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Seri Yoon, Waseda University, JapanAbstract
Korea's 2024 Global Hallyu Survey found that K-pop ranked as Korea's top image for seven years. While many global cultural industries like Bollywood derive their names from Hollywood and are genre-based, Korean popular culture evolved under a self-defined term, Hallyu. Though “K-pop” follows global naming patterns, the broader term Hallyu emerged as a state-led construct to symbolize national identity. This label symbolizes the Korean state beyond entertainment. Despite widespread global recognition, this phenomenon raises a key cultural question. Why did Korea promote its culture under a sovereign term like Hallyu rather than hybrid labels like Kollywood, and how this naming shaped national identity? Through a qualitative case study, it applies Wendy Griswold's Cultural Diamond framework to examine cultural objects (K-pop, K-drama), producers (entertainment agencies, state institutions), the social world (Korea's policy environment), and receivers (global audiences and diaspora communities). Stuart Hall's Representation Theory further explores how Hallyu operates as a strategy for constructing national identity on the global stage. Initiatives like the Ministry of Culture's K-Content strategies, Hallyu-focused diplomacy, and UNESCO-backed K-pop campaigns show how Korea shaped its image through cultural exports. Hallyu emerges not simply as entertainment but as a strategic convergence of culture and national identity, legitimized through policy and global media. By analyzing Hallyu through lenses of cultural structure and representational politics, the study shows how a mid-sized state institutionalizes symbolic authority through cultural branding. This contributes to discussions on how strategically mobilized culture is not only a vehicle for global recognition but central to state identity.
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