Impression of Korea in Kazakhstan is excellent. Korea is one of the countries preferred for studying abroad or immigrating along with the United Kingdom, Turkey, and the United States. The number of Kazakhstani nationals living in Korea, which was only about 10,000 in 2012, exceeded 40,000 in 2022 (Statistical Yearbook of Immigration and Foreign Policy, 2022). That’s a fourfold increase in 10 years. Even without these statistics, Korea’s popularity can be easily seen in Kazakhstan. It is common for Korean language courses at the Korean Education Institute and the Korean Cultural Center in Almaty and Astana to have waiting lists, and the competition rate for Korean language majors at local universities is increasing daily(Ая ӨМІРТАЙ, 2021. 4. 19).

Kazakhstan is a young country that gained independence from the Soviet Union in December 1991 and has just celebrated 30 years of independence. Diplomatic relations with South Korea were established in 1992, shortly after independence, and since then, Korean culture has been introduced to them. The starting point of the Hallyu in Kazakhstan is Korean dramas, and since the early 2000s, Kazakhstan terrestrial television has aired <All In>, <JuMong>, <Jewel in the Palace>, <Winter Sonata>, <Autumn In My Heart>, <The legendary Doctor-Hur Jun->, and <Boys Over Flowers>. At that time, Korean dramas were so popular could be heard on major streets throughout the day.

In 2013, the Kazakh government restricted the airing of Korean and Turkish dramas, which had previously made up the majority of terrestrial dramas, and focused on developing Kazakhstan’s own programs, but thanks to increasing internet penetration, viewers continued to connect with Korean dramas through social networking services such as VK (Vkontakte) and YOUTUBE. Since then, interest in K-pop has increased, starting with Psy’s “Gangnam Style” followed by BTS and BLACKPINK, and Korean music is considered the so-called hip culture of the younger generation.

So, what are the characteristics of the current Hallyu in Kazakhstan, and what are the main factors that have captured the hearts of the Kazakh people? This report looked at the characteristics of Hallyu in Kazakhstan based on the “2023 Survey on Overseas Hallyu Status” of the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE) and, based on this, discussed the direction in which Hallyu should move.

The majority of Kazakhs are familiar with Korea. According to the results of the 2023 Overseas Hallyu Survey on the “Perception of Korea,” the awareness of Korea in Kazakhstan was 97.7%, with 80.9% perceiving it positively. Even though the two countries have only known each other for 30 years.

While there are many factors that contribute to this positive perception, the presence of Korean Kazakhstan is an indispensable part. About 100,000 Korean Kazakhstan (about 0.6% of the total population) live in Kazakhstan, and they serve as the first gateway for the people of Kazakhstan to recognize Korea and serve as a window to Korea. Korean Kazakhstan is regarded as diligent and sincere in Kazakh society, and this image may have provided a stable background for Kazakhs to naturally recognize and accept Korea as a positive image.

Looking at the survey results in more detail, the proportion of respondents who perceived Korea as an “economically developed country” was 81.8 %, whereas perceiving Korea as the image of a “cultural powerhouse” was the lowest at 49.4 %. This shows that South Korea is gradually being perceived as an image of a developed country in terms of hard power, but not soft power. However, this is a significant change from the past, when Kazakhstan associated South Korea with negative keywords such as “North Korea,” “division of North and South,” and “war.”

When asked about their first association with Korea, the highest response rate was 34.4% for Korean food, which is likely due to the influence of the Korean people. Stalin’s deportation policy in 1937 made Koreans flow into Kazakhstan and substantially changed the local food culture. They began farming in the Kazakh lands, mainly used as nomadic land. As a result, Korean foods such as Markovcha (carrot salad), Jimchi (kimchi), and Gukshi (noodles) gradually began to permeate the Kazakh diet, which had been dominated by bread and meat.

Korean food has been localized for a long time and slightly differs from the food we enjoy today. Still, even before Hallyu’s introduction, most Kazakh people recognized and tasted Korean food. Because of this, the food that they are most familiar with in daily lives is probably the most familiar image of Korea to them.
In recent years, with the growing popularity of Korean content and the increased exposure of Korean food through YouTube food videos, some people now distinguish between Korean Kazakhstan and South Korean food. As a result, many local Korean restaurants have begun to add Korean dishes to their menus.

Among Korean culture’s most popular areas are “drama” and “beauty.” Looking at the ranking of popular countries by cultural content, Korea ranks first in “drama,” “variety show,” and “beauty,” respectively, among which “drama” and “beauty” are the most noteworthy. This is because the cultural powerhouses, the United States, and the beauty powerhouse, France, were ranked second for each area.

As for dramas, they have gradually become more popular, starting with <JuMong>, which aired on public TV in 1998 and became a sensational hit based on its historical closeness to nomadism(Jeon, Seung-min, 2018. 9. 27). Korean historical dramas and family dramas mainly attracted viewers in their 40s and 50s based on some historical similarities and emotional empathy for a family-oriented society. In contrast, dramas such as <Man Over Flowers>, <The Heirs>, and <Squid Game> were very popular among those in their teens and 30s. With this, Korean drama has gained a wide range of Kazakh audiences, from teens to 50s.

