Name: GO, PAMELLA DAFHNE E.

Course & Sec: AB FOREIGN SERVICE - 201

Full name of Course: POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
Professor: MR. JUMEL G. ESTRAÑERO

SURFING ALONG WITH THE HALLYU WAVE: THE EFFECTS OF KOREANIZATION TO

NATIONS AND TO ENTIRE SOUTH KOREA’S SOCIO-POLITICAL SOFT POWER

I. INTRODUCTION

The Korean Wave is very evident wherever you look at. Ranging from the emergence of
Samgyeopsal restaurants, Korean convenience stores, rampant usage of K-cosmetics,
anticipating and binge-watching of K-Dramas, and to hoarding or bulk buying of albums whenever
our favorite K-pop group makes a debut or a comeback after a long time. As this tremendous
process continues to spread, we can vividly see the traces of the immense impact of the Hallyu
Wave in the Philippines as well as in other countries because of the marketing strategy and the
so-called effect of Koreanization. All of these aspects changed the pattern of our perception
towards the Korean culture and how Korea utilizes the Hallyu Wave for the benefit of its soft
power.

As presented by Roll (2020), Hallyu refers to a Chinese term that basically means “Korean
Wave”. It pertains to the extensive growth of the Korean culture, more so, the popular culture as
it continuously branches out from K-music, K-dramas, K-movies, K-cuisine, K-fashion, and even
online games. The Hallyu Wave is said to be highly regarded by the Korean government because
of President Obama’s state visit to South Korea during the year 2012 as he pointed it out and
made a reference to it. This can be further solidified by the study conducted by Cheon (2015) as
the researcher claimed that the entire global impact of South Korean popular culture can be
considered as a global phenomenon because it focuses on a vast range of offerings that can get
the attention of the people regardless of their age.

Since the researcher has expanded the overview of the Hallyu Wave and the tremendous
impact that it entails, the use of this term started in the 1990s as the promotion of Korean culture
gained popularity in China alone. Now, as the current globalization occurs, the Korean popular
culture continues to magnetize its audience across the globe without having any borders (Gibson,
2020). Consequently, in the study published by Ro (2020), because of the democratization of the
country in the late ’80s, Korea has pushed its limits in further promoting their entire culture and
diversification of their economy. They lifted the travel restrictions and the policies that might hinder
their hopes in developing and unifying the country. However, the occurrence of this is merely
intentional at all. The country used this method as a tool to impose its soft power. Hence, “soft
power” is a term that was coined by an infamous political scientist named, Joseph Nye. In which
it indicates a particular occurrence wherein, “when one country gets other countries to want what
it wants” without deploying “the hard or command power of ordering others to do what it wants.”

All in all, this term revolves around the process of “winning hearts and minds,” as soft power
is incorporated with culture, drama, civilization, politics, food, art, music, and language. Thus, this
kind of method can also be a source of an agreement or establishing diplomatic ties between
nation-states, because after all, cultural power still belongs to the spectrum of soft power. So far,
Korea has been successful with their agenda given the current status of their country (Ro, 2020).

II. BODY

According to Gibson (2020), due to this kind of cultural phenomenon, the South Korean
government continuously attracts audiences through the proliferation of materials of K-pop music
and K-dramas. Back then, the Korean government does not intervene with this but due to the
upsurge of the attention and support that they can get from this, they want to be now involved as
much as possible as they will be the one to convert this phenomenon or the country’s powerful
pop culture and other soft resources into the country’s soft power which will solidify their status
even more. As they continue to interfere, the officials had started to bring celebrities directly into
traditional diplomatic events and making them record motivational or friendly messages before
having major negotiations with other countries. Moreover, this indicates how strategic the Korean
government could be as they are taking advantage or maximizing rather, the use and the power
of celebrity power in hopes of capturing more audience and of course, the global fans.

