In “K-Pop in Mexico: “Flash Mobs, Media Stunts, and the Momentum of Global Mutual Recognition,” Erica Vogel examines the cultural exchange between South Korea and Mexico through music and how fans, especially K-Pop fans, act as both producers and consumers along with being self-promoters of the genre.
Through this, you can see how Korea and K-Pop began to focus more intensely on other markets besides China after the strain the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system caused on their relationship. THAAD is an American anti-ballistic missile defense system used to shoot down incoming missiles. In October 2013, the South Korean military asked the Pentagon to provide information on about THAAD in hopes to strengthen defenses against North Korean ballistic missiles. Controversy began as Chinese officials were convinced THAAD was actually meant to track missiles launched from China rather than North Korea. With these political tensions, Korean companies were seeing a strain on their relationship with their Chinese financiers. Even Chinese members of K-Pop groups face pressure as Zhang Yixing, better known as Lay, of EXO has not promoted with the group in recent years, and WayV, NCT’s Chinese subunit, is under a different label in China, not S.M. Entertainment, and cannot use the NCT name.
This led the South Korean music industry to turn their focus to other markets, such as Mexico. There has been a recent surge in K-Pop songs having Spanish lyrics or being Latin inspired. We see this in songs like KARD’s “Hola Hola” and even BTS’ “Airplane pt. 2,” which was co-written by Ali Tamposi, the songwriter for Camila Cabello’s hit “Havana.” Super Junior’s “Lo Siento” even features Leslie Grace, a Dominican-American artist, who expressed in an article for Forbes that “We’re setting the bar for cross-cultural collaborations, which is something that has never been [done] in this realm and that is huge. So it’s just been fulfilling to see that, at the end of the day, people connect to good music no matter what a good song in that way is really, really, really, really cool.”
Soompi, a popular website that covers Korean pop culture in English, now has a Spanish site as well, and now stops in Mexico and Latin America regularly appear on tour dates for K-Pop acts. Just recently, in January of this year, S.M. Entertainment held an SMTown “Special Stage” in Santiago, Chile as the agency’s first flagship event in South America, featuring a large number of artists under the label.
K-Pop’s penetration into Latin American industries only works because the fans have become their promoters, their greatest advertisement. Vogel discusses ways in which fans play a role in K-Pop’s global recognition, such as fan clubs and dance cover groups.
The Politics of K-Pop 
I find the significance of fandoms in Latin America very interesting. According to the data collected by Korea Creative Content Agency the USA, Latinos have slowly become the second biggest fanbases of K-POP at 21.4%. Like you have mentioned, though K-pop, in general, has just recently turned toward Latin American market due to political strains with China, back in 2014, one of the biggest group of the time, Super Junior, has already made the lead of incorporating Spanish in their title songs. From 2014’s Mamacita to 2018’s Lo Siento, Super Junior has created several cross-cultural songs that feature both Korean and Spanish. Since then, Super Junior has already become a huge phenomenon in Latin pop music which eventually led to a huge fan base. From the reading, Vogel explores the significance of such fanbases. Vogel interviewed the girls that are included in the fan clubs and asked what it is about kpop that interests them. The thing that they find interesting is getting to know a place that they didn’t know or have any knowledge of before. Through their “personal connections” they gain from being in the imagined community of a fan club, they have expanded their knowledge of globalization despite the fact that they may not have an opportunity to ever leave Mexico. Similarly, they can feel a sense of belonging from being included and contributing in supporting their favorite group which is a feeling that they have never felt before due to how differently the entertainment industry is perceived in Latin America compared to Korea.
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Another interesting factor to consider with the whole THAAD debacle in regards to Sino-Korean relations is the impact of tourism and related businesses in Korea. I recall that during the time that news regarding THAAD and its capabilities was out, that in addition to financial effects on businesses in regards to K-POP, there was also a reduction of tourism to Korea from China. The general sentiment in China was that South Korea’s installation of THAAD was a direct act arming against China. Because of this, the Chinese government attempted to punish Korea by banning travel companies from organising group tours to Korea, which is a popular form of travel for Chinese tourists. Out of this, there was a significant loss in revenue for businesses, local and large, that benefited from the high stream of Chinese tourists, especially on Jeju-do. Much of the loss was felt in Jeju-do because of its lack of visa restrictions of Chinese nationals (while Chinese nationals needed a visa to travel to the Korean peninsula). During this time, I was able to actually travel to Jeju-do and enjoy many of the local attractions without having to deal with large crowds, which showed me that in terms of volume, tourism to Jeju-do was down. According to some sources, however, I’ve found that some in Jeju-do were not too bothered by the decrease of tourism. It’s really interesting to see the impact of K-Pop on Korea as a whole, especially in a place like Jeju-do, which isn’t the home to the industry itself, but often serves as the backdrop to many rom-coms and other dramas.
