The Future of Hallyu: Korean Cinema on the Global Stage

Haley Gordon recently completed her Master of Arts at Stanford’s Center for East Asian Studies. She wrote a Master’s thesis on human rights in North Korea. Her research interests included historical memory in East Asia, Korean nationalism, and South Korean women’s issues and cinema. Haley received her bachelor’s degree in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University, with a minor in Humanistic Studies. In addition, she has studied the Korean language at Yonsei University and Ewha University in Seoul.

At the Korea Program, Haley supports projects on North Korean human rights, South Korean democracy, and discrimination in South Korea. She is also involved in the ongoing Talent Flows project.

Chris Hanscom is a professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA, where he teaches courses on Korean literature and film.  He is the author of The Real Modern (Harvard University, 2013), co-editor of Imperatives of Culture (University of Hawai'i, 2013), co-editor of The Affect of Difference (University of Hawai'i, 2016), and author of Impossible Speech (Columbia University, forthcoming).

Ju Oak Kim is an Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Communication at Texas A&M International University. Her research explores the power dynamics of human interactions on digital networks, media representations, and cultural practices. Her interdisciplinary approaches embrace media studies, cultural studies, Asian studies, and postcolonial studies. Her previous work appears in Feminist Media Studies, Media, Culture & Society, Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, and the International Journal of Communication. Before academia, she served as the writer of the award-winning KBS documentary series Tojaki (Grand Prize from the Korean Broadcasting Commission and Best Picture Prize in Journalism at Korean Broadcasting Awards) and the adapter of the Korean film A Letter from Mars. She won Chosun Ilbo’s Annual Spring Literary Contest for “Springtime” and has had short stories published in Korean literary journals.

Marci Kwon is Assistant Professor of Art History at Stanford University and co-director of the Cantor Arts Center's Asian American Art Initiative. She is the author of Enchantments: Joseph Cornell and American Modernism (Princeton, 2021), co-editor of the online Martin Wong Catalogue Raisonné, and contributor to the forthcoming Critical BTS Studies Reader (Duke University Press). 

Byung Hun Lee is an acclaimed actor known for his contributions to the Korean entertainment industry. Recognized as one of Asia's biggest stars and a pioneer of the "Korean Boom" in television and film, he has played a significant role in promoting Korean dramas and cinema on the global stage, and his performances have received both critical praise and commercial success.

Lee began his acting career in 1991 with a starring role in the Korean drama "Asphalt, My Hometown" and went on to achieve tremendous success in various TV projects such as "Beautiful Days" and "Iris". Passionate about films, Lee’s performances in a range of movies — including "JSA", "A Bittersweet Life", “The Good, the Bad, and the Weird,” “I Come with the Rain," and "I Saw the Devil"— have gained rave reviews.

Lee's talent has also led to his success in Hollywood, with his breakout role in "G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra" and a reprisal of the iconic role of the T-1000 in "Terminator: Genisys". He was the first Korean actor to present an Oscar at the 88th Academy Awards and to be awarded the Asian Film Excellence Award. His dedication to Korean cinema remains strong, with his work in period piece features such as "Masquerade" and "Fortress" and his comeback in the critically acclaimed drama "Mr. Sunshine."

Lee's portrayal of the Front Man in Netflix's highest-viewed show, "Squid Game," has brought him further fame. The highly popular series has helped showcase the talent and versatility of Korean actors and filmmakers on a global scale, and Lee's performance has been praised for its depth and intensity. 

His latest projects include the Korean TV series “Our Blues,” the biopic “The Match,” and the Netflix film “I believe in a Thing Called Love”, his first foray as a producer.

Young Jean Lee is a playwright, director, and filmmaker who has been called “the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation” by The New York Times and “one of the best experimental playwrights in America” by Time Out New York. She’s the first Asian-American female playwright to have had a play produced on Broadway. She has written and directed ten shows in New York with Young Jean Lee's Theater Company. Her plays have been performed in more than eighty cities around the world and have been published by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, and Theatre Communications Group. Her short films have been presented at The Locarno International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and BAMcinemaFest. Lee is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two OBIE Awards, a Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a PEN Literary Award, a United States Artists Fellowship, and the Windham-Campbell Prize. She is a professor of Theater and Performance Studies and Nina C. Crocker Faculty Scholar at Stanford University.

Ji Eun Park is a scriptwriter of extraordinary achievement whose astonishing creative vision and organizational talents are renowned throughout the entertainment industry. She is internationally recognized for turning the vision of television concepts into mesmerizing, creative realities, with credits including: “Crash Landing on You”, “The Legend of the Blue Sea”, “The Producers”, “My Love From the Star”, “My Husband Got a Family”, “Queen of Reversals”, “Queen of Housewives”, “Get Karl! Oh Soo-Jung”, and others. “Crash Landing on You” is the highest rated tvN drama and the third-highest-rated Korean drama in cable television history. The drama got high praise for its originality and the way the plot was played out. It was also immensely popular among fans all over Asia. It consistently remained in the Top Ten on Netflix in almost all major Asian markets and accumulated 1.75 billion online views globally.

Gi-Wook Shin is the director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center; the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea; the founding director of the Korea Program; a senior fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; and a professor of sociology, all at Stanford University. As a historical-comparative and political sociologist, his research has concentrated on social movements, nationalism, development, and international relations.

Shin is now working on a new research initiative seeking to examine potential benefits of talent flows in the Asia-Pacific region, where countries, cities, and corporations have competed with one another to enhance their stock of "brain power" by drawing on the skills of both their own citizens and those of foreigners. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this project examines flows of talent across national boundaries and assesses the efficacy of transnational human and social capital in environments such as cities, universities, and corporations in the Asia-Pacific region.  In this way, the project aims to provide insights for policymakers as they devise policies to attract brainpower transnationally.

Shin is not only the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, but also continues to actively raise funds for Korean/Asian studies at Stanford. He gives frequent lectures and seminars on topics ranging from Korean nationalism and politics to Korea's foreign relations and historical reconciliation in Northeast Asia. He serves on councils and advisory boards in the United States and South Korea and promotes policy dialogue between the two allies.

Before coming to Stanford, Shin taught at the University of Iowa and the University of California, Los Angeles. After receiving his BA from Yonsei University in Korea, he was awarded his MA and PhD from the University of Washington.

Bonnie Tilland is University Lecturer in Korean Studies in the Institute for Area Studies (LIAS) at Leiden University, the Netherlands. Her research has focused on gender and family, media, and the senses and affect in South Korea. She received her PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology from the University of Washington and was previously associate professor in the East Asia International College at Yonsei University Mirae campus.

Sangsoo Yoon is a seasoned diplomat of the Republic of Korea and has serving as Consul General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco since November 2020. Prior to this, he assumed the position of Ambassador for International Relations of Incheon Metropolitan City in May 2019 and served as Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Sydney. CG Yoon also worked as Minister of the Korean Embassy in Malaysia, as Counsellor of the Korean Embassy in the Hellenic Republic, and First Secretary of the Korean Permanent Mission to the UN Office and Other International Organizations in Geneva, Switzerland. He also took on various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea; Director of the Economic Cooperation Division, Director of the International Energy and Logistics Division, Director of the Trade Policy Planning and Public Relations Division, Director of the Trade Dispute Settlement Division, and Dean of Planning and Assessment of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy. CG Yoon received an LL.B. from Seoul National University, Korea and an LL.M. from Georgetown Law School, United States.

Dafna Zur is associate professor of Korean literature and culture in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and is the current Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford University. Her first book, Figuring Korean Futures: Children’s Literature in Modern Korea (2017), interrogates the contradictory political and social visions made possible by children’s literature in colonial and postcolonial Korea. She has published articles on North Korean popular science and science fiction, translations in North Korean literature, the Korean War in children’s literature, childhood in cinema, children’s poetry and music, and popular culture.

Journalists interested in covering the conference should contact Shorenstein APARC’s Communications Manager Michael Breger at mbreger@stanford.edu by April 17 at 9:00 a.m. PT to register. At the venue, they will be required to present a press credential from an established news organization. Freelance reporters should email a letter from the news organization for which they work to Michael Breger by the April 17 deadline. The press area is limited and press seating is not guaranteed.