ssbet77 What Propels The K-Culture Wave

Pervasive Presence: K-pop performance at K-Town Festival, Mumbai, on 14 December | Photo: Dinesh Parab Pervasive Presence: K-pop performance at K-Town Festival, Mumbai, on 14 December | Photo: Dinesh Parab

Popular Korean music stars (K-pop idols) are reaching out to audiences or consumers through their works on every possible platform. These platforms range from the purely cultural to the political. They are seen and heard on social media everywhere, and even the United Nations is not left behind. Recently, South Korea (hereafter referred to as Korea), has been in the global spotlight due to a few major events. For example, Korean author Han Kang giving her Nobel acceptance speech while Korea’s streets overflowed with people marching against the president and demanding his impeachment. K-pop artists are not distant from the political picture. The popular band BTS turned down the invitation for the president’s inaugural performance. On the other hand, Girls’ Generation (SNSD) performed the song Into the New World on the occasion of the president’s impeachment by the National Assembly. Ironicallyssbet77, one group turned down the performance to avoid getting politicised while the other proactively performed for a political cause.

Korean soaps and K-dramas feature in the day-to-day conversations of the youth around the globe. With the advent of the twenty-first century, the last decade in particular, the influence and impressions of Korean culture are the talk of the town. So, how can it be perceived in the context of India? To develop a holistic understanding about it, there are a few facts that we need to grasp first. One, it is necessary to look beyond a few individual experiences and delve into the structural understanding of a phenomenon. Two, K-pop and K-drama could be the representative elements of Korean culture (K-culture), but these do not define the whole of K-culture. It also consists of Korean food, Korean clothing, Korean handicrafts, Korean movies, Korean pottery, Korean painting, Korean literature, etc. Three, fame and familiarity with K-culture, especially in India, are just in an introductory stage.

"This series is not just about the two teams playing; it's about reviving the spirit of hockey in Delhi. We hope this will inspire more young players from the region to take up the game," Harmanpreet stated in a press release issued by Hockey India.

Korean clothes inHumayunpur, Delhi | Photo: Suresh K. Pandey Korean clothes inHumayunpur, Delhi | Photo: Suresh K. Pandey

I do not strongly subscribe to the reality of Korea’s tremendous cultural influence, also termed as the ‘Korean wave’. My subscription is based on two arguments: one, the Korean wave could be a reality in a few spheres of societies, but it may not be so in many particular cases. Two, if Indian society is providing some examples of the Korean wave, then there are myriads of other waves that also need to be discussed in the context of Indian society. For example, the American wave, the Australian wave, the British wave, the Saudi wave, etc.

My understanding about the influence of K-culture, in this article, originates from the contradictory opinions and arguments that I have encountered on various occasions. These include people-to-people talks, lectures by Koreans from various domains and disciplines organised in India, and day-to-day discussions around the popularity of Korean music and drama. The contradiction is this: in one instance, Indian fans, consumers and Koreans too, are accepting the sweeping popularity of K-cultural products and in the other, they are also questioning the slow growth in bilateral economic engagement between India and Korea. In order to clear up this contradiction, I’ll focus on the reasons behind the rising influence of K-culture in India, the problems in the path of its rising influence, and suggestions to bridge the gap between its rise and impediments. Interestingly, reasons, problematics and suggestions are intertwined themselves.

| Photo: Dinesh Parab | Photo: Dinesh Parab

The core reasons behind the rise of K-culture in India are: larger structural influence; the nature of K-culture and policies behind it; and the nature of Indian consumers.

With the fall of the Communist wall, capitalism prevailed as the global economic structure. Korea became one of the model examples in this structure. In fact, Korea enjoyed its economic prosperity using developmental models. But this prosperity could be perceived in hard and conventional economic sectors such as manufacturing, ship-building and heavy industry, etc. Since then, the world has seen the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the Dotcom boom. Living in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Korean society has witnessed the newly emerged neoliberal subjectivity. As the president of Korea, Kim Dae-Jung (1998-2003), with his policy, directed the newly emerged subjectivity towards a ‘knowledge economy’. This economy transformed the nature of Korean society into a knowledge-based one. Along with the long tradition of global capitalism, the economic restructuring after the 1997 Asian financial crisis intensified the transformation of Korean society into a full market society and individuals were turned into full human capital. Korea started mining other areas only to bring its economy back on track. Succeeding political regimes identified and promoted Korea’s cultural industry vehemently. Therefore, we see Lee Myung-bak’s (2008-2013) aggressive approach towards branding Korea and Park Guen-Hye’s (2013-2017) policy towards a ‘creative economy’.

