The future of Korea's culture industry is convergence

Media art installation involving images of foods projected onto traditional earthenware pots at the Korea Pavilion at this year's Milan Expo, right, both combine Korean craft and contemporary art in an effort to appeal to the global audiences of today. [NEWSIS]

Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, has spread K-pop and K-dramas across the world over the past decade. This wave has helped spread Korean culture abroad and put Korea on the map for many foreigners.

However, the movement has been somewhat limited to the pop culture genres and the highly saturated market of K-pop idols, and experts say it has been slowly declining since 2013, noting that the country lacks a long-term strategy for promoting its culture abroad. Private companies, nonprofit organizations and the government have been working to expand more cultural phenomena abroad, including K-beauty, K-food and K-fashion.

But while there have been some positive results, the ripples are too small to keep the wave going.

It's clear a better approach is needed, and leaders in the arts and culture scene say "convergence" is the key.

The Park Geun-hye government has been pushing a project to create a "Culture and Creativity Fusion Belt" by 2017, emphasizing that "the cultural industry is the essence of the nation's future growth." The project includes establishing a new culture and creativity fusion center that combines art and ICT.

But what cultural experts have in mind is to start off by converging different genres of art in order to reach a broader audience, while building on already popular culture as a way to promote relatively unknown genres.