Korean Pop Culture Research Articles

Indonesian Muslim Youth and The Korean Pop Wave (Case Study of Ponorogo Muslim Youth Students)

Pop culture, a culture produced in a commercial ecosystem, is often interpreted as a light, contemporary, and fun culture so that it is easily accepted and enjoyed by the public, especially teenagers. Korean Pop Culture, for example, extends its influence throughout the world, not only in Indonesia. K-pop has attracted the sympathy of young people, including Muslim youth at Madrasah Aliyah Negeri (MAN) 2 Ponorogo. This study examines the perception of Muslim youth at Madrasah Aliyah Negeri 2 Ponorogo on Korean Pop Culture and its impact on Muslim youth at the school. This research uses a descriptive qualitative research method by purposively selecting research subjects, namely Muslim youth students of MAN 2 Ponorogo who love Korean pop culture. This study shows that, firstly, the Muslim youth of man 2 Ponorogo perceives Korean Pop Culture as a symbol of novelty, trending, unique, colorful, combining various elements. Secondly, the Muslim youth of MAN 2 Ponorogo realize Korean Pop Culture has a positive and negative impact, which can eliminate Korean Pop Culture products that are not relevant to their identity as millennial teenagers and Indonesian Muslims.

K-Pop: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching Dance and Culture in General Physical Education

Korean Pop culture (K-pop) is gaining more fan bases and interest around the world. However, many educators in the U.S. may not be fully aware of the K-pop cultural phenomenon. The main aim of this article is to provide a brief history of K-pop and highlight the educational benefits of interdisciplinary lessons in physical education class through a K-pop dance unit. Additionally, it will provide practical K-pop dance unit and lesson ideas for current practitioners and discuss implications of adding a K-pop dance unit in physical education curriculum.

Korean pop culture reshaping Korean teaching

Abstract Korean pop culture is becoming more and more popular outside of Korea and Asia. This trend draws enormous attention to Korean culture, history, and of course, the language. Surveys show that more and more people are learning the language precisely because of their love for Korean pop culture. Such a tendency could not but affect how Korean is taught. In this article, I will look into how the syllabus, teaching methods, and materials used in the KFL classrooms have changed under the influence of Korean pop culture. Moreover, in order to identify if the use of materials related to pop culture can benefit students’ motivation and performance, I conducted an experiment with two groups of students, all starting their beginner-level course (three months). The results of the study showed how the use of such materials in the classroom can affect students’ motivation and attitude toward learning.

K-pop from Local to Global

K-pop has received global attention during the past decades. It already transcended Korean boundaries and has achieved great success in the global market. Contrary to its brilliant achievement, Korean pop culture is stuck in a paradoxical situation. The more transnational it becomes externally, the more nationalistic it becomes internally. Nationalism has buttressed K-pop's growth, allowing it to venture out of Korea. Inversely, as K-pop makes its progress abroad, Koreans enjoy a boost in self-esteem. The increase in national pride, intertwined with the historical legacies from Japanese colonial rule and the chronic 'west complex' prevalent in Korean society, is giving rise to distorted cultural nationalism. Cultural nationalism, in turn, is putting brakes on K-pop's progress, as evidenced in heated online controversies including the “scandal” regarding Japanese idol Sana(TWICE)'s social media post and Korean netizens' racist remarks toward Thai star Lisa(BLACKPINK). K-pop is currently facing a dilemma as it must multinationalize to further prosper abroad while it should not overlook nationalistic conflicts. Furthermore, K-pop is on the verge of tipping towards cultural imperialism, as cultural supremacy and nationalistic ideals among Koreans are forming a cultural hierarchy. This study sheds light on the cultural nationalism hidden beneath the superficial glamor of K-pop, an issue concerning not only its own future growth but also the ever-present conflict factors in East Asia.

A study of Korean drama and Indonesian teenager’s perception on images of South Korea as a potential tourist destination

The popularity of Korean culture among teenagers around the world has made many teenagers, including Indonesian teenagers, affected by this culture. This Korean culture well known as Korean Wave or Hallyu. Korean Wave or Hallyu is a term to describe South Korean pop culture that has been successfully exported across the globe, including Indonesia. In Indonesia, Korean Wave or Hallyu products were introduced through the Korean television series called Korean drama. The objectives of this study are to determine how the teenagers in Indonesia perceive South Korean images as a destination that is seen in Korean dramas and could lead to the intention to visit South Korea in the future, to find out what are the impacts of watching Korean drama on consumer decision-making on Korean products and to find out whether watching Korean drama could increase the brand awareness towards a brand on Indonesian teenagers. This study uses qualitative methodology. Informants in this study were Indonesian teenagers range age 20-21 years old. Data collection for this study is obtained through interviews. By conducting this research, the researcher hopes to increase readers' insight into consumer decision-making that is influenced by the Korean Drama. The researcher hopes that this study may help future researchers who will conduct similar research from different aspects.

