I’m Bill Tsutsui with another Postcard from Asia from the Center for East Asian Studies.
Here in Beijing’s Xidan shopping center, the hot shop is Korea City and the hot ticket items include hip-hop clothing, movies, music, cosmetics and other products that bespeak Korean chic, and Chinese youth are snapping them up. It doesn’t matter that some of the things – like New York Yankees baseball caps or Japanese Astro Boy dolls— have nothing to do with Korea. Nor does it matter that most of this stuff was made in China to begin with. It’s the Korean Wave and young Chinese people are hangin’ ten on it. So, all together now…how do you spell cool? K-O-R-E-A.
With thanks to Randi Hacker for this text from the Center for East Asian Studies I’m Bill Tsutsui. Wish you were here.
