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

An updated edition of the hit book explaining how Korean culture took over the world, now with a new afterword and three new chapters on BTS, Parasite, and 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.

About the Author

Euny Hong is a Paris-based journalist and author whose books have been translated into over twenty languages. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, The Washington Post, The Times (London), The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, and many other publications. 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.