Hallyu Wave: reflexos da diplomacia cultural sul-coreana na relação bilateral com a China

Abstract

The attacks of September 11, 2011 highlighted the importance of developing a political agenda not only based on hard power. Besides that, the recent nuclearization of North Korea has raised East Asian to International Security agenda, in faced of the possibility of a new war. However, differently of the northern part of peninsula, the Republic of Korea has been improving its soft power mechanisms since the 1997 financial crisis. Thus, contrary to the use of hard power, the present study stands out by the approach of Cultural Diplomacy as a tool for building a Nation Branding by South Korea and improving the country's image with China. That monograph, did from a qualitative descriptive study, examines the extent to which Hallyu Wave contributed to the development of bilateral Sino-South Korean relations. Initially, a bibliographical review regarding the definition of soft power and Cultural Diplomacy was carried out. Subsequently, it was presented how the culture was added to the South Korea government’s agenda. Finally, after describing the historical-cultural relations between Beijing and Seoul, the effects of Hallyu in China are presented, corroborating the hypothesis that the main reason for China's heavy consumption of South Korean cultural products is due to their hybridization and a non-imperialist history of South Korea; that government incentives to expand Hallyu Wave since 1997 have contributed to a greater economic and cultural approximation between the two countries.