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I've just got off a long flight from London to East Asia.

I've been to China and I've been to Japan.

But I've never got off at this place before.

Seoul, the capital of South Korea.

And yet I've been wanting to for a long time because

when I go to Beijing or Tokyo,

I hear people they're talking about Seoul.

Talking about it as a generator of a new Asian culture of the 21st century.

I'm Rana Mitter.

I'm a historian of China and East Asia at Oxford University.

But in this series for the first time, I've come to visit South Korea.

This region's silent cultural superpower.

I can see signs to the World Cup Stadium.

Back in 2002, two traditional opponents in Japan and Korea

actually managed to hold the World Cup jointly together.

But nowadays, it's South Korea that's almost a clipsing Japan

when it comes to the question of culture.

When people think about pop music, when they think about literature,

when they think about film, it's Korea that's really making its mark

...