The Korean Popular Culture Reader

Over the past decade, Korean popular culture has become a global phenomenon. The "Korean Wave" of music, film, television, sports, and cuisine generates significant revenues and cultural pride in South Korea. The Korean Popular Culture Reader provides a timely and essential foundation for the study of "K-pop," relating the contemporary cultural landscape to its historical roots. The essays in this collection reveal the intimate connections of Korean popular culture, or hallyu, to the peninsula's colonial and postcolonial histories, to the nationalist projects of the military dictatorship, and to the neoliberalism of twenty-first-century South Korea. Combining translations of seminal essays by Korean scholars on topics ranging from sports to colonial-era serial fiction with new work by scholars based in fields including literary studies, film and media studies, ethnomusicology, and art history, this collection expertly navigates the social and political dynamics that have shaped Korean cultural production over the past century. Contributors. Jung-hwan Cheon, Michelle Cho, Youngmin Choe, Steven Chung, Katarzyna J. Cwiertka, Stephen Epstein, Olga Fedorenko, Kelly Y. Jeong, Rachael Miyung Joo, Inkyu Kang, Kyu Hyun Kim, Kyung Hyun Kim, Pil Ho Kim, Boduerae Kwon, Regina Yung Lee, Sohl Lee, Jessica Likens, Roald Maliangkay, Youngju Ryu, Hyunjoon Shin, Min-Jung Son, James Turnbull, Travis Workman

The rise in popularity of South Korean entertainment and culture began and is promoted as an official policy of the Korean government to revive the country's economy. This study examines cultural production and consumption, glocalization, the West versus. Asia, global race consciousness, and changing views of masculinity and femininity.

"A representative book of contemporary Korean cultural studies!" This book introduces one remarkable media trend related to the influence of Korean media products in Asian countries and Western countries. Since the early 1990s, the popularity of Korean media products, including television dramas, songs, and movies has skyrocketed in Asian countries and beyond. The enormous wave of popularity of Korean pop culture is referred to as Hallyu, the Korean Wave. According to earlier studies, the influence of Hallyu has been unprecedented, affecting the domestic culture and international relations of Asian countries and reducing the dominance of Hollywood in the Asian media market. Furthermore, it has been constructing a cross-national identity of ready consumers of Korean popular culture. Investigating this remarkable media phenomenon, this book examines the influence of Hallyu from its origin to the present and attempts to predict its future. Many scholars of communication, sociology, history, and international relations have produced a growing amount of literature and research on the subject of Hallyu over the last several years. However, so far, few efforts have synthesized the Hallyu phenomenon comprehensively or traced the influence of Hallyu for the last decade. Having observed the influence of Hallyu across national borders and the need to synthesize Hallyu research from diverse perspectives, the editors designed this book with two main purposes: the first purpose was to analyze Hallyu from as many diverse perspectives as possible, and the second purpose was to present Korean perspectives on the Hallyu phenomenon by providing international readers with analyses by Korean scholars.

This volume fills a gap in the existing literature and proposes an interdisciplinary and multicultural comparative approach to the impact of Hallyu worldwide. The contributors analyze the spread of South Korean popular products from different perspectives (popular culture, sociology, anthropology, linguistics) and from different geographical locations (Asia, Europe, North America, and South America). The contributors come from a variety of countries (UK, Japan, Argentina, Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Indonesia, USA, Romania). The volume is divided into three sections and twelve chapters that each bring a new perspective on the main topic. This emphasizes the impact of Hallyu and draws real and imaginary “maps” of the export of South Korean cultural products. Starting from the theoretical backgrounds offered by the existing literature, each chapter presents the impact of Hallyu in a particular country. This applied character does not exclude transnational comparisons or critical interrogations about the future development of the phenomenon. All authors are speaking about their own, native cultures. This inside perspective adds an important value to the understanding of the impact of a different culture on the “national” culture of each respective country. The contributions to this volume illustrate the “globalization” of the cultural products of Hallyu and show the various faces of Hallyu around the world.

