Here Comes the Flood: Perspectives of Gender, Sexuality, and Stereotype in the Korean Wave

Here Comes the Flood is a timely addition to Korean popular culture fandom studies. As the circulation of Korean popular culture formed global fandom phenomena, the so-called Hallyu (Korean Wave) studies began expanding their scope and perspectives. Drawing on Judith Butler's performativity and its renewed applications to “public gatherings” (7), the book emphasizes the intersections of gender, sexuality, and stereotypes, which are not commonly dealt with in fandom studies of Korean popular culture. While transnational and transcultural fandom studies often pay attention to the intersections of national cultures, mainly within the Anglo-American context, Marcy L. Tanter and Moisés Park's edited volume suggests different “contact zones”1 of many non-Anglo-American cases by exploring less familiar fandom. This book invites readers to explore how Korean popular culture's transnational and transcultural fandom stretches the spectrum of “Koreanness” (9) and to reconsider heterogeneous fan performance, contributing to a diverse sociopolitical atmosphere.Here Comes the Flood consists of three parts. In the first part, three contributors expand the conception of “Koreanness.” Michael Hurt's ethnography explores how the Korean Wave influenced Vietnam's street fashion, particularly youth fashion, which raises the question of the “Korean style” (21). Peter Moody and Seunghee Ha's hybrid approach to North Korea's Moranbong Band's fandom in North Korea, China, and Japan demonstrates how much North Korean culture can be related to politics depending on the contexts of fan consumption. Kyong Yoon's analysis of the reception of the Canadian TV sitcom Kim's Convenience focuses on stereotyping of and stereotyped Asians in Western media, saying that there are still many more areas that need to be reexamined in the discourse of Asian representation.In the book's second part, three contributors illustrate examples of breaking stereotypes through Korean TV dramas. Snigdha Gupta explores two women's representations in film and television: city women who move to the countryside, gwichon (a return to the countryside from the city) characters, and the marriage migrant Asian women who adapted to rural lifestyle with reproductive roles. Michael Ormsbee analyzes the historical drama Great Queen Seondeok in terms of melodramatic characteristics that change the historical past while oppressing women's desires. Marcy Tanter illustrates how Korean TV dramas deal with Korean society's taboo about adoptees. All three contributors in this second part complicate the relationships between Korean TV dramas and sociohistorical representations with in-depth textual analyses and empirical research.The book's third part mainly focuses on how Korean popular culture fandom and the market that caters to it break gender and sexuality norms. Jahyon Park's comprehensive daetgeul (comments) fandom analyses of the webtoon Misaeng and its drama adaptation reveal how male fandom constructs alternative masculinities and “homosocial” (178) relations. Moisés Park finds alleged connections between the Chilean protests and K-pop fandom using the ethnographic findings as the correlation and causation. Tiago Canário argues that the current drag culture in the K-pop industry is manufactured to standardize the breaking of stereotypes in a safe zone that pleases audiences rather than disturbing mainstream sexual politics. According to Canário's analysis, K-pop idols' “gender-bending images” (208) are carefully created to promote multimedia performances and versatile purposes. Min Suk Kim's ethnographic case study of a Peruvian drag queen named Kriss demonstrates how K-pop cover-dance fandom activities' “cross-dancing culture” (239) influences queer identity presentations.A notable feature of Here Comes the Flood, compared with other Korean popular culture studies, is its diverse engagement and experiments with research methods that contributors illustrate with their endeavors. Korean studies readers and media studies scholars can find such eclectic approaches as ethnography, case study, interviewing, fieldwork, in-depth textual analysis, discourse analysis, and historiography evidenced by contributors' findings in this colorful volume.Although the edited volume mainly covers how Korean popular culture texts and fandom are breaking norms and stereotypes in and outside Korea, the editors and contributors raise a critical question about the Hallyu studies. As the title eloquently suggests, the Korean Wave is no longer a regional phenomenon, drawing niche markets and fandom. The “Korean flood” of Korean cultural products submerges regional culture influencing “public demonstrations” (8) of local politics, identity formations, and youth belonging. How can we understand heterogeneous contact zones or intersections of different gender, sexuality, race, class, and local cultures that the global reception of Korean popular culture construct? This book is just the beginning of an academic conversation to respond to this question. This book will be a welcomed addition to critical media and cultural studies and a resourceful reference for undergraduate and graduate-level Korean media studies courses.