With its ubiquitous presence, it is hard to not be exposed to media and culture from South Korea. From television and cinema to music, food, skincare, and lifestyle, there is a growing Korean cultural influence in various sectors.
Joseph Nye defines “soft power" as “the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments. It arises from the attractiveness of a country’s culture, political ideals and policies". By making the world see through K-tinted lenses, South Korea has created ‘Hallyu’—a Chinese word for South Korea’s cultural wave. Through it, it has attempted to not only redefine—if not completely change—its international image, but also create strategic assets that further South Korean visibility world over. To understand Hallyu, it is crucial to understand the history of South Korea, specifically from the Sixth Republic.
Under the Sixth Republic
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The Sixth Republic, considered to have begun in 1988, saw the country shift from a series of authoritarian regimes to a democratic one. The country opened up its economy, its press, and its borders. It also began to thaw its relationship with its neighbour North Korea. However, this growth met with a hurdle in 1997 during the Asian financial crisis, which was remedied by restructuring measures brought about by a bailout package given by the International Monetary Fund.
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South Korea, thus, had two mutually compatible goals. The first, to generate revenue to help grow the South Korean economy, and second, to change its image globally while building relations with nations across the world. South Korea emerged out of its isolationist cocoon in the 1990s, and Hallyu was both a solution to several of its issues and crucial to the new identity that the country wanted to project.
For South Korea, Hallyu has ensured long-term viability and visibility across sectors. The letter “K" precedes several key industries today, turning it from a cultural one-off to a brand. South Korea does not hesitate to extend this brand to other sectors, with the South Korean President Moon Jae-in calling the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine a K-Quarantine. This has meant that Hallyu is not only destined to a similar fate as the many social media fads that came before it and will after, but it can also be seen as something that the world will engage with for time to come. This long-term engagement is sustained by Hallyu’s close ties with the government. Hallyu is a state invention and has relied and continues to rely on the government’s support and incentive. Last year, the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that it would be establishing a Hallyu department under its ambit. However, while the Korean government attempts to showcase its ideal image through Hallyu, it would be hard to argue that it is only what the Korean government wants to show the world.
And this is, perhaps, why Hallyu has stood the test of global consumption. Usually, most cultural exports go through several levels of dilution to make them palatable to the world. The primary language of dissemination changes, tastes are changed and often, even names are changed to make it easier on the global mind and tastebuds. This has not been the case with Korean exports. Instead, the number of people learning the Korean language has gone up exponentially. Even food has survived, with kimbap not being conflated with sushi. An excellent example is the induction of 26 Korean words into the Oxford English Dictionary – including Hallyu. President Jae-in called the Korean language “Hangeul", the country’s “soft power" in response to these additions.
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Today, Hallyu has not just served its intended purpose but has gone several steps further. It is being used as a weapon in North Korea, both overtly, when several concerts took place in the run-up to the 2018 peace talks; and covertly, as a tool to share the South Korean way of life. The popular band, BTS, performed and spoke at the United Nations General Assembly, promoting the 2030 SDGs as special presidential envoys. Such exposure is part of the Public Diplomacy Plan that was announced in 2017.
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Reaping Economic Benefits
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The total economic benefits of Hallyu are hard to estimate, given that it includes both the earnings that are directly through Hallyu and its indirect impact and the related effect on other industries such as through tourism, or an increase in sales of products promoted by Hallyu stars.
A study by the Korean Foundation has shown that the direct impact of Hallyu has doubled from 2016 to 2019 and remains consistently on the rise and so has the indirect value (exports of consumer goods and tourism). The South Korean economy has been gaining from Hallyu and will continue to do so in the coming years.
The “BTS effect"—used to summarise the effect that Bangtan Sonyeondan (BTS, the leading K-Pop band) has had can be easily used to understand Hallyu’s impact on the Korean economy. Forbes estimated BTS’ contribution to South Korea’s GDP to be higher than that of the GDP of Fiji, Maldives, and Togo individually. A study by the Hyundai Research Institute in 2018 estimated BTS’s direct economic value per year to be US $3.54 billion and indirect impact to be US $1.26 billion. In 10 years, the economic impact is expected to cross that of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics held in 2018, with almost zero investment compared to the Olympics. Further, one in every 13 foreign tourists visits South Korea because of BTS. The Seoul City administration credited BTS for the revival of its tourism industry after a dip in Chinese tourism caused by installing the THAAD system.
