GLOBAL FANDOM LEADS TO HIGHER INTEREST IN KOREAN CULTURE

K-pop group Big Bang’s 10th anniversary concert was held on Aug. 20 at Seoul Worldcup Stadium in Mapo-gu, Seoul. A yellow banner was held by 22-year-old Shanghainese Wang Weisi. A fan of G-Dragon, Wang said, “I’ve been to their concert in China, but didn’t hesitate to reserve a ticket in Korea in hopes for a more special concert.” With global fans crowding the stadium, various foreign languages can be heard.

Here we live in an era of “global idols.” EXO fan clubs amount to 3.7 million, including Chinese and Japanese fans. Once limited to Asian regions in the early 2000s, World tours held by K-pop idols have now reached to the Americas and Europe. The SM Town Paris Concert held in 2011 was clearly a symbolic evidence of the “globalization of the Korean Wave.” It was the first live concert held by K-pop singers in Paris, and hundreds of local fans extended the concert from once to twice by demonstrating a flash mob. Since the first world tour in 2008 (Note: This article counts the “Global Warming” tour as a world tour), Big Bang held its third world tour last year, attracting 1.5 million fans from 15 countries including not only Asians, but also Americans and Australians. Now, global fans do not hesitate to visit Korea for domestic concerts. “At least 10,000 tickets are bought by overseas fans of Big Bang or EXO,” said an official of the ticketing website YES24.

Global fandom not only attracts overseas fans, but also invites the culture itself. Peruvian Roxana Salazar Kysfe enrolled her first class at the Cusco Korean Council in 2011. “I wanted to understand the lyrics of my favorite singers without translation,” the 25-year-old fan of Super Junior and Big Bang said. “I learnt Korean cuisines and history at the Council.”

“K-pop idols are the first success created by the Korean Wave,” said Professor Seo Kyung-deok of Sungshin Women’s University. “Thanks to the creation of global fandom in idol media contents, the entire Korean culture including food and fashion are going global.”

Source: Donga.com