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V&a Celebrates ‘Korean Wave’ of Popular Culture with New Exhibition

Multiple screens, left, show a music video of PSY's "Gangnam Style", alongside PSY's bubblegum pink jacket from the video, right, designed by Dsquared2, at the "Hallyu! The Korean Wave" exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum in London, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. (AP)
Multiple screens, left, show a music video of PSY's "Gangnam Style", alongside PSY's bubblegum pink jacket from the video, right, designed by Dsquared2, at the "Hallyu! The Korean Wave" exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum in London, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. (AP)
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V&a Celebrates ‘Korean Wave’ of Popular Culture with New Exhibition

Multiple screens, left, show a music video of PSY's "Gangnam Style", alongside PSY's bubblegum pink jacket from the video, right, designed by Dsquared2, at the "Hallyu! The Korean Wave" exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum in London, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. (AP)
Multiple screens, left, show a music video of PSY's "Gangnam Style", alongside PSY's bubblegum pink jacket from the video, right, designed by Dsquared2, at the "Hallyu! The Korean Wave" exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum in London, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. (AP)

From the bright pink guard costumes in hit Netflix series "Squid Game" to a large sculpture of rapper G-Dragon, London's V&A museum is celebrating South Korean popular culture and its rise to global prominence in a new exhibition opening this week.

Among the items on display at "Hallyu! The Korean Wave" are K-Pop costumes, K-drama props as well as a replica of the bathroom set in Oscar-winning film "Parasite".

"This exhibition is actually celebrating the vibrant and colorful popular culture from South Korea from its inception to its place on the global stage," curator Rosalie Kim told Reuters at a preview on Wednesday.

"'Hallyu' actually means Korean wave and it refers to this meteoric rise of popular culture from South Korea that has taken the world by storm in the past few decades."

The exhibition is split into different sections including K-pop and its fans, television drama and cinema, fashion and beauty.

Greeting visitors is the pink jacket singer PSY wore in the music video for his 2012 mega hit "Gangnam Style". Other outfits on display include ensembles worn by G-Dragon and K-pop groups ATEEZ and Aespa as well as colorful designer creations.

From the world of television, there are costumes from historical dramas as well as the recognizable pink boiler suits and a green tracksuit from "Squid Game".

The "Parasite" bathroom replica is the first time the set from the protagonist Kim family's basement flat has been recreated, with the museum working closely with the film's production designer Lee Ha-jun.

Other items on display include photographs, posters, record covers and K-pop fan banners. Visitors can also take part in an interactive K-pop dance challenge.

"Hallyu! The Korean Wave" opens on Saturday and runs until June.

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In Their 80s, These South Korean Women Learned Reading and Rap

Park Jeom-sun, 82, leader of Suni and the Seven Princesses, adjusts her hat in a mirror during the opening ceremony of the Korean alphabet, "Hangeul Week" at Gwanghwamun square in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Park Jeom-sun, 82, leader of Suni and the Seven Princesses, adjusts her hat in a mirror during the opening ceremony of the Korean alphabet, "Hangeul Week" at Gwanghwamun square in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
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In Their 80s, These South Korean Women Learned Reading and Rap

Park Jeom-sun, 82, leader of Suni and the Seven Princesses, adjusts her hat in a mirror during the opening ceremony of the Korean alphabet, "Hangeul Week" at Gwanghwamun square in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Park Jeom-sun, 82, leader of Suni and the Seven Princesses, adjusts her hat in a mirror during the opening ceremony of the Korean alphabet, "Hangeul Week" at Gwanghwamun square in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Wearing an oversized bucket hat, silver chains and a black Miu Miu shirt, 82-year-old Park Jeom-sun gesticulates, her voice rising and falling with staccato lines about growing chili peppers, cucumbers and eggplants.
Park, nicknamed Suni, was flanked by seven longtime friends who repeated her moves and her lines. Together, they're Suni and the Seven Princesses, South Korea 's latest octogenarian sensation. With an average age of 85, they're probably the oldest rap group in the country, The Associated Press said.
Born at a time when women were often marginalized in education, Park and her friends were among a group of older adults learning how to read and write the Korean alphabet, hangeul, at a community center in their farming village in South Korea’s rural southeast.
They were having so much fun that they started dabbling with poetry. They began writing and performing rap in summer last year.
Suni and the Seven Princesses enjoy nationwide fame, appearing in commercials and going viral on social media. South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo sent them a congratulatory message last month on their first anniversary, praising their passion for learning.
At a road near their community center in Chilgok on Thursday, Park and her friends were rehearsing for a performance Friday evening in the capital, Seoul, where they were invited to open an event celebrating hangeul heritage.
“Picking chili peppers at the pepper field, picking cucumbers at the cucumber field, picking eggplants at the eggplant field, picking zucchini at the zucchini field!” the group rapped along with Park. "We’re back home now and it feels so good!”
Park said the group usually practices two or three times a week, more if they're preparing for a show.
On Friday, hundreds of people applauded and cheered, and then the group lined up for a photo with South Korean Culture Minister Yu In Chon.
Park talked about the joy of learning to read, saying she can now “go to the bank, ride the bus and go anywhere” she wants without someone helping her.
“During and after the Korean War, I couldn’t study because of the social atmosphere, but I started learning hangeul in 2016,” Park said, referring to the devastating war between North and South Korea from 1950 to 1953. “Being introduced to rap while learning hangeul has made me feel better, and I thought it would help me stay healthy and avoid dementia.”
Kang Hye-eun, Park’s 29-year-old granddaughter and a local healthcare worker who helps older adults, said she was proud to see her grandmother on television and in viral videos.
“It’s amazing that she got to know hangeul like this and has started to rap,” she said.