The BBC Tries to Explain the K-Wave

The K-Wave has swept the world and the BBC tries to explain why:

The so-called Korean Wave swept the world, experts say, when the success of streaming met American-inspired production value. And Korean entertainment – from pop music and mushy dramas to acclaimed hits built around universal themes – was ready for it.

BTS and Blackpink are now familiar names on the global pop circuit. People are swooning over sappy K-dramas from Dubai to India to Singapore. Overseas sales of all this Korean content – including video games – is now worth billions.

Last month, after 53-year-old poet and novelist Han Kang won the Nobel Prize for her literature, online boards were full of memes noting South Korea’s “Culture Victory” — a reference to the popular video game series Civilisation.

And there were jokes about how the country had achieved the dream of founding father Kim Koo, who famously wrote that he wished for Korea to be a nation of culture rather than might.

As it turns out, this moment had been in the making for years. (………..)

International fans are often looking for an alternative world because of disappointment with their own society, Prof Chung says.

The prim romances, with handsome, caring and chivalrous heroes, are drawing a female audience turning away from what they see as hypersexual American entertainment. And when social inequality became a stronger theme in Korean films and shows – such as Parasite and Squid Game – it attracted global viewers disillusioned with capitalism and a yawning wealth divide in their countries.

(BBC)

You can read more at the link, but I think Korean entertainment has become so popular because people are looking for original stories and not just the endless sequels and the usual storylines that Hollywood produces. I can remember going to the Korean markets in the U.S. to rent K-dramas and movies, but streaming has brought these movies for everyone to access. I suspect Korean entertainment will be a force for many years to come.