Discussion #5

Essay

Essay Content

Q3: In chapter 5, Kim Suk-young illustrates different parties involved in KCON as a grand market place: corporations, nation-state, and individual self-promoters. Discuss what each of these agents aim to achieve in such an event overseas and what their strategies are. Further, do you think these strategies are effective in enhancing the nation’s soft power? If so, then how? If not, then why?

Yaxuan Zheng:

KCON, known as the biggest K-pop music festival held by CJ E&M every year since 2012, has reached 8 different countries globally. It has already become an annual K-culture event, which widely spread the culture of K-pop, K-drama, K-dance, K-fashion, K-food, K-cosmetics via the music concert(Kim 2018: 179-181). Besides world tour and social media, KCON is now a very significant opportunity that allows idols to reach their international fans. Another meaning is to carry and spread their domestic culture as representatives of their country. After explaining more about KCON participants, in this essay, I will emphasize on how KCON effectively enhances the soft power of Korea.

According to Kim Suk-Young, mainly corporations, nation-state and individual self-promoters are involved in KCON. The first kind of corporations is entertainment companies, whose idols are invited to perform in KCON. Obviously, they gain benefits from tickets and side products. They gain more reputation than only money as benefits. As K-pop has been trending so internationally, performers involved in KCON gain fans more easily by live concert. Secondly, companies from other industries, K-cosmetics as example, as they get chances to open up their booth in KCON, brands invite idols to come and act as models for the brand (Kim 2018:181). Thirdly, individual self-promoters such as bloggers of YouTube reaction and K-cover channels. Those YouTubers come to KCON and stream the process on their social media to gain more fans for themselves.

What I mainly want to be discussing is the nation-state and whether KCON enhance the soft power of the nation Korea. My answer would be positive, the expansion of KCON has indeed strengthened the country's soft power. Although Hallyu has become a global industry, K-idol factories are owned and managed by local entrepreneurs (Fedorenko 2017: 6). KCON is held by the aim of spreading K-culture in long run. CJ E&M's American CEO Angela Killoren said: “We are more interested in a long term goal of raising Korea's brand value than short-term gain.” (Kim Da-hee, The Korean Times). Reported by the Wall Street Journal, although very popular, were only a break-even financially till 2016. By inviting the world-famous idols and actors/actresses, they represent the flourish development of their culture and their world famous industry of Hallyu. This does give them benefits to enhance the soft power of Korea.

As the largest K-pop music festival, KCON successfully fulfilled its responsibility of promoting Korean culture to international stage. It is still working on spreading K-culture worldwide. Idols perform worldwide as the representatives of the success of the industry. Gaining more attention and more audience every year in Europe, North America and Australia, KCON has been a major export of culture. Therefore, KCON has successfully enhanced the Korean soft power. (Words Count:451)

Bibilography

Kim, Suk-Young. K-pop live: fans, idols, and multimedia performance. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018.

Olga, Fedorenko. “Korean-Wave celebrities between global capital and regional nationalisms.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 18(4), 498-517