Keating (2020) also explained how the 1997 Asian financial crisis took a toll on South
Korea’s economy. However, this crisis served as a major turning point for Korea and its officials
as they invested and finally regarded the country’s pop culture in order to boost up and promote
their own cultural products. This occurred mainly because of the idea of former President Kim
Dae Jung and we can all attest that this gamble of theirs is more than just a success, if anything,
this is a global phenomenon.
 Thus, this concept led to the birth of the Korean Wave or the infamous Hallyu Wave. In
the current context, we can see how effective and efficient the cultural promotion is. It can be
reflected with the popularity of the K-pop, K-dramas, and K-movies beyond the Asian realm due
to the success of the Oscar-winning movie entitled, “Parasite,” and the impact of PSY’s Gangnam
Style, followed by “Gentleman” which both became viral songs of the year 2012 to 2013 circa and
even got praised by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who made a statement that the song
would serve as a path or foundation to cultural understanding. Along with PSY, the success of
recognizable groups such as Girls’ Generation, EXO, TVXQ, and BTS.

In addition to that, Ro (2020) presented that due to the implementation of the K-Pop star
system in the mid-90’, there is a noticeable change albeit small in their economy. However, before
K-pop reached its maximum potential, the most notable material for South Korea was their K-
Dramas or soap operas. Despite being intended for the South Korean audience, it garnered
popularity among other parts of Asia especially the drama entitled, “Winter Sonata” in the year
2002. It is also said that the national government of South Korea has dealt with other broadcasting
stations in other countries like Iraq and Egypt, to gain and increase positive feelings and
admiration towards Korea and its entire culture. Furthermore, as the Hallyu Wave continues to
flourish and to grow larger, South Korea can display that they attained a big influence and powerful
reputation with the use of their soft power resources. All in all, it is undeniable that the Hallyu
Wave served as the country’s “national asset” that was able to attract audiences across the globe
regardless of nationality, race, ethnicity, and other demographic aspects that can be considered.
Since the Hallyu have this immense global influence, it can also be considered that other
technology enterprises or companies such as Samsung, LG, Hyundai have helped to shape the
country’s image as a dynamic and futuristic society (Keating, 2020).

EFFECTS ON THE KOREAN ECONOMY

From the data presented by Roll (2020), the Hallyu effect was very immense to the point
that it contributed to the Gross Domestic Product of South Korea which can be totaled into the
amount of 12.3 billion US dollars in the year 2019, compared to the said country’s GDP in 2004
that only amounts to approximately 1.87 billion US Dollars.

In this regard, the data from the article made by Ro (2020) and the figure that will be
presented by the researcher are based on the overall statistics of the Korean government.
 SOUTH KOREA'S GROSS DOMESTIC
PRODUCT

K- Pop K-Movie (Parasite) K-Cosmetics Other contributors (Tourism, Cuisine etc.)

Figure 1. The division of the contributors of South Korea’s GDP

Based on the chart, if we are going to take a closer look at the division of the GDP’s, the
K-Pop sector alone is accountable for the $4.65 billion of South Korea’s GDP; Next is the K-movie
“Parasite” who won the Oscars and is accountable for the $50 million of Korea’s 2019 GDP; The
third is the cosmetics sector that also skyrocketed as it is accountable for $2.64 billion of SoKor’s
GDP. Unfortunately, the other contributors are unlisted such as the Tourism sector, Cuisine, and
Language education, but they are said to be one of the many large indicators of the current state
of South Korea’s GDP.
 Figure 2. The worldwide consumption of cultural content, the Korean Wave is also boosting
consumer good exports, tourism numbers, and foreign investment (Jeong, 2014).

III. ANALYSIS

The researcher had analyzed the existence of the Hallyu Wave and proved how has it
been a huge blessing and an opportunity that should be seized by South Korea. It set a
tremendous impact on their economy and the way of living of the people. Thus, this established
the developed condition of the entire country which made them gained the title of the world’s 12th
largest economy. As this cultural phenomenon continues to strike our hearts and minds, this can
also change our perception about one’s culture, especially to our neighboring countries who
belong in the Asian Rim.

South Korea truly gambled with this kind of promotion but in their favor, it all paid off since
they have dedicated their goal to become one of the world’s leading exporter of the said popular
culture — without unleashing their hard power while maximizing their soft power. Simply to say,
they believed in the power of culture and strategized it to become the source of their economic
boost. Moreover, they created a vehicle to unite the people with the same interest and be more
open with new concepts and ideas on how one occurrence could change the overall growth of a
country.

