Kitipongpatana 1

Pirapat Kitipongpatana
Philip Jenks
English 161
21 November 2014

The Korean Wave as a Tool to Combat Orientalism

Korean Popular culture, including items such as Korean movies, computer games,
television, books, music and food, has seen a boom in popularity and has spread amongst
neighboring countries as well as overseas starting in the early 1990s. The rapid spread of Korean
culture and influence, dubbed the Korean Wave, is quickly making its way into the United
States and becoming a global phenomenon (Siriyuvasak and Hyunjoon 119). This paper will
focus on the underlying causes of the Korean Wave analyzing the effects of the movement on
other nations as well as South Korea itself. A nation torn into two through years of imperialism
and war, South Korea also falls under the category of Oriental because of its history and
geographical location. In order for South Korea to become a global player economically, South
Korea had to change its global reputation in order to appeal more to the western dominated
market. The Korean Wave is a perfect example of western influence in Koreas cultural exports.
In order to understand how Korean Popular culture became what it currently is, one must gain a
rudimentary understanding of Koreas history of foreign occupation, the western thought of
Orientalism and its effect on Korea. These are all important factors in the change of Korean
Popular culture into the multi-million dollar media industry it is today.

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Orientalism, as explained by Said in Orientalism, is, essentially, a European creation that
dates back to precolonial times. In a sense the limitations of Orientalism are, as I said earlier,
the limitations that follow up upon disregarding, essentializing, denuding the humanity of
another culture, people, or geographical region (Said 111). When the Europeans expanded their
scope, they divided the world into two parts, those who were of the orient, and those who were
not. They viewed the people of the east as uncivilized, therefore reiterating to themselves how
civilized their own society was. The sense of superiority that was in the European mind gave
them the thought that it was their mission to civilize the uncivilized orient. It was their duty to do
them a favor and rule the east. This became the justification for the colonization of eastern
countries. Westerners who believed in Orientalism, the orientalists, would immerse themselves
into the eastern countries in order to study the orient. Their scientific papers were written with a
pre-established bias that the orient is, in some way or another, inferior and unable to be selfgoverned. Orientalists would often examine specific case events while disregarding context in
order to come to conclusions that
Orientals or Arabs are thereafter shown to be gullible, devoid of energy and initiative,
much given to fulsome flattery, intrigue, cunning, and unkindness to animals; Orientals
cannot walk on either a road or a pavement (their disordered minds fail to understand
what the clever European grasps immediately, that roads and pavements are made for
walking); Orientals are inveterate liars, they are lethargic and suspicious, and in
everything oppose the clarity, directness and nobility of the Anglo-Saxon race (Said 50).
These assumptions serve two purposes: to further prove that the orients are inept as human
beings, and to say that the Europeans were the opposite, meaning that because the orient were
lethargic and suspicious, it is also saying that the Europeans were hardworking and honest,

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due to the dichotomization between the two groups. Another example of false generalizations
that were a basis of Orientalism would be, as Said writes, One constraint acting upon Christian
thinkers who tried to understand Islam was an analogical one; since Christ is the basis of
Christian faith, it was assumed quite incorrectly that Mohammed was to Islam as Christ was
to Christianity (Said 69).
The first wave of Orientalism was about the savagery of the uncivilized easterners, but
the second wave has a slight change in attitude in the 19th century. For one, the Orient was being
opened out considerably beyond Islamic lands (Said 117). The increasing influence of travel
literature, imaginary utopias, moral voyages, and scientific reporting brought the Orient into
sharper and more extended focus (Said 118). This newer, expanded view, heavily romanticized
the orient, painting a picture of the orient as an a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting
memories and landscapes, [and] remarkable experiences (Said 18).
In the last chapter of Orientalism, Said writes about orientalism in the 20th century. The
main difference in this era of Orientalism is that instead of having orientalists passively
examining the orient, they played a more active role, taking part in the daily lives of the orients
and learned their lifestyle in order to figure out a more proper way of ruling the orient. When as
a result of World War I the Orient was made to enter history, it was the Orientalist-as-agent who
did the work (Said 220), meaning that the Orient was never in charge of writing their own
history as presented to the West. Their history would be written by the West and as a result, be
heavily biased. As a result of World War II, Americans have become a larger player in
Orientalism thought and has displaced France and Britain as the center stage in world politics
(Said 260).

