The Overly Simplified Politicization of Soft Power
On the massive central plaza inside the sprawling Korean-owned mall that is Lotte Shopping Avenue, there was an event involving what seems to be an exchange between Korean and Indonesian high school students. Yet, the event was nothing fun and games. The students were drawing massive South Korean national flags, with additional one-story high color posters hanging on the walls behind the central plaza. The posters, with large English texts and cartoon drawings, claimed "Dokdo: islands of Korea!" "Donghae: the East Sea of Korea!" and "Celebrate the Life of An Jung-Geun!"
For those not familiar with Korean history, all three slogans in the posters form the country's continued historical disputes with Japan. The two countries both claim sovereignty over a group of uninhabited islands that the Koreans call Dokdo and the Japanese call Takeshima. The Koreans want the international community to rename the Sea of Japan as the East Korea Sea. and An Jung-Geun is a famed assassin of Ito Hirofumi, the first Japanese prime minister and architect of Japan's colonization of Korean Peninsula.
Against these outright political posters, Indonesian and Korean students, wearing white shirts with large letters "Dokdo" (and drawing of the islands) and holding small South Korean flags in their hands, were taking group pictures as a successful end to their activity for the day. Whiel the author cannot know for sure what activities were done aside from creating and posting the flags and posters, it is obvious that the event involving two groups of students had a very clear goal of propagating a very Korean political stance among the Indonesian populace.
The author was flabbergasted that such an event can take place, even if it is happening within a shopping mall wholly owned by a major Korean conglomerate. The mild shock is in a couple of perspectives. First, the mall is full of Japanese tenants, many of which, such as Uniqlo and Best Denki, are big enough to be the anchors of the entire mall. By approving such an overtly political activity, is the mall operator transmitting a political message that those Japanese tenants must silently acquiesce to the anti-Japanese political stance of the mall owners?
Second and much worse, is how Indonesian kids (and the country) is dragged into a political stance for which they do not understand the background of and do not need to be concerned of in the first place. The overwhelming majority of the hundred-odd students participating, both on the Korean and the Indonesian sides, are underage girls with likely little political knowledge or interest. To shove these sensitive political stances down their throats without proper education of the relevant historical background does not lead to awareness of the issues but pure brainwashing.
Unfortunately, looking around the mall itself shows just how willing the Indonesian populace may accept the Korean stances with little hesitation. The mall itself is a physical manifestation of Korea's unrivaled cultural soft power on this side of Asia, complete with an Avenue of Stars displaying the wall-sized pictures of the most well-known Korean celebrities, Korean cosmetic stores and restaurants, as well as electronics stores with large Korean-made flat-screen TVs blasting the latest Kpop hits almost non-stop to the mall-shoppers.
Of course, all such Korean cultural products have gone down extremely well with the Indonesian youth, who seem to be crazy about Korean food, dramas, variety shows, music, and celebrities as they are in other parts of Asia. But to take this affinity to Korean culture to a political sphere is simply ridiculous. To an unbiased observer, it would be highly unsettling to follow a logic such as "oh, you like Korean dramas and music, well, that's great, you should believe that Dokdo is Korean too!" Gaining global support through such blind acceptance can only draw ire from Japan.
But perhaps the worst aspect of such behavior undoubtedly condoned by the Korean government authorities is the damage it does to the very concept of soft power. Soft power, while allowing some countries to become more favorably viewed than others, should not present itself a weapon in a zero-sum game. Liking Korean dramas does not prevent the same person from liking Japanese manga, for instance. But by associating Korean cultural products with a specific, confrontational political position, the Koreans are in essence coaxing followers of its culture to do so almost exclusively.
In the long-term, however, the Koreans themselves maybe the greatest victims of such tactics. The best and most globally acceptable cultural products created as results of cross-cultural collaborations that can incorporate diverse tastes in final output. But introducing confrontation through underlying political message, the Korean soft power is slowly narrowing the list of willing partners abroad who can help Koreans to continue innovating their cultural products for the global markets. The ensuing stagnation of Korean cultural innovation may end up killing a soft power that is influential enough to make controversial political stances in the first place.
For those not familiar with Korean history, all three slogans in the posters form the country's continued historical disputes with Japan. The two countries both claim sovereignty over a group of uninhabited islands that the Koreans call Dokdo and the Japanese call Takeshima. The Koreans want the international community to rename the Sea of Japan as the East Korea Sea. and An Jung-Geun is a famed assassin of Ito Hirofumi, the first Japanese prime minister and architect of Japan's colonization of Korean Peninsula.
Against these outright political posters, Indonesian and Korean students, wearing white shirts with large letters "Dokdo" (and drawing of the islands) and holding small South Korean flags in their hands, were taking group pictures as a successful end to their activity for the day. Whiel the author cannot know for sure what activities were done aside from creating and posting the flags and posters, it is obvious that the event involving two groups of students had a very clear goal of propagating a very Korean political stance among the Indonesian populace.
The author was flabbergasted that such an event can take place, even if it is happening within a shopping mall wholly owned by a major Korean conglomerate. The mild shock is in a couple of perspectives. First, the mall is full of Japanese tenants, many of which, such as Uniqlo and Best Denki, are big enough to be the anchors of the entire mall. By approving such an overtly political activity, is the mall operator transmitting a political message that those Japanese tenants must silently acquiesce to the anti-Japanese political stance of the mall owners?
Second and much worse, is how Indonesian kids (and the country) is dragged into a political stance for which they do not understand the background of and do not need to be concerned of in the first place. The overwhelming majority of the hundred-odd students participating, both on the Korean and the Indonesian sides, are underage girls with likely little political knowledge or interest. To shove these sensitive political stances down their throats without proper education of the relevant historical background does not lead to awareness of the issues but pure brainwashing.
Unfortunately, looking around the mall itself shows just how willing the Indonesian populace may accept the Korean stances with little hesitation. The mall itself is a physical manifestation of Korea's unrivaled cultural soft power on this side of Asia, complete with an Avenue of Stars displaying the wall-sized pictures of the most well-known Korean celebrities, Korean cosmetic stores and restaurants, as well as electronics stores with large Korean-made flat-screen TVs blasting the latest Kpop hits almost non-stop to the mall-shoppers.
Of course, all such Korean cultural products have gone down extremely well with the Indonesian youth, who seem to be crazy about Korean food, dramas, variety shows, music, and celebrities as they are in other parts of Asia. But to take this affinity to Korean culture to a political sphere is simply ridiculous. To an unbiased observer, it would be highly unsettling to follow a logic such as "oh, you like Korean dramas and music, well, that's great, you should believe that Dokdo is Korean too!" Gaining global support through such blind acceptance can only draw ire from Japan.
But perhaps the worst aspect of such behavior undoubtedly condoned by the Korean government authorities is the damage it does to the very concept of soft power. Soft power, while allowing some countries to become more favorably viewed than others, should not present itself a weapon in a zero-sum game. Liking Korean dramas does not prevent the same person from liking Japanese manga, for instance. But by associating Korean cultural products with a specific, confrontational political position, the Koreans are in essence coaxing followers of its culture to do so almost exclusively.
In the long-term, however, the Koreans themselves maybe the greatest victims of such tactics. The best and most globally acceptable cultural products created as results of cross-cultural collaborations that can incorporate diverse tastes in final output. But introducing confrontation through underlying political message, the Korean soft power is slowly narrowing the list of willing partners abroad who can help Koreans to continue innovating their cultural products for the global markets. The ensuing stagnation of Korean cultural innovation may end up killing a soft power that is influential enough to make controversial political stances in the first place.
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