Glocalization of the Korean Popular Culture in East Asia: Theorizing the Korean Wave

Аннотация

This dissertation examines implications of the Korean Wave in relation to East Asia’s contemporary media and popular culture, and discusses complex conditions and processing transformation of the Korean and East Asian media industries in response to the globalizing cultural system. First, the emotional affinity of the diffused Korean TV dramas among Japanese audiences is explored. This was accomplished by in-depth interviews with Japanese audience members; why and the extent to which this local audiences resonance contributes to influencing rapid circulation of Korean content. Particularly in relation to Japanese audiences, the analysis shows that exposure to Korean TV dramas produces a higher degree of localized identification, which is described as the re-emerging sentiment of “Asianness” from the East Asian viewers’ perspective. The shared modern sensibilities and Asian mentality – undergone through the similar social or individual life experience–presented in Korean dramas demonstrates both subtle foreignness and redeemed nostalgia.