2023 Analysis of Global Hallyu Status
By the World Association for Hallyu Studies
Ⅰ. Overall
1. Overview of Investigation
In 2023, the year in which the COVID-19 pandemic was downgraded to an endemic, the number of Hallyu community members around the world exceeded 200 million. These numbers represent a rapid growth considering that the global pandemic was still affecting multiple aspects of people’s daily lives only a year earlier. Many had predicted a downturn for Hallyu content as all face-to-face appearances by Hallyu stars were canceled and direct communication with Hallyu fans was blocked for three years, a significant period of time. However, defying expectations, Hallyu continued its success throughout the pandemic and it has not only completely recovered but is shining brightly ever since the pandemic ended. What are the reasons behind Hallyu’s viability and resilience?
The Korea Foundation (KF) established the KF Statistics Center6 in 2021 and has been making efforts to deliver various visual materials and statistical data, which it accumulated since 2012, directly to researchers. The purpose is to identify the scale, distribution, and trends of Hallyu at diplomatic missions around the world and build data sets that can be used for related academic research and strategies. Unlike other literature dealing with the current status of Hallyu,7 this survey has the distinct advantage of being a “people-centered survey” that analyzes the fandom enjoying the content rather than the content itself. Based on this, the Global Hallyu Status, published every year since 2012, captures the present state of Hallyu in the world.
6) https://www.kf.or.kr/koreanstudies/hallyu.do
7) For example, Global Hallyu Trends, published by the Korea Foundation, conducts content-centered analysis, such as which Hallyu content is mainly consumed.
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Table 1 |
Survey Items Covered in the 2023 Analysis of Global Hallyu Status Category Content Method of Collection
Country overview
Hallyu status
General information
Country name, population, area, religion, official language(s), GDP per capita, trade with Korea
Overall status of Hallyu in the country
Status by field Broadcasting (drama, entertainment, OTT), film, K-pop, Korean food, Korean language, K-beauty (makeup, fashion, style, etc.), K-sports, E-content (gaming, webtoon), other industries
Preference factor
Hallyu community status
General information
What locals love about Korean culture
Overall characteristics and trend of Hallyu communities in the country
CIA The World Factbook, IMF, official data published by the Korea International Trade Association, etc.
Qualitative description based on field survey conducted by diplomatic missions
By community
Community name, online/offline classification, characteristics, number of members, website, active status
Summary based on field survey conducted by diplomatic missions
Quantitative description based on field survey conducted by diplomatic missions
The 2023 Analysis of Global Hallyu Status surveyed the current status of Hallyu in 112 countries8 for three months starting from November 2023, including the number of Hallyu community members and communities by country. The data collection for the 2023 Analysis of Global Hallyu Status was compiled under the following principles (Table 1).
Target of Analysis
First, only Hallyu communities that were active during 2023 were included in the survey. Cases that existed online and offline but had no actual activity throughout 2023 or whose activity could not be determined because the community channel was made private during the survey period were not included in the survey. Second, by identifying the main content that appears in many Hallyu community platforms operating online, cases that were not related to Hallyu communities were excluded from the survey. We did not include cases where the brand value of Hallyu was sought to be used for commercial gain or simply to expand the influence of the channel operator. Communities that sell products such as Hallyu-related goods were considered Hallyu-related communities in that they handle products targeting Hallyu fans. In contrast, communities that sell Korean cosmetics or other such products were not included as Hallyu communities as they are considered to be for general consumers, not Hallyu fans. Even if a community was proactively established by an organization or a specific individual, if the content dealt with Hallyu content or learning Korean, it was considered a Hallyu community because it was expected to be mainly about communication and exchange between Hallyu fans.
8) Three countries (East Timor, Lao PDR, and Ecuador) were added compared to the previous year. The total number of community members does not exceed 300,000.
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Counting Method
If a single community operates multiple platforms online, only the number of members on the platform with the most members was counted. In the 2020 survey, if a single community opened and operated multiple channels, they were counted and added together. However, from 2021 onwards, the survey was limited to channels with the largest number of users to improve the accuracy of the survey. This is part of an effort to prevent the number of community members from being overestimated, given that it is highly likely that one community member is engaging in overlapping activities across multiple platforms operated by a single community. However, this method has limitations, in that it excludes the sociodemographic distribution of different users for each platform.9 Nevertheless, the survey after 2021 has the advantage of enabling more conservative and stable predictions in establishing future Hallyu-related projects or policies by resolving the problems of overcounting rather than undercounting.
Community Genre
By classifying the nature of communities according to major activities or interests, it becomes clear that the areas of interest of Hallyu fandom is diversifying. Community interests are classified into music, drama, entertainment shows, tourism, food, Korean language, beauty, literature, e-sports (gaming), traditional culture, webtoons, taekwondo, animation, and general Hallyu. This classification system, introduced in 2021, reflects the phenomenon that interest in Hallyu content extends beyond a few specific areas into various fields. As data accumulates in the future, it is expected that it will be possible to dynamically track the changing patterns of community characteristics.
Despite these improvements, the survey data of the 2023 Analysis of Global Hallyu Status has some limitations. First, since each diplomatic mission investigates the status of communities through different personnel, the criteria for judgment may differ when it comes to classifying the nature of communities or creating qualitative data. Nevertheless, collecting data by diplomatic missions allows us to understand the current status of communities in each country and improve our understanding of the different social and cultural backgrounds of each country and region, helping us to more accurately interpret the characteristics of the activities and spread of Hallyu. Differences due to the qualitative variation of the investigators can be alleviated, as the survey is conducted repeatedly.
Second, it cannot be accurately counted if the same person joins and is active in multiple Hallyu communities. This is a limitation that arises because the unit of research and analysis is not an individual member, but a group called a Hallyu community. It is difficult to completely resolve this problem unless the survey method is changed to a survey of individual Hallyu community members. However, collecting data through individual surveys is not realistically possible, and securing representativeness of the population is difficult. Considering this, the current survey method is meaningful in that it enables an efficient estimation of the size of Hallyu fandom at a macro level.
Third, some countries or communities were excluded because they did not respond to the survey, information was missing, or community activities were not observed during the survey period. This mainly applies to countries such as Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where activities of Hallyu communities were not detected or where
9) For example, Facebook tends to be used by older people compared to Instagram.
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systematic information collection is difficult due to civil war or other conflict. A total of 112 countries were surveyed for the 2023 Analysis of Global Hallyu Status. Even considering the limitations mentioned above, the Analysis of Global Hallyu Status differs from other Hallyu-related analyses that focus on content, allowing an overview of the size, distribution, and spread of Hallyu communities around the world since 2012. This has great significance as it will facilitate future Hallyurelated academic research and strategies.
2. Analysis
The 2023 Analysis of Global Hallyu Status analyzed the status of communities in 112 out of the 119 surveyed countries, excluding 7 where quantitative information on Hallyu communities could not be obtained. Out of all countries that were analyzed, 25 are in Asia, 22 in the Americas, 35 in Europe, and 30 in Africa and the Middle East.
