By Reya Mehrotra
In June, British influencer Oli London (who identifies as non-binary and utilizes the pronouns they/them) underwent 18 surgeries to look like Jimin, a member of the well-known South Korean boy band BTS. In a video shared post the surgery, London mentioned they determine as Korean. “I identify as Korean… that’s just my culture, that’s my home country, that’s exactly how I look now.”
London’s case could be one of a type, but no one can dispute the raging recognition of South Korean pop culture today. The K-wave, which began some years back, has now spread about the world, captivating individuals across cultures. One of the earliest examples of the world becoming swept up by Korean culture was the 2012 song Gangnam Style by South Korean singer Park Jae-Sang, popularly recognized as Psy. As he hopped to the peppy beats with his wrists locked in front, the singer made the world groove with him. The song went on to grow to be the 1st music video ever on YouTube to attain a billion views. Gangnam Style became immensely well-known in India, also, with cricketer Virat Kohli performing the dance following India won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy tournament. Almost a decade later, India and the world are head more than heels in enjoy with not just Korea’s music, but also its films, Television shows, beauty, skincare, meals and a lot more. The most up-to-date Korean import to have charmed Indians are webtoons. A sort of digital comic, webtoons have seen a substantial surge in recognition with the launch of Korean digital comics platform Kross Komics in December 2019.
An animated life
The story of the origin of South Korean webtoons is an intriguing one. It all began in between 1910 and 1945 when Japanese culture infiltrated Korea as the latter occupied the former. With it, came the influence of manga (Japanese comics)—interestingly, manhwa, the common Korean term for comics and print cartoons, comes from the Chinese word manhua which means impromptu drawings. When Korea was beneath Japanese occupation, political cartoons became well-known in newspapers. Decades later, in the 2000s, manhwa got a digital makeover and came to be referred to as ‘webtoon’.
The most important distinction in between Japanese manga and Korean manhwa lies in how they are made, says Hyunwoo Thomas Kim, co-founder, president and CEO, Kross Komics, which caters to all age groups and presents webtoons across genres. “Japanese manga, originally made for paper-based reading, is usually black/white and reads horizontally, while Korean webtoons, made specifically for smartphones, read vertically and are full of colour… the main difference lies in the culture from where they originate. Also, Korean webtoons lean slightly more towards romance, fantasy stories, and cater to young females, while Japanese manga is wider in terms of genres and might lean slightly more towards the young male population,” Kim explains.
Indians, new to the notion of webtoon, are lapping it up. In its 1st year, Kross Komics witnessed a million downloads, tripling that quantity in the second year. What has also helped maybe is the desi makeover (altering character names to nearby ones) that Kross Komics gave some of its webtoons to make them more relatable ahead of getting into the Indian marketplace. “The culture and digital consumption preferences between the two countries are very similar. We do have a couple of webtoons that have Indianised graphics and characters,” shares Kim, adding that they program to open their platform to Indian artists to contribute in the future, and will also update their app for greater features later this month. There are other South Korean webtoon platforms too—like Daum Webtoon, Naver Webtoon and Kakao Webtoon—that are competing in the worldwide webtoon marketplace. Launched in 2014, Naver Webtoon remains the most significant such Korean platform, reaching millions of customers everyday. As per reports, in February, it invested 33.4 billion won in Content First, which operates Tappytoon, the second-biggest digital comics platform in the US, to obtain 25% of its shares.
Its rival Kakao Webtoon is not far behind either. In May, it bought US-based digital reading app Tapas and inked a $440-million deal with fiction app Radish. That’s not all. In May, it also launched in Thailand and Taiwan. Naver, on the other hand, claimed it was ahead of Kakao in each the nations. There are Korean internet portals as properly like Spottoon, Lezhin Comics and Toomics, which are translating webtoons for a bigger audience base.
Language no barrier
For Delhi-based analysis consultant Smritima D Lama, the enjoy for Korean culture began more than a decade ago in 2007-08 when her sister was studying in Darjeeling and would purchase and watch CDs of Korean dramas. Soon, she got her mother and sister hooked as properly. While her sister has taken coaching to study the language due to the fact she loves the culture so a lot, the rest of them can have an understanding of the fundamentals. The brevity of their shows (spanning about 12-16 episodes every) and straightforward availability today thanks to OTT platforms retain fans engaged, she says.
