Introducing Korean Popular Culture

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).

• Introduction: Situating Korean Popular Culture in the Global Culture Landscape Part 1: K-pop Music 1. K-pop in the History of the Korean Wave: A Long Revolution 2. Digital K-pop Fan Platforms in a Cosmopolitan World 3. Chart Manipulation and Fan Labor in the Online Moral Economy of K-pop 4. Celebrity Fashion and Fan Consumption: BTS "Jungkook Hanbok" Part 2: Popular Cinema 5. The Rise of New Korean Cinema and Hallyu 6. Parasite and Snowpiercer as Derivations to Hallyu: Korean Cinema, Neoliberalism and Semi-Global Exclusivity 7. Her Revenge: Low Birthrate Cinema from Lady Vengeance to The Villainess 8. The Climate of Cinema: Gender, Debt and the Future of Labor in Squid Game and Parasite Part 3: Television 9. The Korean Wave Television: From Winter Sonata to Squid Game 10. Netflix and Korean Drama: Cultural Resonance, Affect and Consumption in Asia 11. Gender and the Paradox of Body Politics in Korean Makeover Television 12. Democratization, Social Media and Korean Television in Transition Part 4: Web Drama, Webtoon and Animation 13. Korean Web Drama on the Rise: The Difference Independent Productions Make 14. Korean Webtoon and Identity Politics in the Digital Age 15. Transmediating Tradition: Convergence of Premodern Prose, Webtoons and Audio Comics 16. Cultural Identity in Transnational Korean Animation: The Stateless Fantasy of Ragnarök Part 5: Digital Games and Esports 17. The Political Economy of the Digital Game Industry: An Analysis of Transnational Capital 18. Techno-Orientalism in Global/Korean Esports: "They Play Games Really Well, But It Is Us to Have Them Play" 19. Visualizing the Invisible: Korean Esports and the Representation of Gameplay Skill 20. Between Super Players and Mega Fans: The Emergence of Data-Led Gaming Environments in Korean Esports Part 6: Lifestyle Media, Fashion and Food 21. South Korean Celebrities and Lifestyle Media 22. K-fashion E-tailers and Consumption in the Global Market 23. Precarious Eating: Young Koreans’ Digital Practice of Mukbang Part 7: Popular Culture and Nation Branding 24. Branding the Sense of Place: Gangnam as the Epicenter of the Korean Wave 25. First Time in Korea?: The Mediation of Strangeness through Food Practices 26. The Korean Wave and Mega-Asia: Imagining a Pan-Asian Community