To Make a Dream Circle: Searching for Subculture Within the Korean Wave

“Hallyu,” a term meaning “Korean Wave,” refers to the ever-expanding cache of exportdrivenKorean cultural products that, since the 1990s, has primarily included dramas, pop music,film, and animation (Yong 2016, 3). As an industry that generated 6 billion USD in 2016(Korea.net 2019), and that commands roughly 35 million fans worldwide (The Korea Herald2016), Hallyu has become a formidable economic force that other domestic industries havefound lucrative alliances with (Choi 2015, 37-38). Further, the substantial direct support thatHallyu has received from the South Korean government since 2008 and that which has led to thebroadening of the Hallyu repertoire to include new forms such as games, food, electronics, andlanguage (Yong 2016, 5; Choi 2015, 44) makes South Korea and its cultural industry acompelling case study for observing how cultural forms become naturalized as they convergewith economics and government agendas. This thesis is an investigation into the categories of“popular culture” and “subculture” as viable sociological frameworks for understanding themechanics of how particular cultural forms become privileged while others become neglected.Utilizing interviews and observations that I collected during my one month stay at a Koreanlanguage university in Seoul, I demonstrate how Hallyu has been able to achieve hegemonicstatus as Korea’s granted cultural expression, and how this achievement has occasioned otherKorean cultural industries to align themselves with Hallyu. I also explore the possibilities formarginalized actors within this hegemonic arrangement to manipulate elements of the dominantculture in order to meet their own needs