Watching the shows, Lama also identified herself obtaining fascinated with Korean meals, and today, they make well-known Korean dishes like tteok-bokki (stir-fried rice cakes), sundubu-jjigae (soft tofu stew), kimchi (salted and fermented vegetables) and cold noodles in soy milk routinely at home.
According to Hwang Il-Yong, director, Korean Cultural Centre India (KCCI), the Press and Culture Department of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in India, the Korean meals craze in the nation, inspired by K-dramas, began with kimchi. “We have noticed that Korean food has been localised and customised by Indians, so we can now find kimchi curry, kimchi pakora and chana dal tikki (inspired from gamja-jeon, or potato pancake),” shares Delhi-based Il-Yong. This has led to Korean restaurants popping up in metro cities and on the web delivery portals Zomato and Swiggy enhancing their attain to shoppers. South Korean noodles, in distinct, are performing superior enterprise on portals like BigBasket, Flipkart and Amazon—according to the ministry of commerce and business, the import statistics of Korean noodles in India witnessed a development of 162% in volume in 2020 and this is anticipated to develop by 178% in 2021.
Korean meals was one cause Lama jumped at the possibility of going to Korea in February 2020. Lama says she wanted to attempt out genuine Korean dishes to make certain what they have been creating at home was suitable. “My father had to attend a seminar in Korea for about 10 days, so I travelled with him a few days before and took time out to explore Korea,” she says. Post her go to, Lama also picked up bits of the Korean skincare regime. So crazy she is about almost everything Korean, in truth, that when her parents as soon as asked her to get married, she laughingly replied, “If I get someone from Korea, why not!”
Like Lama, several in the nation became fans of K-culture by way of their films and dramas, which came to India in the early 2000s, beginning from the north-east, says KCCI’s Hwang Il-Yong. Since then, there has been no seeking back. Heo Jun Television series aired on Doordarshan in 2014 and received 34 million views, when Descendants of The Sun received 56 million views on ZEE5 in 2017. Then, of course, there is the Oscar-winning film Parasite and Minari on Amazon Prime. MX Player and Zing, also, boast of effective K-dramas on their respective platforms. In a way, Korean films and dramas have broken the monopoly of American films and shows in the nation.
When it comes to K-drama, language is no barrier, specially with subtitles, says a Netflix spokesperson. “Stories made in Korea are watched by the world and it is exciting to see the growing love and fandom for Korean stories in India. With subtitles and dubs, the language barrier has lowered, and our members have discovered and enjoyed authentic K-content.” Compared to 2019, in truth, the viewing of K-content across Asia went up 4 occasions in 2020. Some of the most well-known titles have been Kingdom S2, The King: Eternal Monarch, Start-Up, It’s Okay to Not Be Okay and What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim. Sweet Home, a horror series, was watched by 22 million member households in its 1st 4 weeks on Netflix.
With the viewing of K-dramas on Netflix in India rising more than 370% in 2020 more than 2019, the platform this year has announced Korean stories across genres and formats. Apart from its partnerships with Korean producers, such as CJ ENM/Studio Dragon and JTBC, Netflix plans to invest practically $500 million to churn out more content from this portion of Asia.
Gangnam Style’s worldwide achievement was just a hint of the enormous K-wave that would take more than the world a handful of years later, believes Kross Komics’ Kim. Today, BTS, Girls’ Generation, EXO, Blackpink, Super Junior are some of the well-known music bands riding the K-pop curve. Audio streaming and media services platform Spotify shares that the streaming of K-pop on Spotify in India has been phenomenal ever because they launched in the nation and is predominantly led by BTS—when the band dropped its song Butter this year, there was a substantial uptick in engagement. Led by 15- to 24-year-olds, the streams are led by female listeners.
