Asian Cultural Studies: Transnational and Dialogic Approaches. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021. 188 pp. (Tables, figures, graphs.) US$105.00, cloth. ISBN 9781538146965.
Transnational Hallyu begins with an acknowledgment of two unprecedented heights achieved by Korean popular culture that speak for themselves—Bong Joon Ho’s film Parasite (2019) and BTS’s album Map of the Soul: 7 (2020). According to the authors, despite the previous successes of non-Western contraflows such as “Japanese anime, Bollywood cinema, Latin American telenovelas, and Turkish television dramas” (148), the global triumph of the Korean Wave, or Hallyu—including K-pop, games, K-dramas, animation, webtoons, cinema, and more—marks the emergence of a truly transnational cultural flow. This flow goes beyond the common theoretical binaries that dominate cultural globalization studies to date between hegemonic mainstream and marginalized subculture, West and East, core and periphery, North and South, and global and local.
One of the main questions posed by the book is “whether Hallyu is global and, furthermore, a globally hegemonic trend, and Korea has achieved super-power status in the global cultural market” (6). In pursuit of the answer, the book faces several challenges—specifically, to balance the literature of cultural globalization by bringing forth both structure and agency analysis; to pursue an interdisciplinary research predicated on political economy, cultural studies, and area studies; and to explore macro and micro grassroots and routes of transnational Hallyu in order to redefine the definition of global.
The first three chapters are based on a structural analysis behind the Korean Wave phenomenon wherein the authors historicize it by following the impact of government policies, infrastructure building, and social media platform development from the late 1990s. For instance, given its intense digitalization, Hallyu would be impossible without global platforms such as Netflix and YouTube and Korean-made smartphone technology, such as KakaoTalk and LINE apps, which make it “simultaneously global and local” (10). Such a broad view demonstrates the convergence of digital technologies that fuel “diversified directions of cultural globalization” (9).
Following a wider historical and social context for understanding the environment in which the Korean Wave has flourished, the next four chapters zero in on the empirical testimonies of Hallyu fans in five countries (the United States, Canada, Chile, Germany, and Spain) on three continents outside Asia, and across three languages. Rather than focusing solely on a geographical logic of “Hallyu in place X,” the findings demonstrate transnationalism in action. Fans describe their escape into a hybrid, imaginary, alternative, and kaleidoscopic universe. By translating Hallyu into local languages, contexts, and personal experiences, fans shape “trans” by transcending the notions of nationality, modernity, and reality.
Unlike the initial cultural proximity thesis that rationalized the primary success of Hallyu in Asia on cultural similarity and closeness to Korean culture, the vast geographical and cultural distance from non-Asian countries rendered such a thesis inadequate. Instead, fans were engaged in creative strategies to make Hallyu their own by expressing their transnational affinity to hypermodernity or post-nationality in a futuristic space in which they enjoy and “reimagine their possible lives” (16). For instance, Asian diasporic fans and ethnic minorities have expressed minority solidarity with K-pop success from a peripheral location of “perpetual foreigners” (127); young people have identified with the feeling of being different as a part of their own identity-building, growing together with their favorite idols; Chilean fans have used K-pop fandom to express political resistance to local, oppressive governmental measures; finally, some fans have achieved self-empowerment through intercultural learning and intelligence by studying the Korean language and even enrolling in Korean studies programs, while differentiating themselves from racism, Orientalism, and general ignorance of matters Asian.
Besides the “what” question in defining transnational flow, the authors also deal with the “how” question by following the routes and vehicles that have made it possible. In addition to the above-mentioned global and local digital media platforms, the authors also acknowledge the role that Japanese animation played in paving the way for Hallyu decades earlier, as many fans mentioned being introduced to Asian popular culture through anime. The authors also mention the brokering role of fans, including diasporic ones, as translators, storytellers, entrepreneurs, and even domestic celebrities engaged in bottom-up transfer of the Korean Wave into local realities.
While the book begins with a celebration of Hallyu’s success, its concluding chapter is cautious regarding the future of the wave. In referencing two antithetical examples from interviews taken in September 2019 at the same American network, the American Broadcasting Company, which praises BTS’s success on one occasion but marginalizes it on another, the authors point out the fragility and partiality of transnational Hallyu. Whereas its fans promote and fuel transnational experiences, the mainstream public continues to nationalize Hallyu as a peripheral, Asian, and local phenomenon. Future studies would do well to continue to explore this puzzle of coexistent transnationalism and parochialism in redefining cultural globalization.
Transnational Hallyu will benefit students and scholars of cultural globalization who are seeking new theoretical discussions. Besides theorization, the strongest feature of this book is its extensive review of relevant sources, rich examples, multilingual interview data, and up-to-date materials. In addition, the authors take a multi-level approach to examining governments, companies, and individual actors while dealing with structure/agency facets of transnational flow. The book is clearly written and well-structured, even though, as is often the case with multi-authored volumes, it succumbs at times to repetition, and in some places would benefit from comparative analysis between different national cases.
Such comparison could reveal that, despite very different locations, fans everywhere share some distinctive characteristics of questioning the importance of nation and the geographical logic of “Hallyu in place X.” For instance, regardless of their specific national belonging, marginalized fans in all five locations—in terms of young age, low income, or ethnic origins—demonstrate the porousness of national borders that fandom transcends by creating an imaginary post-national universe. In sum, in its effort “to imagine globalization differently” (154), Transnational Hallyu clearly succeeds in explaining the meaning of “trans,” but “national” still awaits theorization.
Irina Lyan
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem