As a part of the 2019 Culture Communication Forum, a debate on the internet content market and Korea’s place in it was held Tuesday at Grand Hyatt Seoul. 

The delegates present were: bestselling author Ito Ogawa from Japan, US pop columnist Jeff Benjamin, film director Ilya Khrzhanovskiy from Russia, think tank director Bronwen Maddox from the UK, film director Shakun Batra from India, Korean folk singer Lee Hee-moon, photographer Andreas Muhe from Germany, film director Herve Demers from Canada, actor and entertainer Robin Deiana from France, film producer Yusi Cheng from China and chef and YouTuber Gabie Kook.

“Through K-pop, we can see that Koreans re-create music of the US or the UK with their own colors. That is why people can easily empathize with the culture. Koreans are capable of welcoming foreigners while maintaining their own personality,” Robin Deiana said in French.

“I personally am a big fan of Korean dramas. For example, drama series ‘Misaeng’ is about young people working hard to become regular employees of a company. It is what people around the world can empathize with,” Ito Ogawa said.

“I watched my first Korean movie ‘Memories of Murder’ years ago and the ending surprised me. It was such an open discussion which I had not seen before. After that I got to work with a lot of people from the Korean film scene. The impression I got was that they are so hard working, so professional in a different way,” Yusi Cheng said

By Im Eun-byel (silverstar@heraldcorp.com)