1st Edition

Introducing Korean Popular Culture

Edited By Youna Kim Copyright 2023
320 Pages 21 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

320 Pages 21 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

320 Pages 21 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This new textbook is a timely and interdisciplinary resource for students looking for an introduction to Korean popular culture, exploring the multifaceted meaning of Korean popular culture at micro and macro levels and the process of cultural production, representation, circulation and consumption in a global context. Drawing on perspectives from the humanities and social sciences, including... Read more

Introduction: Situating Korean Popular Culture in the Global Culture Landscape

Youna Kim

Part 1: K-pop Music

1. K-pop in the History of the Korean Wave: A Long Revolution

Younghan Cho

2. Digital K-pop Fan Platforms in a Cosmopolitan World

Sarah Keith

3. Chart Manipulation and Fan Labor in the Online Moral Economy of K-pop

Stephanie Jiyun Choi

4. Celebrity Fashion and Fan Consumption: BTS "Jungkook Hanbok"

Myoung-Sun Song

Part 2: Popular Cinema

5. The Rise of New Korean Cinema and Hallyu

Chi-Yun Shin

6. Parasite and Snowpiercer as Derivations to Hallyu: Korean Cinema, Neoliberalism and Semi-Global Exclusivity

Keith B. Wagner

7. Her Revenge: Low Birthrate Cinema from Lady Vengeance to The Villainess

Joseph Jonghyun Jeon

8. The Climate of Cinema: Gender, Debt and the Future of Labor in Squid Game and Parasite

Soyoung Kim

Part 3: Television

9. The Korean Wave Television: From Winter Sonata to Squid Game

Youna Kim

10. Netflix and Korean Drama: Cultural Resonance, Affect and Consumption in Asia

Anthony Fung and Jindong Leo-Liu

11. Gender and the Paradox of Body Politics in Korean Makeover Television

Ji-yoon An

12. Democratization, Social Media and Korean Television in Transition

Ki-Sung Kwak

Part 4: Web Drama, Webtoon and Animation

13. Korean Web Drama on the Rise: The Difference Independent Productions Make

Jennifer M. Kang

14. Korean Webtoon and Identity Politics in the Digital Age

Hyung-Gu Lynn

15. Transmediating Tradition: Convergence of Premodern Prose, Webtoons and Audio Comics

Jina E. Kim

16. Cultural Identity in Transnational Korean Animation: The Stateless Fantasy of Ragnarök

Daniel Martin

Part 5: Digital Games and Esports

17. The Political Economy of the Digital Game Industry: An Analysis of Transnational Capital

Dal Yong Jin

18. Techno-Orientalism in Global/Korean Esports: "They Play Games Really Well, But It Is Us to Have Them Play"

Tae-Jin Yoon and Kyunghyuk Lee

19. Visualizing the Invisible: Korean Esports and the Representation of Gameplay Skill

Keung Yoon Bae

20. Between Super Players and Mega Fans: The Emergence of Data-Led Gaming Environments in Korean Esports

Peichi Chung

Part 6: Lifestyle Media, Fashion and Food

21. South Korean Celebrities and Lifestyle Media

Olga Fedorenko

22. K-fashion E-tailers and Consumption in the Global Market

Eunsuk Hur

23. Precarious Eating: Young Koreans’ Digital Practice of Mukbang

Kyong Yoon

Part 7: Popular Culture and Nation Branding

24. Branding the Sense of Place: Gangnam as the Epicenter of the Korean Wave

Pil Ho Kim

25. First Time in Korea?: The Mediation of Strangeness through Food Practices

Jaehyeon Jeong

26. The Korean Wave and Mega-Asia: Imagining a Pan-Asian Community

Doobo Shim

Biography

Youna Kim is Professor of Global Communications at the American University of Paris, France, joined from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she had taught since 2004, after completing her Ph.D. at the University of London, Goldsmiths College. Her books are Women, Television and Everyday Life in Korea: Journeys of Hope (Routledge, 2005), Media Consumption 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), The Korean Wave: Korean Media Go Global (Routledge, 2013), Routledge Handbook of Korean Culture and Society (Routledge, 2016), Childcare Workers, Global Migration and Digital Media (Routledge, 2017), South Korean Popular Culture and North Korea (Routledge, 2019), The Soft Power of the Korean Wave: Parasite, BTS and Drama (Routledge, 2021) and Media in Asia: Global, Digital, Gendered and Mobile (Routledge, 2022).