Beat down by the sweltering Cambodian sun, a group ofteenagers took a rest from peddling pirated books and newspapers to tourists.One merchant switched on his mobile phone, playing the usual hit “GangnamStyle.” But the reaction among his peers wasn’t what it used to be. “So old, soold,” a friend jabbed lightheartedly.
At a nearby café, a Chinese-Cambodian businesswoman said shewas saving money to get cosmetic surgery in Gangnam, the glamorous BeverlyHills of Seoul that Psy raps about in his global hit. But the lure of plasticsurgery in Korea ” a trendy item for Asian women who want the pointy nose andlarger eyes they consider beautiful ” is apparently wearing off too. “I shouldbe careful. I don’t want to look like those K-pop girls. Too fake,” she said.“And those K-drama men, ugh, they look girly. Too much make-up.”
Last summer, the release of “Gangnam Style” raised theglobal profile of the “Korean Wave,” or hallyu, a pop culture fad that hasenchanted youth throughout Asia since the late 1990s. Today, teenagers inCambodia and elsewhere continue to ape South Korean films, television dramasand pop bands. But some here say the craze is getting a bit much, even for thePsy loyalists residing in Phnom Penh.
In China and Japan, two of the Korean Wave’s biggestmarkets, pride in homegrown pop culture has been gaining intensity since themid-2000s. Last year, a Taiwanese communications regulator requested thatstations play fewer Korean shows and music. In 2006, Chinese authorities cappedthe number of South Korean television shows that can be aired. Both countrieswere trying to prop up the entertainment industry at home.
Such a reaction is partly due to the growing perception thatSouth Korean pop culture is shallow, a view perpetuated by the relentlesssponsoring of K-pop by the South Korean government, often at the expense of itstraditional culture. Opposition to Korean Wave usually rides on otherfrictions, and doesn’t always come down to acceptance or rejection of Koreanpop culture itself. “As political issues rise and fall, culture can get suckedin. But so do cars, appliances, and whatever else,” said Mark Russell, authorof Pop Goes Korea: Behind the Revolution in Movies, Music and Internet Culture.
He doesn’t agree K-pop is faltering, despite the effortsunderway in other countries. “Girls Generation's ‘Gee’ has 95 million YouTubehits,” Russell said. “Frank Ocean doesn't have more than 12 million for asong.” It’s a picture he calls “muddy.” Or, for those Cambodian teenagers,apathy.