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Hallyu and its various aspects have become so popular today that their global network of fans (or Army, as the BTS Fanclub is called) often drives action and activism, despite some groups themselves remaining apolitical. During the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, fans’ hashtags stormed racist surveillance networks, shared information and awareness, and collectively donated over US $1 million. The Chilean government blamed ongoing demonstrations and civil unrest on international K-Pop fans, given their role in questioning deaths, mentioning human rights violations and criticising silences. K-Pop is also now being used by the United Nations and other refugee agencies as a conversation starter amongst Syrian refugees in Algeria.
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However, while Hallyu has played a role in changing the image of South Korea, it cannot and should not be seen as a silver bullet to a diplomatic image. For instance, it will not erase the fact that the country is at war with its neighbour DPR Korea. As a country with military conscription, men between 18 and 28 must serve in the military. With several K-pop stars in that age category, there is a clash between the country’s primary focus and global identity. While an age extension has been made possible, complete exemption would lead to a slippery slope for the rest of South Korean society.
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Additionally, it showcases Korean society as is. Like other countries, South Korea also faces skewed growth, with the rich growing richer and the poor poorer. The quotidian lives of Korean society are the backdrop of K-Dramas such as ‘Squid Games’ (which includes references to real-life crackdowns on democratic protests) and movies like ‘Parasite’ that deeply engage with the class inequalities and income disparities.
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In an article for Harvard’s Belfer Center in 2009, Joseph Nye spoke of the potential of South Korean soft power. South Korea was slowly emerging as an important middle-ranking power for a nation that had been “dealt a weak hand" by geography. For Nye, “South Korea has the resources to produce soft power, and its soft power is not prisoner to the geographical limitations that have constrained its hard power throughout its history", highlighting Korean culture as one of its many resources to gain soft power. Twelve years later, Hallyu is perhaps the most successful of the various resources South Korea has used to reinvent itself.
The article was first published in ORF
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Sitara Srinivas currently works as the Executive Assistant to the President. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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TAGS:BTS KOREA |K-POP |K-POP CULTURE IN SOUTH KOREA
FIRST PUBLISHED: DECEMBER 12, 2021, 14:54 IST
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THE WELLINGTON I REMEMBER: TUBA, TERRY AND PURE HAPPINESS
The Wellington I Remember: Tuba, Terry and Pure Happiness
As we went on reporting about the IAF helicopter crash, my mind went back to a place that holds an irreplaceable place in my heart—Wellington, writes Ridhima Bhatnagar. (Photo: Shutterstock)
As we went on reporting about the IAF helicopter crash, my mind went back to a place that holds an irreplaceable place in my heart—Wellington, writes Ridhima Bhatnagar. (Photo: Shutterstock)
This week, as we saw the visuals of the mortal remains of CDS Bipin Rawat and others being carried from Wellington to Sulur, I only wished we weren’t talking about Wellington this way.
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RIDHIMA BHATNAGAR
Updated: December 12, 2021, 08:30 IST
On December 8, like any other day, I was in the office studio anchoring news broadcast when we got a flash that a chopper had crashed in Coonoor. That’s all we knew, nothing alarming just yet. However, within minutes, the situation changed. Unconfirmed reports said three high-ranking officers were on board, including Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Bipin Rawat. This was the highest-ranking officer of the defence forces we were talking about.
As more details emerged, it was confirmed that it was an Mi-17V5 that had taken off from Sulur and was on the way to Wellington in Tamil Nadu. It had crashed five minutes before landing in Coonoor.
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The nation was in mourning, coming to terms with the passing away of India’s first CDS, his wife Madhulika Rawat, Brigadier L.S. Lidder, Lt Colonel Harjinder Singh and others from the armed forces.
