“Indonesian“ Style or Gangnam Style
Months
ago, ‘Gangnam Style’ became one of the hot topics in the world. The song that
sung by Korean rapper named Psy got more than 100 million viewer in social
video network – Youtube – conquered the chart that for a long time ‘reserved’
for Western music. Does Indonesia get the ‘Hallyu – the name for Korean wave
all over the world – ‘ fever too? Yes,
yes, and yes. In fact, it is not only
about Gangnam Style, even years before, we already knew ‘almost’ everything about
this wave. Started from K-drama, K-music, and so on. Indonesian became
fascinated about everything sensed Korea, such as food, fashion, travel
destination, and many more. That’s it ? No. We even start adopting one of the
music trends in Korea to ours, and we are talking about girl band and boy band.
Based on this situation, many people –especially Indonesian young people- believe
that the come of this wave can make Indonesian culture, whether it is the
traditional or popular one, richer than before. It will be argued in this essay
that the coming of Hallyu wave can be seen as one of the ways of culture
shaping along with the people as the main character in it and the impacts.
Many people especially the
nationalists and Indonesian cultural experts start worrying about the coming of
K-wave as one of the ways Indonesian culture shaped 1. As
stated by Prof. Kacung Maridjan, when people start paying more attention to the
new culture –further, if it is from the other country -, they tend to ignore or
even deny the local one because the new culture is seen more fascinating and
interesting because of the major aspects in it still strange 2.
So, the result is they tend to be more interested in exploring this new culture
to get more familiar with it rather than to explore the local one which still
has a need to be applied and to be proud of. But on the other hand, some
people, especially the Indonesian youth, see this point as nothing to be seen
as problem because this condition, when the strange culture faces the local
one, can create the multi cultural environment
where people can choose the good things from both and adapt those in
real life 3. Even though I agree with that statement, but still we have
to consider the true nature of the Indonesian culture itself so we can act more
wise through this problem, because as we know, Indonesian local culture formed
from many cultures, not only two or three, but hundreds because of the
condition of the people where one region has their own included language,
clothes, ceremony, arts, and many more . This condition
creates a complexity where Indonesian people have to do a big responsibility to
explore and know better about their own culture so it can reach its aims which
is to maintain and create the national identity through individual acts.
But by the coming of this Hallyu
wave, people start to ignore those responsibilities. Worse, this wave starts to
be seen as one of the ways how the national identity which has to be reflected
in the culture faded. This condition was not seen in few years ago, even at
that time Korean wave started growing up in Indonesian people’s mind, because
it was still seen as the seasonal trend. But it became the serious threat for
the national culture from about one year ago when the whole country was rocked
by the intention growth of the interest in public. It can be seen from the
length of the line of the people who queued up for watching Korean singer
concert. Not only hundreds people but it turned into thousands 4.
Suddenly, people started to be more interesting in every single thing that
sensed Korea, includes the language, clothes, and foods which in fact basically
have to do with the national culture, not the foreign one. The good example for
that is that people, especially the youth, start learning how to speak Korea,
how to dress like people from there, even how to behave like them.
When the local culture start to be
forgotten and replaced by the new one , one of the big impacts that can be a problem
that may not concerned by most of the people is the character issue . According
to Yuswohady, when the national culture which brings the national identity no
longer reflects the character of the people, the country as the nation and the
state may lose its ground to stand on their own 5. It can change the
way people think, act, and behave and they no longer reflect the character of
the nation, and when it really happens in the real life, in the time people
can’t even recognize which culture that they take, it can create the big black
hole in nationalism sense in person. It possibly can happen, because one of the
important substances in nationalism is the identity in person or in group of
people which is shaped by norms and of course by culture. When we reach and
look deeper into the impact for the culture, it can be assumed that the
national culture which carries the nation dignity can be faded and slowly
disappear and changed into the new one which is seen and assimilated into ours.
In result, we will not have our personal identity when it turns into the
international world because basically we adapt something from the others and we
can’t turn them into ours. In the other word, we can say that we are not free
yet in cultural issue when it faces the global scope. Can we imagine that ? I
don’t think so.
In conclusion in the light of these
argued, Hallyu wave or another popular cultures – if acted in unwise thought –
can give some big damages which effect important substances in the life as a
nation or in a person. Those popular cultures more less can shape people’s
thought toward local culture, whether it is the traditional or the popular one.
Further, it can create the cultural crisis, it means that there are some
uncertainties in the life as a state or as a nation toward which culture taken,
and it can ditermine how people think, speak, and behave. From those, it can be
concluded that there is nothing wrong with the coming of the Hallyu wave or
another culture through one nation, especially Indonesia. But, we can’t take
those for granted. It needs further thoughts to create a balance in people
which is one of the elements in culture so the local one can stand on its own
ground without any interruption from the others.
References :
1 liputan6.com
DPR-Gangnam Style Rusak Budaya Bangsa 15/12/2012
2jurnas.com
Secara budaya Indonesia Belum Merdeka, Budayawan
Khawatir Semua jadi K-pop 15/12/2012
3Koreanchingu.wordpress.com
Pengaruh K-Pop bagi remaja Indonesia 28/12/2012
4
yeppopo.wordpress.com
5catatankecil.wordpress.com
Pengaruh penyebaran K-Pop bagi geokultural Indonesia
15/12/2012
