“Arirang arirang arariyo~”
On April 30th, the sound of ‘Arirang’, which contains unique sorrow and beauty, echoed around the ice skating rink in Moscow, Russia. There, 2010 Vancouver Olympic gold medalist Kim Yu-na performed a figure skating program named ‘Homage to KOREA’. In this program, the Korean representative melody, Arirang, was played at the starting and climax time. The sweet melody and gesture of Kim Yu-na captured audiences’ hearts. In this way, the Korean culture and arts has gone global, and foreigners are starting to pay attention to global KOREA!!
Now, hanbok fashion shows are coming into the spotlight of worldwide people and hotels which include unique Korean-style house structures are being built all over the world. Furthermore, there are many Korean fusion foods for foreigners. Korea globalizes itself rapidly.
● New Masterpiece of World Fashion Industry: Hanbok
The hanbok is an age-old, unique form of Korean clothing. It is very beautiful because it harmonizes straight lines with curved lines. Its basic color is white, but the way of wearing and the color vary with seasons and status.
Now, the hanbok is contributing to the flow of globalization. Lately there are many people who strive to globalize unique Korean-style things. Designer Lee Young-hee, who is famous for globalizing hanboks, had a tremendous effect on this trend. She is an important person who helped foreigners change their existing minds and think about hanboks through overseas hanbok fashion shows. The clothing suits well to Westerners, who have long, slender body types, as well as to Asians, who have tidy, small body types. Also, the modernization of the hanbok is growing simultaneously. Frankly speaking, it was inconvenient to wear a traditional hanbok in daily life, so it has been modernized and simplified according to the contemporary lifestyle while maintaining the beautiful colors and elegance. To globalize the hanbok, we have to follow world fashion trends based on our traditional style and grace.
● Admire its beauty and function: Hanok
The ‘Ra-gung Project’ is one of the projects for hanok’s globalization. It helps to globalize and modernize the hanok. Ra-gung is a hotel made by mixing the superiority of hanok with the Western style. Ra-gung in Gyeong-ju advertises the beauty of hanok. Foreigners begin to know the excellence of hanok and its superiority. Also, hanok pensions and hanok apartments are popular to not only Koreans, but also foreigners.
As stated, the good balance and excellent function of the hanok is the main key that catches people’s attention worldwide. However, without globalization of the hanok, foreigners might have ignored it as just an old-style structure. Through the efforts of many people, the hanok was reborn based on Korea’s unique taste yet catering to foreigners’ appetites at the same time.
● Season with color and style: Hansik
Hansik has already captivated the taste buds of gourmets all around the world. To meet global taste, hansik has made repeated changes. As a result, various fusion cuisines of hansik have developed. These days, Koreans don't feel strange when they eat rice and steak together.
Recently, the MBC TV program ‘MUHANDOJUN' made a film about cooking Korean food in a foreign country. It demonstrated to us that there is great potential in hansik overseas. In addition, in the end of last year, the program made a TV advertisement. In this 30-second spot, CF directors and professors and about 200 students actively participated. They performed drumming, Korean fan dance and Ganggangsulae (a traditional Korean circle dance by women under the bright full moon) to introduce the excellence of Korean culture to the whole world. This advertisement was broadcast 48 times in a day through a billboard in New York’s Times Square.
● Toward Han-style beyond Korean Wave
Other areas of Korean culture and arts are also globalizing. Hangul is the simplest and most scientific alphabet in the world. In other words, it is easy to learn Hangul because it was made by matching letter and sound on a principled basis. This scientific and superb language recently became the official language of the Cia-Cia tribe, who are a minority race in Indonesia. They write their language (Cia Cia language) with Hangul. Therefore, the school textbooks are published in Korean script. This event provides Korea with a great opportunity. It’s time to make Korean an official language!!
In addition, the Temple Stay program started in 2002. This program gives a chance to foreigners who want to experience Korean culture. Many travel agencies are all scrambling to develop tour packages including temple stays, and over 80 percent of the foreign respondents hoped to participate in this program again.
