'byGirls'Generation.
Jeffries,David."AllMusicReviewbyDavidJeffries."
AllMusic,n.d.Web.04July2015.
8
"EXO'sChineseMemberSuestoEndContractWithS.KoreanAgency." Culture
.YonhapNewsAgency,
15May2014.Web.4July2015.
9
"EXOM'sKrisSuesSMtoEndExclusiveContract." Entertainment|Hallyu.TheKoreaHerald,15May
2015.Web.04July2015.


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 8

revealed that the members of all-female groups A Pink, Girls Generation, and SNSD

have been working on diets of only 800 calories per day.

Members of A Pink have spoken out to news agencies regarding the pressure fans

place on them to manage their weight, as well as the initial standards corporations had

enforced upon them to lower their weight to minimal levels of tolerance. In the

beginning of their careers, diets were roughest when the agencies first began training

them: When we first debuted, the people at the agency would tell us, 'You should feel

thankful that we're forcing you to diet now. You'll want to diet later on,' [Park Cho Rong,

member of A Pink] said. Now we understand why. Although the group members have

learned how to manage their own weight through discipline and habit, the pressure of

the media and of the fans is also one of the strongest motivational factors for the groups

to monitor weight. Another member of A Pink, Jung Eun Ji, elaborates upon close

scrutiny of the fans and the restrictions of monitoring with dieticians:

Since the public sees us through the media, theres a standardized appearance of

us. It motivates us to diet when we monitor . . . The fans know too. They know

right away if we put on a little weight. When we gain weight, the fans tell us to

lose it, and when we lose weight, they tell us to gain it again10 .

When it was revealed that the members of Girls Generation only eat approximately 800

calories per day, SM responded immediately that the group members supposedly eat

1200 calories per day, which according to experts at Nutrition.com is the bare minimum

for healthy eating when dieting for extended periods. Columnist Phillip of

10
Lent,Jesse."APinkDiscussTheirDietingWoes:'TheFansKnowRightAwayIfWePutOnALittle
News/Main/HotIssues
Weight'EunjiClaims." .KPopStarz,14Apr.2014.Web.04July2015.


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 9

HelloKPop revealed that as of 2010, Girls Generation member Yoona weighed less 107

pounds, and with a height of 55, this chronicles her as being severely underweight

according to the BMI Index11 . Because the influence of K-Pop is international and the

presence of the media (televised and online) is nearly ubiquitous in South Korea, the

pressure for stars to adopt striking standards of beauty is increasingly intensified, and is

expressed in the forms of severe dieting and frequent plastic surgery.

Although there is no direct link between dieting among K-Pop fans and dieting

among supergroup memberspeople experience eating disorders for a myriad of

reasons, and there is less specific data on a trend or relationship among fansthere is a

noted phenomenon of plastic surgery, with the most amount of plastic surgeries in the

world per capita being performed in South Korea. Although it is certainly not

uncommon for men to get plastic surgery, the number for young women is much higher;

according to the article About Face by the New Yorker, It has been estimated that

between one-fifth and one-third of women in Seoul have gone under the knife, and one

poll reported by the BBC puts the figure at fifty per cent or higher for women in their

twenties. Much of the pressure has come from the influence of K-Pop groups and

anime, as one woman showed a doctor a cartoon that she wanted to resemble, and

many patients have come to doctors asking to be remodeled in celebrities likenesses, or

to share some of their physical features, for instance, with Kim Tae-hees nose and Lee

Min-jungs eyes. Double-eyelid surgery is by far the most popular procedure done in

11
Editorial
Phillip."WhyEatingGirls'Generation's'800CalorieDiet'IsNotGoingToWorkForYou." .
HelloKPop,28Apr.2014.Web.04July2015.


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 10

Korea, and can be accomplished in as little as 15 minutes12 . Many celebrities and figures

in the public light from K-Pop stars to actors to even the former President Roh

Moo-Hyun have noticeably gotten double eyelid surgery; this trend to look more

Western has inspired 20% of all South Korean women ages 19 to 49 to undergo this

procedure, as well 15% of all South Korean males, and hundreds of thousands of foreign

tourists13 . One of the global effects of the spread of the Korean Wave has been the

dramatic rise of the plastic surgery industry and a surge in interest in medical tourism,

as average citizens are inspired by the heavily Westernized, often unnatural standards of

beauty emulated by celebrities.

