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Whether or not Squid Game or K-pop is your cup of chai, anything that sparks our young people to develop an interest in Asia is to be encouraged – we all benefit in the long run, says Simon Draper.
Simon Draper is the executive director of the Asia NZ Foundation Te Whītau Tūhono.
OPINION: Perhaps it’s because we’re now midwinter, or perhaps I’m getting a little long in the tooth, but since my recent visit to Asia, where I spent a number of years as a young man, I’ve been thinking how you can feel like a Young Turk one day and seemingly an old curmudgeon the next.
It has been a reminder to me that it’s important to keep an open ear and mind to the voices of the younger generations, because the future depends more on them than on people like me.
This is particularly the case in Asia, where in terms of the key growth demographic there are 800 million millennials, compared with 66 million in the United States (and 60 million in the EU), according to investment bank Schroders. And 65% of millennials in emerging markets expect to be better off than their parents, versus an equivalent percentage in developed countries who expect to be worse off. Millennials in Asia are fast becoming the world’s most avid consumers, driven by optimism and ambition.
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The good news for New Zealand is our millennials are also engaging with Asia in new and more relevant ways.
The Asia New Zealand Foundation’s latest Perceptions of Asia and Asian Peoples report reveals New Zealanders are increasingly interested in entertainment and cultural content produced in Asia (particularly Japan and South Korea), with Netflix’s South Korean show Squid Game coming out on top as the most consumed Asia-related piece of entertainment in 2021.
We can, of course, look back and see that the West has been steadily increasing its consumption of Asian media and pop culture over the past few decades. The 80s brought us classic Japanese arcade games such as Donkey Kong and Space Invaders.
Anime gained mainstream popularity and then Pokémon and Dragon Ball Z became household names in Aotearoa in the 90s. But things have ramped up in recent years as media of all kinds, and from all places, becomes more readily available.
All these trending forms of Asian entertainment have one thing in common: the popularity is largely youth-led. Young people here in New Zealand and across the globe, as they so often do, are the first ones to embrace the new.
It’s not at all surprising that Asia and Asian culture is seen by young people as current, modern, exciting, fast-paced, and edgy – be it in the film, fashion, or gaming industries. While food and travel continue to top the list of ways in which New Zealanders connect with Asia, there is a growing appetite for more.
Thimo Pedersen/Unsplash
Pokémon became popular in the 1990s.
Our Perceptions of Asia research also showed us that almost two-thirds of New Zealanders (65%) said they had consumed some form of Asia-related entertainment in 2021, up from 59% the previous year.
Could this trend in part be due to New Zealand’s increasing Asian population, with Asian diaspora performing as amplifiers of new, exciting content?
Possibly. But we also know that while fewer New Zealanders recall consuming Asia-related news, pop culture has grown as a source of information for us.
Although pop culture may seem like frivolous entertainment, it’s providing an ‘in’ for young people to develop an awareness and appreciation of Asian cultures, something that previous generations of New Zealanders were less inclined to do.
Our research shows that young people who develop an interest in an Asian culture – be it through music, film, sport – often go on to learn an Asian language, learn more about an Asian culture or cultures and may even spend a period living in the region.
Through the Foundation’s Leadership Network, I know of young New Zealanders who were first introduced to South Korea or Japan through J-pop or K-pop and then went on to learn Korean or Japanese and develop skills that have placed them well in the New Zealand job market.
This should be embraced, as there are few skills that New Zealand businesses are crying out for more than Asia knowledge.
The Foundation’s report looking at South Island connections with Asia, titled Te Waipounamu and Asia, which we published last year, found language capability and market knowledge were assessed by businesses as bigger challenges to succeeding in Asia than competition, logistics or trade barriers.
Whether or not anime or K-pop is your cup of chai, anything that sparks our young people to develop an interest in Asia is to be encouraged – we all benefit in the long run.
And as the data shows us, if our young people aren’t engaged in Asia, it’s a missed opportunity for them, and for old curmudgeons like me who will increasingly rely on them.
