According to recent estimates released by the Korea Cultural Industry Promotion Agency, South Korea's cultural content exports are expected to reach $11.5 billion in 2021, an increase of 7% over 2020 and a 92% increase from five years ago. Some Japanese media reported on the theme of "The Momentum of the Korean Wave Overwhelms the Daily Current, and the Export Volume Doubles in Five Years", which naturally has a certain sense of crisis in the face of the rapid momentum of the "Korean Wave", but there is also an element that applauds the continuous innovation of the "Korean Wave". The "Korean Wave" has been stormed around the world, indicating that the influence of Korean cultural export has begun to surpass Japan not only in Asia but also in the world, and the "cool Japan" strategy that Japan has painstakingly created has gradually declined in the firefight with the "Korean Wave".
"Korean Wave" forge ahead to stir up a new round of cultural competition in the world, the Korean cultural industry almost all-round attack, especially the crushing cultural industry once had a strong influence in Asia, Japan, not only in the traditional TV series, movies and other fields to maintain the advantage, but also in Japan for many years to control the animation, makeup, fashion and music and other fields of the late catch-up, these all urge people to think, why the cultural market is not large in South Korea can gain a firm foothold in the global market, why the relatively single "Korean Wave" in the cultural field in recent years can continue to expand new horizons, Pull other industries such as video games, food, agriculture and other industries to advance by leaps and bounds. Three major factors may explain some of the causes of the current stage of the "Korean Wave" in the global ups and downs.
First, the national strategy of connecting and orderly continued to exert force. The promotion of the development of the cultural industry at the national strategic level is undoubtedly a key factor for the "Korean Wave" to catch up and continue to lead. In 1998, in order to help get rid of the Asian financial crisis, south Korean President Kim Dae-jung proposed the "cultural nation-building" strategy of establishing the development of cultural industries as the pillar industry of the 21st century, and began to promote the soft power shaping of boosting the economy through cultural output. By the time of the Moon jae-in administration, South Korea's cultural industry had accounted for 20% of the budget for expansion, and the cultural industry was constantly used to serve the country's diplomacy.
For more than 20 years, despite the cyclical changes of the government, South Korea has insisted that the cultural industry will not relax, focus on the soft power of culture for a long time, focus on the cultural output innovation card, and realize the unchanged direction of cultural revitalization "one channel to the end". In the field of cultural industry, strategic convergence and tactical continuation have been basically realized, with diversified policies, diversified tricks, and the integration of the government and the people and continuous innovation.
The second is to "officials, industry, academia, research, and use" to attack each other hand in hand to perform their duties. In the process of supporting the "Korean Wave" to become bigger and stronger through the national budget, the cultural management departments of the Korean government, as well as cultural communication institutions, cultural and creative enterprises and think tank institutions stationed abroad, have put forward strategic suggestions from different perspectives and strengthened cooperation. The influence of the "Korean Wave" continues to expand to stimulate the desire to buy, and the favorability of international audiences after purchasing and consuming increases, which in turn drives other industries to leap forward, and enterprises and exporters in the field of Korean cultural industries rely on this "one-stop strategy" to cooperate with each other and benefit together.
South Korean media recently reported that South Korea's agricultural and aquatic food exports are expected to exceed $10 billion in 2021. In particular, the analysis pointed out that kimchi and ginseng, which are stimulated by the "Korean Wave" and increased exports, play a positive role in driving agricultural exports. This verifies the collective benefit model of "official, production, learning, research and use" to carry out global attacks, and also shows that the "Korean Wave" has changed from the main cultural concept and entertainment elements to the comprehensive concept and multiple elements, which not only drives the consumption of video games, electronic products and even automobiles, but also plays a role in promoting products in other fields such as Korean agriculture.
The third is the pluralistic values that integrate international elements. In order to avoid the disadvantages of its own cultural market being relatively small and single-model, South Korea has increasingly targeted the "Korean Wave" in the main direction of attack on overseas markets in recent years, and explored the "world is South Korea's" counterattack path from respecting pluralistic values, meeting the cultural consumption needs of audiences in different parts of the world, adapting to the new generation of taste innovation in the world, and attracting people and enterprises from all over the world to participate in "Korean Wave" cooperation.
Through the absorption of foreign employment and "Korean Wave" exchanges, the Korean cultural industry has integrated international diversity on the basis of localization, making "Hallyu" fans expand from East Asia to North America, from Europe to the Middle East, from South Asia to Africa in recent years, and even in the competition for the ASEAN region, which can be called the base camp of "Hari", they have also made strange moves. The hit drama "Squid Game" has received international attention, the bulletproof youth group has become popular all over the world, and the films "Parasite" and "Minari" have won gold and silver at international film festivals, all of which have verified the effectiveness of the "Korean Wave" in pursuing internationalization from different angles. In terms of the regionalization practice of cultural soft power, global innovation and enterprise benefits, the "Korean Wave" has made fruitful attempts. (The writer is director and researcher of the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies, Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences, and chief expert of the Northeast Asian Institute of Strategic Studies)