Korean Studies Commons^™

Anti-Art In Postwar Korea And Japan, Emma Patterson

MA Projects

Emerging from the traumatic devastation of World War II and the economic upheaval that followed, artists in Japan and South Korea adopted similar creative strategies and addressed parallel themes in their artistic responses to the postwar period. Anti-Art in Postwar Korea and Japan brings together artists from the two nations—which share a complex socio-political history—to introduce a new lens through which to understand contemporary East Asian art. Seung-taek Lee, Ha Chong-Hyun, Kim Tschang-Yeul, Lee Ufan, and Nobuo Sekine were few of a number of Korean and Japanese artists who developed comparable practices across the media of painting, sculpture, installation, and …

The Portrayal Of Queerness In Lee-Song Hee-Il's Films Through Intersectional Lens, Tanin Sangpetch

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This research investigates the representation of queerness and how individuals' different social identities produce different kinds of tensions among queer people through the concept of intersectionality. The research analyzes the film No Regret, White Night and Night Flight. The analysis includes two themes: 1) The Violence and Harassment against Queer and 2) The Representation of Gender and Sexuality. The study seeks to understand how intersecting components are represented along with the two themes. The result of the study reveals that queers who have a good academic performance or high SES seem to bear much pressure and high expectation to maintain …

'Gangnam Beauty' Drama: The Representation Of Lookism In South Korea, Nindya Puteri Arum

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Lookism is a new concept related to the discrimination. It is often described as a physical attractiveness discrimination, where as individual that is up to the beauty standard and considered as attractive are being treated differently than those who is considered ‘unattractive’. The purpose of this study is to analyze the lookism in the daily life in ‘Gangnam Beauty’ drama and how the beauty standard reflected in the daily life can be toxic to certain points using the representation theory of Stuart Hall and the critical discourse analysis to analyze the data through scenes, dialogues and characters. The result of …

Influence Of Thai Drama Through Social Media On Popularity Of Thai Culture : Case Studies Of Students Of Busan University Of Foreign Studies, Youngseon Ko

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

With the rapid development of social media in Korea, the influx of dramas from Southeast Asia, especially Thailand, is increasing. During this period, popularity of Thai culture is evidence. This research aims to determine whether Thai drama through social media influence the level of interest in Thai culture among Korean audiences. It analyzes how Thai dramas introduced to Korea through social media contribute to the rise in popularity of Thai culture. In addition, the research attempts to analyze which aspect of Thai culture interest Koreans Koreans and how they experience those cultures in South Korea. Busan is the city with …

A Study On Government Lottery Buying Behavior : The Cases Of Thai Consumers In Bangkok And Korean Consumers In Seoul Using Online Questionnaire, Korakoj Tongboriboon

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

The research investigates the important factors influencing the government’s lottery buying behavior. The objectives of this research are to study the behavior of the lottery consumers between Thai and Korean consumers. The number of participants of Thai and Korean consumers should be separated. Among the total of 864 consumers, 445 consumers are Thai and the other 419 are Korean. This research employs a quantitative research design, and the data is collected by a questionnaire as a research tool. The data is statistically analyzed by percentage, means, standard deviation, Chi-square and Logistic Regression.The results show that the differences between Thai and …

The Influence Of K-Pop Thai Fan Loyalty On The Image Of Korean Male Idol: A Case Study Of Lim Youngmin, Nattanon Wongsantimeth

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

K-pop boyband artist AB6IX from South Korea, Lim Youngmin, has won the hearts of Thai fans that have developed into loyalness to him. However, Lim Youngmin has faced situations that affected the artist's idol image, and this resulted in the inability of performing as an artist in the meantime, from an incident in 2020, after being arrested for DUI - driving under the influence of alcohol. He had his driving license revoked in the same year which might force him to decide to enlist himself in the military, which is a requirement for all male citizens of South Korea without …

Hallyu’S Media Hybridization: A Case Study Of A Korean Series Remake For Thai Audiences, Nutchapon Nimitphuwanai

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Korean culture has currently spread to many countries and benefited both the economy and society, but it also has the potential to integrate with those cultures. Hallyu is centered to the export of cultural products in order to further the spread of its culture throughout the world. Thailand is one of the countries that has been influenced by Hallyu, and the impact on Thai television has not exemplified cultural imperialism but hybridization. Hallyu, on the other hand, is not a single direction, but a composite of mixed and local reconstructions. Korean media imports are also incorporated into the local. Certain …