As reported by articles in The New Yorker (the aforementioned About Face)

and The New York Times (Plastic Surgery Tourism Brings Chinese to South Korea),

approximately one-third of all plastic surgeries are performed on medical tourists, of

which as of 2013 there have been 211,218, the majority of which have been Chinese. Of

these Chinese tourists, most of the operations have been sought by Chinese women, who

have been influenced by the Hallyu culture: Korean television shows and movies are

wildly successful in China. Patients often take magazine photos to their consultations.

As with native South Koreans, Chinese tourists are inspired by beauty of wealthy

celebrities, and wish to adopt similar overall appearances or enhance certain physical

qualities to match that of their idols. In order to further capitalize on the immense

success of the business, the South Korean government is investing $4 million per year to

12
Marx,Patricia."AboutFace:WhyIsSouthKoreatheWorld'sPlasticSurgeryCapital?" NewYorker23
Mar.2015:n.pag. LetterFromSeoul.TheNewYorker.Web.4July2015.
13
Bloomberg Business: Tourism
Lee, Heesu. "PerfectingtheFaceLift, GangnamStyle." . BloombergL.P.,
10Oct.2013.Web.4July2015.


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 11

advertise and develop its medical tourism industry, which in 2011 yielded a total of

649,938 procedures and $453 million in profits14 . With the Korean Wave solidifying its

power on a global level, South Korean medical tourism and plastic surgery industries

continue to be among the most profitable cosmetic trends in the world, with

manufactured standards of beauty influencing international audiences and contributing

to hundreds of millions of dollars in profits for the South Korean government.

As integral as the development of K-Pop is to the Korean Wave, there is another

element to Hallyu that is arguably as alluring and significant: K-Drama. Already,

Chinese officials have lamented the prevalence of Korean Dramas, particularly one

called My Love From the Star. When the lead actress of the show stated that her

favorite food was chi-mek, or fried chicken and beer, sales of fried chicken and beer

skyrocketed to the point that local Chinese businesses have been booming and Chinese

citizens have actually endangered their health while binge-eating. As noted by the

aptly-titled Buzzfeed article An Insanely Popular Korean Drama is Ruining Lives in

China, one pregnant woman reportedly almost suffered a miscarriage after watching

My Love From the Star for several hours straight into the night and binge-eating too

much chi-mek, while another couple ate so much chi-mek that they had to be admitted

into the hospital and treated for pancreatitis15 . Local fried-chicken-and-beer takeout

joints in China have been overrun with customers; in an article by the Wall Street

Journal, some people admitted waiting over 2 hours in line for the combo meal, and

14
InternationalBusiness
Stevenson,Alexandra."PlasticSurgeryTourismBringsChinesetoSouthKorea." .
TheNewYorkTimes,23Dec.2014.Web.04July2015.
15
Buzzfeed
Wang,Kimberly."AnInsanelyPopularKoreanDramaIsRuiningLivesInChina." .Buzzfeed,
Inc.,11Mar.2014.Web.04July2015.


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 12

businesses have seen their profits rise exponentially within a matter of weeks: Our daily

revenue used to be about several hundred yuan, but since last month, it has grown

rapidly and can reach as much as 3,000 yuan per day, reported one employee from a

fried-chicken-and-beer takeout restaurant in the Beijing subdistrict Wangjing16 . Korean

Dramas have done more than attract high viewership ratings online; some fans are

willing to risk their health to follow the trends inspired by these programs, and their

dedication translates into real profits for local businesses, an increased interest in

Korean cuisine, andunfortunately, when devotion becomes extremephysical

ramifications that can severely impact personal health.

