"Fareed Zakaria GPS" this Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET.
The Gangnam Style phenomenon has been an astonishment to anyone involved in culture in Asia, The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos tells Fareed Zakaria in a GPS web extra.
“This is not a video that anyone expected to be a success. It didn’t come out of the main cultural industry in Korea. This thing came out of nowhere and it’s a phenomenon. The question is, why? And the answer actually tells you a lot about China today,” Osnos says.
“The reason it has been so successful is that it laughs at itself – it has a great sense of humor and it’s making fun of the enormous pop industry in Korea, which is big business, it’s very successful around the world. In China today, the problem ultimately, culturally, for people that are involved in the arts – whether it’s music or filmmaking – is that if you do anything that is truly radical that is making people uncomfortable, then there are so many points when the system will intervene.”
Watch the video for the full take.
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excellent analysis, the real question is given china's rapid growth, expansion and poise to take over the global economy, is censorship in part bad or is it only a bad idea in totality?
who got the most money isn't about creativity in any way, but censoring creativity is basically limiting intelligence
i've seen some real cool stuff come from china. i can understand why they censor some stuff (I dont agree that they blanket censor creativity), for one thing they are allies with north korea, and are probably not overly enthused about political implications brought by support of the south koreans.
tchh...intelligence. If you're China, or the United States (who would like to get "up to par" with China's education system), intelligence only counts as math and science. Arts and humanities are for cavemen these days...
@ericgoestoholland – Umm, China's SOLE focus on math and science is exactly why they're culturally inferior. NOBODY watches Chinese shows or movies because they're so damn censored and bland and drone-like. So get over yourself – math and science are not the only things that make a country. China is culturally inferior. Get over it.
@GauchoLedger – If ericgoestoholland were talking about which country is culturally inferior to the other then you might have a point. He was, however, speaking about intelligence and, like it or not, he is correct that in today's society INTELLIGENCE is measured by math and science skills.
YOU are the one who needs to get over himself!!!!
Anth, I partly agree, but the problem lies more in the culture. One can hardly expect someone in China or the Middle East to make such a video like this Korean one. The aspects of life in these countries are hugely dominated by honour, respect, ego and self-respect etc. One can't even laught at oneself, let alone at other people.
"China is culturally inferior"
Really? *ahem* REALLY??!! Maybe you should look up culture, and recognize that although the Commies have been around 63 years, China has existed for about 6,300 . . . I am honestly aghast you seem that ignorant.
@Ian – When I say China is culturally inferior, I'm talking about it in terms of popular culture. Nobody is discussing ancient history or esoteric religions here. I'm talking about culture TODAY. When you look at the fact that China is simply copying American/Western culture in terms of TODAY'S MEDIA (movies, television, CELEBRITIES), then you'd see my point. (And by the way, didn't China try to erase its culture after Mao came along and tried to destroy the "bourgeoisie" aspects of Chinese society? An ironic example of the Chinese trying to erase their own cultural history. But of course, you WOULD brush over that.)
Have you seen the video of Fareed Zakaria cleaning his azz with his bare hand? If you haven't, maybe you should watch it. It is much more interesting to see how a creative and innovative Indian finger his azz than watching Gangnam.
Zakaria should stick to the only subject he has some clue on – Pakistan.
Even though I disagree, that me laugh..lol
As usual, the kwok zucking kwok zucker at CNN had nothing better to write about, they had to drag China in for such a silly Korean video. You really have to be phucked up to jump up and down for a video like that. I personally would rather see, Evan Osno, the creative American kwok zucking kwok zucker to come up with an innovative way to zuck kwoks. Furthermore, little does this American kwok zucking kwok zucker know that the Korean were watching soap operas and movies from Hong Kong in the 70s and 80s and I can easily name quite a few memorable Chinese movies, can Evan Osnos, the typical American kwok zucking kwok zucker name any memorable Korean movies?
Gangnam is nothing but the macarena's mentally-deprived cousin. Then again, the macarena was intelligent-deprived as well.
And THAT'S The Final Word!
Didn't you know that there were many attempts at things like the Macarena that never caught on? Nor is "Gangnam Style" the first time there was a tongue-in-cheek K-Pop song.
You don't get out much do you? The Macarana could only have hoped to have as much going for it.
