Part VI of the Special Series for Global Power and Leadership: a collaboration between WGI.WORLD (World Geostrategic Insights) and CGPS (Center for Global Peace and Security).
By Sunny Lee – Founder and President at CGPS (Center for Global Peace and Security), and Director at IKUPD (Institute for Korea-U.S. Political Development), Washington DC.
Kim Koo, a Korean political leader and independence activist in the Japanese colonial period from 1910 to 1945, foresaw a miraculous potential: the cultural power of Korea, with an outstanding quality, will lead the world to make cosmopolitans happy. He regarded cultural power as the most beautiful element compared to economic or military power because it fundamentally leverages human society for mental happiness and enjoyment. His confident prophecy has been fulfilled just after half a century, when the world has been frantically fascinated by Korean culture as a global phenomenon, crossing Asia, America, Europe, Oceania and Africa, from East to West.
According to Foreign Affairs’ analysis, Korean cultural exports, including computer games, concerts and cosmetics, reached $12.3 billion in 2019, up from $189 million in 1998. A few years later, sales of South Korea’s cultural industries for the first half of 2023 surprisingly totaled $52.8 billion, with the music and film industries growing rapidly. On July 14, 2024, Bloomberg reported TikTok and Kantar’s forecast of global spending on Korean cultural products nearly doubling to $200 billion by 2030. The UK Times published an extraordinary article, “Hallyu! How is Korean Culture Conquering the World?”, describing a multibillion-dollar industry that sees bands like BTS and Blackpink rapidly selling out in the United States, the United Kingdom and international stadiums in many countries in the blink of an eye. BTS is the only legend after the Beatles in international music sales, generating $6 billion a year in economic activity, with an estimated 7 percent of tourists to Korea just because of the group.
Currently, the major cultural powers, with an absolute worldwide influence, are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. But Korea has been considered as the uprising dark horse which can vividly beat up all of them with attractive potential and prospective future. For example, Korean drama, ‘Squid Game’ took the first place in the global chart of Netflix in 2021 and Korean movie, ‘Parasite’ was awarded in Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Awards and simultaneously, in many other prestigious film festivals with box office revenue $257,552,150.
In the first half of 2024, Korean dramas in Netflix took the highest rank from 1st to 12th except 8th of the UK. While watching K-dramas or movies on Samsung TV, eating K-food, driving Hyundai cars, and listening to K-pop through Samsung smartphones, people passionately experience that K-culture and brand penetrate every part of daily life. K-culture is turning into a worldwide syndrome and its influential power is undoubtedly enforcing the national competitiveness of Korea itself.
Nonetheless, the United States still holds a supernatural cultural power in the global market with humongous commercial success. Top 50 movies in box office revenue with $2,923,706,026-$1,009,046,830 from 2001 – 2023 are all belonging to the United States. Such a super-dominant cultural power will never wither because of its size based on quality and quantity. Pop culture of the United States has been characterized by Hollywood movies, pop music, coca cola, and jean as American icons that most people in communist countries were excited about even in the Cold War period. Such a powerful influence that the U.S. would spread over the world beyond ideological boundaries might be a trigger to collapse communist bloc as dreaming of a free and happy world.
Core Aspect of Soft Power
In the late 1980s, Harvard Professor Joseph Nye invented the concept of “soft power” in political terminology, which can influence or change other countries more than hard power, such as military or economic power. The concept encompasses three important factors: culture, domestic value and diplomatic policy, with culture being considered the top priority. The author gives the historical example of the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989, not by gunfire but by people holding a hammer, addicted to Western culture crossing the Iron Curtain.
As a contemporary model of successful cultural power, Nye admires Korea predicting its prominent future based on military and economic superiority, while focusing on smart power in combination with the strategy of soft power and hard power. In particular, he compares Korea’s cultural power with that of China, which spends $10 billion a year without fruitful results, irritating Xi Jinping’s “Chinese dream.” But Korea stimulates itself with cultural competence based on creative energy and original inspiration from a long historical past in various fields.
Now, Korea is following up Germany’s case in the process of Korean Reunification. Most of the North Korean people are already captivated by K-culture and willing to demolish DMZ in near future to meet members of BTS or Blackpink face-to-face. It was so impressive when President Biden denounced hate crimes against Asian-Americans since COVID-19, alongside members of BTS with colossal scale of Army fans to take up social justice causes through global influence. Such a soft power effectively goes through the global society to encourage human dignity and value beyond political purpose or legal reaction.
As the best case of soft power, Germany willingly opened its border to accept over one million refugees from Syria during the maximum refugee crisis in 2015. Such a humanitarian behavior largely leveraged Germany’s soft power that the global society considered it as a merciful and responsible country. The New York Times proudly reported that Syrian refugee Ryyan Alshebl was elected as a young mayor of Ostelsheim in early April 2023, at the age of 29. He won over a conservative German town with multicultural identity after an influx of refugees in 2015. People in the world became so touched while listening to his successful story and really appreciated Germany’s refugee policy.
