Welcome to the course

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the ‘K-Culture Studies’ course! It’s Ji-hyeon Kim and I am the lead educator for this course. 

What do we learn in this course?

‘K-Culture’ is a neologism referring to the sweeping wave of South Korean popular culture. The term was coined in the late 1990s, when various elements of Korean pop culture – from drama, to films, music, fashion, food, comics and novels all began to spread, first into other Asian countries, and then further afield. What is the secret ingredient of K-Culture? What is historical and cultural backdrop against which K-Culture began to be consumed?

This course designed to provide a background to the diverse cultural and historical context that shaped the K-Culture movement, as well as offering analysis of the various trends and phenomena crucial to South Korean popular culture today, through in-depth case studies, weekly set readings, and at times, in-class screenings of relevant films and/or documentaries.

Each week, introduce various topics about South Korea’s cultural transformation along the references on the global phenomena of the so-called ‘K-Culture’, ‘Korean Wave’ or ‘Hallyu’ and the ‘digitising’ cases in South Korea’s cultural industries under the aegis of the government’s neo-liberal economy policy, called the “Creative Korea”. It further aims to find resonance between such macro-level development and a more nuanced changes in everyday digital culture and media, and how they feed into the currently rising global popularity of South Korean cultural contents (e.g., film, TV drama, K-pop, Webtoon, Mukbang, etc.).

It also aims to discuss various topics and issues alongside, e.g., from the representations of class, gender in mass media, the debates on nationalism and multiculturalism on social media, to the platformisation of cultural production and its impact on creative and digital labour in South Korea in IT and creative industry sectors.

Meet the team

Let me introduce our team. Throughout the course, our team of mentors will facilitate the conversation in each step.

• Woo-been
• 추후수정 (Mentor)

You can follow each team member by clicking the links attached to their names. This will help you to find their comments more easily.

Introduce yourself!

This course is designed for anyone who wants to know more about the diverse cultural and historical context that shaped the sweeping wave of South Korean popular culture.

We understand that learning Korean culture might be an unfamiliar and difficult experience, but try to free yourself from the pressure and have fun. Now we also want to hear from you. Join the conversation by sharing your response to the following questions.

• Have you had any previous exposure to or experience with Korean culture?
• If so, could you share about that experience?
• What sparked your interest in Korean culture and what do you hope to gain from taking this course?
• What are you most looking forward to gaining from taking this course?