Reside from South Korea — Steve Jang on Korea’s Exploding “Smooth Energy,” The Poverty-to-Energy Playbook, Ok-Pop, “Han” Vitality, Should-See Motion pictures, Export Economies, and A lot Extra (#707)

“For Koreans, han generally is a drive to do nice issues, to bond collectively, to know one another, to empathize. However it could possibly additionally simply be anger and Ok-rage which, channeled accurately, lets you construct a complete business and succeed on the worldwide stage to create popular culture phenomenons that win Grammys, and films that win Oscars, and lightweight up the world to what’s occurring on this little nation that was poor, that was damaged after colonization and a battle.”

— Steve Jang

Scroll right down to the present notes part to see Steve’s must-see Korean motion pictures and must-do issues in Seoul.

Steve Jang (@stevejang) is the founder and managing companion at Kindred Ventures, an early-stage enterprise capital fund primarily based in San Francisco. He’s additionally a longtime buddy and one of many founder-now-investor technology of VCs that arose out of the final expertise cycle. Steve is without doubt one of the prime 100 enterprise capital traders on the planet, in line with Forbes Midas Listing of prime enterprise capital traders, and was ranked #45 in 2023. He’s additionally a Korean-American, a gyopo, who’s deeply invested and concerned in each the technological and cultural worlds within the US and Asia. 

Beforehand, Steve was an early advisor to, and angel investor in, Uber, after which an early-stage investor in Coinbase, Postmates, Poshmark, Tonal, Blue Bottle Espresso, and Humane, the AI system platform. He helped Uber, Coinbase, and Blue Bottle Espresso, amongst others, to broaden into Korea and Japan. As an entrepreneur, Steve co-founded corporations within the client web, cellular, and crypto area.

Within the movie and music world, he’s an govt producer, and his most up-to-date movie is Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV, which tells the story of the best Korean artist, and father of digital video artwork, and which premiered on the Sundance Movie Pageant in 2023. His subsequent movie is a documentary about Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum.

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Wish to hear one other episode that includes a gyopo? Take heed to my dialog with streetwear artist Bobby Tons of through which we mentioned his double life as a parent-pleasing legislation scholar and clandestine artist, collaboration over competitors, rolling with the tides of fickle trend, vital disconnections, subcultural safety, hermit north stars, and way more.

What was your favourite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know within the feedback.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Kindred Ventures | Twitter | Instagram | Threads | LinkedIn

Steve’s High “Should-See” Korean Motion pictures:

Steve’s “Should-Do” Issues in Seoul:

• Stroll and discover the previous city areas of Samcheong, Insa, and Hongdae. Meander round these hills and small streets and alleys stuffed with small outlets, cafes, and tea homes.
• Headbob or dance with native of us at small DJ bars in Hongdae or Itaewon. Favorites are Cakeshop, Hills and Europa, and Gopchang Jeongol.
• Eat at a Hanwoo beef specialty restaurant. Hanwoo is the Korean model of Wagyu.
• Take a look at small artwork galleries, craft boutiques, and huge museums together with the Leeum. The artist neighborhood in Korea is a core component of Korean society, in historic, counterculture, and nice artwork spheres.
• Eat lunch within the meals court docket of a significant division retailer like Hyundai, Galleria, or Shinsegae. Utterly completely different high quality than what you’d anticipate within the US.
• Train on the outside park by the Han River. The colder the climate, the higher.
• Get Tongdak (Korean fried rooster) and beer. In case you aren’t consuming subsequent to taxi drivers and ajummas, then it’s not OG.
• Discover Dongdaemun Market, the biggest unbiased dressmaker market on the planet.
• Exit for cocktails, makkoli (fermented soybean liquor), and karaoke (which is known as “noraebang” in Korean) in Apgujeong, the cool child space of Gangnam.
• Join a Ok-pop boot camp for 3 months and pay to discover ways to sing, dance, and costume to be within the subsequent BLACKPINK or BTS.

• Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV | Prime Video
• Previous Lives | Prime Video
• Hallyu (Korean Wave) | Korea.web
• Ok-All the things: The Rise and Rise of Korean Tradition | The Guardian
• Full Historical past of Korea in 5 Minutes | Historical past on Maps
• Korean Diaspora | Wikipedia
• South Korea’s Difficult Embrace of Gyopo | Los Angeles Instances
• Blade Runner | Prime Video
• Korea First to Defend Robotic Rights | Wired
• Seoul Hopes to Begin Flying Taxis in 2025 | Chosunilbo AMP
• Korea: From Hermit Kingdom to Colony | Affiliation for Asian Research
• Van Nuys Senior Excessive
• Your All-in-One Hangul Information | 90-Day Korean
• What’s Behind Japan and South Korea’s Newest Try to Mend Ties? | United States Institute of Peace
• 9 Issues You Ought to Know About Christianity in Korea | TGC
• Confucianism | Nationwide Geographic
• Introduction to the Cultural Revolution | FSI
• Thriving on Nervousness: Korea’s Multibillion-Greenback Hagwon Business | Korea Herald
• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee | Amazon
• A Uniquely Japanese Take On Nostalgia | BBC
• Saudade: An Untranslatable, Undeniably Potent Phrase | alt.latino
• Bizarro World | Wikipedia
• Stranger Issues | Netflix
• The Upside Down | Stranger Issues Wiki
• How you can Say “No” In Japanese? It’s More durable Than You Suppose | Japan Dev
• Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s Punch Perm Is a Robust-Man Look with a Wild Historical past | Inverse
• Households Divided by Warfare in North and South Korea Reunite | CBS Mornings
• This Information Broadcast Reunited 10,189 Households Separated by Warfare | The Ethnographer
• The Korean Warfare | AP US Historical past Research Information from The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American Historical past
• An Unpromising Restoration: South Korea’s Publish-Korean Warfare Financial Improvement: 1953-1961 | Affiliation for Asian Research
• The Host (English Subtitled) | Prime Video
• What Are Chaebol Buildings in South Korea? | Investopedia
• South Koreans Push for Promised Chaebol Reforms | Monetary Instances
• Squid Recreation | Netflix
• Bodily: 100 | Netflix
• American Gladiators (1989 TV Collection) | Wikipedia
• The Starvation Video games | Prime Video
• BLACKPINK at Coachella: Group Thanks Followers for Supporting Historic Set | Rolling Stone
• Enterprise Capital | Investopedia
• Paving the Path to Smooth Energy: Essential Moments in South Korea’s Cultural Insurance policies | Wilson Middle
• Manga Answerman: How Do Censorship Guidelines Work for Hentai? | Anime Information Community
• How the Beanie Child Craze Got here to a Crashing Finish | Historical past
• Naruto | Prime Video
• Wu-Tang Clan
• Backstreet Boys
• This Is Spinal Faucet | Prime Video
• “These Go to 11.” | Spinal Faucet
• Ok-Pop Trainee Program | ACOPIA
• There’s a Uniquely Korean Phrase for Rage and Remorse. So Why Had I By no means Heard of It? | CBC Radio
• “Chips on Shoulders Put Chips In Pockets” | Josh Wolfe, Twitter
• The Uniquely Korean Idea of Jeong (정/情) | Figuring out Korea
• What Is ‘Nunchi’, the Korean Secret to Happiness? | The Guardian
• Omotenashi : The Philosophy of Japanese Hospitality | TOKI
• South Korea Has the Lowest Fertility Fee within the World – And That Doesn’t Bode Properly for Its Financial system | The Dialog
