South Korea
Global City Guidebook 2024
Jul 22, 2024Global City Guidebook: Seoul
This exciting capital city fosters every aspect of the Korean Wave (hallyu), the worldwide fascination with Korean culture. Here visitors may immerse themselves in popular music and art as well as traditional culture, food, literature and language through festivals and events throughout the year. Tourists and business travelers alike find Seoul satisfies their every whim and need.
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June 2024
Jun 11, 2024Seoul Garners Good Fortune on a Wave of Cultural Popularity
First came the musical mega-hit, “Gangnam Style,” in 2012, leading the band PSY to the top of the charts, only to be followed by other beloved K-pop bands like BTS. Then, in 2020, Parasite became the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The following year, the latest in a long line of Korean television shows or K-dramas, Squid Game became Netflix’s most watched series and the most watched program in 94 countries. Add the rise of Korean fine dining around the globe along with the demand for K-beauty products and high fashion, often influenced by the traditional Korean garb called hanbok, and you arrive at the cultural phenomenon called hallyu, or the Korean Wave. Indeed, South Korean popular culture, with Seoul at its epicenter, reached such a status Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts installed a hallyu exhibition, currently on display through July, which originated at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.