As of 2014, My Love From the Star has garnered over 14.5 billion views on one

online video streaming service alone, and Chinese officials have dedicated hours at Party

meetings wondering in vexation why their government cannot create content as

captivating to the citizens of their own country. This has proved to be a genuine political

issue in China that raises questions about the openness of its government and the ability

for creators to thrive; artists note that the talent in China is viable, but lacking is the

State support needed to develop popular art rooted in genuine Chinese culture. This

proves difficult to overcome, as the censorship process is very strict, a problem which

was openly acknowledged by some members of the CPPCC (Chinas political advisory

body), one of whom has experience in the entertainment industry as a director: My

heart trembles, he said, when waiting for a movie to go through this rigorous censoring

.
procedure The Chinese officials who bemoaned the success of foreign culture

16
ChinaRealTime
Lin,Lilian."KoreanTVShowSparksChickenandBeerCrazeinChina." .TheWall
StreetJournal,26Feb.2014.Web.4July2015.


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 13

influences state that their problems lie far beyond the essence of the Drama, even

superseding economic or soft power concerns: It is more than just a Korean soap opera.

It hurts our cultural dignity, remarked one member of the CPPCC17. It is not known yet

whether the influence of K-Drama and K-Pop will encourage the Chinese government to

lessen its regulations in order to allow its own creative material to flourish, but China

continues to remain one of the biggest markets for Korean Wave cultural exports, as it is

South Koreas largest trading partner.

Open trade boundaries between South Korea and China have not only

contributed to economic growth for South Korea in its Hallyu industries, but has led to

an improvement in trade relations overall between the two countries, and positive

diplomacy is anticipated to spread to Japan in the projected finalization of a three-way

trade agreement. It is monumental for two countries with a history of military

aggression and animosity to peacefully come together and agree on strategies that work

best for the development of both their countries, and that will lead to economic benefits

for both partners. According to reports in The Diplomat, trade between China and South

Korea is estimated to be worth over $300 billion a year, an improvement from 2012

figures of $215 billion per year, and will lift the GDPs of both countries by 0.3 percent

and fully 1 percent, respectively18 . Channels in trade have also opened up to allow for

increased importing of South Korean cultural content predominantly benefiting the

17
Wan,William."ChineseOfficialsDebateWhyChinaCantMakeaSoapOperaasGoodasSouth
Koreas." Asia&Pacific.TheWashingtonPost,07Mar.2014.Web.4July2015.
18
TheKoreas
Tiezzi,Shannon."ItsOfficial:China,SouthKoreaSignFreeTradeAgreement." .The
Diplomat,02June2015.Web.4July2015.


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 14

K-Pop industry, as South Korean companies now have permission to control a 49%

share in concert organizers19 within China.

The Korean Wave has also dramatically changed lives in one other country that is

overtly affected by tyrannical dictatorship: North Korea. Smugglers across the Chinese

border bringing in K-Dramas and K-Pop on CDs, DVDs, and flash drives have become

such a problem for the North Korean government that Kim Jong Un issued a

proclamation in October 2012 declaring that his government must extend the fight

against the enemy's ideological and cultural infiltration, and vowed to ruthlessly crush

those hostile elements of foreign pop culture that in the long term threaten to reveal the

deficiencies of the government and destabilize his regime. Increasingly appealing

examples of life in wealthy, developed nations has already encouraged thousands of

North Korean defectors to South Korea. One defector interviewed in an article by the

Associated Press revealed that K-Drama allowed him to became aware of the

impoverished, degenerative condition of the totalitarian regime when compared to more

stable countries overseas: I felt sad about the state of my country when I watched the

DVDs . . . I could see Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, the United States . . . these other

places were so much better off.20 North Korean citizens who live closer to the

Demilitarized Zone have also been able to tamper with their televisions in order to

receive South Korean broadcasts, and black markets near the Chinese border have

thrived. The North Korea Strategy Center (established by the notable author and

19
Kyunghwa,Song,andParkHyunJeong."SouthKoreaandChinaOfficiallySignFreeTradeAgreement."
BusinessNews .TheHankyoreh,02June2015.Web.04July2015.
20
Sullivan,Tim,SamKim,andHyungJinKim."NorthKoreaCracksDownonKnowledgeSmugglers."The
BigStory .AssociatedPress,31Dec.2012.Web.04July2015.


