The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation Is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture (Expanded Edition)

(Paperback)

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A revised edition of this celebrated cultural history features a new afterword and three new chapters focusing on the global K-pop phenomenon BTS, as well as the Academy Award-winning film Parasite and the hit Netflix series Squid Game. In this fresh, funny, and insightful cultural history, Euny Hong recounts how South Korea vaulted itself into the twenty-first century, becoming a global leader in business, technology, education, and pop culture. Along the way we meet teachers, cultural critics, Michelin-starred chefs, pop music superstars, and government ministers in charge of creating boy bands with highly synchronized dance moves. The strict rigors of the Korean education system now lead to a society that works and plays hard-with a Ministry of Culture that churns out movies, television dramas, pop bands, and video games exported throughout the world. 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 and roll could come to be known for its pop music and the smartphone in everyone's pocket. This revised edition features a new afterword and three new chapters focusing on the global K-pop phenomenon BTS, as well as the Academy Award-winning film Parasite and the hit Netflix series Squid Game.

Reviews

"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 is the perfect guide to explain South Korean culture." --The Toronto Star

"Hong is a funny and uber-snarky observer and is as clever as clever can be...[As] laugh-out-loud funny and as spicy and memorable as the best homemade kimchi." --Library Journal

"A pleasing mix of Margaret Cho, Sarah Vowell and a pinch of Cory Doctorow." --Kirkus Reviews

"Full of insight and shocking facts, The Birth Of Korean Cool is a hilarious, gutsy, eye-opening account of Korean drive and success. I couldn't put it down. Euny Hong is a force of nature." --Amy Chua, Yale Law Professor and author of The Triple Package and Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

"If you're not fascinated by Korea yet, you damn well should be. The most innovative country on earth deserves a hilarious and poignant account on the order of Euny Hong's The Birth of Korean Cool. Her phat beats got Gangnam Style and then some." --Gary Shteyngart

Author Bio

Euny Hong is a Paris-based journalist and author whose books have been translated into over 20 languages. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, The Washington Post, The Times of London, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, and many others. She was previously a columnist at the Financial Times and an editor at France 24 in Paris. She is the author of the novel Kept: A Comedy of Sex and Manners and the book The Power of Nunchi: The Korean Secret to Happiness and Success. She is fluent in English, French, German, and Korean. She holds a BA in philosophy from Yale University and is a former Fulbright Scholar.