In Hegemonic Mimicry: Korean In style Tradition of the Twenty-First Century, Kyung Hyun Kim explores the worldwide rise of Korean widespread tradition, utilizing the idea of ‘hegemonic mimicry’ to look at the way it has tailored American sensibilities and genres. It is a beneficial and vital contribution to research of Korean widespread tradition with an interdisciplinary strategy that can attraction to students throughout completely different educational disciplines, writes Beyza Dogan.
Hegemonic Mimicry: Korean In style Tradition of the Twenty-First Century. Kyung Hyun Kim. Duke College Press. 2021.
With the latest world recognition of Korean cultural merchandise and the rising variety of followers around the globe – such because the Okay-Pop group BTS and its followers, ‘the Military’ – educational research of Korean widespread tradition have elevated in quantity. Among the present literature revealed on Korean widespread tradition has examined numerous dynamics within the sector, resembling fandom and authorities subsidisation, drawing on real-life instances and examples (see, as an example, The Korean Wave edited by Yosue Kuwahara). Kim has approached this rising subject by means of earlier educational books and articles, focusing notably on Korean cinema, the place he’s additionally energetic professionally as a producer and scriptwriter.
The frequent theoretical approaches utilized in educational research of Korean widespread tradition are cultural diplomacy, delicate energy and transnational cultural circulate. In Hegemonic Mimicry, though Kim mentions such theories, he primarily explains his argument by means of the idea of mimicry, which South Korea additionally makes use of in different sectors to innovate, as outlined in Chapter Six, ‘Korean Meme-icry: Samsung and Okay-Pop’.
The guide consists of seven chapters and a prolonged introduction. The chapters are interrelated however not sequential. Within the preface, the creator introduces the idea of ‘mimicking the west’ by explaining how Korea handled COVID-19 by creating its personal pandemic management system after it redeployed Western medical expertise (X).
The guide opens with an imagined reversal of the historical past of the American military in Korea. Right here, Kim describes a hypothetical dystopian world through which America is within the place of Korea, battle ravaged and struggling economically. Then, a transoceanic military of Koreans comes, and their tradition and identification surpasses something American (2). This situation creates a hook for the reader, very similar to in a fiction guide, and allows readers to empathise with the place of Koreans.
For individuals who have lately developed an curiosity in Korean widespread tradition, the introduction offers a complete overview with loads of background info. Kim argues that, relationship again to the presence of the US military in Korea, Korean identification has been located between white and black identities, outlined by Kim as an ‘off-white/blackish’ positioning. Korean identification finds itself outlined by twoness – by hegemonic American tradition and native tradition (29) Nonetheless, the creator argues all through the guide that Koreans are redefining ‘changing into minjok’ (Korean nationwide ethnic identification) by means of widespread tradition that mimics American tradition but in addition competes with it globally.
Picture Credit score: ‘KARA 4th ALBUM SHOWCASE’ by m-louis .® licensed below CC BY SA 2.0
Korean widespread tradition relies on the Korean language and doesn’t take its energy from the diaspora or cultural proximity based mostly on the consumption of media from or shut to at least one’s personal tradition (19). It has change into hegemonic, however it’s mimicry by nature. Therefore, hegemonic mimicry differs from different cultural theories that specify the unfold of 1 nation’s tradition, resembling flows from the International South or media imperialism. This conceptual framework gives readers with a way to analyse widespread tradition and mimicry in nations positioned between two identities.
In Chapter One, Kim broadly elaborates on the historical past of Korean widespread tradition. He begins with the instance of Okay-Pop, emphasising that it has fashioned by means of the influence of African-American hip hop and J-Pop from Japan. The unfold of Okay-Pop is defined with the examples of the singer PSY, who opened the door to America for Okay-Pop, and the group BTS, who grew with the fan pressure referred to as ‘the Military’. Kim factors out that Okay-Pop is seen as key to the export of different items. Kim additionally briefly offers details about the ‘slave contracts’ that Okay-Pop idols have with their administration firms. Kim may develop upon this dialogue of the situations for creatives in Korea and the struggles they face throughout trainee processes and afterwards, although he does current some particulars in Chapter Six.
