User:Sarahyonin/Culture of South Korea

Here is the link to the article

These paragraphs below will most likely be the information within the main space, however, I am writing them more accurately and in-depth below under their respective headings.


 * KakaoTalk in the pop culture sub area of the page
 * KakaoTalk is used throughout the majority of South Korea, competing against top brands such as Naver. Within the umbrella of KakaoTalk lies many features that many individuals use such as KakaoBank, KakaoNavi, and KakaoGames to name a few. Furthermore, even though there have been some privacy issues within the utilization of the KakaoTalk app (especially after the Sewol Ferry Incident), many citizens of South Korea still choose to use it. Along with its resourcefulness within the app, KakaoFriends (the group of mascot characters within the app) have been used for promotion with K-pop groups like TWICE, a partnership with PUBG, and also athletic brands like Nike. Additionally, Kakao has numerous amounts of physical stores all across South Korea that attract Koreans and even foreigners to shop and take photos in. Items range from plushies, golf clubs, to even apparel. With this, there is massive amounts of revenue coming into the company every day. Due to the popularity of Kakao overseas, even citizens outside of South Korea utilize KakaoTalk. Within this article I would like to talk about this since it is a huge aspect of South Korean identity and is a major factor when bringing in international revenue.
 * Literature of South Korea
 * In the beginnings of Korea, there was a huge influx of influence from China and even other bordering countries such as Mongolia. Due to this, the Korean language that we know and read today did not exist prior to the year 1443. Rather than Hangul being utilized, Hanja was the main written literary tool. Hanja is the utilization of Chinese characters within South Korea. The creation of Hangul came around through the help of King Sejong the Great who created it in order for the citizens to freely express themselves since only the wealthy were able to learn the complexities of the Chinese language. I feel that the paragraph that covered this topic before was not up to par with explaining all the complexities of Korean literature. I have already gone through and edited a lot of this portion of the article but am still in the process of adding more information that is relevant.
 * Traditional music from South Korea (folk performances)
 * Pansori is a traditional musical art form within Korea that dates back to the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897). "Pan" meaning an open space where individuals come to gather and "sori" meaning sound. Pansori performances consist of a singer and a drummer, the singer telling the story using special techniques that require years of training, and the drummer producing beats for the story to flow and also morally supporting the singer. Furthermore, it is even encouraged that the audience take part within the performance and also support the singer. The purpose of Pansori was to tell tales and stories to individuals who would take the time to listen since most stories range from 3 hours to 8-9 hours from start to finish. There are 5 traditional stories that are performed for audiences, but since Pansori is orally transmitted, there have been many stories lost throughout history. Each story contains a theme whether it be about filial piety, love, or the sorrows of individuals releasing their "han". "Han" is an emotion within a person that is negative and usually is tied with grieving, regret, or resentment.  Within this article I believe it is also important to insert a section of traditional culture as well. The original heading of this article mentions traditional culture of South Korea forming and cultivating the now modernized culture of South Korea, but there is hardly any mention of traditional culture. Along with this thought of adding Pansori to the article, I feel it is also important to add things like clothing within the time period right before modernization along with the cultural practices. With background information of how South Korea was like right before modernization, it will give future readers somewhat of an idea of what South Korea was like before the Hallyu Wave (which is what most of the general population outside of South Korea know of, other than North Korea).
 * Emergence of Korean pop culture (Hallyu Wave)
 * The beginning of Korean pop culture and how it began to spread around globally. I would be referencing to some of the readings that we have had in class along with resources found on the internet. This would be the bridge topic that would connect premodernized Korea into modernized Korea into globally known Korea. (Joseon Dynasty-Japanese Occupation-Hallyu Wave) <- I would have to hit these major events for everything to connect.

