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Definition

Hallyu

What is Hallyu?

The "Korean Wave": the global spread of South Korean pop culture (k-pop, k-dramas, film).

Articles that cover it

Korea
KCON JEJU 2015, stadium concert, Shinhwa
Business & Tech6 min

K-pop for export: YouTube, song camps and cultural policy

Three concrete cogs behind K-pop's export: distribution through YouTube, the song camps where foreign writers build the hits, and state support.

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Korea
BTS Love Yourself - Speak Yourself tour at Rose Bowl, Pasadena (California), 4 May 2019 03
Pop Culture6 min

BTS: the rise of a group that moved the lines

From the small Big Hit agency to stadiums and the United Nations: the story of BTS, the stages of its global breakthrough, the role of ARMY and what it changed for K-pop.

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Korea
Les huit membres du groupe coreen Hearts2Hearts en tenue de scene noire assortie, micros-casques aux levres, poses en deux rangees devant des faisceaux lumineux bleus lors d'une rencontre avec les fans en fevrier 2026
Pop Culture7 min

K-pop's fifth generation: the rookies rewriting the rules

Hearts2Hearts, KiiiKiii, ALLDAY PROJECT, AHOF: what the 2025-2026 rookie class really says about K-pop's fifth generation and its new methods.

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Korea
Cour interieure du decor de tournage du drame historique coreen Dae Jang Geum, batiments de bois peints et cuisine royale reconstituee
Pop Culture9 min

K-drama: the four waves, and where to start

Thirty years in four waves, who broadcasts what, the narrative codes to see once, and the beginner mistakes that spoil your first series.

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Korea
Groupe de K-pop IVE en performance sur la scene du K-POP Super Live du Jamboree mondial du scoutisme 2023, en Coree du Sud
Business & Tech7 min

K-pop comebacks: anatomy of a marketing machine

The K-pop comeback decoded: teaser schedules, multi-version albums, first-week sales, music shows, TikTok challenges and the human cost of the cycle.

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Korea
Gros plan d'un plat de jokbal coreen, pied de porc braise, plat emblematique des mukbang
Society11 min

Mukbang: the Korean origin of a global phenomenon

Mukbang, those videos of people eating on camera, was born in South Korea around 2009. The story of a portmanteau, a shared distant meal and a worldwide hit.

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Korea
Une membre du girl group MyB fait le geste du « finger heart » (손하트), symbole de l'aegyo, le charme mignon si prisé de la culture pop coréenne.
Society11 min

Aegyo: The Korean Art of Performed Cuteness

Baby voice, finger heart, buing buing: aegyo is a Korean relational language. Origins, repertoire, the gender debate, and its Asian cousins decoded.

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Korea
Assiette de poulet frit coréen yangnyeom nappée de sauce rouge sucrée-épicée, plat vedette du chimaek.
Food11 min

Chimaek: Fried Chicken and Beer, Korea's National Religion

Crisp fried chicken and cold beer: how chimaek became a ritual of Korean sociability and a cultural export of the country.

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Korea
Chanteuse de pansori en hanbok tenant un éventail, accompagnée d'un joueur de tambour buk lors d'une performance traditionnelle coréenne
Culture11 min

Han: Korean Melancholy, Between Grief and Pride

Han (한, 恨), that Korean sorrow made of swallowed resentment and endurance, is it an age-old essence or a colonial invention? An honest inquiry.

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Korea
Scène de concert baignée de lumières roses et bleues avec un groupe d'idols coréens en pleine performance.
Society8 min

The Korean Idol System: Trainees, Agencies, and the Star Factory

How the trainee system works in South Korea. Recruitment from age 10, 2-7 years of intensive training, Big 4 (HYBE, SM, JYP, YG), trainee debt and 2025 reforms.

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Korea
Scène de concert K-pop éclairée de rose et de bleu, danseurs devant une enseigne lumineuse.
Pop Culture8 min

The five generations of K-pop: from Seo Taiji to NewJeans

Seo Taiji, TVXQ, BTS, NewJeans: what really separates K-pop's five generations, with dates, founding groups and shifts in the model.

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Japan
Ku Hye-sun lors de la conférence de presse du drama Boys Over Flowers (2009), dans lequel elle incarne Geum Jan-di.
Culture9 min

Boys Over Flowers: How a Japanese Manga Became a Korean and Global Phenomenon

From Hana Yori Dango to Boys Over Flowers, a look back at the history of a franchise that crossed borders, languages, and screens, from shojo manga to the most widely exported K-drama of the 21st century.

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Korea
Public du K-pop World Festival, illustration de la vague coréenne hallyu.
Culture5 min

Hallyu: How the Korean Wave Conquered the World

The history of hallyu, the Korean wave: the birth of the term, K-dramas, K-pop, Parasite and Squid Game, soft power and the state strategy behind a global phenomenon.

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Japan
Maiko en kimono traditionnel, apprentie geisha au Japon.
Arts11 min

Manga, manhwa, manhua: an East Asian culture glossary

Shōjo, seinen, hallyu, xianxia, webtoon: a dictionary of the terms, genres and traditions of Japan, South Korea and China, sorted by country.

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Korea
Illustration de Lee Do-yeong, pionnière de la bande dessinée coréenne moderne.
Culture6 min

Webtoon: how Korea reinvented the comic

History and codes of the Korean webtoon: from manhwa to vertical mobile scroll, the Naver and Kakao platforms, the free model and adaptations into global K-dramas.

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Hallyu : Definition · Kotoba Interactive