Further Reading:
https://www.economist.com/business/2017/10/19/a-geopolitical-row-with-china-damages-south-korean-business-further
https://jingtravel.com/chinese-tourists-are-gone-and-jeju-doesnt-want-them-back/
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It’s interesting to see the intersection between politics and K-pop and how it’s a recurring theme. From the start, K-pop was used as a Korean cultural product in an attempt to alleviate the financial crisis, and, like you mentioned, the tensions between Korea and South Korea translate to severed groups due to different allegiances. At the end of the day, K-pop is a marketing strategy that is optimized in places where CEOs would see the most profit. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the rise of THAAD happened when K-pop gained exponential traction in Mexico and Peru. And as a result, K-pop idols tend to collaborate with producers who have an understanding of those cultures to target a global audience in the Western hemisphere. I feel like it’s great that K-pop idols are being more perceptive of their fans in other countries, but at the same time, they might only be doing it to increase their view count or popularity. While that may be a stretch, there will always be market forces that underlie the globalization of K-pop. In my opinion, I’m a huge fan of these collaborative songs, like Lo Siento, and I still support Lay despite his focus in China. These musical productions are widely and positively received, and it’s great to see K-pop idols acknowledging their international fans through their songs.
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It’s pretty interesting how this blog post examines the effects of THAAD on K-Pop and how the relationship between China and South Korea is strained after the deployment of THAAD. This blog post reminds me of another economic impact that THAAD had on the South Korean economy – China’s economic retaliation on K-Beauty brands in China. After the THAAD dispute caused political strife between China and South Korea, many Korean beauty brands in China have started to look elsewhere for consumers and new markets. In fact, one of the top budget beauty brands, SKINFOOD, filed for court receivership in 2018 because of operating losses that reached 1 billion won. Not only did the brand face fierce competition from other Korean beauty brands, SKINFOOD also suffered from China’s retaliation towards K-Beauty brands, which impacted the profits of more than 100 SKINFOOD stores in China. (http://www.theinvestor.co.kr/view.php?ud=20181010000567).
In addition, there’s no question that the K-Pop industry views the United States as a major, if not the final milestone for K-Pop groups. Many have tried to enter the U.S. market, including the Wonder Girls, SNSD, 2NE1, but only a few have truly succeeded – namely BTS and BLACKPINK. It can be argued that in a post-THAAD world, China becoming more closed off to Korea has enabled South Korea to shift its focus and strengthen its internationalization efforts elsewhere (https://www.forbes.com/sites/tamarherman/2018/02/28/in-a-post-thaad-world-k-pop-focuses-on-new-markets-aside-from-china/#4b9ecccd6d81).
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I did not expect there to be so much literature about THAAD’s impact on the Korean entertainment industry. I wonder in what other ways these geopolitical relations effect the culture industries in Korea. The Chinese government’s suppression of Korean cultural products in China seem to be unique because of the amount of control the Chinese government exerts over the media. However, I think the amount of literature that exists really point to the themes of the class. Responding to THAAD with a restriction on Korean tourism, Korean media, and Korean food is an indication of how important Korea’s cultural economies are to its national strategy. But more important, the fact that military relationships between Korea, U.S., and China have an impact on the entertainment industries illustrate how important the military and geopolitical considerations go into affecting the ‘everyday’ economy.
I’m also wondering how significant the Chinese markets are to Korean businesses. It seems like if China is prepared to retaliate by cutting of the flow of Korean goods to its domestic markets, then what is stopping China from doing so? It seems like it would be in China’s interests to use its economy as a political bargaining chip to dissuade military technology like THAAD from occurring in the future. Also, it seems as though China is gearing up to produce cultural products that compete with Korean cultural products. Unlike Korea, China also has military presence, so I’m wondering to what extent can China’s cultural products become popular? Is it currently pursuing a cultural model like what Korea did in the early 2000s? Is it aiming for something else?
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