hankyoreh

When South Korea and Japan jointly hosted the 2002 World Cup, the unity and strength of Korea’s so-called ‘Red Devil’ street cheering impressed the entire world. Now, Korean-style street cheering has ascended to the international level, evident in this year’s World Cup games in Germany. Some are calling it another part of the ‘Hallyu,’ or ’Korean wave’ of popular culture that has already swept over Asia.

The German government and the FIFA Organizing Committee designated two squares in 12 cities where soccer fans could gather and cheer on their teams while watching the game on big screens. At one such square along the Main River in central Frankfurt, two enormous video screens were set up, and the area around the river became a mecca of street cheering for cheering squads from countries across the world, who more and more show the kind of organized street cheering practiced by South Korean fans.

Inside the stadium as well, Korean-style cheering is a common sight. During the Japan-Australia game, Japanese supporters sang their national anthem while holding a large blue Japanese team uniform aloft, as the Korean cheering squads have done with their country’s uniform. ’Doing the wave,’ or fans standing up at just the right moment so as to simulate a giant wave flowing through the crowd, seems to have started in Mexico and the U.S. in the 1980s, but it was adopted seriously in the 2002 Korea/Japan World Cup. Now it is popular among football fans from various countries. Portuguese fans filling the stadium to watch their country play Angola on June 12 ’did the wave’ repeatedly.

Korean cheers have also have become globalized, in their original language: many foreigners shouted "Dae-hanminguk!" when they met Koreans in red shirts on the streets. Five or six Mexican fans, including lawyer Jose Rodrigo, 23, interviewed on a high-speed train from Dusseldorf to Nuremberg, shouted "Dae-hanminguk, jjak jjak jjak!" when they saw Koreans. "We were so impressed [with South Korea] while watching television in 2002, and learned the phrase," Rodrigo said. "What on earth does ’Daehanminguk’ mean?" (It is the official name of South Korea.)

Seon Gyeong-seok, head of Red Tiger, a cheer squad of Koreans residing in Germany, said, "The kind of cheering which was displayed on the Korean streets in 2002 is blooming here in Germany. I am very happy and proud that many countries across the world are imitating Korean-style cheering."