1 March 2022, NIICE Commentary 7670
Shubhanginee Singh & Girija Brahma
The popular imagination regarding South Korea has undergone a significant transformation in the past few years. Previously, the mention of South Korea meant its association with brands like Samsung, LG, Hyundai, but now any reference to Korea among Indians invokes the image of BTS and Kdrama. It might seem intriguing the way the Korean wave seems to have unfurled in India during the pandemic, but within India, the wave has been sustaining itself for the past two decades. Even though the rest of India had remained insulated from the Hallyu wave, the appeal towards Korean culture is not something new for people from the North-Eastern states of India who have been drawn towards it owing to their racial and cultural similarities. In the popular understanding, the present Hallyu wave might seem to have arisen from the boredom of people who were locked in their homes for months during the pandemic, but the role of South Korean state’s sustained cultural diplomacy policy in promoting Hallyu is equally significant. With the state acting as a facilitator, the cultural wave continues to generate global interest in South Korean culture and values, and it holds political and economic implications for South Korea and the rest of the world.
In India, the present understanding of the Korean wave is more often than not limited to looking at the popularity of drama or Kpop among the teenage or young population of the country. However, the wave is much more than mere engagement with Korean entertainment content on streaming platforms. This is manifested in the way these Kpop fandoms have engaged themselves in issue-based global activism. During the Black Lives Matter movement in June 2020, these Kpop fans actively involved themselves with the cause. The fandom generated online support for the movement, disseminated information regarding the protests, along with raising USD 1 million during the pandemic, or the campaign to match the amount donated by BTS. In 2019, Chile saw a series of protests against human rights abuses and emerging demands for a restructuring of education and health infrastructure for the country. In response, Chile’s Ministry of Interior attributed ‘international influences’ as the cause for the protests which included Chilean Kpop fandom. More recently in Chile Presidential elections, Kpop fans organised and supported the progressive millennial Gabriel Boric whose campaign included concerns of student debt, environmental protection, and progressive taxation. Last year during the peak of COVID-19, BTS Army India raised around INR 2.2 million in one day. The same group later in the ear also raised funds for Assam flood relief. This issue-based activism has become possible due to the multicultural nature of the Kpop fandom. Even though fandom is largely female-dominated it has moved beyond its original fan base of youths to capture the imagination of people of all ages across locations and professions.
In the 1980s, Joseph Nye coined the term ‘soft power’ which referred to the country’s enabling power to influence others through its culture, ideals, and policies, rather than coercion. The intensifying of trade protectionism among global economic giants, along with emerging competitive economic forces in Asia, and rising labour costs in the domestic economy, has meant a decline in sales and profits for several labour-intensive manufacturing sectors of South Korea. This has pushed Seoul to expand beyond its traditional markets- China, United States. Japan, ASEAN- through exercising soft power and exploring bigger markets within Asia, including India. This is illustrated in Seoul’s promotion of the Hallyu wave in India as a part of its cultural diplomacy which ultimately is an attempt to identify diverse market opportunities in Asia, thus solidifying its prosperity pillar under New Southern Policy.
The popularity of the Korean entertainment industry has meant that the content industry is becoming a crucial driver of its economic growth. South Korea, which excels in the manufacturing and consumer goods industry, has successfully managed to capture the benefits of its entertainment industry by linking it with its production networks. According to Netflix its business last year added USD 1.9 billion to Korea’s economy. Korea’s main income-generating industry is electronic chips, and the value of exports from entertainment content was USD 10.8 billion which is around one-tenth of chips — Korea’s main cash cow – and it has already exceeded the value of crucial export items such as household appliances and cosmetics.
