Global Hallyu Issue Magazine. Hallyu Now vol.21

Transcription

1 Global Hallyu Issue Magazine Hallyu Now vol.21

2 Global Hallyu Issue Magazine Hallyu Now , vol.21 Published by: KOFICE Publisher: Youngjin Kwak (KOFICE Chairman) Editorial Dept.: Sang-Hyun Nam, Ah-Young Kim, Kyong-Jin Park Inquiries to: KOFICE Research Center Tel. +82.(0)

3 Hallyu Montage Contents Zoom 1 Hallyu policy based on interactive culture exchange By Kim, Hui-jeong, Legislative Investigator, Korean Assembly Research Service Education and Culture Team - Hallyu-related policy of Moon Jae-in government - The need for interactive cultural exchange and Good Hallyu - Tasks for improving the sustainability of Hallyu Zoom 2 The problems of culture industry of Korea brought about by Hallyu commercialism By Hong Seok-kyung, professor of the Department of Communication of Seoul National University - Industrialism and commercialism as a result of the Hallyu phenomenon - Passionate laborers as victims of industrialism - Hallyu is not an export phenomenon but an acceptance phenomenon. The quality of the work is the most important factor. - From culture export policy to cultural industry development policy Bigdata Review Bigdata Review Analysis of media reports on Hallyu policy issues by regime By Park Kyong-jin, Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange Research Center Researcher - The Kim Dae-jung Government: February 25, February 24, The Roh Moo-hyun Government: February 25, February 24, The Lee Myung-bak Government: February 25, February 24, The Park Geun-hye Government: February 25, March 10, 2017

4 Zoom1. Hallyu policy based on interactive culture exchange By Kim, Hui-jeong Legislative Investigator, Korean Assembly Research Service Education and Culture Team The current government's Hallyu-related policies can be summarized as the establishment of new emerging market projects in Southeast Asia and Central and South America, localization strategies for the domestic content based on global online platforms, advancement of business desk operation for overseas expansion, hosting overseas job fairs, and continuous joint social contribution projects by the government and private sector. This could be seen as a change from the past way in which government directly supported the export of Hallyu content to an indirect support system through which the government sets the conditions for export and expansion of Hallyu to strengthen the cultural industry ecosystem. Since the anti-korean sentiment or anti-hallyu in some East Asian countries rather stems from changes of political and economic situations between countries than from Hallyu content itself, the interactive cultural exchange and Good Hallyu projects intended change the perception of Hallyu targets to a positive direction should be considered as the foundation for Hallyu expansion. This article will discuss the tasks our government should tackle for sustainable Hallyu. The government should act as a facilitator for the private sector and content producing companies that act as the main players in advancing and expanding Hallyu. 1. Hallyu-related policy of Moon Jae-in government On July 19, president Moon Jae-in and his government announced the "Five-Year Plan for National Administration. The five-year plan presented five goals, 20 strategies, as well as the top 100 priority tasks for national administration. Among these, the goal related to culture is "A country that takes responsibility of its people s lives. Five national strategies have been announced for the achievement of this goal, one of which is cultural nation full of freedom and creativity. The national task related to Hallyu falls under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism's national policy tasks as a part of Cultural State Strategy, which aims for the establishment of a fair cultural industry ecosystem and the worldwide spread of Hallyu (National Task No. 69). The government has aimed for a 6% increase of Hallyu export in total, for which it will expand the cultural content export market as well as related industries through interactive cultural exchange and implementing the good Hallyu. The "Five-Year Plan for National Administration" will act as a blueprint that sets the direction for each new government and road map for policy implementation by stage and period. This blueprint considers the importance of forecasting the implementation and development of Hallyu policies by each stage and period in regard to this plan. The detailed project name of the Hallyu-related policy included in the project description of the 2018 National Budget Proposal is International cooperation for cultural content and establishment of export base.

