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Hallyu!: The Korean Wave
From Squid Game to BTS, V&A Asian Department curator Rosalie Kim’s Hallyu! shows how Korean pop culture has swept the world.
South Korea has transformed from a country devastated by war in the late 1950s to a leading cultural powerhouse of the 21st century. Through the voices of fans, journalists, practitioners, and academics, Hallyu! explores the makings of the Korean Wave of cultural influence over the interlinked creative industries of cinema, drama, music, fandom, beauty, and fashion.
K-pop legends such as Psy, Blackpink, and BTS, and films and dramas such as Parasite and Squid Game , feature alongside Webtoon comic strips, catwalk shots, contemporary hanbok clothing, and cosmetics packaging—just some of the illustrations that capture the creative, colorful, and dynamic popular culture of South Korea.
Includes color illustrations
South Korea has transformed from a country devastated by war in the late 1950s to a leading cultural powerhouse of the 21st century. Through the voices of fans, journalists, practitioners, and academics, Hallyu! explores the makings of the Korean Wave of cultural influence over the interlinked creative industries of cinema, drama, music, fandom, beauty, and fashion.
K-pop legends such as Psy, Blackpink, and BTS, and films and dramas such as Parasite and Squid Game , feature alongside Webtoon comic strips, catwalk shots, contemporary hanbok clothing, and cosmetics packaging—just some of the illustrations that capture the creative, colorful, and dynamic popular culture of South Korea.
Includes color illustrations
- GenresNonfictionAapiAsia
240 pages, Hardcover
Published November 22, 2022
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97 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 28, 2023
A collection of essays compiled by the exhibition lead curator of Victoria and Albert Museum on the Korean Wave - by some industry key players in the South Korean Entertainment industry. Backed by the Ministry of Cultural of South Korea, Hallyu!: The Korean Wave is a beautifully curated sort of - take on the Hallyu culture and what makes it the way it is.
Informative. Intriguing. An engaging read - especially to the fans and anyone who is familiar with the K-Entertaiment industry.
Personal Ratings: 4.25🌟
Being someone who had dived into the K-Entertaiment industry since she was 10 years old, reading Hallyu! gave me a wider perspective of the insights especially when all the essays had emphasized on the importance of Hallyu culture in developing the South Korea now . As someone who is interested in the workings of the country itself, the fact that South Korea had actually been one of the worst country in the world's GDP especially during the IMF - and now it became one of the most talked about countries in the world ; and that is in conjunction and thanks to the hallyu culture.
Its interesting to see how the hallyu culture had changed the trajectory of the country - including the political, cultural and even the hospitality of the country in accepting tourists. Not only that the hallyu culture had brought in multiple technological advances and influence ; such as BTS being models for Samsung at a time and multiple famous actors like Gong Yoo becoming Coway's brand ambassador, is the fact that even the politicians are using the influence of these hallyu stars to create policies in favour of the people. Whilst there are repercussions to that - in terms of the chaebol families leading the economical aspects of the country - the undeniable truth is how hallyu played such a major influence in shaping the country as a whole that ; quoted by one of the authors - Lee Soo Man , the founder of SM Entertainment the cultural aspects of the country is shaped by the hallyu culture and not the other way round .
The popularity of certain shows like Running Man, 2 Days 1 Night and K-Dramas that had led the world by storm - in a sense that its different from the American TV Shows ; with its melancholic vibe, to the cinematography and historical aspects of the scriptwriting, the hallyu culture has integrated and given exposure to the country's economical drive and shaped how the politicians in the country to create policies within the culture itself.
Whilst the book is quite factual - as it was written by industry players, it also gave a wider perspective of the culture itself and the fascination of how it had not only increased the jobs available for the country - its the fascination of how whilst the hallyu culture had a modern take, it showed how it plays an important part in actually preserving the cultural aspects of the country itself - like how Kimchi making is now something that wants to be learnt by everyone and the practice of fermenting itself is during the times of the war where the country was once a poor country unknown by the world.
A very interesting read and I definitely loved the images and illustrations that comes with it. Loved it.
Biggest thank you to Times Reads for this copy :)
Informative. Intriguing. An engaging read - especially to the fans and anyone who is familiar with the K-Entertaiment industry.
Personal Ratings: 4.25🌟
"Hallyu emerged from this context, at a time when cultural policies, creative industries and digital technologies converged, sowing the seed for its development into a tech-savvy cultural powerhouse that would lead the field in an era of social media and digital culture by the dawn of the twenty-first century.
Being someone who had dived into the K-Entertaiment industry since she was 10 years old, reading Hallyu! gave me a wider perspective of the insights especially when all the essays had emphasized on the importance of Hallyu culture in developing the South Korea now . As someone who is interested in the workings of the country itself, the fact that South Korea had actually been one of the worst country in the world's GDP especially during the IMF - and now it became one of the most talked about countries in the world ; and that is in conjunction and thanks to the hallyu culture.
Its interesting to see how the hallyu culture had changed the trajectory of the country - including the political, cultural and even the hospitality of the country in accepting tourists. Not only that the hallyu culture had brought in multiple technological advances and influence ; such as BTS being models for Samsung at a time and multiple famous actors like Gong Yoo becoming Coway's brand ambassador, is the fact that even the politicians are using the influence of these hallyu stars to create policies in favour of the people. Whilst there are repercussions to that - in terms of the chaebol families leading the economical aspects of the country - the undeniable truth is how hallyu played such a major influence in shaping the country as a whole that ; quoted by one of the authors - Lee Soo Man , the founder of SM Entertainment the cultural aspects of the country is shaped by the hallyu culture and not the other way round .