• 1997 Asian Monetary Disaster | Federal Reserve Historical past
• How Gold Rode to the Rescue of South Korea | Forbes
• Is Korea’s Faculty Entrance Examination Too Tough? | Korea Herald
• Gwageo: Gateway to Success in Joseon | Korea Herald
• Esports in Korea: Information to Korean Gaming Tradition | Seoulz
• League of Legends
• The Korean PC Bang: All the things to Know Earlier than You Go! | The Soul of Seoul
• 10 Fashionable Korean Cosplayers | KPOP Webmagazine LVKM+Wold
• How Ugg Boots Turned Style’s Hottest New Shoe — Once more | Vogue
• ‘Squid Recreation’ Has Remodeled What It Means to Go Viral | Protocol
• Hollywood Depends on China to Keep Afloat. What Does That Imply for Motion pictures? | NPR
• I Solely Work 4 Hours by Timothy Ferriss (Korean Version) | Amazon
• Ryanair: The Full Story of the Controversial Low-Price Airline by Siobhan Creaton | Amazon
• Making Commerce Higher for Everybody | Shopify
• The Story of Uber | Investopedia
• Speak To Me In Korean Stage 1 | Amazon
• Actual-Life Korean Conversations For Freshmen | Amazon
• Why Do Some French Folks Dislike It When You Attempt to Communicate Their Language? | Quora
• The Free, Enjoyable, and Efficient Option to Study a Language | Duolingo
• The Pure Option to Study a New Language | The Michel Thomas Methodology
• Study to Learn Korean in 15 Minutes | Ryan Estrada
• Highly effective, Clever Flash Playing cards | Anki
• Study Quick and Bear in mind Perpetually | SuperMemo
• The Language Grasp: A Movie about Michel Thomas | Michel Thomas Methodology
• One Piece Wiki | Fandom
• Dragon Ball Z
• Recreation of Thrones | HBO
• Recreation of Thrones Tour in Dubrovnik, Croatia | King’s Touchdown Dubrovnik
• 4 Apps You Want in Korea: Naver Map, Kakao Map, Google Maps, Subway | Your Korea Good friend
• Naver Map
• Kakao Map
• WeChat
• What Is Ok-Magnificence and Why Is It So Superior? | Coveteur
• Historical past | Suntory
• Gangnam Model | Psy
• Teheran-ro : The Enterprise Capital Mecca of Korea | InvestKOREA
• South Korean LLM Warfare Intensifies to Fend Off ChatGPT | KED World
• Nuclear Tensions Escalate Dangerously on Korean Peninsula | ICAN
• Don’t Maintain Your Breath for Korean Reunification: 5 Issues | Time
• Who First Mentioned ‘Lengthy Time, No See’ and in Which Language? | Code Change
• How you can Order and Eat Korean BBQ | Thrillist
• Kimchi | Wikipedia
• Hammer Stahl Kitchen Scissors | Amazon
• Battle of the Sauces on the Get Sauced SXSW Pool Get together | Eater Austin
• Benu
• Eating places, Merchandise, Nationwide Transport | Momofuku
• South Korea’s Archery Invincibility Defined | Land of Legends
• Sundance Movie Pageant
• TV Buddha by Nam June Paik | Nationwide Gallery Singapore
• Digital Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii by Nam June Paik | Smithsonian American Artwork Museum
• 5 Instances Artist Nam June Paik Predicted the Future | Tate
• Nam June Paik Movies | YouTube
• He5 and He6 | Psychedelic Rock ‘n’ Roll
• Jingle Bells / In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1969) by He5 | YouTube
• Little Home on the Prairie: The ten Darkest Episodes, Ranked | Display Rant
• Rammstein
• R-16 Korea Nationwide Championships | Wikipedia
• Home made Mandu (Korean Dumplings) | Past Kimchee

