Irina Lyan
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Nissim Otmazgin
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Keywords: fandom, Korean Wave, Hallyu, institutional entrepreneurship, cultural entrepreneurship, labour-leisure boundaries, cultural translation
DOI: 10.5509/2025984-art2
This article investigates the institutional role of fans and fandom in the bottom-up circulation, reception, and translation of Korean popular culture, which has swiftly crossed national and ethnic boundaries across the Asian continent. Specifically, we focus on fans’ entrepreneurship, which creates an alternative social institution based on fandom, transcending national, ethnic, religious, and linguistic boundaries. Our empirical investigation of Hallyu fans in Israel and Palestine primarily builds on an on-site survey of the Korea Festival in Jerusalem in 2021. Our theoretical contribution lies in conceptualizing fan entrepreneurship as both an institutional and an anti-institutional activity that (1) shifts the boundary between labour and leisure; (2) positions fandom events as an alternative institution in place of the more traditional mechanisms created by governments and industries; and (3) actively translates Korean popular culture into local texts and contexts—an essential process for globalizing Hallyu. These findings allow us to contribute to the understanding of fans not only as active players in the global spread of contemporary popular culture, but also as leading institutional actors.
粉丝文化推动世界：韩流粉丝的制度性开创精神与文化翻译
关键词: 粉丝文化、韩流、韩流、制度创新、文化创新、劳动-休闲界限、文化翻译
本文探讨了粉丝和粉丝圈在韩国流行文化自下而上的传播、接受和翻译中所扮演的制度性角色。韩国流行文化已迅速跨越国家和民族的界限，在亚洲大陆广泛传播。具体而言，我们关注粉丝开创精神，它在粉丝圈的基础上创建了一种超越国家、民族、宗教和语言界限的另类社会制度。我们对以色列和巴勒斯坦韩流粉丝的实证研究主要基于2021年耶路撒冷韩国节的现场调研。我们的理论贡献在于将粉丝创新精神概念化为一种既是制度性又是反制度性的活动，它(1) 打破了劳动与休闲之间的界限；(2) 将粉丝活动定位为一种替代政府和产业所创立的更传统机制的另类制度； (3) 积极地将韩国流行文化转化为本土文本和语境——这是韩流全球化的重要过程。这些发现有助于我们理解粉丝不仅是当代流行文化全球传播的积极参与者，也是主导的制度性行为体。