East Asian Pop Culture: Analysing the Korean Wave

320 Pages·2008·2.96 MB·English

by  Beng Chua Huat

ISBN 978-962-209-893-0
9 789622 098930
Hong Kong University Press thanks Xu Bing for writing the Press’s name in
his Square Word Calligraphy for the covers of its books. For further information,
see p. iv.
ii Koichi Iwabuchi, Stephen Muecke and Mandy Thomas
TransAsia: Screen Cultures
What is Asia? What does it mean to be Asian? Who thinks they are Asian? How is “Asian-
ness” produced? None of these questions can be answered without talking about the screen-
based media. Asia today is becoming a transnational public space in which all kinds of
cross-border connections proliferate, from corporate activities to citizen-to-citizen linkages.
All of this mediated and shaped by media — from Japanese and Korean television series,
Hong Kong action films, video piracy, J-Pop and K-Pop, to a variety of subcultures
facilitated by internet sites and other computer-based cultures. And outside Asia, films
are packaged and marketed at film festivals and by DVD distribution companies as “Asian,”
and the descendents of migrants are not only identified by others as “Asian” but also
increasingly identify themselves as “Asian,” and then turn to “Asian” screen cultures to
find themselves and their roots.
The continued reliance on national frameworks in politics, economics and other
social sciences, media studies, film studies, and other disciplines and fields is becoming
obsolete. This series on trans-border screen-based culture in Asia aims to not only spotlight
new research but also promote more groundbreaking research in this area.
Series Editors: Koichi IWABUCHI and Chris BERRY
Series International Advisory Board
Ackbar ABBAS (University of Hong Kong) Feii LÜ (National Chengchi University)
Ien ANG (University of Western Sydney) LÜ Xinyu (Fudan University)
Yomi BRAESTER (Washington Eric MA (Chinese University of Hong
University) Kong)
Stephen CHAN (Lingnan University) Fran MARTIN (Melbourne University)
CHUA Beng-Huat (National University of MOURI Yoshitaka (Tokyo National
Singapore) University of Fine Arts and Music)
Ian CONDRY (Massachusetts Institute of Meaghan MORRIS (Lingnan University)
Technology) NAM Inyoung (Dongseo University)
DAI Jinhua (Peking University) PANG Laikwan (Chinese University of
John Nguyet ERNI (Lingnan University) Hong Kong)
Annette HAMILTON (University of New Michael RAINE (University of
South Wales) Chicago)
Rachel HARRISON (School of Oriental Bérénice REYNAUD (California Institute
and African Studies, University of of the Arts)
London) Lisa ROFEL (University of California,
Gaik Cheng KHOO (Australian National Santa Cruz)
University) Krishna SEN (Curtin University of
KIM Kyung-Hyun (University of Technology)
California, Irvine) Ubonrat SIRIYUVASAK (Chulalongkorn
KIM Soyoung (Korean National University University, Bangkok)
of Arts) Eva TSAI (National Taiwan Normal
Helen Hok-Sze LEUNG (Simon Fraser University)
University) Paola VOCI (University of Otago)
Akira Mizuta LIPPIT (University of YOSHIMI Shunya (Tokyo University)
Southern California) ZHANG Zhen (New York University)
pop 00 contents 2 9/2/08, 6:01 PM
Introduction: Siting Asian Cultural Flows iii
Edited by
Chua Beng Huat and Koichi Iwabuchi
Hong Kong University Press
14/F Hing Wai Centre
7 Tin Wan Praya Road
Aberdeen
Hong Kong
© Hong Kong University Press 2008
First published 2008
Reprinted 2008
ISBN 978-962-209-893-0
All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without
prior permission in writing from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Secure On-line Ordering
http://www.hkupress.org
Printed and bound by Pre-Press Limited, Hong Kong, China.
Hong Kong University Press is honoured that Xu Bing, whose
art explores the complex themes of language across cultures, has
written the Press’s name in his Square Word Calligraphy. This
signals our commitment to cross-cultural thinking and the distinctive
nature of our English-language books published in China.
“At first glance, Square Word Calligraphy appears to be nothing
more unusual than Chinese characters, but in fact it is a new way
of rendering English words in the format of a square so they
resemble Chinese characters. Chinese viewers expect to be able to
read Square Word Calligraphy but cannot. Western viewers, however
are surprised to find they can read it. Delight erupts when meaning
is unexpectedly revealed.”
— Britta Erickson, The Art of Xu Bing
1
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
