page_title: Korean Wave
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Korean Wave / Overview
caption_attribution_description: English: Korean Cabbage Kimchi; a staple food in Korean Cuisine which has become globally recognized in part due to the spread of Hallyu
context_page_description: The Korean Wave is the increase in global popularity of South Korean culture since the 1990s. First driven by the spread of K-dramas and K-pop across East, South, and Southeast Asia during its initial stages, the Korean Wave evolved from a regional development into a global phenomenon, carried by the Internet and social media and the proliferation of K-pop music videos on YouTube. While some sources attribute the term Hallyu, a variation of a Japanese expression using Ryu as a postfix to refer ‘～way’, ‘~style’, ‘～group’, to being first used by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in South Korea in 1999, when the ministry produced a music CD titled in Chinese 韓流—Song from Korea; other scholarly sources attribute the term's ascendance from Korean television dramas first airing on Chinese television in 1997, naming the phenomenon hanliu, meaning "Korean wave". The term was adopted by Chinese media to refer to the success of South Korean popular culture in China. The term was reintroduced in Japan as hanryu or kanryu by the Asahi Shimbun in 2001.
context_section_description: The Korean term for the phenomenon of the Korean Wave is Hanryu (Hangul: 한류), more commonly romanized as Hallyu. The term is made of two root words: han (한/韓) meaning "Korean", and ryu (류/流) meaning "flow" or "wave", and referring to the diffusion of Korean culture.
  This term is sometimes applied differently outside of Korea; for example, overseas, Hallyu drama refers to Korean drama in general, but in Korea, Hallyu drama and Korean drama are taken to mean slightly different things. According to researcher Jeongmee Kim, the term Hallyu refers only to dramas that have gained success overseas, or feature actors that are internationally recognised.
  The Korean Wave encompasses the global awareness of different aspects of South Korean culture including film and television (particularly "K-dramas"), K-pop, manhwa, the Korean language, and Korean cuisine. Some commentators also consider traditional Korean culture in its entirety to be part of the Korean Wave. American political scientist Joseph Nye defines the Korean Wave as "the growing popularity of all things Korean, from fashion and film to music and cuisine."
caption: Korean Cabbage Kimchi; a staple of Korean cuisine
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