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South Korea is at the epicentre of mass media and popular culture in Asia. It is one of the main providers
of non-Western flow of media and entertainment products. McPhail (2020) attributed the success of South
Korea popular culture into regional markets as the mark of resilience of the subaltern, ending the grip of
the era of American and Western Europe’s dominance of the global centres of media industry. Planners
and strategists in managing the Hallyu were able to determine the target audience firstly in Asia, and then
the world. Now the megaspectacle of Korean creative products have captured whole of Asia, Europe,
North America, Middle East, North and South Africa and spreading.

One question to ponder is: what makes Korean popular culture well-received globally challenging the
dominant big exporters, the Western Belt. In theoretical terms, popular culture of South Korea and
Southeast Asia is a meeting point that is bound to happen, and it was just a matter of time for these two
cultural entities to meet and transform into various forms of globalized mutuality due to potentialities from

cultural and religious proximities (Suh et.al 2013). Cultural proximity, emotional closeness are the two
factors that make Korean popular culture sweep across the globe.
In the eagerness to finally sever colonial ties, Southeast Asia needed no persuasion to receive
convenient and easy steps to attach with the regional and local identities. Undoubtedly Korean texts
are liberally infused with common Asian values readily acceptable throughout the region’s market and
audience (Suh et. al 2013). McPhail (2010) observed that the five values embedded in the South Korean
cultural products are “harmony, tension, compromise, participation and agreement,” skillfully
interwoven into the various cultures in China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and
Philippines and Singapore.

The genre has been known to play a role in conveying a message of hope and mutual assistance, unity and
harmony in the future. It carries a universal appeal and delve into universal topics engaging global
audiences. By 2000s, South Korea was competing with Japan to become the new Asian cool. By 2010s
Korean popular culture began to innovatively reach out to their fan bases through social media.

FUTURE COLLECTIVE ACTIVITIES

Malaysia constantly seeks partners in the international agendas that promote sustainable
development goals. Government initiatives include the Covid-19 rescue plans such as the Digital Creative
Content policies and initiatives, viz., Penjana, Prisma (Malaysian Creative Industry Stimulus Package), as
well as Malaysia-Korea Cooperation in Digital Content Industry.

Our foreign policy has steadfastly focused on commerce and civil society. The leading agencies pursuing
this agenda is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Ministry of International Trade and The Ministry of
Tourism, Arts and Culture.

For instance, the Department of Multilateral Affairs at the MOFA develops plans for bilateral ties with
countries around the world, especially those pursuing art and culture. Like South Korea, one of the key
areas is to focus on developing cultural soft power.

The Malaysian government, like so many other states has actively taken a top-down policy approach on
the creative economy and has prioritized looking at the creative content industry from different

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