Table 2 shows the results of a survey on the status of Hallyu communities around the world from 2012 to 2023. The number of Hallyu communities in 2023 increased by 64 (up 3.8% compared to 2022) to 1,748. This is a similar number to that before the COVID-19 pandemic and shows a very rapid recovery. Among the communities surveyed in 2023, 1,183, or about 67.6%, were confirmed to be centered around music. This suggests that K-pop fans represent two thirds of the total Hallyu fandom. Additionally, 258 (14.7%) communities were confirmed to be active in overall Hallyu content. Classifying communities according to their operation method revealed that 709 communities were active both online and offline, 877 communities operated focusing on communication through online channels, and 156 communities operated offline. Meanwhile, the number of community members grew to 224.97 million in 2023, an increase of 46.14 million (25.8%) compared to the previous year. The size of Hallyu community members around the world has been increasing every year since 2020, when the pandemic began. However, compared to the previous year, the growth rate increased slightly to 126.6% in 2020, 128.9% in 2021, and then slowed down to 114.2% in 2022. The number of communities around the world fell from 1,730 in 2019, before the pandemic, to 1,654 in 2020 when the pandemic began, and to 1,464 in 2021. Although it recovered to the 2020 level in 2022, it failed to rebound to the levels of 2018 and 2019 but eventually did so in 2023 when the pandemic ended. This seems to reflect the process that took place during the pandemic, when societies were completely reorganized to operate online, making it easier to collect information, and being integrated and centralized around major core communities that are advantageous for communication with many people. This interpretation is consistent with data on Hallyu community activities by country, where community associations representing countries or
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Category 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Community Number 757 989 1,263 1,501 1,718 1,655 1,783 1,730 1,654 1,464 1,684 1,748 Annual Growth (%) - 130.6 127.7 118.8 114.5 96.3 107.7 97.0 95.6 88.5 115.0 103.8 Community Members Number 9,264,220 9,247,679 29,795,329 35,584,259 54,705,703 60,997,585 86,198,008 95,987,241 121,514,867 156,607,448 178,825,261 224,974,073 Annual Growth (%) - 99.8 322.2 119.4 153.7 111.5 141.3 111.4 126.6 128.9 114.2 125.8 Members per Community Number 12,238 9,351 23,591 23,707 31,843 36,857 48,344 55,484 73,467 106,972 106,119 128,704 Annual Growth (%) - 76.4 252.3 100,5 134.3 115.7 131.2 114.8 132.4 145.6 99.3 121.2
Table 2 | Overview of the Annual Survey Results of the Global Hallyu Communities
large states were created and operated systematically, planning large-scale events within each country and promoting active participation in international events. This can be seen in the status of Hallyu communities in each region.
The increase in the size of both Hallyu communities and community members shown in 2023 has many implications, but here we will focus on the aspect of Hallyu fandom. There were numerous crises and difficulties before Hallyu transformed from a subculture that was initially treated as a flash-in-the-pan fad for Chinese teenagers or Japanese middle-aged women to a global pop culture. It also shows that Hallyu fandom has been gradually building up the ability to flexibly respond to internal and external threats and crisis factors while following the development and trajectory of Hallyu. Now, Hallyu fandom has grown into a Hallyu pop culture community with over 200 million members, still expressing Hallyu’s original color and voice. In addition, as seen in the current status of Hallyu by region, the fact that new communities are forming around various Hallyu genres and new artists is a positive phenomenon in terms of the Hallyu’s sustainability. Hallyu continues to expand across genres such as music, drama, entertainment, Korean food, tourism, and Korean language, and within each genre, new artists and programs appear, accelerating the spread of fandom. K-pop continues with TVXQ, BigBang, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, PSY, BTS, BLACKPINK, NewJeans, Fifty Fifty, Stray Kids, and ATEEZ. In terms of dramas, the Hallyu craze that started with Dae Jang Geum and Winter Sonata continues through My Love from the Star, Descendants of the Sun, and Squid Game.
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Asia & Oceania Americas Europe Africa & Middle East Unit: Number of Clubs 1,000 800 600 400 200 0 36 142 229 350 78 214 234 463 74 318 307 802 113 423 403 779 118 478 405 654 121 495 459 708 138 580 464 548 178 482 437 557 140 370 527 427 175 509 596 404 134 511 582 521 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 67 218 267 711
Figure 1 | Number of Hallyu Communities by Region from 2012 to 2023
250,000 200,000 150,000 100,000 5,000 0 Asia & Oceania Americas Europe Africa & Middle East Unit: 10,000 people 1 68 728 127 6 119 672 126 13 209 1,859 896 15 163 2,478 900 19 615 3,897 937 13 647 4,335 1,102 22 682 6,735 1,179 32 1,494 6,850 1,221 121 1,056 9,544 1,429 11,575 233 962 2,888 289 1,320 13,123 3,148 440 1,494 14,910 5,627 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Figure 2 | Number of Hallyu Community Members by Region from 2012 to 2023
Figure 1 and 2 show at a glance the number of communities and community members by region from 2012 to 2023. If we look at the proportion of 1,748 communities around the world by region, Asia and Oceania accounted for 582 (33.3%), the Americas for 521 (29.8%), Europe for 511 (29.2%), and Africa and the Middle East for 134 (7.7%). As for the growth rate by region, the number of communities increased by 117 (29%) in the Americas and 2 (0.4%) in Europe compared to the previous year, while that in Asia and Oceania fell by 14 (2.3%) and that in Africa and the Middle East by 41 (23.4%).
As for the number of community members by region in 2023, we can see growth in all regions. The growth rate in the number of community members in the Americas recorded a growth rate approximately 8.8 times higher than that of 2022, increasing by 25.03 million members (a growth rate of 79.5%) to a total of 56.53 million community members (25.1% of the global total), the second figure number among all regions. The number of community members in other regions amounted to about 149.1 million (66.3% of the global total) in Asia and Oceania, 14.94 million (6.6%) in Europe, and 4.4 million (2.0%) in Africa and the Middle East. As for the growth rate, the Americas were followed by Africa and the Middle East which recorded a growth of 1.5 million (51.9%), whereas Asia and Oceania saw a growth of 17.87 million (13.6%) and Europe of 1.74 million (13.2%), respectively.
Comparing the number of Hallyu communities across the world before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the proportion of communities in each region does not appear to have changed significantly. However, in the case of the Americas, the proportion of community members remained in the 10% range, decreasing from 13.7% in 2017 to 11.8% in 2020. Then, starting in 2021, this figure began to increase and exceeded the 20% range for the first time in 2023. The increase in Hallyu community members in the Americas played an important role in helping Hallyu fandom exceed 200 million people.
Ⅱ. Major Changes in Hallyu by Region
We turn now to examine regional trends in Hallyu, focusing on countries that have shown significant changes in the spread of Hallyu, and the increase in the number of Hallyu communities and community members. It is only possible to properly capture and understand the Hallyu fandom phenomenon that appears in each country when the respective social and cultural characteristics are understood and analyzed in an integrated manner with quantitative figures in that context.
1. Asia and Oceania
Countries in the Asian region, which are geographically close to Korea and have relatively less cultural distance, have served as a bridgehead for spreading the early Hallyu craze around the world, and Asia remains the region where the majority of Hallyu community members around the world reside. As the number of community members increased in countries including China (by 16.54 million), Thailand (by 2.66 million), and Indonesia (by 1.64 million), an overall increase was recorded. However, in some regions, the number of Hallyu community members has decreased. Compared to the previous year, the number of community members in Japan decreased by around 80,000 (29.6%), in Hong Kong by around 40,000 (3.8%), and in Viet Nam by 1.21 million (9.1%). In addition, the number of Hallyu community members also
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decreased in countries such as Mongolia, Bangladesh, and Australia.
