Parasite, Oldboy, Squid Game, BTS, Blackpink. They may seem like isolated phenomena, but they are all examples of a cultural frenzy that has propelled South Korean pop entertainment to the center of the world. The popularization of K-dramas, K-pop, Manhwa (Korean manga), online games, and South Korean films has helped spread Korean culture to the rest of the world. And this is not happening by chance. This increase in the promotion of Korean culture is the result of strong investment and encouragement from South Korea in the sector. This is known as Hallyu, or the Korean wave.

"The Korean wave is a cultural phenomenon of South Korean origin, the moment when South Korea begins to massively export all its cultural products, its pop culture industry. It is not a cultural industry linked to a tradition of Korean culture but rather to its production of pop culture. In short, the Korean wave is a phenomenon of exporting South Korean pop culture, which initially expanded to regional markets, neighboring markets of South Korea, and today we can already consider it a global phenomenon," explained Daniela Mazur, a doctoral student in communication at the Federal Fluminense University (UFF) and an associated researcher at MidiÁsia, a research group on contemporary media and Asian culture.

In an interview with Agência Brasil, Daniela Mazur said that this leap in South Korean pop culture is recent and shows the rise of a country that has been devastated by various wars and invasions and has become one of the main global players in this century. To achieve this, the government played a role by creating incentive laws to structure this strong pop cultural industry.

"The role of the South Korean government, especially in the initial structuring of this cultural industry, was primarily legislative, to provide conditions, laws, and incentives for this industry to begin to structure itself. In the late 1990s, the country went through a very strong financial crisis that affected not only South Korea but also other regional economies. In fact, it was the Asian financial crisis that shook and destroyed several regional economies. South Korea was also one of those countries that felt it intensely. It was necessary to rethink national economic strategies, in which culture emerged as an important aspect not only for the country's economy but also to think about the structure of a national identity to be exported and considered beyond national borders," she emphasized.

This is how the South Korean government not only established incentive laws but also opened communication courses at universities to train people who could work in this new industry.

"These incentive laws, which continue to this day, have the perspective of linking private initiatives with public initiatives. These incentive laws encouraged private companies to invest in culture," Daniela emphasized.

It was from the late 1990s that this cultural industry, already with the prospect of exporting its products, began to structure itself. However, it was only in the early 2000s that it started to penetrate East and Southeast Asia, and ten years later, it began to be consumed globally. "In 2010, we can clearly see these products reaching a universe that we consider as the global consumer base, with exports and sales of various products, including TV dramas, K-pop, films, animations, and South Korean games," noted the doctoral student.

The Korean wave began to invade global markets driven by new web 2.0 communication technologies and social networks. "And the fans played a very important role in this, with the task of translating this content. Korean is a language with very little global penetration: only two countries speak Korean, South Korea, and North Korea. So, the translation work of this content was essential for Hallyu as a whole to reach different parts of the world, especially through unofficial consumption. When I say unofficial, I mean when it is not sold to a television station, cinema chains, or played on the radio, but rather through this circulation pirated by fans," explained Daniela.

In Brazil, these products began to arrive in increasing numbers just over ten years ago, mainly with the advancement of social networks and the first K-pop shows in the country. "The turning point we have is the early 2010s, especially because in that decade, the first major K-pop events were held here in Brazil. In 2011, we had the first official event, the arrival of a K-pop group in Brazil, initially through a fan event, something very specific, and at the end of the year, a large-scale show held at Espaço Unimed [formerly Espaço das Américas] in São Paulo," she recalled.

Two years later, with this momentum, the Korean Cultural Center was established in Brazil, located on Avenida Paulista in São Paulo. "This pointed to a growing consumption here in Brazil and the relevance of Brazil in this context for the Korean government since the Korean Cultural Center is connected to the Korean consulate here in Brazil. In the 2010s, we saw this growth in consumption, not only the growth but also the rooting of this consumption here in Brazil," she said.

"Brazil is an important market for the Korean wave today, especially because it is literally on the other side of the world. Brazil ends up being proof that the Korean wave really has a very intense global penetration," she added.

"The Korean Cultural Center, since its inauguration in 2013, has been presenting Korean culture to the Brazilian people," explained Cheul Hong Kim, director of the Korean Cultural Center in Brazil (CCCB), in an interview with Agência Brasil. "But since 1963 [when the first Koreans officially arrived in Brazil], the lives of Koreans have already been a cultural presentation, projecting Korean culture to Brazil," he said.

According to the director, the government has indeed encouraged the Korean wave. "The government has seen that many people like Korean culture, so it supports it a lot."

Attraction

For researcher Daniela Mazur, what makes Korean pop culture so attractive to the world is that it starts to think about cultural structures beyond "cultural consumption structured through American imperialism."

"In the end, South Korean pop is a local perspective of a global logic that we already know but, in a specific way, transforms and creates its own identities locally. Thanks to the strength of the Korean wave in regional logics and its own characteristics, and thanks to new communication technologies, these products start to reach us and also attract other consumers who are actually seeking other forms of consuming these media products. The interesting thing about these global media flows is that they are becoming increasingly diverse," she emphasized.

And with that, the Korean wave shows the world that entertainment is much more diverse than previously known. "The Korean wave has this very important bias of bringing a new cultural, national, non-Western, non-white, and non-Anglophone perspective to remind us once again that there is much more to the world than what we have learned to see. There is a universe of cultural and media production that we can get to know and engage with beyond these central and Western poles of consumption," said Daniela.

The highly acclaimed film Parasite, which won the Best Picture at the 2020 Oscars, helps explain the significance of the Korean wave to the world. "In one way or another, it became a key to show the rest of the world that there is not only one center of production and global cultural influence. In fact, we are experiencing a transition to a multipolar world of influences and cultural production," highlighted the researcher.