K-Pop Fandom insists that K-pop fan practices and activities constitute a central productive force, shaping not only K-pop’s explosive global popularity, but also K-pop’s cultural impacts, politics, and horizons of possibility. Over the past three decades, the K-pop fandom and its activities have expanded, intensified, and diversified along myriad dimensions, assuming novel social, technological, and economic … [Read More]
Booklist: Hallyu
Finding Mr. Perfect: K-Drama, Pop Culture, Romance, and Race
Finding Mr. Perfect explores the romantic relationships between Korean men and women who were inspired by romantic Korean televisual depictions of Korean masculinity to travel to Korea as tourists. Author Min Joo Lee argues that disparate racialized erotic desires of Korean pop culture fans, foreign tourists to Korea, Korean men, and the Korean nation converge to … [Read More]
Cultural Production of Hallyu in the Digital Platform Era
Cultural Production of Hallyu in the Digital Platform Era explores how histories, industry structures, and politics interact in the platformization of the Korean Wave. Dal Yong Jin argues that while much research centers on the Korean culture takeover and the dominance of Korean products on premier global media platforms, Korean cultural industries also experience reshaping and … [Read More]
The Identity and Emergence of K-pop
By analyzing the various factors contributing to K-pop’s unprecedented global rise, this book delves into key elements such as cultural hybridity, digital connectivity, and the role of fan engagement, while also interrogating the ways these factors have shaped K-pop’s unique position within the global music industry. In addition to exploring K-pop’s identity, the book addresses … [Read More]
Korean Culture in the Global Age: K-Pop, K-Drama, K-Film, and K-Literature
Since the late 1990s, South Korean cultural products such as pop music, TV drama, and film have shaped the country’s image around the world. This book explores these three internationally best-known media of the Korean Wave global phenomenon, along with a less commonly featured aspect, K-literature. Iconic images of South Korea today include stylish music … [Read More]
Polarizing Dreams: Gangnam and Popular Culture in Globalizing Korea
Anyone genuinely curious about what makes South Korean pop culture tick should look no further than Gangnam. Celebrated in a song by an unlikely K-pop superstar named Psy in 2012, Gangnam is the epicenter of Hallyu, the Korean Wave. It is an exclusive zone of privilege and wealth that has lured pop culture industries since the 1980s … [Read More]
Korean Pop Culture beyond Asia: Race and Reception
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. … [Read More]
Sociolinguistics of the Korean Wave: Hallyu and Soft Power
Samosir and Wee examine how the immensely popular Korean Wave (“K-wave”) also known as Hallyu is wielded as soft power through the use of communication for persuasion and attraction on the global stage. The Korean Wave refers to the global spread and popularity of South Korean culture, particularly its pop music (“K-pop”), serialised dramas (“K-dramas”) … [Read More]
Emergence of Korean English: How Korea’s Dynamic English is Born
Emergence of Korean English explores the dynamic nature of emerging Korean English and its impact on Korean society, culture, and identity. This book challenges the negative stereotypes and stigmatization of Konglish and argues that it has been a great asset for Korea’s fast economic development. The fate of Korean English has been transformed in the time … [Read More]
BTS on the Road
In just a decade since their debut in 2013, BTS has achieved remarkable impact beyond the music and entertainment activities of a K-pop group. They have succeeded in gaining interest and popularity as an icon of the contemporary global youth generation, not as fictional characters but as real people with Asian faces who are facing … [Read More]
Women We Love: Femininities and the Korean Wave
Women We Love: Femininities and the Korean Wave is an edited volume exploring femininities in and around the Korean Wave since 2000. While studies on the Korean Wave are abundant, there is a dearth of thought put toward the female-identifying stars, characters, and fans who shape and lead this crucial cultural movement. This collection of … [Read More]
The K-Wave On-Screen: In Words and Objects
The K-Wave On-Screen provides an engaging and accessible exploration of the meaning of ‘K-’ through the lens of words and objects in K-dramas and K-films. Once a small subculture known only to South Korea’s East Asian neighbours, the Korean Wave has exploded in popularity around the globe in the last decade. Its success has been … [Read More]
Surviving Squid Game: A Guide to K-Drama, Netflix, and Global Streaming Wars
Korea has fully stepped onto the global stage in stunning strides. From the Oscar-winning film Parasite to the pop juggernaut known as BTS, Korean popular culture has taken the world by storm. This new Korean wave has influenced global tastes in drama, music, fashion, and can even be seen in the beauty industry’s obsession with Korean … [Read More]
The Language of Hallyu: More than Polite
The Language of Hallyu will re-examine the language of the Korean Wave by looking at popular K-content. In doing so, it will expose the meanings that get lost in translation, hidden under subtitles. Over the past decade, hallyu (the Korean wave) has exploded in popularity around the globe. K-films, K-drama, and K-pop were once small subcultures, known mostly … [Read More]
Introducing Korean Popular Culture
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, … [Read More]
The Cambridge Companion to K-Pop
How did Korea with a relatively small-scale music industry come to create a vibrant pop culture scene that would enthrall not only young Asian fans but also global audiences from diverse racial and generational backgrounds? From idol training to fan engagement, from studio recording to mastering choreographic sequences, what are the steps that go into … [Read More]