( CULTURAL BRIEFING N^O 03 )

A tale of Everland and Lotte World

The indomitable spirit of South Korea’s early entrepreneurs

_EN

            I recall my wife and I shopping for the first time at the Lotte World gift shop — the pitched voices of schoolchildren on an excursion surrounding us, excitedly gathering in front of mirrors to try out various character mascot headbands.

            Their enthusiasm made me take a closer look, and I realised that all of Lotte World’s character mascots are original. And I thought — wow, what kind of company decides to create a theme park from scratch, and populate it with totally original mascots? That’s unheard of. How much gumption does that take?

            Singapore would have simply tried to bring in Disneyland, and we nearly did in the early 1990s, before negotiations tapered off.

            Watching one of the performances inside the theme park later on impressed me even more — a significant roster of the cast members are Caucasians and Westerners.

            A visit to Everland a few days later affirmed my observation — original mascots and foreign cast members.

            Theme parks were invented by the West, and yet in South Korea there are two theme parks full of local originality. I believe that’s a microcosm of the Korean psyche to succeed, and explains the meteoric rise of Hallyu that has swept through the world in the past decade.

Notes from Ben:
This Cultural Briefing was first observed in May 2023, and written in Nov 2025. Slight revisions were made in Feb 2026.

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