Reinterpretation of cultural imperialism: emerging domestic market vs continuing US dominance

Abstract

The Korean audio-visual industry has begun producing and exporting domestic television programs and films on a large scale, while reducing imports from the US. The reverse or counter-cultural imperialism, which emphasized the arrival of cultural pluralism, seems to apply in the case of Korea, with the rapid growth of domestic cultural industries and their exports to the East and Southeast Asian regions. The process remains complex, however, because the US still dominates the Korean cultural market through both cultural products and capital. This article investigates the recent development of Korea's cultural industry as empirical evidence to demonstrate whether cultural imperialism has phased out. It explores Korean cultural product flow in Asia by focusing on product sourcing as well as several dimensions of causality for the increase in exports of cultural products to ascertain the role of the Korean cultural industry in audiovisual product trade in recent years. It then challenges the assertions made by the reverse cultural imperialism thesis and explores whether the concept of cultural imperialism is still useful in explaining the Korean cultural market. The article also analyzes the nature of the transnationalization of the Korea cultural industry as one of the most significant forms of current cultural imperialism.