However, rather than simply interpreting these figures as evidence of the weakening of Hallyu fandom in these countries, it is more appropriate to view them as an increase in shy fans, who do not publicly reveal that they are Hallyu fans out of concern about social opinion. Countries where the number of shy fans is increasing are mainly those with strong political, diplomatic, and social influences such as anti-Hallyu sentiment, outright Hallyu bans, discrimination, and oppression. This interpretation was confirmed by the 2023 K-Pop Global Dominance Analysis Report authored by Luminate, an American company that specializes in analyzing music-related data. According to this report, the total number of audio and video streaming plays of the top 100 K-pop singers around the world was 90.4 billion, of which the highest number was recorded in Japan at 9.7 billion. Additionally, Viet Nam and Hong Kong showed increases of 59% and 60%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.10 However, the number of community members in the countries listed above was calculated to have decreased in 2023.11
1) Northeast Asia
If we look at the current status of Hallyu in Japan, the number of community members is decreasing every year, from about 340,000 in 2021 to about 270,000 in 2022 and about 190,000 in 2023. However, it is premature to conclude that Hallyu has weakened in Japan based only on quantitative data. Hallyu communities and fan clubs in Japan share the characteristic that they tend to be operated privately. In many cases, the communities’ activities and number of members are not disclosed to the outside world, and their private members regularly share information about their favorite actors and singers and hold related events.
Through the Hallyu boom so far, Hallyu has become a natural part of everyday culture in Japan. Recently, as opportunities have increased to experience Korean culture directly or indirectly through social networking and OTT platforms, Hallyu has become established as a culture (including food, movies, dramas, music, webtoons, cosmetics, food, etc.) that people of all ages in Japan are interested in and can share conversations about with each other. Among foreign tourists who visited Korea in 2023, Japanese people accounted for the largest number, and among them, Japanese tourists who visited Korea to experience Hallyu12 represented the highest proportion.13
K-pop sales accounted for 31% of Japan’s Oricon annual top 10 rankings, and K-pop has established itself as a popular culture in Japan, with 6 K-pop groups appearing on Japan’s largest music program, NHK’s Kōhaku Uta Gassen.
10) https://luminatedata com/blog/mapping-out-k-pops-global-dominance
11) The inverse relationship between ‘the actual Hallyu content consumption’ and ‘the number of public community members’ is related to the characteristics of the society (closed society vs open society). People who are socially disadvantaged (by gender, social class, race, religion, etc.) are most affected by social characteristics, and as the characteristics of a closed society become stronger, the socially underprivileged are easily discriminated against and oppressed in the social structure
12) In the past, religious believers considered undertaking a pilgrimage to a holy place at least once in their life as the supreme goal Popular culture scholars understand that, similarly, newly emerging popular cultural phenomena require a visit and a pilgrimage to the home of that culture The first Hallyu fans to practice Hallyu pilgrimage on a large scale were Japanese women Now, there are more North American women, and they enjoy not only visiting Korea, but also studying there and experiencing the culture
13) According to data released by the Korea Tourism Organization, Japanese tourists accounted for the largest number of tourists visiting Korea from January to November 2023, with 2.121 million. (https://www yna co kr/view/AKR20231228060700030?input=1195m).
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Recently, in addition to Twice, BLACKPINK, and BTS, various idol groups such as ENHYPEN, TXT, Seventeen, NCT, Stray Kids, aespa, Le Sserafim, and NewJeans are gaining in popularity. From the second half of 2022, when entry into Japan resumed due to a loosening of COVID-19 restrictions, a large number of Korean idol groups returned for performances in Japan, and the 2023 Mama Awards, the largest Korean awards ceremony in the K-pop field, was held at Tokyo Dome for the first time. Taking place over two days on November 28 and 29, 2023, the event received great attention from over 80,000 Japanese Hallyu fans.
In addition, various Korean foods have become established in the lives of Japanese people: stir-fried octopus, chicken noodle soup, cheese dakgalbi, pork belly, gimbap, tteokbokki, corn dogs, tornado potatoes, sotteok sotteok, and 10-yen bread (benchmarked on 10-won-bread from Gyeongju) can all be found in Japan. They are becoming increasing popular, driving the steady trend and popularity of Korean food. K-webtoons are also circulating in Japan, the world’s largest market for comics and the home of manga. In 2023, the K-webtoon genre solidified its foundation in the Japanese comics market, recording the highest ever transaction volume in Japan thanks to the success of comics from Piccoma and Line.
China has the largest Hallyu fan base (108.2 million members) in the world. In January 2022, the Hallyu fusion historical drama Saimdang, Memoir of Colors was aired on China’s Hunan Satellite TV, seemingly for the first time reopening a market for Hallyu that had been closed for about five years since 2017. Starting with this, a total of 16 Korean dramas were aired on various Chinese OTT platforms in 2022, creating an atmosphere where the door that was previously closed to Korean popular culture was gradually reopening. However, in 2023, after the airing of My Liberation Notes, Korean dramas no longer appeared on Chinese OTT platforms.14 The number of game service licenses issued in China also dropped sharply to three, less than half that of the previous year. Fortunately, in the webtoon field, many platforms, including China’s No. 1 webtoon company Kuaikan Comics, are currently still providing Korean webtoon content, and Korean content is consistently ranked among the top sales on the Kuaikan platform.
Despite the fact that access to Korean content is still largely restricted, Korean entertainment industry news and Hallyu content are receiving much attention, especially among Chinese Millennials and Generation Z (known in Korea as Gen MZ). For example, when a Korean article reported that BLACKPINK had renewed their contract with YG Entertainment (December 6, 2023), the same search term ranked second in real-time search terms on Weibo in China. K-pop groups such as Seventeen, Le Sserafim, and Stray Kids are continuing their efforts to meet Hallyu fans by holding private fan signing events. In the southwestern region of China, K-drama, entertainment, and K-pop are particularly popular. Fans of certain K-pop idol groups organize fan club activities across China, and at regional gatherings, they also run electronic billboard advertisements containing their fan sentiments on certain pop idols’ birthdays or debut anniversaries. There is also a community that specializes in K-pop cover dance and then commercializes it through professional performances. At some universities, K-pop dance communities are active as well, albeit on a small scale. In addition, many private dance academies are offering K-pop dance classes, and young people are attracting a lot of views with their K-pop cover dance videos on their personal social media accounts.
Although K-drama, K-movie, K-pop, and K-beauty are receiving a lot of attention from teenagers, the Chinese
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14) https://www hankookilbo com/News/Read/A2023110923020000181?did=NA
market is still cold. In fact, SM Entertainment, which is highly dependent on the Chinese market, has recorded a decline in sales since November 2023 due to a sharp decline in album group purchases. Above all, the high unemployment rate among young Chinese people, who account for a large portion of the number of Hallyu community members, and antiHallyu sentiment, which has risen along with the wave of patriotic consumption in China, make people cautious about optimistically interpreting the prospects for Hallyu in China, which has shown a steady upward trend.
2) Southeast Asia & South Asia
Thailand has 123 active Hallyu communities, the highest number in the world. Interest is so high that the number of community members (19.51 million) is second only to China in both Asia and the world. About 85,000 people attended the BLACKPINK concerts held on January 7 and 8, 2023, coloring the concert hall pink. In 2023, the 37th Golden Disc Awards were also held in Bangkok, and on January 2, 2024, the 33rd Seoul Music Awards were held at the Rajamangala National Stadium in Thailand.
In Thailand, the number of social network platform users is 52.25 million (as of January 2023, see DataReportal), or 85.3% of the total population. Hallyu content is being accepted quickly and easily through the high smartphone penetration rate and the internet. Thailand was greatly influenced by China in the past; more than 90% of the population are Buddhists, and there are many similarities with Korean culture, such as respect for elders and love of family. Consumers’ openness to Hallyu content is high, and the high level of quality and technology as well as the respective scenarios of K-dramas are serving as benchmarks in Thailand’s entertainment industry. In July 2023, Thailand was used as the setting for episode 10 of the drama King the Land, and Thai people expressed great pride as the episode promoted various Thai tourist attractions and foods to viewers around the world. In addition to reports that the Thai prime minister recommended ministers to watch King the Land during a cabinet meeting, the media also reported a surge in sales at restaurants featured in the drama. The popularity of K-pop in Viet Nam is quite high. News on the Korean entertainment industry and the current status of K-pop stars are updated in real time through various internet sites and social networking platforms. The number of Hallyu community members is 12.1 million, ranking third in Asia. K-pop singers who are particularly popular in Viet Nam include BTS, EXO, BLACKPINK, Winner, IZ*ONE, ITZY, TVXQ, Super Junior, BigBang, and Girls’ Generation. Not only are certain singers popular, but there is also a wide and diverse fan base interested in the Korean music industry overall, ranging from mainstream to non-mainstream artists. In June 2023, the Korea Music Festival was held in Hoi An with appearances by BoA and aespa, followed by a BLACKPINK concert in Hanoi in July; Lee Hyori took part in the Ho Chi Minh Zenfest Music Festival in November, and even more K-pop singers visited Viet Nam. Among K-dramas, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, The Glory, and Under the Queen’s Umbrella were popular. In 2023, the number of students who studied Korean language and culture at King Sejong Institutes (operating at 22 locations in Viet Nam) reached 18,105. In Viet Nam, the Hallyu trend is moving in a positive direction, but some, especially among the older generation, have expressed concerns about the phenomenon of teenagers uncritically following Korean idol singers, and about the one-sided influx of Korean popular culture as a factor hindering the development of Viet Nam’s own culture.
The number of Hallyu community members in Indonesia is 2.26 million, and Hallyu is so popular that its growth rate there is the second highest in the Asian region. Indonesian Hallyu fans have formed and run fan clubs and Hallyu-
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related communities on their own to share information about their favorite K-pop singers and Hallyu celebrities. They play a big role in actively promoting Korean culture in Indonesia by holding online and offline meetings. In the 2022 Indonesian OTT content preference survey, Korean content ranked first with 57%, and Indonesia’s MZ generation and housewives in particular were found to prefer Korean cultural content the most. For example, K-drama, well known in Indonesia as Drako (short for Drama Korea), has become a hit genre in Indonesia, gaining great popularity among the Indonesian MZ generation, particularly among women and housewives.15 Secret Number, the first K-pop girl group to have an Indonesian member, is also growing in popularity, and in 2023, large-scale K-pop events such as a BLACKPINK concert and SMTOWN LIVE, a concert featuring SM Entertainment artists, were held in Jakarta; Indonesian media reported about these events for days, attracting wide attention across Indonesian society. Korean foods such as spicy chicken stir-fried noodles and K-almonds, which have become a global craze, can also be easily purchased at local supermarkets. Recently, Korean restaurants that reflect Korean trends, such as pocha (snack carts), are gaining popularity in Jakarta, and elegant restaurants offering Korean fine dining are opening one after another, expanding the range of Korean food enjoyed by Indonesians, from street food such as tteokbokki and gimbap to high-end Korean food.
3) Oceania
In 2023, the number of Hallyu community members in Australia decreased by about 70,000 compared to the same period last year, falling to 2.28 million. However, in 2023, when the COVID-19 pandemic was declared over, performances by K-pop singers such as BLACKPINK and Twice were held one after another, reigniting the popularity of K-pop. Numerous K-pop dance studios and communities are operating in Sydney, and the number of locals enjoying Korean food is increasing not only in areas where the Korean community is concentrated, but also in Sydney’s city center. Demand for Hallyu is still centered around young Asians, but Australian arts and culture experts and media are now acknowledging the high popularity of Korea and Hallyu, with the demand for Hallyu expanding across different social strata. Korean food has also captured the taste buds of Australians, being valued for having distinctive and excellent characteristics; a Kimchi Week was held around Kimchi Day on November 22, with Korean chefs demonstrating dishes incorporating kimchi.
2. Americas
The region with the largest growth in Hallyu community membership in 2023 is the Americas, which now have the second largest number of communities and community members after Asia. The increasing number of Hallyu community members in the Americas has a significant economic, cultural, and symbolic impact on the global pop culture industry. Considering that Hallyu was a cultural phenomenon prevalent only in Asia and merely one of many subcultures followed by Western youth, success in the Americas provides an opportunity to create a turning point in the perception of Hallyu as an alternative global popular culture. In addition, the United States is a place with great symbolic meaning as it officially recognizes Hallyu’s value in the field of popular culture, for instance through the Billboard charts (music), the Academy
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No. 9)
15) Indonesian Content Industry Trends (Korea Creative Content Agency, 2023
Awards (movies), and the Emmy Awards (drama).16 The country leading the Hallyu growth rate in the Americas in 2023 is Mexico. The number of Hallyu community members in Mexico increased from 970,000 in 2022 to 27.78 million in 2023, an increase of 26.81 million. This is a significant increase compared to the overall increase in the Americas, where the number of community members grew by 25.03 million (79.5%). Mexico’s fan base easily surpassed the size of the fan base in the United States (16.74 million people) and has become the country with the largest number of Hallyu community members in the Americas. Other major countries showing an increase in the number of community members include Argentina (7.7%) and Chile (32.7%), which serve as outposts for the spread of Hallyu in South America. On the other hand, countries where the number of community members decreased include Canada (falling by 61.7%), which had previously showed a high growth rate in 2022, and Brazil (a 4.9% drop), a major Hallyu dissemination center in South America. This trend needs to be watched in the future.
1) North America
The United States is considered the country with the strongest soft power in the world. In this country, a new wave of Hallyu is beginning along with changes in attitudes toward Hallyu before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Hallyu has become a major topic that is popular with the public, and conversations related to Korea, such as Korean food and beauty, are becoming so natural that they are no longer unfamiliar. In Washington D.C., you can now see Americans watching Hallyu content on their cell phones on the subway, or hear K-pop playing on American public radio. In New York, Korean food is receiving a lot of attention thanks to three Michelin-starred restaurants. This demonstrates that the popularity and demand of various aspects of Korean culture in the United States is no longer limited to K-pop, K-drama, and K-movies. Korean ramen, kimchi, barbecue, and soju are loved by Americans for their unique taste and texture. Americans recognize Korean food as healthy and delicious, and frozen gimbap has become a food item that is hard to find because it is selling out as soon as it arrives at American supermarkets.
Hallyu communities in the United States are mainly formed around K-pop and are expanding their networks. The popularity of K-pop is expressed through dancing and singing along. K-pop dance contests are held frequently, and there are many communities that specialize only in K-pop cover performances and video filming. In addition, thanks to Hallyu’s popularity in the United States, active communities related to Korean movies and Korean food have been formed. Community members mainly consist of young people in their teens and 20s.
Realizing the popularity of K-dramas that began with Squid Game in 2021, Netflix created Squid Game: The Challenge, an American version of a survival reality show. It achieved high viewership, exceeding 300 million hours of cumulative viewing in just three weeks. As a result, Netflix immediately began preparing a second season, while also developing video games and digital slot machines themed on Squid Game.17 In addition, in 2023, 34 different Korean productions were broadcast, the highest number yet, and Season 2 of The Glory, Celebrity, and Love After Divorce 4 garnered particularly high attention, continuing the popularity of Korean dramas. According to the K-pop album sales announced by the Korea Music Content Association, the market expanded from mainly Asia to North America and Europe,
16) French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu referred to this as “symbolic power.”
17) https://sports.donga.com/article/all/20231217/122664710/3
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including the United States ($58.98 million, 2nd place) and Germany ($8.72 million, 4th place), reaching the highest ever figures in sales and exports.18 Thanks to this popularity, the United States has become the second largest market for Hallyu content, following Japan.19 Forty-one percent of Hallyu fans are learning Korean, many are purchasing CDs and DVDs of K-pop and K-dramas, and interest in Korean pop culture is leading to demand for Korean food and other products. The general analysis of experts is that Hallyu, which had been evaluated as a case of youth-centered fandom, has now naturally permeated broader American pop culture.
Mexico has the largest number of Hallyu community members in the Americas, reaching 27.78 million. Community members mainly celebrate artists’ birthdays, debut dates, etc., and are active offline; but recently they have been participating more and more in social service activities (supporting abandoned dog protection groups and cancer patient centers, helping neighbors in need, supporting typhoon damage recovery, etc.) in the name of their respective fan clubs, exerting a healthy and positive influence. Hallyu content is very popular in Mexico, especially among young people. In recent years, there has been a high tendency to consume K-dramas and Korean movies, mainly online, such as through OTT platforms. In 2023, the spread and strengthening of Hallyu became more noticeable. As the number of performances by K-pop idol groups in Mexico increased, they received a warm response from local Hallyu fans. There were 34 K-pop events, including concerts by the groups Super Junior, BLACKPINK, and aespa, and a concert held as part of the television show KBS Music Bank, in which 6 acts participated, including NewJeans. Some of these performances sold out early, giving a glimpse of the local love for K-pop. The popularity of K-dramas is also considerable. According to Netflix, which has a high proportion of local users, The Glory, Doctor Cha, The Good Bad Mother, King the Land, Doona!, Strong Girl Namsoon, and My Demon are greatly loved in Mexico.
2) Central and South America
In Central and South America, Hallyu fandom is mainly centered in Argentina and Chile. In Argentina, the number of Hallyu community members increased by 7.7% from 5.08 million in 2022 to 5.47 million in 2023, showing an increase throughout the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of Hallyu community members in Chile decreased slightly after 2020, but increased by about 1.12 million (32.7%) compared to 2019, i.e., before the pandemic.
In Argentina, Korean cultural content such as K-pop, K-drama, K-movie, and Korean food are regularly reported on in the media, and there is also considerable interest in Korean games and cosmetics. As if to prove its popularity, the Argentine Kimchi Day bill passed the plenary session of the Federal House of Representatives in 2023, establishing November 22 as National Kimchi Day — the first time any country outside Korea has done so. Hallyu communities, which were mainly active in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, have become active throughout Argentina. The fan communities had mainly focused on K-pop cover dance or K-pop idol groups, but recently, interest has expanded to all aspects of Korean culture, including dramas, movies, and literature. As the viewership ratings of K-dramas such as Extraordinary Attorney Woo, The Glory, and Mask Girl increased, the popularity of Hallyu, which started among young people, has spread to all
18) https://www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/A2023122713540002979?did=NA 19) https://www.ytn.co.kr/_ln/0106_202401010437249471 “2023 Broadcasting Industry Survey Report” (Ministry of Science and ICT, Korea Communications Commission, December 26, 2023)
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generations. In relation to this, many people say that they like K-pop and K-dramas because they contain Korean culture, while dealing with values that all generations can relate to. It is for this reason that the number of family attendees at Korea-related cultural events is increasing.
Chile, which has the most developed economy in South America, has a strong fan base, with even the president claiming to be a fan of K-pop. Communities formed around actors and K-pop idol groups such as Twice, BLACKPINK, BTS, and NewJeans, and most of them are continuing their activities. Currently, based on a single fan club in Chile, CNBLUE’s Facebook fan club has 380,000 followers, and BTS’s fan club has 300,000 followers. In addition, as TXT’s popularity has recently increased, the number of TXT community members and activities increased more than that of any other communities; the community is uploading news about TXT or announcements on various social networking platforms every 7–8 hours. Fan clubs show different sociodemographic characteristics depending on the type of platform (Instagram, Facebook, X, etc.). Instagram is mainly used to post photos of Hallyu stars and promote albums or concerts, while Facebook and X serve as practical online fan clubs for activities such as group purchasing of albums and souvenirs, raising donations in the name of Hallyu stars, and keeping up with Hallyu stars (media appearances, interview activities, etc.).
3. Europe
The number of Hallyu community members in Europe increased by 4.37 million (41.4%) from 10.56 million in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, to 14.94 million in 2023. Hallyu fandom formed mainly in Russia, Italy, Spain, and Germany. In 2023, 120 communities were active in Russia, with an increase of about 250,000 (3.2%) compared to the previous year, bringing the total number of community members to 8.17 million. Türkiye, which ranks second after Russia in terms of community membership in Europe, has about 3 million community members. This represents an increase of 730,000 (32.5%) compared to 2022.
Among European countries, Russia accepted Hallyu culture quite early. According to the 2022 National Image Survey Report published by the Korea Culture and Information Service in 2023, Russia’s favorability rating for Korea was 82%, the highest among European countries. As the supply and demand of content in Russia becomes difficult due to Western sanctions after the outbreak of the Russia–Ukraine war in 2022, Hallyu content is enjoying a boomerang effect. The Hallyu community in Russia is quite developed, and includes clubs made up of members living in Russia and Russian-speakers living in countries belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). There are communities that cover all aspects of Korean culture; K-pop communities; fan clubs for specific singers, dramas, and entertainment communities, etc., and they all join in solidarity whenever there is a Hallyu-related event. Each community produces and distributes its own daily entertainment newsletter, shares a wide range of information about the Korean entertainment industry and Korean culture, and especially produces and provides Russian subtitles for dramas, entertainment programs, and movies, which is greatly contributing to the spread of Hallyu. Since the outbreak of the Russia–Ukraine War, global distributors such as Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., Sony, Paramount Pictures, and Disney stopped showing movies in Russia. Accordingly, Russia is seeking a solution by distributing films from Asian countries such as China and India, and imports of Korean films are noticeably increasing.
