Description
Book SynopsisThis collection breaks down the stereotypes often expected of Korean popular culture, specifically examining issues of gender, sexuality, and stereotype in a variety of cultural products including K-pop, K-drama, and cover dancing through the lens of how “Koreanness” can be defined. A diverse range of of contributors showcase how Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, began as a wave rolling across Asia and morphed into a tsunami that has impacted every continent, making Korean popular culture an industry that draws in fans on a global scale. The stereotypes and issues being explored in this collection, contributors argue, are intertwined with how Koreans both at home and in the diaspora portray themselves publicly and consider themselves privately. In tandem with this, international fans of Hallyu take part in the conversation through performance and imitation, either reinforcing or breaking away from these stereotypes. Contributors examine a wide variety of settings to connect the concepts of traditional Korean values to modern Korean society in a symbiotic relationship between these values and cultural content creators. Scholars of media studies, pop culture, gender studies, Asian studies, sociology, and cultural studies will find this book particularly useful.
Trade ReviewThis book sheds light on the diverse aspects of the Korean wave and Korean media content, including K-dramas and K-pop. Through thought-provoking collaboration, this book is very comprehensive and clearly demonstrates how Korean media studies offer analytical and theoretical lenses through which audiences can interpret popular media forms and contents. The book will be of great interest to scholars and general readers interested in Korean studies, popular culture, and media studies. They will find much to stimulate their thinking in this book.
-- Changhee Chun, University of Texas Arlington
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Tracking the Korean Style: Hallyu in Hanoi, or Style in the Time of Corona
Michael Hurt
Chapter 2: “Girl Power” DPRK Style: The Girl Group Phenomenon in North Korea and its Fans across East Asia
Peter Moody and Seunghee Ha
Chapter 3: Disaporic Koreanness in Kim’s Convenience
Kyong Yoon
Chapter 4: The New Country Women: Exploring Popular Representations of Korean Gwichon and Transnational Women’s Marriage-Migration to the Korean Countryside
Snigdha Gupta
Chapter 5: Gender, Genre, and History in Great Queen Seondeok
Michael Ormsbee
Chapter 6: Breaking the Stereotype of Domestic Adoption in K-dramas
Marcy L. Tanter
Chapter 7: Crying Men Watching Webtoons: Misaeng and Korean Male Audiences
Jahyon Park
Chapter 8: “LISTEN TO K-POP, BURN THE POLICE!”: Swastikas, Feminism, and LGBTQ Rights in the 2019-2020 Chilean Protests
Moisés Park
Chapter 9: Queering the Wave: Drag Queens and Drag Kings in the K-Pop Industry
Tiago Canário
Chapter 10: K-pop Performance, Transcultural Negotiation of Gender Identity, and Belonging: A Case Study of a Peruvian Drag Queen Dancing to K-pop
Min Suk Kim
About the Contributors