KakaoTalk
REFERENCES//SOURCES:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/korea-biggest-messaging-app-kakao-124234644.html

https://medium.com/@madebyalive/what-is-kakao-and-why-should-you-care-fcb430bc61d0

https://www.addthis.com/blog/2017/12/01/what-you-should-know-about-kakaotalk/#.Xb-vnJpKhPZ

https://www.statista.com/statistics/278846/kakaotalk-monthly-active-users-mau/

https://www.trutower.com/2013/12/23/kakao-number-of-users-revenues-and-profits-2013/

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20140224001578

https://thenextweb.com/asia/2013/07/16/korean-messaging-app-kakao-talks-games-platform-grossed-311-million-in-h1-2013/

http://pubg.game.daum.net/pubg/event/pointshop/main.daum#

http://koreabizwire.com/kakao-friends-nike-products-sell-out-quickly/143324

https://www.allkpop.com/article/2019/10/twice-and-kakao-friends-to-launch-collaboration-goods

https:///article/1344292wpp/kakao-friends-announces-collaboration-with-twice-for-release-of-1st-k-pop-collection

https://www.venturesquare.net/world/pubg-korea-kakao/

http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20160703000267 https://seoulinsidersguide.com/kakaoline/

KakaoTalk is used throughout the majority of South Korea, competing against top brands such as Naver's app, LINE. It is reported that about 93% of the South Korean population utilizes KakaoTalk and as of September 2016, there were about 49.1 million active users worldwide. KakaoTalk is available to individuals outside of the country of South Korea, offering app capabilities in 14 different languages and accessible for Apple products and Androids. Within the umbrella of KakaoTalk lies many features that many individuals use such as KakaoBank, KakaoNavi, and KakaoGames. In combination with all of these features, plus the KakaoFriends line, KakaoTalk garnered around $393 million in 2017. KakaoFriends are also popular offline as much as they are online. KakaoFriends have physical stores located around South Korea and Japan and have also been used for promotion with K-pop groups like TWICE, a partnership with PUBG, and also athletic brands like Nike. In addition to these collaborations and physical stores attracting tourists globally, KakaoFriends have even been chosen as "tourism ambassadors" in South Korea.

Literature
REFERENCES//SOURCES:

https://books.google.com/books?id=nonRl2cerIgC&pg=PA15#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/King_Sejong

https://www.jstor.org/stable/24922980?seq=7#metadata_info_tab_contents

https://zkorean.com/hangul/history_of_hangul_part_2

Modern literature is often linked with the development of Hangul (한글), which was created by the fourth emperor of the Joseon Dynasty, King Sejong the Great (세종대왕), in the Hunminjeongeum (훈민정음). The publication of the Korean alphabet in 1443 was a surprise to many as there are no records of King Sejong working on it, concluding that the king was doing it in secret. This move was initially made to help spread literacy from the dominant scholarly-official class,the Yangban (양반), to the common people— including women. Before the creation of Hangul, the common text being read was Hanja, which are Chinese characters. However, due to the complexities of the Chinese language, only those from wealthy families who could afford an education were able to learn it due to the various meanings and tones that are attached to a Chinese character. Furthermore, like any other language, Hanja was not able to capture the entire meaning of words that were spoken in Korean, so it was hard to decipher what citizens were attempting to say. Hangul, however, only reached a dominant position in Korean literature in the second half of the 19th century, resulting in a major growth in Korean literature. Sinsoseol, for instance, are novels written in hangul.

Traditional Culture//Pansori
REFERENCES//SOURCES

https://www.britannica.com/art/pansori

https://pansoriethnomusicology.wordpress.com/2017/05/16/what-is-pansori/

https://gugak.go.kr/site/program/board/basicboard/view?menuid=001003002005&pagesize=10&searchselect=all&searchword=pansori&boardtypeid=24&boardid=13149

https://www.hyunjinmoon.com/what-is-han/#.Xb-eYppKhPY

Pansori is a traditional musical art form within Korea that dates back to the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897). "Pan" meaning an open space where individuals come to gather and "sori" meaning sound. Pansori performances consist of a singer and a drummer, the singer telling the story using special techniques that require years of training, and the drummer producing beats for the story to flow and also morally supporting the singer. Furthermore, it is even encouraged that the audience take part within the performance and also support the singer. The purpose of Pansori was to tell tales and stories to individuals who would take the time to listen since most stories range from 3 hours to 8-9 hours from start to finish. There are 5 traditional stories that are performed for audiences, but since Pansori is orally transmitted, there have been many stories lost throughout history. Each story contains a theme whether it be about filial piety, love, or the sorrows of individuals releasing their "han". "Han" is an emotion within a person that is negative and usually is tied with grieving, regret, or resentment.