k o r e a n masculinities and transcultural consumption TransAsia: Screen Cultures Edited by Koichi IWABUCHI and Chris BERRY What is Asia? What does it mean to be Asian? Who thinks they are Asian? How is “Asian-ness” produced? In Asia’s transnational public space, many kinds of cross-border connections proliferate, from corporate activities to citizen-to-citizen linkages, all shaped by media — from television series to action films, video piracy, and a variety of subcultures facilitated by internet sites and other computer-based cultures. Films are packaged at international film festivals and marketed by DVD companies as “Asian,” while the descendents of migrants increasingly identify themselves as “Asian,” then turn to “Asian” screen cultures to find themselves and their roots. As reliance on national frameworks becomes obsolete in many traditional disciplines, this series spotlights groundbreaking research on trans-border, screen-based cultures in Asia. Other titles in the series: The Chinese Exotic: Modern Diasporic Femininity, by Olivia Khoo Cinema at the City’s Edge: Film and Urban Networks in East Asia, edited by Yomi Braester and James Tweedie Cultural Studies and Cultural Industries in Northeast Asia: What a Difference a Region Makes, edited by Chris Berry, Nicola Liscutin, and Jonathan D. Mackintosh East Asian Pop Culture: Analysing the Korean Wave, edited by Chua Beng Huat and Koichi Iwabuchi Horror to the Extreme: Changing Boundaries in Asian Cinema, edited by Jinhee Choi and Mitsuyo Wada- Marciano TV Drama in China, edited by Ying Zhu, Michael Keane, and Ruoyun Bai Series International Advisory Board Ackbar ABBAS (University of Hong Kong) Ien ANg (University of Western Sydney) Yomi BRAESTER (Washington University) Stephen CHAN (Lingnan University) CHUA Beng-Huat (National University of Singapore) Ian CONDRY (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) DAI Jinhua (Peking University) John Nguyet ERNI (Lingnan University) Annette HAMILTON (University of New South Wales) Rachel HARRISON (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) gaik Cheng KHOO (Australian National University) KIM Kyung-Hyun (University of California, Irvine) KIM Soyoung (Korean National University of Arts) Helen Hok-Sze LEUNg (Simon Fraser University) Akira Mizuta LIPPIT (University of Southern California) Feii Lü (National Chengchi University) Lü Xinyu (Fudan University) Eric MA (Chinese University of Hong Kong) Fran MARTIN (Melbourne University) MOURI Yoshitaka (Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music) Meaghan MORRIS (Lingnan University) NAM Inyoung (Dongseo University) PANg Laikwan (Chinese University of Hong Kong) Michael RAINE (University of Chicago) Bérénice REYNAUD (California Institute of the Arts) Lisa ROFEL (University of California, Santa Cruz) Krishna SEN (Curtin University of Technology) Ubonrat SIRIYUVASAK (Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok) Eva TSAI (National Taiwan Normal University) Paola VOCI (University of Otago) YOSHIMI Shunya (Tokyo University) ZHANg Zhen (New York University) k o r e a n m a s c u l i n i t i e s and transcultural consumption , , , - yonsama rain oldboy k pop idols s JunG un Hong Kong University Press 14/F Hing Wai Centre 7 Tin Wan Praya Road Aberdeen Hong Kong www.hkupress.org © Hong Kong University Press 2011 Hardback ISBN 978-988-8028-66-5 Paperback ISBN 978-988-8028-67-2 All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Printed and bound by Goodrich International Printing Co. Ltd., Hong Kong, China To Chung Soon-Chul and Yoo Myung-Ja Contents List of Figures viii Notes on the Usage of the Korean Language ix Chapter 1 Korean Popular Culture and Transcultural Consumption: 1 Globalized Desires between “Ours and Others” Chapter 2 Bae Yong-Joon, Soft Masculinity, and Japanese Fans: 35 Our Past Is in Your Present Body Chapter 3 Rain, Global Masculinity, and Singaporean Fans: 73 Fly Anywhere, Click Anytime Chapter 4 Oldboy, Postmodern Masculinity, and Western Fandom on 119 Film Review Websites: Time between Dog and Wolf Chapter 5 K-Pop Idol Boy Bands and Manufactured Versatile 163 Masculinity: Making Chogukjeok Boys Appendix 171 Notes 173 List of Media Productions 185 References 189 Index 213 List of Figures 2.1 Japanese magazines with cover stories of BYJ at a bookstore in Tokyo 38 2.2 A variety shop in Shin-Okubo with BYJ posters 38 2.3 A scene from Winter Sonata 44 2.4 A scene from Untold Scandal 44 2.5 The picture of a fake Yonsama 52 3.1 DVD/CD shop in the MBK shopping center, Bangkok 82 3.2 The background picture of RainSingapore.com 96 3.3 An email from an interviewee 100–101 3.4 A scene from the last episode of Full House 106 3.5 Rainy Day Hong Kong concert 114 4.1 Demographic breakdown of Oldboy voters on Imdb.com 123 4.2 A scene from Oldboy 155 4.3 A scene from Oldboy 158 5.1 2PM Thai fan gathering 166 Notes on the Usage of the Korean Language 1. This book uses the “Revised Romanization of Korean,” which is the official Korean-language romanization system adopted by South Korea. 2. This system allows for very limited use of the hyphen. For the convenience of non-Korean readers, however, I use the hyphen in this book for some words such as Dae-jang-geum. 3. The names of some Korean authors and stars, such as Kim Kyung-Hyun and Lee Byung-Hun, have been predominantly romanized using the previous McCune-Reischauer romanization system in English-language works. In such cases, this book keeps the conventional romanization of their names. 4. In romanizing Korean names, this book uses the Korean convention of placing the surname before the given name. For example, the name of the Korean director, Park Chan-Wook, is written as such so that “Park,” his surname, precedes his given name “Chan-Wook.” 5. Unless otherwise stated, all translations from Korean to English are my own.