Lanham; Boulder; New York; London: Lexington Books [imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc], 2017. xix, 279 pp. (Tables.) US$104.00, cloth. ISBN 978-1-4985-5556-2.
When the global popularity of Korean pop culture, or Hallyu, emerged in the late 1990s, a number of scholars argued that it was simply a fad and would not be sustainable. However, over the last twenty years Hallyu has expanded its geographical coverage from East Asia to the Americas, Europe, and even Africa. Furthermore, its content has diversified from dramas and popular music to cosmetics and cuisine. As a result, a great deal of attention has focused on understanding this unprecedented phenomenon. According to the editors of The Korean Wave, Tae-Jin Yoon and Dal Yong Jin, the aim of their book is to provide a better understanding of Hallyu’s theoretical and institutional history. Supposedly, this has not been attempted before. They argue that this book presents the possibility for the development of a new theoretical framework that has a non-Western approach.
This book deals with a broad range of subjects, covering a brief history of Hallyu studies, its cultural policies, production and consumption of cultural products, and the evolution of this scholarship. It covers various countries and regions such as China, Japan, Hong Kong, Latin America, Tunisia, and Vietnam, all with different cultural backgrounds. As a result, this book can serve as a good guide for understanding the Korean Wave. However, it is doubtful if this book can be used as a textbook to study a transnational culture that has emerged from a non-Western country, as the editors hoped.
This book explicitly and implicitly alludes that Hallyu and its global popularity are unique, with specific concepts or characteristics such as cultural nationalism (chapters 2 and 10), neoliberal globalization (chapter 3), digitization and digital culture (chapters 4 and 7), fandom culture (chapters 5 and 7), production and consumption (or reception) (chapters 6, 8, 9, 12), remaking (chapter 11), and transnational culturalism (chapter 13). However, the validity of these concepts and characteristics should be carefully and rigorously examined. Moreover, do we really need a new theoretical framework to understand Hallyu, as the editors argue? Let’s discuss this point.
First, is Korea the only country that emphasizes cultural nationalism? In fact, several Western countries, such as Canada and France, have advocated cultural nationalism under a notion of “national cultural diversity.” But have they produced internationally popular films, dramas, and music, as Korea has done recently? If not, then why only Korea?
It is also questionable if Hallyu content has been consumed because it is specifically from Korea. Could it not simply be because the content is of better quality and more interesting? Consider that neoliberal globalization not only helped Hallyu, but also supported American pop culture’s growth after World War II.
Due to the immense impact of the Internet and digitization, which have significantly changed our everyday lives, we often neglect to properly consider the similar effects of radio and television in the past. Interestingly, until the early 1960s, the US alone had more TV sets than the rest of the world combined (in 1962, 53 million vs. 50 million). Therefore, American TV stations actively produced and diffused more shows than any other country, comparable to how Korean companies take advantage of the Internet today. The result was an increase in the global popularity of American dramas.
In contrast to TV in the 1950s, the Internet and social media became widely accessible in most developed countries from the time they were developed in the late 1990s. Thus, Hallyu’s emergence cannot be explained simply by digitization per se, but rather the focus should be on why and how Korean companies have used the Internet and social media more actively and why Hallyu content is more readily available online than cultural content from other countries.
Fandom culture is important, but is this a unique characteristic of Hallyu? What about the 3,000 fans at JFK International Airport in New York in 1964, waiting to welcome the Beatles? Yet there is no doubt that fandom activity today is much more vibrant and well organized than before, with the help of social media and smart devices. But, what comes first in gaining international popularity, fandom or quality content?
Assuming that Hallyu content is consumed not because it is from Korea, but because the quality is better, why and how have Korean companies been able to produce more appealing products than companies from other countries? Why have the Korean productions met with such a favourable reception among audiences in so many countries? Can you say that Chinese TV stations have only remade Korean programs because they are “Korean”? They have also reproduced popular Western TV programs with such things as X Factor in China and China’s Got Talent.
Regarding transnational culturalism for Hallyu’s popularity, how can we explain the popularity of Japanese cultural content in Asian countries in the 1980s and 1990s and its decline in the 2000s? Were Japanese productions not transnational? Compared with the local music of many different countries, K-pop, J-pop, and Euro-pop are relatively closer to American pop songs. But then why are American pop and K-pop more popular?
If we open our eyes and compare Hallyu’s emergence with other countries’ experiences and past events, the similarities outweigh the differences. As H. Lee, the contributor of one chapter, describes, too much emphasis on brand Korea and nationalism has resulted in an anti-Korean Wave sentiment. If Korean scholars place too much emphasis on the uniqueness of Hallyu as specifically “Korean” products, an anti-Korean Wave sentiment could emerge even within academia. If Korean scholars wish to expand the scholarship and attract international scholars to pay attention to Hallyu, the core message should be redefined: if Korea can do it, so can anybody else. While this book offers insights into the various aspects of Hallyu, it still leaves much to be desired.
Jimmyn Parc
Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea & Sciences Po, Paris, France