The Korean Wave in a Post-Pandemic World

This book presents an analysis of how the economic Korean Miracle spread into the cultural “Korean Wave” (Hallyu). First only in Asian countries and then around the world, the rising popularity of the Korean Wave continued within the pandemic—despite or even because of policies of digital lockdowns. Partially, this has been by design as Korea for decades has had a very strong fast development drive in telecommunications and that aided the growth of its cultural wave. Partially however, this became exclusively by default how the Korean Wave had to spread increasingly in a digital manner after 2020 globally, in response to many countries’ rules regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in their attempts to enforce a decline in face-to-face content consumption. In retrospect, this has meant only more digital growth and innovation for the Korean Wave in past years compared to other cultures' entertainment complexes that suffered more. Korea's earlier digital readiness combined with later lockdownconditions and pushed the Korean Wave further ahead.

Despite the ending of COVID-19 lockdowns in many countries, a greater digital aftermath will continue in the cultural industry and in the economy in general. This is due to changes created in cultural preferences, in organizational investments, and in communication technologies due to those lockdowns. Thus, the authors examine how the Korean Wave coped actively with a pronounced digital shift by default in all aspects of media including production, distribution, and consumption. In turn, they examine how the greater digital shift in the world’s culture and economy influenced the Korean Wave’s entertainment performances, TV dramas, and cosmetics—among other areas. The authors analyze general trends in the Korean Wave’s economics, culture, and technology along with specific strong cases of the K-pop boy group BTS, the cosmetics manufacturer Cosmax, and the television series Squid Game. Since the Korean Wavecontinues to grow in popularity within a more exclusive digital socialization, future implications of such a competitive digital world economy and multi-polar digital world culture are discussed for all countries as well.