From K-Pop to Squid Games — how Korean culture is sweeping the West
A new show at the V&A — Hallyu! The Korean Wave — opens today,
Think Korea, and depending on your age, it will either be M*A*S*H*, kimchi or K-Pop. The K-Pop fandom already knows what the rest of us are still discovering — that Korean culture is having not so much a moment as a tsunami, engulfing the outside world in its pop music, cinema, TV, fashion, art. Korea is hot, hot, hot. (The South, obviously — the North, as we all know, is entirely different).
A new show at the V&A — Hallyu! The Korean Wave — opens today, showcasing everything from the 2019 film Parasite, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes plus 6 Oscars including Best Director for Bong Joon-ho, to the fantastical gowns of Miss Sohee, the creations of Sohee Park, a 26-year-old fashion graduate of Central St Martin’s whose degree show went viral during lockdown. Designer Minju Kim is the breakout star of Netflix series Next In Fashion, and Korea’s Squid Game is so far the most successful Netflix show ever, amassing 1.65 billion viewing hours in the four weeks after its release in September 2021.