“Beauty,” with a high figure of 41.6%, is characterized by a large gap with the second and third-place countries compared to other categories. In large shopping malls in Kazakhstan, a wide variety of Korean cosmetics, such as Missha, Nature Republic, Itsskin, Tonymoly, Medipeel, Ohui, Sulwhasoo, etc., are sold. They are just as competitive as the products of famous European brands, and new stores are popping up every year. In addition, even if it is not a well-known brand product made in Korea, it is often trusted and purchased, so there is a very high level of trust in all products, from expensive to cheap. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is that Kazakh consumers feel that Korean cosmetics are more suitable for them than European products based on their physical similarity.

Looking at the results of the “Korean Cultural Content User Profile,” we can see that “favorite actors” or “attractive looks” was selected as a factor in the popularity of “drama,” “movie,” and “music” content, which is in line with the top ranking of “beauty” in the previous survey. This suggests that the interests and standards of the people of the two countries for beauty are very similar and that the appearance of Korean celebrities exposed through various content is very attractive to them.

Although it is not popular among all age groups, the Hallyu content expected to grow is “K-pop,” which has spread mainly among the young generation. The youth generation is the generation that will lead Kazakhstan in the future, and it is attracting attention as it shows excellent differentiation from the previous generation. They were born after the independence and had no experience of the Soviet system, experienced Kazakhstan’s economic growth and diverse culture in the early 2000s, and grew up in a relatively liberal social atmosphere (Tolganay Umbetaliyeva, Botagoz Rakisheva & Peer Teschendorf, 2016). For this reason, Kazakhstani society is being shaped from a different perspective than previous generations(Marlene Laruelle, 2019). A new culture is being formed, and one of them is Q-POP (Qazaq pop¹⁾).

Looking at the responses regarding images associated with Korea by age, 30.5% of teenagers said they associate Korea with K-pop. In comparison, the response rate of those in their 50s was 0%, which is quite contrasting. In addition, K-pop is also the category with the highest response rate among teenagers.

Before the birth of Q-pop, folk music for feasts called “Toi” was considered popular music in Kazakhstan. These genres were familiar to the generation that had experienced the Soviet Union. Still, they did not appeal to the younger generations who enjoyed listening to pop music from Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Korea, and the younger generation felt a deep thirst for new popular music genres. In 2015, the Group “Ninety One,” the beginning of Q-pop, appeared in Kazakh society, featuring a never-before-seen image of a man with brightly dyed hair, makeup, and colorful clothes and accessories. In Kazakhstan, men do not often dye their hair or wear colorful clothes because they emphasize masculinity. In addition, an idol training system was introduced through the competition program, in which they debuted as a group through the trainee stage. K-pop influenced all of them. Another differentiator is the language they use to convey their message. Before Q-pop, the majority of singers spoke Russian and had the perception that that was a sophisticated culture, while the younger generation boldly excluded the Russian language and began to present Kazakh songs and raps(Kakim Danabayev, Jowon Park & Piotr Bronislaw Konieczny, 2021. 9. 23). With their emergence, deep-rooted gender role stereotypes in Kazakh society began to crumble, causing a huge backlash from the older generation and a cultural break with the Russian-based older generation.

Looking at the most popular Hallyu stars in the singer and group categories, BTS, BLACKPINK, and Psy ranked 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, respectively. Still, at the same time, there is a very high preference for local idols such as “Ninety-One.” The familiar K-Pop melodies and the use of the familiar Kazakh language instead of the alien Korean language have captured the hearts of the younger generation in a very short time, and this response has led to a remarkably fast growth of the Q-POP market, which has produced a number of idol groups. Recently, there was a case where a Korean singer sang a famous Kazakh poem with Korean lyrics, which caught the attention of the Kazakh public. K-pop has developed beyond one-way spreads to a stage where two-way interaction is possible.

Summarizing the characteristics and popularity of Hallyu in Kazakhstan so far, most Kazakh people positively perceive Korea, and Hallyu has been popular in dramas since the 2000s and is now strong in drama, food, and beauty categories. In addition, K-pop is only popular among some age groups. Still, it is becoming a popular culture among the younger generation who want to differentiate themselves from the older generation, creating a new culture called localized Q-pop. However, even though the people of Kazakhstan perceive Korea as an economically advanced country and voluntarily enjoy Korean cultural content, they do not consider Korea a cultural powerhouse, which means that Korea’s appeal is not as strong.

Culture is inherently volatile. In Kazakhstan, for example, Korean dramas were initially popular, but then interest shifted and expanded to include food, beauty, and movies. For Korea to be attractive as a cultural powerhouse amid such cultural volatility, it must have the strength to maintain sustainability beyond expandability. To keep this continuity, Korea needs to grasp the characteristics and changes of Hallyu in Kazakhstan and focus on the features of the young generation who will lead the future changes in Kazakhstan. Suppose Korea can communicate with them bidirectionally through the medium of “Hallyu” and form a lasting cultural consensus. In that case, it can create a new culture in various fields and music, such as Q-pop. Furthermore, if these cultural exchanges can be sustained over the long term, Hallyu can become a true soft power that can have a significant impact on the overall bilateral relationship.