How South Korean culture conquered the planet

(Seoul) Its films win Oscars, its series and K-pop stars tour the world and one of its novelists has just won the Nobel Prize for literature… How did South Korea establish itself as a cultural power?

At the origin of “Hallyu”

From 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 sweeps over Western countries with 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 were worth more than $18 billion (Canadian) in 2022, more than household appliances or electric cars. These were mainly video games like Battlegrounds Mobile, immensely popular in India and Pakistan. The government’s goal is to reach approximately $34.6 billion by 2027.

A troubled past

Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho explains the cultural success of South Korea by the “dramatic periods” experienced by the inhabitants of the Asian country which has experienced, since the Korean War (1950-1953), military dictatorship, radical economic transformation and democratic transition.

These “extreme events” help to 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 jury praised her “intense poetic prose which confronts historical trauma and exposes the fragility of human life”, herself said that she was deeply marked by what she had learned from massacre which 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,” says Oh Hyung-yup, professor of literature at Korea University.

Pioneers

South Korea is one of the rich countries where the fewest women work but they are at the forefront of the country’s cultural success.

The vegetarian by Han Kang is considered a pioneering text of ecofeminism. And Kim Jiyoung, born in 1982 by 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”

If the government has invested substantial sums to support the cultural sector, experts point out that the State has sometimes hindered its success.

Under 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.”