Korean K-pop’s fad is also beginning. Now, the whole world is enjoying K-pop. Foreigners fly to Korea for watching concerts, and K-pop concerts have been held in many countries not only in Asia but also in Europe and the Middle East.
● The Pride of Korea
There are numerous people who bring great honor to Korea. Now we will introduce only three of the people who heighten Korean prestige in each field.
① Yu-na Kim
As well as Koreans, everyone in the world knows her. A girl of 164cm height and 47kg weight, which are the best dimensions for being a figure skater, grew up to be a figure skating athlete. She swept all the domestic games when she was in elementary school. After her debut as a junior she was never ousted out of third place in a match. Finally, she won the gold medal, breaking a world record in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. After that, she was selected as one of the world's most influential people by the New York Times. She has attracted attention from the world with beautiful expressions, perfect jumps, and a charismatic face. Now she must be one of the most expensive and popular advertisement models. In fact, she has appeared in a lot of TV ads, but people never envy her because she never neglects her training. Recently, she made a valuable presentation for attracting the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games. This showed her sincere mind. When did she study English? She is so amazing!
② Ban Ki-mun
Secretary General Ban has great language skills. In particular, he is proficient in English and French, but he can also speak Japanese, German and Russian. There is no one who can work business in detail like him. He was elected as Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2004, and as UN Secretary General in 2006 as the first Korean. In June of this year he was re-elected extraordinarily as UN Secretary General in a vote that passed unanimously from 192 member countries.
③ Jang Yoon-Ju
Jang Yoon-Ju is 173cm tall, which is smaller than an average model’s height. But she supplemented small height with a fantastic figure, so it was called a God-given body. People say that she is a standard dividing the Korean model industry into before and after. Before her, most of the models had Western figures and faces like dolls, but after she gained attraction from designers, a skinny body and face with individuality won popularity. With her advantage, she came on the stage at the 1997 Seoul Fashion Week, New York, Paris Pret-a-porter, Berlin, and so on. Also, she wore the collection of world famous designers such as Christian Dior, Salvatore Ferragamo, Marc Jacobs, Louis Vuitton, Vivienne Westwood, and so on. She is really a global model.
● Power of Korea in the world
Germany, Japan, France, Russia, Italy and Korea have something in common. They are all host countries of the Winter Olympics, the Summer Olympics, the World Cup, and the World Championship in Athletics. In other words, these countries have the title of ‘sports grand slam’ among the 200-member country in the IOC (International Olympic Committee). It’s a splendid achievement that some of the most powerful sport countries like the United States, England and China haven’t yet made. Korea developed its economy and started globalization rapidly through the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and many people were enthusiastic across the world as well as in Korea through the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup. Also, the Daegu World Championship in Athletics was held to get diversity for Korea sports. Korea can anticipate building up its image and development of winter games through the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, which will be hosted as a result of the recent third challenge.
● CBNU in the world
while Korea is expanding to the world, domestic universities are trying globalization. CBNU’s effort and ambition is unusual among others. For example, CBNU announced a dream of jumping up to Global Top 100 universities by 2020. To achieve this dream, both university and students are making efforts. Examples of this effort are the agreement of academic exchange and the number of foreign students. From National Chung Hsing University of Taiwan in 1982 to South Valley University of Egypt, as many as 222 Universities have been making an exchange with CBNU. Furthermore, foreign students who are studying in CBNU now cover about 22 countries and 780 people. This dream to be in the Global Top 100 universities is not too far.
The image of a global Korea is spreading around the world. In the tsunami of giant globalization, Korea could have lost its traditional culture. Meeting such a crisis, Koreans didn’t stick to old things. In other words, while cherishing Korean concepts, they have confronted globalization flexibly. As a result, Korea is in the center of the world!
Lee Song-i, Lee Eun-ji& Kwon Young-ho, Reporters