Geez. Next thing you know, you'll be slamming the "Chicken Dance" and the "Hokey-Pokey" as unintelligent, mind-numbing exercises only fit for Italian weddings!
Official disclaimer – at my Italian wedding, I specifically instructed the DJs to not even bring their "Wedding Dances" disks, as they would be confiscated and used for skeet-shooting practice. So in addition to those mind-numbing idiocies, we also did not have to listen to "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" either!
Sounds like someone is butt hurt because it didn't come from USA...
that's a totally unfair analysis of this person's comment. you have imposed meaning here.
Pssst. Please learn engrish and the difference between a noun and an adjective.
pssttt...stop being a bullheaded american and a grammar nazi.
@ ericgoestoholland – Pssst... stop being an idiot ch*nk. We know you're culturally inferior. Get over it.
I read about an American laughing at someone for using the word SPELT in a sentence. He said the word should be spelt SPELLED. Then I laughed at him, knowing that many Americans live in a small world.
the smartest most knowledgable people in all of humanity know there is always more to know and learn ... there is no such thing as a FINAL WORD .... EVER ... unlike your incredibly ignooooorant self...
Jealous much?
Sounds like someone has not rythem and is upset that other people don't look like flailing squids on the dance floor like he does!
only a superficial individual does not see the profound meaning of the Gangnam Style phenomenon.
If you had just a tiny bit of cultural and historical perspective you'd be talking differently ... dude ur kind of thinking is doomed and will be completely gone from this planet in less than 10 years.
Now compounded that with the fact that within the next few years the first earth like planet with life will be located in the Universe and suddenly, global culture is all we will have to identify with.
Spontaneous Cultural unification at this level has never happened before in human history and the Gangnam Style phenomena is just the tiny tip of the tip of the huge iceberg of changes that are coming our way and it should be taken as a forewarning clue about it.
yes, that may be true, but must it be hip hop culture? Sheesh!
. . . and the macarena was the achy-breaky, and the achy-breaky was the chicken dance, and the chicken dance was the hustle, and the hustle was the fly, and the fly was the swim, and the swim was the Charleston . . .
The macarena was garbage from day 1 to day NOW. Gangnam style is awesome in every way.
Aren't you sick of being told what to do in this country? It means, they do not follow mentally retard crowd.
Have you heard of Ann Coulter? How about John Franklin Stephens? The R* word is a "no no" word – and the John Franklin Stephens camp is an excellent camp to follow.
Kevin, next time you decide to post, you might re-read it first. That makes absolutely no sense – or were you trying to be funny/ironic?
No, he's just calling Americans retards in Chinglish . . . the Chinese posters are easy to spot, they're the ones who don't use English well, like this guy. China doesn't do Gangnam style because they are generally so painfully introverted and desperately want not to be noticed, mostly because of their brutal government. They might know a lot of things and have a splendid cultural history, but they don't seem too much for having plain simple fun. Like dancing around like a horsy to a goofy video. Every day for weeks.
Ian the dickk head, maybe the Chinese would much rather see an American kwok zucking kwok zucker such as you zucking a limply kwok instead, have you ever thought of that? As a matter of fact, I would much rather see you bending over creatively than watching Gangnam.
We Chinese are taught since very small that America has no culture, and we are told it over and over (and over) again.
I'm Chinese, I don't t recall to be taught of that.
How can a nation made of of thousands of different cultures have no culture? I'm sad that your family put America in to a tiny box. Are you not aware of the millions of latinos, asians, africans, pacific islanders, europeans, middle easteners, and of course the native americans who were here before all of us?
Americans have put all of the ethnicities and cultures of Asia as a whole into a tiny box. From "can't tell them apart" to other ridiculous stereotypes. Most of us (and especially those who haven't travelled) hold simplified version of life outside our own box. It doesn't require you to be sad for his parents.
I am a chinese american and I love the culture!
True, America has no culture! But the different ethnicities that still hold on to their roots do!
This is, of course, coming from someone who lives in a country that copies everything America puts out. America has no culture? Why is American culture copied and replicated in all of your main cities? I would have to say that China has no culture – or no culture that is actually DESIRABLE by the rest of the world. China's culture = INFERIOR.
Uhhhh... Man, take offense if you want to. But just saying something doesn't make it true–like calling the culture that brought you the gunpowder and paper that the world is built on, and was relatively advanced while most of the West was still bumbling about in dirty hovels, "inferior".
