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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/06/bts-blackpink-squid-game-kimchi-whats-the-secret-of-south-koreas-world-conquering-culture>
"How does this sound for a leisurely day of cultural immersion? Ablutions
completed, apply a moisturising face mask infused with snail secretion against
an audio backdrop of girl group Blackpink. For lunch, a bowl of
bibimbap and
a Bong Joon-ho film. In the evening, binge-watch zombie series
All of Us Are
Dead over spicy
yangnyeom chicken and a bottle of strawberry
soju. All
this without setting foot inside their country of origin.
Not even the fact that the all-conquering boyband BTS have been called up for
military service can dampen the global appetite for all things South Korean.
K-pop now regularly tops the US and UK charts. Three years after
Squid Game
became Netflix’s most-watched show ever, four years after Bong’s
Parasite
became the first non-English language film to win the best picture Oscar, with
K-pop girl group Twice at No 1 on the US album chart, the Korean content
juggernaut shows no sign of slowing down.
In fact, western studios are now talking of a Korean “gold rush”. Netflix
recently announced $2.5bn in investment in South Korean projects over the next
four years, led by a second season of
Squid Game. Disney and Apple TV+ are
also commissioning more South Korean shows. “Everybody wants a piece of Korean
content,” one Disney executive recently told the
Hollywood Reporter. “It’s
been popular across Asia for 20 years [but] the fact that it can now travel
globally – that’s something new.”
Even the BBC is getting in on the act. In February, CBBC and BBC iPlayer
launched
Gangnam Project – a coming-of-age “dramedy” looking at “what it
takes to become a K-pop superstar”. The BBC’s head of commissioning and
acquisitions for 7-12-year-olds, Sarah Muller, noted: “South Korea is the
modern centre of the creative world.”
The country has come a long way in just a few decades. The 1988 Seoul Olympics
marked its emergence from nearly 30 years of military rule, but even at the
turn of the century, South Korea was primarily known abroad for its cars,
consumer electronics and the ruthless dictatorship with which it shared a
border. Now, the surging currents of
Hallyu (the Korean wave) have cemented
its credentials as a cultural superpower."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
