The Feed

Korea’s global influence is often reduced to K-pop, K-dramas, beauty, and fashion. But its real power lies elsewhere. Korea doesn’t export products first — it exports stories. Stories that structure everyday life, shape habits, and create shared emotional worlds. From media and rituals to food, spaces, and social norms, Korean culture is lived, repeated, and remembered. That is how soft power moves from visibility to participation, and why people don’t just consume Korea — th

RM’s journey didn’t begin in museums, but in poems scribbled on a classroom forum. Today, his love for Korean art and literature sits in policy rooms, museum halls, and global conversations. From collecting Yun Hyong-keun’s paintings to urging APEC leaders to fund culture, he proves that art isn’t a hobby—it’s heritage, diplomacy, and a way of thinking.

A decade in Seoul has changed Polo Ralph Lauren in quiet ways. The stitching stays the same, but the story feels different. From Garosu-gil to Ralph’s Coffee, the brand has learned to listen rather than lead — blending Western heritage with Korean sentiment. This piece explores how Korea taught Ralph Lauren to feel its own legacy differently, where belonging quietly replaced branding.