[Commlist] Queering The Korean Wave across the Asia-Pacific: A Hybrid International Symposium

*Queering The Korean Wave across the Asia-Pacific
A Hybrid International Symposium*

/8^th to 9^th December 2022/

/Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Languages, and 
Literature
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia/

/Supported by the Academy of Korean Studies, Korean Studies Grant No. 
AKS-2022-R033/

*_Background_*

Over the past two decades, the rise of international fandom for South 
Korean popular culture has attracted significant commentary. Buoyed by 
passionate fans of K-pop groups like BTS, the global success of K-dramas 
such as/Squid Game/, and practices like/mukbang/that have become 
ubiquitous across social media, the Korean Wave has radically 
transformed global popular culture, decentred Western media, and created 
new media hierarchies focussed on East Asia (Jin 2016, Kim 2013).

Despite a wealth of theorisation concerning how the Korean Wave has 
destabilised global media circuits centred on North America and Western 
Europe, however, there remains one conceptual domain that is still 
under-developed:_how has the Korean Wave “queered” global popular 
culture and, in so doing, challenged the gendered status quo?_In 
particular, there is a need to consider how the Korean Wave contributes 
to emerging networks of queer media and fandoms across the broader 
Asia-Pacific (especially within East and Southeast Asia).

The lack of attention paid in previous scholarship to the role of the 
Korean Wave in shaping discussions of queer sexuality and experience is 
surprising considering that emerging research reveals that LGBTQ+ 
consumers represent significant participants in Korean media fandom 
across the Asia-Pacific (Baudinette 2020, Kuo et. al, 2022, Oh 2015, 
Shin 2018). One aim of this symposium, then, is to ensure that these 
LGBTQ+ consumers’ experiences are no longer neglected within 
theorisations of the Korean Wave.

Further, recent years have also seen the emergence of Korean media which 
specifically celebrates queer sexuality, whether it be fanfictions 
featuring male K-pop idols falling in love, “Boys Love” webtoons and 
their live action adaptions, or films such as Park Chan-wook’s/The 
Handmaiden/. Such queer Korean media has become hugely popular among 
fans, particularly in East and Southeast Asia, and there is thus a need 
to explore their growing role in the broader Korean Wave.

*_Aims_*

The aim of this symposium is to draw upon the theoretical traditions of 
queer theory to develop new understandings of the Korean Wave that 
specifically focusses on how Korean media and their fandoms challenge 
ideological norms in a variety of transnational contexts. Broadly 
speaking, participants are encouraged to adopt a “reparative” queer 
reading that theorises the Korean Wave’s role in producing systems of 
support among disadvantaged consumers (Sedgwick 2003), although more 
critical pieces focussing on structures of oppression are also welcome.

Significantly, there is a need to bring the discussion of the gendered 
and sexual dimension of the Korean Wave into dialogue with recent moves 
in interdisciplinary Korean Studies to excavate and theorise queerness 
in all its forms (Henry, 2020). Embracing queer theory’s inherent 
radicality, participants in the symposium are invited to upend 
traditional accounts of the transnational Korean Wave through their 
centring of LGBTQ+ consumers. Participants are especially encouraged to 
consider how queer desires for emancipatory futures may have played a 
role in the transnational rise of Korean media fandom.

Recognising that a plethora of diverse consumers engage with Korean 
media fandom as a site to make sense of their experiences of gender and 
sexuality, this symposium also invites participants to consider how the 
Korean Wave contributes to the ongoing process of dismantling 
heteropatriarchy and heteronormativity across the Asia-Pacific region. 
Further, participants exploring how Korean media and its fandoms have 
influenced the production and consumption of queer media content around 
the globe are also encouraged to take part, especially those focussed on 
East and Southeast Asian case studies.

