The Korean Wave provides an effective vehicle for implicit cultural policies concerning the formation of a neoliberal subjectivity of young-generation South Koreans. By looking at two web dramas casting K-pop idols (commissioned by the Financial Services Commission and by Samsung) and a pop idol audition programme, we offer a detailed understanding of the prevailing discourse of youth in contemporary Korea and how this is naturalised across the boundaries of policy, business, media and fandom. The implicit cultural policy formulates a desirable self in a ‘Korean style’ by highlighting some of the psychological qualities of post-industrial creative workers and exploring Korean society’s existing inventory of the productive ethic and Confucian ideals. The juxtaposition of post-industrial and industrial ethics, and the tension between entrepreneurial self and collective self, impose a double burden on youth, leaving them little scope to contest the pervasive ‘desirable selfhood’.

朝鲜浪潮为暗含文化政策提供了有效的工具，这些文化政策涉及形成年轻的韩国年轻人的新自由主义主观性。通过观看两部由K-pop偶像主持的网络电视剧（由金融服务委员会和三星委托）和一个流行偶像试镜计划，我们可以详细了解当代韩国年轻人的主流话语，以及如何在整个韩国实现这种话语。政策，业务，媒体和同伴的界限。隐性的文化政策通过突出一些后工业创意工作者的心理素质，并探索韩国社会现有的生产伦理和儒家理想库存，以“韩国风格”来构筑理想的自我。后工业伦理与工业伦理并存，