(Yicai Global) March 16 -- Negative sentiments toward "Korean Wave," or South Korean pop culture and cultural products, are increasing, especially among the Chinese, online news outlet Huanqiu reported, citing a survey on Korean Wave in 2017 by the Korean Foundation for International Culture Exchange.

The Foundation carried out a survey on 7,800 consumers in 16 countries including China, the U.S., Japan and the United Kingdom from last October to last December. It showed that the global "anti-Korean Wave" sentiment index reached 31 percent. China ranked first on the list, reaching 49.4 percent, followed by India with 41.3 percent and Thailand 40.3 percent. France (37.5 percent) and the U.S. (35.6 percent) also have relatively high negative sentiments toward the Korean Wave, according to the survey results.

The main causes for such sentiments include reports on possible confrontation between South Korea and North Korea and international security threats from North Korea, over-commercialized Korean pop culture content, disputes surrounding South Korea's politics and diplomacy, and protectionism in the local content industry, revealed the survey results. Among other causes are stereotyped contents, restrictive duties on South Korean products, local protectionism and other political factors.

The South Korean media outlets expressed concern, when commenting on the results of survey, about the cooling down of the Korean Wave. However, some South Korean observers are optimistic about the foreign market for the Korean Wave. South Korea's domestic market demand is expected to increase despite growing trade protectionism around the world, one observer commented.