We’ve Got Seoul: The Korean Wave in Hawai‘i

In a small Kaimukī studio, Gigi Lee, an 18-year-old with billowing crimson hair, leads a K-pop dance class. “You got to work it,” she tells five women, who range in age from their 20s through middle age. They’re doing their best to imitate Lee’s pop star swagger as Nayeon’s “ABCD” pulses over the sound system. “Do anything that looks swag, like jazz fingers or a swag face.” She pouts her lips to demonstrate.

In their living room a few blocks away, Anita and Carl Racuya are glued to an episode of Battle for Happiness, a suspenseful Korean drama they’re streaming on Netflix. The Racuyas got hooked on K-dramas during the pandemic and have watched more than 200 series (not episodes) including romantic comedies, war tales and murder mysteries. Now, they eat their meals sitting at a low table on the floor, picking at banchan with stainless steel chopsticks and sipping water from small metal cups, just like the characters in their favorite shows.

Around Honolulu, K-culture has caught fire, ushering in hallyu, a Korean wave that shows no sign of abating. And like Lee (who’s primarily Chinese and only 5% Korean) and the Racuyas (Anita is Japanese, Carl is Filipino), most fueling the craze aren’t Korean. They’re largely women, but span demographics.

By no means is hallyu new or exclusive to Hawai‘i. It’s global. But here, it’s embedded deeper, says Cheehyung Harrison Kim, a Korean history professor at UH Mānoa. “Korean culture has a long history in Hawai‘i, more than 100 years, and there’s always been appreciation of Korean culture.” He points to artwork at museums, Korean films at Hawai‘i International Film Festival and our annual Korean Festival as examples. But now, he says, “K-culture has spread to the masses. We have a radio station playing mostly K-pop. Our Korean restaurant scene is expanding and becoming trendier, and there are all kinds of new businesses. This happened in the past five to 10 years, and it’s permeated the local culture with a base already established.”

To historians like Kim, South Korean culture is far more profound than K-pop, K-dramas, kalbi or kim chee. The country’s tumultuous history and long-standing beliefs are what shaped the Korean soul, not trends. It’s also a given that K-culture is a moneymaking machine, with South Korea’s government and corporate executives promoting and cashing in on all things Hanguk.

“K-pop artists and producers have figured out how to monetize better than anyone else from East Asia,” Kim says. “It’s not pure Korean culture that’s being exported, it’s a hybrid of Korean and Western culture that’s been reinvented, repackaged and exported.”

Between 2019 and 2023, the combined revenue of South Korea’s four largest music agencies tripled to nearly $3 billion, according to a 2024 Morgan Stanley report. And with demand rising from global streaming platforms, some $561 million of Korean television content was sold abroad, the government says—nearly a 30% increase from the previous year. The World Travel & Tourism Council expects tourism in South Korea to draw record sums in 2024, while the country’s beauty and personal care market is projected to generate $14.8 billion in revenue.

There’s no data that breaks down what’s happening in Hawai‘i, but it’s clear hallyu is thriving here:

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Hawai‘i’s K-pop-focused FM radio station, PoP 101.9, launched in 2023 and already has 200,000 listeners. Most are locals, but others tune in from elsewhere via the iHeartRadio app, says Becky Mits, a popular DJ there. “K-pop is definitely not dying off—it’s growing. When the station throws K-pop events, they’re packed with people of all different ethnicities and ages.” 

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At UH, home to the largest Korean study center in the world outside the Korean Peninsula, the most popular language to study is Korean, Kim says. The school now offers six levels of Korean instruction, along with a roster of Korean history classes, which all fill up quickly. 

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Travel to South Korea from Hawai‘i is booming. Non-Stop Travel, one of the city’s leading travel agencies, offers five different tours to South Korea and plans to add two more to meet rising demand. 

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Hawai‘i’s first Paris Baguette, a South Korean bakery chain, drew lines that snaked down the block when it opened on Bishop Street in February. Also opened in recent years: two O‘ahu H Marts, Korean beauty businesses, K-pop shops like KPop Friends at Ala Moana Center, and more Korean fried chicken spots 
and other eateries than can be accurately tallied. 

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An estimated 20,000 people attended this year’s newly expanded two-day Korean Festival in August, with excited fans packing Consolidated Theatres Ward for a sold-out movie night with South Korean actor Shin Hyun Joon.

“Many people are still looking for Korean business opportunities here,” says Gina Kim, president of the Korean Chamber of Commerce of Hawai‘i. “People just love everything about Korea. They’re traveling to Korea, and they love the food, music, shows—everything.”  

