Harvard East Asian Monographs. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Asia Center [distributed by Harvard University Press], 2023. xiii, 230 pp. (Tables, graphs, figures, coloured photos, illustrations.) US$45.00, cloth. ISBN 9780674291317.
Since the late 1990s, South Korea has been able to successfully export not just one, but several forms of mass media, becoming one of the few international competitors to the United States. Music, television, and cinema initially drove the movement that has come to be known as the Korean Wave (Hallyu). The momentum has continued to the point that scholars have identified a second wave, coining it Hallyu 2.0. That includes author Dal Yong Jin, who continues the work he introduced us to in New Korean Wave: Transnational Cultural Power in the Age of Social Media (University of Illinois Press, 2016). In his new book, Understanding Korean Webtoon Culture, Jin tackles the growth of webtoons, or South Korean digital comics that are popular amongst millennial and gen z readers both domestically and internationally. Webtoons have exploded in growth to the point that they drove the development of the South Korean comic industry as a whole in the 2010s, reportedly making up half of the industry by December of 2019 (5). Jin contends that webtoons demand critical inquiry not only because of their success and their place in the Korean Wave, but because they are “a nascent, and the most significant, form of Korean transmedia storytelling” that signals “a new type of media convergence” (16). For Jin, it is the ability of webtoons to manifest a distinctly Korean character that is key to the form, which in turn fuels their global circulation, presenting a challenge to Eurocentric modes of media industries and cultural flow (10).
Surveying the history of South Korean comics (referred to domestically and now internationally as manhwa), Jin differentiates them from the adjacent form of Japanese comics (or manga). He does so over seven chapters that outline the specific conditions that led to the emergence of webtoons, from the convergence of existing cultural products such as print comics, the creation of new digital technologies (the country’s aggressive telecommunications investment in the 1990s and the widespread adoption of smartphones in the twenty-first-century), and the popularization of transmedia storytelling practices, which in turn relates to the broader conditions of the Korean Wave (i.e., the synergistic development of the film industry and the comic industry) (1). The first chapter historicizes webtoons into four eras in relation to new media ecology (their emergence, role in transmedia production, relationship to online platforms, and trends in webtoon genres) and details how they came to the forefront of South Korean youth culture. In chapter 2, Jin employs a political economy approach to discuss platformization while he turns to youth culture in chapter 3 in order to investigate how webtoons ostensibly encourage “snack culture” and binge reading. The fourth chapter looks at the place of webtoons in the country’s emergent practice of transmedia narratives, while chapter 5 focuses on the international proliferation of webtoons as part of the Korean Wave. Chapter 6 turns its attention to the artists, from the trajectory of their careers to labour practices, while also featuring an interview with webtoonist Yoon Tae-ho. The final chapter summarizes the key features of webtoons while looking ahead to current developments.
Jin clearly and lucidly traces out the history and emergence of webtoons, while also illustrating the specificity of the form. Understanding Korean Webtoon Culture is particularly strong when Jin excavates the unobvious implications, for example in the second chapter when he discusses labour practices, revenue, and the rights of creators in relation to the hegemony of a key few platforms (Naver Webtoon and KakaoPage) that for all intents and purposes dominate the industry. Similar moments are evident in the third chapter when Jin ruminates on the implications of speed culture (the potential threat to democracy) and how webtoons participate in a broader shift in media consumption for the general public in neoliberal capitalism (83–84). In chapter 4, Jin continues this thread in his discussion of so-called loser syndrome, i.e., the affective dimension of unemployment, underemployment, and social alienation that are key to the demographical resonance of webtoons (103).
Further elaborations on these questions and problems would make the book an even stronger discussion, as would more detailed elaboration on the format itself. While Understanding Korean Webtoon Culture makes a clear case for the specificity of webtoons, the complicated relationship between Japanese and Korean comics raises problems and questions that could provide context and insight. Japanese comics have dominated South Korea from the postwar period and well into the twenty-first century, which is why webtoons signal a major historical and cultural shift. Given that manhwa and manga have long been entangled, with Korean producers emulating Japanese mangaka, further parsing out of how and in what ways webtoons differ from print comics and manga would have bolstered an already persuasive account.
Understanding Korean Webtoon Culture is, as Jin intended, a “comprehensive and systematic” “up to date book length study” (8). The book provides a much-needed account of an emergent and increasingly impactful form and industry that has yet to be sufficiently discussed. Researchers of South Korean media, history, and culture, in addition to new media scholars and comic book studies researchers more broadly, will find the book of interest. At the same time, the book’s accessibility ensures that it can reach the full range of potential readers who are invested or even curious about the topic, from undergraduate students to researchers to members of the general public.
Se Young Kim
Colby College, Waterville