Kim then describes Okay-Cinema as ‘Asia’s Hollywood’, with movies primarily revolving across the subjects of North Korea, interval dramas and gender battle comedies. It’s fascinating to learn that Okay-Cinema admissions are rising and it’s regaining its viewers by means of native productions. Kim right here additionally briefly states the connection between Okay-Cinema and China and the potential of the absorption of the previous by the latter. The subject of Okay-Tv is mentioned by introducing over-the-top (‘OTT’), on-line video streaming platforms, like Netflix and Hulu, and their unfavorable influence on TV viewing. On this half, Kim focuses on actuality exhibits as an alternative of Okay-Dramas.
In later chapters, Kim elaborates on Okay-Pop, Okay-Cinema and Okay-Tv by means of an evaluation of particular examples. Chapter Two argues that Korean rap positions itself in another way than Okay-pop and takes its essence from each p’ansori – a Korean important storytelling custom – and African-American rap/hip-hop tradition. Though Korea doesn’t have the bodily house of ‘the ghetto’ to encourage rap music, the schooling system and different social issues have influenced the event of Korean hip-hop tradition.
Chapters Three and 5 study subjects surrounding Okay-Cinema, resembling physique swap movies affected by digital age surveillance and the importance of meals and consuming in latest motion pictures. Excessive Job (2019) and Parasite (2019) are analysed intimately in Chapter 5 to counsel that Okay-Cinema is beginning to mirror real-life issues, resembling class divisions and social inequality, by means of laughter and meals. In each chapters, the creator makes use of completely different ideas drawn from the works of W.E.B. Du Bois, Gilles Deleuze and Frantz Fanon. Regardless of this, the descriptive elements of the chapters outweigh the theoretical elements, because the creator doesn’t clarify the ideas intimately. Thus, as a reader, I discovered it troublesome to narrate the ideas to the examples.
In Chapter 4, specializing in Okay-Tv, Kim elaborates on ‘The Operating Man’, a TV selection present, by means of his time period ‘have an effect on Confucianism’. This refers to a price system that incentivises hierarchy in social buildings, however differs from capitalism by selling collective identification as an alternative of dividing individuals into winners and losers (143). Though Kim additionally attracts on the thought of ‘transmedia storytelling’ – the dispersal of a narrative throughout a number of media instruments – to clarify the worldwide success of ‘The Operating Man’, the reason of the way it contributes to this stays weak. Later, in Chapter Seven, ‘Muhan Dojeon’, one other Korean TV hit, is analysed when it comes to its similarities with madangguk – a satirical theatre that emerged in the course of the minjung motion, a Nineteen Seventies pro-democracy mission that criticised the federal government for leaving the general public out of financial, political and cultural fields.
As talked about earlier, Chapter Six approaches mimicry from one other perspective by specializing in Samsung. The creator emphasises the similarities between Okay-Pop and Samsung of their approaches to innovation, manufacturing and dealing situations whereas changing into hegemonic. It’s argued that the working situations of Samsung manufacturing facility staff who grew to become critically unwell are much like these of Okay-Pop idols who’ve skilled psychological well being issues and have even taken their very own lives in some instances. This subject must be debated additional to discover what the success of Okay-Pop takes from a era.
Though hegemonic mimicry is launched because the overarching theoretical framework for this guide, the chapters undertake completely different ideas which can be typically in a roundabout way associated to mimicry. Additional rationalization of the quotes and ideas utilized in these chapters would assist the reader make connections between the evaluation and the examples.
Nonetheless, Hegemonic Mimicry is a beneficial and vital contribution to the literature on Korean widespread tradition research by introducing the idea of ‘hegemonic mimicry’ intimately and approaching Korean widespread tradition in an interdisciplinary means. This function of the guide will entice students from numerous educational disciplines in addition to college college students from completely different backgrounds.
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In regards to the reviewer
Beyza Dogan – TRT
Beyza Dogan works as Technique Analyst at TRT (Turkish Public Broadcaster). Beforehand, she acquired her MA in Arts and Cultural Administration from King’s Faculty London, and she or he accomplished her BA in Enterprise Administration at Bilkent College. Her analysis pursuits embrace viewers research in media, specializing in client behaviours, and sociology.
