ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the global success of Hallyu (the Korean Wave). Hallyu refers to the spread and popularity of South Korean pop music (“K-pop”), serialised dramas (“K-dramas”), and movies (“K-films”), though other aspects of Korean culture such as the language, the locales, the cuisine, the clothes, and the cosmetics may also be implicated. Hallyu is a form of soft power, and the chapter highlights a gap in sociolinguistics. Neither Hallyu nor soft power has figured prominently in sociolinguistic studies. The chapter then argues for the need for a detailed sociolinguistic analysis of the multidimensional richness of Hallyu as a form of soft power. It suggests that indexicality, styling, affect, and stancetaking – concepts drawn from sociolinguistics – can explain how K-pop, K-drama, and K-films have been able to encourage in consumers a deeper fascination with Korean culture. Such a fascination constitutes an anthropological stance towards Korea. This is a metastance, that is, it is a general stance that informs the more situation-specific stances and affect towards particular Korean practices and objects.
