Korean Wave

I was almost finished with my blog, but as you all know, electricity went off in the whole campus...

I am discouraged to write the whole thing again...but I will shorten what I had before...

Korean wave, which I have mentioned in my previous blog briefly, refers to the increase in the popularity of South Korean entertainment and culture such as K-pop, movies, drama series etc. in Asia and more recently in other parts of the world such as Europe, Africa, and Americas. In 2011, Korean wave added approximately $3.8 billion dollars of revenue to the South Korean economy.

Hallyu(Korean wave, started with the popular Korean drama "Winter Sonata" in 2002 and continues with Psy of Gangnam style. In case of "Winter Sonata", the set for the drama became the major tourist attraction, especially middle aged Japanese women. Also, Korean dramas are hugely popular in the Middle East. Korean dramas are screened several times a day. In case of  Iranians, they know better about Korean dramas than actual Koreans do. (No, I am not generalizing)

The interesting story is that when there was a territorial dispute between Korea and Japan, the prime minister of Japan publicly announced that he will stop listening to K-Pop. (He was known as a huge fan of it)

Egyptian K-Pop fans.

The question is how long would it last? or how far would it go?

Some experts believe that if Korea exported house hold electronics in 90's and cars past 10 years, Korean wave will be the major export for Korean economy. However, some critics believe that Korean wave will lack content that it has to provide more original stories, because fans are becoming tired of standardized contents.

Let's continue to observe how it unfolds.