The horizon for Korean content widened exponentially following Parasite (2019) won the Oscar, says Il-Yong. In India, specially, demand for Korean language courses has been rising steeply, following the government’s announcement of the National Education Policy in July 2020—Korean is now one of the Indian government’s advised foreign languages. Jawahalal Nehru University, Delhi University and Jamia Milia Islamia have began Korean language courses and programmes. On Spotify, also, listeners are actively streaming podcasts like Learn Korean with David and Talk To Me In Korean: Core Korean Grammar.
KCCI, also, has also signed MoUs with various schools to provide Korean language coaching to students. Additionally, it is hosting an on the web photo exhibition to mark the 71st anniversary of the 1950 Korean War. Titled Korean War Special Exhibition—60 Para Field Ambulance, the exhibition, which runs till August 25, pays homage to the 60 Para Field Ambulance (which supplied healthcare help to the injured) and the joint efforts of Indian and Korean troops in the war.
Another current on the web occasion, ‘K-Insider Challenge, K Cinema & Drama’, organised by the KCCI for fans of Korean culture in India, had more than one million views on KCCI’s social networking channels. The centre shares that other events like ‘Kimchi Introduction’ had more than one million cumulative views of all posts by 132 participants, followed by the ‘K Beauty’ occasion that exceeded two million views with 419 participants—it talked about Korean beauty goods, Korean-style makeup and skincare strategies throughout the 12-day participation period. The ‘K Cinema & Drama’ occasion had 172 participants. The events have been held this year at various intervals beginning from January and ending on July 4.
Krossing borders
Hyundai, Samsung, LG Electronics, Kia Motors all have one issue in common—they are all South Korean in origin. Years ago, these brands established their location in the worldwide marketplace. Today, with the K-wave making a stir amongst a bigger buyer pool, individuals are prepared to acquire competitively-priced and fancy Korean goods, be it K-beauty or K-overall health.
Delhi-based South Korean e-commerce portal Korikart has seen phenomenal response from across India because its launch in 2018. The pandemic, specially inflated their numbers as they witnessed 300% development in sales because March 2020 and are presently reporting more than 40-50% month-on-month development, says Seo Youngdoo, CEO and founder, Korikart. The cause behind the boom was work from home, which permitted more individuals to consume Korean content. K-meals, K-beauty and healthful and immunity-boosting goods like Korean ginseng tea, sweet ginger tea powder, kimchi seaweed, and so on, have been promoting like hotcakes, says Youngdoo.
Popular way of life retailer Nykaa, also, has added scores of Korean skincare brands on its web-site, owing to substantial demand. Nykaa, in truth, was the 1st to introduce globally well-known South Korean brands like The Face Shop, Tony Moly, Innisfree, Laneige, Klairs, Etude House, Belief, and so on, to India. This, in turn, encouraged Korean skincare luxury brands like Sulwhasoo to retail exclusively on Nykaa. Consumers are intrigued by points like the glass skin notion and the ‘no-makeup’ makeup look, the origins of which can be traced to South Korea, says a spokesperson from Nykaa. The increasing recognition of South Korean pop music and drama has also acted as a catalyst and led to enhanced demand in the nation, the spokesperson adds.
As per Bengaluru-based Chytra Anand, founder of skin and hair clinic Kosmoderma, Indians’ preferences for all-natural approaches to boost skin overall health, their liking for pale skin tones and all-natural skin-whitening therapies have led to the enjoy for K-beauty. The recognition is also peaking with Korean brands launching ‘unique’ goods made with mushroom, snail mucin, bee venom, carrot seed oil, and so on, she says.
QUOTE 1: Korean meals has been localised and customised by Indians… we can now locate kimchi curry, kimchi pakora, and so on
— Hwang Il-Yong, director, Korean Cultural Centre India, the Press and Culture Department of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in India
QUOTE 2: Indians’ preferences for all-natural approaches to boost skin overall health, their liking for pale skin tones and all-natural skin-whitening therapies have led to the enjoy for K-beauty
— Chytra Anand, founder, Kosmoderma, a skin & hair clinic
QUOTE 3: We witnessed 300% development in sales because March 2020 and are presently reporting more than 40-50% month-on-month development
— Seo Youngdoo, CEO & founder, Korikart, a Delhi-based South Korean e-commerce portal