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Said mainly examines Orientalism in the Middle Eastern countries, but it is still very
applicable to countries such as China and Korea as well. The relationship between America and
its Pacific or Far Eastern interlocutors China, Japan, Korea, Indochina is informed by racial
prejudice, sudden and relatively unprepared rushes of attention followed by enormous pressure
applied thousands of miles away, geographically and intellectually distant from the lives of most
Americans (Daisuke 5).
Korea from the 14th century into the late 19th century was self-ruled under the Joseon
Dynasty. This was time period in which most of the Orientalism towards Korea took place in.
During the Joseon Dynasty, Korea adopted many ideas and doctrines as well as cultural practices
of their neighboring country, China. This Dynasty saw the height of classical Korean culture,
trade, science, literature, and technology. The adoption of the practices of the Chinese was due to
China being a more economically powerful country and also attributed to the close proximity of
the two countries. Korea adopted their ideals and religion through trade neighboring countries.
Buddhism and Confucianism remained the most prominent religion and philosophy in Korea
from the Three Kingdoms period (57 BC ~ 688 AD) until the late 18th century (Brown 45). This
adopting of ideals can be seen as somewhat of a self-imposed colonization of ideas.
A prominent era in the history of Korea is the Japanese colonization of Korea from 1910
until 1945. The Japanese colonization of Korea started with the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1905,
which made the Korean Empire a protectorate of the Japanese Empire. This treaty traded Koreas
diplomatic sovereignty with the protection provided by the powerful Empire of Japan. After this
treaty, Japan forced the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1907, which strengthened Japans grip on Korea
and then finally the 1910 Japan-Korea Treaty, which fully annexed Korea as a colony of Japan.
The techniques used by Japan are an emulation of the United States black ship diplomacy

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(The Annexation of Korea). Japans colonization of Korea is, essentially, practicing Orientalism
ideals. Western colonization was forced on Japan in the past, so Japan forced its colonization
onto a country through the same means and motives, although Japan took steps in preserving
Korean culture with the establishment of the Korean History Compilation Committee in 1925.
In the time period leading up the World War II, Japanese occupation of arable land in
Korea rose up to 52.7%, clearly showing their dominance in Korea (Nozaki). During World War
II, Korea fought as a colony of Japan. Following Japans surrender to the Allied nations in 1945,
the Soviet Union and America divided the colonies of Japan, resulting in Korea being split into
two separate nations, North Korea and South Korea. On August 10, 1945, Korea was divided
into two separate nations, roughly evenly by total area, on the 38th parallel, leaving the capital
Seoul under American control. No experts on Korea were consulted let alone Korean people.
This parallel was chosen only by people of the West, and this even shows orientalism in how
Americans did not trust the Korean people to be able to rule themselves (Oberdorfer). North
Korea would be on the side of the Soviets, thus becoming a communist socialist nation, while
South Korea became a capitalist democratic republic nation, which is important in the rapid
evolution of South Korea in becoming a global contender in economy.
Because of the shift towards capitalism, Koreas economy was able to develop and
flourish, transforming from a developing nation to becoming an OECD (Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development) member in 1996. South Korea was able to compete
with some of the most powerful capitalist nations in the world. With a strengthened capitalist
economy, Korea was able to globalize and spread its popular culture into regions in which the
economic hold of Korea could grasp (Siriywasak and Shin110).

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The Korean War allowed South Korea to create bonds with other countries that fought
alongside it. The relationship between Thailand and Korea strengthened as a result of the Korean
War, which began less than a decade after World War II. Thai troops fought on the side of South
Korea to fend off the North Korean and other northern aggressor troops. Through this, and a
shared military dictatorship and Japanese occupation history, Thai-Korean relations emerged.
These relations are international not only in traditional terms (diplomatic ones) but also as
components of the wide and complicated network among Northeast and Southeast Asian
countries (Siriyuvasak and Shin). Between Thailand and Korea, Koreas trade value increases
constantly, whereas Thailand maintains a trade deficit with Korea, amounting to $1716 million
USD. Also, South Korea and Thailand are both a part of APEC and ASEM. As a result of these
ties, the cultural relations between these two countries have also strengthened, as can be seen by
the figure, 700,000 Korean tourists visited Thailand in 2002 a 15% increase from the previous
year. With an increase in Thai-Korean relations, including cultural bonds, Thailand becomes the
perfect candidate for the Korean Wave to spread to.
The Korean Wave is defined as the phenomena of the spread of Korean Culture
throughout the world. Since the 1980s, Korea had been under daunting bilateral (largely from
the United States) and multilateral pressures to open its markets, in the name of globalization, in
various sectors including cinema and television (Chua and Koichi 15). During the late 1990s,
Korean pop culture had spread into China, Japan, and other regions in East Asia. This term was
coined by Chinese media to descript the explosive rise in popularity of Korean pop culture in
Asian countries. The Korean Wave, called hallyu in Korean, began in China in the mid-1990s
with the introduction of Korean TV drama serials and pop music (Hogarth). The start of the
Korean Wave is attributed to the 1995 Asian Games which were held in Beijing, China. During

