The Korean Wave and why representation matters

BLACKPINK, who currently have the most viewed video by a K-pop group on Youtube (with 685 million views and counting)  have recently announced a gig at Coachella as part of their word tour

"You're actually quite pretty for a Filipino," she said, her voice polite. "Most of you look like you can't see." I was twelve, and I didn't say anything.

"Oh. you're Asian?" There was a look of disappointment in his face. "If you were Spanish, you'd be perfect." I was sixteen, and I laughed it off.

"I'm just not attracted to him at all." My best friend scrolled through Facebook on her phone. "Urgh, look at him! He's so Asian." She stuttered halfway through the word as she caught herself, and looked at me with panic in her eyes. At eighteen, I had enough in me to look back at her reproachfully, but I didn't have the heart to call her out completely.

I could go on and on with the examples.

At twenty-one, I know now that my race is a huge part of what makes me beautiful and unique and attractive. Now, I would handle any of those situations completely differently. I didn't for a couple of reasons; For one, I was a shy kid, and extremely anxious. In a way, I am still both those things but I now know that I shouldn't let my introversion get in the way of standing up for myself. But there was also a second reason, one that I feel ashamed to even type.

I agreed with them.

I feel gross admitting that. To be clear, I never thought other Asian people were ugly. There were Asian women that I thought were beautiful, Asian men that I thought were handsome. But when I looked at myself, it was the Asian features that I would wish away. My wide nose. My pale, yellow-toned skin. Most of all, it was my eyes. The curve of them, how hooded they were, how dark they were. I wanted big, light, heavy-lidded eyes.

Beyond that, I never thought of Asians as a particularly beautiful race. In hindsight, because I did see the beauty in Asian people when I encountered them, I know that this was because I rarely saw them in the media. I wonder how much my view on myself and other Asian women would be different if I had seen Jisoo from BLACKPINK and Tzuyu from TWICE taking over Youtube with their praise-gathering visuals. I wonder how my best friend would've seen Asian men if posters of V from BTS and Jackson from GOT7 had been in her teen magazines.

There has been a huge rise in popularity for both K-pop and, to a slightly lesser extent, K-dramas. The K in both, in case you weren't aware, stands for Korean. K-Pop stars (or K-Pop 'idols' as they're called) aren't always from Korea. They can be Chinese, Japanese, Thai - any Asian race so long as they can sing and/or rap in Korean. As people familiarise themselves with Korean entertainment, some have become more open to Japanese entertainment, or Chinese entertainment. In short, the 'Korean wave', as it's being called, is not just about representation for Koreans; it's about representation for all east and southeast Asians.

Female Representation

Girl group ITZY is the latest to debut with a 'girl crush' concept with their self-love anthem 'Dalla Dalla'

Perhaps the most famous K-Pop concept is the 'cute' concept. Some people with limited knowledge think that this is the only concept, which could not be further from the truth for boy groups. For context, K-pop groups rarely mix genders (although it is becoming more common to do so now), and groups tend to be marketed towards the opposite gender. As a result, K-pop  girl groups are typically geared towards men, which has usually resulted in sometimes saccharine 'cute' concepts or uncomfortably objectifying 'sexy' concepts,

However, in recent years, the 'Girl Crush' concept has risen significantly in popularity. This is a difficult concept to define, but generally speaking, this concept represents any woman or group that is not traditionally feminine in the cute, innocent sense that many Asian countries believe to be the ideal. This concept sees outspoken women wear sexy fishnets with men's sportswear as they sing sassy lyrics that challenge the 'meek Asian woman' stereotype. The most popular embodiment of this concept is BLACKPINK, arguably the most successful girl group of the moment (who have a huge female audience both inside and outside of Korea). In 'Ddu-du Ddu-du' they sing "I may look sweet but I don't act like it [...] I give it to them straight, I don't care what people think" and "Don't flatter yourself/I smile easily because it does me good." In member Jennie's song, 'Solo' she sings "Innocent, naive, pure, pitiful/I'm tired of pretending to be prim" and declares that "I'm done."

Even if a group's entire concept is not Girl Crush, it may be seen in individual members (such as the short-haired tomboy Jeongyeon from the cutesy girl group TWICE) or a group that was previously cutesy can switch to a Girl Crush concept later on. An example of the latter would be Apink, who had previously had a member, Naeun, get in hot water in Korea 'promoting feminist ideals'  by her choice of phone case (which said 'Girls Can Do Anything'). This isn't the only time a popular female idol has been criticised for challenging sexist attitudes; Red Velvet's Irene, who is famous in Korea for her 'visual' (good looks), saw former fans burn her merchandise after she revealed that she had read (and enjoyed) Cho Nam-joo's Kim Ji Young, Born 1982, a feminist novel.