The popularity of certain shows like Running Man, 2 Days 1 Night and K-Dramas that had led the world by storm - in a sense that its different from the American TV Shows ; with its melancholic vibe, to the cinematography and historical aspects of the scriptwriting, the hallyu culture has integrated and given exposure to the country's economical drive and shaped how the politicians in the country to create policies within the culture itself.
Whilst the book is quite factual - as it was written by industry players, it also gave a wider perspective of the culture itself and the fascination of how it had not only increased the jobs available for the country - its the fascination of how whilst the hallyu culture had a modern take, it showed how it plays an important part in actually preserving the cultural aspects of the country itself - like how Kimchi making is now something that wants to be learnt by everyone and the practice of fermenting itself is during the times of the war where the country was once a poor country unknown by the world.
A very interesting read and I definitely loved the images and illustrations that comes with it. Loved it.
Biggest thank you to Times Reads for this copy :)
December 10, 2023
Hallyu! The Korean Wave was a fun and insightful read looking at the emergence of interest in Korean popular culture around the world. The book covers everything from film to music to fashion and beauty, so there is something for everyone regardless of what aspects of Korean culture they are interested in. The book contained a lot of excellent colour images alongside the text, making it also a very visually appealing read. I am giving it 4.5 stars.
November 1, 2022
Soooo insightful, full of context, recommendations. Great read and great exhibition at the V&A Museum
June 18, 2023
How does Korea affects your daily life?
Korean wave or Hallyu 한류 is “not just a cultural phenomenon but fundamentally about the creation of soft power, nation branding and sustainable development through transnational meaning-making processes”. Who would have thought a small, poor and insignificantly looking country in the past would bring so much impact towards other nations? And has tremendous growth surpassing many rich developing countries.
Bet majority of us at least, know a thing about Korea. Be it kimchi or ahjussi (cough Song Seung Hoon cough) 🤣
This huge book is a GUILTY PLEASURE 💅 for those who loves this kimchi country. Often times it felt like reading e-pop ✨ but make it educational ✨ 😂
The contents are up to date, featuring many recent incidents, known individuals for younger generations considering it is published in 2022. As VIP, I was a bit disappointed that there’s no mentioning about Big Bang 👑 and their achievement being one of the most influential artists 🥺 only GD is mentioned a few times through his fashion..
P/s: lots of Blackpink pics!! No hate though
My fav topics in here are about webtoon & cosmetics. Because I find these two as the things that affected my lifestyle most (kpop idols included but let me be frank, I’M KPOP HALMEONI that’s stuck in her 2010s albums on repeat 😅).
Although the topics are quite diverse in here, the author didn’t go deep into it, so if you’d like to learn Korean history, this is not it.
Nevertheless it’s a good educational researches and resources about Korean wave. There’s a business insight by Lee Soo Man, the founder of SM Entertainment. Which, I think why tons of SM artists being featured in LOL
Korean wave or Hallyu 한류 is “not just a cultural phenomenon but fundamentally about the creation of soft power, nation branding and sustainable development through transnational meaning-making processes”. Who would have thought a small, poor and insignificantly looking country in the past would bring so much impact towards other nations? And has tremendous growth surpassing many rich developing countries.
Bet majority of us at least, know a thing about Korea. Be it kimchi or ahjussi (cough Song Seung Hoon cough) 🤣
This huge book is a GUILTY PLEASURE 💅 for those who loves this kimchi country. Often times it felt like reading e-pop ✨ but make it educational ✨ 😂
The contents are up to date, featuring many recent incidents, known individuals for younger generations considering it is published in 2022. As VIP, I was a bit disappointed that there’s no mentioning about Big Bang 👑 and their achievement being one of the most influential artists 🥺 only GD is mentioned a few times through his fashion..
P/s: lots of Blackpink pics!! No hate though
My fav topics in here are about webtoon & cosmetics. Because I find these two as the things that affected my lifestyle most (kpop idols included but let me be frank, I’M KPOP HALMEONI that’s stuck in her 2010s albums on repeat 😅).
Although the topics are quite diverse in here, the author didn’t go deep into it, so if you’d like to learn Korean history, this is not it.
Nevertheless it’s a good educational researches and resources about Korean wave. There’s a business insight by Lee Soo Man, the founder of SM Entertainment. Which, I think why tons of SM artists being featured in LOL
April 16, 2023
does sm have a monopoly on k-pop now? it this wtf this is? it's soooo focused on sm's achievments and sm town it's practically propaganda concerning the music and globalisation part.
otherwise reading about the origins of k-dramas and playing with the relationship of south and north was quite captivating. the origin of korean trad. clothes and make-up was interesting too... the latter half of the book is a lot more educative than the beginning which is just filled with self promotion.
otherwise reading about the origins of k-dramas and playing with the relationship of south and north was quite captivating. the origin of korean trad. clothes and make-up was interesting too... the latter half of the book is a lot more educative than the beginning which is just filled with self promotion.
January 1, 2023
Essays by industry experts so some overlap and not building chapter by chapter.
Equally as the exhibition book from V&A Hallyu it helps build understanding of K-Wave and has some beautiful photography.
Equally as the exhibition book from V&A Hallyu it helps build understanding of K-Wave and has some beautiful photography.
January 18, 2023
Really enjoyed the essays in here on K-Pop and Youtube and perspectives on fandom.
The photos included really add so much nuance and dimension to the writing. I really want to go and see the exhibit now!
The photos included really add so much nuance and dimension to the writing. I really want to go and see the exhibit now!
October 9, 2022
Interesting read about kpop culture and influence. Background history, technological advancement, influence and downside in korean TV industry.
January 20, 2024
if you love South Korea's culture, this is the book for you. it is amazing, learned so much from it, im absolutely in love with this book. 🫰🏻
August 4, 2024
Interesting and detailed look into different stuff like make up the Korean Wave and how it impacts the world.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews