Session 1 (July 27) - Jennifer Jung-Kim, UCLA

[Alexis Marianiello]

Unfortunately, when I opened up the first PDF, it took me direcly from this page and deleted what I had here regarding the two lectures, but I will do my best to recreate my original response. 

 

For the most part, introducing K-Pop into my classroom would be new learning, rather than a way for students to connect what they know and like to what we learn in the classroom. I teach in a rural, isolated school that is not very diverse. Our student population is almost exclusively Black or White, and are not well-versed in culture that is not "theirs." Furthermore, some of my students will be outright hostile toward unknown cultures. I like to incorporate a lot of resources and activities that show my students the world beyond their community, and particularly I like to focus on resources that they might be able to relate to their own culture. (For example, we spend time inquiring as to similarities between different world religions; the students are often shocked at how many commanilities there are between their religion (or whichever is most familiar to them) and religions that seem "strange." And so, while I'm not sure that I could use K-Pop in the sense that my students are already familiar with it, exposing the students to K-Pop and pop culture from other countries could be an interesting entry activity for students, giving them perspective on how different societies around the world may have percieved other cultures as interaction increased between them through trade and other ways. 
 

Soft power in general, however, is an extremely interesting concept that was playing a role in international relations before the term was used/introduced. This report (https://softpower30.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/The-Soft-Power-30-Report-2019-1.pdf) has some intersting portions. I did not read the entire thing, but I did read the beginning and skim. Soft power is a concept that could be introduced at the beginning of the course, and students could be helped to understand the abstract concept by thinking of it in terms of the U.S. Using this resource (or a portion of it) is also a good opportunity to coach students in being discerning of data and text that they are provided. Students should look at these conclusions with a skeptical eye. 

 

I, personally, was surprised to find that the U.S. was ranked 4th in soft power last year. Although the U.S. obviously continues to play an important role in the global economy, I understand the U.S. is not viewed positively in the eyes of the international community. The study was done by U.S. groups, so that could account for bias. It is not neccesarily so, but that is the kind of critical thinking that I believe the students could engage with when presented with the concept of soft power. Nye lists the three contributions to soft power as attractiveness of its cultural, political values, and  foreign policy. The report that I linked here includes multiple other factors (some of which come from polling data) such as liveability and education among others. It is clear between the two sources, however, that soft power (as the "soft" implies) is not neccesarily interpreted consisently. As Nye puts it, it is "elusive . . . because its measurement is a formidable challenge."

 

It is also important to note that only one Asian countries (Japan) was ranked within the top 10 for soft power; the remainder were European or North American countries born from European colonization. 

In Nye's work, he mentions early on the ideas of sticks, carrots, and soft power. It's an interesting perspective (and also reminds me of the different ways that teachers can hold influence over their classrooms) and can relate to any period in history. 

 

As far as Korea today in general goes, it is a great example of globalization and could be used to show students that globalization (even as we learn it in school) is not just the way that economies and governments collide, but the way that we share culture among each other and how that culture can influence on a large and small scale.

 

Like most of the readings/lectures today, Choi's "Hallyu 2.0" is largely outside of the scope of my world history course. That doesn't mean that important lessons about cultural perceptions cannot be borrowed for my own classroom, however. As Choi introduces the topic, speaking on how to determine what is Hallyu and what is not, I started thinking about the cultural phenomena here in the U.S. that we sometimes struggle to define, or disagree with others on how to define.  This article was an intersting background reading for me as a teacher, but I don't see its place in my classroom as a highly analytical and challenging read. I can't wait to read through other comments though, and see how others might incorporate it. 

[Tom Mueller]

Jiaxing thank you for the resources. These are great examples of soft power.  It seems China has learned a little from South Korea about pushing soft power through music, etc.  I also like that Chinese kids could still find K – pop if they wanted – similar to Jurassic Park (Life will find a way) – kids will find a way.  As I was reading the article, I thought how crazy is it that music brings us together, but governments can make it divide us (the banning of K – pop in China), etc.  Then when you watch the video and listen to the Chinese talk about K – pop, it helps understand the appeal of K – pop.  They might not understand the lyrics, but they like the sound of it. Of course one of the kids said they started to learn some Korean words to understand the songs.  Finally I wondered if some US Governors would start making it difficult for BTS and others to perform in the United States after they helped “inflate” the number of the Tulsa rally.

 

[Tom Mueller]

Heather thank you for your post. I never heard of the Soft Power index before Dr. Jung-Kim’s lecture.  Then when I read your post, I also wondered if there were changes to the United States’ soft power. https://softpower30.com/

It looks like we had an increase from 2017-18 then a drop in 2019. https://softpower30.com/country/united-states/?country_years=2017,2018,2019

We still have high numbers in Education and Culture.  Of course the recent moves (and thankfully backtracking) of our governments banning all international students if colleges go online might impact this score next year, especially with the bans of Chinese students with connections to government and military. The researchers said that our current Administration “….has demonstrated little interest in soft power, multilateralism, or solving the major challenges facing the world”

I am going to add this index into my World Geography class.

 

[Rebecca Blankenship]

I live with a 13 year old BTS Army member.  The reading have been interesting to me as I never really thouht of this a soft power, but after reading the articles I can see that I have been living this here at home. Three years ago my child fell in love with BTS.  Then she started watching Kdramas.  A picky eater she was willing to start trying different Korean food and as I love to cook was more than happy to dive down that hole with her.  Now as a family, we happily spend time watching Kdramas.  We just finished King Enternal, though our favorite was Memories of Alhambra. My daughter now has a Korean tutor twice a week and we have many Korean dishes that are a regular part of our line up.  Hmart is part of our monthly grocery shopping. Prior to her falling in love with Kpop Korea was not really on our radar.  So I see the power behind this Korean wave. 

I would argue that the Korean Wave has pushed into Young Adult literature as well in a really significant way.  Korean American authors are widely popular with my students: Jenny Han, Maureen Goo, Kat Cho, David Yoon and Mary H.K. Choi. These are authors my students love and read with abandon.  The popularity of Korean culture has made these novels even more appealing to students and it allows them to emerse themselves in the lives of Korean Americans in a way the build empathy and expose them to the lived experience that are very different from the predominatley white culture of the students I teach. I am not going to lie.  I have leveraged with love of Kdrama and Kpop with many of my students ( and child) to get them to read.  Like BTS is a gateway drug to Korean culture, I use Kpop to get kids reading. 

 I personally read a lot of YA. In part because YA is great and because as a MS teacher in order to get kids to love to read you need to be able to make recommendations.  I recently finished I'll be the One by Lyla Lee which is one of the best books I have read in a while.  It is the story of a 17 yo plus size Korean American girl from LA.  She tries out for a Kpop Idol TV contest.  The book is an awesome counter point to unrealistic beauty and size expectations seen in Kpop and Kdrama.  Glass skin and kimchi and kpop diets are a dangerous biproduct of hallyu with American teens.  This book was a wonder story of body positivity and being yourself.  

Here is a great article about the Korean Wave in YA literature. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/wave-korean-american-young-adult-novelists-korean-pop-culture-touchstone-n1021516

[Shane Markowitz]

Hello Tom, that's an interesting take on the Soft Power index - in addition to being an indicator of non-coercive influence of different countries, the ebb and flow also seems to represent and indicate changing levels of engagement by governments. Certainly one of the reasons that South Korea has not climbed higher is related to the country's insular history and exclusion of immigrants as discussed in this New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/magazine/south-koreas-most-dangerous-enemy-demographics.html

If the country had welcomed more international immigrants in the past, it isn't difficult to envision a process in which Korean ideas, goods, and products would have become more widely disseminated around the world back into the home countries of foreign residents. Now with the Korean Wave and increasing engagement between Korean youth and other societies, perhaps the country will will become more inclusive though? This could certainly augment the diffusion effect - not to mention address related to demography.

[Shane Markowitz]

The live discussion was stimulating and brought forward a number of topics that could be explored with students. I could especially imagine doing an activity in World Geography related to what Professor Dube suggested. This would involve dividing students into groups - each group could be assigned different Korean cultural outputs (e.g. dramas, videos, songs) and the task of developing a report based on these primary sources including the ideas and values expressed in them and what they tell us about the country.

In my International Relations elective, we also spend quite a bit of time on difference sources of influence (e.g. media, education, lobbying). Soft power would be a constructive addition and the South Korea case could illustrate it in a way that connects with students' current interests. 

[Jessica Ng]

It really is amazing how waves of musical imports hit young Americans through the decades, from the British Invasion of the 1960s to Balkan brass especially infecting people in big, coastal cities in the 2000s.

The section of the video about the Korean government's role in disseminating pop culture was fascinating, on top of the tidbits I had read about how these music groups are formed. Culture is one of those sticky things that I struggle with sometimes. Yes, elements of culture are always changing, evolving on their own or due to outside influences. Where is the line drawn, then, when it comes to governments not only wielding culture as a tool to promote tourism, but actively shaping and developing it? The South Korean govt isn't directly funding the musical groups (which are heavily manufactured and groomed for ma$$, global appeal), but they do curate and choose what to highlight and present to the world... so won't this influence artistic choices of those pursuing support? I don't mean to make it sound sinister, and of course, South Korea isn't the only country to have promoted itself in this way; I guess my concern as an amateur folklorist is with accuracy and a certain truthfulness in representing culture.

[Tom Mueller]

Your comment on fair compensation really peaked my interest especially after Dr. Jung-Kim's presentation.  I think it would be interesting to compare the compensation of K - pop stars and boy (and girl) American stars of the 90s in this country and also comparing to other music acts back in the 1950s, etc. Are there similarities between K – pop and American pop bands?  We have seen in this country bands fight for their musical publishing rights, etc. I did a quick search and found that many K – pop stars may not right their own music but some do produce it.  Companies in South Korea do not seem to want their artists to write their music.  It reminds me of The Monkees.  They sang other people’s songs on their TV show even though a couple of members did write songs.

 

[Emily Efland]

Jessica, your comment helped me think a little more deeply about the difference between "soft power" (how a country can use/benefit from their privatized cultural output), and the economic incentives involved in any big music industry that wants to expand to become an international phenomenon. From the reading, it seemed to me that kpop found a lot of success internationally before the government thought about using it as a tool to influence people's perceptions of South Korea. Do you think this is a similar dynamic to American pop culture? It seems to me that Hollywood, American companies' advertising campaigns, and American pop music can all be thought of as advancing a "US American perspective," and obviously the US government benefits from the wide reach of American media, but really the primary stakeholders are the corporations (producers, movie theaters, record labels, etc.) that want to make money from the cultural production and seek to expand it to as wide an audience as possible. Whenever we talk about globalization, there are both incentives -- governments want to expand their power, and corporations want to make money off of it.

I'm curious whether you think pop music (from any country) is less authentic because it's designed for mass appeal. I'm conflicted -- I see why we would expect musicians to write their own music, but it seems like if the music does appeal to a lot of people, it's obviously speaking to something more universal in how humans connect to music.

[Maria Cardenas]

I watched a Korean Drama with my sisters and I liked the main actress. So I researched about what else she had done and I started watching the show X-Man and I was always laughing. Then I found out about TVXQ and I got into k-pop and k-dramas. My twin sister and I decided to go study abroad to Korea in the summer of 2012. I am not a big fan like I was before but I still enjoy listening to k-pop, watching k-dramas, eating korean food and attending some concerts. 

As a middle school teacher I have made connections with some of my students with k-pop. Girl students like BTS and will recommend songs to me or we would talk about who was their favorite. My students like the music most of them do not watch korean dramas. I have noticed that some of my students that like k-pop are the ones that depend manily on themselves and do not hang out with friends. Sometimes people become friends because they realize that they like kpop and they start talking. So I like kpop because I know that it allows people to connect. 

[Rebecca Blankenship]

I teach a Women's Studies elective and I was aware of the impact of Korean beauty standards on US ideals of beauty.  In addition, the Korean beauty's 10 step product heavy skin care regimes in which people spend 100s of dollars to look like they are not wearing any make up.  I was not aware of the Escape the Corset movement.  I am so fascinated by this.  I found this really wonderful article https://www.npr.org/2019/05/06/703749983/south-korean-women-escape-the-corset-and-reject-their-countrys-beauty-ideals#:~:text=by%20Jeon%20Bora.-,Having%20short%20hair%20and%20no%20makeup%20is%20a%20common%20symbol,and%20social%20pressure%20to%20conform.&text=The%20women%20liken%20this%20pressure,%2C%20%22escape%20the%20corset.%22

It was interesting to me the link the article made between beauty standards and the patriarchy in Korea.  I think a comparision of this between the US and Korea would be so interesting to students. 

[Juana Evink]

Korean culture has been crossing boundaries for years now, referrred as the Korean Wave. The most representative aspect of Korean pop culture and soft power is K-pop, films, drama and food. I have known about K-pop for a while, it's cute, but I'm not a fan partly because I'm not a teen anymore. I found it specillay interesting how in the video and in the discussion today, it was mentioned that African-American music and culture has infleunce K-pop. That was shocking to me, I'm not familiar with the lirycs or the K-pop bands. In the video, Preofessor Kim mentions that K-pop is starting to speak up about how their artists are being infleunced by black culture. Also, how Netflix has played a huge role in the spread and popularity of Korean dramas. I can say that I'm now a fan of Korean drama, I loved Crash Landing on You. I started watching to fullfill a requirement for the clas, and ended up love it.

Another thing that I found interesting in today's discussion was how Korea promotes soft power through K-pop, promoting their food as healthy, and dramas. Yet, it's still really difficult for foreigners to obtain a green card or become naturalize. I would image they would welcome people who wan to be Koreans citizens.

[Ray Clark]

Cheryl, 

I appreciate your remarks on this topic and in the Zoom discussion today.  When I was working on my first job for one of the giant Chaboel (Korean mega-corporations), one executive in his mid-50s came up to me when he found out that I was the consultant, and not an assistant.  I was in my late 20s at the time, and  I will never forget what he said.  "How can you tell us anything?  You are not Asian, you are Westerner, and you are not even White!  You are too young.  The only two things that you have [going for me] are that you are a man, and you are tall"!  I must admit, I was shocked, since I was fairly new to Korea, but fortunately I had 2 secret weapons that he didn't know about:  I grew  up as a Spanish-speaking Brown-skinned child in small Central European towns, so since kindergarten I was used to being around people who didn't speak the language used at home, or looking like me.  The second weapon is that I had started learning Korean, even before I arrived, after I found out that I would be moving to Korea. I didn't know a lot by that time, but even all these years later, Koreans are often amazed at my accent.  When I started my presentation, I greeted everyone in virtually flawless Korean!  (And I was very prepared (thankfully), for my presentation.  That same guy came up after, and said "I didn't know you were a genius". I, along with the others gathered around laughed, but the apology I was hoping for never came.  On the other hand, I got many lucrative job offers after that.  Not that it excuses the overt racism, sexism, etc., but honestly, this is part of the legacy of  global imperialism, and is  a much larger problem than only Korea.  Plus, in my experience, even in large hotels, on more than one occasion when I accompanied friends from places such as Hong Kong or Japan, even though I spoke in Korean,  the clerk would turn to the Asian person (non-Korean speaking) as I would  smile and wait.  Hopefully this has evolved a  bit.  On the other hand, we have to remember that historically S. Korea has developed more in the last 30 years than in at least the previous century.  Deeply held beliefs and attitudes are among the hardest & last things to change, hence well-educated "Karens" still calling the police on birdwatchers in public parks, & faking attacks in the "melting pot" of the US.

[Natalie Lau-Chien]

Watching the videos and reading about hallyu reminded me a lot of my mother, who I guess would be what is called an "ajumma", middle aged woman (she's in her mid 60s), who is a big K-drama and K-pop fan.  Her ethnic background is Chinese (she is a 4th+ generation in Hawaii); however, she has been a huge fan of of K-pop and K-dramas at least since I left for college.  Perhaps this was her way of finding her own interests once she became an empty nester.  Her interest has definitely followed the patterns of the Hallyu stratification circles.  First, she was interested in the K-dramas--I remember watching Winter Sonata with her in a hotel room for days during the week that my sister got married.  Then she got into K-pop, especially because some (or many?) of the actors are also singers.  She also watches Korean films, uses Korean makeup, learned how to make kimchi and other Korean foods (although eating and cooking Korean food is not unusual in Hawaii, where there are many people of Asian descent).  She also took Korean language classes with her K-drama fan club friends, and at one point wanted to go to Korea to see Jeju Island.  She has even flown to CA to see Rainn in concert and my dad made her a custom calendar with her favorite K-drama "hunks"!  It's interesting how K-dramas have attracted many fans internationally, including middle aged women.  It's incredible how Korean media, technology, food, and music has been globalized.  

In her videos, Dr. Jung-Kim talks about soft power and the diplomacy efforts that the South Korean government has made to spread knowledge of South Korea's culture, language, products, etc. to the world.  As I asked on the call today, I am curious to what extent other countries carry out similar efforts to promote their own countries abroad.  Some have mentioned how Israel does birthrite journeys and I mentioned how Taiwan had the "Loveboat" program in the past (officially known as "Overseas Study Tour to the People's Republic of China"), which invites overseas Chinese around the world to come to Taiwan for 6 weeks to learn the language and culture of Taiwan.  Does the USA actively promote our country abroad through similar programs?  

 

 

[Juana Evink]

The readings for today, discussed soft power what it is and what Hallyu encompass. In the reading by Nye and Kim, they mentioned that soft power is attracting  people to make them want what you want, not by force or economic power. Soft power, to me is the spread of Korean culture around the world through K-pop, dramas, and more. They state that soft power has three mian aspects like attractive culture, political values, and foreign policies. Also, how Koreans should take advantage of soft power around the worls. This idea of soft power might be a little difficult for younger students to understand, but not impossible.

 

In the second reading, Hallyu versus Hally-hwa, the author tries to explain what it is. It seems to me that Hallyu is anything that represents Korean culture like music, dramas, food, and language. One thing that I found interesting, is that K-pop and dramas have definitely motivated fans around the wolrd to learn more about Korea like the language. I'm not clear what the main difference is between Hallyu and Hally-hwa is, so if anyone knows, please let me know. I will read it again.

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