Psy speaks with CNN

Editor's note: Jeff Yang is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal Online and can be heard frequently on radio as a contributor to shows such as PRI's "The Takeaway" and WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show." He is the author of "I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action" and editor of the graphic novel anthologies "Secret Identities" and "Shattered." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) -- For many years, I had a pretty good working definition of cool: It was the thing that I was not.

I was a chubby, bespectacled kid with a bowl haircut and my nose buried in the nearest book. When it came time to choose up sides for sports, they assigned me to the team with the best players — as a handicap. The cool kids came to school in Jordans and Polo. I rocked Keds and fake Sanrio T-shirts my aunts sent to us from Taiwan.

And that, of course, pointed to the biggest and most insurmountable obstacle standing in the way of my joining the ranks of the cool — the fact that I was one of just four Asian kids in my entire school, a tally that included my younger sister. The cool kids were all white, except for a handful of black and Latino athletes. My fellow Asian students, meanwhile, were to varying degrees just like me: We were seen as permanently different, always out of sync with the shifting tides of style and status. Not quite outcast, but never part of the in crowd either.

Jeff Yang

So when the phenomenon of Asian cool first arrived, I was caught off guard, and frankly, more than a little suspicious.

When I was in college, Japanese and Hong Kong pop culture were first catching fire at the fringes; they'd attracted plenty of enthusiasts, but those fans were no cooler than I was. (Possibly less cool.) By the time I was working as a young journalist, I found myself on a beat covering anime and action cinema, J-rock and Cantopop, gadgets and gaming — all things I was personally fascinated by, but couldn't quite believe had attracted the attention of the so-called mainstream. And I secretly thought that it couldn't last. The popularity of Asian pop culture was a fad, and like all fads would eventually fade.

I wasn't entirely wrong. After 1997 and reunification with mainland China, Hong Kong's star ebbed. Anime and manga remain hugely popular, but have lost the dominant position they once held among youth. Japan's once unassailable titans of technology — Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba — have seen their products fall out of place as the must-haves among mobile millennials.

 

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And yet, even as Hong Kong and Japan have moved out of the centerpoint of cultural cool, another Asian nation has stepped into the spotlight: South Korea — the origin point of Samsung, "Snowpiercer," Girls Generation and "Gangnam Style."

The surging popularity of Korean pop culture can be seen in the booming attendance at KCON, the annual California-based gathering for fans of Korean music, TV and cinema, which opens its doors this weekend at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

KCON 2013

"Our numbers have doubled each year," says Angela Killoren, chief marketing officer of the event's organizer, the North American subsidiary of Korean entertainment giant CJ E&M. "We had 10,000 fans at the first KCON 2012, 20,000 in 2013, and expect 30, around 40,000 to 50,000 persons overall enjoying the KCON experience this year" — which includes the appearance of major TV drama stars, a head-to-head pro gaming throwdown, a talent contest called SuperstarKCON and a concert featuring chart-busting idols Girls Generation and G-Dragon as headliners.

But even if Korea is the king of pop-culture cool now, can Korea hold onto the crown better than its Asian predecessors? That's a question Euny Hong addresses in her new book, "The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation Is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture."

"I think it can," she says. "The difference between cool Korea and earlier Asian pop culture waves is that Korea has been working to make this happen for almost two decades. Korea is cool because it decided to be cool — it's the first country in history that has made being cool a massive policy priority, backed by the Korean government to the tune of billions of dollars."

The fact is, the machine of Korean pop culture is as sleekly designed, systematically engineered and massively marketed as any Samsung gadget. It's not just a gigantic money-making industry, it's also the primary source of "soft power" by which the nation seeks to shorten its path from war-torn, third-world country to the top ranks of world influencers.

"Koreans have a deep-seated desire to see the nation recognized and validated," Hong says. "We study harder than anyone in the world, we work more hours, and it's all because of this need to see us finally come on top."

