Korean-American influencers say US interest in Korean culture is helping their careers, but they worry it could also be masking casual or overt racism

• Korean TV, movies, food, and K-pop are gaining popularity in the US.
• But for Korean-American influencers, this increased interest comes with mixed feelings.

One of Joe Kye's most-watched TikTok videos contains a song called "Which Korea am I from?" The video, which was viewed 271,000 times on TikTok, and still regularly circulates on Twitter, asked a question he and many Korean-Americans heard while they were growing up in the US.

Along with support and encouragement from fans, Kye's video also attracted racist trolls who told him to "go back to North Korea." (Kye's grandparents on his father's side had escaped from North Korea in 1948 into South Korea as refugees.)

"How fitting that everything I heard in middle school is coming back to haunt me now," he said.

In recent years, Korean culture has seen an explosion in popularity across the globe, particularly with American audiences and online with the massive success of Korean television, movies, food, and the popularity of K-pop. Videos under the hashtag #Korean on TikTok have 38 billion views, #KoreanTikTok has 1.8 billion, and #KoreanFood has 5 billion. For comparison, videos under the hashtags #Chinese and #Japanese, while still massive topics, have 11 billion and 12 billion views respectively.

Kye's experience highlights the conflicting feelings many Korean-American content creators told Insider they share — while they're excited to see parts of Korean culture being enjoyed and celebrated by global audiences, they remain concerned that nuance is lost in the US where racism and prejudice against Asian people are still prevalent.

Insider spoke to six Korean-American TikTok and Instagram creators about the popularity of Korean media in the US and how it's impacting their careers.

The rise in Korean media in the US has helped some Korean-American creators go viral, they say

TikTok creator Young Kim told Insider Korean media is at an all-time high of "soft cultural power." Kim, who has 402,000 followers on TikTok, grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where only 2.8% of the population is Asian, and a lot of his videos center around the childhood experiences of being Asian-American and growing up as the child of immigrants.

Kim has seen increased interest in content about Korean culture in the past couple of years. He said he's happy to see Korean TV and movies become smash hits, and hear Korean phrases being used in casual conversation, because kids growing up in predominantly white neighborhoods may feel more connected to their heritage.

"The most heartwarming messages I get are the ones where Asian kids who grew up how I grew up in a non-Asian area, will say, 'I can really relate to your videos,'" Kim said. "'And it makes me feel better knowing that I'm not the only one who's going through those things.'"

Fellow TikToker Jane Park, who has 3.5 million followers and makes videos about her experiences as a Korean-American person, said she finds the current interest in Korean media in the US "really fascinating."

The first time she remembers incorporating Korean culture into her own content was when she took part in a trend where moms tried to deter children from eating certain foods by telling them they're "too spicy." She did the same in her TikTok, but then pivoted to encouraging her child to try Korean food, with the caption reading "shooting myself in the foot," suggesting the tactic was detrimental to her goal of her child appreciating Korean cuisine.

The skit took off, receiving over 11 million views, and Park realized how much interest there was in the Korean-American experience. And every time she would post a video about Korean food, or her kids learning new Korean words, her followers would ask for more.

"That was kind of a moment where I thought, maybe my audience likes this," she said. "And maybe this is a way to put content out there that incorporates my culture. I never thought of doing that before, because it's just who I am."

Some creators worry US interest in Korean culture is masking casual or overt racism

Sharon Lee, who has 24,000 TikTok followers, started posting lifestyle and beauty content in the spring of 2020, but when she started talking about "Asian-American problems," she said she noticed a significant increase in viewers' interests.

But for Lee, the explosion in popularity of her culture in the US opened "a can of worms." She wonders whether the sudden interest is genuine, because a lot of the people she grew up with who made fun of her for being Korean, or her parents for having Korean accents, are now the ones who are obsessed with "Squid Game," Korean food, and BTS.

Lee also finds it frustrating when people she meets assume listening to K-pop means they have an understanding of Korean culture.

"I wish people would understand that just 30 seconds of this one music video doesn't explain everything about Korean culture," she said. "Similar to how I don't represent every Korean-American, I don't represent every Asian-American, and I don't represent every ethnic Korean person."

Gloria Lee runs the Instagram and TikTok accounts called Gleetz, dedicated to Korean culture and recipes. While she has loved to see the boom in her own content, as well as that of other Korean-American creators who make similar videos, she's concerned it may not ultimately benefit Korean creators.

For example, white creators have jumped on the bandwagon of making Korean recipes in the past few years. While there's nothing wrong with this in theory, people should think about whether they are taking up space when a person of color is pushed to the side, she said.

Overall, Lee said she believes the difference between cultural appropriation and appreciation is whether someone is blatantly profiting off someone else's heritage and traditions without giving credit, and white people should think twice before centering themselves at the forefront of food media.

"We are the experts of our own culture and nobody can take that away from us," she said. "I just hope people like us just as much as they like our food."

Korean-American creators hope interest in Korean media doesn't overshadow the rise in anti-Asian racism in the US

Creators highlighted that Korean media's popularity has happened simultaneously with an uptick in anti-Asian racism in the US. During the coronavirus pandemic, Asian-Americans faced an onslaught of verbal harassment and physical attacks, and on March 16, 2021, a shooter killed eight people at spas in Atlanta, Georgia — six of whom were Asian women — spurring the #StopAsianHate movement.

All the Korean-American creators Insider spoke to said they want the appreciation of their culture to go beyond online virality and have a positive impact on Korean-American communities.

Park notes that it's important people continue to examine their own racial prejudices.

"'Squid Game' on Netflix is the first Korean series to be number one on Netflix, that's wonderful," she said. "But at the same time, if our elders, if my parents aren't safe walking in their neighborhoods, is that really a win?"

Kim said he hopes people go into Asian movies or watch Korean dramas on Netflix and appreciate it's a big deal for the Asian-American community to have so many people across the world watching something with a majority Asian cast.

"And if we screw up, it's not, 'Let's pull every Asian movie or following series' afterward," he said.

Courtney Park, a TikTok creator who has 19,000 followers said Korean entertainment's global success can sometimes feel strange and "superficial," as she's not sure people do their research.

She said she hopes that through American audiences' appreciation of Korean culture, "they not just appreciate our entertainment, but they also stand up for its people."

For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.