Hong Kong
CNN
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When hip-hop-obsessed American soldiers showed their Korean counterparts how to land headspins and windmills at US military bases in the 1980s, they probably didn’t anticipate breakdancing’s eventual explosion in the country.
Upon reaching Korea’s shores, it was Korean-American hip-hop promoter John Jay Chon who, having handed out VHS tapes of tutorials and competitions to Seoul’s underground dance and club scenes, was widely credited for igniting the boom.
Breakdancing entered the Korean mainstream in the 1990s through K-pop trailblazers Seo Taiji & Boys’ mesmeric music videos, a modern phenomenon seemingly at odds with the country’s conservative culture at the time.
Then came the noughties, widely seen as the country’s breakdancing “golden years,” when Korean crews won multiple titles at Battle of the Year, one of the top international b-boy competitions.
As the first generation of K-pop – which similarly incorporated US hip-hop conventions – took over South Korea on its way to global domination, the country’s tourism board began investing millions of dollars into breakdancing competitions, likely hoping it would lead to a similar K-wave.
The baggy jeans, boomboxes and tattoos that had once captured pop culture in the United States – breakdancing even featured at President Ronald Reagan’s inauguration in 1985 – experienced a similar lull in mainstream Korea by the mid-2010s.
But it never went away – and is now in a resurgence that will next year take Korean b-boys and b-girls to the Olympics.
This weekend, breakdancing – or “breaking” as it is known in official competitions – will make its debut at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, ahead of its hotly anticipated introduction to the Summer Games…
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