Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Field Note
“Just days before the Japanese tsunami in
2011, I walked out of the enormous Lotte
department store in Seoul, South Korea and
asked a local where to fi nd a marketplace
with handcrafted goods. She pointed me in
the direction of the Insa-dong traditional
market street. When I noticed a Starbucks'
sign written in Korean instead of English,
I knew I must be getting close to the tradi-
tional market. A block later, I arrived on Insa-
dong. I found quaint tea shops and boutiques
with hand crafted goods, but the market still
sold plenty of bulk made goods, including
souvenirs like Korean drums, chopsticks, and
items sporting Hallyu stars. Posters, mugs,
and even socks adorned with the faces of
members of Super Junior smiled at the shop-
pers along Insa-dong.”
Figure 4.21
Seoul, South Korea.
©Erin H. Fouberg.
language classes, traveling and studying abroad in South
Korea, and adopting South Korean fashions.
A 2009 article in
Tourism Geographies
describes the
diffusion and proliferation of Hallyu in Asia:
benefi ted the French Hip Hop industry. By performing in
French, the new artists received quite a bit of air time on
French radio. Through policies and funding, the French
government has helped maintain its cultural industries,
but in countless other cases, governments and cultural
institutions lack the means or the will to promote local
cultural productions.
Concern over the loss of local distinctiveness and
identity is not limited to particular cultural or socio-
economic settings. We fi nd such concern among the
dominant societies of wealthier countries, where it is
refl ected in everything from the rise of religious funda-
mentalism to the establishment of semiautonomous
communes in remote locations. We fi nd this concern
among minorities (and their supporters) in wealthier
countries, where it can be seen in efforts to promote
local languages, religions, and customs by constructing
barriers to the infl ux of cultural infl uences from the
dominant society. We fi nd it among political elites in
poorer countries seeking to promote a nationalist ide-
ology that is explicitly opposed to cultural globaliza-
tion. And we fi nd it among social and ethnic minorities
in poorer countries that seek greater autonomy from
regimes promoting acculturation or assimilation to a
single national cultural norm.
Geographers realize that local cultures will inter-
pret, choose, and reshape the infl ux of popular culture.
Having fi rst penetrated the Chinese mainland, the
Korean cultural phenomenon of Hallyu, in particu-
lar Korean television, has spread throughout the East
and South-east of Asia, including Japan, Hong Kong,
Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam,
Philippines and later even to the Middle East and East
Europe. The infatuation with Korean popular culture
and celebrities has not stopped at popular media consump-
tion but has also led to more general interest in popular
music, computer games, Korean language, food, fashion,
make-up and appearance, and even plastic surgery.
When popular culture displaces or replaces local culture,
it will usually be met with resistance. In response to an
infl ux of American and British fi lms, the French govern-
ment heavily subsidizes its domestic fi lm industry. French
television stations, for example, must turn over 3 percent
of their revenues to the French cinema. The French gov-
ernment also stemmed the tide of American and British
music on the radio by setting a policy in the 1990s requir-
ing 40 percent of on-air time to be in French. Of the 40
percent, half must be new artists. These policies directly
