Researcher: Indonesians Know South Korean Culture Better Than Their Own

December 29, 2024 | 08:02 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Harvard University PhD candidate Gangsim Eom said in her research that she found that Indonesians are more familiar with South Korean culture than with Indonesian culture itself. "I was quite surprised by the results of this survey. 53.5 percent of Indonesians feel that Korean culture is not at all foreign to them," she said at the Indonesian Next Generation Journalist Network workshop organized by the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI) and the Korea Foundation in early December 2024.

On the other hand, when asked how foreign the respondents were to regional cultures that are far from your area in Indonesia compared to Korean culture, only 15.8 percent of respondents answered that they were not foreign. Even 27.2 percent of respondents answered that they were quite foreign to Indonesian culture. "This is very surprising to me," said Gangsim Eom.

Gangsim Eom admitted that when she was in Indonesia, she felt like she was at home. South Korean culture was increasingly accessible to her. When she went to the minimarket closest to her house, she already had many choices of Korean food. Some of them were instant noodles from Korea.

Then there were also kiosks that offered various Korean foods. Starting from kiosks targeted at the lower middle class, to kiosks for the upper middle class. Some offered Korean food in tents, and it was also easy to get Korean food in restaurants in Indonesia.

The data also supports the popularity of South Korean culture in Indonesia. Gangsim Eom said that there were 80.8 thousand fans of BTS - the most famous band from South Korea - who came from Indonesia. The number of BTS fans reached 20 percent of the total BTS fans worldwide. Indonesia even ranked first with the number of BTS fans from 100 countries in the world.

Even the Spotify brand at the end of 2023 stated that 4 of the top 10 cities with the most listeners of the South Korean band Seventeen came from Indonesia. The listeners of the South Korean band come from Jakarta with 500,000 in first place, Bandung with 189,000 listeners in 5th place. Then there are 178,000 listeners of the band who come from Surabaya in 6th place, and 122,000 fans from Semarang who are in 8th place.

K-Pop is indeed increasingly 'ingrained' in Indonesia. It can be seen that there are more and more offers of K-Pop concerts in the country. Gangsin Eom said that the growth of Korean concerts began with the concert of singer Rain in 2009 in Jakarta. Since then, more and more Korean artists have held their stages in Indonesia. For example, Blackpink, SM Town to TWICE. The creative stage has not been added to the offer of a fan meeting stage from a number of Korean actors and actresses.

Then the K-wave grew stronger and entered the world of politics. This can be seen from how the Indonesian Presidential Candidates who participated in the Presidential Election last February uploaded various social media content about K-Pop. One of them, how Ganjar Pranowo, presidential candidate number 3, uploaded one of his supporters holding up a poster written in Hangul, the Korean alphabet.

Even in the world of economics, South Korean content is increasingly felt. For example, it can be seen from the increasing number of Indonesian brands that use brand ambassadors from South Korea. For example, actor Park Seo Jun who represents the Blibli shopping page, there is also singer Baekhyun EXO who is the face of Allo Bank. Then there is also the Girl Group Twice who is the brand ambassador for the Scarlett Whitening beauty cream.

Deputy Ad Interim for Digital Creativity and Technology at the Ministry of Creative Economy, Muhammad Neil El Himam said that Indonesia has a lot of culture that can be showcased to the world. "We have 200 local languages and cultural traditions of invaluable artistic value. All of that is a valuable asset for the creative economy industry," he said.

Neil invites all people to take part in developing Indonesia's creative economy industry. According to him, developing the creative industry requires hands not only from the government team, but also from the media, academics, communities, and also entrepreneurs. The hope is that there is a suitable ecosystem to improve this field. According to Neil, currently around 25 million Indonesians depend on the creative industry. "This number has doubled compared to 10 years ago," Neil continued.

Neil is sure that the success of the Korean Wave in Indonesia can be an example to develop the country's creative industry for the world. "Korea's achievements with K-Pop, films, and also culinary have succeeded in inspiring us all. We also have a lot of potential to develop our own culture," he said.

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