Korean Studies Commons^™

Modern Youth Or Moral Decadence: Discourses On South Korea’S “Youth Culture” In Magazines Of The Late 1960s And Early 1970s, Thibaut Diverchy

Asia Pacific Perspectives

The cultural phenomenon known as “youth culture” (ch’ŏngnyŏn munhwa) emerged in South Korean society at the turn of the 1970s. It encompasses Western fashion trends, music genres, leisure and nightlife. Labeled as a foreign and decadent trend by the authorities, this so-called counterculture was the target of repeated crackdowns. It is sometimes perceived as a force of protest or resistance, but it had more ambiguous relations to the regime. Popular entertainment magazines such as the Sunday Seoul or the Chugan Kyŏnghyang helped propagate youth culture and provided resources about new trends to young people, but also kept a certain distance …

Glokalisasi Konten Digital K-Pop Di Media Sosial Tiktok Smtown Indonesia, Alvaro Taura Qurniawan, Zaini Zaini

Multikultura

The expansion of K-pop into various countries has encouraged the use of social media as one of its primary promotional platforms. However, such promotional content cannot always be readily accepted by local audiences due to differences in cultural backgrounds. Therefore, this study aims to analyze how glocalization strategies are implemented by SM Entertainment in the TikTok content of @smtown_indonesia to reach the Indonesian market. Using content analysis and Roland Robertson’s concept of glocalization, this study examines the incorporation of local elements in K-pop promotional content uploaded by SMTOWN Indonesia. The data consist of 130 TikTok videos posted on the @smtown_indonesia …

Hubungan Dinamika Keluarga Dengan Gangguan Psikologis Tokoh Baek Ah-Jin Dalam Drama Dear X, Amanda Poetri Winachyu, Amelia Burhan

Multikultura

As the Korean drama industry continues to expand, K-dramas have evolved beyond mere entertainment to serve as a medium for representing and critically examining various social issues, including mental health. Dear X (2025) is a Korean thriller drama that explores the theme of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). Using a qualitative method and a literary psychology approach, this study aims to analyze the relationship between a dysfunctional family environment and the development of ASPD in the main character, Baek Ah-jin, based on John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory. The findings reveal that Baek Ah-jin exhibits characteristic traits of ASPD, such as manipulative behavior …

Transformasi Jeong Dalam Budaya Korea: Representasi Keluarga Pilihan Dalam Film Korea Love In The Big City, Widad Marshallova Nursandi, Fadhila Hasby

Multikultura

Jeong is an important cultural value in South Korean society that has traditionally been associated with family relationships, emotional closeness, and a sense of togetherness. Social changes in contemporary Korean society have created space for jeong to develop beyond biological family ties. This study aims to analyze the transformation of the meaning of jeong through the representation of chosen family in the film Love in the Big City (LitBC), which is represented as a form of negotiation with dominant family norms. This research employs a qualitative approach using cultural text analysis based on Stuart Hall's theory of representation. The data …

Tindakan Diskriminasi Terhadap Pekerja Wanita Dalam Film I Don't Fire Myself, Marsha Azzahra Putri, Euis Sulastri

Multikultura

This study examines the discrimination experienced by Park Jeong-eun in the film I Don't Fire Myself and analyzes it from the perspective of Mary Wollstonecraft's liberal feminist theory. This research employs a descriptive qualitative method, using scenes and dialogues from the film as the primary data source, while books, online sources, and previous studies serve as secondary data sources. Data were collected through repeated observation of the film and note-taking of scenes depicting discriminatory practices. The findings reveal that the discrimination experienced by Park Jeong-eun is reflected in unfair company policies, unequal job distribution, and workplace social relations characterized by …

Language Learner To Author: Ai-Assisted Children's Book And Theme Song Creation For Community Outreach, Hea Young Chun

Generative AI Teaching Activities

Students will use AI tools to create original children's storybooks, complete with accompanying theme songs, and subsequently present their finished works to students at local schools.

