K-pop cautiously returns to China after years of restriction

NCT member Mark waves to a massive crowd of Chinese fans during a pop-up event at Jingdong Mall in Guangzhou, China, April 21. Courtesy of SM Entertainment

After years of a de facto cultural freeze, signs are emerging that China may be loosening its restrictions on Korean entertainment — including the long-awaited return of large-scale K-pop concerts — rekindling cautious optimism across the K-pop industry.

However, opinions remain divided over whether the genre can reclaim the Chinese momentum it once had before the so-called Korean wave ban, also known as "hanhallyeong" in Korean, took hold nearly a decade ago.

Signs began to surface in recent months as K-pop idols resumed in-person promotions in China, signaling a tentative return to a long-lost market.

Among them is NCT's Mark, who appeared at a pop-up store at Jingdong Mall in Guangzhou from April 19 to 25 to promote his solo debut album, "The Firstfruit." According to his agency, SM Entertainment, more than 4,000 fans crowded the five-story mall despite the singer's unannounced appearance during the event.

Other artists have followed suit. In March, NCT WISH, another unit under the NCT umbrella, traveled to Shanghai to promote its second mini album, "poppop," holding a press conference attended by about 60 local media outlets.

Girl group IVE held a fan signing event in Shanghai the same month, while TWICE staged a similar event earlier in February. Solo singer Kim Jae-joong also met with his fans in Chongqing around the same time.

NCT WISH members attend a press conference in Shanghai, March 30. Courtesy of SM Entertainment

These moves come after years of restrictions that began in 2016, when tensions over Korea's deployment of a U.S.-led THAAD missile defense system led to China quietly halting most Korean entertainment imports.

Though Beijing never officially confirmed the existence of the so-called hanhallyeong, it effectively shut down the previously thriving Korean cultural exports to China — once the largest market for K-pop — and forced entertainment agencies to pivot to global strategies focused on the U.S. and Europe.

However, recent political gestures have suggested noticeable improvement.

In November 2024, China offered visa-free entry for Korean travelers and as a reciprocal move, Korea announced in March it would temporarily waive entry visas for Chinese group tourists starting in the third quarter of this year.

The recovery in the K-pop market has also begun to show in export figures. According to Korea Customs Service data, album exports to China, which fell from $51.3 million in 2022 to $33.9 million in 2023, rebounded to $59.8 million in 2024.

In the first quarter of 2025 alone, China became Korea's largest album export market with $12.96 million in shipments — surpassing Japan, Taiwan and the U.S.

A scene of K-pop group BTS' concert held in Las Vegas, April 2022 / Courtesy of HYBE

Still, the strongest signal that the unofficial cultural freeze may be thawing is the return of large-scale concerts — the K-pop industry's biggest source of revenue. Since BIGBANG's tour in 2016, Korean idol groups have been largely absent from Chinese stages.

That, too, may be beginning to change.

Boy band EPEX is scheduled to headline a concert on May 31 at the MAAQUU X CH8 LIVEHOUSE in Fuzhou. While some Korean indie and hip-hop acts have performed in China in recent years, the EPEX show will be the first full-scale concert by a K-pop idol group in the country in nine years.

Dream Concert, Korea's longest-running K-pop showcase, also revealed recently that it will take place in September in Sanya, a resort city in China's Hainan province.

WayV is a localized boy band targeting the Chinese market under SM Entertainment's NCT roster. The group consists of Chinese, Thai, Taiwanese and Macanese members. Courtesy of SM Entertainment

While K-pop groups active in China have typically included Chinese members or operated as localized subunits in the years since Beijing began its restrictions, the return of Korean lineups and the resumption of large-scale shows has sparked fresh interest across the industry.

"There's a growing sense of hope with each signal that the hanhallyeong may be loosening," a music industry official told The Korea Times on condition of anonymity. "With China reemerging as a viable market, the narrative of K-pop being in crisis has started to lose ground."

Still, the official warned, "The situation has remained uncertain for so long and the Chinese market is too volatile to predict with confidence."

Pop culture critic Shim Jae-geol echoed the sentiment, noting that political unpredictability continues to pose a risk.

"China is a high-risk market where policy shifts can alter the landscape overnight," Shim wrote in a column for a local media outlet. "Over the past nine years, we've seen concert approvals reversed without warning. That instability hasn't disappeared."

He added that China's internal economic challenges could temper expectations further.

"It appears China may be considering easing the hanhallyeong as part of a broader push to stimulate domestic demand amid prolonged tensions with the U.S. But even if restrictions are relaxed, it remains uncertain whether consumer appetite will return to previous levels."