Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
India, and South Korea exert the greatest infl uence on
popular culture at present. Each region acts as a major
hearth for certain aspects of popular culture. North
America infl uences are mainly in movies, television,
music, sports, and fast food. Japan's infl uences are primar-
ily in children's television programs, electronic games,
and new entertainment technologies. Western Europe's
infl uences are in fashion, television, art, and philosophy.
South Korea's infl uences are in television dramas, movies,
and popular music, and India's infl uence on popular cul-
ture is mainly in movies.
The rapid diffusion of popular culture can cause
consumers to lose track of the hearth of a good or idea.
For example, Americans may think of the Nintendo Wii
as an American product because of its popularity through-
out the country. The Nintendo Wii, like most video game
consoles and games, was created in Japan. Japanese video
designer Shigeru Miyamoto, who also created Donkey
Kong, Mario Brothers, and the Legend of Zelda, led the
design of the interactive Wii for Nintendo.
Japan is known for its innovation in video games, and
neighboring South Korea has made a mark on popular
culture from television to popular music. In 1995, Chinese
television stations began broadcasting South Korean tele-
vision dramas. The South Korean dramas typically aired
late at night, often after midnight, but they quickly gained
a large following in China. The Chinese government
changed a law that restricted Korean content on television
to 15 percent of air time, and in response South Korean
popular television dramas took off in China. An entire
wave of South Korean popular culture, including televi-
sion shows movies, fashions, and music diffused through
China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Hallyu (also called
Hanryu) are waves of South Korean popular culture that
move quickly through Asia and have resulted in signifi -
cant growth in the South Korean entertainment and tour-
ism industries (Fig. 4.21).
Beginning with television dramas and movies,
Hallyu expanded to music in the early part of this cen-
tury. South Korean popular music, known as K-pop, has
followed the same path of diffusion. The Chinese gov-
ernment allowed Korean band H.O.T. to play in a sta-
dium in Beijing in 2002. Today, K-pop bands including
Super Junior (called SuJu) and Girls Generation, K-pop
recording artists including Rain and BoA, and Korean
movie stars, including Bae Yong Joon, have fans through-
out East Asia, Southeast Asia, and increasingly in the
Middle East.
Ironically, South Korea was quite protective of its
entertainment industry in the post-World War II era, for
fear that Japan, which formerly colonized South Korea,
would export its entertainment industry to South Korea
and overpower South Korea's entertainment industry.
Hallyu has diffused not only to China but also to Japan. In
turn, millions of Japanese and Chinese are taking Korean
Figure 4.20
Oakland, California.
Anderson Silva, arguably the world's
best mixed martial arts fi ghter, stands in the octagon follow-
ing the UFC Middleweight Championship bout against Chael
Sonnen in 2010.
© Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via
Getty Images.
and changing indigenous, local cultures. Western, demo-
cratic governments no longer have offi cial policies of assimi-
lation. Yet, for people in many local cultures and in regions
that are not hearths of popular culture, popular culture itself
can feel like a policy of assimilation.
Popular media such as music, television, and fi lm
from the United States and the United Kingdom diffuse
quickly. American and British products can now be seen
and heard around the world. If you turn on the television
in Harare, Zimbabwe, you can easily fi nd reruns of a
10-year-old American television show, or a contemporary
CNN broadcast. If you go to a cinema in Seoul, South
Korea, you can choose among several just released
American fi lms shown in English with Korean subtitles.
The infl uence of Europe, the United States, Japan,
and South Korea in global popular culture makes many
people feel threatened by cultural homogenization. At the
global scale, North America, western Europe, Japan,