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these games, the Chinese people, whom before were constantly under the spell of American-led
Western culture as something to aspire to, began to turn their attention towards Asia for cultural
inspiration (Hogarth). Similar to this, Cho writes Kim also suggests that upon hearing of the
Korean Wave, it was possible to imagine a Korean dream similar to the fabled American
Dream dreamt by Koreans decades ago (154). This shows that the power and influence of
Western colonization is lessening in Asia, specifically the countries affected by the Korean Wave.
This event is pivotal because now the American white picket fence, front lawn, and a white
family, is no longer something to strive for. Orientalism within Asian view of itself is
diminishing.
There are signs all over the world of the decline of the sovereign nation-state and of new
forms of territorializaion within the rapid flows of globalization. Caught in their midst,
people are trying to make sense of such changes. Such processes are especially dramatic
and painful in countries that have undergone processes of rapid and compressed
modernization. South Korea is among those countries that have undergone a compressed
period of modernization, experiencing colonial domination, war, and rapid economic
growth all within the same century (Cho 148).
So what made Korean TV Dramas popular? During about the same time period, Cool
Japan, or the Japanese Wave, also was happening in China. These Japanese films tackled
highly controversial issues not seen in Chinese dramas such as rape, incest, adultery, and other
sexually provocative and violent scenes, which were not seen in Hollywood products (Hogarth
137). Korean TV dramas surfaced and instantly appealed to many Chinese viewers. According
to Changsun Pak in 1994 Koreas export of TV dramas to China amounted to $95,200, but it rose
to $171,600 in 1995, achieving an increase of 80.3 percent in one year (Hogarth 137). This

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shows the statistical and economic beginning of the Korean Wave. The initial popularity of
Korean Dramas was due to many factors. Korean dramas boasted high quality directing with
sophisticated camera shots and angles, beautiful scenes with attractive young actors and
meticulously crafted periodic costumes, and a modern representation of Asian-ness in both the
modern globalized and historical settings. Having the entire cast of every drama be exclusively
Asian had an appeal towards a similarly Asian audience. The dialogues were also dubbed into the
other languages such as Chinese and Japanese. Another factor in the rapid spread of the dramas
were that they reflected Asian life philosophy, which are, as similar as they may have become to
Western ideology due to the globalization of Western media, unique to the East Asian audience.
Under the communist regime, Chairman Mao Zedongs Great Cultural Revolution had
diminished Confucian thought. However, The Korean TV dramas evoked a sense of nostalgia
for the past, making them rediscover their cultural roots (Hogarth 138). This, in turn, gave rise
to a Chinese renaissance in tradition and culture. The Korean Wave has countered some effects
of Western influences into the so-called orient. However, what Korean Dramas also
accomplished was the integration of modernity and tradition in the form of respect for traditional
Korean culture with new modern Western-orientated globalized culture.
This rapid spread and success of the Korean TV Drama did not go unnoticed by the
Korean government. In an effort to expand the Korean market, Korean economists examined
Korean cinema. The Hollywood movie, Jurassic Park was calculated to have a gross income
equivalent to the sale of 1.5 million Hyundai cars. Since Hyundai was a large contributor in
increasing Koreas trade value, the Korean government issued the Motion Picture Law in 1995,
designed to attract investment in the movie industry. Through this law, companies such as
Daewoo, Hyundai, and Samsung, began to produce Korean cinema, leading up to more choice