I fully support the points made by gaucholedger. Here we go again, the chinese 1 yuan squad and their gun powder and paper rhetoric. HELLO welcome to the 21st century.
Give credit where credit is due. Psy is known as "Bizarre Singer" for his controversial videos. He's been doing this for quite a few years now.
Fareed you are a really intelligent guy but your views are often corrupted and polluted by your hate bias against pakistan and china. With China I can get, because Your an Indian from India and everyone knows that India tries to but really can't compete with China, But with Pakistan I don't really get. Pakistan is a muslim country and is on better terms with India these days so it does not really speak against India that much. So Why in the Hell are you against pakistan . . . Wait don't anser that question cuz I already know.
Alice: Thin-skinned much?
Can't even take cultural commentary if its not extolling China?
Your knee-jerk attack on Fareed proves his point, that is unless you are employed by the Chinese government to troll the message boards – in which case its dumb as well.
I don't see any 'hate' in this analysis. The only thing that is said which is negative toward China, as I paraphrase it (without just copy-pasting what I saw above), is that people in the entertainment/music industry have to be careful when it comes to things which could cause people to feel uncomfortable, because there are many government agecies that could intervene. Where is the hate?
What is "Gangnam Style?"
You seriously just may be the one person on this earth who doesnt know that. I"l do you a favor though, youtube it!
Looks stupid never heard of it until i saw my parents watching a episode of dancing with the stars that featured it...this fad will be forgotten in a few months and on to the next stupid thing
Mr.Allen,
If you haven't heard of it, you haven't missed much.
"Gangnam Style" is exactly like saying doing it Beverly Hills style .. watch the interviews
Actually, I was wondering the same thing. I just don't watch enough MTV I guess.
Troll alert . . . no one admits being THAT clueless
It's funny, satirical, and a catchy song, which is why people like it. Not hard to understand at all.
..google it man.!
In short China has a stick up their butts and does not know how to have fun. That is really all they need to say...
china do know how to have fun...just stand against tanks in Tiannamen Square we'll youtube it.. 3Million hits. that's fun!
I also think that this video was not expected to be popular, and I would dare to say that Koreans wouldn´t be proud of the content, but when it comes to nation branding, that is something Korea knows and does very well. I lived in Korea and just as they turn Yuna Kim´s gold medal in a country strategy, they´re turning this video popularity into nation branding.
oh please! gangnam style is not intelligence deprived or anything like that. it just a fun dance – and if you can't see that – then you're a kill joy!
This is just about the most random analysis I've read on CNN. China and Korea are two different counties with rather different cultures. Just because both are in Asia means squat. You won't find another Gangnam style video/song in Hollywood either.
I know people like to diss China but come on, this is just really random.....
You really don't get it, do you? How do you think this is a comparison between the two countries? Although Gangnam Style if from Korea, Fareed can use any other examples to make the claim. It is about censorship in China.
And there are a lot more reasons to diss China in terms of censorship in other areas. Why do so many companies have to struggle with Chinese government? Except N Korea, I do not know any other countries doing censorship so widely and openly.
Doesn't make it any less random. Everyone knows China censors everything. And? Are people just going to start analyzing everything that would "never happen in China"?
"Look at the U.S. presidential debates! That would never happen in China..."
"Isn't Ellen de Generes something? Her show would never happen in China..."
How is any of this, or the original topic, newsworthy and adding to our understanding of the world? And why the focus on China? Why not mention the dozen other countries Gangnam Style would probably never come out of? A Gangnam Style-type hit would never come out of Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, etc... or any other country that censors content and oppresses people. Obvious much?
..they do censorship because they're dictators..ok? Stalin, Ho Chi Min, Kim Jong iL etc...makes sense. don't wana live in a communist country.
Oooop oooop oooop oppa gangnam style, oooop oooop oooop oppa gangnam style..
You’re wrong my friend Jason, you’re digging way to deep into this..
When all music videos are done with self flattery in mind (they want to look pretty, look cool, they do it for the money, me, me, me, me, me….)