Korean cinema, music and other art forms acquired a prominent space in the global media sphere. K-culture has changed Asia’s media landscape.

In this process, Korean cinema, music and other forms of artistic texts acquired a prominent space in the global media sphere. K-culture has changed Asia’s media landscape dynamics. It challenged the then character of globalisation that was understood as an uneven or homogenised Western-centric force. In other words, the K-culture boom, led by the media and the pop culture phenomenon, contributed to the diversification of global media and the decentralisation of the global media market. And it was catalysed by the 2000s Dotcom boom.

In the context of larger structural influence, I also see a factor of failure i.e. failed regionalism in East Asia. This pushed Korea to look beyond the East Asian region as well. K-culture’s influence in India is one of the results.

A K-pop fan | Photo: Dinesh Parab A K-pop fan | Photo: Dinesh Parab What Does K-culture Encompass?

K-cultural products are full of “Asian sensibilities”. Here Asian sensibilities consist of family values, traditional delicacies, filial piety, etc. Beyond the narrative content and genres, K-music, K-dramas, K-movies, etc., reflect those aspects of sensibilities. For example, K-dramas like The Heirs, Kingdom, Reply 1988, etc., K-pop bands like BTS, Blackpink, EXO, etc., and K-movies like Siri, Oldboy, Parasite, etc. Chinese consumers are drawn to the sense of freedom and democracy in K-cultural texts, Japanese consumers are drawn to themes like unconditional love of and devotion towards women, similar to Indian consumers’ liking for aspects of care such as romantic love, respect for parents, etc. In order to maintain the tone of such sensibilities, lots of content writers invest their energy and time in giving shape to various ‘emotional languages’ for the characters in the K-cultural texts.

Historically, Korea has been good at exporting its culture because of its geographical location. Like it did in the context of Buddhism, which was exported to Japan from China through Korea. In contemporary times, Korea is also poised at a position from which it transports Western cultures to the Asian region. But it has retained the taste of Koreanness in particular and Asianness in general. Therefore, I don’t believe completely in the argument that K-pop is a copy of American pop.

It is commendable that K-culture has maintained its distinct taste in this age of globalisation. Korea excels at delivering finished cultural products. Through its cultural policies and production, it has beautifully polished and packaged the desired subjectivity and delivered it along with entertainment elements. K-cultural products are the result. Through K-culture, Korea has refined its cultural policy to commerce and its cultural production to cultural fandom. In more academic terms, according to Hye-Kyung Lee and Xiyu Zhang, the cultural policy under the influence of the contemporary economic dictate “instrumentalises culture and associates it with economic value, and institutionalises/bureaucratises the Korean wave that emerged as a cultural phenomenon.”

A poster for Korean beauty products in Humayunpur | Photo: Suresh K. Pandey A poster for Korean beauty products in Humayunpur | Photo: Suresh K. Pandey

It is a good strategy to become multicultural—and to some extent, global—in nature as K-music, K-dramas, K-movies, etc. include non-Koreans. Indian faces can be seen in K-cultural products. For example, Sriya Lenka in the all-girl K-pop band Blackswan and Anupam Tripathi in the K-drama Squid Game, etc.

Population is the powerhouse of India. Also, India becomes more vibrant because of its diversity. From various literature, comments and blogs, one can clearly see the popularity of K-culture in India. Rising viewership for Korean drama also indicates the changing demography of India. The young generation is very receptive to the rapidly changing technological world. Innate diversity mixed with the large population of youth provide fertile ground for K-cultural products. For example, along with the popularity of K-music and K-drama, K-beauty and K-food have also seen a boom in the Indian market. Such variety not only encourages K-culture but also gives a boost to domestic cultural products. As a result, one can see the rise of various regional music groups and shows that provide competition to international cultural products.

Problematics of the Rising Influence in India

These problematics highlight the gap between rising K-culture and its consumption among Indians. The larger structural influence is global. It is influencing Korea and India at the same time and with the same force. But the two countries reply in different ways. Under the influence of capitalism, Indian society is not going through the phase of compressed modernity like Korea (the concept discussed by Chang Kyung-sup). Unlike Korea, Indian society has not fully grown into a market society. Though its larger economic influence has directed the attention of many nations towards India, our society is lacking in terms of developing individuals as full-grown human capital. As a result, India is lagging behind not only in providing skilled producers but also skilled consumers. Do remember that K-cultural products are well finished and sophisticated.

