The Relevance of “Soft Power” and Hallyu’s Success in Romania

Abstract

The cultural and educational export of Hallyu in Romania offered an example in the success of teaching and learning Korean Studies in Romania. The on-line Korean Studies courses (2012-2017) which had been delivered to the Romanian students had enabled them to learn about different societies, acquiring the understandings about universal values and enhancing their knowledges about South Korea. As regards the dissemination of South Korea’s popular culture, the researches made between 2011 and-2017 showed that Romanian fans and general audiences of South Korea’s cultural products perceived and decoded Halluy as a cultural “mix” between the “local” (that is, South Korean) elements and the appeal at a set of “global” (universal) values. More precisely, in the case of Romanian audiences for Hallyu products (TV series and/or K-Pop music) there was a validation of theories regarding the cultural hybrid motivations involved in media consumption and theories emphasizing globalism and of these cultural products, making them desirable and wanted world-wide. The main conclusion of the article is that the audience of Hallyu in Romania is not a homogenous one but diverse and polyvalent. The success of Hallyu in this country is the result of the creative use of “Soft power” as a part of South Korea’s public diplomacy in Europe.