Euny Hong
Journalist, Author of "The Birth of Korean Cool"


Euny Hong is a journalist and author. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among others.

Her debut novel, Kept: A Comedy of Sex and Manners was published by Simon and Schuster US, in August 2006, to great acclaim. Her next book, The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation Conquered the World Through Pop Culture was published by Simon & Schuster in the UK and Picador in the US in 2014. It was named an Amazon “Editor’s Pick.” The Power of Nunchi: The Korean Secret to Happiness and Success was published in 2019. Her books have been translated into over 20 languages.

She graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Philosophy. She is fluent in English, French, German, and Korean. She is a sometime resident of New York, Seoul, Frankfurt, Berlin, and Dublin, but she calls France home.

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The Birth of Korean CoolHow One Nation Is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture
Picador

A fresh, funny, up-close look at how South Korea remade itself as the world’s pop culture powerhouse of the twenty-first century.

Why America is Losing Its World Cultural Monopoly
How a Third World Nation Became a Global Trendsetter
What Businesses Can Learn from the South Korean Success Model
How Technology Has Changed the Way We Talk about Race
Racism in Europe
The Way France Deals with Race
The Perils of the Nomadic/Expat Life
How to Sell What You Write

Read Euny Hong’s Op-Ed for the New York Times: “How ‘Past Lives’ Changed My Mind About My Relationship.”

Read Euny Hong’s Op-Ed for the New York Times on BTS K-Pop Conspiracy.

Check out a New York Times review of The Birth of Korean Cool.

Read Euny Hong’s article on CNN about South Korea’s first female president.

Follow Euny Hong on Twitter.

Check out Euny Hong’s website.

Praise for The Birth of Korean Cool “Incisive and humorous… An excellent case study of calculated entrepreneurial moxie.”
The New York Times Book Review

“Full of facts and entertaining to boot, it’s definitely a gem.”
—EntertainmentWeekly.com

“An insightful book…[Hong’s] brief chapter on Korea’s han against Japan is both the best and most concise explanation I’ve read of the two countries’ complicated and ancient feud.”
Bloomberg Businessweek

“The rare book that’s hilariously funny and also makes you smarter about world economies.”
—Vulture

“An incisive, colorfully written account of South Korea’s cultural ascent.”
—Grantland

“Fabulously snarky…Hong is perfectly positioned to understand this complex Korean psyche while retaining enough distance (and cynicism) to evaluate it.”
—Helen Brown, The Telegraph (UK)

“Highly entertaining.”
The Guardian (UK)