5 Comparing the projects of 2018 which reflect the current government s Hallyu-related policies and the projects of the past two years, it is noteworthy that the budget for building the foundation for expanding cultural content overseas has increased by about 40%, whereas the budget for strengthening cooperation regarding international exchange of cultural content and direct support for overseas expansion of cultural content decreased about 14% and 4%, respectively. Looking at the details of Building the foundation for expanding cultural content overseas, the major part of the project is the operation of 6 core strategic overseas business centers for Hallyu (U.S., Beijing and Shenzhen of China, Japan, UK, Indonesia), with the support for Development of new market for Hallyu as a new project. The new market referred here include 2 countries in the East Asian region (Vietnam, Thailand) and 2 countries in the Latin American region (Brazil, Mexico) respectively. In these regions, the Korean government plans to host B2B export conventions on various content categories and content pitching events, as well as B2C Hallyu boom-up programs where local residents can view exhibitions and experience various Hallyu content. In contrast, the budget for the Building the Korea-China joint DB on cultural content, which had received 500 million won ($ 456,000) in 2016 as a new project, was cut entirely in This was partly due to its inability to spend even half of its budget except on research studies. As one could see in the discontinuation of related projects, it is clear that the Chinese government s ban on Hallyu content has prompted the Korean government to turn its strategic focus to the diversification of the export market for Hallyu content, rather than making efforts for joint cooperation on cultural content between Korea and China. The 2018 budget for International Exchange and Cooperation Strengthening for Cultural Content totaled about 3.3 billion won, down by 52.1 billion won from This is due to the scaling down of the Hallyu promotion project which the last government mainly focused on. This project, which was implemented as a separate sub-project by the last government, was scaled down and included into the International cooperation on cultural content and building a foundation for export sub-project as an agenda called Strengthening international exchange on cultural content. The project that was scaled down the most was the Support for Fusion Hallyu which was created in The past government had publicly hosted contests, gathering ideas for a converged cooperation project that expands the scope of Hallyu and raises its synergy effects. It also supported commercialization of ideas and MCN projects, including promoting the development and commercialization of Korean language education applications using the handwritten fonts of 6 Hallyu stars. As a result, however, the budget for the Hallyu converged cooperation project support was cut entirely for 2018, with the Foundation building for the advancement of Fusion Hallyu into the overseas market from the Fusion Hallyu support project being the only surviving project included in the Government-private sector joint overseas social responsibility project. This change is due to the fact that the so-called Cultural convergence belt project, which was ambitiously pursued under the agenda of cultural prosperity and creative economy by the past government, was discovered as one of the main examples of the past government s national scandals, which led to an end of overall support for the project for converged content planning.

6 The Support the overseas expansion of cultural content project has been sponsoring costs for business matching through activities such as participation in overseas expos, operation of Korean exhibition halls, and hosting showcases for expanding the market for various Hallyu content (animation, characters, music, comic, fashion, stories). The budget for this project was finalized as 8.1 billion won for 2018 (down by 370 million won compared to previous year) and submitted to the parliament. The policy direction seems to be similar to the previous year in terms of the fact that the reduction is not large. However, this contrasts with the expansion of the budget for the Cultural Contents Overseas Expansion Project as mentioned in the introduction. In other words, the current government's Hallyu policy focus is moving from its past way of directly supporting the export of Hallyu content to indirect support, including localization of Hallyu content through the advancement of business desk operation for overseas expansion, support for reproducing quality content in each region in cooperation with global online distribution platforms such as Netflix, and building the foundation and environment for export through discovering new markets. This aspect aligns with the current government s policy direction of Hallyu expansion, which will be discussed below. 2. The need for interactive cultural exchange and Good Hallyu According to the Global Hallyu Status research conducted by the Korea Foundation for International Cultural Exchange, the anti-hallyu sentiment rose to 21.1% in 2016, which is 4.9% higher than previous year. This percentage was relatively high in China, Japan, Taiwan, and India in the Asian region. The main rationale behind this was that Hallyu content is uniform and stale, followed by Hallyu content is too provocative, suggestive, and commercial. Political and diplomatic tension between my country and Korea was especially mentioned often among respondents in China and Japan. Thus, the negative perception regarding Hallyu in nearby Asian countries could be mainly attributed to negative feelings caused by diplomatic affairs between countries rather than to issues with Hallyu content themselves. Consequentially, it could be said that solutions for this negative perception is the first priority when establishing a policy for expansion of Hallyu content targeting neighboring countries (Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange, 2017). Government policies related to the expansion of Hallyu content could be categorized as Expansion of global cooperation channel for cultural content and Promotion of international exchange of cultural content. The former aims to strengthen the network of government, content industry, and related institutions through activities such as operating consultative bodies between governments (e.g. Korea-EU Culture Cooperation Committee) and hosting the Korea-Japan-China Forum and Asia Summit International Contents Conference, according to the conclusion of Korea-EU FTA and culture industry cooperation MOU between governments. Since the inauguration of the current government, the 2018 budget proposal included a new fund for overseas job fair business. This project aims to create overseas employment for domestic content professionals (animators, web designers, CG designers, game planners, etc.) and strengthen the foundation for overseas

