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| Actor Lee Jung-jae, left, and BTS / Korea Times file |
Gov't plans to expand hallyu craze to traditional culture
By Kwak Yeon-soo
With the number of hallyu ― Korean Wave ― fans around the world reaching new highs, the government has vowed to implement its Hallyu Outbound Activation plan to boost overseas promotion of Korea's cultural content.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced Friday that it will team up with other ministries to draw up a set of measures to enhance the global popularity of hallyu.
Under the new plan, the government will expand the role of state-run Korean Cultural Centers overseas by allowing them to form what it calls a K-Initiative Consultative Group with other hallyu-related organizations and launch cooperative projects. For instance, it has partnered with the Korea Tourism Organization and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency to establish the K-Brand overseas promotion hall in Indonesia, which will open in the second half of 2022.
The culture ministry also vowed to expand the global network of its state-run Korean language education centers ― King Sejong Institutes ― and Korea Contents Business Centers. Due to the ever-growing global influence of hallyu, it will increase the number of institutes to 270 by the end of 2022 and support Korean language courses in schools and universities.
As part of its effort to support a rebound of the tourism industry, which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, Korea will roll out diverse cultural and heritage tourism products, such as temple stay programs, to provide opportunities for travelers of foreign nationality to experience Korean culture more in depth.
The consumption of online content has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began, introducing new forms of cultural content combined with the latest technology. To meet this shifting trend, the government will increase its financial support for next-generation virtual world (metaverse) content, over-the-top services and immersive content.
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| Culture Minister Hwang Hee speaks during the fourth hallyu cooperation committee meeting held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Friday. |
The government also vowed to expand the hallyu craze to Korean traditional culture, musicals, contemporary art and language, fostering related industries in order to create a sustainable environment for the global spread of Korea's soft power.
It will collaborate with companies and celebrities to support new cultural development ― linking hallyu to Korea's exports as well as protecting the intellectual property of cultural content.
Meanwhile, the culture ministry revealed its plan to hold the K-Culture Festival from Sept. 23 to Oct.1 of this year. It will expand the scope of the event to include not only popular culture but also other hallyu-related industries.
"As President Moon Jae-in mentioned in his March 1 Independence Movement Day speech, Korea has become a powerhouse of cultural production. Our cultural and creative industries have led to the growth of Korea's global standing," Culture Minister Hwang Hee said in a statement.
"Through the Hallyu Support and Cooperation Division, we will continue to share Korea's cultural values with the world."
According to a recent survey published by the Korea Foundation, the number of hallyu fans has increased 17 times in the last decade and recorded 156.6 million as of December of last year.
In 2020, Korea launched a pan-government hallyu cooperation committee, which includes representatives from 13 ministries, and established the Hallyu Support and Cooperation Division within the culture ministry.
Since then, the new division has been acting as a control tower to oversee diverse hallyu-related projects that had previously been undertaken by different divisions and ministries.
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