‘I read webtoon every day!’: young adult k-pop fans’ language learning and literacies with korean webcomics

ABSTRACT This paper considers the transnational multimodal literacy practices of non-Korean college students in America who use the webtoon app, which showcases Korean webcomics (also called webtoons). The findings suggest that these practices promoted agency in reading, learning the Korean language, and developing critical cultural awareness. Along with the burgeoning outgrowth of Korean pop culture in the United States, Korean webtoons have become popular among adolescents and young adults. Yet, there is no literacy research on webtoon readers in a Western country. This qualitative study is drawn from three cases of non-Korean avid webtoon readers to examine their experiences. The findings showed that these young adults do not read webtoons just for pleasure. They had an explicit learning goal related to improving their Korean language skills and learning about Korean culture, which they had little opportunity to learn about during primary and secondary school. The purpose of this paper is to reiterate the importance of out-of-school literacy and transnational multimodal literacies by introducing how webtoons promoted reading and learning for its readers.

Qualitative Changes in Korean Pop Culture, Seen through the Netflix Drama “Squid Game”

Qualitative Changes in Korean Pop Culture, Seen through the Netflix Drama “Squid Game”

Travelling Noodles and Migrating Pieces of Raw Fish

Travelling Noodles and Migrating Pieces of Raw Fish

The Effect Of The Korean Wave On Nation Brand South Korea (Study On USU Physics Students)

Global economic crisis that hit the world economy, demands countries to improve its market strategy. A country needs to manage its country image as a company managed its brand image. Because a powerful nation brand, will bring a great inbound and outbound effect as well. Inbound effect is related to investment and tourism, whereas outbound effect is related to export and human resources. Korea is one of those countries that are serious about building its Nation brand through the spread of its pop culture (Korean Wave) and spends million annually to the Korean Wave. It suggests a real discussion about the influence of the Korean Wave towards the Nation brand of South Korea.The aims of this research to determine the influence of the Korean Wave among the students of the Faculty of Social and Political Science, University of North Sumatra towards the Nation brand of South Korea.This research is an associate research with quantitative approach, carried out at the Faculty of Social and Political Science, University of North Sumatra from December 2016 to January 2017. Data collection was done by spreading the questionnaire to 148 respondents who knew and or like Korean pop culture, in this case, its music and drama.The research result shows that the Korean Wave has significant influence towards the Nation brand of South Korea. The amount of influence is equal to 48.6%, while the remaining 51.4% is influenced by other factors which were not examined in this study.

The Korean wave in Indonesia: from Asian pop culture to Korean pop culture

The Korean wave in Indonesia: from Asian pop culture to Korean pop culture

Behind the Korean Media Strength

Korean Media have reached a wide range of Asian audience, including Malaysian audience. The rising popularity of Korean entertainment content in Asia has created Korean pop culture in the entertainment industry. There seemed to be a gap in previous research concerning the strength of Korean media. This research is an attempt to explore Korean media strength behind the scene that continuously getting the attention and maintaining the popularity. The research uses qualitative methods to address the Korean drama phenomenon. Four (4) informants from selected Korean Broadcasters were identified to participate in the in-depth interviews. Based on the findings, it shows that the Korean Broadcasting Media are not born to the real strategy. The experience of hardship to survive, economically poor country, and challenges from other developed countries has made them compete and creatively work to improve their lives. The findings are significant in explaining the global success of Korean media.

