Hangeul and K-pop

In celebration of Hangeul Day coming up on 9th October, the Korean Cultural Centre will present a special online talk by Assoc. Prof. Roald Maliangkay of the Australian National University for those who are interested in learning about Hangeul and its contribution to the popularity of Korean culture, especially that of K-Pop. 

The ingenuity and typographic beauty and flexibility of the Korean alphabet have helped fuel the Korean wave. In this talk, Assoc/Prof. Roald Malinangkay will discuss what makes the alphabet so unique, and provide a brief outline of the alphabet’s history. He will subsequently discuss the relationship between Hangeul and popular culture, specifically K-pop.

• Introducing King Sejong and the main features of Hangeul

• Hangeul and Hallyu fandom

• Hangeul and K-pop

Roald Maliangkay is an Associate Professor of Korean Studies at the Australian National University. Fascinated by the factors driving fandom, the mechanics of cultural policy, and the convergence of major cultural phenomena, he analyses cultural industries, performance, and consumption in Korea from the early twentieth century to the present. He is the author of Broken Voices: Postcolonial Entanglements and the Preservation of Korea’s Central Folksong Traditions (University of Hawai`i Press, 2017), and co-editor of K-pop: The International Rise of the Korean Music Industry (Routledge, 2015).