7 expansion by linking overseas buyers by inviting Korean content companies as well as concerned Korean parties across the border. The latter consists of interactive cultural exchange with major programs such as international video content exchange and interactive cultural exchange events, research projects to analyze Hallyu trends, and overseas social responsibility projects jointly implemented by the government and private sector. The purpose of the project is positive: it aims to resolve anti-korea sentiments by promoting the airing of quality overseas content in Korea and providing broadcasting rights of K-Drama free of charge to Hallyu market pioneering countries, as well as build a friendly environment for Hallyu content expansion through interactive cultural exchange between regions where Hallyu is spreading. However, Hallyu culture exchange events are only supported in 1 region per year, and there are hardly any interactive, joint projects on cultural content exchange such as joint productions. Looking at the area of culture industry alone, there are hardly any other international exchanges besides dramas or movies, even though content genres have been segmented in a variety of categories. In areas more closely associated with fine arts, such as performances, visual art, and traditional culture, various entities such as affiliates and sub-institutions of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism as well as private institutions are implementing international exchange projects. This situation, in which the international exchange of cultural content is so marginal, leaves doubt on whether cultural exchange through cultural content is possible at all, considering the fact that the cultural content industry based on popular culture is not only an economic and industrial power but has huge emotional influence on people of other countries as well. Meanwhile, the Didimdol Community Building project, which is a part of the interactive culture exchange projects, sponsors the activities of overseas Hallyu communities that are home to heavy consumers of Hallyu content. It aims to maintain continuous interest in Hallyu and solve the anti-hallyu sentiment within the greater China regions by inviting college newspaper reporters in those regions and Hallyu opinion leaders from overseas and providing them opportunities to experience Hallyu content. Considering that the past Hallyu-related policy focused on the Push-strategy, including export of Hallyu mainly led by the government, caused the unintended effect of anti-hallyu sentiment and exclusivism of the target countries, the importance of Pull-strategy which aims to enhance the local perception of Hallyu and the related environment is greater than ever. Because the Korean government s decision to deploy THAAD in July 2016 and the current government s gesture of appeasement toward North Korea have been fortifying anti-korean sentiment in China and Japan, policies aim to maintain a positive attitude within the target population. The Hallyu opinion leaders in those countries also have a reasonably positive opinion of Korea. Looking at the details of the interactive culture exchange project or Hallyu community building project, however, it seems that the actual content of exchange mainly consists of Hallyu content in the forms of performances, exhibitions, reports, and touring, rather than true interactive activities. Therefore, the need for the so-called Good Hallyu discussed below has become even more important.

8 Projects aiming to set a foundation for Hallyu not restricted by borders in the forms of ODA (Official Development Assistance) have existed in the past, but the Good Hallyu program sponsored by the Korean government and started in 2012 is different in that it leads the social responsibility of enterprises through Korean companies in the overseas market and activates international culture exchange through the private sectors. Numerous companies from various industries have participated in this program, including not only leading Korean content-producing companies such as CJ E&M, Mujoo YG Foundation, and SM Entertainment, but also construction and service-related companies such as POSCO E and C. This program is different from existing interactive culture exchange projects in that the Korean government and companies don t just provide materials and human assets, but they also actively promote the participation of local communities and try to achieve mutual growth. Examples of this program include POSCO E and C s support for building multimedia rooms in schools and public institutions in Thailand and Uzbekistan (2015), hosting Hallyu cultural classes and donating educational equipment for children in culturally isolated areas (Sechuan in 2016, Nanjing in 2017), and inviting social and economic minority groups (such as aborigines, immigrants, and the disabled) from Australia and giving them the opportunity to plan and operate the KCON stage (2017). Even if the results are not immediate, the Good Hallyu program will naturally lead to interactive culture exchange between Korea and the targeted countries if they are based on the needs of the beneficiary country and focused on generating mutually beneficial value. Ultimately, this project is expected to create a virtuous circle in which people of target countries will develop a pro-korean perception. As part of the social contribution program of POSCO E and C with the Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange in 2015, the POSCO E and C College Student Volunteer Group Happy Builder presented a Nanta performance in Thailand. As part of the 2017 Good Hallyu private and public joint cooperation project jointly implemented by KOFICE and CJ, K-Pop group NCT DREAM (SM Entertainment) participated in the Dream Big Class for children in culturally isolated regions in Nanjing, China.

9 3. Tasks for improving the sustainability of Hallyu So far, we have discussed the focus of the current government s Hallyu-related policy as well as the need for interactive culture exchange and a Good Hallyu program that can minimize any negative sentiment toward Hallyu and help expand this phenomenon. Lastly, we would present some suggestions regarding tasks that need to be tackled to maintain the status of Hallyu content, which started gaining popularity since the mid-and late 1990s and has become the pride of the Korean people ever since. First, the situation in which Hallyu is consumed simply as a means of marketing to support the export of small and medium-sized enterprises should be avoided in the future. For example, projects that hired Hallyu stars who have appeared in K-Pop and K-Drama as PR ambassadors and used them as tools for promoting Korean products would be a major obstacle to the sustainability of Hallyu (Kim, Jae-Beom, 2016). In the long run, the best win-win scenario would be for Hallyu and Korean products to naturally attract local people to Korean products when they experience and consume Hallyu, or by consuming Korean products and becoming interested in Hallyu. From this point of view, the new government has implemented a marketing strategy for reinforcing Hallyu s local sustainability through collaboration with local cultural brands, artists, and Hallyu content when planning new Hallyu market pioneering projects scheduled for implementation in Second, in order to minimize the adverse effects caused by political and diplomatic issues between countries on cultural content, collaboration or joint production between countries that to make content that is effective should be actively implemented, rather than being obsessed with Hallyu for its own safe. In other words, one should go beyond the traditional definition of Hallyu which indicates pop culture content made in Korea for the advancement of Hallyu into the overseas market. Cultural content that can be easily absorbed by other Asian countries should be produced to dilute the image of Korean content and overcome any anti- Korean sentiment. To achieve this, the cultural content international exchange project (previously known as Hallyu promotion project ) whose budget and programs have been cut down by the current government should be further strengthened so that conferences on content can evolve into the international joint production of content. Third, the export and import of cultural content between countries regardless of whether it is the trade of culture-related products or culture exchange should be evenly balanced. For example, improving the relationship with China should be prioritized by balancing the trade amount of culture industry between Korean and China that has been dominated by Korean export, and by making efforts to understand the Chinese culture (Kim, Hui-jeong, 2017). As the export conditions in the Chinese market have worsened, it is reasonable to direct policies toward diversifying the market for Hallyu content. Still, the post-china strategy regarding Hallyu advancement may be misleading on some parts, particularly because China contributes to 27% of all Hallyu content, according to the amount in 2016 (Korea Creative Content Agency, 2017), even surpassing Japan (26%). China is the largest and still the most important and

