Social Media and the Cultural Politics of Korean Pop Culture in East Asia

This volume examines international engagement with Korean popular culture in East Asian online spaces, and how Asian identities are formed and perceived between nations within the region. In the context of global diversification and growing public participation in global issues, it builds up a new theoretical perspective in order to explain the emerging power of Asia in the global mediascape. With a focus on Korean media, touching upon K-pop and the phenomenon of Hallyu and anti-Hallyu, the author also looks at Japan, China, and Taiwan in this regional study. Combining theory with ethnographic audience studies in East Asian countries, the book elucidates East Asian media in a larger context of the changing global structure and media technology. This book will interest academics and students working on Asian popular culture and media, new media, East Asian studies, participatory media, and digital communication.

Sunny Yoon is Professor in the Department of Media and Communication at Hanyang University, Korea. She has published widely on Asian media, cinema, media technology, and audience studies. She is the author of the book Global Media and Asian Identity (2020) and Communication Technology and Creative Industry (2021).

Acknowledgments 1. Introduction Part I: Social media and globalizing Asian pop culture 2. Emerging Asia and Global communication 3. Changes in mediascape and social media 4. Globalizing East Asian media and Asian identity Part II: Social media and cultural politics in East Asia 5. Social media and fandom community: the case of BTS 6. Emerging China as global superpower and international tensions in East Asia 7. Techno-nationalism and international conflicts between Japan and Korea 8. Inter-Asia communication and identity politics: Hallyu and anti-Hallyu in Taiwan 9. Conclusion: Social networks and cyber-imagination of Asian communities