In-Person Panel PS4.6

Media Portrayals and Cultural Flows: Insights from East Asian Contexts

Media Narratives of North Korean ‘Celebrity Defectors’ & Their Ability to Effect Public Opinion 

Zoe Stephens 

This paper delves into the phenomenon of North Korean 'Celebrity Defectors'; who employ social media platforms as vehicles for disseminating their personal narratives. Using a qualitative analysis approach in the form of a questionnaire, the study investigates the capacity of North Korean defector narratives to exert influence on public opinion. The findings indicate that North Korean defector narratives are perceived as reliable testimonies concerning subjects related to North Korea. Simultaneously, these narratives consistently project a prevailing and significantly negative portrayal of North Korea. This observation suggests that these highly trusted and conspicuously influential accounts possess, at the very least, a constrained yet palpable capacity to impact public sentiment regarding the North Korean issue. 

Considering the limited demography of North Korean defectors who go public with their narratives, as well as the often bias and un-nuanced approach, the trustworthiness, and politicised motivations of these narratives, this is problematic both to the social-media consuming public and on a global scale as academics, experts, and politicians attempt to understand and make sense of a country that otherwise remains largely closed off.

Social Media in the ‘Ainu Boom:’ YouTube Through the Lens of ‘Everyday Acts of Resurgence’ 

Jake Chaloner 

Ainu are one of the Indigenous people of what is now Japan. Since the 2019 Ainu law, growing interest in Ainu culture has led to a so-called ‘Ainu Boom.’ Increasingly, Ainu-identifying people are using social media to express their Indigeneity. As one of the internet’s biggest broadcasting platforms, YouTube has the potential to enable Indigenous creators’ voices to be heard globally. Despite this, there has been limited attention to Ainu online activities aside from reactions to high-profile hate speech (lewallen 2015). This presentation will consider whether YouTube offers a place of ‘everyday resurgence’ (Corntassel 2012, 20; Uzawa 2018) for Ainu content creators. Furthermore, it will examine YouTube’s strengths and limitations as told by Ainu participants, drawing on in-depth interviews with Ainu participants and field notes gathered over six months in Ainu Mosir (Hokkaido, Japan). Preliminary findings indicate that YouTube is often leveraged in conjunction with other online platforms as part of a social media ‘toolkit’ (McCay-Peet and Quan-Haase 2017, 20). I argue that attention to sites of contemporary Ainu cultural expressions can help dismantle the persistent narrative of erasure that Ainu experience and move the surrounding discourses to ones highlighting Ainu strengths within the ‘Ainu Boom.’

An Aspect of  the "Korean Wave (Hallyu/Kanryu)" Boom in Japan After COVID-19 

Eiko Osaka

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of the "Korean Wave" boom on Japanese people's view of Korea after COVID-19, based on Japanese consumption trends of the “Korean wave” boom. 

The "Korean wave" refers to the popularity of Korean popular culture since the 1990s. In Japan, the first wave was in the 2000s centered on TV dramas, and now the fourth wave has spread to a variety of fields of interest after the COVID-19 pandemic. The "Korean Wave" boom in Japan began in earnest with the popularity of "Winter Sonata," which contributed to a positive change in Japanese people's image of Korea (Osaka, Okuyama, & Izumi, 2007). The "Korean Wave" boom also brought about changes in the number of Japanese tourists to South Korea, turning it into a cultural pilgrimage destination for Japanese women. Rather than visiting South Korea and learning the Korean language, the “Korean Wave” in Japan has transformed into cultural communities supported by information spread by word of mouth, TV viewing, and magazine subscriptions (Mitsuya, 2004). Now, instead of travelling to South Korea, many Japanese people visit to “Korean-towns” where they can experience Seoul while still being in Japan.

Selling Korean-ness: Constructing Korean Diasporic Celebrity in Philippine Entertainment Media

Michelle Camille Correa

This paper examines how Korean-ness is constructed through the image-making of Korean diasporic celebrities by Philippine entertainment media, and its influence on the skin- tone- based racial hierarchy of the Philippines. Korean migration to the Philippines for business, education, religion, and tourism accelerated in the 1990s. Since the 2000s, Koreans have been visible in the unlikeliest place – Philippine entertainment media. Korean diasporic celebrities such as Sandara Park, Ryan Bang, Dasuri Choi, Grace Lee, and Sam Oh comprise a small but noticeable group in film, television, music, and the internet who have broken through an industry dominated by mixed-race Filipinos of Caucasian descent, and a society where skin- tone-based racial hierarchy regards Caucasian features as the most desirable, East Asian features the next, and darker skin tones at the bottom. Through a content analysis of selected television, film, and news articles featuring Korean diasporic celebrities, this paper provides new perspective on the ways in which media’s image construction of Korean-ness influences and complicates understandings of existing racial structures and power relations in a postcolonial Philippine entertainment media culture. This paper also illuminates the ever- evolving complexities of transnational flows of popular culture and the changing dynamics between Global North and Global South relations.