Introduction
Korea got rich really quickly. They dominate a lot entertainment sectors, the per capita income is high, technological prowess is superb, the people are hard working (perhaps to their own detriment).
I admire a significant part of the culture/country. Whatever they did from 1961 has been phenomenal and unprecedented in human history. China comes really close to that but they’ve yet to transition into a human rights loving country and a free non censored press.
But at the same time there are the fact that I hate koreaboos and koreans themselves are to put it politely, there is a tendency to have a superior complex or at worst, outright racism.
The Problem
The problem of koreaboos are twofold: they’re pathetic and they’re ruining their own country. It can’t be helped that they’re dumb. They know nothing outside the wave of entertainment and cultural products. I’m not throwing a shade on anyone here I’m just stating the facts. It bothers me that they don’t see the massive problems these East Asian countries are going through. No amount of stoicism or meditation has removed these cringe radar I have and it just keeps bothering me (I know right).
China has unemployment, 996, let it rot movement, debt and economic problems. Korea with the lowest birth rate in the world, inequality, shit work culture, gender inequality, competition culture, unhealthy beauty standards. Japan with their own birth rates problems, aging population, also shit work culture, the fact that they haven’t dealt with what happened during WWII, the whole loli thing, old creeps on the subway. Nothing is as perfect as it seems.
I know, I’m a nerd and I read a lot. But damn, I can’t understand why people are sleeping over this.
It’s hard to juggle all of these facts. I think a similar corollary (but not an obvious one) would be how some East Timorese thinks it was nice to be colonized by Indonesia or how a surprisingly huge number of Chinese Indonesians really love their country. It is very rare to see an Indonesian abroad who is not proud of their heritage. Which is insane, I would have never expected that. It’s like a stockholm syndrome.
The racism problem is to me actually very understandable. I would think the same (by implicit bias unconsciously) of people from South Asia, Middle East or African countries. Not in the racism by physical appearance but from the fact that their country is (perceived as) poor/dirty/unstable. I think it’s the same case for Korea. Young people won’t be racist by physique but by socio-economic status. Whereas old people would do both. This is compounded by the fact that Japan and Korea are both one language, one ethnicity countries. Very monogamous.
Weirdly enough, I have more admiration towards the United States. But I haven’t seen anyone who likes Hollywood or Olivia Rodriguez to the extent that K-Pop stans are willing to jump off a cliff for their idols. Certainly not on a massive scale. The whole cultural export of South Korea relies very heavily on parasocial relationship. It preys on 15 year old girls across the globe fantasizing on wattpad and spamming fancams on twitter. A definition from my trusty LLM friend Mixtral 8x22b-instruct:
A parasocial relationship is a type of psychological relationship experienced by an audience in their mediated encounters with performers in the mass media, particularly on television and on online platforms. In such relationships, audience members or viewers form a strong, one-sided emotional bond with a media persona, such as a celebrity, television personality, or online influencer.
These relationships are called “parasocial” because they are formed without the media persona’s direct interaction or knowledge of the audience member. The audience member may feel a sense of intimacy, familiarity, and even friendship with the media persona, despite the fact that the relationship is entirely one-sided.
The Truth (?)
I highly recommend this superb investigative article into the industry that’s behind K-Pop by Matt Lakeman titled “A Deep Dive into K-pop”. It’s long but worth your time.
It’s insane how anyone could actually support an industry like this. Don’t get me wrong, the songs are good, the films and dramas are interesting; they went viral for a reason. But the industry is very exploitative. There is nowhere outside East Asia and especially Korea where an entire industry is structured and effectively industrialized into one giant factory pipeline to generate as much profit as possible. It’s insane.
There is also this absolutely mind numbing and disturbing phenomenon I noticed. How could someone, as a devout muslim genuinely like Korean boygroups? They drink alcohol, eat pork, most of them are genuine atheists. That’s your idol? Aren’t music supposed to be haram in your religion? Mind you, Southeast Asia is the biggest market in terms of consumers of Korean content and both Malaysia and Indonesia are majority muslim countries.
It’s funny how many Indonesian brands and platforms just decided to slap “KOREA” on anything. It’s no longer just chocolate milk, it’s KOREAN chocolate milk. It’s not just a shirt, it’s a KOREAN shirt. Korean food, drink, snacks, shoes, you name it. I know it’s just capitalism at work but geez you guys have no shame.
All of the Koreans I’ve talked to don’t consume mainstream K-Pop. They’re not even aware of the latest trend unless some idol were hit by a scandal or commited not living. It’s mainly a teenage thing. Once they get older they don’t really consume that kind of content. There are also so many Korean diaspora who experienced racism when they were young but now everyone wants to be their friend because of squid game or BTS or they want to practice their Korean with them.
A video by Not Even Emily, aini, Edvasian and others explained this mess very well:
Conclusion
I initially got interested in this whole mess purely because they got rich and industrialized very quickly and I have learned the language to fluency with the intricacies of the culture which I would argue grant me a deep understanding of how it ended up being like this. I know how this whole approach to exporting entertainment and culture is a direct byproduct of how Korea used an export-led development during their massive growth era. Everything is systematized and planned to the t. Yet it still shocks me.
Continuing the discussion on racism, I’m sure most people are kind, anywhere in the world. And even for those who commit atrocious things, they did that because they were possessed by bad ideas. We are the byproduct of prior causes after all.
So now I’m always appalled by anyone remotely taking interest in anything Korean. Someone saying “hello” or “thank you” in Korean or being interested in K-Pop or occasionally simping over a K-Drama and whatever the equivalent is in Japanese or Chinese.