The $40M bet that made South Korea a food and cultural power

About Thai food, it is interesting to note that Pad Thai, often considered to be the national dish, was in fact made for that purpose. Originating from the mid 20th century, it is hardly traditional. That doesn't make it less delicious, and while it is one of the most accessible of Thai dishes (i.e. not too spicy), it is not just for tourists, locals eat it too.

As for getting into an argument, I would avoid getting into an argument with people whose national sport is one of the most effective martial arts. But Thai people are usually not the kind of people who get into an argument in the first place.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decades

I really don’t think we should hold SK up for anything other than what aggressive capitalism does to a society. Kills it off.

For example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36016653

Often their SKUs, IME, are overpriced and low quality, because they market it as a health food and try too hard to cater to that niche, so it’s not spicy or salty enough and lacks fish sauce. You’re still way better off going to an Asian grocery store for it.

But eventually they’ll figure out they can just sell the good stuff… It’s a great snack and Americans are already familiar enough with eg dill pickles and sauerkraut that I think we’ll eventually embrace real Kimchi.

Sushi has the benefit of needing to be consumed fresh, except for fake crab which freezes well enough that you can find "sushi" at quite a few out of the way gas stations as well.

Having access to an asian grocery store with fresh bean sprouts, kimchi, freshly made kimbap, good masala blends, all the herbs and so forth is probably the only thing I miss about living in a bigger city.

It would probably be better to compare kimchi with wasabi or sauerkraut though.

For China, the same game plan wouldn't work not without heavy alterations. It does however have substantial ability to influence those not already heavily Americanized.

Chinese media will probably be increasingly exported over the next 20-30 years, and tbf - PRC right now is roughly at the same comparative level economically+social development wise with Taiwan+SK in the 1980s.

Both those countries soft power exports only really took off in the 90s and 2000s respectively, so it's reasonable to assume a similar media push happens in the late 2020s/early 2030s.

This has already started with Thailand (who's developmental indicators are comparable with SK in the late 1990s/early 2000s) and their media+music exports within ASEAN+SK+JP. For example, for higher education most middle class families in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos prefer sending their kids to study at Thai universities now if they can't afford Australia/SG/JP/SK.

And a similar impact has occurred with Turkiye's (similar developmental indicators to SK in the mid-late 2000s) media and soft power exports within the Balkans+Ukraine+Russia+Levant+Central Asia.

That said, I doubt the age+racial/cultural demographic on HN are the type that consume Asian media, so I'll probably be downvoted by China Hawks for the soft power statements and Wumaos for the 1980s statement.

Edit: 10x to 1/10

Edit 2: 1/10 to 1/100