Political Astronomy: South Korea Space Development Under The International Political Dimension, Nutnarin Ueasukpakdee

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Human Knows about space technology development since 1950s era during that time U.S. and Soviet Union were main actors in “Space race” war. Space technology development of U.S. and Soviet Union in proxy war era were emphasized to develop for competition of political ideology and power of military. At the present time the purpose of space technology development different from the past, many countries that try to develop space technology for economic benefit, technology benefit, communication benefit or hidden connotation others. South Korea was the one that have potential and interesting to develop space technology because of the conflict with …

Juxtaposition Images Of Two Koreas Portrayed In Crash Landing On You And Its Effect On Thai Audiences' Perspective, Phonpraphai Chanthanee

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study examines the historical and political contexts of the two Koreas in terms of different ideologies that affect various elements of society by exploring insights into the backgrounds of South Korea and North Korea from a literature review. To analyze the disparities between the two nations, the research focuses on the scripts, visuals, and hidden agendas depicted in the renowned Korean series Crash Landing on You, along with investigating the production process and relevant interviews. In addition to exploring the narration, the study also surveyed the impact of the drama on the international perspective of the two Koreas through …

Korean Migration And Hallyu: The Emergence Of Korean Celebrities In The Philippine Entertainment Industry, Rose Carmelle Lacuata

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

The Philippines is home to many Korean migrants, who started migrating to the Philippines in the 1990s for economic purposes, and later for educational purposes. As the Korean community in the Philippines continued to grow, they brought with them their own culture, with businesses catering to Koreans also increasing. Meanwhile, Hallyu or the Korean wave has been spreading like wildfire all over the world since it first became popular in China in the early 2000s, and the Philippines is one of the countries where Korean culture has become popular. Eventually, the Korean community in the Philippines, in one way or …

Picturing A Storm Center In The Far East: Geopolitical Image And Representation Of Korea In Early American Newspaper Visuals, Jihyung Kim

Master's Projects and Capstones

This Capstone Project explores the image and representation of Korea in early modern American newspaper visuals during the period when Korea and the U.S. first began to engage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The American newspaper visuals, which interact with headlines, captions, and texts, are represented with specific patterns and features in close links to the newspaper's geopolitical discourse production, specifically the “Far Eastern Question,” which was produced by western powers and Japan. The visuals were intended to show Korea as a dangerous and uncivilized place, “a storm center in the Far East.” Such geopolitical visuals in …

"Writing Unspeakable Things: Speechlessness, Abjection, And The Ethics/Aesthetics Of (Not) Representing Sexual Violence In Three Korean American "Comfort Women' Novels", M Laura Barberan Reinares

Publications and Research

This article analyzes “comfort women” novels by the Korean American authors Therese Park, Nora Okja Keller, and Chang-rae Lee in terms of the ethics and aesthetics of representing sexual violence through language. I specifically look at these authors’ stylistic strategies to describe rape in writing and how they (more or less successfully) avoid voyeuristic portrayals of the “comfort women” by controlling the narrative point of view and relying on traumatic “speechlessness” and abjection. Building on relevant notions from the fields of photography, cinematography, philosophy, and psychoanalysis, this analysis suggests that in-progress representations of rape in language become a futile project …

Towards A Decolonial Feminist Aesthetics: Gender, Race, And Empire In Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’S Dictee, Juwon Jun

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Defining revolutionary struggle as a struggle between fictions, Trinh T. Minh-ha asserts that art in revolution is a spiritual presence which widens the conception of freedom. Political struggle is constituted by clashes in differently written and conceived realities—hinged on the creation and realization of multiple liberatory fictions. Liberation then requires us to attend to creating new myths and conceptions of freedom which can free us from the current structures of domination that produce current subjects and realities. If culture is indeed an “essential element in the history of a people,” mapping decoloniality in cultural and aesthetic fields may be essential …

The Professional Struggles Of Contemporary Korean Women: Origins And Consequences Of The Glass Ceiling, Liat Miller