It is necessary to add economic value, but only economic value is not enough. Also, institutionalisation/bureaucratisation of the K-cultural products are problematic for the creators. By merely looking through the lens of economic value, K-culture is producing fault lines in Korea’s cultural industry as well. Due to this, the K-culture industry became very competitive and offered only a short life span to many individuals and groups, among other domestic problems.

Korean products are not cheap. If elites and a few middle-class populations are buying Korean products then, in that sense, the elites of India have evidenced multiple waves. K-cultural products are produced with the tag of global standard. It is difficult for a big chunk of Indian consumers to consume K-cultural products and also to consume them for longer durations.

Korea is poised at a position from which it transports Western cultures to Asia. But it has retained the taste of Koreanness.

K-culture has considered linguistic comfort and choices for nations like China and Japan. But bilingual lyrics in K-pop for Indian audiences is absent. K-cultural products have a spillover effect on other products among Indian consumers. In fact, it has also affected the emotional, psychological and value-laden domain but it is not reached the level of a concept like the ‘Korean Dream’. Like American cultural products, K-culture does not provide favourable and appropriate space where consumers could execute their aspirations. Examples like Sriya Lenka are rare if we consider K-culture from a pan-India and global lens.

With the introductory success of K-culture, Korea cannot be ignorant about its still evolving perception about India. For example, K-pop became famous with the uncontrolled viewership of PSY’s music video. But its viewership is not the result of Indian viewers solely. Korean language learners and learning centres are growing in number. That does not validate the rise of consumers of K-culture. Most of the learners are contributing to the mainstream economic institutions. Korean eateries are mushrooming in India. Yes, there are examples where K-drama and K-pop idol worship influenced consumers to consume Korean food. But Indian consumers are in contact with the global market and all Indians who eat Korean food are not necessarily under the influence of K-pop or K-drama. Similarly, not all users of Korean products are fans of Korean music or drama. Many people do not become consumers of any product just out of fandom.

Some Suggestions

Data, numbers, statistics may all lie especially when we are exploring cultures—K-culture here—that too, through the lens of humanism. In contemporary times, data shows the popularity of K-culture that is totally based on economic values. But the beauty of K-culture must intervene in the emotional and psychological domain. I believe K-culture is innate with that kind of beauty. For example, in the context of K-literature, Korea’s potential has been anticipated for a long time. And Nobel laureate Han Kang is the result of it. Her creative text is complete in itself. Visual text like Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is also complete in itself. These works incorporate the idea of humanism and universalism. They do not need the validation from and support of other cultural and economic products. The increased consumption of Korean electronics, K-pop, etc., cannot necessarily determine the potential and depth of such works.

An academic supervisor of mine once said: people like beautiful things. For example, a car’s core structure may be ugly. But people want it to come in beautiful colours and shapes. Based on this logic, K-culture is very successful in presenting itself in a beautiful form. But people also need to be aware that it is a painstaking task to produce and create any artistic product though at the core, it may look ugly. The K-culture industry is highly competitive and that is ultimately getting reflected in the social fault lines of Korea. More than economic values, K-culture, from production to presentation, needs to focus more on humanistic values.

The success of K-pop and K-drama in China, Japan, etc., cannot supersede the realities of Indian society. The Indian case is very different. Unlike other developed nations, the Indian masses are still struggling to attain a certain standard. Korea needs to be flexible towards Indian society while looking through the lens of K-culture. K-culture needs to touch the emotional and psychological chords of different individual groups and also at multiple layers. For example, K-pop and K-drama are famous among India’s younger generation and among women in particular. Their aspirations are being moulded and their fondness for other K-cultural products is being reflected in different ways.

Along with positive outcomes, a few negative outcomes are also emerging. Because I believe that the creation of beauty in art is only made possible by inspiration. Historically, Korea’s artistic products have derived inspiration from nature. Choi Sun-u, Director of the National Museum, said: “Chinese art is like an actress, dramatic and showy. Japanese art is like a geisha girl, delicate and colourful. Korean art is like a wife and mother, earthy, warm and rarefied.” This is true in many senses. Viewers, listeners and consumers of K-cultural products have felt that warmth from these. But this should not distract us from its innate nature.

K-culture excels at breaking linguistic boundaries, whether through K-pop, K-drama or K-movies. As filmmaker Bong Joon-ho famously said, “Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” Because of that, people are able to find meaning in in-betweenness. In other words, utilising omission in artistic products, “rather than addition, enables the viewer to recompose the piece and be involved through personal emotion.” Asians are more successful at it while consuming K-cultural products. K-culture is, in the true sense, the modern and necessary presentation of Asian traditions. It may emerge as the forerunner in transforming the imagination of Asian century into reality.

(This appeared in the print as 'An Agressive Wave')ssbet77