South Korea, the global GenZ new frontier: "America used to be the dream"
- sebastienfalletti
- Dec 24, 2024
- 9 min read
Updated: Jan 5, 2025
REPORTAGE - Young Westerners, many of them French, are increasingly drawn to this new Asian Eldorado boosted by K-pop and the Netflix effect. Above all, they are seeking to escape from a society that is seen as anxiety-ridden and lacking in horizons, to take refuge in a safe, dynamic world. Even if the other side of the coin is far from rosy...
Pape San no longer dares to go out for an evening drink in Hongdae, Seoul's student district. "There are more French people here than in Shibuya! As soon as they see me, they approach me. It's nice, but sometimes I just want to be left alone," says the 28-year-old influencer, who stands out in the winding alleys of the South Korean capital. With a friendly smile, baggy pants and a black felt cap like his ebony skin, the Senegalese-born globetrotter with 1.5 million subscribers is caught up in his dazzling success.
This engineer by training changed his life by surfing online on the new Korean dream of French youth. "I said to myself: it's next to Japan, it must be nice", says the young man, who arrived in 2017 as an exchange student, and then noticed that "there was nothing" online about this country, at the time Asia's blind spot, despite the short-lived success of the hit Gangnam Style .
He began posting videos of his daily life in Seoul on YouTube and Instagram, and the success exceeded all his expectations. Funny sketches about the cultural gap between the West and this long barricaded Far Eastern peninsula, selling a new Korean dream of high-tech gadgets, spicy food and trendy cafés. He now makes his living as a globetrotter, taking his subscribers on exotic virtual strolls along the avenues of the sprawling megalopolis, interviewing passers-by, live on Twitch platforms, or posting on TikTok. "America used to be the dream, now it's Asia. Korea used to be a niche destination, now it's becoming mainstream thanks to its new soft power," enthuses Pape.
K-Pop fans
France's Generation Z (those young people born between the late 1990s and early 2010s, known as "zoomers") are flocking to Seoul, buoyed by Squid Game, the most-watched series in Netflix history, and the worldwide triumph of K-pop groups like Blackpink and boy band BTS. Dubbed the "Beatles of the YouTube era", these seven up-and-coming, porcelain-skinned boys with pinpoint choreography are filling Bercy stadium in Paris, and making emulators of their own. In the minimalist hall of Studio 1Million, located in Seongsu, Seoul's Brooklyn, Manon and Azzedine, bundled up in their tracksuits, can't wait to hit the blond parquet floor for a frenzied session with Lia Kim, choreographer of Blackpink, the most popular girl band on the planet, made up of four girls who have become Louis Vuitton or Chanel muses.
"We've been here for a year. We had the same passion for Korea. We wanted a change of scenery," explains Azzedine, 29, who arrived from Toulon on a working-holiday visa. The number of French students in South Korea has reached a record high of nearly 12,000, making it the largest contingent of Europeans in Seoul's universities. A drop in the bucket in this ethnically homogeneous "island" of 54 million inhabitants, separated from the mainland by the barbed wire of the DMZ, marking the border with communist North Korea.
Blackpink, how the queens of K-pop became the cash machine of luxury: https://madame.lefigaro.fr/style/blackpink-kpop-lisa-jennie-jisoo-rose-cash-machine-luxe-121020-183010
When Lia Kim bursts into the studio in her mauve tracksuit, some 40 budding dancers from all over the world try to keep up with the frenetic rhythm of the young whirlwind woman, mixing hip-hop and acrobatic wiggles in an overexcited, sweat-laden atmosphere. "There was a queue worthy of Boxing Day in London when we opened. People came from the ends of the earth just to dance with me! 75% of our visitors were foreigners before Covid," confides the founder of 1Million Studio.
A true blue-blue side
K-pop is a melting pot of influences, like bibimbap, a Korean dish combining vegetables, meat, egg and spicy sauce that has become a trendy item in trendy boutiques in New York and Paris. "Korea is the aesthetic of remix," sums up Ophélie Surcouf, author of K-pop culture. Toutes les clés pour comprendre la Corée (Hors collection, 2022). Seoul's ultra-connected creators have borrowed the sounds and codes of LA and London, remixing them to suit the tastes of an emerging Asia, before conquering the planet. Hallyu (the Korean wave) has conquered the world, starting with its neighbors and coming full circle by seducing the West.
