Opinion | Squid Game? BTS? Son Heung-min should be atop the ‘Korean Wave’
- While he has fans back home and within the game, the Spurs star deserves to be more widely appreciated amid Korean boom
- Son, who is worth US$1.8 billion to South Korean economy, feels overlooked despite his English Premier League record
It’s safe to say that South Korea is having something of a moment.
Squid Game is set to smash records on Netflix, boy band BTS were the biggest selling artists of 2020, and Parasite won the Oscar for Best Picture last year.
Just this week, the Oxford English Dictionary got in on the “Korean wave” as it announced its new additions for September, including 26 Korean words.
“K-pop, K-drama, K-beauty, K-food, K-style – these days, everything seems to be getting prefixed with a K- as South Korea’s popular culture continues to rise in international popularity,” the OED wrote in a blog post on the update.
One of the words they added was “hallyu” which they defined as: “The increase in international interest in South Korea and its popular culture, represented by the global success of South Korean music, film, TV, fashion and food.”
If you’re looking for examples of South Korean success then footballer Son Heung-min should be at the top of the list but as we’ve seen with the 2021 Ballon d’Or nominees, overlooking Son seems all too easy.