Master's Projects and Capstones

The status of women globally, though improved in recent decades, remains an unresolved issue. The labor market, in which women must contend with the glass ceiling phenomenon, is an indicative microcosmos of a larger issue—the persistence of discriminatory attitudes toward women. The case is even more profound in East Asian contexts, such as South Korea. The existing literature is limited and focuses on either specific aspects of the glass ceiling or particular industries in Korea. This paper explores the origins and interconnected causes of the glass ceiling in Korea, which include Confucian philosophy and values. Moreover, by analyzing testimonials of …

A Comfort Women Redress Movement Without Comfort Women, Jenna Shin

Student Work

A 2020-2021 Williams Prize for best essay in East Asian Studies was awarded to Jenna Shin (Morse '21) for her essay submitted to the East Asian Studies Program, "A Comfort Women Redress Movement without Comfort Women” (Yukiko Koga, Associate Professor of Anthropology, advisor).

While the comfort women issue is often framed within contested relations between the victims and the perpetrators, such as South Korean survivors and/or South Korea’s relationship with Japan, Jenna Shin’s essay, “A Comfort Women Redress Movement without Comfort Women,” shifts her reader’s attention to the relationship between the surviving comfort women and their main advocacy group, the …

Making Meaning Of The Family's Immigrant Experience, Distress, And Help-Seeking: A Critical Inquiry Of Mental Health Support For Second-Generation Korean Americans, Kristin Kim-Martin

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The Korean American community is a predominantly immigrant population with a long history of historical and cultural trauma, including the continued losses, hardships, and violence endured through the immigration process, that continues to impact the well-being and functioning of individuals and families today. Second-generation Korean Americans play critical roles in establishing and maintaining the livelihoods and security of their immigrant families; however, they have been underrepresented and under-researched within the literature on immigration and its effects on the mental health and help-seeking patterns of this population. Although there is strong evidence for the influence of culture in the intergenerational patterns …

Online Cultural Contention And China-Korea Relations: Interpreting Netizens’ Narratives On Social Media, Roselyn Wang

Master's Projects and Capstones

In this era of social media, popular narratives have increasingly important implications on domestic policy and bilateral relations. In part based on the video of making Kimchi published by a famous Chinese YouTuber, this study analyzes Chinese and Korean netizens’ opinions of each other by examining around one thousand social media posts, which offer a glimpse of the unique

cultural confrontation between China and South Korea. By revealing the complexity of China- Korea relations through a social media lens, my analysis provides new insights into the

implications of these popular narratives on China’s policymaking. The Chinese government has started to …

Cool Japan And The Hallyu Wave: The Effect Of Popular Culture Exports On National Image And Soft Power, Gillianne Lux

East Asian Studies Honors Papers

Japan used its export of pop culture in the post-war era not only to boost its economy but also as a means to improve its national image and project its soft power. Japanese pop culture exports emphasized a positive, non-threatening image of national culture. Though Japan’s pop culture export boom has been enormously successful, it has not been able to completely overcome its problematic past and erase historical tensions with Korea and other Asian nations. The pop culture boom has redefined Japan’s national image but not entirely. Contradictions between Japan’s curated image and actual reality, especially in the case of …

Self Hood And Self Realization In Contemporary Korean Dramas, Kevin Chang, Yanjie Wang

Honors Thesis

Korean dramas are an important worldwide cultural phenomenon; however, there has been a lack of direct critical analysis on contemporary Korean dramas. Significantly, popular media is a potent tool to understand a country’s societal values. Given Korea’s intellectual contact with the West, it is possible to interpret K-dramas through the lens of self-realization. It’s Okay to Not be Okay teaches us that trauma must be faced to overcome it though the stories of Moon Gang-tae, Sang-tae, and Ko Moon-young. In Extracurricular, Jisoo and Gyuri represent how the current youth environment of South Korea stifles self-expression and self-realization. Itaewon Class, …

Big Community In Little Chinatown: How Asian Americans (Re)Present Their Community Today, Meghan Morrison

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper looks at a series of modern Asian American pieces of media in order to analyze how women and LGBT+ depict and create their community, especially in relation to another marginalized ethnic group. By examining the relationship between these groups within popular media, we can uncover how Asian Americans choose to represent themselves and gain a deeper understanding on how marginalized groups choose to portray themselves.