6 March 2-8, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents SEOUL SEARCHING Dallas chases the Korean dream. BY CARLY MAY GRAVLEY I f you look at it briefly from the win- dow of a moving car, the shopping center off Old Denton Road in Car- rollton seems like any other strip mall: a block of bland suburban real estate that would normally host insurance agencies, office supply stores or, if you’re lucky, your preferred pizza chain. But the area more commonly known as Carrollton Koreatown transcends the unremarkable buildings. It’s a vibrant melting pot that draws peo- ple from across North Texas — be it the Ko- rean-American community local to the neighborhood, or K-pop or food enthusiasts looking to get a tad closer to their dream destination. Korean culture is having something of a renaissance at the moment. K-pop band BTS is dominating the American charts, having landed six No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. K-drama Squid Game is the most- watched Netflix series of all time with 1.6 billion hours of watch-time logged. Bong Joon-ho’s 2019 film Parasite was hailed as an instant classic upon release and became the first foreign language film to win Best Picture at the Oscars. “Once you overcome the 1-inch tall bar- rier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films,” director Bong quipped while accepting the award for Best Foreign Film at the 2020 Golden Globes. This tongue-in-cheek comment now reads more like a prophecy that extends far be- yond prestige cinema. Like the rest of the country, North Texans are jumping at opportunities to immerse themselves in what Korea has to offer. Special interest groups on Facebook such as “DFW Kpop” and “Asian Grub in DFDub” boast thousands of active members. K-pop groups in particular have become a resource for lo- cals looking to buy and sell tickets and merch as well as a space to find local fan events. Carrollton Koreatown has become an in- creasingly popular spot for these enthusiasts to lean into their interests offline. If you’re wondering if the hype surrounding Korean beauty is real, VT Cosmetics might be able to sway you. If you’re already acquainted with popular Korean dishes like bibimbap or kimchi but are wondering what’s different about how Korea does corndogs, Oh K Dog would be happy to educate you. Or if you’re a K-pop superfan looking to score some merch, you can visit one of several shops in the area that specialize in just that. One of these shops is the aptly named Pink Box, a store that beams a rosy glow to passing shoppers, even in the daytime. It ad- vertises itself as a fashion accessory store, and while it does have a sizable offering of jewelry, it’s the merch that catches the eye. The store’s walls are lined with memorabilia for every K-pop group you have and haven’t heard of. Fans can browse their selection, light in its cotton candy hues yet dense in its souvenir-to-square-foot ratio, to find any- thing from posters and postcards to stickers and keychains with their idol’s face on it. The store maintains a loyal customer base that, according to the staff, grows every time a K-pop tour comes through North Texas. The magnitude of fandoms represented in the shop may be overwhelming to the un- initiated, so it’s no surprise the staff are ded- icated K-pop fans themselves. “I shopped here a lot before I was an em- ployee,” says Remington Ballard, an employee at Pink Box for the past nine months. “I knew the store and I knew a lot about the retail.” Rose Miller, the manager on duty, chimes in: “Same thing for me,” she says. “I decided to work at this store because I shop here a lot and I like the things.” Both Ballard and Miller have gone so far as to study the Korean language, Ballard as part of his college language credit and Miller as part of an independent club. They both wish to visit Korea one day. Ballard and Miller are far from the only K-pop fans to take their dedication to the next level by learning the language. A recent study found that Korean is now the second- most learned language in Texas, just behind Spanish. This isn’t the first time that a foreign coun- try’s pop culture has captured the imagina- tion of Americans. In the 2000s, all things Japanese were in vogue. The internet was leading to an increased availability of anime and manga series while also bringing atten- tion to Japanese street fashion, and the music industry took note of this trend. Britney Spears released an anime-style music video for her single “Break the Ice” in 2009 and, perhaps most infamously, Gwen Stefani went through her “Harajuku girl” era, when she hired a posse of Japanese backup dancers, whom she called Love, Angel, Music and Baby after her debut solo record, to follow her around. The singer recently referred to herself as a “superfan” with an “innocent” relationship with Japanese culture, but the sole act of re- naming four real people to match the names of Stefani’s album, clothing brand and fra- grances did not come across as respectful. That’s always been a running thread when other cultures, particularly non-white cultures, trend in America. The lines be- tween appreciation and appropriation are easily blurred. While the Korean boom will never be fully exempt from that, there is something about it that feels different. It goes beyond music fandom into finding meaning in the culture as a whole. Your favorite K-pop boy band might inspire you to watch a K-drama. Your favorite K-drama might inspire you to try the food. The food might inspire you to learn the language, and so on. For one Dallasite, an appreciation for all of these things inspired her to take a job half a world way. Language of Love Z einab Aly grew up in the suburbs of Dallas. She graduated from Plano West High School, studied business and vocal performance at Southern Meth- odist University and landed a highly desir- able job at a “Big Four” accounting firm in downtown Dallas after she graduated. She has since left all of that behind to move to Chuncheon, South Korea, where she teaches English at a private kindergarten. Aly was passionate about music growing up and received scholarships to study opera in college. Her parents were hesitant about her pursuing a fine arts degree and encour- aged her to also study something more “practical.” She describes her career almost like a fluke, saying she simply “meandered” into business. At the time, she thought it was something she could combine with music. Aly says this was her plan before she was “beat down by the real world.” Aly got a job in international tax consult- ing, working with clients all over the world on fulfilling tax law obligations for their ex- patriate employees. It was grueling work that required her to be available for international calls at all hours. Whether it was Germany at 2 o’clock in the afternoon or India at 5 o’clock in the morning, her life revolved around mak- ing sure companies across the globe were de- ducting their employees’ taxes correctly. She was having the same experience many were during the pandemic: an unhealthy work-life balance exacerbated by isolation. “I just really didn’t know what to do,” she says of this period in her life. “I got the dream. Everyone aims for Big Four. Every- one aims for the big consulting firms. But I didn’t want to do that.” One perk of Aly’s job was its proximity to Klyde Warren Park, where there would sometimes be a food truck selling Korean street fare. She would often grab lunch in the area, taking a minute out of her hectic day to indulge in one of her passions. Aly had a longstanding love of Korean culture. She was an avid fan of Squid Game, BTS and stories on the Korean digital comic book service Webtoons. But her gateway drug of sorts to the culture was the food. “I have an Egyptian-American back- ground. My parents are immigrants and not very diverse in their palate,” she says over FaceTime. “So me and my brother would branch out and be like, ‘We really like Carly May Gravley ▼ Culture >> p8 Carly May Gravley Remmington Ballard loved shopping at Pink Box before he began working there. Right: K-Pop trading cards at Pink Box.