10 attractive market for Hallyu. Thus, the present challenge for the government is to focus on building the foundation for networking so that even if the Chinese government s regulation on Hallyu content is tightened, the communication between Korean and Chinese culture content companies can continue and exchange in the private sector can expand. The Korea-China Contents Fund is an example that shows the gap between a government-led Hallyu related policy and the market. This fund was announced and pushed ahead by the Korean government in 2015, but it received little consent by the Chinese government and funding and experienced difficulties in appointing a local fund management company within Korea. Fourth, another major task for the government as a facilitator for the public sector and the content industry pursuing the advancement and expansion of Hallyu is to secure the stability of culture industry exchange. The immediate pivot point would be whether the government can effectively negotiate deregulation, such as the opening of the culture content market and concluding an agreement on joint broadcast production on the successive negotiations on the Korea-China FTA service and investment field. Considering that the exchange of pop culture between the 3 major Asian countries has always been accompanied by political tension, it is necessary to admit the need for a companion-like relationship between culture and politics/diplomacy/trade, overcoming the mindset that culture is dependent on politics or economy (or vice versa, that culture goes beyond political barriers). Finally, it is urgent to abolish the regulations on content which obstructs the free exchange of cultural content between countries. The view that Korean culture is a product of a hybrid culture that has transformed into a Korean style rather than a product with a Korean identity (Kim, Jeong-soo, 2017) is dominant. The current government s main tasks on regulatory reforms should be the relaxation of the online music video classification system, which has fallen into the old system under the current situation, where the boundary of content consumption among countries has collapsed due to the development of ICT. The government must also mitigate the recommendation system for foreign performance artists that restricts the active influx of foreign culture. References Kim Deok-joong, Nam Sang-hyun et al. (2017) Hallyu Makers, Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange Kim Jae-beom (2016) Task for the 20th assembly: Current issues for the policy regarding culture, Korean Assembly Research Service Publication Summer 2016, Korean Assembly Research Service Kim Jeong-soo (2017) Culture Administration, Jibmoondang Kim Hui-jeong (2017) China s ban on Hallyu and issues for the cultural content industry, Issue and Focus Issue 1264, Korean Assembly Research Service Shim Sang-min (2017) Play Hallyu, Causes and countermeasures for ban on Hallyu - policy seminar sourcebook, Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange The Korea Association for Cultural Economics Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange (2017) Global Hallyu Status Korea Creative Content Agency (2017) 2016 Content Industry Statics

11 Zoom2 The problems of culture industry of Korea brought about by Hallyu commercialism Written by Hong Seok-kyung professor of the Department of Communication of Seoul National University The commercial success of Hallyu has made people misunderstand the Hallyu phenomenon as one of exportation, and they think it has brought excessive commercialization and unbalance in the structure of the culture industry. Too many indirect advertisements interfere with the storylines. Hallyu actors are being paid a skyrocketing amount of money, and staff is being paid too little for their hard labor. One of the best solutions for the continuation of Hallyu is to secure labor rights of people who work for Korea s culture industry and to harness their cultural sensitivity. What we need to do is secure the production of high-quality products in the long term, such as support for superior production companies, rather than implement policies that are focused on exportation and events. At some point in time, the production of competitive content in Korea s culture industry without the expectation that it would be sold to a foreign market became unimaginable. This is a major change that the Hallyu phenomenon has brought about upon Korea s culture industry. In this article, I want to carry forward the discussion centering on the two big genres of Hallyu, television dramas and pop music. During the period beginning from the birth of the television drama in the early 60s and before the end of the 90s, when Korean dramas began to become popular in neighboring East Asian countries, Korean television dramas were purely for the domestic market. Ratings during the airings of a drama directly influenced the cost of television advertisements airing before and after the airing of the drama, and the result either pleased broadcasters or didn t. Thus, the production and broadcasting system developed in such a way to directly reflect the tastes of the domestic audience. This system was a labor-intensive process through which a drama was produced while the producers simultaneously observed the ratings during its airing. Amidst this fierce competition, the three terrestrial channels fought a ratings war by producing similar programs airing during the same time slot. The conventions of genres that could be recognized as particularly Korean, such as romantic comedy and historical drama, developed here. Even during this period, drama production was labor-intensive: writers were hospitalized due to overwork and staff members would work nights without sleep. From a larger perspective, however, this was fair competition that took place among players of comparable size. This system of competition produced high-quality dramas, and the first generation of the Hallyu phenomenon was a blessing to Korea s broadcasting history.

