South Korea

In an extract from his new book Edible Economics, the economist Ha-Joon Chang explains how the noodle-loving nation grew its car-making industry – and how ...

The Korean government created the space for the Hyundai and other carmakers to “grow up” by banning the import of all automobiles until 1988 and the import of Japanese cars until 1998. The computer, the semiconductor, the internet, the GPS system, the touchscreen and many other foundational technologies of the information age were first developed through “defence research” programmes of the US military. To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at Even the US – a country that is so proud of its “free enterprise” system – has actually not been an exception to the collective nature of modern entrepreneurship. In the first full year of production, 1976, HMC produced just over 10,000 Pony cars – 0.5% of what Ford produced that year. Using its regulatory and financial power, the Korean government also put explicit and implicit pressure on Hyundai and other companies (foreign as well as national ones) to increase the “local content” of their products so that domestic car-parts industries would develop. Unbeknown to most people, one of the earlier cars designed by this uber-designer from the noodle-obsessed nation of Italy was the Pony, a small hatchback car, launched in 1975 by Hyundai Motor Company, a then totally unknown car manufacturer from that other noodle-obsessed nation, South Korea. So imagine my surprise when I found, during my first travels to Italy in the late 1980s, that spaghetti and macaroni are not the only types of noodle – or pasta – eaten there. He’s been the world’s most successful and influential car designer of the past half a century. In 1973, however, Hyundai announced that it was going to sever its relationship with Ford and produce its own locally designed car – the Pony. He has designed more than 100 cars, ranging from dependable classics, such as the Volkswagen Golf and Fiat Panda, to luxury cars, such as the Maserati Ghibli and Lotus Esprit. But in terms of the shape, Korean noodles have basically only two varieties – strips or strings.