List of Contributors ix
Introduction: East Asian TV Dramas: Identifications, Sentiments 1
and Effects
Chua Beng Huat and Koichi Iwabuchi
I Television Industry in East Asia 13
1. The Growth of Korean Cultural Industries and the 15
Korean Wave
Doobo Shim
2. Renting East Asian Popular Culture for Local Television: 33
Regional Networks of Cultural Production
Tania Lim
3. Mediating Nationalism and Modernity: The Transnationalization 53
of Korean Dramas on Chinese (Satellite) TV
Lisa Leung
vi Contents
II Transnational-Crosscultural Receptions of TV Dramas 71
4. Structure of Identification and Distancing in Watching 73
East Asian Television Drama
Chua Beng Huat
5. Re-Imagining a Cosmopolitan ‘Asian Us’: Korean Media 91
Flows and Imaginaries of Asian Modern Femininities
Angel Lin and Avin Tong
6. Winter Sonata and Cultural Practices of Active Fans in Japan: 127
Considering Middle-Aged Women as Cultural Agents
Yoshitaka Mo¯ri
7. Touring ‘Dramatic Korea’: Japanese Women as Viewers 143
of Hanryu Dramas and Tourists on Hanryu Tours
Yukie Hirata
8. Popular Cultural Capital and Cultural Identity: Young Korean 157
Women’s Cultural Appropriation of Japanese TV Dramas
Dong-Hoo Lee
III Nationalistic Reactions 173
9. Mapping Out the Cultural Politics of “the Korean Wave” 175
in Contemporary South Korea
Keehyeung Lee
10. Rap(p)ing Korean Wave: National Identity in Question 191
Fang-chih Irene Yang
11. Existing in the Age of Innocence: Pop Stars, Publics, 217
and Politics in Asia
Eva Tsai
12. When the Korean Wave Meets Resident Koreans in Japan: 243
Intersections of the Transnational, the Postcolonial and
the Multicultural
Koichi Iwabuchi
Notes 265
References 279
Index 305
Acknowledgements
This collection of essays is the result of a workshop organized by the Cultural
Studies in Asia Research Cluster at the Asia Research Institute, National
University of Singapore. The aim of the Cluster is to promote collaborative
research in contemporary cultural practices which are influenced by
intensifying transnational exchanges across historical, linguistic and cultural
boundaries in Asia. ARI serves as a site for bringing researchers together in
collaborative endeavours of research, conferences and publications. Its funding
of this workshop is gratefully acknowledged. We would also like to thank
the members of the ‘events team’ at ARI, especially Ms Alyson Rozells, for
their skills and efficiency in organizing the logistics of the workshop. Professor
Chen Kuan-Hsing, who was then Visiting Fellow at ARI, provided insightful
comments throughout the two-day workshop. As the research assistant to
the Cultural Studies Cluster, Ms Laavanya Kathiravelu was the first to read
through and carry out initial editing of the manuscript, for which we are
indebted.
Chapter 8 was previously published under the title of “Transnational
Media Consumption and Cultural Identity: Young Korean Women’sCultural
Appropriation of Japanese TV Dramas”, in The Asian Journal of Women’s Studies
12(2), 2006. Permission of the editors for republication in this volume is
gratefully acknowledged.
viii Koichi Iwabuchi, Stephen Muecke and Mandy Thomas
Introduction: Siting Asian Cultural Flows ix
Contributors
CHUA Beng Huat is in charge of the Cultural Studies Research Cluster at
the Asia Research Institute and Professor of Sociology, National University
of Singapore. In the past few years, he has been actively engaged in
collaborative work in the field of East Asian pop culture. He is founding co-
executive editor of Inter-Asia Cultural Studies. His most recent book, as editor,
is Election as Popular Culture in Asia (2007).
Yukie HIRATA is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology, Yonsei
University, and teaches in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies,
Dokkyo University, Seoul.
Koichi IWABUCHI teaches media and cultural studies at the School of
International Liberal Studies, Waseda University, Tokyo. His English
publications include: Recentering Globalization: Popular culture and Japanese
transnationalism (Duke University Press, 2002); Feeling Asian Modernities:
Transnational consumption of Japanese TV dramas (ed. Hong Kong University
Press, 2004); and Rogue Flows: Trans-Asian cultural traffic (co-ed. with S. Mueke
and M. Thomas, Hong Kong University Press, 2004).
Dong-Hoo LEE is an associate professor in the Department of Mass
Communication at University of Incheon, Korea. She has published articles
on transnational program adaptation and digital mobile culture in Korea.