The Birth Of Korean Cool: How One Nation Is Conquering The World Through Pop Culture

The Birth Of Korean Cool: How One Nation Is Conquering The World Through Pop Culture

A FRESH, FUNNY, UP-CLOSE LOOK AT HOW SOUTH KOREA REMADE ITSELF AS THE WORLD'S POP CULTURE POWERHOUSE OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURYBy now, everyone in the world knows the song "Gangnam Style" and Psy, an instantly recognizable star. But the song's international popularity is no passing fad. "Gangnam Style" is only one tool in South Korea's extraordinarily elaborate and effective strategy to become a major world superpower by first becoming the world's number one pop culture exporter.As a child, Euny Hong moved from America to the Gangnam neighbourhood in Seoul. She was a witness to the most accelerated part of South Korea's economic development, during which time it leapfrogged from third-world military dictatorship to first-world liberal democracy on the cutting edge of global technology.Euny Hong recounts how South Korea vaulted itself into the twenty-first century, becoming a global leader in business, technology, education, and pop culture. Featuring lively, in-depth reporting and numerous interviews with Koreans working in all areas of government and society, The Birth of Korean Cool reveals how a really uncool country became cool, and how a nation that once banned miniskirts, long hair on men, and rock ?n' roll could come to mass produce boy bands, soap operas, and the world's most important smart phone.Amazon.com Review I always love a good immigrant story: a tale of a young person, transplanted from the ?old country? and learning the ropes (and usually teaching them to her parents) in the new. But journalist Euny Hong?s The Birth of Korean Cool is that familiar tale?s obverse: at age 12, the Chicago-born American moved with her parents back to the South Korea of their birth. And like the displaced Hong herself, the Korea of 1985 grew up fast: it became, in short order, the nation of Samsung, of newly wealthy executives, and now, Hong contends, it has become the crown prince of Asian pop culture. A kind of memoir of a culture as well as of an individual life, Hong?s first nonfiction book (she previously wrote the novel Kept: A Comedy of Sex and Manners) mixes personal memoir with interviews and research to produce a rollicking, delightful, wise-guy story of how both she and her ancestral home became the cultural icons they are today. --Sara NelsonReview?Incisive and humorous? An excellent case study of calculated entrepreneurial moxie.? ?The New York Times Book Review?Full of facts and entertaining to boot, it's definitely a gem.? ?EntertainmentWeekly.com?An insightful book?[Hong's] brief chapter on Korea's han against Japan is both the best and most concise explanation I've read of the two countries' complicated and ancient feud.? ?Bloomberg Businessweek?The rare book that's hilariously funny and also makes you smarter about world economies.? ?Vulture?An incisive, colorfully written account of South Korea's cultural ascent.? ?Grantland?Fabulously snarky?Hong is perfectly positioned to understand this complex Korean psyche while retaining enough distance (and cynicism) to evaluate it.? ?Helen Brown, The Telegraph (UK)?Highly entertaining.? ?The Guardian (UK)?Hong's breezy book is a good place to begin to understand this rising nation.? ?The Times (London)?A witty chronicle of how pop culture shaped South Korea's meteoric rise from a war-torn nation to a technological giant.? ?The Forward?Euny Hong playfully and insightfully dissects her native culture? There's much more to it than just ?Gangnam Style.'? ?Charleston City Paper?The Birth of Korean Cool is a sparkling gem that falls into the must-read category? A satisfying and thought-provoking book by a first-rate journalist whose style is irresistible and informative all at once.? ?Pop Matters (Nine out of Ten Stars)?It's Hong's voice, a funny, smart, often conflicted and witty combination of personal essay and observational journalism, which makes the book unique.? ?Clayton Moore, Kirkus Reviews?Being both an outsider and an insider, Hong