Patriotic Populism(s) in Korea and China: “Cultural War” Between Younger Generations

Recently, in Korean society, there have been frequent online cultural wars against the younger generation in China over the issue of cultural originality. This is a new populism that cannot be simply interpreted as a ‘nationalistic populism’ characterized by mass mobilization by autocracy, people’s heteronomous devotion to the country, and externality of nationalist sentiments in the public. This study defines the new populism as patriotic populism, and differentiates the patriotic populism from the nationalistic populism in three aspects. Young netizens in Korea and China, from their pride and love for their country which has grown significantly with striking economic achievement, voluntarily express their opposition to the outside world which does not recognize it, but the movement should be interpreted as their orientation to internal belongingness, rather than their aggression toward outside. Patriotic populism notes that public sentiment or response is related to the dynamics of changes in relationships between countries, and moots a need for long-term comparison of the new populism phenomenon of today’s youth, at the individual country, East Asia, and even the world level.