The Koreans are coming, again
By Kim Ji-myung
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“The Koreans Are Coming” was the headline on the cover of the June 6, 1977 issue of Newsweek magazine.
Koreans were shown with big smiles while marching forward holding a radio, calculator, iron bar, shirt, fish, ship and tire ― our export items of that time.
Thirty five years have passed since then. The so-called hallyu, or Korean Wave, has been the term describing the widespread love of Korean entertainment products such as popular music and TV dramas by people outside Korea.
The government has been supporting the expansion of entertainment exports, as it did for the industrial products in 1970s and ’80s. Entertainment and game industries got the lion’s share of government support as a potential cash-cow of the national economy. The world may feel that the Koreans are coming again, this time with something soft ― culture.
Pop singer Psy’s global success was an initial culmination of the hallyu that assured all Koreans of the potentiality of their creativity, although the singer himself confessed that it was a sheer accident that YouTube enabled. It was not in any way due to governmental support or policy.
Frankly, many Koreans by now abhor the terms hallyu or anti-hallyu because of all the exaggerations, over-coverage and lack of authentic research on the phenomenon.
Basically, it is a story about what others think of our culture outside Korea.
But recent culture-related policies signal changes.
When President Park Geun-hye said in her inaugural speech, “This (success of hallyu) is a result of a foundation created by the convergence of both tangible and intangible heritages of 5,000 years of Korea’s cultural splendor as well as our spiritual ethos,” I was a little bit concerned. I could imagine a foreign friend whispering to me “You see? Koreans are always megalomaniacal and nationalistic.”
But then she said, “We will build a nation that becomes happier through culture, where culture becomes a fabric of daily life, and a welfare system that embodies cultural values.” I started to feel better about her way of thinking.
One big sign of change I read is that the policies concerned with culture are focusing more on the everyday life of individual Koreans inside the country. This is expressed in the slogans denoting the “flourishing culture” policy of this new administration that emphasizes the “happiness” of the people.
The picture of what the new government aims at is not yet clear enough. No one seems to understand clearly even what a “creative economy” is, although it is the very keyword of the new administration.
But President Park promised to “foster a new cultural renaissance for a culture that transcends ethnicity and languages, overcomes ideologies and customs, contributes to the peaceful development of humanity, and is connected by the ability to share happiness.”
This sounds both a great idea and very timely as it covers the problem of many immigrants by marriage in Korea. I also find “ability to share happiness” is a very important value for a government to pursue in a country where the suicide rate is the highest among OECD nations albeit high GDP figures.
Culture could be one of the most abstract day-dreaming words, especially when used in government policies. But at the same time culture may be translated into a very concrete day-to-day down-to-the-earth factor that can reach and affect each individual citizen.
Each ministry has been coming up with big and small plans for the next five years, and reporting them to President Park. Very detailed and concrete plans to turn culture into the values and happiness of the people were unveiled.
If all of them are realized, the Korean youngsters will get healthier, the poor will be able to enjoy quality cultural performances, students will get a wide variety of opportunities to read content on humanities, talented would-be artists will be fully supported and people in general will realize that they are happier than at any time before.
The Koreans are now beginning to start the Korean Wave within their own country. Love and respect of one’s own could be the start of a true pride of not only one’s country but of oneself.
Maybe such changes in attitude and viewpoints could bring an end to the spiral of hazardous competition among our people, now squeezing us like a rampant tsunami.
The minister recently nominated in charge of cultural policies is known as an advocate of a belief that creativity comes from leisure. Maybe the Koreans five years from now will be much different from now, taking their time instead of repeating “ppalli ppalli” (faster or quickly).
At the cabinet meeting, there was reportedly a discussion on recommending government leaders to wear hanbok, the traditional Korean clothing, at official ceremonies and gatherings. I agree hanbok deserves to be an official dress by any standard. But, well, too much too soon is always not too good, I am afraid.
The writer is the chairwoman of the Korea Heritage Education Institute (K*Heritage). Her email address is Heritagekorea21@gmail.com.