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 19 No. 1, 2025, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Articles

Think Pieces

Photo Essay

Book Reviews

Selective Remembrance: Constructing Nostalgia At The Park Chung Hee Presidential Museum, Abigail Shaw

Honors Theses

How and why does Park Chung Hee remain so potent in the minds of South Koreans, decades after his rule? Seungsook Moon (2009) describes the phenomenon as Park Chung Hee Syndrome: a cultural condition in which Park’s image circulates between glorification, demonization, and humanization, producing an unresolved and emotionally charged field of memory. Building on this, researchers have examined how a type of “Park Chung Hee nostalgia” operates through selective remembrance of developmental success, moral discipline, and national unity, ultimately creating a positive memory and longing for semblance of his long-ended rule (Park, 2011; Podoler, 2016; Lee, 2022).

Statues and …

"Obsessive Myth:" Disturbing The Grammar Of The Lyric And Epic In Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's "Dictee", Noelle (Nell) Kriegel

All Theses

The archival text Dictée by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha spans many genres, making it a highly hybrid text. Cha uses personal letters, official government documents, images, prose, dictation exercises, translations, and poetry to create a composite identity of women neglected through history. Dictée’s hybrid form allows it to experiment with the lyric and epic traditions, challenging their forms to adequately reflect the lived experience of oppressed women. Dictée’s hybridity is but one aspect of its interrogation of literary form and language; the text also plays with grammar, specifically pronouns, to depict a genealogy of female voices as they relate to …

Keibuan Pascamanusia (Posthuman) Dan Eksploitasi Afeksi Dalam Film Jung_E, Euis Sulastri

Multikultura

The film JUNG_E (2023), a South Korean film by Yeon Sang-ho, presents a distinctive representation of motherhood through the transformation of the maternal body into a posthuman entity. This study aims to analyze how maternal identity is constructed, weakened, and instrumentalized through technology within the context of future capitalism and militarism. Employing a qualitative-descriptive approach, the research examines the separation of the biological body, memory, and maternal affect as they are reconstituted in the form of artificial intelligence.

The theoretical framework integrates concepts of performativity and precarity/vulnerability proposed by Judith Butler, feminist posthumanism by Rosi Braidotti, affect theory by Silvan …

In Memoriam Gwangju: Transnational Memoryscapes Of Gwangju And Buenos Aires In The Works Of Han Kang And Im Heung-Soon, Heewon Chung

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Currently acclaimed as the first Asian female author who won the Nobel Prize in literature, Korean writer Han Kang has persistently struggled with memoryscapes and traumascapes. Han’s collection of poems Winter Beyond the Mirror delineates the poetic “I”’s experiences of visiting Argentina and describes how she senses the interconnectedness between Gwangju and Buenos Aires. Korean artist-filmmaker Im Heung-soon’s recent film Good Light, Good Air addresses the same issue, and actually Im and Han have shared a mutual concern about it since Han’s novel Human Acts. This essay defines Winter Beyond the Mirror and Good Light, Good Air, coupled …

From South Korea To South Central: The 1992 Los Angeles Uprising And The "Rooftop Korean", Mina Althea Lamson Jung

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines the historical formation of the "rooftop Korean," the racial figure of the armed Korean American shopkeeper that emerged during the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising and has since been mobilized repeatedly in service of anti-Black counterinsurgency. Drawing on the framework of racial capitalism, this thesis argues that the rooftop Korean was not a spontaneous product of the Korean-Black conflict in South Central Los Angeles but the culmination of decades of U.S.-Korea relations, South Korean militarization, and the racial geography of capitalist development on both sides of the Pacific.

Tracing a transnational arc from the Korean War through the …

Book Review: Macarthur As Spirit: A Review Of Spirit Power: Politics And Religion In Korea’S American Century, Jieon Yoo

Asia Pacific Perspectives

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Inside Chinese Theater: Community And Artistry In Nineteenth-Century California And Beyond By Nancy Yunwha Rao, Jiyoon Auo

Asia Pacific Perspectives

No abstract provided.