This here music video is simply done for the public……
It has a catchy toon.. you don’t even need to understand the lyrics to like it… It has a fun dance that families and friends can do together and laugh…
And more so than anything its innocent family humor that is understood by all nationalities…
Every new power rises always in economy first and then culture later, check early 20 century in US, it takes time.Secondly all the smartest kids in China go to engineering or Science field these days, not entertainment industry, not soccer not baseball.I guess since authoritarian/state control cause bad economy formula seems doesn't persuasive enough to bash China you guys change to authoritarian/state control cause bad culture formula, can you be more creative?
chinese peope can't dance.
American people are good at kwok zucking and that includes you.
Korean culture and its music is HUGE in Asia.
And its beginning to show huge potential outside of the continent.
I agree with you in every way. Oh... And I'M THE HERO!!! XD
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Psy? This was all his idea. The rest of K-Pop is manufactured and forgettable, and none of it has caught mass global attention. The K-Pop girl group that made it onto Letterman looked great but the music was embarrassing. Psy has dropped the bomb on the manufacturers of K-Plop.
The Gangnam Style phenomenon results from brilliance. This is one of the best pieces of music to come around since KISS, or maybe The Sound of Music. Soju drinkers unite !
Let's see: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Farewell my Concubine (won top award at Canne), Raise the Red Lantern, etc. Compare that to the list of Korea movies that are popular in the West...wait, I can't think of any. Then again, look how much more popular Korean food is in the West. Wait, Korean food isn't very popular at all. I'm not sure where this guy gets the idea that Chinese culture is less popular in the West than Korean culture. Except for K-Pop, Korean culture has almost no impact in the West, and even then K-Pop is only followed by a very small sub-culture. Gangnam Style is a fluke.
If Psy has made Chinese youth envious, wishing to be known globally for more than dumplings and kick flicks, and made the PRC more nervous than any dissident could, and he has, it's much more than a fluke. That's the point of the interview. I'll predict it is the proverbial straw on the PRC's way of governing.
i think they missed the point here. phenomenons culturally, especially musically dont come out of board rooms or think tanks. its the same with how rap music spawned a zillion dollar a year business in the US that now transcends music. it comes from grassroots. it comes from free thinkers who are allowed to express themselves freely, without the concerns of success or failure. Ironically, its when people try to control artists and their art that is the downfall. this isnt a concept that Asia (especially the older generations) can appreciate. imo
I saw a gangam style parody on youtube that was so funny. The lady starts out fine in the video but after a while she shows how much of a workout it is and pulls it off hysterically. Here is the link if you want to laugh your butt off!
It's never to late for Americans to start buying American. If you see something wrong with being loyal to your friends and neighbors and supporting them. Then take a flight and move to the far side of the Pacific Ocean.
Korea is, relative to its size, very culturally influential, especially in China. I don't know a single Chinese person who doesn't have a favorite Korean soap opera.
Why China can't do Gangnam Style? Chinese are birds in a cage, no freedom, and no creativity.
What is so free and creative about it? It's just another sad and baffling adoption of the darkest, worst part of our culture in another country. Good on the people of China for not being a gaggle of trend sucking, fad-happy fools.
It's free, as in free to watch, free to copy, free to post a reply (seen Ai Wei Wei's version?), free to sing to, and it is far better than your most recent song, further it is not a copy, it is original, which means writing it required some creativity and imagination. Unless you get on stage and sing your own song, your post is irrelevant, you do not understand. I pity you, and the ignorants like you – you miss so much because your nose is in the air.
No need to pity me. I draw from no less than five decades of music, dance and culture which predated this insipid, infantile, tasteless, talentless form of music and dress. It is not to hold ones nose in the air to wish for different cultures to exist the world over without being influenced by the worst of ours.
It is not to hold ones nose in the air to wish for different cultures to exist the world over without being influenced by the worst of ours.
YES IT IS!! It says you want to pick and choose instead of allowing all cultures equal weight and stature – Jews are no more important than Tasaday are no more important than Han are no more important than Hmong are no more important than Lapps are no more important than Kalahari bushmen are no more important than Dalits. Like I said, I pity you and the blind fools like you, because you just don't get it.
Hip Hop culture deserves on equal wait and garners no stature. It should've died off here long before it was allowed to infect and infest the rest of the planet. How long before the youth of Korea begin forgetting their pants size acquiring neck tattoos? Why do you continue to defend rubbish that rots culture rather than helping it to flourish?
