Touring the land of romance: transnational Korean television drama consumption from online desires to offline intimacy

ABSTRACT

Beginning in the twenty-first century, Korean television dramas became a transnational media phenomenon called Hallyu (also known as the Korean Wave, Han’ryu, Hanliu). Some Hallyu fans not only watch the dramas, but they also travel to Korea to immerse themselves in Korean cultures they saw in the dramas. What makes Korean television dramas so appealing to the disparate Hallyu fans? What is it about the dramas that inspire their viewers to travel to Korea? This article is based on data gathered from digital archival research of online Hallyu fan forums, and ethnographic interviews and participant-observations I conducted in Korea where I interviewed the Hallyu tourists. I build on existing research on Hallyu and transnational media studies. However, I suggest that existing theoretical frameworks of ‘cultural proximity’ or ‘Orientalism’ do not accurately capture the essence of my Hallyu tourist informants’ reasons for consuming Korean television dramas and traveling to Korea. I suggest that rather than the dichotomous framework of cultural proximity and Orientalism, Hallyu should be observed through the framework of transnational intimacy. More specifically, I suggest that Hallyu fans’ romantic and intimate desires for Korean men are central to the transnational popularity of Korean dramas and Hallyu tourism.

KEYWORDS:

• Hallyu
• Korean Wave
• cultural proximity
• transnational media
• digital intimacy
• romance
• television
• fan studies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Min Joo Lee is a PhD candidate in the Department of Gender Studies at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her research interests include Korean popular culture (Hallyu), tourism, romance, racialized eroticism, and feminist media studies. Lee’s dissertation analyzes the transnational popularity of Korean television dramas and their role in facilitating transnational erotic relationships between Korean men and the Hallyu fans/tourists.

Notes

1 Comments derived from archival research of Soompi, an online Korean pop culture fan forum.

2 For example, stream a show on Viki.com.

3 Comments derived from archival research of Soompi, an online Korean pop culture fan forum.

4 The observation took place during my field research in Korea during 2017–2018.

5 Names of my informants that appear in this article are pseudonyms in order to protect their privacy and ensure their anonymity.

6 The interview took place during my field research in Korea during 2017–2018.

7 Yon-sama, the male hero of the drama ‘Winter Sonata’ [Fuyu Son] (Nelson Graburn, personal communication, 2018).

8 The observation and interview took place during my field research in Korea during 2017–2018.

9 Interview with Jamie took place during my field research in Korea in 2017–2018.

10 The interview occurred during my field research in Korea in 2017–2018.

11 This follow-up interview was conducted long-distance via a Korean messaging application called Kakaotalk.