Korean wave

The Korean wave (Korean: 한류; Hanja: 韓流; RR: Hallyu; MR: Hallyu, , a neologism, literally meaning "wave/flow of Korea") is the increase in global popularity of South Korean culture since the 1980s. First driven by the spread of K-dramas and K-pop across East, Southeast and South Asia during its initial stages, the Korean Wave evolved from a regional development into a global phenomenon, carried by the Internet and social media and the proliferation of K-pop music videos on YouTube. While some sources attribute the term Hallyu, a variation of a Japanese expression using Ryu (流) as a postfix to refer ‘~way’, ‘~style’, ‘~group’, to being first used by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in South Korea in 1999, when the ministry produced a music CD titled in Chinese 韓流—Song from Korea; other sc

Korean wave

The Korean wave (Korean: 한류; Hanja: 韓流; RR: Hallyu; MR: Hallyu, , a neologism, literally meaning "wave/flow of Korea") is the increase in global popularity of South Korean culture since the 1980s. First driven by the spread of K-dramas and K-pop across East, Southeast and South Asia during its initial stages, the Korean Wave evolved from a regional development into a global phenomenon, carried by the Internet and social media and the proliferation of K-pop music videos on YouTube. While some sources attribute the term Hallyu, a variation of a Japanese expression using Ryu (流) as a postfix to refer ‘~way’, ‘~style’, ‘~group’, to being first used by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in South Korea in 1999, when the ministry produced a music CD titled in Chinese 韓流—Song from Korea; other sc