12 1. Industrialism and commercialism as a result of the Hallyu phenomenon Due to the Hallyu phenomenon, markets began to appear outside the national borders, and the fees for Hallyu stars rose drastically. As this new situation brought about a outsourcing system, the broadcasting production industry started to become more complex. As is already well known, the issues of unfair contracts with copyright and production costs related to the broadcasting company and the outsourcing company have been brought forward. As the star performer's fees sharply rose due to the birth of Hallyu stars, outsourcing companies would suffer from a continuous lack of production cost, and there have been tragic events of unpaid appraisals. In order to cope with the shortage of production costs, independent producers had to lean on the two methods of indirect advertisements and enthusiastic labor. Permission was given for indirect advertisement in exchange for production costs, and this was taken for granted by the market demand. In order to raise indirect advertising revenue, active indirect advertising, which not only exposes products to dramas but also intervenes in storylines, developed. Logos and figures of the products used to be naturally exposed in the drama, but now these products began to be referred directly in conversations by the characters and are directly used in situations in dramas. Consider the close-up of a busy nurse who takes a shower in the daylight (the advertisement of a shampoo brand for which an actress in <Doctors> serves as an advertisement model). There is also a scene in which the main characters of a drama have a dish fight and fold towels gently, thereby provoking each other s jealousy. It was ostensibly used to portray the relationships among two male protagonists and a female protagonist (the dish and the towel advertisement in <Goblin>), but it was also an indirect ad. Indirect advertising is considered to be an opportunity to expose products and increase exports at the cost of small advertising expenditures by small and medium-sized companies seeking to enter the overseas market through Hallyu dramas. This is how Hallyu dramas and commercial interests now work together. A shampoo advertisement scene in <Doctors> (Source: Screen capture from SBS broadcast A towel advertisement scene in <Goblin> (Source: Screen capture from tvn broadcast) This commercial tendency in Korean dramas is regarded as one of the characteristics of the Korean drama and is subject to the cynical criticism of Hallyu fans and foreign media.

13 The world of the Korean drama is not just about working and loving, arguing and loving, and investigating and loving. Surgery patients also eat sandwiches, and many people use similar large refrigerators and air conditioners. 1 However, government and public authorities may not overlook product advertisement (PPL: product placement) in countries where indirect advertising is prohibited. This is a problem for the Korean drama, which is becoming more explicit in its indirect advertising. In the case of France, American dramas need to erase all product logos before they can be broadcast. If it were a Korean drama, re-editing would probably be required. If <Goblin> were broadcast in a European country where indirect advertising is prohibited, then viewers would miss out on various scenes. To what extent will the viewers at home and abroad tolerate PPL intervention? Even Korean viewers who are accustomed to product exposure complain through SNS. It is expected that the viewers of other developed countries who are familiar with programs without PPL will also be as resistant as Korean viewers to the entry of ads in a fictional space as much. Such commerciality of the drama world is not a natural part of the world of drama: it is the product of the pursuit of industrial profit arising from broadcast production following the market logic. While the broadcasting market is getting bigger, both the broadcasters and the producers, which are the main players of the industry, have been complaining about management difficulties. Regulation has been eased in the way of lowering the production cost pressure so that these management difficulties could be solved. As long as broadcasters are dependent on copyright and direct advertising revenue, and independent producers are only concerned about production costs and getting indirect advertising from broadcasters, this problem will not be solved. The larger the pie of Hallyu, the higher the star's performance fee will be, and the problems described above will continue. In addition, internet broadcasting and new platform operators are emerging in the broadcasting market. Programs for certain target audiences will be produced, attracting a lot of broadcasting ads. Thus, the rate of ad sales of existing broadcasters is lower than that of the 1997 IMF. Although the overall Hallyu market is growing bigger and bigger, the broadcasters and the producers still suffer from management troubles, and the vicious cycle in which the drama world is getting polluted by excessive indirect advertising continues. 2. Passionate laborers as victims of industrialism Passionate, low-income workers are often overlooked on the balance sheet for the Korean drama industry. The broadcaster already only allows a limited production fee, and stars fees are skyrocketing: this means that the other performers and staff must produce the drama on a limited budget. Even so, Hallyu is increasing the sales of the Korean cultural industry as a whole. Universities are now offering majors related to theater, film, musical, screenwriting, practical music, and broadcasting production, and there are Hallyu-related 1 Moon Yeong-su, "[National Administration Plan] Cultivating Hallyu Exports with Cultural Content, inews 24,

