In Korea there is a word that explains better than many analyzes the way in which Seoul transforms consumption into identity: insaeng.
It literally means “life”, but in the everyday language of Korean Gen Z it indicates something much more precise and more emotional. It is the product “of life”, the place “of life”, the experience destined to become personal, memorable, almost definitive. There is theinsaeng caféthe perfect coffee discovered after dozens of places tried. THE’insaeng perfumethe perfume that seems to tell who wears it better than words. THE’insaeng photothe shot to be preserved almost as a fragment of identity.
And today, in Korea which is transforming its tradition with the codes of contemporary lifestyle, there is alsoinsaeng makgeolli.
Hearing guys in their twenties talk about their “makgeolli of life” is a seemingly small scene. But it tells perfectly what is happening in South Korea today.
Because it means that makgeolli — the fermented rice drink for years associated primarily with rural Korea, traditional restaurants and older generations — has suddenly entered another headspace. No longer just traditional alcohol, but cultural experience, personal taste, aesthetic discovery, a story to share.
And above all it means something even more important: contemporary Korea is not simply recovering its tradition. He’s redesigning it.
When makgeolli was considered “old”
For decades, makgeolli was perceived almost as a drink from another Korea. Agricultural, rural Korea, very distant from the hyper-modern image that Seoul would later build in the years of accelerated economic growth and the global explosion of the Korean Wave.
It was the drink of the ahjussi, of the older men sitting in traditional restaurants, of popular trattorias, of the countryside. Cheap, cloudy, often served in metal bowls, makgeolli seemed to belong to a country that contemporary Korea, at least for a long time, had almost tried to leave behind.
And this is precisely what makes what is happening today interesting.
Because looking at Seoul, one increasingly has the feeling that Korea is reevaluating elements of its cultural identity that for years had been considered too provincial, too traditional or not very exportable compared to the sophisticated international image built through technology, K-pop, beauty and design.
You just need to walk around Seochon, Ikseon-dong or some areas of Seongsu to notice it. Restored hanoks transformed into contemporary cafés. Traditional ceramics reinterpreted as lifestyle objects. Historical fermentations rediscovered by young entrepreneurs. Craftsmanship brought back into urban aesthetics. A Korea that no longer wants to choose between past and future, but transform the past into contemporaneity.
And this is exactly where makgeolli becomes important.
The scene that tells it all
This was clearly perceived at the Korea Makgeolli Expo hosted at the aT Center in Seoul. Not so much for the size of the event, but for the behavior of the public.
Many kids didn’t drink makgeolli immediately. First they looked at the bottle. They photographed the labels. They read the history of the brewery. They asked for explanations about the fermentation, the type of rice used, the region of origin, the level of acidity or the final texture.
The scene was much more reminiscent of the language of specialty coffee, natural wine or even premium K-beauty than that traditionally associated with popular alcohol.
In some stands, makgeolli was described almost as a niche perfume. We talked about aromatic balance, velvety sensation, final cleanliness, stratification of taste. Some bottles had minimalist and sophisticated packaging, very far from the traditional image of the peasant drink.
And that’s where that word — insaeng makgeolli — suddenly takes on a much greater meaning.
Because when a generation begins to look for “the makgeolli of life”, it means that that drink has entered the emotional vocabulary of contemporary Korean lifestyle.
It is no longer simple tradition. It’s identity.
The Korea that has learned to sell its memory
Contemporary Korea has understood one thing very well: in the global cultural market it is no longer enough to have competitive products. We need to transform culture into a desirable experience.
And this is probably where Seoul is proving itself to be more sophisticated than many other countries.
For years, Korean soft power has been told almost exclusively through entertainment. K-pop, drama, cinema, skincare. All true. But today the Korean Wave seems to be entering a different, deeper and more structural phase.
Because the real leap happens when a country manages to make even its apparently less exportable details interesting: fermentations, words, habits, the way of eating, drinking, furnishing spaces, describing the territory.
The makgeolli works perfectly because it is deeply Korean. It has not been westernized. It was not made neutral to please the international audience. Korea is making it contemporary without erasing its identity.
And in this process the aesthetic language matters a lot.
Korea has applied to makgeolli the same narrative codes already used in beauty, café culture, concept stores and lifestyle branding: minimalist aesthetics, emotional storytelling, obsessive attention to packaging, construction of a personal relationship between consumer and product.
Even before the taste comes the story.
From virality to cultural permanence
For years the Korean Wave has relied above all on its ability to capture global attention. And it worked amazingly. But today Seoul seems to want to build something more stable.
Because a musical hit can go viral. One series can dominate Netflix. An idol can conquer fashion weeks. But cultural permanence is built in another way: when a country manages to make even its most specific details familiar.
The food. The words. The houses. Fermentations. Daily rituals. Literature.
And it is interesting to observe how this transformation is happening simultaneously in very different sectors but all connected to the same cultural strategy.
In Italy this process also passes through initiatives such as the portal “Korean books in Italy”created by Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Milan to promote Korean literature in our country and collect the main publications of Korean authors in Italy and Italian authors on Korea. A platform that has already surpassed 200 thousand views and which perfectly illustrates the direction in which the Korean Wave seems to be moving today: no longer just pop virality, but cultural construction.
The connection with the makgeolli is less distant than it seems. On one side a fermented drink, on the other the books. In the middle, however, there is the same intuition: to transform deeply Korean elements into instruments of international familiarity.
Korea coming now
And this is perhaps where many Western observers continue to underestimate what is really happening in Seoul. South Korea is not simply experiencing global success. It is building an extremely sophisticated cultural system, in which every element – from cinema to beauty, from food to literature, up to makgeolli – contributes to strengthening the same identity narrative.
A story that is no longer based only on extreme modernity, but on the ability to make one’s cultural identity desirable.
And perhaps this is precisely the deepest meaning of that expression heard among the stands of the Korea Makgeolli Expo: insaeng makgeolli.
Because the moment a traditional drink enters Gen Z’s emotional vocabulary, it stops being simply tradition. It becomes contemporary culture. And Korea, today, seems to have understood better than many other countries how to transform one’s memory into desire.
