Reading the Globe

By now, everyone in the world knows the song "Gangnam Style" and Psy, an instantly recognizable star. But the song's international popularity is no passing fad. "Gangnam Style" is only one tool in South Korea's extraordinarily elaborate and effective strategy to become a major world superpower by first becoming the world's number one pop culture exporter.

As a child, Euny Hong moved from America to the Gangnam neighborhood in Seoul. She was a witness to the most accelerated part of South Korea's economic development, during which time it leapfrogged from third-world military dictatorship to first-world liberal democracy on the cutting edge of global technology.

Euny Hong recounts how South Korea vaulted itself into the twenty-first century, becoming a global leader in business, technology, education, and pop culture. Featuring lively, in-depth reporting and numerous interviews with Koreans working in all areas of government and society, The Birth of Korean Cool reveals how a really uncool country became cool, and how a nation that once banned miniskirts, long hair on men, and rock ‘n' roll could come to mass produce boy bands, soap operas, and the world's most important smart phone.

CEuny Hong is a Paris-based journalist and thrice-published author, most recently of The Power of Nunchi: The Korean Secret to Happiness and Success (Penguin Books 2019), which has sold translation rights in 20 regions.

Her previous book, The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture (Picador, August 2014), was selected as an Amazon Editor’s Pick for Best Non-Fiction and has been translated into eight languages. The Telegraph UK described the book as “fabulously snarky.” The New York Times described the book as “Incisive and humorous…an excellent case study of calculated entrepreneurial moxie.”

Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and Allure, among others. She has many TV appearances, on such programs as “Picture This” on BBC2, “Ronan Farrow Daily” on CNBC, and Bloomberg TV.

Previously, she was with the France 24 TV news network in Paris, and she started her journalism career as a TV columnist at the Financial Times. She graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Philosophy and is a former Fulbright Scholar. She is fluent in English, French, German, and Korean.