Good contents Needed for Korean Wave 4.0

Lee Soo-man(left), chairman of SM Entertainment, is talking to the attendees at the 3rd Asian Leadership Conference (Mar. 7).

 The continued development of high quality contents and diversification in the means of using them are the key to continued success of the so-called Hallyu or the Korean Wave, said the participants in the panel session of the Asian Leadership Conference.

The session, held Wednesday (Mar. 7) at Hotel Shilla, was attended by Miyuki Hatoyama, wife of former Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama, Lee soo-man, chairman of SM Entertainment, and other cultural figures.

They exchanged heated debates over the direction the next stage Korean Wave, usually called Hallyu 4.0, is supposed to take. According to media, Korean TV drama is defined as the Korean Wave 1.0, K-pop 2.0 and Korean food & language 3.0.

Mrs. Hatoyama who calls herself an ardent fan of the Koean Wave, said “I enjoy Korean dramas because their scenarios are well organized and their contents are full of vitality. East Asian nations involving Korea, Japan and China should go hand-in-hand for further development of cultural industry.”

Another panelist Robert Bakish, president of Viacom International Media Network, advised that the most important thing to go to the next stage of Korean wave without losing the momentum is the continuous production of high-quality content. Contents diversification is also needed to meet the growing expectation of the Hallyu fans all across the world, he said.

Lee who produced many famous Korean pop stars, said “Times have changed and we are no longer needed to go overseas directly to publicize our cultural contents. The overseas fans could tell what is good or bad via online such as Youtube and Facebook.”

Ronald Issen, Senior Advisor of Apollo Global Management LLC, pointed out various problems Korea has to deal with immediately in order to keep the Hallyu popularity at current level. One of the most acute problems is the lack of performance halls. That’s why the number of ticket sales here is far less than that of other countries. The construction of performance halls is urgently needed, he said.

Choi Sun-hwa sun@theasian.asia