In the 21st century, Korea has made a remarkable growth of industries and has reached the present level. However, there are no demand for the industries now because of the lack of natural resources, small territory and small population of Korea, and i...
In the 21st century, Korea has made a remarkable growth of industries and has reached the present level. However, there are no demand for the industries now because of the lack of natural resources, small territory and small population of Korea, and it's been a long time since all these industries started to advance abroad. The culture industry of Korea is also facing saturation because of its small market system. The Korean Wave, which started to spread through the routes opened up in 1990s when the media contents started to advance abroad, helps not only the culture industry but all industries on the whole look for a chance of takeoff and development. This time of strong Korean Wave gives us the very chance to change the basic forms of Korean industries.
It's yet to be known until when this Korean Wave will continue. It's been already about ten years since Korean Wave started, and some argue that it's under stagnation or even on decline. However, the future of Korean Wave depends on how much effort is given on it afterwards and on how effectively it will be managed. The cultural phenomenon of Korean Wave has set Korea a stepping stone to lead the flow of the coming era and to survive in the cultural wars and in the age of culture. Above all, strong national foundation is required so that Korean Wave will not stop and continue as a general cultural phenomenon.
Korean Wave can be seen as the litmus paper directly measuring whether Korean cultural industry has succeeded or failed in the world and through what procedures Korean culture can be globalized and developed. If Korean Wave came to face a red light, it would mean that it caused from some problems ripened inside Korean culture industry, and this signal would become the prelude warning the upcoming great fall of national and international competitiveness of Korean culture industry. On the contrary, if Korean wave had more clear blue lights, it would prove that Korean culture industry would be developing step by step through spontaneous system reform and change of consciousness. Also, it would mean that Korean culture industry would come closer to the position of a substantial leader of the global contents market, through the mediation of Korean Wave. In short, Korean Wave shows most plainly the prosperity and decay or the ups and downs of Korean culture industry, and it's the barometer and mirror which always makes us aware of what we should do more and for what we should persevere in our efforts. Korean Wave industries started from exporting media products at an early stage, and have continued to develop tourism in Korea, and Korean wave marketing. However, some problems have been occurred, such as the fact that re-production is not being made properly, that the quality of the exported media products has not been improved, that there have been some conflicts with the industries in other countries when selling Korean cultural products, and so on.
In order to continue to develop Korean Wave, we first have to internally overcome our view of cultural hegemony so that we can get over the 'anti-Korean wave' symptom developed in the countries that experienced Korean Wave. In addition, we have to try to produce a culture industry with new Asian values through the inter-communication with other countries. We need to diversify and branch out the value of Korean Wave cultural products, and gradually extend the countries to which we export our products to the world over Asia, as well.
We can expect that these changes will be made based on the hardware of Korean-wave-wood that will be the strategic base of Korean Wave.
Also, the self-contradicted attitude between the attitude of accepting Japanese popular culture and the attitude of exporting Korean popular culture should be re-considered for the continuous development of Korean Wave. The studies on whether Korean Wave represents Korean culture, related to the nature of Korean Wave, and the researches on the direction of development, how to maintain Korean Wave, and on the government's desirable roles need to be conducted, too.