Co-Creating Korean Wave in Southeast Asia

Abstract

This article examines the spread of South Korean popular culture throughout the digital economy of Asia, and discusses the complexity of Asia’s regionalization. The article argues that Korean Wave is a regional response to the growing complicate media globalization in Asia. The article discusses the gradual shift away from the North to the South in Asian popular culture. It identifies a cultural approach to examine regional integration between East Asian producers and Southeast Asian consumers. It suggests that the production and the consumption of Korean Wave indicate a pan-Asian response to the shifting political-economic focus of popular cultural text from Japan to Korea. The influence of Korean wave varies between the media industries in East and Southeast Asia. Particular in the South, Southeast Asian media producers adopt Korean Wave content to produce popular local music, television programme and film. Local media institutions play an important role in contributing to the market success of Korean Wave. The popularity of Korean Wave in Southeast Asia represents a pan-Asian regional formula in content standardization and media adaptation, which plays a significant role in determining the elements that a local popular culture will absorb, resulting in changes to various media industries in Southeast Asia.