‘Flawless’ Details The Role Of The Hallyu In The Success Of K-Beauty

As NPR’s first-ever Seoul Bureau Chief, Elise Hu spent a few years living in Seoul writing about Korea and Japan. One of her first memories of the city were a barrage of images defining the ideal Asian beauty and how they made her feel about her looks. She became curious about the way k-beauty ties into Korea’s skyrocketing pop culture exports. So she decided to write Flawless, a book that explores the exponential growth of Korea’s cosmetic industry and how it affects the way people feel about their bodies.

“As k-film, k-drama and k-pop proliferated around the world, so did the aspirational look of these K-idols,” said Hu. “While K-beauty practices are a key part of the Hallyu wave, beauty is often thought of as a soft topic, something that’s relegated to women’s magazines. Yet how we show up in the world is deeply embedded in so many political, social, and economic systems.”

During her time in Korea, from 2015 to 2018, Hu covered stories about k-pop and its expansion across the world, the thinness standard among k-pop stars, as well as the new technologies and innovations coming out of Korea.

“In Flawless, I tie all of that together to explore the systems that create and enforce appearance standards,” said Hu. “How ‘lookism’ — judging each other and ourselves by those standards — can be really be alienating and marginalizes those who can’t or don’t fit conventional norms.”

Much the same way watching a Korean drama may prompt viewers to crave kimchi and soju, close-ups of seemingly flawless k-drama actors and k-pop idols can promote the desire to improve skin quality and even realign some facial features. Through cross-marketing, Korea’s game-changing decision to export media has successfully stimulated other aspects of the economy.

“In the 1990s, South Korea was looking for economic engines besides heavy industry,” said Hu. “A 1994 government report suggested that cultural products—such as making one film on the scale of Jurassic Park—could bring in as much money as the manufacturing of 1.5 million Korean-made cars. So the administration jumped into action, creating what is now called the Korea Cultural Content Agency (KOCCA) and pouring taxpayer dollars into subsidizing a nascent pop culture industry. That move, coupled with Korea’s investment in digital technology and its status as one of the world’s first fully-wired nations, allowed visual content to flood audience screens across the region, and then the world.”

In her book Hu employs the term “cultural technology” — that is using culture to fuel technology and then using technology to fuel culture.

“Today, K-pop idols are essentially 24/7 ambassadors for Korean aesthetics and the products and procedures to get that look,” said Hu. “There is still top-down support for the Hallyu wave, but so much of it these days is organic because the entertainment industry does such a great job of making desirable art and music.”

South Korea is the third largest exporter of global beauty products after France and the US. Global reach continues to grow. In 2021 Korea’s Food and Drug Safety Ministry reported that cosmetic exports grew 21.3 percent from 2020, outperforming biopharmaceutical products and smartphones.

“The Korean government, through KOCCA, finances cultural industries like film, television, and music by building concert arenas, backing film festivals and KCON, and even regulating karaoke bars,” said Hu. “It also supports the fashion industry, next generation content, and culture technology innovation. At the same time, the government subsidizes k-beauty companies who sell abroad, offers incubators for export-heavy startups, and helps R&D experts from academia churn into the private sector and back. This extensive — and integrated — government support helps drive the influence of k-beauty around the world.”

During a visit to Seoul it’s not unusual to see scores of ads featuring picture-perfect celebrities selling everything from coffee to beer to pillows. Celebrities regularly appear at beauty events, become brand ambassadors for and do TV commercials for beauty products. And it’s not only female celebrities. Male k-celebrities are not shy about promoting cosmetics or skin care products. K-pop star G-Dragon, for example, appeared in ads for the cosmetic brand Moonshot and also modeled red lipstick for The Saem. Groups such as BTS, GOT7, Seventeen and EXO have served as brand ambassadors for skin care and cosmetic brands.

“Roughly 13% of male skincare products in the world are bought by Korean men,” said Hu. “Male K-pop idols serve as aspirational models, and often embody a softer aesthetic, with perfect skin, not a bit of stubble on their faces, a gentle perm for volume or waves, lean muscles and, frequently, the use of make-up. While this feeds into men, as well as women, feeling the need to conform to certain appearance standards, what I think is refreshing is that the flower boy presents a different kind of masculinity that, globally, people are beginning to gravitate toward, versus the hyper-masculine ideals that American culture feeds us.”

K-beauty is more than cosmetics. South Korea has the highest rate of plastic surgery in the world with around one in three women having at least one procedure. There’s also a thriving k-beauty tourism industry. South Korea is sometimes referred to as the cosmetic surgery capitol of the world.

“One of the big differences is the cost,” said Hu. “South Korea has the most sophisticated and mature cosmetic surgery market in the world, and competition drives prices lower. In the US, the FDA’s regulatory hurdles to get aesthetic procedures (like injectables) approved keeps prices at a premium. But as innovation continues to make body modification less invasive and more affordable, I am willing to bet it will become more and more common here. We can already see that trend among Gen Z, where previously hush-hush cosmetic work is now good ‘content’ on TikTok. The forces I describe in Flawless — how an increasingly virtual and visual society drives changes to the physical body — are happening.”

Promoting an idealized look through popular media can lead some people to doubt their self-worth and worry they don’t measure up.

“I think we all need to take seriously the ways we conflate physical beauty with morality, and appearance with worthiness,” said Hu. “It’s marginalizing, it deepens inequality, and it increases anxiety as we hustle to be deemed ‘worthy’ through changing and regimenting our bodies. Our appearance should not be framed as a matter of personal responsibility. Doing so dishonors the rich diversity of humans, the differences among us, and the dynamism of our bodies. There’s a more inclusive, affirmative way to think about beauty that’s similar to how we think about love, or truth: as a spiritual good and not a surface level one.”

Flawless is published by Dutton.