Moreover, Germany has continuously apologized, with full reparations, for the inhumane crimes it brutally conducted during World War II. Germany’s responsible and sincere attitude increased national credit and fostered the rapid recovery of a devastated country. It was a true soft power of Germany, whom global society welcomed back as a leading country with moral standards and humanistic values. This means that Germany understood soft power well with the background of cultural power, strengthening national identity.
In contrast, communist countries do not recognize the importance of cultural power, which could be much easier to wield than government pamphlets for propaganda or instigation. Communists regard people essentially as workers. As the worst case, China destroyed its culture during the “Cultural Revolution” from 1966 to 1976. Violence and chaos swept through the entire Chinese society, leading mostly to an inhumane massacre with two million deaths. The “Red Guards,” composed of young people, demolished the “Four Olds” of ideas, culture, customs and traditions. They madly destroyed historical artifacts, cultural and religious sites and brutally massacred the elites or leaders who represented the “Four Olds.”
China managed to become the world’s second largest economy, but eventually realized that it no longer owned its cultural assets. In 2016, China banned Korean culture in retaliation to the U.S. deployment of THAAD in Korea. However, the Chinese were already addicted to Korean culture. The Chinese government often insists that Korea is part of Chinese history, that famous Korean heroes were born in China, and that Hanbok and Kimchi are part of Chinese culture, even though no one believes it.
Major Cultural Power Country
US News & World Report lists major countries with cultural influence as part of Best Countries rankings in 2024: Italy, France, the U.S., the UK, and South Korea. Culturally significant influence means a country’s cultural power in terms of mainly entertainment and fashion with modern, prestigious and trendy aspect. At this point, Italy absolutely takes a top spot comprising half part of cultural assets in the world with 55 listed at UNESCO. As well, Itay is the first leading country in fashion, with national brands such as Gucci, Prada, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, and Valentino sweeping the global fashion market.
Nonetheless, music, television dramas, and movies broadly absorbed by other cultures are becoming a major part of much wider global influence. The United States is the world’s most dominant economic and military power and likewise, its cultural dominance fully encompasses the world with its popular culture in the field of specially movie and music. American popular culture has remained preeminent. It’s not only the creativity that attracts people, but also its business scale with unbreakable success.
There is a plausible anecdote from Stalin, “If I could control American movies, I would need nothing else to convert the entire world to communism.” Communist leaders have long been envious of Hollywood’s extraordinary stories which speak to the entire planet with strong influence in favor. They might give up communism by ending the Cold War, excitedly watching ‘Die Hard’ or ‘Back To The Future’ while eating popcorn. They would dream of becoming an American hero just like Superman or Batman flying over communist block to save the world.
However, a little different scenario comes across Italy and the U.S. in cultural influence. The United States mainly focuses on its influence of cultural power in modern pop industries with a huge scale of entertainment in the global market based on commercial entrepreneurship. It is absolutely the top first country exporting cultural contents as the contemporary global center of pop culture. On the contrary, Itay has explored more traditional cultural power with a long history which used to conquer the world by spreading Rome culture for a long time. Italy is famous for classical music different from pop music but its long-run fashion and cuisine penetrate the world with superior influence, directly involved in human life.
Nonetheless, commercial success of the U.S. signifies how the global society gets used to American cultural influence. The United States Media and Entertainment industry takes $649 billion of the $2.8 trillion global market and is projected to reach $808 billion by 2028 at a yearly rate of 4.3% as the largest country. The M&E industry has been recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, reporting global revenue such as music performances 26%, cinema box office 30.4% and live events 38.6% with the net increase in the M&E spending in 2023.
There is another superhero James Bond in 007 movies in the UK as the cultural leader right after the United States and its cultural industry is the top second in the global market. The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Elton Jones, Led Zeppelin, and Erick Clapton are global legends that no one exists without listening to their songs in the world. The UK keeps a superpower position in literature, rock music and performance culture. ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Harry Potter’ enthralled the world in novels as well as movies with incredible success. France also boasts Louis Vuitton, Channel, Dior and Givenchy as the top fashion brand to dominate the world. Paris has been the hub of international culture and art, always ranked as the first favorable city, where people want to visit and enthusiastically experience the cultural environment.
Korean wave (K-wave, Hallyu) covers most fields of cultural aspects: K-pop music, movie, drama, beauty, food, Hanbok (Korean custom), and even language. K-content and its brand value encourage cultural adventures to become a superpower. India selected Korean as the second language in school education after dropping off Chinese and many competitive universities in the world are installing Korean majors. The KOCIS International Survey related to the positive national image of Korea shows 80.5%, which predicts potential cultural power.
Worldwide Influence and Its Vision in Cultural Syndrome
The global society has a right to enjoy and share cultural excitement beyond national system or ideological boundary from the East to the West. Cultural influence is directly connected to daily human life toward communal happiness and amusement. No matter what country or race, people are excited to enjoy human life together through fantastic moments as cosmopolitans. As a result, the pop industry has been a lucrative business with a giant scale of revenue and its influence in the world market brings out cultural syndrome.
