Hallyu Backlash

There was an editorial last week in the Korea Herald about how countries such as Vietnam, China, and Taiwan are beginning to push back against the hallyu wave as they resent the "nationalistic messages" expressed by Korean dramas. They are placing restrictions on how many Korean dramas can be shown on their television stations and requesting that Korea import some of their dramas in return. This growing anti-Hallyu sentiment has sparked Park Jin-young - the singer-producer who groomed Rain for stardom - to call on Korean pop culture producers to "eliminate nationalism from Hallyu" in order to enable it to continue it's spread. In an interesting side note, Park Jin-young is engaged to speak at Harvard sometime next week about the Hallyu wave and it's geopolitical ramifications.

I think this is a very interesting consequence of the success of Korean pop culture, and I'm not surprised at the backlash from other countries. As we've discussed before, the Hallyu wave is certainly wrought with nationalistic sentiment and is a source of pride for the Korean people. The television and music coming out of Korea is very entertaining and has attracted a diverse, dedicated audience, all of whom are subject to the pro-Korea messages contained within the media (and as we've mentioned before, often anti-Japanese messages). It's only natural that the governments of non-Korean viewers would be concerned with any message which is nationalistic towards any country other than their own, especially when Korea has not been promoting the popular culture of other countries to its own people (granted, this is a probably a result of the dramas from other countries being of lower quality than the Korean ones, but I don't think that that is what the other countries want to hear from Korea in response).

Below is the full text of the article, with some notable quotes highlighted.

"Hallyu, communication" - The Korea Herald - 2/10/07

The popularity of Korean popular culture in Asia and beyond commonly referred to as Hallyu, or Korean Wave, is being mined for all it is worth. The boom which started casually as Korean dramas that were aired in China attracted a huge following, has now become an all-out endeavor at the national level to push all aspects of Korean culture.

Singer-producer Park Jin-young's recent call to eliminate nationalism from Hallyu is timely as Korean popular culture is facing growing resistance from Korea's Asian neighbors.

Park, who groomed the singer-actor Rain to become Korea's world star and is at the forefront of the Korean Wave phenomenon, has been invited to speak next week at a discussion about the nature of the Hallyu phenomenon and its geopolitical ramifications in Asia at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

In an interview with a local daily ahead of the lecture, Park blamed the media for the Hallyu hype and the subsequent anti-Hallyu sentiment in other Asian countries. Politicians, he said, do not view popular entertainment as a form of cultural communication but put it in the frame of nationalism.

Nationalism in Korea became pronounced during the Japanese colonial period. Faced with the annihilation of Korean culture and language, nationalist sentiment was a natural response, becoming a focus of resistance against colonial rule.

However, we must now be wary of systematically pushing our culture on other countries. Many of the Asian countries where Korean pop culture enjoys a following are countries that have also experienced colonial rule. Needless to say, promoting Korean culture excessively in these countries will raise the specter of cultural colonialism.

Moves are already underway to counter what has been described as a Hallyu "invasion" by the Korean media. In Vietnam, authorities are demanding that Korean broadcasters import Vietnamese dramas to balance Korea's drama exports. In China, state reviews of Korean dramas are being delayed. Taiwan has moved to limit the number of Korean television dramas.

This should not come as a surprise. Consider how we react when a Japanese movie does well at the box office here or when Japanese books translated into Korean enjoy notable success. Immediately, there is a frenzied call urging people to be on their guard against the flood of Japanese culture.

Culture Minister Kim Myung-gon rightly said that Hallyu will now be a cultural exchange that includes the acceptance of diverse cultures as well as introducing Korean culture to other countries. In this age of globalization, communication and understanding among cultures is imperative. Park's remark that cultural communication in Asia may prevent such unfortunate incidents as World War I that took place in Europe is a food for thought.

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/02/10/200702100007.asp