Dr. Balbina Y. Hwang

The explosive popularity of K-Pop (music and dance by Korean performers) has become a global phenomenon in recent years, riding along an enormous surge of interest in the “Korean Wave” or Hallyu, which encompasses other forms of popular culture including K-Dramas, Korean cuisine, and even K-Beauty.
The current global fascination with Korean culture is still relatively nascent, so it is too early to predict whether the movement’s impact will endure over the centuries such as the Italian Renaissance has done.
Nevertheless, there is little doubt that the Korean Wave is tremendously influential in the development and consumption of contemporary global culture, similar to how the Italian Renaissance profoundly shaped the evolution of Western art and culture in the 15th and 16th centuries.
This webinar explores the intriguing range of strikingly similar factors that characterizes both cultural movements and their contributions to global society, explaining their enduring global appeal.