However, music itself transcending commercial schemes makes people really happy and joyful through emotional empathy on what they think, feel, imagine, and understand. Such solidarity propels human society toward the same goal of communal happiness and equal value. No matter different languages, people experience and share the same feeling through popular songs. In addition, food directly influences human life to survive and a culture of well-being produced by variable types of cuisine upgrades general healthy life.
First, it is the entertainment representative of movies and television dramas. 2023 box office revenue of Hollywood movies is $10 billion and the total international box office market is $35,970 million. The first half list of 2024 also shows all Hollywood movies from 1st to 30th except a few Chinese and Korean movies. Surprisingly, Korea’s revenue is $1,240 million, ranking 4th. The United States in Netflix also takes the top spot in most-watched and best dramas ranking with the biggest number and Korea follows up next.
Second, it is fashion and related business. London, Milano, Paris, and New York stand for fashion capitals of the world as leading and creating new trends. They open ‘the Big Four Fashion Weeks,’ fashion industry event where fashion designers or brands display their latest collections in runway fashion shows for buyers, the media, and fashion entrepreneurs from the worldwide place. It influences upcoming fashion trends for the current as well as approaching seasons to take a priority in the world fashion market. Actually, Italy, France, the U.S., and the UK lead the mainstream of world fashion.
Third, it is music. Michael Jackson is called ‘the King of Pop’ and a symbol of pop culture going through the 20th – 21st century. He explored multilateral visual complexes with a renovative style of music, dance, fashion, and performance, which invigorated the pop music industry in the United States. He was recorded in a Guness book as the best artist with the most awards as well as the most successful artist in history. After Michael Jackson, the United States became the first place of pop music to take over the rock market of the UK.
According to the 2023 Year-End Report, released by Luminate Data, music streaming broke through one billion views in three months, and English, Spanish, Hindi, and Korean songs became ‘the Top Four.’ So far, 6 albums among top 10 sales in Billboard 200 and 6 songs in Billboard Hot 100 belong to BTS of K-pop, the biggest number since Michael Jackson, who strived to abolish race discrimination and stimulated human rights of colored people with his numerous songs and BTS, also taking a leading role related to global issues by different music activities.
Fourth, it is food. World’s most popular food includes spaghetti and pizza from Italy and hamburgers from the United States. Kimchi of Korea is also getting fast attention from worldwide people as a well-being food. ‘2024 Seoul World City Culture Festival’ opened in Seoul on May 24 – 26 as a global event celebrating diverse cultures under the theme ‘Seoul and the World Together through Culture.’ 70 countries from the world took part in variable programs such as world traditional costume parade, cultural performance stage, promotion of world city tourism and world food zone. The K-food bar was the most crowded and popular, where people were excited to experience Korean cuisine.
There is an interesting clue on why K-food gets worldwide attention and becomes so popular as a live syndrome. Korean culture emphasizes food as a source of nourishment and healing like medicine so that Korean cuisine is generally healthy. Traditional Korean meals mostly incorporate many health-promoting ingredients such as fermented foods. For example, fermented Kimchi produces variable nutrition with high quality including Vitamins that people need daily for a healthy life.
Global Leadership and Cultural Power
Original purpose of cultural power is to bring human society happiness and amusement that everyone in the world can enjoy and experience equally. The world has advanced toward development and glorification that cultural power leads and influences human society. Cultural power countries signify relatively strong competitiveness in both ways of soft power and hard power. The U.S., the UK, France, and Itay take a top spot in cultural power ranking based on military and economy and Korea is a potential country with K-culture as a worldwide syndrome.
Ironically, although Russia and China occupy a prominent military and economic position, their cultural power is not relevant in global society. On the contrary, they cede cultural dominance to the culturally powerful countries. At this point, cultural power might be a better priority than economic or military power because it slowly penetrates human life and people are overwhelmed by it without intention or purpose. If North Korea collapses because of Culture K, it may be the best way not to spend large sums on the unification process.
Therefore, cultural power requires global leadership to advance human society which can reconstruct the power system as a critical element to leverage national competitiveness. Global superpower means culturally influential power with future vision in the concept of positive direction with cultural leadership. The United States, the UK, France, and Italy will expand cultural power continuously and their position as a leading country will be reinforced because they focus on developing wealthy and healthy human life. As well, the world is vividly watching Korea’s cultural potential leading to a worldwide syndrome, which glorifies general human happiness and value in variable fields.
Sunny Lee – Founder and President at CGPS (Center for Global Peace and Security), and Director at IKUPD (Institute for Korea-U.S. Political Development), Washington DC. Sunny Lee is the author of 115 academic books in politics (original English and in German, French, Russian, Polish, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese). She is a bestseller writer not only in politics but also in literature on Amazon. Her recent book is titled: “The Influence on Humankind’s Peace through Korean Reunification: Creating new paradigm in social science by interdisciplinary research.”
(The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of World Geostrategic Insights).