you are actually admitting he is correct though, when I think we should factually reject his assertions. Korea has less incoming tourists than Vietnam and Malaysia let alone China and all of Kpop makes comparable money to just Mihoyo alone. I don't even want to compare Korean box office to Chinese, it's a total mismatch (in China's favor).
What is the purpose of soft power?
1. To get tourists to spend money in your country.
2. To make direct money from media sales.
3. To get others to sacrifice for you for free.
South Korea fails at all 3:
1. It has less tourists than even Vietnam and Malaysia which have 0 media exports
2. It makes less money from media sales like movies and games than "uncool" "lame" China.
3. There is no country in the world that would fight for Korean ideology because WTF even is Korean ideology?
I didn't delve deaper into this, since my post was already long as hell. But one would think with so called Korean culture going global, Koreans wouldn't be so insecure and antsy about protecting their traditional culture, and yet they are. As to why, just ask yourself after roughly 10 years of Korean pop culture being mainstream globally, what traditional Korean culture are people familiar with outside of Korean food?
Most Westeners don't have any interest exploring traditional Korean religion and philosophy to the extent with Japanese Shinto and Zen. Interest in learning about Korean history is minimal. Even Kpop stans don't sport traditional Korean clothing or clothing with Korean motifs to the same extent Weebs do with traditional Japanese clothes.
I don't listen to Kpop, but I did watch Kpop Demon Hunters and if that movie is in anyway accurate to Kpop outside of the English lyrics, then my impression is that its not even Koreanized intrepretations of foreign culture ala Chinese gacha games. It literally is American R&B with a Korean coat of paint. Likewise for Kdrama, they of course come in all varities, but international fans only watch the glossy romance ones where the main characters are chaebols and models, ie. total fantasies that that don't shed any light into Korean culture or society. And movies like Parasite only reveal the dark side of Korean society.
Its one thing to get people to find your media entertaining, its another to make your society look attractive. As you said yourself many people still find European society attractive even if hardly anybody watches European movies. America and Japan are the only countries that do both, whereas Korea excels in getting people to watch their stuff but fail to make their society attractive.
Sidenote: I'm not in anyway a fan of Japanese culture either, I just acknowledge that in terms of soft power they're the country for China to beat right now and its useful to take notes on what they did right outside of the help they got from America.