But that was all early last year. Throughout 2018, a feminist movement has been growing in Korea. Part of this is the 'Corset-Free movement', which is a protest against the near impossible beauty standards of image-conscious Korea (where it is common for teenagers as young as sixteen to be given money for cosmetic surgery as a birthday or graduation present). Women are refusing to wear ( or even destroying) their makeup and wearing exclusively comfortable and loose-fitting clothing. Some are even cutting their long hair short. CLC recently released a song called 'NO' which seems to be in line with the feminist movement in Korea, with lyrics such as "Red Lip, NO! Earrings, NO! High Heel, NO!" and "If you don't like it, go somewhere that suits your taste." As with BLACKPINK, the group rejects the notion that "Women should behave modestly" and state that "Pure, Sexy, Cute/ These words alone can't describe me."

While Korea is undoubtedly more conservative that we are in the west, these feminist anthems both mirror and compliment our own rising feminist movement. They provide beautiful and successful Asian role models for girls on both sides of the globe and emphasise that Asian women can be both strong and sexy.

Male Representation

Jimin performs an award-winning fan dance at the Melon Music Awards

Daniel and David Kim are watching BTS perform their hit song 'Idol' at the 2018 MMA's. As Jimin performs his version of a traditional Korean fan dance, Daniel points excitedly at the screen "HE IS KOREAN!" He shouts, grinning proudly at the display of his culture. "HE. IS. KOREAN."

In many ways, Jimin (who is known for his fluidity and flexibility as a contemporary dancer) was the perfect candidate to perform this dance; while male performers have done the Korean fan dance before, it is traditionally performed by females. Jimin, with his full lips, smooth skin and love for smokey eye makeup, is often celebrated by fans as a poster boy for androgynous beauty; he and his bandmates once participated in a photoshoot for Singles magazine that saw them dress in skirts and fishnets.

Male K-pop idols, with their smudged eyeliner and highlighted cheekbones, are often referred to as 'pretty', their falsettos described as sounding like or better than a woman's. Over time, these comments have stopped being taken as insults by fans and embraced as compliments. On the other side, we have idols like BIGBANG's G-Dragon who, despite his made up face and willingness to wear 'feminine' clothing, is celebrated by many simply as the 'King of K-Pop'. No female comparisons here.

Furthermore, male idols are not afraid to show affection for each other by hugging or holding hands. They comment on each other's attractiveness in a way that western men never would. This can sometimes be misinterpreted by western fans (who dedicate whole videos and even blogs to the pairs that they 'ship') but this behaviour is usually not romantic at all. Korean men just express their friendship differently, and in a way that westerners can learn from.

To clarify, Korean men do not usually wear makeup on a daily basis. Nor is Korea so progressive that they are willing to risk being labelled as homosexual; in fact, the reason men can show affection towards each other is because homosexuality is so taboo that people are rarely seriously accused of it. I am in no way saying that South Korea, on it's own, is an example of a progressive society because it definitely is not. However, these elements of Korean culture, when regurgitated from a western perspective, can help to combat toxic masculinity. As K-pop idols become more visible in the west, men in makeup, and men showing affection to each other becomes more normalised. And who knows, perhaps the integration of Western and Eastern culture could help to break down conservative barriers on that side too. K-Drama's have slowly began including LGBTQ+ representation, so the future looks bright in that respect.

Exposure to Language & Culture

EXO performing at the Winter Olympics closing ceremony last year

Of course, being a fan of K-pop is not going to make you an expert of Korean culture (and it would be very ignorant to assume that is the case), but there is a good chance that you will have more awareness of it than people who listen to only Western music. This is because K-pop stars are more than just singers; they upload video logs and participate in reality shows. They do frequent interviews to promote their music, subtitled for the convenience of international fans. If you are a K-pop fan, there is a good chance you've taken a look at some of the infinite K-pop content on the internet that is outside music videos, whether it's through Youtube or through the VLive app. You may have seen your favourite idols eat Korean food or use honorifics while speaking to eat other.

The near constant documentation of these idol's lives has lead to the first exposure to Korean culture for many Westerners, and it can pique an interest in culture that is outside of one's own. Of course, some people (often referred to as 'Koreaboos') do take to Korean culture to the point of appropriating it, but that's an issue for another post. Generally speaking, anything that makes us look outside of our own cultural and societal bubble can result in a broadening of the mind that can only be beneficial.

Furthermore, there is the language issue. In the twenty-first century, when Youtube provides Closed Captioning on many foreign music videos and full translations of songs can be found on the Genius website, English is no longer the default language of popular music. We no longer have the excuse of 'I can't understand what they're saying!' to not listen to music. To be honest, we never really had that excuse. It is impossible to dismiss the irony of somebody who danced away to 'Despacito' in 2017 using that same excuse for why they do not enjoy K-pop. Besides that, think of anybody who enjoys classical music, or film scores, or drum & bass, which don't have any words at all. Clearly an ability to speak the language that lyrics have been written in is not essential for enjoying the music, and perhaps understanding that could pave the way for us English-speakers to be less entitled about our language. We do have a tendency to believe that everything should be catered to us. Not only in entertainment - even when we go abroad, we typically do not even bring a phrase book under the assumption the locals must know a few words of English. Perhaps it's about time that we learned that the more exposure to other languages we have, the better. That could broaden our minds too.