*_Potential Topics_*

Participants in this two-day symposium are encouraged to submit 
abstracts for consideration which address the broader theoretical aims 
of the event. Presentations addressing the following topics are 
particularly encouraged:

  * LGBTQ+ fans of Korean media within Asia-Pacific contexts and how
    Korean Wave fandom provides avenues of support for disadvantaged
    subjects.
  * Transnational fandom for queer Korean media such as BL webtoons and
    series, K-pop idol fanfictions, and queer cinema and their
    positioning in the broader Korean Wave.
  * The role of the Korean Wave and its fandoms in shaping local queer
    media productions and consumption patterns, particularly in East and
    Southeast Asia.
  * Korean Wave fan practices which challenge and or deconstruct local
    systems of oppression based in heteropatriarchy, heteronormativity
    and/or transphobia.
  * Pushback against the Korean Wave across the Asia-Pacific as a
    supposedly corrupting force from those wishing to uphold the
    gendered and sexual status quo.
  * The paradox of South Korean society’s largely negative attitudes to
    queer sexuality and transnational fans’ beliefs in the queer
    emancipatory force of the Korean Wave.

Naturally, topics beyond these potential avenues of investigation that 
address the symposium themes are also more than welcome.

*_Logistics_*

The symposium will be held across Thursday 8^th December and Friday 9^th 
December, Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time. The symposium is 
hosted by the Department of MCCALL at Macquarie University, Sydney, 
Australia and convened by Dr Thomas Baudinette.

Participation and attendance at the symposium are free of charge.

The symposium will be a hybrid event. Those residing in the Greater 
Sydney Metropolitan Area are welcome to attend the symposium in person 
at our venue (TBC) at the Wallumattagal Campus of Macquarie University 
in North Ryde.

Those residing elsewhere are warmly invited to join us via Zoom. We 
welcome those from beyond Greater Sydney to attend in person if they so 
wish, however we regrettably do not have funding to defray such 
participants’ travel expenses.

Modest catering for morning and afternoon tea will be provided. For 
those attending in person, a self-funded symposium dinner will be held 
on December 8^th after the conclusion of the first day’s discussion.

Selected presentations at the symposium will be considered for a special 
issue of/The East Asian Journal of Popular Culture/addressing the topic 
of “Queering the Korean Wave across the Asia-Pacific” for publication in 
2024.

*_Call for Proposals_*

Those wishing to join the symposium are invited to*submit 300-word 
abstracts*addressing the symposium theme to the convenor, Dr Thomas 
Baudinette ((tom.baudinette /at/ mq.edu.au) <mailto:(tom.baudinette /at/ mq.edu.au)>) 
by 14^th October, Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time.

Along with your abstract, please also include your name, title, contact 
details, and a short biography of no more than 100 words.

Please place “Submission: Queering the Korean Wave” in your subject line 
when submitting your proposal.

Successful proposals will be notified of their inclusion in the 
symposium by early November.

Graduate students and scholars based in the Global South are 
particularly encouraged to submit proposals.

Please address any questions you may have to the convenor, Dr Thomas 
Baudinette ((tom.baudinette /at/ mq.edu.au) <mailto:(tom.baudinette /at/ mq.edu.au)>).

*_Bibliography_*

Baudinette, T.*‘*Consuming Japanese and Korean pop culture in Australia: 
“Asia literacy” and cosmopolitan identity’,/Journal of Australian 
Studies/44, no. 3 (2020): 318-333.

Henry, T./Queer Korea/(Durham: Duke University Press, 2020).

Jin, D.,/New Korean Wave: Transnational Cultural Power in the Age of 
Social Media/(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2016).

Kim, Y., ed./The Korean Wave: Korean Media Go Global/(Abingdon: 
Routledge, 2013).

Kuo, L., Perez-Garcia, S., Burke, L., Yamasaki, V. & Le, T., 
‘Performance, fantasy, or narrative: LGBTQ+ Asian American identity 
through Kpop media and fandom’,/Journal of Homosexuality/69, no. 1 
(2022), 145-168.

Kwon, J./Straight Korean Female Fans and their Gay Fantasies/(Iowa City: 
University of Iowa Press, 2019).

Sedgwick, E., ‘Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading, or, You’re So 
Paranoid, You Probably Think This Essay is About You’, in/Touching, 
Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity/(Durham, NC: Duke University 
Press, 2003): 123-151.

Shin, L. ‘Queer eye for K-Pop fandom: Popular culture, cross-gender 
performance, and queer desire in South Korean cosplay of K-pop 
stars’,/Korea Journal/58, no. 4 (2018): 87-113.

https://thomasbaudinette.com/k-pop-lgbt-asiapacific/queering-the-korean-wave/ 
<https://thomasbaudinette.com/k-pop-lgbt-asiapacific/queering-the-korean-wave/>


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