From Rubble to the Korean Wave Hub: The Making of the New Digital Media City in Seoul

Abstract

Digital Media City (DMC) is an ambitious urban development project on a previous waste disposal site of Seoul. While it had been promoted as the world’s first high-tech complex in the early 2000s, it has now developed into the hub of the Korean Wave, concentrating South Korea’s key media and entertainment industries. This chapter explains how the rise of the Korean Wave and the government’s political and economic aspirations shaped the development of DMC. In particular, we focus on how the Korean Wave, which began as an intangible cultural product, has been translated into tangible urban formation of a planned creative cluster. Although DMC managed to cluster cultural-creative industries, we highlight that intrinsic values of culture are important to further support its creative urban environment.