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 15

defector Kang Cheol Hwan) alone has sent approximately 4,000 content-filled USBs

through their networks into the black market underground21. As a response, the North

Korean government has ramped up security at the border by employing security units

specially trained to seek out potentially threatening cultural influences or technology.

Crackdowns have also intensified, with the number of North Korean refugees escaping

to South Korea reduced by half from about 2,800 in the year 2011 (after the death of

Kim Jong-Il) to 1,400 by 201222. Although official numbers are difficult to estimate, it is

evident from multiple sources that the Korean Wave has influenced hundreds if not

thousands of North Koreans to defect and seek better quality of life in nations that are

much more economically powerful, and with far greater levels of political freedom.

The Korean Wave has allowed international citizens to accept Korean culture and

integrate it within their own lives, and has even motivated foreign officials to promote

creative content as meaningful to their native citizens as South Korean pop culture can

be. The intense, personal connections that fans have attached towards the idols and the

values promoted by Korean content are reflected in the lifestyle changes that fans have

actively adopted into their lives to be more Korean. International preferences for

South Korean cuisine, music, social customs, fashion, and beauty standards have

already contributed to developing a world image of South Korea as an increasingly

positive nation. In 2009 the South Korea was added to the BBC Country Rating Poll,

and in every year since then the global perception of the country has improved, with

nations like Russia, India, China, and France stating culture and tradition as the most

21
HumanRights.
Ekin,Annette."SoftApproachtoRevolutioninNorthKorea." AlJazeeraEnglish,02Mar.
2015.Web.04July2015.
22
SeeFootnote20


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 16

significant contributions to their increased approval23 . Since the international affairs

magazine Monocle began chronicling levels of soft power strength, South Korea has

increased in their ranking every year from 2010-2012, moving upwards from #19, to

#14, to #11, out of 30 countries listed24 .

In its most recent survey released in 2015, South Korea still measured potently at

#1525, but had fallen in the rankings amidst fears of international competition in the IT

and mobile device markets. The highest concerns about South Koreas ability to sustain

economic growth and cultural relevance relate to the oversaturation of the tech markets,

especially domestically, in addition to the increasing lack of diversity of its media

platforms (particularly K-Pop) and its recent maladaptiveness in being able to compete

against foreign culture content for the hardware that it produces26 . The Chairman for

the World Association of Hallyu Studies, Park Gil-Sung, recently relayed his fears in an

article for the Korea Herald regarding K-Pops ability to remain sustainable over time:

We must be alert against hallyu fatigue . . . The only way to do this will be to diversify

the contentnot only boy or girl bands, but capable artists should be able to create

global content and promote it.27 As previously mentioned, the majority of K-Pop icons

are members of all-male or all-female groups that tend to mix different genres of music

in their songs or modify their group concept through pre-planned comebacks as

techniques to stay relevant. However, celebrities will need to be able to move beyond

23
BBCWorldServicePoll Globescan
. .BBC,10May2012.Web.4July2015.
24
SoftPowerSurvey2013 Affairs/SoftPower.
. Monocle,Nov.2013.Web.4July2015.
25
SoftPowerSurvey201415 Affairs/SoftPower.
. Monocle,Nov.2014.Web.4July2015.
26
YoungWon,Kim."S.KoreaWillBetheFirstSaturatedMobileMarket." Flurry:Technology.TheNation,
16Oct.2013.Web.04July2015.
27


JiSook,Bae."HallyuSeeksSustainability."TheKoreaHerald,12Feb.2013.Web.04July2015.


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 17

their corporate-heavy influence and utilize their own creativity in order to cut out an

edge in media markets that are increasingly becoming more competitive and diverse.

