The Korean Wave: Korean Media Go Global

250 Pages·2013·1.857 MB·English

by  Youna Kim

The Korean Wave
Sincethelate1990sSouthKoreahasemergedasanewcenterfortheproduction
of transnational popular culture – the first instance of a major global circula-
tion of Korean popular culture in history. Why popular (or not)? Why now?
What does it mean socially, culturally and politically in a global context?
This editedcollection considers theKorean Wave in a global digital age and
addresses the social, cultural and political implications in their complexity and
paradox within the contexts of global inequalities and uneven power struc-
tures. The emerging consequences at multiple levels – both macro structures
and micro processes that influence media production, distribution, repre-
sentation and consumption – deserve to be analyzed and explored fully in an
increasingly global media environment.
This book argues for the Korean Wave’s double capacity in the creation of
new and complex spaces of identity that are both enabling and disabling cul-
tural diversity in a digital cosmopolitan world.
The Korean Wave combines theoretical perspectives with grounded case
studies in an up-to-date and accessible volume ideal for both undergraduate
and postgraduate students of Media and Communications, Cultural Studies,
Korean Studies and Asian Studies.
Youna Kim is Associate Professor of Global Communications at the Amer-
ican University of Paris. Previously from 2004 she taught at the London
School of Economics and Political Science, after completing her PhD at the
University of London, Goldsmiths College. Her books are Women, Television
and Everyday Life in Korea: Journeys of Hope (Routledge, 2005); Media Con-
sumption and Everyday Life in Asia (Routledge, 2008); Transnational Migration,
Media and Identity of Asian Women: Diasporic Daughters (Routledge, 2011);
Women and the Media in Asia: The Precarious Self (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012);
Global Nannies: Minorities and the Digital Media (in preparation).
Internationalizing Media Studies
Series Editor: Daya Kishan Thussu
University of Westminster
Internationalizing Media Studies
Edited by Daya Kishan Thussu
Popular Media, Democracy and Development in Africa
Edited by Herman Wasserman
The Korean Wave: Korean Media Go Global
Edited by Youna Kim
The Korean Wave
Korean Media Go Global
Edited by
Youna Kim
Firstpublished2013
byRoutledge
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©2013YounaKimforselectionandeditorialmatter;individualcontributions
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TheKoreanwave:Koreanmediagoglobal/editedbyYounaKim.
pagescm.–(Internationalizingmediastudies)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Massmedia–Korea(South)2.Massmedia–Technologicalinnovations–Korea
(South)3.Korea(South)–Popularculture.4.Digitalmedia–Korea(South)5.
Massmedia–Socialaspects.I.Kim,Youna,editorofcompilation.
P92.K6K672014
302.23’095195–dc23
2013021569
ISBN:978-0-415-71278-1(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-415-71279-8(pbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-85906-4(ebk)
TypesetinBembo
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
To Oh, Sooan
and
Oh, Jeill
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Contents
List of figures and tables ix
Notes on contributors x
Acknowledgments xiii
Foreword xiv
ELAINEH.KIM
Introduction: Korean media in a digital cosmopolitan world 1
YOUNAKIM
PARTI
Power and politics of the global 29
1 Soft power and the Korean Wave 31
JOSEPHNYEANDYOUNAKIM
2 Korean Wave and inter-Asian referencing 43
KOICHIIWABUCHI
3 Reconfiguring media and empire 58
OLIVERBOYD-BARRETT
PARTII
Popular media and digital mobile culture 73
4 Korean Wave pop culture in the global Internet age: why popular?
Why now? 75
YOUNAKIM
5 For the eyes of North Koreans? Politics of money and class in Boys
Over Flowers 93
SUK-YOUNGKIM
viii Contents
6 K-pop female idols in the West: racial imaginations and erotic
fantasies 106
EUN-YOUNGJUNG
7 Negotiating identity and power in transnational cultural
consumption: Korean American youths and the Korean Wave 120
JUNG-SUNPARK
8 Digitization and online cultures of the Korean Wave: “East Asian”
virtual community in Europe 135
SANG-YEONSUNG
9 Hybridization of Korean popular culture: films and online gaming 148
DALYONGJIN
10 K-pop dance trackers and cover dancers: global cosmopolitanization
and local spatialization 165
LIEWKAIKHIUN
PARTIII
Perspectives inside/outside 183
11 Cultural policy and the Korean Wave: from national culture to
transnational consumerism 185
HYE-KYUNGLEE
12 Re-worlding culture?: YouTube as a K-pop interlocutor 199
KENTA.ONOANDJUNGMINKWON
13 The Korean Wave as a cultural epistemic 215
ANANDAMKAVOORI
14 The Korean Wave and “global culture” 219
YUDHISHTHIRRAJISAR
Index 230
fi
List of gures and tables
Figures
9.1 Subscription to MMORPGs 158
10.1 Cover dance of SNSD Hoot by WondershiDae and
STARREseconds 175
10.2 Girls’ Generation (SNSD) cover dance flash mob organized by
Samsung 176
10.3 Flash mob for petition to bring SMTown concert to Singapore
on June 25, 2011 176
10.4 Singaporean Style by Dee Kosh 177
Tables
9.1 Top 10 grossing movies in 2006 153
9.2 Top 10 grossing films in 2012 154
10.1 The sound tracker and dance tracker 168
10.2 Official and cover dances 170