Sunday Feature: South Korea - The Silent Cultural Superpower

Rana Mitter investigates how South Korean culture has managed to punch above its weight across east Asia and beyond, with exports such as films, television and K-pop. Rana visits the South Korean capital, Seoul, and meets pop producers and pollsters, noise musicians and historians, film and TV directors and novelists to find out how Korea has managed this. He finds out how the country has gone from abject poverty in the 1950s to exporting cars, electronic goods and the so-called Korean wave of popular culture that has gained prominence across Japan and now increasingly in China. Rana also asks how the country cares so much about its standing in the region and beyond, how it has been turning to face the pains of the past and how it is moving towards a more raucous, more individualist culture. With contributions from Chung Chang-wha, Bernie Cho, Hong Chulki, Christopher Green, Kim Jiyoon, Lee Jung-hoon, Han Kang, John Nilsson-Wright, Moon So-ri, Yun Sukho, Tesung Kim and JK Youn