The Korean Wave (Hangul: 한류; Hanja: 韓流; RR: Hallyu; MR: Hallyu)
is a neologism which describes the growth in the popularity of
South Korean culture since the late 1990s. It was originally
coined in mid-1999 by journalists from Beijing, who were
surprised by China's fast-growing appetite for South Korean
cultural exports and referred to the phenomenon as "Hánliú"
(韓流), which literally means "Flow of Korea". First driven by the
spread of televised dramas across East and Southeast Asia during
its initial stages, the Korean Wave evolved from a regional
development into a global phenomenon due to the proliferation of
Korean pop (K-pop) music videos on YouTube. Currently, the
spread of the Korean Wave to other regions of the world is most
visibly seen among teenagers and young adults in Latin America,
Northeast India, the Middle East, North Africa, and immigrant
enclaves of the Western world. The growing acceptance of South
Korean pop culture as a valid form of entertainment in many
parts of the world has prompted