Taming the Primitive: Multiculturalism and the Anthropological Vision of South Korean Media

Abstract

This study examines the meaning of ethnographic documentaries newly produced in South Korea. These TV programs present “primitiveness” to an extreme, which may reflect social changes in Korea. The South Korean media first started to show strong interest in international and intercultural issues, particularly non-Western cultures, as the society opened up to having a multicultural population; and there was also the international popularity of Korean pop culture known as Korean wave, hallyu. Korean TV documentaries illustrate complex responses to social changes and cultural diversification of the society, but recall colonialist views from the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Europe. A colonialist vision is being emulated through concrete visuals, despite historical and cultural discrepancies between 19th-century Europe and 21st-century East Asia. This raises theoretical questions about an alternative form of postcolonial power in contemporary East Asian society.

Notes

It is arguable that Western influence on Korean modern history came in the form of American superpower. It is true that Korea was occupied by the American military for three years (1945–48) and still has American military bases. In this sense, Chen argued that East Asia including Korea and Taiwan did not have de-imperialization until the end of the Cold War, which made the region different from postcolonial societies in other parts of the world [Chen 2010]. Yet a superpower does not affect local conditions visibly except in the segregated base areas.

It is almost mechanical in its ideological use of music. The mutation between Western and ethno music is counted by music time; introduction of shamanic rituals (ethno 52 secs.) led to two scenes of the adoption of a factory system of reindeer husbandry (classical 53 secs. and 24 secs.), biography of a legendary shaman (ethno 36.2 secs.), and then searching for and meeting a grandson of the shaman (ethno 25.5 secs.), his failure to show shamanic powers (classical 35 secs.), three scenes of the continuation of shamanic traditions in the tundra (ethno 1 min. 12 secs., 1 min. 54 secs., and 1 min. 48 secs.) and ending up with some show business (classical 29.6 secs.).

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Sunny Yoon

SUNNY YOON works on cultural studies and media. She has published articles on cinema, youth culture, media reception, feminist studies, in South Korean academic journals, as well as on the media industry, Korean wave and Korean cinema studies in international journals including Visual Anthropology and Media Development. She is the author of Media Industry and Cultural Studies and Feminist Perspective of New Technology, and is currently a professor at Hanyang University in Korea.