A KTO(Korean Tourism Organization) survey conducted in May last year showed that K-pop has indeed overtaken
K-drama as the main purveyor of Hallyu in Malaysia and elsewhere. The survey
revealed that, driven mainly by the Internet and social media network, more
than 53.3% of 12,085 fans from 102 countries chose K-pop as the Hallyu aspect
that interested them most.
(The
Star, Aug 2012)
Ever wonder how Korean Wave or known as
Hallyu became a sensation? It didn’t happen over midnight. K-pop has been
embraced by the South Korea government as a tool for soft power aboard
targeting the youth and trying to make it into Hollywood of Asia. ‘Soft power’
–the ability to co-opt rather than command and it involves using non-material resources
like culture as means to control in according to the definition by Joseph Nye.
My question before typing this post- I was curious how all this South Korean
singers manage to land a metaphoric bomb over Asia. In ‘The New Yorker’, an
article written by John Seabrook stated that the Korean music company is hoping
to do is change a thing in the unique system of ‘cultural technology’
Cultural technology is a part of the
‘technology’ initiatives of the South Korean government in 2001 and was
supported by policies and R&D investment. It is a 3-step process in becoming
the Korea wave which is the training process, international collaborations and
joint ventures. In contrary, John Seabrook is skeptical about it and commented
that ‘this cultural technology as factory –like system whereby the entire eye
shadow colour to the hand gestures is pre-determined by formulae and protocol
and the music is too ‘robotic’ for Western market.
In Malaysia, we can even see that the government
is giving what the youth wants by paying huge sum of money flying in those K stars
to perform and entertain the audiences. Some party thinks is a waste of money
for the state, but at the same time it could win the heart of the youth as
voter. There is a great dispute over this matter whether it is too much to
spend for this entertainment.One Million Youth Gathering 2012 in Putrajaya,K-pop acts were featured
to attract young voters and many politicians have not hesitated to K-pop name
drop on their social media network to hip up their image.(Azizan,2012)
This could be some indirectly ‘sweet giving’ if you know what I mean. Apart from this, it has certainly caught the youths' attention especially girls going crazy over them and this leads to all sort of craziness and obsessions like queuing up a day before to purchase their concert ticket, CD or even for ‘meet-and-greet’ session. By doing so, it boost in trade between South Korea and Malaysia but it would be some burdens for those diehard fans who are eager to attend their idol’s concert but the tickets price are just too pricey especially for youngster who are still students and not financially independent. NO? YES?
This could be some indirectly ‘sweet giving’ if you know what I mean. Apart from this, it has certainly caught the youths' attention especially girls going crazy over them and this leads to all sort of craziness and obsessions like queuing up a day before to purchase their concert ticket, CD or even for ‘meet-and-greet’ session. By doing so, it boost in trade between South Korea and Malaysia but it would be some burdens for those diehard fans who are eager to attend their idol’s concert but the tickets price are just too pricey especially for youngster who are still students and not financially independent. NO? YES?
Undeniable fact #1 K pop fans will
emulate the fashion they see in South Korea dramas, wore by the celebrities and
etc. This is believed to create greater distance among youths’ own rich culture
and traditions.
The invention of the technology aided
the Kpop artist gaining exposure globally through social networks such as
YouTube,Facebook, Twitter as medium for
these South Korean artist outreach wider audience. A Youtube video can go viral
just like the Oppa Gangnam Style that has received million of views on Youtube
and many youth had made parody out of it. Can you tell this is another form of
cultural imperialism? Some may not understand the language behind it, the
meaning of lyrics but they are still humming along the song. Are we just following
blindly because it is mainstream?
On the other hand, youths are using the
technology to gain the latest update about their idols from the forum, fanpage, Facebook and some of the idol themselves are interacting with their fans via Facebook,Instagram, Kakao
Talk and etc that got more girls hooked up with them. Instead of the youth
using the social media to outreach their idol, idol themselves also used many
form of social network to interact with their fans for example Super Junior. President
Obama during his speech in Korea said the two largest and popular social
networking sites Kakao Talk and Me2day transmits 1 billion messages daily. He
praised the young Koreans’ optimism and tech savvy. Tech savvy really
heightened the chance of you getting to interact with your favourite star.
Jim Dator and Yongseok Seo(in Korea as
the Wave of a future) remained optimistic that this Korean Wave will continue
to succeed. Perhaps the Korean Wave is just a passing fad not the future, only
time will tell
This blog post is trying
to show how the sensation of K pop culture comes about as form of soft power
culture imperialism that you and I may not realize? We may be ‘invaded’ but we
aren’t aware about it. Look at yourself and ask yourself, whether are you
‘invaded’?? Goh Yun Chin
