In recent years, a number of works have emerged that analyze the Korean Wave (Hallyu)—the sudden rise and seemingly global reach of Korean popular culture since the late 1990s. In New Korean Wave, Dal Yong Jin adds a new perspective to these as he examines to what extent the relevant industries have successfully hybridized their transnational production. Deliberating how local cultural players have responded to global developments, he argues that by extending the duration and extent of the Wave they may meaningfully contribute to a reversal of the global flow of culture, from East to West (p. 16). Through what is largely a cultural studies approach, he scrutinizes how various national policies and the adoption of neoliberalism have affected the development of cultural industries over the past few decades, noting that the various strategies did not seek to respond to any collective or citizen-based concerns for cultural diversity and identity, nor preserve the national culture (p. 39). Whereas a “culturally odorless” approach might sometimes seem preferable due to the culturally specific demands of consumers, Jin believes in the possibility of hybridizing products for the global market with local specificities, free from Western influence (p. 69).

The book is divided up into three sections, the second and third of which comprise six case studies in the form of chapters. In these, Jin focuses on the Wave's main export products from a commercial point of view: television shows, cinema, animation, K-pop, digital games, and smartphones. Although the inclusion of the latter is not adequately justified, the cultural relevance of mobile operating systems would be interesting to consider here, especially since the book's subtitle promises a treatise on social media. Jin does briefly explore the link between smartphones and software (pp. 159–64), but does not engage with the cultural implications of particular social media, or their tie-in with hardware. The chapters are of almost equal length and appear to have been written with their possible future use as teaching resources in mind, which, due to the repeated application of hybridization theory, leads to some repetition. They start with an introduction of a creative industry followed by figures related to its commercial development before segueing to the possibility of hybridization based on local characteristics and the warning that commercialization may get in the way of its successful execution (pp. 67, 89–90, 150, 173). The chapters on television and animation are particularly worthwhile. While the former provides an excellent overview of the development of approaches in formatting and the growing importance of intellectual property, the latter entails an engaging discussion of the ways in which animation products have effectively targeted newly developing markets, including different age groups, through hybridized transnational production methods.

In New Korean Wave, Jin's strengths lie in deliberating the transnational nature of production processes, and the challenges of hybridization, though he falls short of contributing meaningfully to the various discussions of the concept. Partly due to his having had to rely on the limited number of relevant English-language sources, the Korean, local experiences are a lacuna. The sections I believe would have benefited from more critical reflection are “Hybridization of Korean Films: Genres,” in which Jin deliberates the problematic definition of genres and themes (pp. 75–83), and “Linguistic Hybridization in K-pop” (pp. 124–27), which provides mostly examples of foreign words in K-pop songs without further considering the significance of the often “butchered” but “catchy” lyrics to global markets. What is more, despite maintaining an East-West binary in his analyses (see pp. 15, 83, 104, 166)—which somehow contradicts the premise of successful Korean transnational hybridity—Jin does not define or contemplate the Western or Eastern qualities or preferences he refers to (pp. 50, 54, 79, 130), even though one would certainly expect this. At times, such as in his limited discussion of the characteristics of K-pop and KakaoTalk, he also appears somewhat out of touch with Korea's contemporary popular culture. He may have sought to remedy this through “in-depth interviews” (p. 8), but the responses he includes are short, small in number, and virtually all anonymous (pp. 47, 50, 136, 161). Considering his prevalent use of English-language sources and North American informants, then, Jin's advocacy of a flow of culture from East to West seems, again, contradictory.

New Korean Wave is a welcome addition to the body of work available on the Korean Wave, and a useful addition to the literature on Korea's creative industries in particular. Despite the limitations of its source material, and the omission of more critical deliberation of both consumer experience and hybridization theory, it presents a range of well-researched and lucid case studies of Korea's main creative industries, and an intriguing, if at times repetitive, discussion of transnational cultural productions. The narrative and argumentation would have benefited from fewer repetitions and more rigorous editing overall, and Jin's habit of completing sentences with citations should have been checked. By over-emphasizing the significance of the rise of Korean popular culture (pp. 3–4)—on page 4, the adjective “major” is used no less than four times in a single paragraph—saying it is “more interesting and unique than other countries’ cases” (p. 16), it sometimes appears intended more for novices to the phenomenon than insiders. But those well-informed on Hallyu-related developments still ought to definitely check this out.