Until Taylor Swift took over as the world’s top-selling recording artist in 2022, the honor went to K-pop’s BTS in 2020 and 2021, according to recording industry tracker IFPI. Swift continued to reign in 2023, but two other South Korean groups, Stray Kids and Seventeen, held the No. 2 and 3 spots respectively, topping Drake and The Weeknd. BTS, meanwhile, is expected back in the pop music scene in 2025, after being on hiatus since 2022.

How exactly did K-pop get to this level?

Many credit Psy, who blasted to worldwide fame in 2012 with “Gangnam Style.” The official music video, with the South Korean rapper showcasing his unforgettable equestrian moves, now has a staggering 5.2 billion YouTube views. What’s stunning about the song’s success is that except for a few lyrics like “style,” “baby” and “hey, sexy lady,” it’s sung in Korean.

“People saw the music video and thought it was so funny and catchy,” says Jin Hong, an owner of Kaka‘ako’s Café Duck Butt, a pau hana and karaoke spot that opened in 2010. “Almost all our customers used to be Korean, but then Psy sparked people’s interest, and locals started coming in wanting to watch Korean videos.”

Psy’s success paved the way for megastar groups like Blackpink and BTS. Neither has performed in Hawai‘i, but if BTS did, it would be “insane,” says May Hoshida, an O‘ahu mom and hard-core fan.

The 50-year-old accountant became an ARMY—the acronym for BTS devotees that stands for Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth—during the pandemic. “My family had challenges, stressful situations,” she says. “With BTS, people say they find you—you don’t find them. And they came up at a time where I needed comforting. It filled a bit of that darkness that many of us were feeling at that time.”

Moved by lyrics that made her smile, cry and laugh—BTS members write many of their own songs—Hoshida felt connected to them. Watching their reality show and countless interviews strengthened her connection. “They came from nothing,” she says. “They signed with a small company and grew with it. They could have left, but they stuck it out together. It made me want to support them even more.”

She’s since traveled to Korea four times, twice by herself, meeting fellow ARMY members and going on a pilgrimage that featured her eating the band members’ favorite foods, which she wrote about for Frolic Hawai‘i.

K-pop also started as a COVID-19 diversion for Liberty Peralta, a Stray Kids fan who is senior marketing and communications director at Hawai‘i Public Radio.

“A year ago, I got sucked into a video wormhole,” she wrote on Instagram in early June, the anniversary of her discovery of Stray Kids. “They had just come out with a new album, 5-Star, and after watching several captivating interviews and music videos, I was hooked. While a part of me is embarrassed that the algorithm got me, a bigger part of me is thankful that it did. Stray Kids has helped buoy me through some exceptionally tough moments, and as 2024 continues to deal blow after blow, they continue to be there, whether I’m in need of distraction … or validation. Through Stray Kids, I’ve reconnected with old friends and formed new friendships. Circumstances have also made it possible for me to travel to South Korea twice now, the first time by myself. I’m forever grateful to be a STAY” (the group’s official fandom name).

Peralta, who went through the painful process of shutting down her Kaimukī cat café in June, says being part of the massive K-pop fandom is not a pastime, it’s a lifestyle. “It’s a safe place for a lot of people, because there’s still a lot of heaviness going on in the world. It brings joy.”

K-dramas aren’t new—people in Hawai‘i have been watching them for decades. My own Korean parents became addicted to them in the 1990s, renting stacks of DVDs from an umma and appa video shop on Ke‘eaumoku (and sometimes sending me to pick up their latest haul).

Hallyu Hawai‘i, a local K-drama fan club, has been active since it started in the early 2000s under another name. Over the years, its members, mostly local Asian women, organized meetups with visiting Korean celebrities. The 80 or so members, several now in their 70s and 80s, are still hooked on K-dramas and gather twice a year to “enjoy Korean culture together,” club president Grace Ogawa says.

Meanwhile, K-drama has hit the mainstream everywhere. Netflix streams it; so does Hulu. Netflix premiered its first original K-drama series, Kingdom, in 2019. Viki, a streaming service for Asian entertainment, is also hugely popular. Passengers can even watch K-dramas as part of the in-flight entertainment on major U.S. airlines. “Koreans now have global distribution of their exports,” says Toby Tamaye, who organizes Honolulu’s annual Korean Festival. “Netflix carrying them was the biggest change in terms of the accessibility of Korean dramas.”

