The birth of Korean cool
Subtitle: how one nation is conquering the world through pop culture
By: Euny Hong
Edition: First edition.
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 267
ISBN-13: 9781250045119
Subjects: HISTORY / Asia / Korea; Social life and customs; Popular culture; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / Asian American Studies
Description: "By now, everyone in the world knows the song "Gangnam Style" and Psy, an instantly recognizable star. But the song's international popularity is no passing fad. "Gangnam Style" is only one tool in South Korea's extraordinarily elaborate and effective strategy to become a major world superpower by first becoming the world's number one pop culture exporter. As a child, Euny Hong moved from America to the Gangnam neighborhood in Seoul. She was a witness to the most accelerated part of South Korea's economic development, during which it leapfrogged from third-world military dictatorship to first-world liberal democracy on the cutting edge of global technology. The Birth of Korean Cool recounts how South Korea vaulted itself into the twenty-first century, becoming a global leader in business, technology, education, and pop culture.Featuring lively, in-depth reporting and numerous interviews with Koreans working in all areas of government and society, Euny Hong reveals how a really uncool country became cool, and how a nation that once banned miniskirts, long hair on men, and rock 'n' roll could come to mass produce boy bands, soap operas, and the world's most popular smartphone"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Before cool; title: The birth of irony; title: The dying art of school thrashings; title: Character is destiny : the wrath of Han; title: Kimchi and the cabbage inferiority complex; title: Why pop culture? Or, failure is the breakfast of champions; title: When Korea banned rock'n'roll; title: The lean, mean, star-making K-pop machine; title: Northern girls, Southern boys; title: K-drama : television and the origins of hallyu; title: K-cinema : the journey from crap to Cannes; title: Hallyu : the shot heard round the world; title: Korea's secret weapon : video games; title: Samsung : the company formerly known as Samsuck; title: The ministry of future creation.