Japanese cool is quirky, the sum of the nation's eccentricities. Hong Kong cool is frenetic, representative of the society's freewheeling striving spirit. American cool is casual: It's cool that's anchored in doing without trying, it's about being quintessentially effortless.

By contrast, Korean cool could not be more effort-ful. The hypnotic appeal of K-pop videos are not just their candy-colored, otherworldly aesthetic, it's also because their performers — sometimes numbering in the dozens — are invariably dancing in perfect sync, with a level of precision possible only because candidates for K-pop glory are recruited as adolescents and trained for years in groups that are required to live, take classes, eat, sleep and rehearse together until they've achieved a transcendent level of harmony.

It all underscores the fact that the rise of Korean cool was hardly an accident — and that it could well have staying power.

American pop is often seen by nations around the world as an invading force, crushing native alternatives with the unfair-to-the-point-of-being-weaponized scale of its marketing budgets. Korean cool, by contrast, is recognized as the product of hard work and ingenuity, developed by a nation that just a few generations ago was newly bisected by war and mired in desperate poverty. In the fastest-growing markets in the world — Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East — K-pop is aspirational in part because it holds out hope that they, too, will someday be able to join the ranks of the global economy's cool kids.

Which means that lifelong nerds like myself might not be a completely lost cause, either. Back to practicing my precision dance routines.

是韓國在地球上最酷的地方嗎？
由傑夫·楊
2014年8月8日 - 更新2219 GMT（0619 HKT）
觀看此視頻
PSY說，與美國有線電視新聞網
新聞提要
傑夫·楊：多年來，我從來沒有一個時尚的年輕人，對在部分人群
楊：我很驚訝，當日本和香港的流行文化開始流行
他說，韓國現在是熱的-與韓流，三星，“ 江南風格 “的電影
楊：韓國最新的酷可以在採樣KCON本週末在洛杉磯
編者按：傑夫·楊是個專欄作家，華爾街日報在線，並可以經常聽到電台作為一個貢獻者節目，如革命制度黨的“外賣”和WNYC的“布賴恩·萊勒展”。他是作者“成龍我是：我的行動生活”“破碎”和圖畫小說集“秘密身份”，並主編 發表本評論中的觀點僅為作者。
（CNN） -多年來，我有酷的一個很好的工作定義：這是一點，我不是。
我是個胖乎乎的，戴著眼鏡的孩子一碗理髮，我的鼻子埋在最近的書。當它來到的時候選擇了邊運動，他們派我到球隊最好的球員 - 一個障礙。時尚的年輕人來到學校的喬丹和Polo。í震撼Keds公司和三麗鷗的假T卹姑姑發給我們來自台灣。
而這，當然，指了指站在我加入酷的行列方式的最大，最難以克服的障礙 - 事實上，我是一個只有四個在我的整個學校的亞裔孩子，理貨，包括我的妹妹。時尚的年輕人都是白色的，除了極少數的黑人和拉美裔運動員。我的同胞亞洲學生，同時，要改變我一樣度：我們用的風格和地位變化的趨勢看作是永久的不同，總是不同步。不太棄兒，但從來沒有部分人群要么。
傑夫·楊
傑夫·楊
因此，當亞洲涼的現象剛到，我猝不及防，坦白地說，多一點懷疑。
當我在大學，日本和香港的流行文化首先起火的邊緣; 他們倒是吸引了大量的愛好者，但這些球迷並沒有涼比我。（可能不太爽）通過我的工作作為一個年輕記者的時候，我發現自己在一拍涵蓋動漫和行動電影院，殲搖滾和粵語流行曲，小工具和遊戲 - 所有的事情我親自著迷，但禁不住“噸不太相信已經吸引了所謂的主流的關注。我暗自想，這不會長久。亞洲流行文化的普及是一種時尚，並像所有的潮流最終會消失。
我是不是完全錯誤的。1997年和回歸中國大陸後，香港的明星消退。動畫與漫畫仍然非常受歡迎，但已經失去了他們曾經在青年中佔據優勢地位。日本曾經無懈可擊的技術巨頭 - 索尼，松下，東芝 - 看到他們的產品掉下來的地方作為必備品手機千禧之一。
這是下一個“江南風格”？ 請問三星S5​​提供？
然而，即使是香港和日本已遷出文化涼爽的中心點，另外亞洲國家已步入聚光燈下： -韓國三星的原點，“ Snowpiercer，“ 少女時代 “的江南風格。“
韓國流行文化的湧動普及可以看出，在蓬勃發展的出席KCON，每年加州的聚會，韓國音樂，電視和電影，這在洛杉磯紀念體育場拉開帷幕，本週末的球迷。
KCON 2013
KCON 2013
“我們的數字每年都成倍增長，”安吉拉Killoren，活動的組織者的首席營銷官，韓國娛樂巨頭CJ E＆M的北美子公司說道。“我們在2013年曾萬球迷在第一KCON 2012年，20,000，預計30日，約40,000至50,000人，今年整體享受KCON體驗” - 其中包括主要的影視劇明星的模樣，頭對頭親遊戲對決，人才的較量稱為SuperstarKCON和音樂會圖表剋星偶像少女時代和G龍作為頭條新聞。
但是，即使是韓國流行文化的勁酷現在，韓國能守住冠要比其他亞洲前輩好？這是一個問題Euny香在她的新書解決，“ 韓國酷的誕生：如何一個民族是征服世界，通過流行文化。“
“我認為是可以的，”她說。“酷韓國和更早亞洲流行文化的波之間的區別是，韓國一直在努力實現這一目標近二十年韓國很酷，因為它決定冷靜 - 這是歷史上的第一個國家已經取得了作為酷了大規模的優先政策，支持韓國政府的數十億美元的調子。“
事實是，韓國流行文化的機器為真彩設計，系統地設計和大量銷售的任何三星的小工具。這不只是一個巨大的賺錢行業，這也是“軟實力”，其中國家尋求縮短全球影響力的頂尖行列，從飽受戰爭蹂躪，第三世界國家的道路的主要來源。
“韓國人有一個根深蒂固的願望，看到了國家的認可和驗證，”洪說。“我們比世界上任何人更努力地學習，我們的工作更多的時間，這都是因為這需要看我們終於來到了在上面。”

