Korean Wave As a Hybrid Subculture

 

The Korean wave (Hallyu) refers to the significantly increased popularity of Korean drama and music around the world. Hallyu swept through Japan, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries, and then to all over the world. Now, Hallyu has expanded to include the popularity of any ‘Korean subculture’ including cuisine, clothes, cosmetics and language, etc. ‘Gangnam style’ by Korean singer ‘PSY’ has recently acquired more than 1.7 billion views on Y-Tube in the world within a year.

This paper is dealing with the rise of the Korean wave (Hallyu), reasons of success and the current situation of the Korean wave both in the positive and negative perspectives, and then it concludes with some sociological implications for a hybridization of East Asian culture. This study claims that Hallyu is the fruit of hybridization through digesting the influx of culture from Western and Asian sources in Korea. Hallyu in turn builds a hybrid subculture that appeals in Asia based on a long tradition of cultural interactions among other countries.