Hallyu, the Korean Wave: Cultivating a Global Fandom

Abstract

The Korean wave or hallyu refers to Korean music, drama, film, and even fashion and cuisine that have swept the world since the late 1990s. At first, it was Korean pop culture that diffused naturally to neighboring countries. Later, the government made efforts to maintain and reinforce Korean culture in general worldwide, by supporting producers of culture in the entertainment industry. In this paper, we focus on the consumers and fans, that is, the fandom of hallyu. We utilize government documents, news reports, and qualitative data from interviews with entrepreneurs and fans to trace how the global fandom of hallyu was formed around the Internet. We also use the concept of meme, or cultural DNA, to illustrate how the hallyu fandom self-cloned and diffused unpredictably in all directions. Finally, we seek to discover how Korean cultural entrepreneurs and fans together cultivate hallyu, as this has implications on cultural policy.