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Salon
Salon
Lifestyle
Jin Lee

The dark side of Korean pop-nationalism

South Korea, Seoul, Woman taking a selfie with smartphone at Gyeongbokgung Palace (Getty Images/Westend61)

If you've been scrolling through YouTube, TikTok or Instagram it would be no surprise to chance upon calming minimalist aesthetics of Korean cafe decor; pilgrimages to the locations of popular K-dramas; and even the polite decorum of Korean public transport commuters.

In South Korea, oegugin (foreign-national) influencers often produce social media content focused on the global interest in K-pop, K-drama and K-film for audiences inside and out of Korea.

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