Like her parents, Anita and Carl Racuya, Maile Lum is a K-drama super fan. It started with Parasite, the South Korean film that won Best Picture at the 2020 Academy Awards. After seeing it, Lum started watching K-dramas, quickly becoming hooked during COVID lockdowns. She’s since watched more than 150 series, which typically include more than a dozen episodes each. “There’s always a surprise, and they don’t drag on,” she says. “They move fast and are way more interesting than American shows.”

Lum is fascinated by Korean history and its culture, like the country’s rigid education system. She’s learning Korean from instructors she discovered on Instagram and her conversational Korean and ability to read Hangul has come in handy during four trips to Korea since 2023.

Seoul is the new top destination for the Lum and Racuya family, which used to fly to New York City every year for shopping, eating and fun. Conner Lum, Maile’s son, visited Seoul for the first time in June, and after a few days there, the 18-year-old UH freshman announced that he had found his place. Now, he’s also learning Korean and plans to spend his sophomore year studying in the country.

Gene Miyake, owner of Non-Stop Travel, says South Korea used to be a “one-and-done destination. You visit once, check it off your bucket list, then you’re done.” 

Locals now can’t get enough of Korea, so the travel agency, which celebrates its 40^th anniversary in 2025, is expanding its tour roster. Next year it expects to take 40 groups to Korea on seven different tours, including its K-drama excursion and a new K-beauty tour.  

Miyake traces the nation’s popularity as a travel destination to the pandemic, when people stuck at home discovered K-dramas and K-pop. When travel restrictions eased, they were primed and ready—and with new attractions cropping up in South Korea, visitors aren’t going home disappointed. “The experience keeps getting better and better,” Miyake says. “In five years, our business to Korea has quadrupled. And I think we’re still in a deep growth phase.” 

The same goes for chains from South Korea. Café Duck Butt’s Hong suspected locals would welcome Paris Baguette. The roster of franchised Korean eateries on O‘ahu already included Vons Chicken, Bb.q Chicken and Sura. So Hong’s DB Restaurant Group partnered with Robert Kurisu of WKF Inc., which owns the Downtown building where the bakery opened. (Kurisu’s father, Duane, owns HONOLULU Magazine.) The opening crowds floored Hong.

“We knew it was going to be busy, but we didn’t realize how much exposure and brand recognition it has,” he says. “Ten years ago, nobody would have recognized concepts from Korea. But because of the music, dramas, movies, these businesses all have traction.”

Hong and his partners plan to roll out at least three more Paris Baguettes on O‘ahu. The second will open at the Pagoda Hotel in a spacious indoor-outdoor setting. With the Korean dining scene expanding and evolving, Hong believes Hawai‘i is ripe for more. He cites Atomix, a New York Korean restaurant named one of the world’s 50 best restaurants of 2024, as a marker of Korean cuisine heading for heights never previously imagined.

Finally, no discussion of K-culture is complete without delving into Korean beauty and skin care. Gorgeous, flawless “glass skin” is one of the most admired traits of Korean screen and pop stars—a fact that draws women from Hawai‘i and beyond to Seoul for beauty treatments and products. A recent text from Frolic Hawai‘i writer Melissa Chang mentioned a visit with Peralta to Olive Young in Seoul. “What’s Olive Young?” I asked. “Oh my gosh! It’s like the Korean version of Sephora! Everyone who is into Korean beauty products knows about it. Liberty and I went to one of its biggest stores. It was multi-storied!”

Those who can’t get to South Korea seek out K-beauty goods online or at stores. Tom Kim got in on the trend early, in 2011, by buying the Hawai‘i distribution rights for The Face Shop. The Korea-based enterprise retails K-beauty products, and Kim has three stores on O‘ahu. “We were right on the cusp of this big K-pop, K-drama, K-beauty trend, and it hasn’t stopped,” he says. “It’s wild because I thought we were very close to the pinnacle, but it’s just kept growing.”

Clearly, K-culture has been an economic success not just for South Korea, but also for local business owners like Jin Hong, Tom Kim and Gene Miyake.

Yet, there’s a darker side. For starters, there’s been a slew of suicides among South Korean actors and singers, some at the peak of their careers. Many attribute this disturbing trend to oppressive public scrutiny and constant demands of industry executives. And the massive amount of content available to K-pop and K-drama fans, which keeps them sucked in, is compared to an addictive drug. K-culture is also sometimes viewed as superficial fluff, focused more on appearances and image than anything substantive or authentically Korean.

But isn’t American pop culture equally fake and fluffy, if not more so? And as fans point out, K-pop and K-dramas are far less profane and raunchy.

The bottom line: People love it, and want more and more. So hallyu lives on.

“People don’t buy with their brains,” Peralta says. “They buy with their hearts.”