Showcases the dynamism of cross-cultural engagement with Korean media Korean media has exploded in popularity across the globe in the past decade: BTS and other K-pop groups have packed stadiums, Parasite garnered record-breaking critical success, The Masked Singer and Single's Inferno became viral TV hits, and multiday KCON fan events have highlighted not only media but Korean food, cosmetics, and fashion. Exploring how fans from different cultural and racial backgrounds engage with Korean media in local and individual contexts, this edited collection reveals complex transcultural affinities, conflicts, and negotiations. The essays delve into the ways people create meaning from, and shape affinity to, Korean television and music. The book also explores Korean popular culture's influence on audiences' imaginative play, desires, and fantasies, critically examining topics such as TikTok as a space of Asian fetishization, Black YouTubers' K-pop reaction videos, the perception of Korean men in opposition to European hegemonic masculinity, and Middle Eastern fans' responses to appropriation in K-pop. Throughout, the contributors provide perceptive analyses that reveal what the interplay of race and Korean entertainment tells us about the complex nature of transnational fandom.
David C. Oh is associate professor at Syracuse University in the Newhouse School of Public Communications. His books include Whitewashing the Movies: White Subjectivity and Asian Erasure in U.S. Film Culture. Benjamin M. Han is associate professor in the Department of Entertainment and Media Studies at the University of Georgia. He is author of Beyond the Black and White TV: Asian and Latin American Spectacle in Cold War America. Contributors: Crystal S. Anderson, Woori Han, Laura-Zoe Humphreys, Young Jung, Rebecca Chiyoko King-O'Riain, Donna Lee Kwon, Min Joo Lee, Irina Lyan, Moises Park, and Julia Trzcinska
DRAFT Introduction, by David C. Oh & Benjamin M. Han Part I. Transcultural Affinity, Excess, and Contradiction Chapter 1. The Road to Fandom: Joy and Black "Fans" in K-pop, by Crystal S. Anderson Chapter 2. Between Appreciation and Appropriation: Race-Transitioning among Hallyu Fans, by Min Joo Lee Chapter 3. Korean Romance for Wholesomeness and Racism? The Transcultural Reception of the Reality Dating Show Single's Inferno, by Woori Han Chapter 4. K-pop and the Racialization of Asian American Popular Musicians, by Donna Lee Kwon Chapter 5. "Soft" Koreans and "Sensual" Cubans: Race, Gender, and the Reception of South Korean Popular Culture in Cuba, by Laura-Zoe Humphreys Part II. Intersectional Connection and Imaginaries Chapter 6. Latin Orientalism and Anglo Hegemony in Korean Rock: Seo Taiji's "Moai" (2009), by Moises Park Chapter 7. "I Was Probably Korean in a Previous Life": Transracial Jokes and Fantasies of Hallyu Fans, by Irina Lyan Chapter 8. Hallyu Dreaming: Making Sense of Race and Gender in K-dramas in the US Midwest and Ireland, by Rebecca Chiyoko King-O'Riain Chapter 9. When K-pop Meets Islam: Cultural Appropriation and Fan Engagement, by Young Jung Chapter 10. "I Can Do Both": Queering K-pop Idols through the White Discursive Standpoint of TikTok Users, by Julia Trzcinska & David C. Oh
Showcases the dynamism of cross-cultural engagement with Korean media