14 graduate schools. 2 Many young people who want to achieve their dreams in the cultural industry are saturating the market. Such young workers in the cultural industry are not gaining enough attention, compared to the aspiring idols and trainees who roam around entertainment companies. There are also many idol groups and trainees who are forced to enter unfair contracts with entertainment companies. Low-income staff or non-income interns working on site also endure cold and hungry days, believing that they can someday play an important role in this industry. Behind the brilliant slogans of the creative industry are unstable jobs and unfair working conditions that are bad enough to drive a full-time PD to suicide. To produce a television program, extreme overwork, enthusiastic labor, emotional labor, and unprotected work continue. As idol music has become the main trend of Korean pop culture, the power of the agency, a new intermediary in the Korean cultural industry, has greatly expanded in the world of popular music. Such agencies have adopted some practices of the Japanese idol systems, but they have evolved to produce something that is distinctly Korean, creating idols that are more competitive and capable of high-quality performances. The reason for the growing power of these agencies is that the K-Pop genre has grown due to the cross-industrial development between the fandom of the idol groups and various sectors of the Hallyu culture industry. The agencies are now working on filmmaking, involving actors and performers from various fields. In addition, they are developing into multi-entertainment companies as they produce and broadcast star-studded content through Internet multi-channel networks. One agency, like an existing, small broadcasting company, is dependent on its own workforce (entertainment workers, production manpower) for its planning ability, programming ability, and production ability. In addition, several large agencies have developed a variety of derivatives, including restaurants, using K-Pop and idol stars as part of its content. They are making the most of fans purchasing power. It s impossible to be a K-Pop fan without a certain amount of purchasing power, which you will realize as soon as you go to an idol group performance or visit a huge SM town. From albums produced by each member of an idol group to every kind of consumer product promoted by an idol star, there is a vast amount of available commodities that are somehow related to these idols. While we cannot criticize the byproduct strategy itself in this capitalist cultural industry system, we cannot overlook the fact that the main consumer is young. A large number of white audience members in K-Pop performances and KCON events in North America and Europe are likely to create a problem of purchasing power, rather than racial distribution in the fandom. Since K-Pop fandom is still in its early formative stages, overseas fanatics are demanding more K-Pop products and content. But if the agencies and broadcasters become overly concerned about their commercial interests, they are likely to be criticized by world fans. It should not be forgotten that Hallyu is not an export phenomenon but one of voluntary acceptance that is centered on the positive power and attractiveness of Hallyu content. 2 Used the news big data program BIGKINDS of Korea Press Foundation.

15 SM Entertainment SM TOWN is a 6-story enter-mall, where you can view SM star-related content and purchase idol goods. (source : SMTOWN@coexartium) Fans waiting in line in front of a pop-up store selling idol group Wanna One-goods (Source: Lotte Department Store) 3. Hallyu is not an export phenomenon but an acceptance phenomenon. The quality of the work is the most important factor. The industrial approach to Hallyu and the resulting over-commercialization make us overlook that the Hallyu phenomenon is not an export phenomenon but an acceptance phenomenon. As a result, when the growth curve of Hallyu export slows down, the rumors of a Hallyu crisis emerge. This wrongly assumes that Hallyu is the result of the Hallyu product market. Cultural policy makers and practitioners need to clearly recognize that Hallyu is not an export phenomenon but an acceptance phenomenon, despite the importance of foreign markets. Hallyu is not a result of special export activities and export support policies but a phenomenon that is generated, maintained, and spread through voluntary acceptance. It is easy to confuse Hallyu with the export activities of general merchandise because Hallyu has made the possibility of exporting new culture goods and products quite evident. However, the cultural realm operates on a different logic from commodity exports. It is a more dynamic area in which values and identities, aesthetic sense, history, common experiences, and power relationships intervene. External factors such as THAAD and some negative sentiment in Japan may disrupt the acceptance of Hallyu. More crucially, if the fans of the countries that love Hallyu no longer prefer the products of the Korean cultural industry for any reason, then Hallyu would definitely be over. In the case of East Asia where the Hallyu phenomenon first appeared, the broadcasting program market mediated the distribution of Korean programs. However, distribution outside of East Asia was done through the Internet, and this was achieved through the voluntary acceptance of consumers from all over the world without intervention by any institutionalized media or intermediaries. The voluntary, participatory, and productive fan culture in the world brought about by the digital culture has begun to actively export the products of East Asia to the outside world. The cultural products of Korea were then widely consumed as a representative of the trendy contemporary East Asian popular culture. Early fans of Hallyu invested time and