korean wave,hallyu,Korean culture,Korean,south korea,Korean pop culture This book is the first in a series of upcoming books to introduce modern Korean culture overseas. The term “Korean Wave” (“Hallyu” in Korean) was coined by the Chinese press a little more than a decade ago to refer to the popularity of Korean pop culture in China. The boom started with the export of Korean television dramas (miniseries) to China in the late 1990s. Since then, South Korea has emerged as a new center for the production of transnational pop culture, exporting a range of cultural products to neighboring Asian countries. More recently, Korean pop culture has begun spreading from its comfort zone in Asia to more global audiences in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Birth of the Korean Wave Birth of the Wave The Beginning of the Wave in Japan The Wave Goes Global K-Pop Joins the Wave The neo-Korean Wave ‘Korean Invasion?’ The New Wave The Internet Connects the Wave Fast The Fun of Copying Distance No Longer a Barrier for K-Dramas What’s Korean Pop Culture Got? K-Pop: ‘Music of Fusion’ K-Dramas: ‘Healthy Power’ The Korean Wave in other Fields Korean Films Hallyu in Literature epilogue Will It Continue?

korean wave,hallyu,Korean culture,Korean,south korea,Korean pop culture This book is the first in a series of upcoming books to introduce modern Korean culture overseas. The term “Korean Wave” (“Hallyu” in Korean) was coined by the Chinese press a little more than a decade ago to refer to the popularity of Korean pop culture in China. The boom started with the export of Korean television dramas (miniseries) to China in the late 1990s. Since then, South Korea has emerged as a new center for the production of transnational pop culture, exporting a range of cultural products to neighboring Asian countries. More recently, Korean pop culture has begun spreading from its comfort zone in Asia to more global audiences in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Birth of the Korean Wave Birth of the Wave The Beginning of the Wave in Japan The Wave Goes Global K-Pop Joins the Wave The neo-Korean Wave ‘Korean Invasion?’ The New Wave The Internet Connects the Wave Fast The Fun of Copying Distance No Longer a Barrier for K-Dramas What’s Korean Pop Culture Got? K-Pop: ‘Music of Fusion’ K-Dramas: ‘Healthy Power’ The Korean Wave in other Fields Korean Films Hallyu in Literature epilogue Will It Continue?

This reader is intended as a theoretical, analytical and historical introduction to the study of popular culture within cultural studies. It is divided into seven representative sections. The first six sections each contain a selection of readings from a particular approach to popular culture: culture and civilisation tradition; culturalism; structuralism and post-structuralism; Marxism; feminism; and postmodernism, providing a comprehensive overview and examples of the main theoretical perspectives. The final section contains readings from recent debates within the study of popular culture. Together, these sections chart the theoretical development of the study of popular culture within cultural studies, and provide examples of the analysis of the texts and practices of popular culture within each specific tradition. Each section is introduced, edited and contextualised by John Storey.

This book explores the recent landscape of Korean popular culture, including celebrity diplomacy, political activism, and inter-Korean relations in the era of ‘ontact’, with a special focus on K-pop and K-drama. Utilising the interdisciplinary approach, along with theoretical accounts, it redefines popular culture and its true power – beyond soft power – including discussions of how the pandemic and the use of online platforms have coincidently or effectively influenced recent phenomena surrounding Korean popular culture. It reveals both the possibilities and pitfalls of Hallyu diplomacy and the UN’s celebrity diplomacy more broadly, and highlights how, through the mobilisation of a large internet fanbase, the modern K-pop ‘standom’ can influence political discourse. The book also features an examination of the political significance of the K-drama through which it highlights the potential of popular media to impact inter-Korean relations and inform current international understanding and perception of the Korean conflict. Dealing with the wider scope of Korean popular culture this book will be a valuable resource to students and scholars of South Korea, international relations, public diplomacy, political activism, and cultural and media studies.