The minimalist cube of 1 Million Studio sits in the heart of the trendy Seongsu district, packed with pop-up stores and vintage boutiques that attract the world's trendy youth... and their parents! Like Lucia, chaperoning her daughter who has come all the way from Mexico to try her hand at K-pop! "I'm here because I'm a fan of Korean series with my daughter," confesses this 47-year-old mother. So much so, in fact, that she travels all the way to Los Angeles to attend a concert, or comes on vacation to Seoul, in search of something different. "I didn't want the American dream. Everything is different here. It's a country that's developing much faster than Europe," explains the South American, who swears she's never watched a telenovela.
Korean series appeal to all generations, and even to conservative societies in the Middle East, with their romantic archetypes, featuring plots as old as Molière's, at a time when Hollywood is trivializing sex, and tearing itself apart over gender theory and LGBT romances. Surcouf analyzes the film as having an assertive, flowery side, "with no disdain for sentiment", and a suggested sensuality. Surprised by the phenomenal success of Squid Game, Netflix is investing $2.5 billion in Korean production over the next four years, while Parasite's Palme d'Or win has given Korean cinema its final accolade at Cannes.
Magdalena is also under the spell, and under the tutelage of one of her daughters is getting into the swing of things. "It's a huge city, and a technological slap in the face", says the Polish mother, whose daughters visited the palaces of the Joseon dynasty wearing hanbok, as in a historical series. Posing in this shimmering traditional costume is a best-seller for travel agencies, overwhelmed by the influx of visitors." There's a Netflix effect. It's exponential. This year, we're going to explode the 2019 figures," says Mélusine Blanchet, of the Cap Corée agency. The Land of the Morning Calm expects to welcome 28 million tourists in 2028, double the record set before the pandemic.
Tart stars
A revolution for a nation scarred by history, swept for centuries by invasions and squeezed between its two intimidating neighbors, imperial China and colonial Japan. A "closed room" described by Nicolas Bouvier in the aftermath of a devastating Korean War, a grayish industrial bastion set with factory chimneys, turning at a Stakhanovist pace, and long confused with its totalitarian rival Pyongyang. Seoul, les boules" ("Seoul, the balls!") was the cry of Air France crews when they inherited a flight to this labyrinth of low-rise, neon-lit buildings, where it was long impossible to get a cup of coffee.
The young democracy benefits opportunely from the repulsive effect of Xi Jinping's China, thanks to the voluntarist support of the government, attracting manga fans in search of a new frontier.
The acidulous Korean stars, omnipresent on social networks, take the new teenage generations by the hand to lead them into a parallel universe, in search of elsewhere and sometimes of Prince Charming, with the slogan "Love Yourself" ("Aime-toi", the title of BTS's star album). A graduate of business school, Léa Krasowski confesses to having fallen under the spell of the boy band's heady melodies, of which her little sister was a fan. "It's an auditory and visual bomb that keeps me glued to my screen," says the Miss PACA. A few months and hundreds of video clips later, the young Marseillaise landed in the heart of the Korean winter, braving the -15°C temperatures, in search of herself. "For me, South Korea is an exotic country. A skilful blend of tradition and modernity, carrying the dream of a vibrant life, where everything seems beautiful, perfect!" adds Léa.
Escape the gloom
It's a breath of fresh air for a generation that's touchy-feely and anxious about a world riddled with crises, from Gaza to the climate. "Korea embodies 'sweet power' with an anti-depressive edge. The American dream no longer works, and young people are looking for something else. Korea doesn't propose to change the world, but it does offer immediate pleasures," explains Surcouf.
This craze reveals the anxieties of a French youth in search of horizons, between gloom and a muted sense of decline. Safety comes first. "At a McDonald's in Seoul, you leave your phone on the table when you go to order. One day, I lost it and they brought it back to me in thirty minutes. That made me happy for Korea, but it made me sad for France," explains Azzedine. This conservative society, governed by codified politeness, powerful social control and widespread conformism, attracts young people in search of landmarks, particularly from immigrant backgrounds, like Azzedine.