Similar issues with originality are arising in South Koreas tech industry, as

developers are concerned with South Koreas inability to keep up with the popularity of

Western media content in its own mobile and tablet devices: . . . as the growth rates for

smartphone users and LTE subscriptions slow down, the fight for increasing revenues is

no longer about drawing new customers but stealing customers from competitors.28

Smartphone penetration in South Korea has already exceeded 100% as of 2010, which

means that there are more phones available on the market than there are customers to

purchase the phones. Advancements in production have pushed this number to 111% as

of 2013, and electronics companies such as Samsung have already reported profit losses

and a reduction in their share of the global smartphone market from 32.4% during 2013

to 31.2% in the first quarter of 201429. South Korea is already in the process of

developing 5G LTE networks in order to consolidate the streaming of large-scale media

content 1,000 times faster than current wireless capacities. If these experiments are

successful, South Korea will maintain its leadership position in tech fields through their

establishment of high-speed internet networks and a high market share of hardware

exports, but the nation will also be able to facilitate the spread of native media content

and lead a technological revolution that could have a massive social impact:
Seoul

hopes to accelerat[e] global progress towards telecoms standards that could enable

28
Shin,Mandy."HowtheIntenseCompetitionAmongItsTelcoPlayersMakesKoreatheLeadingNationfor
Mobile."L'AtelierBlog
.L'AtelierBNBParibas,08Apr.2014.Web.04July2015.
29
Lee,MinJeong."Korea'sSmartphonePopulationTopsMilestone." KoreaRealTimeRSS
.TheWall
StreetJournal,28July2014.Web.05July2015.


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 18

dramatic advances in communications technology.30 Although there is skepticism as to

the success of South Koreas ambitious plans, the governments decisions to maintain its

economic strength and soft power influence through the development of its technology

sectors are logical, as the stability of South Koreas technology is an essential to the

communication of its culture, its prominence in global markets, and the overall

advancement of its society.

30
Telecoms.
Mundy,Simon."SouthKoreaTargets5GGlobalSupremacy." TheFinancialTimes,25Nov.
2014.Web.4July2015.


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 19

Conclusion

The Korean Wave has brought in more than $12.6 billion dollars from 9 different

categories of the Creative Industry Sector: Animation, Broadcasting, Cartoon, Character,

Gaming, Knowledge/Information, Motion Picture, Music, and Publishing31 . Economic

success in one industry often leads to improvement in others; with the success of the

gaming industry, for example, comes added benefits for associated categories of the

Creative Industry Sector, such as Animation, Characters, and graphic design32 . Creative

industries are developing so rapidly, and are bringing in so much revenue for South

Korea, that the government is investing in university programs to train highly-skilled

citizens to perpetuate the growth of the Sector. Although there are concerns for backlash

and for oversaturation, the Korean Wave remains immensely popular and immensely

influential, with a 45% increase from 2009-2013 in Korean-language studies at the

university level, as students are inspired to further immerse themselves in the world of

their favorite television programs, movies, and music33. Despite its tragic and

tumultuous history of invasions, wars, and dictatorships, South Korea is now the 14th

largest economy in the world34 and the 15th most significant nation in terms of soft

power, due in no small part to the revolutions the country has led in technology and

culture. Although the countrys media figures must continuously keep in mind new ways

to maintain relevance, and even enhance their favorabilitytrends in pop culture are by

31
ContentsIndustryTrendAnalysisReport(Animation/CharacterIndustries)1stQuarter,2012.Korea
CreativeContentsAgency.July2012.13August2012.PDF.Web.04July2015.
32
SeeFootnote1
33
Chow,Kat."WayMoreCollegeStudentsAreStudyingKorean.Is'Hallyu'TheReason?" CodeSwitch:
FrontiersofRace,Culture,andEthnicity.
NPR,03Apr.2015.Web.04July2015.
34
AhYoung,Chung."Korea'sGDPRanks14thforFiveConsecutiveYears." Finance.TheKoreaTimes,14
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Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 20

their nature transient and sometimes unpredictablethe immense economic and

political gains South Korea has experienced from its Hallyu phenomenon remain

impressive and even threatening to other nations competing with it for cultural

dominance. With respect to South Koreas experiments in 5G and the investments the

government has made in ensuring the success of its cultural exports, South Korea has

established its status as a global leader in technology, culture, and social progress.


Hallyu
and Soft Power: The Impact of the Korean Wave 21

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