Together with the help of K-Pop, K-Drama, K-Movie, K-Cuisine, and language, these also
proved to us that it is unnecessary to impose hard power because they believed that with their
rich and diverse culture, the soft power will be more advantageous. Adding the fact that South
Korea is the cradle of the technology brands like LG, Samsung, and Hyundai, which made it a
dynamic and innovative country that is willing to make changes that could lead to the betterment
of everyone and their nation. Lastly, as the researcher finished tapping on the key points of this
study, it is more than safe to make a claim that the success of the promotion of the popular culture
has contributed a lot to the boost of exports, tourism, and cultural exchange. Furthermore, the
existence of the Korean Wave truly solidified the reputation of South Korea or their overall imagery
to other countries that they once dreamt of keeping up with.

IV. RECOMMENDATIONS

Globalization is a very huge factor in the Hallyu wave and if it were not for this, its success
would not be a remarkable one in the viewpoint of South Korea. Diverting to the highlight of this
part, the listed recommendations of the researcher are as follows:
a.) It is highly recommended that the government of South Korea should intervene in finding
alternatives and other innovative ways to promote their entire culture. After all, they should
seek the areas that has to be improved and formulate policies that do not inflict an issue
with their contributors.
b.) They should hold once-a-year events like diplomatic events or friendship concerts that
would extremely get engagement from the people while promoting the culture of their
country and everything that they can offer. Thus, this can be regarded as hitting two birds
in one stone method.
c.) South Korea should utilize the power of the Hallyu Wave as a tool for either strengthening
relationships, and establishing strong friendly ties with other countries.
d.) They should conduct more forums with other countries where they can discuss and tackle
the possible solutions in strengthening their cultural industry, should strategically
collaborate, innovate, and incorporate each other’s cultural assets in producing creative
products with added value.
e.) The entire government of South Korea should start focusing on conducting research
projects that would propose the development in terms of excessive flow of cultural exports
or materials, and also focus on small enterprises or establishments that may facilitate the
development of their country’s popular culture so that they might have more opportunities
to enhance their image as a middle power country.

In accordance with the study of Ban (2020), it is also recommended that South Korea should:

a.) Create a new policy that aims to focus on supporting small companies, instead of relying
on developed large-scale enterprises as it is said that small establishments are also
fundamental for cultural production. Consequently, the Korean government should make
a room for innovation that will gradually support the cultural sector to expand and progress
so that they can compete and interact with other global players within the said industry.
b.) They should work more to strengthen the existing non-governmental cultural organizations
and other organizations that facilitate its growth as per South Korea’s Ministry of Culture.
c.) Aside from the fact that the government should support the other start-up companies, they
should also show support to their private entities and guide them because, with the
attention that the K-culture has been getting, they should focus more on their exports such
as cosmetics and the intangible exports such as K-pop, K-fashion and K-drama.
 d.) Lastly, it is highly recommended that they should encourage the private industries to
produce materials that would be suitable for all their audience, especially the young ones
who are said to be more attracted to the Korean culture beyond Asian borders.

V. CONCLUSION

During the past two decades, we can now see the tremendous growth of the South Korean
culture and how it captured the interest and the hearts and minds of millions of people worldwide.
Just by observing, we can see how it affected the economic sector of Korea and their entire
reputation, however, for them to receive an immense impact like this, this process did not have it
the easy way for it took them a lot of time to configure and make adjustments to impose their main
agenda for their benefit. They invested patience and tons of trial-and-error methods to achieve
this kind of long-term development. Formulating and planning this kind of concept is one thing but
finding ways to utilize and maximize the given strategy at hand, for the country’s soft power is
really a smart move from their stance. All in all, culture is really a powerful aspect and in the case
of South Korea, the said nation just happened to know the right timing and the method to capture
the best interest of the people. Indeed, the South Korean culture has taken the world by storm
even if South Korea has long struggled to keep their economy afloat as they battled to prove to
everyone that their strength and their capabilities are at enough to solidify their good reputation
not just in the Asian realm but also to Western countries. It is important to keep in mind that this
glow-up of South Korea assured the other countries that they are also capable of producing
something in the long run.

