Transnational Korea: A Critical Assessment of the Korean Wave in Asia and the United States

Abstract

In the international spread of popular culture from Korea since the late 1990s, known popularly as the “Korean Wave, ” television dramas have won the hearts of fans and paved the way for rising interest in Korean popular music throughout Pacic Asia and in Asian communities around the world. Indeed, Korean popular music has been spread-ing rapidly; but, as argued in this article, the reasons have relatively little to do with aesthetic and cultural values that could be identied as typically Korean. After provid-ing a theoretical framework for understanding transnational ows and hybridity, this piece looks specically at the Korean television drama Winter Sonata and the music, pub-lic personas, and career trajectories of BoA and Rain (Bi 비), ultimately questioning the cultural validity of the concept of the Korean Wave.