Squid Game's Massive Success Boosts South Korea's ‘Hallyu': What Is It? Explained
South Korea's 'Hallyu' explained: Squid Game, BTS to K-Dramas, K-Beauty and K-Pop, the world's interest in all things Korean has led to Hallyu — a cultural wave
South Korea is on a cultural roll – ' Squid Game ' is ruling Netflix. Earlier this month, 'Maybe Happy Ending' became a Tony Award-winning play on Broadway, a milestone which reminded of 'Parasite', which in 2020 became the first foreign-language film to win an Oscar in the best picture category. Han Kang won last year's Nobel Prize in literature.
Youngsters can't get enough of K-pop and BTS, and Blackpink will start a global tour next month.
Shows, music to cosmetics and food, the world's interest in all things Korean has led to Hallyu — a term in Korean for cultural wave.
Hallyu: How South Korea's cultural rise began?
After the Korean War of the 1950s, South Korea faced dire financial crisis. In the economic crash of 1997, Seoul had to ask the IMF for a bailout of 60 billion dollars, which it still marks as the 'Day of National Humility'. But soon the country began a 'national rebranding" to convert the cultural identity and turned it into an exportable commodity. That marked the birth of Hallyu of Korean pop culture.
Today, culture is one of South Korea's largest exports. It has helped the nation become Asia's fourth-biggest economy, making it a cultural superpower.
K-Pop culture: Gangnam Style, BTS To Blackpink, Squid Game
Gangnam Style made history as the first YouTube video with one billion views. This paved the road for K-pop. BTS reportedly adds about four billion dollars to the South Korean economy each year. K-Pop is the biggest part of its content industry, which hit a record high in 2021 with a value of 12.4 billion dollars.
It dwarfed earnings from home appliances and vehicles, for which South Korea was once popular.
Korean dramas and films are big business as well. Some of the most popular K-Dramas includ e 'Queen of Tears', 'Business Proposal', 'Crash Landing on You', 'My Demon', 'The Glory', and 'Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha'. Seeing the success, Netflix is investing 2.5 billion dollars in South Korean projects. Disney and Apple TV are commissioning more Korean shows.
K-Beauty & Korean food
Korean cuisine is penetrating global markets and is worth 77 billion dollars. K-Beauty, too, has become a rage. Tourists are flocking to South Korea to buy cosmetics like snail mucin and face masks. The K-beauty market is expected to be worth 18 billion dollars in 2030.
Korean literature
Many say that the next big thing is Korean literature. Han rose to international prominence for her novel The Vegetarian, which became the first Korean language novel to win the International Booker Prize for fiction in 2016. In 2024, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, a first for an Asian woman and for a Korean. There is a growing demand to learn the Korean language, with saranghae (love you) becoming a common term among the youth.
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