Korean Food Goes Global?: How the Korean Government and New York entrepreneurs participate in nation branding

• In Event: 188 - Regular Session. Transnational Processes

Abstract

Since the 1990s, some nation-states have adopted business strategies in the form of nation branding policies to compete globally. Korea is one of these countries, which devised nation branding strategies in order to overcome economic downturns that followed the 1997 financial crisis. However, while much research on nation branding has analyzed top-down policies, the role of the overseas diaspora in nation branding is less known. This paper thus addresses the public-private partnership between the Korean government and Korean entrepreneurs abroad by analyzing Korean food promotion in New York City. Based on in-depth interviews, participant observation and archival research both in New York and Seoul, this paper reveals that the Korean government has actively collaborated with Korean entrepreneurs and their established ethnic communities, or Koreatowns, as a platform to market the nation through food, while Korean entrepreneurs participate in the hopes of earning higher profits.

Author

• Jinwon Kim, Oberlin College