Creators from all over the world who make content about Korean culture gathered in Korea. From July 11 to 19, KOFICE (Korean Foundation for International Culture Exchange) invited 14 online opinion leaders from 13 countries and provided the opportunity to explore various sides of Korean culture. Star Youtubers who attract many subscribers through a variety of content including beauty, lifestyle, K-pop and Korean food, were given an unforgettable memory by participating in the ‘Korea Joa’ coverage activity.

Star Youtubers participating in ‘Korea Joa’ explored various aspects of Korean culture in the beautiful capital of Korea, Seoul, and the city with rich traditional beauty, Jeonju, and recorded their activities on camera. The creators devoted themselves in creating contents that are differentiated from the existing video content mainly about the major Hallyu industry such as K-pop and K-beauty.

Creators participated in carving their names in Korean letters on stamps and made collaborative content featuring themselves in Taekwondo uniforms with Taekwondo athletes from K-Tigers performance team. In addition, covering the reformed Hanbok, which are very popular among tourists and Korean people alike, they went down the runway on fashion shows wearing these themselves.

In particular, visiting Jeonju in Jeollabukdo in celebration of the 'Year of Visit to Jeonbuk 2017', YouTubers explored Jeonju's most famous landmark, Hanok Village, and made videos featuring materials that highlighted Korean characteristics such as Hanbok, Hanji and Makgeolli in order to promote the Korean style to overseas Hallyu fans.

Returning to Seoul, they participated in the ‘DIA Festival’ - Asia’s biggest festival for single creators – as global creators and interacted with Korean subscribers by going on stage in collaboration with Korean celebrity Youtubers. Also, they took part in SM Entertainment’s K-Pop dance training and receiving 1:1 styling coaching lessons in the famous Korean beauty shop Jenny House, exploring various aspects of Korean culture that the overseas K-wave fans were curious about.

Their meeting with K-pop girl group Gugudan was also a special experience. In the global fan meeting for overseas Hallyu fans, the creators and members of Gugudan paired to create various contents about beauty, culture exploration and musical performance.

Hong Kong’s celebrity beauty creator Rikcy KAZAF said about the experience, “As a Hallyu content creator, I have participated in many events related to Korea so far but none of them provided such rich & various subjects of Korean culture as ‘Korea Joa’. Most of all, it was a meaningful event where Hallyu creators worldwide who make contents about Korean culture could gather, form a band of sympathy and network among ourselves.”

At the end of their 9-day journey of creating Korean culture content, Youtubers will return to their home countries and edit & upload their content made while participating in Korea Joa. They plan to present various aspects of Korean culture not much known to the public and continue in interacting with local Hallyu wave fans.