16 effort in making subtitles in English or in other languages for dramas and entertainment programs so that they could introduce their beloved content to their contemporaries. In addition, fans uploaded K-Pop reaction videos, flash mobs and cover dancing videos on YouTube, thereby expanding K-Pop's popularity. This is not a result of any cultural export support or planning. Although we may acknowledge that the Korean government's cultural policies and support have helped the development of the cultural industry, the government has hardly contributed to the Hallyu craze. In the end, the Hallyu phenomenon will continue as long as the Korean cultural industry produces high-quality content, regardless of the increase or decrease in overseas sales of Hallyu due to changes in political situation, such as THAAD or anti-korean sentiment. European fans' flash mobs protest in front of the Louvre in Paris to increase K-Pop performances (Source: BoA music video reaction video uploaded by a foreigner to YouTube (Source: YouTube Shane s K-Pop Videos) The biggest crisis for Hallyu's continuation and proliferation will come when Hallyu content cannot be diversified, remains stuck the past successes of idol culture or romantic comedies, or adheres to the star system and the immediate commercial profit that results from it. A crisis to Hallyu will also come when Korean pop culture, which appears to be exotic, attractive, and alternative, no longer offers anything new to foreigners. At this time, the enthusiasm of the Hallyu fans will shift to other competitive cultural providers. Consider the case of Hong Kong popular culture and Japanese pop culture that preceded Hallyu. The biggest obstacles to maintaining and spreading Hallyu are what I have explained at length in this article: excessive commercialism, the excessive pursuit of secondary commercial interests using Hallyu content, the inhumane labor realities of cultural industry workers, and quality degradation of the programs. Let me take it a step further. As shown in several cases, there has been a lack of awareness of racial and minority discrimination among Korean entertainment industry workers. There are various conflicts, misunderstandings, and antipathy due to a lack of understanding about multiculturalism. These factors can also be obstacles in spreading Hallyu.

17 4. From culture export policy to cultural industry development policy There needs to be a paradigm shift. In order for the Republic of Korea to continuously communicate with the world through the Hallyu phenomenon and to expand its presence in the world at the public (national) and the private (as Koreans) level, we should not take an industrial approach to Hallyu. Hallyu should be removed from economic interests and approached for its cultural appeal. To this end, the Hallyu policy should deviate from the export support policy. We need to change the principles and direction of public support and re-establish our goals so that the structure of Korean pop culture can be improved in a healthier way. South Korea, which has gained presence in the world through rapid economic growth, tends to support the subjects and fields that are likely to quickly become "winners." For example, the Korean government is keen on raising the number of medals in the Olympics by supporting national players who are likely to win medals rather than supporting the people's sporting activities and sports education. In addition, it attaches greater importance to promoting the Nobel Prize-winning project for renowned writers than in creating infrastructure and environments that provide support for the leisure and reading activities of citizens improve the reading education curriculum. We need to acknowledge that culture is not an investment that brings quick results. The reason why Korean popular culture flourished in the 90s was because of the accumulation of educational and cultural capacity throughout the 70s and 80s finally created results after meeting with democratization. In the early 2000s, Korean dramas became the representative drama of East Asia as a result of the competition and human investment of Korean terrestrial broadcasters over 30 years. Hallyu is good news that shows that Korea has achieved not only economic development and political democratization but also cultural development. In the arts as well as popular culture, Koreans have gained a strong presence in the world. Korea has enough reasons to have confidence in its own cultural capabilities. It no longer needs to prove its ability by any rank or prize to the world anymore. Instead, now is the time to focus on the internal workings of the arts and popular culture. We require a transition in thinking when it comes to policy regarding the Hallyu field. In order to ensure the quality level of the Korean cultural industry over the long term, it is necessary to ensure that the industry improves its rules at various levels so that lower level talent don t need to be sacrificed, rather than solely focusing on supporting the production and overseas promotion activities of producers who are able to create exportable content. It is also necessary to focus on improving production conditions and working conditions. In order to ensure that the cultural industry workers, that is, broadcasting companies, outsourcing producers, agency companies, producers, and entertainment workers, as well as media conglomerates who are currently playing an unfair power game become beneficiaries of a fair industry, we must develop policies that protect the weak and make the benefits for all beneficiaries widespread throughout the cultural industry. We must take fundamental measures to improve the conditions of work and life for many passionate workers

18 who are not legally protected. We need active policy developments, such as rules and regulations on labor contracts and wages that will provide the 4 major types of insurance for employees, incentives for companies that have provided these employee benefits, and rules that make it so that production cost pressures from employing a few star performers do not affect the labor costs, and a money circulation system. This does not mean that support for drama export activities is not necessary. We do need support for the overseas promotion and exportation of Hallyu content. Moreover, there are business areas that are difficult for individual providers, who inevitably focus on short-term profits, to carry out, such as making goodquality foreign subtitles for drama DVDs. We need to focus on long-term and systematic support for such people. In this way, we need to look beyond the problems that need to be immediately addressed in the Hallyu industry and see the big picture. It is necessary to establish a long-term policy so that the broadcast and cultural industries, which have become advertising playgrounds as the advertising market has been reorganized with the advent of new operators, will be able to develop in a balanced manner. Culture industry policies can sometimes be applied passively, spontaneously changing the regulations according to the difficulties that businesses face. A cultural and economic approach is also needed in regard to the broader domain of the culture industry.