Ironically, you soumd like an old diehard commie.
deprived of justice, liberty and equality. THEIR LEADERS ARE NOTHING MORE THAN THAT PARASITES SUCKING THE SOCIETY'S HARDSHIPS TO MAKE BUILD A BETTER CHINA. what a retard concept of Government.
Censorship is a pathetic attempt to control the masses. As technology improves it will become less and less possible to censor anything. China needs to get it's head out of it's ass.
yes, so its rich music, dance and culture can be transformed into another mindless American hip-hop ghetto.
Cultural diversity is anathema to China, it's hardly a secret, You are a shill for the Communist government, and your posts are ridiculed by many because your allegiance is so transparent, but only a few bother responding to your incendiary trolls. Again, I pity you and your small world – you miss so much because your nose is in the air. You just don't get it.
I still would rather watch Ian, the American kwok zucking kwok zucker zuck kwoks instead.
Dave the dickk head, why did you say China censor things? I was able to see the video in which you zucked your uncle's limply kwok.
Humans are funny.
yah..funny like you.!
I dunno. I didn't think about the deep issues under the music video or how it was making fun of elite culture. I just saw it as a silly but awesome song with pretty women and a guy doing pelvic thrusts in an elevator. That's enough to wow me.
Some people like it. Some people don't. Just like everything else in history.
Uh, hi. This was old like four weeks ago. "Viral" = flash in the pan popularity. By the time it's gone global it's old-news-done-to-death-time-to-move-on.
I doubt you realize the last time any east asian country had a tune in the upper range of major charts around the globe was in 1963.. or care to
take china and shov it where you want.
That's a stupid question. Why no one else can do Gangnam Style, and I don't mean copying. The fact is there is only one original Gangnam. The same question can be asked why China or anyone else can't do Michael Jackson. Does Zakaria think his home country India can do Gangnam Style?
Is this a april fool's discussion or is Fareed really judging China's culture with one song.
...FAREED YOU MUST NOT FORGET THE CULTURE OF CHINA IS LONG DEAD! MAO ZEDONG KILLED IT!
Just read Fareed's bio. Hes Indian. That explains this trash. lol
And he still used his bare cultural hand to clean his azz before he wrote this piece of bullzhit.
I have been reading a lot of article written by this author. He makes a lot of money pay by the TIME or US subsides fund to talk rubbish or find some kind of theory to show the world how awkward the Chinese society and culture is today.
You cares about Gangnam Style. Omg CNN you guys are getting desperate for headlines. Gangnam Style SUCKS!
Who knew that Gangnam Style was something "truly radical" that made people "uncomfortable"? Surely that explains its success as a viral video. Fareed comes up with a new line of skit every day...well, at least the days he isn't plagiarizing.
I did not know that Gangnam Style is a testing stone for democracy. Thank you, Fareed, for the profound observation!
who cares !?!?!?!
Gangnam Style??? is anyone supposed to know what this means??
I am not going to get into the argument of who has "culture" and who doesn't. Who cares?? I prefer human rights over any "culture" any day.
i support u bro... human rights is essential and vital. ithe rights and sovereignty or the God given rightst and he culture itself is packaged . speaking of culture whether china, america etc. every country does have..
Come on guys. Gangnam Style did not happen
in South Korea either when that country was at a similar stage
of development as China.
I watched this expecting some puff piece, but the guy has some valid and well said points. Not sure I 100% agree with absolutely everything he says, but it's well done.
Why doesn't India has Gangnam style? Are people so anti-Chinese now that they come to these site to feel better? This is journalism. What is India excuse?
Maybe all they have is caste system which can't not be too influential in the world.
Do Indian eat with the same hand they wipe their ass? Fareed just lost my respect for this totally idiotic discussion.
You have to realize that an Indian dickk head like him has to write bullzhit to make a living and at the same time badmouth China. He certainly will not be writing anything about how Indians wipe their azz with bare hand or zhit out in the open. I certainly would not shake hands with an Indian. I just don't want to shake the wrong hand.
Wellcome China
Nobody cares about Gangnam style. I'll tell you something Korea can't do: protect itself with its own military.
Opan Gangnam Style! XD
Any one here Find this ironic?
I do because I watch Hetalia.
China is upset and that is why he can't.
Lol.
oh also 2008 olympic opening is pretty good too.
2012 London Olympics is much better man. cant understand chinese. English i prefer...