In the second half of 2023, films such as The Roundup 3 and Cobweb were imported and screened throughout Russia, and
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Korean films of various genres, including action, horror, and melodrama, continue to be popular. Despite the difficulty in supplying music content due to sanctions against Russia, K-pop fever is not cooling down. During Russian Creative Week, the country’s largest weeklong cultural festival, K-pop groups were invited by the Moscow city government to perform locally. A K-pop concert was also held in which a local K-pop cover dance club participated. Recently, restaurants selling Korean street food such as gimbap and tteokbokki have opened, capturing the taste buds of young Russians. Reflecting this trend, a Korean street food chain called Chiko has opened in Moscow, and starting from there, Korean street food chains are spreading rapidly in other Russian cities.
Hallyu in Italy spread rapidly through K-pop. As access to K-pop content has become easier through YouTube, teenagers’ interest in Korea has increased significantly. Currently, among Korean pop groups, BTS, BLACKPINK, and Stray Kids have very high recognition. In addition, major Italian newspapers and magazines frequently publish articles about K-pop and K-dramas. Most Hallyu-related communities in Italy are K-pop fan clubs, and they are mainly a place to share information about Hallyu stars. In Italy, K-pop has established itself as part of mainstream music, and many idol groups such as BTS, EXO, BLACKPINK, Seventeen, aespa, (G)I-DLE, ITZY, NCT, BTOB, and NewJeans are gaining great popularity. It is easy to spot Italian teenagers practicing K-pop choreography in major squares such as Milan’s Piazza del Duomo and Piazza Gae Aulenti or Turin’s Piazza XVIII Dicembre in front of the Porta Susa Railway Station. K-dramas such as Squid Game and Extraordinary Attorney Woo continue to be popular. In the first half of 2023, on Netflix Italy, K-dramas such as Jung_E, The Glory, and Ballerina ranked in the top 10 in terms of viewership, and the number of articles by Italian media about Korean movies and dramas is also increasing. The members of Hallyu communities in Italy are mostly women in their late teens to early 20s, but as interest in Korean culture increases, the age range of fans is becoming more diverse. In addition, interest in and popularity of Korean culture in general, including Korean food, Korean language, beauty, movies and dramas, is increasing.
4. Africa & the Middle East
Due to regional characteristics, Africa and the Middle East have the smallest number of Hallyu community members among all regions in the world, and they are also the regions where the impact of Hallyu content is the weakest. The growth rate of Hallyu fandom is showing a slow but steady increase, with community members increasing by 263% from 1.21 million in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began to 4.4 million in 2023 when it ended. Community activities driving the growth of Hallyu fandom in these regions mainly take place in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
In Jordan, which boasts the largest number of Hallyu community members across Africa and the Middle East, the number of community members has steadily increased since 2020, reaching 1.93 million in 2023, three times higher than before the pandemic. Hallyu in Jordan is growing rapidly as it becomes easier to access the latest news on Korean culture and Hallyu stars through OTT services such as Netflix and various other online platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. In the second half of November 2023, Squid Game was still ranked first in the Netflix TV category, confirming that interest in and popularity of Korean cultural content in Jordan is very high. In the field of broadcasting, in 2023, The Good Bad Mother, King the Land, Destined with You, Strong Girl Nam-soon, and My Demon were placed highly in the
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popularity rankings on Jordan TV. Korean content contains values considered important in Arab culture, such as respect for adults, courtesy, and emphasis on family relationships, and the fact that Jordanians accept it with relative ease seems to be a factor in its popularity. The Hallyu community Jordan K-pop Lovers is actively engaged in both online and offline activities, including conducting various in-person K-pop events and producing and selling Korean food online.
In Saudi Arabia, the number of K-pop communities has been steadily growing since BTS held a performance at King Fahd International Stadium in the capital Riyadh in October 2019, becoming the first non-Arab singing act to do so. In Saudi Arabia, a country with a strict Islamic culture, the unprecedented measure of allowing foreign men and women could stay in a hotel together without any requirements, and also Saudi Arabian women were allowed to travel without a male bodyguard, attracted attention from domestic and foreign media. Following the success of KCON Saudi Arabia 2022, a K-pop convention and music festival which attracted about 20,000 people, the attendance of the event’s 2023 edition was even greater, with around 23,000 people joining KCON Saudi Arabia 2023, held at the Boulevard in Riyadh in October. The number of community members had grown from only 50 in 2020 to about 300,000 in 2021. By 2023, thanks to the K-pop craze, the number of community members grew further to 1.14 million, an increase of 272.68% compared to the previous year. In addition, Prince Sultan University (PSU), a private university located in Riyadh, opened a basic Korean language liberal arts course for the first time in consideration of the Korean language craze among Saudi youth. Now, Saudi women, who were introduced to Hallyu early on, are learning Korean and emerging as leading players in exchanges between the two countries.20
In Egypt, the number of Hallyu community members increased from 160,000 in 2020 to 430,000 in 2023. Hallyu communities have formed and are active throughout the country, focusing on K-pop and K-drama, and people are exposed to Hallyu content through YouTube and Netflix. In 2023, Physical: 100, The Glory, and True Beauty rose to the popularity rankings. The family-centered culture that appears in Korean dramas has many similarities with the family culture of Egyptian society, serving as a background for people to easily accept Korean culture. Many Egyptian women are said to be particularly attracted to the friendly and gentle appearance of Korean men who appear in Korean dramas. K-pop is popular among young people, mainly among young women, who access the latest music and share information through social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
Ⅲ. Diaspora of Global Hallyu Fandom
The year 2023 was an important one that provided an opportunity to quantitatively and qualitatively explore how Hallyu communities changed from the time before the COVID-19 pandemic to the time when in-person events resumed. Hallyu has shown remarkable survival and resilience and has grown into a global pop culture despite and thanks to the pandemic. Exploratory research is needed to determine what is the power of Hallyu. Finding out what has led to the continuous expansion of Hallyu fandom over a period of more than 20 years and to the formation of Hallyu fandom of 200 million people around the world would provide an important starting point for related Hallyu research.
20) Choi Jun-yeong. (February 2, 2024). [New Year’s Project] “‘Women’s trend’ growing stronger in Saudi Arabia… At the center of it all is the ‘Korean language craze.’” Munhwa Ilbo. https://www.munhwa.com/news/view.html?no=2024020201030907025001
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In 2023, the number of K-pop songs played online worldwide surged by 42% compared to the same period last year,21 and the Korea Tourism Organization reported that Hallyu brings not only tourists to Korea, but also highly educated young people with an affinity for Korea. Anticipating an increase in visits, studies, long-term stays, and residences, 2023 and 2024 were declared Years to Visit Korea.22 In other words, the global diaspora of Hallyu fandom is progressing. In popular culture theory, “diaspora” refers to population movements, with people leaving their home country to visit, consume, and study new countries and cultures with the intention of enjoying transnational and transcultural experiences, including studying or taking up temporary employment abroad and permanently immigrating.23
Considering that new cultural trends generally reach their peak and then enter a period of decline about every 20 years, the following overall evaluation of Hallyu will examine the unique distinguishing characteristics of Hallyu fandom. It is very timely to explore this in depth by comparing and analyzing the characteristics of ‘Hallyu fandom’ that create a global diaspora of 200 million people, with other kinds of popular culture fandom, and it is expected to serve as important data in determining future policies and strategies.