日本酷是古怪的，民族的怪癖的總和。香港酷是狂熱的，有代表性的社會隨心所欲的奮鬥精神。美國酷休閒：這是很酷的公司挂靠在做，但不嘗試，它是關於是典型的不費力。
相比之下，韓國的酷得不能再努力，FUL。的K - 流行音樂視頻的催眠魅力不只是他們的糖果色，超凡脫俗的美感，這也是因為他們的表演 - 有時編號的數十名 - 都不約而同地在舞蹈的完美同步，以盡可能精確的程度，只是因為候選人的K-流行的榮耀被招募為青少年和訓練多年的團體所需要的生活，上課，吃飯，睡覺，一起排練，直到他們已經取得了和諧的一種超然的水平。
這一切都凸顯了一個事實，即朝鮮清涼的興起幾乎沒有一個意外 - 而且，它很可能有後勁。
美國流行通常看到國家在世界各地的侵略軍，粉碎了原生備選方案不公平到了，點的幸福 - 武器化，其營銷預算的規模。韓爽，相比之下，被公認為是勤勞智慧的產物，由只有幾個世代前被戰爭剛一分為二，並陷入絕望的貧窮國家的發​​展。在增長最快的市場之一 - 東南亞，拉美，非洲，中東 - K - 流行音樂是理想，部分原因是它擁有了希望，他們也將有一天能夠加入全球行列經濟的時尚的年輕人。
這意味著終生的書呆子像我可能不是一個完全失敗的事業，無論是。回到我練精的舞蹈動作。