As we went on reporting about a brutal tragedy, my mind went back to a place that holds an irreplaceable place in my heart—Wellington.
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**
It was around 2002-03. I was in high school and we were in Meerut. My father, a serving Army officer, was commanding 18 Assam Rifles in Mizoram. My mother, brother and I were in Meerut in a separate accommodation as my father had been in and out of field and peace postings.
Dad called Mummy to tell her that he was appointed DS (directing staff) at Staff College in Wellington. The Staff College is one of the oldest military institutions in India. It has progressively transformed into a fully integrated Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), imparting training to middle-level officers of the three wings of the armed forces—Army, Navy and Air Force jointly, with a few officers from the Indian Civil Services, paramilitary forces and friendly foreign countries (FFCs).
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This was an emotional posting. One, it was a rare opportunity and not everyone gets to be a DS. Two, it was the second time Papa was posted to Wellington. In the mid ‘80s, he had gone to Wellington as a student officer, with Mummy and my brother, who was much younger
**
I was understandably young and thought Wellington meant New Zealand, only to be told that this was a hill station near Ooty in Tamil Nadu. Too young to understand anything else, I happily started packing my things.
But our biggest concern was how to transport our most loved member of the family—our Pomeranian, Tuba.
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It was decided that she would travel in the truck carrying our luggage, from Delhi to Wellington. Our bhaiya (a helper assigned by the Army) would sit with her in the front and would take care of her. It was an emotional decision, Tuba was our heart.
Three days later with just a night more of the journey left, Tuba breathed her last somewhere near Bangalore (now Bengaluru).
Papa got a call, didn’t say anything and left home (we were at my grandparents’ place in Delhi). He needed a moment to register what had happened. He came home, broke the news to us, and it was never the same again.
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**
But when duty calls, nothing else matters. Papa’s reporting date was inching closer and he had to leave soon to get our accommodation ready, find a school for me and the regular drill.
Mummy and I would be leaving at a later date. My brother by then was studying in Mumbai.
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We left Delhi and landed in Coimbatore, the closest airport to Wellington. From there, it’s about a four-hour drive to Wellington. And, it is a beautiful drive, with winding roads and the much-loved Black Thunder amusement park at Mettupalayam.
Entering Wellington felt like a dream. It’s a scenic hill station, one of the prettiest Army cantonments I have ever visited. You are engulfed by clouds, there is a nip in the air and the architecture has an old-world charm.
I was in awe, little knowing that the next couple of years would imprint Wellington’s name in my heart forex
**
As Papa received us in Wellington, we made our way to our home for the next few years—7 Neelambar. A four-bedroom cottage-style home with a beautiful lawn and a balcony overlooking the Nilgiri Hills.
But I was yet to find the biggest surprise waiting for me. A brown sofa was kept in the balcony with two little white furry ones barely able to sit on it. Papa had brought home Tuba and Terry (naming one of them Tuba was an emotional call). They were siblings, and Papa didn’t have the heart to separate them.
This was the beginning of what Wellington symbolised for me for a very long time—pure happiness.
The reason I am writing this now is to narrate how a place becomes a feeling, an experience that is hard to replicate.
I got admission at the Holy Innocents High School, the only convent school in the cantonment, where all other fauji kids went (well most, some went to the Army school too).
I went horse riding in the morning before school, after school took Bharatnatyam classes, and then went off with other fauji kids for birthday parties and the like.
The experience I gained in Wellington was unlike anything else. Would you believe me if I tell you that we played croquet every day? I hadn’t even heard of it till then (it is played with a ball and mallet). Horse riding, croquet, parasailing, dance classes, tennis… the list is endless.
But that’s not all that Wellington gave me. It gave me people who I grew up with. I laughed and cried with them and also learnt from them. Some I loved and lost; others became family
This week, as we saw the visuals of the mortal remains of the brave hearts being carried from Wellington to Sulur, I only wished we weren’t talking about Wellington this way. That we could somehow go back to the time when a little girl wandered around the Nilgiris, laughing, jumping and falling in
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