1. Core DNA of Hallyu: What are “Korean Narratives”?
The Hallyu craze — which began with What Is Love in 1997, said to be the beginning of the first period of Hallyu, and the dramas Winter Sonata in 2003 and Dae Jang Geum in 2005, which represent the second period of Hallyu — has spread all over the world thanks to the spread of new mass media in the 21st century. With the YouTube revolution that started in 2009, K-pop began to capture the eyes and ears of people around the world, and with Netflix’s streaming of original drama series that began in earnest in 2013, Korean dramas became widespread around the world even though people had to pay to watch them. If YouTube is the platform that achieved the K-pop revolution, Netflix led the K-drama revolution.24 And in the midst of the unexpected and rapid changes in the external environment, i.e., the restrictions put in place due to the global pandemic, Hallyu fandom continued to grow regardless.
Experts say that the key to this success lies in the Korean narratives, that differ from Western ones. We need to listen carefully to the opinions of experts who say it is important to continue to capture Korea’s unique culture.25 In order to see these “Korean narratives,” it is important to note that Hallyu is a popular cultural movement that started in a developing country with a history that is significantly different from Japanese or British popular culture. Scholars around the world also determined that Hallyu is an unprecedented example in world history of how the culture of a small country in the East created an alternative global popular culture; researchers are continuously conducting research along this trajectory. Korean popular culture expresses the colonial experience, poverty, war, political division, side effects of rapid industrial growth, the widening gap between rich and poor, and that Korea has experienced in the past by using them in sophisticated
21) https://news.kbs.co.kr/news/pc/view/view.do?ncd=7803350
22) Asia Brief No. 94 (Seoul National University Asia Research Institute, January 18, 2023)
23) Jenkins, H., 2004. “Six Pop Cosmopolitanism: Mapping Cultural Flows in an Age of Media Convergence. Globalization: Culture and Education in the New Millennium, pp. 114–140.
24) Oh, I. and Lee, H. J., 2013. Mass media technologies and popular music. Korea journal, 53(4), pp. 34–58; Ju, H., 2020. Korean TV drama viewership on Netflix: Transcultural affection, romance, and identities. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 13(1), pp. 32–48.
25) https://www.ytn.co.kr/_ln/0106_202401010437249471
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and diverse contemporary cultural genres. This is the universality and the core of Korean narratives that can appeal to both the East and West, developed and developing countries, and people of different ethnicities and social classes. Korea’s unique cultural, historical, and social soil is the factor that transformed Western popular culture into Korean narratives. Hallyu is expanding such Korean narratives to various genres and conveying them to people around the world.
2. Hallyu and Female Universalism26
As can be seen in the current status of Hallyu by region, most of Hallyu fandom is centered around women. At the Stanford University’s 20th Anniversary Korean Studies Conference, an analysis was made that Hallyu spread across the world because it created a market through the “female gaze” that did not exist before. Female consumers, who had been marginalized in the existing global entertainment industry, have become the subjects of cultural consumption through Hallyu.27 The Hallyu Forum, which was part of the program at the 2023 SEOUL CON, the world’s first-ever convention for influencers, also suggested that the global spread of Hallyu and the diasporic movement of Hallyu fandom are based on “female universalism,”28 which accounts for more than 90% of Hallyu fandom.
Both the above mentioned conference and forum present a common analysis that Hallyu achieved great success because Hallyu content created a great consensus from the perspective of female consumers from the beginning. If Hallyu content was only “Korean,” it would have succeeded only in Korea. Recalling that Hallyu has become known all over the world, it can be said that before Hallyu, no one thought of creating content from the perspective of and for female consumers, especially young female consumers.
Angela Killoren, CEO of CJ ENM America, said, referring to movies, TV shows, and music produced in the Hollywood ecosystem, that they were “very male gaze-driven.” She continued, “It is often all about ‘How sexy are the girls,’ ‘How bad-boy am I?’” She added, “Through K-pop and K-dramas, female consumers have been able to satisfy new emotions, such as romance, that they could not feel before.” She went on to say, “This is a factor in Hallyu becoming popular even in countries in the Middle East, which are considered conservative.”29
Historically, the British and American popular culture that dominated the 20th century was the creation of white men, and the trend was to heroize them. The British novel series Sherlock Holmes, and the TV series and movies based on the character, portrayed white men as heroes with excellent rational and scientific reasoning skills and a burning sense of justice. In opposition to this type of white male popular culture, many dramas and movies based on epic stories depicting female heroes have appeared around the world since the beginning of the 21st century. These female-centered narratives challenged white male supremacy in the 20th century and gained enough fandom to break its stronghold. Such new female narratives are found in Dae Jang Geum, Kim Ji-young: Born 1982, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Glitch, The Glory, Under the Queen’s Umbrella, and Maestra: Strings of Truth. These K-dramas and movies not only secured female fandom
26) Oh, I. and Jang, W., 2022. From Globalization to Glocalization: Configuring Korean Pop Culture to Meet Glocal Demands. Handbook of Culture and Glocalization, p. 256
27) https://v.daum.net/v/20220520160307029#none
28) “Female universalism” refers to a phenomenon that women from all over the world like Hallyu despite their differences of race, social class, age, religion, language, etc.
29) https://v.daum.net/v/20220520160307029
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around the world, but also became a stepping stone to drive Hallyu into global popular culture.
Not only in K-dramas and movies but also in K-pop, the leap forward of girl groups stands out. BLACKPINK, a group that debuted in 2016, has 92.81 million subscribers on its YouTube channel, making it the top-ranking girl group in the world. The music video for “Pink Venom,” released on August 19, 2022, achieved 90.4 million views on YouTube within 24 hours of its release, breaking the previous world record for a female act.30 In addition, NewJeans became the first female K-pop girl group to hit number one on the Billboard World Albums chart for seven consecutive weeks, and Fifty Fifty’s Cupid topped the Billboard Global Exclusive US chart, making Fifty Fifty the first female group of any genre to reach #1 on this chart with its debut song.31 When looking at the K-pop industry itself, the number of popular girl groups is almost equal to the number of boy bands. During the time when BTS members, who rewrote the history of K-pop, are serving in the military, BLACKPINK, NewJeans, aespa, Le Sserafim, and other artists are taking over the momentum and driving K-pop popularity.32
The realistic perception that women make up the majority of fandom is being responded to more quickly in the hotel industry, which directly serves tourists. For example, unlike before the COVID-19 pandemic, in the promotional text on Airbnb, the global accommodation reservation site widely used by foreigners visiting Korea, many hosts now offer accommodation for “female guests only.” The experience of hosts who have a high chance of welcoming foreign tourists visiting to experience Hallyu led them to put this promotional phrase in their listings as an efficient way to increase profits. The fact that food, beauty, and fashion take center stage in the expansion of Hallyu genres is also a phenomenon that reflects female-centered preferences, as most Hallyu fandom is made up of women.