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for the Korean audience. However, due to the aforementioned Asian financial crisis in 1997,
Daewoo, Hyundai, and Samsung were no longer a part of the media market. What these
companies achieved and what resources and research they put into the industry transformed the
Korean media and entertainment industry into a highly professional industry that could globally
compete. Because of the time period that the Korean media industry became professional, the
new workers, often referred to as talents, within this industry were of a new generation, not
afraid of handling topics of race class and gender. This is shown in how Coffee Prince and You
are beautiful are both two successful movies with homosexuality as a central theme (Tuk 7).
After the spread of the Korean Drama came the spread of Korean pop music, otherwise
known as K-pop. Before the music industry was formed, Korean popular music was limited to
ballads sung to accompany television shows. Because of the rapid economic development in the
1990s in Korea, corporate television channels were allowed to broadcast on Korean television,
which is all state regulated. These new channels used music to fill their programming. Music
videos, clips from concerts, reports about concerts and albums and interviews with pop singers
were constantly shown on television. The music industry realized the potential of this and used
television to market their new artists (Tuk 11-12). K-pop grew in popularity in Korea to the
point that 76% of the total music in Korea in 2001 was Korean pop music. This led the Korean
music industry to flourish. The spread in Korean music, however, was not only one-directional
but included what is called hybridization.
With the globalization of Korean pop music came English linguistic hybridization in the
lyrics of K-pop songs. This is shown in countless Korean pop songs such as Exos, a popular
male k-pop group, song, What is Love.

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Girl, I cant explain what I feel.
ooh-yeah. my baby, baby, baby, baby. Yeah.
1
.
.

,
.
.
?

. oh baby.
I lost my mind.
,

get in slow motion
It can be seen in this song that English music clearly has had an influence on the lyrical choices
as phrases such as I lost my mind in English, and calling ones significant other baby, are
both English customs. In Hyunjoon Shins paper, Have You Ever Seen the Rain and Wholl
Stop the Rain: The Globalizing Project of Kpop, Shin examines the international spread of the
K-pop multitalented artist and performer Bi, who is more commonly known by his English name,
Rain. Rain is the product of the new system of the Korean music industry which appeared after
the consolidation of the early systems in the mid-1990s. This system integrates production
and management and all other necessary functions for developing and training talents, (Shin
510). What is interesting is how these companies are structured.

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In a multi-storey building with recording studios, rehearsal rooms and conference
rooms, the staff and employees work as songwriter-arrangers, recording engineers,
managers, choreographers, costume designers, design coordinators etc. Even star
entertainers often come into the office when there is no special schedule. Although it
would be controversial to say that this system has East Asian characteristics, it is true
that it cannot be easily found outside the region and that the system in different parts in
the region shares considerable similarities, (Shin, 510).
The structure of the music industry is seeped with East Asian ideals and cultural practices that
are making a recurrence after the widespread Orientalism.
Rain, as a product of this new industrial machine, came from humble beginnings and
evolved into an international k-pop icon. Early K-pop music in Korea was not designed to be an
export good. As there was no concerted strategy of promoting Korean pop stars abroad at that
time, it depended on luck whether he or she became a Korean pop star in the Asian market,
(Shin 514). It was during this time that Korean pop spread to places such as China, Mongolia and
Vietnam because local entertainment industries had yet to be developed in those countries. Also,
another characteristic of K-pop, which let it be more widespread to an Asian audience, is the
same as the Korean Drama in how it lacked profanity and sex, thus adhering more to Confucian
morals. However, in the case of the more modern K-pop idol, Rain, the theme of sex, which is
an anti-Confucian and subversive, was essential and indispensable for [his] stardom, (Shin
514). Rains image was more Western than Asian, which added to his border-crossing appeal,
and his Asian element still allowed him to have appeal at a regional level. When Rain went
beyond East Asia, he needed to change his persona from Bi, the Korean romaji for the word rain,
Yu, the Japanese romaji for the word rain, into Rain, an English word. With this, Rain released an