"There's an escape from France, from the gloom, from unemployment. They come to Korea in search of an alternative. Here, these young people find themselves in a clear box, that of a foreigner from a developed country, whereas in France their nationality is questioned", says Lee Mi-ae, a sociologist at Hanshin University, who has investigated these new arrivals. This escape is often hampered by an ultra-competitive job market and visas issued in dribs and drabs. The Korean tiger, prone to recognition, loves the astonished visitors passing through, but remains on his guard against those who cling on. "We're just tolerated, put in a box by ourselves," explains a Seoul-based Frenchman.
A rigid society
Young girls make up the largest contingent of arrivals, enjoying the carefree atmosphere of the party, even when they return late from clubs in Hongdae. "Here, I never get whistled at in the street," rejoices 28-year-old Manon. This carefree attitude has recently been dented by sexual assaults on young Western women, victims of the rapist's drugs. "Riding the white mare", says a local expression, a fantasy of young men attracted by the exoticism of these girls deemed "easy".
Korea offers a paradise in trompe-l'œil, magnified by its cultural productions, but deemed stifling by its own youth in search of escape, in a paradoxical cross-Eurasian chase at the heart of the 21st century. While young Westerners set their sights on the Land of the Morning Calm, South Korean students denounce "Hell Joseon", in reference to the last royal dynasty, pointing to a rigid society inherited from Confucianism, torn between mimicry and ultra-competition.
They denounce the infernal pace and continual stress, without the social shock absorbers of the European welfare state. More than 60% of South Koreans dream of emigrating, according to a survey conducted in 2020 by the job site Matching Platform. They point first and foremost to the "lack of time to relax", at a time when President Yoon Seok-youl wants to restore the legal working week to 69 hours to boost the Samsung Republic. "They're stressed all the time," confirms a Frenchman based in Seoul.
Against a backdrop of demographic ageing, a dialogue of the deaf is taking place between generations and genders, deepened by the breathtaking speed of development in a country as poor as Ghana in the 1950s and now a member of the G20. "Young Koreans have grown up under immense pressure. They're not satisfied, but they haven't succeeded in inventing an alternative model of society," says Lee.
Short-lived fashion
Young women are at the forefront of this disenchantment, pursuing an "avoidance" strategy in the face of a society steeped in macho tradition, with the largest gender pay gap in the OECD. Faced with soaring property prices, which have doubled in five years in Seoul, many over-graduates stay at home until their forties, postponing marriage and burning through their savings, making Koreans the world's biggest consumers of luxury per capita, according to Morgan Stanley.
Deepfake porn: South Korea fights back against a flood of Internet sex crimes: http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/deepfake-porno-la-coree-du-sud-lutte-contre-un-deferlement-de-crimes-sexuels-sur-internet-20241019
It's a paradox for Asia's fourth-largest economy, which has embraced the technologies of tomorrow, becoming the world leader in electric batteries and microchips - the key to the new Sino-American Cold War - and overtaking Europe to have the world's lowest fertility rate (0.78 children per woman). "South Korea is clear-sighted about the future of its industry, but not its population. Koreans aspire to a less frenetic pace," says Philippe Li, founder of KEY, a Seoul-based think tank. This is a matter of urgency, given that the population is already shrinking and, according to projections, will shrink to 37 million by 2070, with far-reaching social implications.
Korea is already living out its Indian summer, condemned to being no more than a passing fad in the eyes of an Instagram generation insatiable for novelty? "Seoul is becoming very popular. But we're starting to hear some criticism," says Pape San, who has left to discover other parts of the world.
A game of mirrors
The borderless triumphs of these artists nonetheless mark a historic threshold for this secular nation, obsessed by its image, and threatened by supreme leader Kim Jong-un's nuclear headlong rush further north. In a reflective game of mirrors, "this international craze could influence the way Koreans perceive themselves, and contribute to the opening up of society in the future", says anthropologist Benjamin Joinau, a pioneer who arrived in a Seoul lined with freeways in the 1990s, and founder of Atelier des Cahiers. Asia's blind spot has made a name for itself, but is reluctant to slow down its Pali pali (fast fast) pace.
Sebastien Falletti Asia correspondent in Seoul
Copyright @lefigaro