Through its cultural export across the globe, South Korea has been able to generate significant demand for Korean consumer goods in the Indian market, as Kdramas are popular for product placements like Samsung flip phones and Hyundai cars, Samyang instant noodles and Dyson air purifiers. The founder of Korikart, an online multi retail store for Korean products, Seo Young doo gives a positive prospect for the spike in Korean products among Indians as he continues to witness huge demand for it not only from metro cities or North-East India but even from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar which is the Hindi heartland of India. He says that since the pandemic began in March 2020 the brand has witnessed 300 percent growth in sales and is currently witnessing 40 percent month-on-month growth. The market research firm Euromonitor mentioned that according to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in India the Korean noodles in India have witnessed a growth of 162 percent in terms of volume in 2020, and are expected to grow by 178 percent in 2021. In wake of recognition of the potential of the Indian market, Korean companies are opting for localisation of Korean fast foods to suit Indian taste and climate. The South Korean company Lotte which produces Choco Pie, a food product containing animal extracts, has started producing vegetarian Choco-Pie. The obsession of Indians with fair skin and female beauty holds a prospective market for the Korean code of beauty which is popular for ‘glass skin’. South Korean beauty products have found a market in India as both Indian and Korean beauty skincare regimen involves the use of natural ingredients like turmeric, honey, lemon, or chia seeds, bamboo, avocado, rice water. The market for South Korean beauty products in India has increased manifold from USD 11 billion in 2017 and is expected to close to USD 30 billion by 2025.
It may seem to many that language would be a barrier for the Indian audience in interacting with the Korean content, but the advocacy of Korean entertainment content is getting translated into acceptance of the language as well. King Sejong Institute (KSI), which offers several beginners and intermediate courses in the Korean language, now has six centres in India including Patna, located in the Hindi heartland. To cater to the students who have been drawn towards learning the language after their tryst with Kdramas or BTS songs, the institute offers a course on learning K-wave Korean through K-dramas and K-pop. In the first half of 2020, across its four centres, it had 703 students who were enrolled in 40 courses which in 2021 has exponentially increased to 2,749 students enrolled in 60 courses across six centres.
The enthusiasm of Kpop fans to go beyond the consumption of content offered by Kpop artists on mainstream platforms has encouraged South Korean music labels to come up with their own social media apps. In India Weverse – a fandom platform owned by BTS’s parent company HYBE which not only allows fans to interact with artists but also sells their merchandise – on Android devices has grown almost fivefold between pre-pandemic and November 2021. India ranks four among the list of countries that send the highest traffic to the Weverse app. According to the Swedish audio streaming service Spotify, among Indian listeners on Spotify BTS is the only international act that appears among the top five streamed artists and albums in India among a host of Indian singers. Emergence of an extremely dedicated fan base has provided ample of opportunities for South Korean music labels to monetise on these fandoms causing Kpop culture to thrive globally, which Shephali Bhatt refers to as emergence of ‘fandustry’.
Joseph Nye mentions soft power is a combination of culture, values and policies of a country, while South Korea has already established itself as a success story in its image building exercise through the promotion of its cultures and values, its role in formulation of international policies still remains undefined. In pursuance of effective diplomatic ties, India and South Korea have been revisiting their shared cultural past, and have drawn upon their present appreciation for each other’s pop culture as well. As a part of its cultural diplomacy, South Korea has time and again invoked the myth of the marriage of a Korean King Kim Suro to an Indian princess named Heo Hwang-ok from Ayodhya in India in 48 CE, which has led to collaborative efforts between countries over cultural projects like establishing a memorial for the Indian princess in Ayodhya. When South Korean President Moon Jae-In visited India in 2018, in his speech at the official banquet Indian President Ram Nath Kovind chose to mention Indian youth’s familiarity with South Korea through their ‘popular Kpop singer Psy’s (known for his Gangnam style), and BTS. This burgeoning soft power of South Korea serves as a reminder that the success of culture as a source of soft power relies on economic resources and sound economic strategy. The ability to capitalise upon its cultural influence, and extend the benefits of its image revamping exercise to its economy has ensured that South Korea’s reliance on soft power can exist as a long-term strategy yielding monetary gains for the country in the international economy. It will be crucial to examine how Seoul is going to link the influence gained by its pop culture to devise its foreign policy strategies and offer political leadership as a mid-power in the Indo Pacific region.
Shubhanginee Singh is a Research Scholar at Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India and Girija Brahma is a Research Scholar at Centre for South Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India.