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American style pop R&B with hip-hop album titled Rainism, with Romanized titles for all of
the songs. However, the songs were still in the Korean language. This new breed of K-pop not
only targeted the Korean audience, but also international audiences, which led to commercial
success and Rains first world concert tour, (Shin 515).
The Korean Wave is the rapid spread of Korean cultural products throughout the world.
These products include television dramas, music, food, books, and more. The roots of the Korean
Wave and why it is successful can be traced back to Orientalism. Orientalism is a European
creation that limits the humanity of the group that the Westerners dubbed the orient.
Orientalism justified the European colonization of eastern countries, and it also set them apart
from their barbaric neighbors. What the orient expressed was what the civilized people were
the opposite of and vice versa. These oppressive ideas have hindered colonized countries from
being economically relevant and have given them a negative reputation in western eyes in a
western dominated economy. Because of this, in order for South Korea to become a global player
economically, South Korea has to change its global reputation in order to appeal more to the
western dominated market. After World War II, Korea became a relevant player in the economy.
The Korean War brought attention towards Korea, and it also created national ties between allied
countries such as Thailand, which also shared a similar history with Korea and fought against
communism. These ties would aid in the rapid growth and spread of Korean culture. The Korean
Wave started out in China in the mid 1990s. The Asian Games allowed China to see that the
American Dream was not the only dream to strive for; there are other dreams such as the Korean
Dream. This event allowed the Chinese to look at fellow Eastern Asians as who to strive to be,
instead of American produced Hollywood nuclear families. Through the Korean Wave, the
effects of Western colonization and orientalism in Asia were able to die out.

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Works Cited

Brown, Ju, and John Brown. China, Japan, Korea: Culture and Customs. North Charleston, SC:
urge, 2006. Print.
Cho, Hae-Jong. "Reading the "Korean Wave" as a Sign of Global Shift." Korea Journal (Winter
2005): 147-82. Web.
Chua, Beng Huat., and Koichi Iwabuchi. East Asian Pop Culture: Analysing the Korean Wave.
Hong Kong: Hong Kong UP, 2008. Print.
Daisuke Nishihara and . Said, Orientalism, and Japan. Alif: Journal of
Comparative Poetics 25: 241-253. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
Exo. What is Love. What is Love. SM Entertainment, 2012. MV.
Hogarth, Hyun-Key Kim. "The Korean Wave: An Asian Reaction to Western-Dominated
Globalization*." Perspectives on Global Development and Technology 12.1-2 (2013):
135-51. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
Nozaki, Yoshiko; Hiromitsu Inokuchi, Tae-young Kim. "Legal Categories, Demographic Change
and Japans Korean Residents in the Long Twentieth Century". Retrieved 2007-02-19.
Oberdorfer, Don. The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley,
1997. Print.
Said, Edward W. Orientalism. London: Penguin, 2003. Print.
Shin, Hyunjoon. "Have You Ever Seen the Rain? And Who'll Stop the Rain?: The Globalizing
Project of Korean Pop (K-pop)." Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 10.4 (2009): 507-23. Web.

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Siriyuvasak, Ubonrat, and Shin Hyunjoon. "Asianizing Kpop: Production, Consumption and
Identification Patterns among Thai Youth."Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 8.1 (2007): 10936. Web.
"The Annexation of Korea | The Japan Times." Japan Times RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
Tuk, William. "The Korean Wave: Who Are behind the Success of Korean Popular Culture?"
Thesis. Leiden University, 2013. Print.
Annotated Bibliography

Brown, Ju, and John Brown. China, Japan, Korea: Culture and Customs. North Charleston, SC:
urge, 2006. Print.
This piece gives a history of Korea in the context of Eastern Asia while including
the Japanese occupation of Korea. It was useful in defining dates.
Cha, Hyunhee, and Seungmook Kim. "A Case Study on Korean Wave: Focused on K-POP
Concert by Korean Idol Group in Paris, June 2011." Multimedia, Computer Graphics and
Broadcasting (2011): 153-62. Web.
This article is a case study dealing with the Korean Wave, focusing on the success
factors of K-Pop and what it is developing into today. This study specifically compares
the reception of SM Entertainments concert held in June 2011 in Paris by Korean and
French media. The expansion of the Korean Wave and its unrelenting grasp on the world
market is possible from differentiated content, highly appealing stories, approaching local
customers and operating co-marketing with other cultural products. This article has its
use in looking at the spreading pattern of the Korean Wave, the audience it targets, and
how it behaves.