19 Bigdata Review Analysis of media reports on Hallyu policy issues by regime Written by Park Kyong-jin Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange Research Center Researcher The new government, which officially launched in May 2017, set a target of a 6% increase in Hallyu exports pursuant to the Five Year Plan for the Moon Government Administration. To this end, the government announced that it would expand the cultural content export market and the joint industry by realizing interactive cultural exchange and good Hallyu. 3 In fact, the necessity of interactive culture exchange as an alternative to the anti-korean sentiment that has been caused by one-way cultural export has been continuously emphasized in public and academic circles. However, due to the nature of cultural exchange that is vulnerable to visible and short-term results, the importance of interactive exchange and good Hallyu has not been widely accepted by policy-makers and media. In fact, the degree of association between Hallyu and interactive exchange seen through Big Data media was very low. In this article, I used the keywords Hallyu and Policy to analyze how the Hallyu policy has been reported and issued through the media. 4 First, I looked at the origins of the term Hallyu, which started overseas, to set up the period of Big Data media analysis. The term Hallyu was coined in 2000 to report on the popularity of Korean popular music in the Chinese newspapers "Beijing Manbo ( 北京晩報 )", "Beijing Daily ( 北京日報 )" and "Beijing Youth Manbo ( 北京靑年報 ). Domestic media began to introduce this expression from Chinese media in the same year. Scholars in academia say that the term Hallyu was first officially used in Korea in 1999, when the Korean Ministry of Culture distributed the album titled 韓流 -Song from Korea to promote Korea's popular songs to China. 5 As such, the term Hallyu was first introduced in the year 2000, and the domestic media introduced Hallyu in the Chinese territory as a trend for Korean style. In addition, the domestic media reported that Hallyu is not just about interest in Korean culture, but it also raises the image of Korean products and increases the sales of such products. 6 It referred to the press coverage of the Chinese media on the activities of first-generation Korean stars such as HOT, NRG, and Ahn Jae-wook, expressing amazement 3 Jang, Gyu-soo (2011), A Study on the Etymology and Usage of Korean Wave, The Journal of the Korea Content Association vol.11, no. 9 4 Jang Kyung-duk, 21C Keywords is Culture, Maeil Business, Yoon Deok-no, Hallyu Blowing in Beijing Again, Maeil Business, Today s Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism. I wrote the government ministry names including the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism according to their names at each period.

20 at how Hallyu has proven the power of the culture industry. 7 In particular, the domestic media focused on the boom in Hallyu that began to spread in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Vietnam. In 2001, in recognition of its influence, the Kim Dae-jung government began to make policy regarding the term Hallyu. Due to the continuous Hallyu wave, the Korean government has been using Hallyu as a policy term until recently. For the purpose of this analysis, I set my analysis period and target based on media materials that include both keywords Hallyu and policy, released from the Kim Dae-jung administration, where Hallyu began to be officially used as a policy term, to the Park Keun-hye administration (February 25, March 10, 2017). The policies referring to Hallyu were differentiated according to the international issues and policies of each regime in each period. Although the content of the policy referring to Hallyu is different, the amount of related media reports has continuously increased, as can be seen from the graph above. In 2000, as the term Hallyu became known to the public through media reports in Korea, the amount of Hallyu issues related to policy gradually increased. In 2005, when the Roh Moo-hyun government was in power, there were 579 media reports, more than double from the previous year. Since then, there have been 441 cases in 2010, 1,135 cases in 2011, and 1,584 cases in 2012, when the Lee Myung-bak government was in power, indicating a large increase of more than three times in three years. Since 2012, the volume of media reports has steadily increased. Regarding the media reports mentioning Hallyu and policy, I divided the timing based on the launch of each government in order to analyze the detailed issue changes of Big Data. I looked at related keywords and relevant reports from the Kim Dae Jung government to the Park Geun Hye government. 1. The Kim Dae-jung Government: February 25, February 24, 2003 China's entry into the WTO, expansion of exports by Hallyu Prior to China joining the WTO in November 2001, new policies began to be reviewed by each ministry on how to handle China, which would soon be incorporated into the global capitalist market. At this time, the term Hallyu was very useful, as it was referred as a step of economic growth that can have a ripple effect in other industries besides the culture industry. At the time, the Ministry of Finance and Economy said, "As part of the strategy to overcome sluggish exports, ministries such as the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy have decided to make full use of the Hallyu craze in China, as China has entered WTO and there will also be the Beijing Olympics in The Ministry of Culture and Tourism 8 came up with ideas to utilize Hallyu in more diverse ways. Considering that sales of Korean products such as apparel, cosmetics, 7 Song Se-yeong, "China announces change in its aggressive trade methods... Using Hallyu as much as possible for exportation, " Kookmin Ilbo, Hwang Gook-seong, "Ministry of Culture and Tourism supports Hallyu related cultural exportation, Maeil Business,