[Namsan Stroll] The Splendor of K-Culture and the Humble Reality Behind It

Absence of Tradition Amid the Global Rise of K-Culture
The Need for Attention and Investment to Strengthen National Pride

In recent years, the rise of K-culture has been nothing short of remarkable. The fervor that began with K-pop has expanded to K-films and K-dramas, and last year, novelist Han Kang’s Nobel Prize in Literature fueled hopes that K-culture is now entering the core of global culture. This year, the original Korean musical "Maybe Happy Ending" (written and lyrics by Park Chunhyo, composed by Will Aronson) not only won the Tony Award for Best Musical in the United States, but the animated film "K-Pop Demon Hunters," centered around K-pop, is also generating significant buzz. What is the true source of strength for our country, which is small both in land area and population? The answer that quickly comes to mind is the individual talent passed down through excellent DNA and the unique perseverance of the Korean people.

Last summer, I had the rare opportunity to visit the north-central region of the United States. Unlike my first study abroad experience in 1983, when I was intimidated by my small stature and awkward English, this time I was able to handle everything with composure and confidence. During my trip, I took a short break in Rochester, New York, to visit the Memorial Art Gallery. Without any particular expectations, I found that the museum offered a panoramic exhibition spanning from ancient to modern times, and from Africa to the cultures of the Far East, as well as the indigenous peoples of North and South America, encompassing art from across time and space.

In the lively museum, bustling with groups of children on vacation, I was able to appreciate an exhibition that presented a broad and open perspective on "the other," encompassing various times and spaces beyond contemporary American society. Just as I was about to leave the museum, a small space in a gallery near the exit caught my eye. A small sign at the entrance displayed the name of Japanese video artist Hiraki Sawa and the exhibition title "/home." The single-channel video showed small airplanes and groups of planes flying freely through the spaces of the artist’s childhood home, a warm and sentimental piece. As I left that section, which belonged to the museum’s East Asian gallery, I took a closer look and realized that the gallery was filled exclusively with artifacts from China and Japan?there was not a single Korean artifact on display!

It was a moment when my sense of national pride, which had remained strong throughout the trip, was suddenly deflated. Two of my nephews live in Rochester, both married to American women. The elder nephew now has a son who just turned seven months old. During this visit, I had just delivered the request to have the baby’s name entered in the family registry, to carry on the family line. If our child, whose name is now proudly recorded in the Korean family registry, were to visit this museum as he grows up, what would he think upon finding that Korea is entirely absent from the East Asian gallery, despite being his ancestral homeland? Beneath the dazzling spotlight on K-culture in the global cultural scene, I was weighed down by the realization that we still have a long way to go in building our cultural pride. Isn’t it essential to have diverse, meticulous interest, investment, and promotional strategies for pure culture and the elegant, exhilarating traditional culture with a long history, so that they may become the deep wellspring beneath the surface of popular culture that showers the world like a summer rain?

Lee Hwawon (President of the Korean Theatre Critics Association, Director of the Center for Borderless Arts)