Korea, it's a small
country but it’s culture is spread worldwide, we call that
the “Korean Wave”. The
Korean Wave is a neologistic term used to define the flow of Korea and its culture.
If you think of Korea I can bet majority of the people would think of K-Pop,
whether they are American, African, for all I know any other ethnic group would
think the same thing. That is the reason why this topic is such a important
idea, Not because we see the news and the only thing we see is our corrupted
president and everyone else linked with it. If we travel back to when the
Korean wave initiated and started to spread out, we have to drop all the way
back to an excerpt in 1948. Kim Gu the leader of the Korean Independence
Movement made an excerpt in his autobiography saying..
“I
want our nation to be the most beautiful in the world. By this I do not mean
the most powerful nation. Because I have felt the pain of being invaded by
another nation, I do not want my nation to invade others. It is sufficient that
our wealth makes our lives abundant; it is sufficient that our strength is able
to prevent foreign invasions. The only thing that I desire in infinite quantity
is the power of a noble culture. This is because the power of culture both
makes us happy and gives happiness to others…”
- Kim Gu, March 1st, 1948
Kim Gu brings up
the general idea of the importance of culture and the thought of spreading the
culture worldwide, which we call now the “Korean
Wave” and from then on Korea
has developed exponentially starting from Korean movies that stuck
extraordinary amounts of views and Dramas that has been starred off-Korea due
to their amazing storyline and the music that Korean entertainment fumbles up
by creating boy groups, girl groups, solo singers.
Striding back to
present Korea, due to the efforts people made in the past we have these global
syndromes like K-pop and KCON and Korean Actors and Singers that are affecting
the whole world. As an example in the United States, Korean culture has spread
so far that theres a section in Los Angeles and New York City named Korea Town.
Famous American Celebrities are acting out the “Gangnam
Style” by PSY. Continuing on
other countries such as China. The Chinese officials have shown great interest
toward the Korean wave and takes it as a positive cultural exchange passing
through China and Korea.
Though these facts, the “Korean Wave”
is considered an immensely important idea and shows how Koreans are developing
as a member of global events and syndromes and not as a single entity in a
country.
Michael Park (Freshman) of Seoul Scholars International
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