The biggest reason why Hallyu can appeal to female universalism is because it contains universal experiences faced by women around the world: gender discrimination regardless of race, colonial experience, class, age, etc. In Korean dramas, female protagonists work hard within different environments and succeed despite going through great hardships. K-pop girl groups who boldly demonstrate women’s desires through spectacular dances and songs become popular around the world. Several studies have revealed that women commonly feel the joy of relieving gender melancholy33 while watching those performances.34
Women experience gender melancholy due to oppression and discrimination resulting from social structures. It is similar to the life that mothers of previous generations in Korea had to go through due to the social structure, resulting in the unwanted build-up of resentment in their hearts. It is not long ago that changes occurred in the social system through the 3rd and 4th Industrial Revolutions, allowing women to advance to the forefront of society. Within this social structure, women around the world experience gender melancholy, knowingly or unknowingly. Palestinian women, while watching Dae Jang Geum, realize that they are shedding tears involuntarily at the story of a completely different era and culture, and
30) https://www.newsis.com/view/?id=NISX20240128_0002607460&cID=10601&pID=10600
31) https://luminatedata.com/blog/mapping-out-K-pops-global-dominance
32) Hwang, H., Oh, I. and Lopes, P., 2023. The international strategy for Korean pop music: what makes K-pop listed on Billboard Hot 100?. Asia Pacific Business Review, pp. 1–20.
33) It is a wound that remains in the heart as a result of gender discrimination not being publicly recognized, similar to the concept of han (resentment) that frequently appears in Korean culture.
34) Oh, I. and Kim, K. J., 2023. Gendered melancholia as cultural branding: fandom participation in the K-pop community. Asia Pacific Business Review, pp. 1–24.
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on the other hand, they are puzzled as to why they are reacting in such a way. This is an example of gender melancholy being resolved through Hallyu. It is not limited to women, but is a phenomenon commonly experienced by socially disadvantaged people who face various structural oppressions and discriminations. Hallyu plays a role in relieving the joys and sorrows experienced by these socially disadvantaged people and making their wishes come true.
3. Hallyu for Hope, Love, and Community
What is the appeal of Hallyu as a leader in female universalism? In other words, what is the goal of female Hallyu fans, hidden behind consuming Korean pop culture and enjoying Korean street food? To answer this question, we searched for Hallyu-related articles in The New York Times from January 1 to December 31, 2023, the tail end of the pandemic, identifying the keywords that appeared most frequently and extrapolating the relationship between them (Figure 3).
The keyword occupying the most important middle position in this picture was none other than “like.” So what is the object keyword corresponding to the purpose of this verb? It was none other than Korean language or “Korean,” meaning something Korean, “show,” meaning a K-pop show or drama show related to Hallyu, and “food” meaning Korean food. So why do they like this kind of Korea-related content? Several keywords that can be inferred as answers to this question are related to “like.” The ones that stand out are “hope,” “love,” and “family.” In other words, through Hallyu, people can dream of hope, feel love, learn, and improve relationships among family members. Lastly, the answer to the question of who feels hope and love through Hallyu is clear: “woman,” “young,” and “American.”
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Figure 3 | The most frequent keywords in Hallyu-related articles by The New York Times in 2023 and their inter-relationships
Female Hallyu fans come to Korea to study at universities and graduate schools, learn the Korean language, get a job, meet lovers like those in K-dramas, start a family, and experience Hallyu first-hand after becoming familiar with it through Hallyu content. This is becoming a wish and valuable cultural capital35 for them. For Hallyu fans, acquiring this new Hallyu cultural capital is the highest level of self-realization through Hallyu. In fact, excluding women from Asia such as Japan, China, and Indonesia, the most frequent visitors, international students, and mid- to long-term immigrants to Korea are North American women.
Ⅳ. Conclusion
The survey responses for this report were collected after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which contactless interactions had become routine as social distancing was implemented, and represent a miracle in themselves. When the Hallyu status survey was conducted for the first time in 2012, a total of 85 countries were surveyed: 19 in Asia and Oceania, 21 in the Americas, 27 in Europe, and 18 in Africa and the Middle East. In 2023, 12 years later, the number of countries surveyed increased by 27, reaching a total of 112. Compared to 2012, 6 countries in Asia and Oceania, 1 in the Americas, 8 in Europe, and 12 in Africa and the Middle East were newly included in the survey. The fact that the number of countries surveyed has increased shows that the administrative foundation to capture the activities of Hallyu communities has been firmly established, and at the same time, Hallyu is constantly expanding geographically and culturally. Additionally, comparing the number of community members between 2012 and 2023, the number of Hallyu fans around the world has grown by a factor of 24, from 9.26 million in 2012 to 224.97 million in 2023. Compared to the previous year, the number of communities and community members increased by 3.8% and 25.8%, respectively, which suggests that Hallyu fandom is expanding and strengthening at the same time.
It is said that if you know your enemy and yourself, you will win every battle. Before discussing the development stages or economic effects of Hallyu, we need to discuss the identity of Hallyu from various angles and make efforts to explain the value of Hallyu based on this identity. We must understand the historical, social, and cultural differences that Korea experienced until Western popular culture entered Korea and was reborn in Korean narratives. The characteristic of Hallyu is female universalism based on these Korean narratives, and there is an important difference at this point with the fandom phenomenon of films such as The Hunger Games, which featured women as main characters in British and American popular culture that emerged in the 21st century, and the fandom of female singer Taylor Swift that has been influential enough to give rise to the new term “Swiftonomics.”
For the long-term success of Hallyu, its gender identity should no longer be ignored. Until now, there has been a prevailing social atmosphere that seeks to deny that Hallyu content is delivered from a female perspective and that most Hallyu fandom is female. Of course, academic circles have previously recognized gender characteristics by comparing Hallyu fandom and other popular culture fandom, but the discussion did not continue due to the absence of an explanatory theory. However, recently, the concept of female universalism has emerged, explaining the fact that most Hallyu fandom is
35) According to Pierre Bourdieu, cultural capital usually exists in three states. First, it is a state of being “embodied” through persistent tendencies such as speech, gestures, knowledge, culture, and hobbies. Next, it is “objectified” with various cultural goods such as books, records, and artwork. Lastly, it is “institutionalized” in degrees, diplomas, and certifications, which are recognized forms of intellectual qualifications.
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female. Hallyu is a popular culture for 21st century women based on female universalism.36
As mentioned earlier, in order for Hallyu to be loved as Korean culture, efforts must be made not to lose Korea’s unique color. Only when these efforts are supported will what is essentially Korean become truly global. Studying Hallyu fandom is essential for the spread and continuation of Hallyu. Over the past 12 years, the KF Statistics Center has been providing the public with data about cultural and social backgrounds and the status of Hallyu that it gathered from Korean diplomatic missions in countries around the world. This is valuable data that allows Hallyu researchers to capture trends in the global Hallyu fandom that have emerged over a long period of time. Based on this, we hope that collaboration and research between various academic fields will be stepped up and effective practical proposals will be presented.
36) Oh, I., & Jang, W. (2022). 16. From globalization to glocalization: configuring Korean pop culture to meet glocal demands. Handbook of Culture and Glocalization. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. pp. 256–271.
27 | 2023 Analysis of Global Hallyu Status |
