Korean Wave Being South Korea’s Economic Growth Booster Essay

Korean Wave is the growing aspiration to know more about South Korean culture. South Korea itself is an export-orientated country with a total trade volume of 884.2 billion in 2010, which makes South Korea the 7th largest exporter and 10th largest importer in the world. The cultural sector is the second biggest contributor after technological sector to the South Korea’s economic growth. The goods produced by the cultural sector are brought by the Korean Wave not only to the Asian but also to the American and Western markets. Korean Wave does give big contribution to South Korean’s economy through movies, pop music, tourism, and traditional arts. When we think of Korean Wave, we should mainly think of Korean drama and film industries. For example, the Korean wave took an extra boost with the popular TV dramas like â€Å"Winter Sonata† and â€Å"Jewel Palace†. For film, we can take â€Å"Old Boy† and â€Å"Bin Jip† as examples, which were extremely popular, even in Europe. The fact that importing a Korean dramas is a lot cheaper than having to purchase it from any other country can be a reason as well as the emotionally powerful plots they have. Besides Korean movies, Korean pop music also deserves a place on the list of exported Korean culture. K-Pop or Korean Pop is a musical genre originating in South Korea consisting of pop, dance, electropop, hip hop, rock, R&B, and electronic music. Let’s say Super Junior, 2NE1, SNSD, Wonder Girls, Big Bang, 2PM, JYP, IU, and many more, who does not know them? In 2011, these groups and singers have donated 35 trillion rupiah to South Korea’s GDP. These idols have a big impact on their fans’ culture, including food, fashion, make-up trends, and even plastic surgery. Leading talent agencies such as S.M. Entertainment Co. and YG Entertainment said recent concerts held by Korean entertainers in the United States and Europe have shown the potential for growth in markets outside of Asia. Korean big business is trying to transform those fans into consumers of Korean products and services. Korean Wave is exposing the â€Å"beauty attracts† that both of their celebrities and the places used by their popular movies have. The locations of the Korean movies took place has become a main destination for tourists. These tourists are mostly the fans who are willing to collect all their savings and travel to Korea just to see the place where their favorite scene in their movie took place, or even to watch their idols on a live show. The filming location of †Full House† in Shido Island, â€Å"Jewel in the Palace† in Daejanggeum Theme Park, Winter Sonata in Nami Island, and so on. Another tourism spots that people aim to visit in Korea are â€Å"Locks of Love† in Namsan Tower, a historic pagoda-style gateway Namdaemun, and another shopping places like Myeong-dong shopping area and Busan market. South Korea is also well-known as a hot spot for medical tourism, the country is expanding its one-stop plastic surgery centers to deal with the influx of foreigners flying in for surgical procedures. The government’s goal is to attract one million foreign patients by 2020. Thus, interest in flying to Korea is rising, so is the national income. There are also some Korean traditional arts that interest foreigners to visit Korea. They are like Hanok, Jeongjae, Buchaechum, Nongok, and Taepyeongmu. Hanok is Korean traditional house, whereas Jeongjae , Buchaechum, Nongok, and Taepyeongmu are Korean tradional dances. And don’t forget the Korean ceramics and Korean pottery, that most of them are went to Japan The road to Korean Wave is trodden everyday by new visitors who are warmly welcomed by Korean people and fascinated by the culture. The drive to know more about Korea stimulates Korean Wave to develop into more sophisticated cultural forms, which in turn, brings Korean Wave to a higher level. With this Korean Wave showing the advanced condition of South Korea itself, another countries’ awareness to invest in South Korea increases.