The Future of Post-COVID-19 Urban Tourism: Understanding the Experiences of Indonesian Consumers of Hallyu with South Korean Virtual Tourism

Amid the outbreak of COVID-19, South Korea is still actively promoting its culture and tourist destinations to global audiences. Through the initiative of Imagine Korea Virtual Reality, the country invites foreign people to view Korean sightseeing places and tourist spots. Based on Imagine Korea as the case study material, our study attempted to identify the perceptions, feelings, and expectations of Indonesian consumers of Hallyu through virtual tourism offered by South Korea. The study employed in-depth interviews with 15 respondents who often consume Korean pop culture. The result revealed that most respondents had never experienced or had been interested in any virtual tours offered during the pandemic. Nevertheless, the experiments changed their perceptions of the entertainment virtual tours can provide throughout the COVID-19 crisis. While most respondents agreed that virtual tours sparked their interest in visiting Seoul after the pandemic ended, they mainly stated that virtual tours could never replace traditional travel. Thus, instead of serving as an alternative form of tourism during COVID-19 and afterwards, the study indicated the potential of virtual tours to be a primary destination marketing tool, one that can help visitors better design their itinerary routes and learn about local attractions.

Pengaruh Fenomena Tren Korean Wave Dalam Perkembangan Fashion Style Di Indonesia

The Korean wave phenomenon has taken the world by storm. Korean Wave is a term that refers to the popularity of Korean pop culture overseas. In this case, the term is used across the country to refer to the wider spread of South Korean pop culture in general or around the world. Besides KPop and Kdrama, Korean culture is also very widespread, even fans apply elements of Korean culture in their daily life. One that is very common in various parts of the world is fashion style or Korean fashion style. The world of fashion is experiencing rapid development, especially Korean fashion, which has influenced hairstyles, ways of dressing, shoes, and even makeup. Korean fashion is considered unique because it represents bright clothing colors and is easy to match with Asian bodies and skin tones. Korean fashion exists and influences its followers in their daily life. From this we can conclude how the problem of dependence on Korean fashion styles affects the behavior of the population in Indonesia.

The Rise of Time Fengjun Entertainment

The profit generated by Time Fengjun Entertainment through the fandom culture is immeasurable. A retrospective view at the development of Chinese idol industry has shed light on the extensive achievement and revolution made in the past few year. Based on the system of Japanese pop culture (J-Pop) and Korean pop culture (K-pop), Chinese idol industry gradually forms a special scale, and also conceives its own way of identifying and nurturing idols. Time Fengjun Entertainment is the only company which focuses on the development and training of teenagers who have the potential of becoming idols. In this article, the factors underlying the rise of Time Fengjun Entertainment and the possible strategies it took are analyzed.

The phenomenon of Korean wave in Metamodern European cultural environment

Purpose of the article is to analyze reasons of rapid growth of the Korean cultural product popularity in European cultural environment, to identify coincidence of the worldview, aesthetic, gaming demands of the Western consumer audience and art patterns of the Korean mass-culture. The phenomenon of the rapid popularity growth of Korean cultural products is called the “Korean wave. According to statistics, K-pop forms 2% of GDP (for comparison, Korean aviation – 0,7 %). On March 2020 the artistic heritage of the nowadays most popular Korean pop-band BTS was recognized “the strategic export product” of South Korea. That’s why it is actually to study out reasons for the great popularity of the “Korean wave” among the Western European cultural environment. Methodology. Theoretical basis of the exploration includes authors as of the applying field of cultural science, so of the fundamental one. For example, N. Tytkova (2020) analyzes style peculiarities of the Korean wave, Y. Pak (2015) outlines the genealogy of the phenomenon according to the Korean ethnic mentality specificity. Appealing to the theoretical works of R. Popty (1996) and F. Jameson (2008), T. Vermeulen and R. van der Akker (2010) has facilitated deeper understanding as of the Metamodern features of the actual European culture so the specificity of nowadays Korean pop-culture. Scientific novelty. Popularity of the Southern Korean pop-culture in Europe and Northern America is caused not only by the marketing peculiarities of the K-pop industry but also by its reasoning with key values and demands of the metamodern Western culture, such as “new sincerity”, “sober fanaticism”, “pragmatic romanticism”, “causal esotericism”. Conclusions. The powerful request for the youth artifacts and practices is been formed in the West. But artistic and academic discourse is still been under the influence of distrustfully critical postmodern narrative. Thus, the rupture between the West’s philosophical self-reflective vocabulary and applied requests for the new sincerity, and new romanticism has created favorable conditions for the youth-oriented mass-culture import.

