Global image of Korea

By Park Moo-jong

The Korean word, “han,” is inseparable from Koreans. The word comes first in major terms expressing Korea itself and their life.

To begin with, the Korean name of our country is “hanguk.” What we eat is “hansik.” Where we have lived traditionally is “hanok.” What we wear is “hanbok.” The Korean paper handmade from mulberry bark is “hanji.”

All these words are represented by one single term, the world-famed “hallyu, or the Korean wave. Foreigners may ask why hallyu does not begin with “han.”

Actually, the spelling of hallyu naturally begins with han as “hanlyu.” But it is pronounced “hallyu” due to the progressive assimilation of the consonant.

The latest survey of global respondents by a state agency has found that they think of hansik when it comes to the image of Korea.

It is no wonder that scores of TV channels are flooded with programs starring foreigners enjoying Korean culinary culture. Kimchi, bibimbap and bulgogi, to name a few, have already been global favorites like pasta, pizza, sushi and steak, for instance.

The Korean Culture and Information Service asked 8,000 foreigners, 500 each from 16 countries, about the national image of Korea, and 40 percent of them chose hansik as a signature impression, followed by K-pop (22.8 percent), Korean culture (19.1 percent) and K-beauty (14.2 percent).

A recent photo of Stephen Biegun, the chief U.S. nuclear negotiator, enjoying “dak han mari” (soup of one chicken boiled with kimchi) at a Seoul restaurant after a long day in Pyongyang, could prove the symbolic global popularity of hansik.

Noteworthy was the result of the survey that more than 80 percent of people worldwide evaluated the national image of Korea “positively,” compared to our own positive estimation of 54. 4 percent.

The statistics, compiled by a government organization under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, though, reminds me of two questions some foreigners asked me some years ago.

One of the questions was: “I am confident that I have a good understanding of Korea and Koreans. But I have one thing I can hardly understand. Why don't you Koreans recognize Japan (as an advanced country), while looking down upon the Japanese?”

The other was: “Why don't you Koreans recognize yourself (as such great people who achieved the economic miracle from the ashes of the Korean War)?”

I needed to give a long explanation about the sour historical relations between Korea and Japan, including, among others, Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea and the 1592 Japanese invasion of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910).

The Japanese showed a similar trend in the survey with only 20 percent of the respondents evaluating Korea positively, compared to the positive appraisal by more than 90 percent of citizens from Indonesia, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico and Russia.

Indeed, Japan is a country so near, yet so far, as proved by the recent feud over National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang's demand for the Japanese emperor's “true” apology for the sexual slavery of Korean women for Japanese soldiers before and during World War II and Japan's absurd and nonsensical claim of sovereignty over the Dokdo islets.

As the thief turns on the master with a club, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe demanded Moon apologize for what he said and Foreign Minister Taro Kono claimed Moon made a very discourteous remark.

By the way, we owe much for foreigners' positive evaluation of the national image of our country to the spread of hallyu, the global popularity of our cultural products encompassing everything from music, movies and dramas to online games.

In the process, what K-pop bands like BTS, Exo and Girls' Generation did deserves being appraised. It was a happy incident for BTS, the boy group, to stand on stage at the 61st Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, Sunday, as an award presenter, the first Korean band to do so.

As a leading exporter of hallyu, the septet's activities here, there and everywhere across the world are literally brilliant in spreading the Korean wave, suggesting how to sustain the trend without pause.

The survey result must be satisfactory to government officials, particularly those in charge of raising the national image a step higher, in that it has changed for the better and more positive than a year ago.

The foreign participants in the survey also gave an answer to how to help upgrade the national image. Nearly half of them chose as the task of top priority the peaceful solution of the South and North Korean problem. In fact, everybody knows the answer. However, how? The answer is patience and cooperation with countries directly involved.

As for the globalization of hansik, we have to learn a lesson from Japan. We have to learn that we have to learn even from Japan.

Japan has been promoting the globalization of its culinary culture since the 1960s and increased the number of Japanese restaurants overseas to 118,000 in November 2017 from 24,000 in 2006. Compared with the Japanese work, ours is still in its infancy. We have got a chance. The survey must serve as a good opportunity for Korea to spread hallyu further.

Park Moo-jong (emjei29@gmail.com) is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974.