Cultural Production in Transnational Culture: An Analysis of Cultural Creators in the Korean Wave

Abstract

By employing cultural production approaches in conjunction with the global cultural economy, this article attempts to determine the primary characteristics of the rapid growth of local cultural industries and the global penetration of Korean cultural content. It documents major creators and their products that are received in many countries to identify who they are and what the major cultural products are. It also investigates power relations between cultural creators and the surrounding sociocultural and political milieu, discussing how cultural creators develop local popular culture toward the global cultural markets. I found that cultural creators emphasize the importance of cultural identity to appeal to global audiences as well as local audiences instead of emphasizing solely hybridization.