Innovation critical for continued growth of hallyu

Kim Hyun-hwan, vice minister of culture, sports and tourism, gives a welcoming speech during the first K-Culture Conference titled, “The Spirit of the Times as Reflected in K-culture,” held both online and offline, Wednesday. Courtesy of Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

By Kwak Yeon-soo

The Korean Wave, or hallyu, is a powerful force in the U.S. and the world is practically obsessed with all things Korean, including K-pop, K-beauty, K-film and K-drama, acknowledged Stephen Duncombe, professor of media and culture at New York University.

Sharing a video clip of ADG7, a shamanic funk band in Korea, Duncombe claimed that promoting lesser-known experimental artists is critical as the next growth engine of hallyu. This would allow K-culture to achieve sustainable development and social innovation, according to the professor.

“Hallyu needs to innovate in its own cultural scene. Korea needs to promote incredible innovative artists and call it 'hallyu 2.0' or 'Alt hallyu.' Artists and performers are not products, so they cannot be packaged. If you want Korean Wave to continue, taking high risk is necessary,” he said during the first K-Culture Conference titled, “The Spirit of the Times as Reflected in K-culture,” held on Wednesday.

At the event co-hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), scholars at home and abroad discussed how Korea became a cultural powerhouse and advised how the government and the public sector can make hallyu sustainable in the future, with scholars abroad participating online.

Kim Sun-hyuk, a professor of public administration at Korea University, pointed out that too much of the discussion on hallyu has been focused on its economic effect, including export volume and job creation through IP and the K-culture business.

“Korea has gone beyond middle power in the changing world. We are now a quasi-developed country, so we need to start thinking what the rest of the world expects from Korea. We need to leverage hallyu to contribute to the international community and discuss how we are going to share our cultural values with global citizens. We can also use hallyu to build a platform for transnational innovation,” he said.

Sam Richards, a sociology professor at Pennsylvania State University, speaks via video call during the first K-Culture Conference, Wednesday. Courtesy of Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

Sam Richards, a sociology professor of Pennsylvania State University, talked about the meaning and value of K-pop for those living outside of Korea. However, he raised concerns over how K-culture heavily focuses on young people.

“Hallyu is a unique culture, but I'm afraid it will lose power for continued expansion. From a demographic perspective, Korea is headed to challenging times. K-culture, especially K-pop, is too youth-oriented,” he said.

Chae Jee-young, a research fellow at the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, called on the government to develop infrastructure to cater to the needs of hallyu tourists, who are known to be big spenders.

“Hallyu tourists tend to spend a longer period of time and spend more money than non-hallyu tourists. They also revisited Korea many times. In order to satisfy their needs and help them experience K-pop culture, we need to develop major concert locations like the K-pop arena. This is an urgent matter.” she said.

Lee Sung-min, an assistant professor of the Department of Media Arts and Sciences at Korea National Open University, warned of a brain drain as a result of hallyu's growing popularity. According to him, views of hallyu clips increased over 30 times on YouTube from June to December last year.

“Following the success of 'Squid Game,' 'Pachinko' has become the talk of the town. However, 'Pachinko' is an American TV drama. We should be careful of the brain drain because a growing number of foreign production companies are seeking to capitalize on Korea-themed content,” he said.