How Korean Culture Went Global

Monopoly is one of the best-selling board games of all time. It heralds free market economics and celebrates the American dream. That's a far cry from the original intent. This week on our series Hidden Histories, we go back in time to reveal the swindling and cover ups that robb ...  Show more

In our final installment of AP250, how We Shall Overcome became the anthem of generations of protestors. Today on the show, we revisit an episode from the NPR archives about the legacy of hope found in the lyrics of this timeless song. Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy per ...  Show more

From BTS to Squid Game to high-end beauty standards, South Korea reigns as a global exporter of pop culture and entertainment. How does a country go from a war-decimated state just 70 years ago, to a major driver of global soft power? Through war, occupation, economic crisis, and ...  Show more

In this episode, Dr. Anderson, a South Korean media studies and popular culture expert at George Mason University, tells us how Hallyu - or the Korean Wave - led to the globalization of Korean culture. We discuss how K-pop music and Korean dramas gained worldwide popularity, anal ...  Show more

Background:

The Korean cultural wave, also known as Hallyu, has become worldwide sensation a in recent years, with Korean art, music, drama, food and more sweeping the globe. Thanks to the fervour over the likes of K-pop and K-beaut ...

Since 2012, Korean pop culture has captured the imagination of people across the Middle East: from K-pop and K-dramas to Korean language classes and even to Korean fried chicken. It's everywhere!But how did we become so obsessed with a culture so different from our own? And how m ...  Show more