World Association for Hallyu Studies - The Middle East Branch

13/07/2024

למה ללמוד באוניברסיטה העברית? הסרטון הזוכה שיצרו שני סטודנטית ישראלית וסטודנט קוריאני - בעברית וקוריאנית!

אגודת הסטודנטים הקוריאנים ומדור קוריאה באוניברסיטה העברית גאים להציג את הסרטון שהכינו הסטודנטים הדר וסונגהאן לפעילות "למה קוריאה ולמה ישראל". 🇰🇷🇮🇱הצוות ע...

26/02/2020

Call for Papers: THE 8th WORLD CONGRESS FOR HALLYU
Theme: (Pop) Cultural Industries in East Asia
Dates: September 14th-17th 2020
Venue: Kellogg College, Oxford University
Organizer: World Association for Hallyu Studies
Host: Kellogg College, Oxford University
Sponsors: Academy of Korean Studies; Center for Glocal Culture and Social Empathy, University of Seoul
Deadline: June 30, 2020

Accommodation: Book your own accommodations; the congress home page will lead you to Kellogg College dorms (breakfast included) for cheaper prices than hotels in Oxford.

04/12/2019

We would to thank all participants and volunteers who took part in the 7th Congress of World Association of Hallyu Studies in Jerusalem!

12/09/2019

Predicting Arab Consumers’ Preferences on the Korean Contents Distribution
Young-Eun Park, Soumaya Chaffar, Myoung-Sook Kim, Hye-Young Ko
Abstract
Purpose - This study aims to examine the analysis of pattern on Arab countries consumers' preferences of the Korean
Contents using social media, Facebook since Korean entertainment contents have been distributed in the global marketplace. Then we focus on developing Predictive model using a Data Mining Technique.

Research design, data and methodology - In order to understand preference growth of Korean contents in Arabic countries, we collected data from two popular pages: ‘Korean movies and drama’ and ‘K-pop’. Then, we adopted a data driven approach based on Data Mining techniques.

Results - It is obvious that the number of likes for K-pop will increase for all North African and Middle Eastern countries,
however concerning Korean Movies and Drama except Tunisia it is decreasing for Algeria, Egypt and Morocco. Also,
concerning Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, the number of likes will decrease for Korean Movies and Drama which is not the case for Iraq.

Conclusions - It is noted in this study that K-contents such as drama, movie and music are sometimes a gateway to a
wider interest in Korean culture, food and brands. Moreover, this study gives significant implications for developing predictive model to forecast Korean contents’ consumption and preferences.

Keywords: Korean Wave, Entertainment, Social Media, Data Mining, Predictive Analysis.

Full text:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Young_Eun_Park3/publication/316572192_Predicting_Arab_Consumers'_Preferences_on_the_Korean_Contents_Distribution/links/5cd4079892851c4eab8cbdd1/Predicting-Arab-Consumers-Preferences-on-the-Korean-Contents-Distribution.pdf

03/09/2019

The Korean Wave in the Middle East: Past and Present
Mohamed Elaskary
Abstract
The Korean Wave—otherwise known as Hallyu or Neo-Hallyu—has a particularly strong influence on the Middle East but scholarly attention has not reflected this occurrence. In this article I provide a brief history of Hallyu, noting its mix of cultural and economic characteristics, and then analyse the reception of the phenomenon in the Arab Middle East by considering fan activity on social media platforms. I then conclude by discussing the cultural, political and economic benefits of Hallyu to Korea and indeed the wider world. For the sake of convenience, I will be using the term Hallyu (or Neo-Hallyu) rather than the Korean Wave throughout my paper.

