Routledge Handbook of East Asian Popular Culture

Hsiu-Chuang Deppman

As a metaphorical father of a modern South Korean nation, Min-joon borrows moral and
narrative authority from the words of the sages. The producers painstakingly construct a library
full of valuable antiques and classical volumes to dazzle Song-yi and the viewers ( Figure 7b.5).
Converging in the bookish wonderland are the materialistic glamour of capitalism and the
intellectual spark of Confucianism, the coexistence of which testifies to Min-joon’s symbiosis.
Ultimately, his erudition makes him into an expert of historical ideas, claiming ideological
paternity to an Asian public that sees opportunities in the encounter between the new and
the old.

Conclusion

It is no secret that the South Korean government has invested heavily in marketing and pack-
aging Korean pop culture since the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997–1998: it “runs and finances
a fund of funds,” according to Euny Hong, “managed by an entity called the Korean Venture
Investment Corporation, with a staggering $1 billion earmarked solely to be invested into
Korean pop culture.”^22 Just as hallyu (“Korean Wave”) was sweeping across Asia, in 2013 the
Japanese government began its “Cool Japan” project, a “$500 million, 20-year fund to pro-
mote Japanese culture overseas.”^23 These national bankrolls recognize the economic and political
potential of “soft power,” yielding, for example, $4.6 billion in revenue in 2012 for Korean pop
culture exports (Hong 2014) and helping redefine South Korea’s image in the global market.
As Simon Sheikh reminds us, the engagement between cultural productions and the public
is a two-way street. It is fair

to think of artists and intellectuals as not only engaged in the public, but as producing

a public through the mode of address and the establishment of platforms or counter

publics ... in opposition to the reigning cultural and political hegemony of the specific

society.^24

Figure 7b.5 Dazzling private library