How Korean Culture Went Global (2022)

Throughline

NPR

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 16.4K Ratings

🗓️ 31 August 2023

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From BTS to Squid Game to high-end beauty standards, South Korea reigns as a global exporter of pop culture and entertainment. Just 70 years ago, it would have seemed impossible. For the next episode in our "Superpower" series, exploring U.S. connections to East Asia, we tell the story of South Korea's rise from a war-decimated state to a major driver of global soft power: a story of war, occupation, economic crisis, and national strategy that breaks around the world as the Korean Wave.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Our lives here in the U.S. are influenced by an inextricably intertwined with the history, politics, and cultures of countries like China, South Korea, and Taiwan.
0:10.0	Today, we continue our superpower series with the story of how the South Korean government's deliberate investment in soft power has completely remade global culture.
0:21.0	It was in 2019, like late 2019.
0:26.0	So I became a fan around 2015, 2016.
0:30.0	During the pandemic, I would say began in 2013.
0:33.0	I think I will say officially in 2016.
0:36.0	My roommate, actually, he showed me one music video, and then he showed me their performances on SNL.
0:41.0	And for like weeks after, I just like could not stop watching those videos.
0:46.0	Ladies and gentlemen, we welcome BTS.
0:50.0	The K-pop group song got over 108 million views within the first 24 hours of its release.
1:16.0	There's an interesting concept in Korean culture called one Joe, means the original.
1:22.0	Here the K-drama world has been the talk of the town, not only in Korea, but also worldwide.
1:28.0	In the man for Korean beauty products or K-beauty continues to run.
1:33.0	One day one face mask.
1:35.0	Open Black Star.
1:37.0	This aspiration to be the best at something.
1:40.0	What makes Korean style chicken different from other fried chicken is the sauce.
1:45.0	It's crispy.
1:46.0	It's one of my favorite food here in Seoul, Korea.
1:50.0	And that translates into Koreans wanting to be the top of the world.
1:55.0	The only one in Korea.
1:57.0	LG ultra-larged.
	...

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