Its films win Oscars, its series and K-pop stars tour the world and one of its novelists has just won the Nobel Prize in Literature…: how South Korea established itself as a power cultural?
At the origin of “Hallyu”
Starting in the late 1990s, Korean films and K-pop stars gained popularity in neighboring Asian countries such as Japan and China: the “Hallyu”, or cultural wave, was born.
It will sweep across Western countries with, in particular, the heady Gangnam Style by Psy, released in 2012.
During the following decade, Babysharkthe viral children’s song, breaks YouTube views records, K-pop superstars BTS top charts around the world, the film Parasite by Bong Joon-ho is distinguished in Hollywood with an Oscar and Squid Game becomes the most viewed non-English series on Netflix.
South Korean exports of cultural goods represented nearly 12 billion euros (CA$16.5 billion) in 2022, more than household appliances or electric cars. They were mainly video games, like Battlegrounds Mobileimmensely popular in India and Pakistan.
The government’s goal is to reach around 23 billion euros (CA$31.6 billion) by 2027.
A troubled past
Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho explains South Korea’s cultural success by the “drama periods” experienced by the locals. Since the Korean War (1950-1953), the Asian country has experienced military dictatorship, radical economic transformation and democratic transition.
These “extreme events” help bring “an abundance of inspiration and stimulation” for creators, he judged: “It’s such a dynamic and turbulent place. »
Award-winning “K-literature”
Han Kang, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday, has distinguished herself through works that are inspired by the contemporary history of her country.
The 53-year-old novelist, whose Nobel Prize jury praised her “intense poetic prose which confronts historical trauma and exposes the fragility of human life”, herself said that she was deeply affected by what she had learned. of the massacre that took place in 1980 in his hometown of Gwangju. The military dictatorship then violently repressed an uprising against the coup which had just occurred.
Han Kang said that his father had shown him photos of the bodies of the victims and of the population who were mobilizing to donate blood for the injured. These scenes inspired his book The one who returns.
While many South Korean authors have addressed their country’s traumatic past in their works, Han Kang has created “his own striking literary aesthetic,” said Oh Hyung-yup, professor of literature at Korea University.
Pioneers
South Korea is one of the wealthy countries where the fewest women work, but they are at the forefront of the country’s cultural success.
The vegetarianby Han Kang, is considered a pioneering text of ecofeminism. And Kim Jiyoung, born in 1982by Cho Nam-Joo, which tells the story of a married woman who stops working to raise her child, met with great international success.
Public support and “drinking binges”
While the government has invested considerable sums to support the cultural sector, the state has sometimes hindered its success, experts point out.
Under former President Park Geun-hye (2013-2017), Han Kang was part of a list of 9,000 artists “blacklisted” for criticizing the government.
Some initiatives have nevertheless paid off, such as the creation in 1996 of a public organization which promotes Korean literature abroad and trains translators (LTI Korea).
Korean literature has also benefited from the K-pop phenomenon. When a member of boy band BTS was seen reading a self-help book, hundreds of thousands of copies of the book were sold.
The director of ParasiteBong Joon-ho, explains South Korean creativity in a more unexpected way: “We are in a country addicted to work. People work too much. And at the same time, we drink too much. So every night there are intense drinking sessions and everything becomes very extreme. »