Upon Publication of “Hallyu Series III”

Hallyu is now riding a new wave. Copy groups of Korean idol groups have appeared in Japan, China, Thailand and Vietnam and even as far as Brazil. Their popularity already rivals that of established singers. Furthermore, considering that Hallyu is spreading across the world through SNS such as YouTube and Facebook, it will only be a matter of time before Hallyu becomes a cultural icon for the entire world.

With the current Hallyu trend in mind, Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange (KOFICE) released “Hallyu Series III—Hallyu Forever, Taiwan China.” It focuses on the Hallyu phenomenon in the Chinese-speaking world. But why was this particular part of the world chosen?

China has one of the most powerful cultural content industries in the world. In terms of scale, China ranked fourth in 2007 and is expected to jump to the second place in 2011. This is because the content market size is expected to increase rapidly with the yuan revaluation and the active support of the government. China is Korea’s important partner, not only in terms of economy but also in terms of culture. It is an important market of Hallyu contents and must therefore grow and develop in step with Korea. 

Despite this, the origin of China’s recent hostility to Hallyu can be found in the Chinese government’s policy to protect the growth of its cultural industry from the outstanding Hallyu contents of Korea. The fact that Chinese consumers are still accessing Hallyu contents through illegal routes and downloading more contents from Internet shows that Hallyu is still at the center of people’s attention. Overall, it would be correct ......More