Furthermore, the effects of the Hallyu Wave truly steered different reactions from other
countries because, for them, it can be considered as a subtle way of manipulating one’s culture
as it comes in the form of Koreanization. However, this is disregarded by the Korean government
because looking at the facts and studies, every country has its own strategy, and this strategy
just happened to work perfectly as reflected in their way of easily penetrating the Asian and
Western market due to their growing influence economic progress.

VI. WAY AHEAD

With regards to my future opinion about this matter, it is safe to claim that Korea is more than
successful in maximizing the use of its cultural marketing and branding because of its tremendous
impact, not just on our country but also on its patrons, which refers to us consumers. If anything,
this might continue to be bigger than it already is if they carry on with promoting their culture
through music, drama, movie, cuisine, and tourism — in other words, to stimulate their soft power.
These cultural phenomena around the world are immense as South Korea’s GDP continues to
skyrocket, mainly because of its contributors such as music, drama, and the tourism sector.
Consequently, together with their advanced economy, and as we live in the digital age, they can
further utilize their soft power by making alternatives through the means of the internet and
through imposing celebrity power in other countries. If they continue to facilitate their growth
through promotion and the distribution of their materials, rest assured that many will consume it
at any given circumstance, which will totally boost up the country’s entire reputation.
 VII. REFERENCES

Bae, K. (2020, May 6). What Korea did right: A Gong Yoo or Lee Min-ho didn’t happen overnight.
Retrieved on June 4, 2021, from: https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/362046/what-korea-did-right-
a-gong-yoo-or-lee-min-ho-didnt-happen-overnight/

Ban, Y. (2020 December 2). South Korea’s Soft Power in Middle Power Diplomacy: Enhancing
Popular Culture and its Challenges. Retrieved on May 30, 2021, from:
https://utsynergyjournal.org/2020/12/02/south-koreas-soft-power-in-middle-power-
diplomacy-enhancing-popular-culture-and-its-challenges/

Cheon, S. (2015). The Global Impact of South Korean Popular Culture: Hallyu Unbound ed. by
Valentina Marinescu. Korean Studies. 39. 113-114. 10.1353/ks.2015.0005.

Gibson, J. (2020, December 15). How South Korean Pop Culture Can Be a Source of Soft Power.
Retrieved on June 2, 2021, from: https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/12/15/how-south-
korean-pop-culture-can-be-source-of-soft-power-pub-83411

Jeong, N. (2014). Korean Wave shows growing economic ripple effects. Retrieved on June 8,
2021, from: http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/652630.html

Keating, J. (2020, June 26). K-Pop Has Always Been Political. Retrieved on June 4, 2021, from:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/06/kpop-politics-south-korea-floyd-protests.html

Ro, C. (2020, March 9). BTS and EXO: The soft power roots of K-pop. Retrieved on June 1,
2021, from: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200309-the-soft-power-roots-of-k-pop

Roll, M. (2020). Korean Wave (Hallyu) – The Rise of Korea’s Cultural Economy & Pop Culture.
Retrieved June 2, 2021, from: https://martinroll.com/resources/articles/asia/korean-
wave-hallyu-the-rise-of-koreas-cultural-economy-pop-culture/
 A SHORT LETTER TO SIR JUMEL

Hi, sir! This academic year has been a chaotic yet fun rollercoaster ride for all of us. It was
hard for all of us to adjust to this kind of setting because not all of us are tech-savvy, but I would
like to thank you for your patience with this class, even in the first semester. I would like to thank
you for the lessons/learnings and all the efforts that you have shared and have done for us. Thank
you for honing our skills and letting us be free with our opinions regarding all the stuff or matter
that has been at hand. Also, thank you for being open and accepting with the new ideas that the
201 has been offering to our classes, sir.

I would like to wish you luck in your future endeavors, sir and as much as possible, always
try to stay safe. God bless po and I would like you to know that being part of this class is a
wonderful yet challenging experience. Lastly, I would also like to thank you for sharing the gospel
because I felt like those are needed on a daily basis, especially in these trying times. Thanks for
your guidance, sir.

Once again, thank you, Sir Jumel!