Full text: https://www.mdpi.com/2199-8531/4/4/51

24/05/2019

Understanding Hallyu: Business and Economy Perspectives
PM 2:00-PM 4:30, May 30, 2019
RM 601, Hitotsubashi ICS
National Center of Sciences 2-1-2 Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-8439
*R.S.V.P by sending e-mail at [email protected]

Organized by Jinju Lee
Hitotsubashi ICS, Hitotsubashi University
Since the Korean Wave or Hallyu emerged in the late 1990s, Korean popular culture has become very popular around the world through dramas, films, and popular songs known as K-pop. Many have argued that Hallyu is a fad and is not sustainable in the long term. Yet, despite such predictions, there has still been a noticeable increase in the popularity of Korean pop culture around the world. Furthermore, its influence has even expanded from East Asia to Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and even the Americas over the past two decades. This session seeks to understand more clearly the emergence of the Korean film and music industries in comparison to those from other countries, notably France and Japan.
PM 2:00 Introduction
PM 2:10-PM 2:50 Session 1
Korean film industry between protectionism and globalization
By Patrick Messerlin, Sciences Po Paris
Compared with France and Japan, Korea’s film industry is considered as a late comer in the global market. It is notable that its success only came after the Korean film market was opened up. Yet despite this outcome, there are still many people who believe that the cultural industry, notably the film sector, should be protected from Hollywood. This session will discover how film policies function in the real world by adopting business and economic perspectives to this issue.
PM 2:50-PM 3:10 Q&A
PM 3:10-PM 4:00 Session 2
BTS (beyond the scene) of K-pop
By Jimmyn Parc, Sciences Po Paris and Seoul National University
It is known that K-pop imitated J-pop in its early stages, but why did J-pop go on to decline in global popularity while K-pop expanded its influence? Is imitating or copying bad for cultural diversity? This session will address these questions by analyzing and exploring the reasons for this outcome, with particular focus on the responsive strategies of the Japanese and Korean music industries to digitization. Furthermore, a new perspective on culture will be presented.
PM 4:00-PM 4:20 Q&A
PM 4:20 Concluding remark

21/01/2019

Nissim Otmazgin and Irina Lyan write again about Hallyu in Israel this time underlining the role of fans as promoters, distributers, and entrepreneurs of Hallyu.

Abstract
While the overall majority of Hallyu research has looked at the way fans consume Korean
popular culture and how it influences their identity, this paper focuses on the way these fans
serve as effective agents for marketing Hallyu and how their fandom empowers them to explore
new business and social opportunities. Focusing on what we call “fan entrepreneurship,” this
paper examines the evolvement of fan communities in Israel and their role as cultural agents
transcending different cultural and social contexts. More specifically, it analyzes their role as
promoters, distributers, and entrepreneurs of Hallyu. To examine fan entrepreneurship in action,
we focus on three cases of Israeli Hallyu fans who have ventured into new fields in business,
education, and social activism to conceptualize the relations between fandom, agency, and the
transnational marketing of Hallyu. Our findings suggest that the Hallyu experience in Israel
may be relevant for understanding the grass-roots processes and mechanisms responsible for
the spread and the institutionalization of cultural content across national, ethnic, and linguistic
boundaries.

Fan Entrepreneurship: Fandom, Agency, and the Marketing of Hallyu in Israel

17/12/2018

Due to the interest in Korea in the Middle East, the King Sejong Institute, supported by the Korean government, opened Korean language classes at local universities in Turkey, Iran, Egypt, and United Arab Emirates

10/12/2018

To attract more tourists, the Korea Tourism Organization launched the themed travel guide “Muslim-friendly Korea” by translating its site to Arabic (as well as eleven other languages) and providing information about Halal restaurants, Muslim-friendly routes, and prayer rooms (“Muslim-friendly Travel”). http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/ATR/muslim_intro.jsp
More about tourism from the Middle East to Korea: Kim, Suwan. “The New Korean Wave in the Middle East and its Role in the Strategic Approach to Medical Tourism in Korea.” Kritika Kultura, vol. 29, 2017, pp. 258–271.

03/12/2018

According to the Korea Foundation, the numbers of Hallyu club members more than doubled from 2014 to 2016 in Egypt (from 59,938 to 128,288), Jordan (from 4,825 to 10,681), and Morocco (from 4,040 to 12,050). As cited in Oh, Ingyu. “Islam and Local Culture: The Peril of State Violence and Hallyu Fandom in Indonesia (With Reference to Palestine).” Kritika Kultura, vol. 29, 2017, pp. 232–257.

Islam and Local Culture: The Peril of State Violence and Hallyu Fandom in Indonesia (With Reference to Palestine)