Determinants of Consumption Behaviors of Korean Pop Culture in Taiwan

This paper presents a qualitative analysis of associations between intrinsic (e.g., functional), extrinsic (e.g., social) and cultural consumption values, and consumption behavior of Korean pop cultural contents (KPCC) in Taiwan. Moderation effects of Korean language abilities on associations are also investigated. Results show that intrinsic consumption value has the strongest association with KPCC consumption behaviors. Functional, epistemic, and conditional values have strong associations, whereas emotional and social exhibit weak associations. Cultural value is not a strong predictor of consuming KPCCs due to Korean and Taiwan cultural characteristics not being substantially different. Language abilities weakly moderate relationships between KPCC consumption values and consumption behaviors. Implications and suggestions are addressed. The research contributes findings and implications to the domain of KPCC marketing and retailing in Taiwan.

Increasing Visibility of the Turkish Fans of South Korean Popular Culture through Translation

Having made a remarkable contribution to social questions in translation studies, the sociological approach to translation explores the interaction between human agents, translated texts, and their context of production and reception (Chesterman, 2006; Wolf & Fukari, 2007; Wolf, 2011). The research in this study is focused on target text users/pro-consumers. In line with this aim, this study is centered on Turkish fans of South Korean popular culture, most of whom have consumed, produced, and distributed diverse Korean popular culture products largely through translation. The present research particularly intends to problematize Korean fandom in Turkey considering John Fiske’s approach to fandom, which is based on Bourdieu’s consideration of culture, operating like an economic system to distribute its resources unequally and therefore distinguishing between individuals who possess greater degree of capital and the others deprived of it. This research, based on the Internet-mediated interviews (with 43 Turkish fans of South Korean pop culture), argues that Bourdieu’s consideration of fans as a group that is devoid of social and cultural power and is considered undistinguished in their cultural preferences and interpretative practices partly fails to enlighten the case of the Korean Wave fans in Turkey. This study has revealed that, cultural capital is not fixed but open to struggles, disclosing the fact that accumulation of popular cultural capital can bring prestige to certain fans that are more involved in and possess high knowledge within the fan community. Then, it has been posited that social networks play a far more major role in the formation and persistence of the fan community than does the accumulation of cultural capital. It has also been observed that popular cultural capital of Korean Wave fans can readily be converted into high social capital since Turkish fans who display their accumulated popular cultural capital are able to broaden their reach to other fans. Lastly, this research discloses that, Turkish fans’ increasing visibility and their influence over mass culture appear to form a particular kind of fan habitus which allows for variability in tastes and actions of the fans.

Impact of diversifying media content on country's economic potential: case study of South Korea

The popularity of Korean pop culture in the world can be considered an exceptional phenomenon of 2020. One should note that processes reflecting the effective interaction of state structures with the spheres of the creative industry in the modern economy have a special scientific potential at the moment. These creative industry spheres include art, cinema, animation, music, game development and software products. The most successful case in this area is the developed system of cultural media export in South Korea. Research into the economic opportunities of creative industries as a new stage in modern society is becoming a practically significant way to solve the problems of increasing the country's economic power in the Digital Age. The experience of South Korea is still insufficiently covered in Russian research. The practical significance of research in this field is associated with the study of the use of cultural products as a tool for economic growth.

Determinants of Consumption Behaviors of Korean Pop Culture in Taiwan

This paper presents a qualitative analysis of associations between intrinsic (e.g., functional), extrinsic (e.g., social) and cultural consumption values, and consumption behavior of Korean pop cultural contents (KPCC) in Taiwan. Moderation effects of Korean language abilities on associations are also investigated. Results show that intrinsic consumption value has the strongest association with KPCC consumption behaviors. Functional, epistemic, and conditional values have strong associations, whereas emotional and social exhibit weak associations. Cultural value is not a strong predictor of consuming KPCCs due to Korean and Taiwan cultural characteristics not being substantially different. Language abilities weakly moderate relationships between KPCC consumption values and consumption behaviors. Implications and suggestions are addressed. The research contributes findings and implications to the domain of KPCC marketing and retailing in Taiwan.

Technology as a Core Part of a Teacher's Knowledge Base in the Digital Age

We language educators are constant learners of teaching, not only of up-to-date pedagogy and technology but also the social context of target and native culture within which teaching occurs. Beyond my formal education, integral to my knowledge base are the range of student populations I have served and the variety of language teaching contexts I have encountered, such as heritage learners at UC Berkeley, the global popularity of Korean pop culture since the late 90s, and the pandemic situation since 2020. These are the local contextual factors that have affected the development of my knowledge base. To gain this knowledge base, I developed ways to integrate technology that accommodated my local contextual factors.