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Cho, Younghan. "Desperately Seeking East Asia Amidst the Popularity of South Korean Pop
Culture in Asia." Cultural Studies 25.3 (2011): 383-404. Web.
This journal explores the definition of the term East Asia and its usage in South
Korean media. Also, it examines how East Asia fits in with the Korean Wave. This article
looks at delineations of the cultural geography of East Asia as a product of shared historic pasts
materializing through actual encounters.
Daisuke Nishihara and . Said, Orientalism, and Japan. Alif: Journal of
Comparative Poetics 25: 241-253. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
This article analyzed Saids Orientalism in the context of Japan. It explained how
Orientalism, although a western construct, has use that is not limited to only western
societies.
Exo. What is Love. What is Love. SM Entertainment, 2012. MV.
This is a popular k-pop song with examples of hybridization.
"History." Writing a Thesis and Making an Argument. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
This online article was helpful in providing me with an explanation on how to
structure a thesis statement that argues a specific point.
Hogarth, Hyun-Key Kim. "The Korean Wave: An Asian Reaction to Western-Dominated
Globalization*." Perspectives on Global Development and Technology 12.1-2 (2013):
135-51. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.globalizationandhumandynamics.com/resources/Global%20Korea.pdf>.
This article explores the western influence on Korean Popular Culture, focusing
on the music industry. Girls Generation is Koreas most popular female idol group,

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consisting of nine talents that emulate western fashion. There are ideas such as these that
are presented in this paper which are central for use in analyzing hybridization.
Lie, John. "What Is the K in K-pop? South Korean Popular Music, the Culture Industry, and
National Identity." Korea Observer 43.3 (2012): 339-63. Web.
This paper examines K-Pop in the time frame of the early 2010s and answers two
questions. What are the sources of its global success and what does that say about South
Korean society and culture. This paper is useful in looking at the effects that the spread of
K-Pop and the Korean Wave has on Korea itself, more specifically, Korean society. This
paper also goes into detail as to why K-Pop specifically, and not pop music from other
countries, looking at the structure of K-Pop songs themselves such as the percussive beats
and syllabic singing. This article also goes over the reason as to why people seem to
gravitate towards K culture and products.
Oberdorfer, Don. The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley,
1997. Print.
This article gives a history of Korea.
Ryoo, Woongjae. "Globalization, or the Logic of Cultural Hybridization: The Case of the Korean
Wave." Asian Journal of Communication19.2 (2009): 137-51. Web.
This article argues that the Korean wave is an indication of new global and local
economic and cultural transformations. There is a flow of culture through Asian countries
that results in an increasing acceptance of cultural production and consumption from
neighboring countries that share similar historical and cultural backgrounds. This article
is useful in describing how the Korean Wave shows that a country that is sub-periphery
can find a niche as a cultural mediator. This article also examines cultural hybridization.

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Said, Edward W. Orientalism. London: Penguin, 2003. Print.
This book looks at orientalism as a product of colonization. It defines orientalism
as a European creation that dates back to precolonial times. It gives this paper a more
historical and scholarly perspective.
Shim, D. "Hybridity and the Rise of Korean Popular Culture in Asia." Media, Culture &
Society 28.1 (2006): 25-44. Web.
This article includes a succinct definition of the Korean Wave, and follows it from
the start in the 1990s. The detail that it goes into in cultural hybridization shows how
other cultures have influenced Korea, the bigger the Korean Wave gets.
Shin, Hyunjoon. "Have You Ever Seen the Rain? And Who'll Stop the Rain?: The Globalizing
Project of Korean Pop (K-pop)." Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 10.4 (2009): 507-23. Web.
This article is more focused on the globalization of K-Pop with the focus of one
specific pop star Rain, who attempted to make inroads into the US market in the mid
and late 2000s.
Siriyuvasak, Ubonrat, and Shin Hyunjoon. "Asianizing Kpop: Production, Consumption and
Identification Patterns among Thai Youth."Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 8.1 (2007): 10936. Web.
This article explores the Korean Wave, or, Hallyu, phenomenon in Thailand. It
looks into whether the success of K-pop follows trajectories of J-pop, how waves of popculture are bundled together into Asian pop. It also looks into the relation of youth
culture in everyday politics, problematizes the political economy and the Asianization of
an emerging Inter-Asian pop culture in the present Asian mediascape. The analysis of
the spread of K-Pop into Thailand is useful in looking how Korean Culture spreads into

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other countries and gains traction. It also shows how each culture influences each other,
although not independent of class bounds.