SHOW NOTES

• [09:37] Why has Korean tradition been globally neglected till just lately?
• [13:36] In Seoul, the longer term is now.
• [17:23] Gyopo and the Korean diaspora.
• [19:15] Fashionable relations between South Korea and Japan.
• [21:07] Christianity and Confucianism in South Korea.
• [23:17] The depth of Korean (together with gyopo) hagwons.
• [25:46] Why Steve finds Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko notably transferring.
• [28:07] Japanese nostalgia.
• [29:25] Seoul: the Bizarro Tokyo?
• [39:49] Generations of Korean households traumatized by North/South separation.
• [44:32] Class wrestle and cultural dichotomy in Korean cinema and literature.
• [50:22] Activism in a chaebol-dominated panorama.
• [54:25] How Korean tradition resonates on a common stage.
• [56:50] How large cash funds the creative class wrestle towards large cash.
• [59:57] Is the Ok-wave a fad, or is it right here to remain?
• [1:05:24] Getting a deal with on the untranslatable han.
• [1:08:13] Jeong and nunchi.
• [1:14:38] What’s going to it take to treatment South Korea’s disastrously low delivery price?
• [1:25:05] Why I’ve been so fascinated by the Ok-wave.
• [1:36:02] How I’ve been studying the Korean language.
• [1:47:04] Why so many Japanese ladies go to Korea.
• [1:47:57] The profitable energy of Korea’s export economic system.
• [1:52:07] Why the principle highway in Gangnam is known as after the capital of Iran.
• [1:54:19] The actual motive Steve believes South Korea is so industrious on a number of fronts.
• [1:58:02] How studying simply 10 sentences in one other language can essentially change your expertise.
• [2:00:28] Korean meals!
• [2:09:35] The unforgivable insult of leaving meals uneaten.
• [2:11:25] Why you owe it to your self to see Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV.
• [2:17:46] Why you owe it to your self to hearken to “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” by Korean psych rock band He5.
• [2:18:15] How gyopo affect on the humanities bypassed dwelling censorship insurance policies.
• [2:24:20] Why you owe it to your self to go to Seoul sooner relatively than later.
• [2:26:30] Parting ideas.

MORE STEVE JANG QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“The North and South Korean governments at sure occasions, after they get alongside, they’ll attempt to do some nice olive department strikes to reunite households. They usually had the TV station movie it, and so they arrange a complete space and so they introduced buses down. And it turned out to be not cathartic in any respect, however reopening ache.”
— Steve Jang

“Class wrestle is the theme of so many [Korean] motion pictures, books, TV collection. It’s the struggling and the wrestle to maneuver out of their situation, and that society and the higher crust of society gained’t enable it. This pressure is in music, it’s in motion pictures, it’s in literature, it’s in TV reveals, it’s throughout. And also you may say, ‘Oh, no, it’s round each nation.’ Positive it’s. Nevertheless it’s actually robust and constant in Korean motion pictures and literature.”
— Steve Jang

“Han might be probably the most talked-about collective trait of Koreans. What it basically boils right down to is this concept of collective struggling that the Korean folks have by means of historical past, and manifests on this very difficult feeling of we’re struggling and we share that ache with one another, nevertheless it’s by some means not at all times a unfavourable. It will probably typically drive us to specific ourselves in robust methods. It will probably drive us to undergo collectively collectively.”
— Steve Jang

“For Koreans, han generally is a drive to do nice issues, to bond collectively, to know one another, to empathize. However it could possibly additionally simply be anger and Ok-rage which, channeled accurately, lets you construct a complete business and succeed on the worldwide stage to create popular culture phenomenons that win Grammys, and films that win Oscars, and lightweight up the world to what’s occurring on this little nation that was poor, that was damaged after colonization and a battle.”
— Steve Jang

“There’s this accelerated sense of ‘We should obtain one thing tomorrow as a result of we’re already behind.’ That may be a very Korean mentality.”
— Steve Jang

“Tomorrow just isn’t assured for South Koreans. There’s a well-understood pressure with North Korea that at any second this might all be over.”
— Steve Jang

“Of all of the cultural exports, Korean meals is an important one.”
— Steve Jang

“You get a thousand factors of credit score from any Korean in the event you attempt to communicate the language. They like it. It’ll clean all tough edges on something that you simply’re speaking about with them in the event you at the very least strive.”
— Steve Jang

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