I. What Happens when Culture Travels?

A. Identity: How do people define themselves? How are they defined by others? With what consequences?
B. Construction of self and other: maps, censuses, photography, advertising, tourism, ritual, social interaction, movement and migration, changes over the course of the life cycle
C. Orientalism and hierarchy based on essentialism
D. This week: how do contemporary processes of globalization and commodification relate to cultural forms and the identities associated with or claimed through them?
E. Globalization = increasing pace, frequency, and significance of movement around the world of people, money, things, and ideas

1. Homogenization/heterogenization
2. Appropriation/appreciation

 

II. Critiquing Plastic Surgery in Korea

A. Sharon Heijin Lee, "Beauty Between Empires: Global Feminism, Plastic Surgery, and the Trouble with Self-Esteem" (2016): K-Pop's popularity has refocused global attention on South Korean plastic surgery
B. Korean beauty contestants gif
C. South Korea has highest rate of consumption of plastic surgery in the world
D. Feminists outside and inside Korea have different critiques of plastic surgery, but they both focus on the "self" as site for liberation
E. Role of K-Pop: videos, micromanaged looks, but fan involvement
F. Feminist blog Jezebel reveals US anxiety about its status in world

1. Cosmetic surgery as imposed, yet also a choice
2. Korean women = similar; Western women = individual
3. "Techno-orientalist imagining" (11)
4. Blames consumers of plastic surgery

G. Korean feminist organization Womenlink

1. 2013: called upon media and medicine to be regulated to promote diverse forms of bodily appearance
2. Lookism: Who is to blame?
3. Economic dimensions: post Asian Debt Crisis (1997)--> promote individuals who self-care and "fend for themselves in a fiercely competitive economic environment" (15).
4. Mothers care for daughters and purchase plastic surgery for them
5. Plastic surgery as export industry: K-Pop and medical tourism from China, Japan, Singapore, and Indonesia

a. Cultural Content Office with annual budget of US$500 million promotes Korean cultural industry exports (19)
b. Medical tourism revenue = US$349 million in 2014 (20).

H. Is self-esteem the antidote to social problems? Rests on neoliberal idea that self must govern itself through self-love

 

III. K-Pop Goes Global

A. John Lie, "What Is the K in K-Pop? South Korean Popular Music, the Culture Industry, and National Identity" (2012): global rise of K-Pop = South Korean government soft power strategy
B. 20th century influence of Japanese, Western, and US music
1. Classical and popular, but translated
2. 1970s trot example: Cho Yong-Pil,"Come Back to Busan Port"
3. Government bans trot, US music, Japanese music

C. So T'ae-ji wa Aidul, "Nan arayo (I know)," 1992

1. Hip-hop vibe inspired by Clash, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage against the Machine
2. Japanese influence declined
3. Hip-hop aesthetic: baggy clothes, longer, thinner urban appearance
4. Dance becomes important

D. Asian Financial Crisis (aka IMF Crisis), 1997

1. Focus on exports
2. Expertise of Koreans studying abroad and Korean American diaspora
3. Rise of digital music (mp3) and youtube

E. K-Pop's rise in 2000s

1. Entrepreneurial, export-oriented
2. Aesthetic = polished and professional
3. Wonder Girls, "Tell Me," 2007
4. Girls Generation, "Gee," 2009
5. Girls Generation, "I Got a Boy," 2012
6. Sculpted look, but singers polite and clean cut
7. Rigorous selection and training process

F. 2010s: Edgier, 2NE1, "I Am the Best," 2011
G. K-Pop = accessible and dependable South Korean export
H. "Yet as a matter of traditional culture, there is almost nothing 'Korean' about K-pop" (360).
I. "K" is a brand

 

IV. Global Sushi

A. Lie: K-Pop can represent pan-Asian identity because its Korean-ness is shallow
B. Sushi: global, yet closely associated with Japan as brand and through relationships
C. Atlantic bluefin tuna

1. 500-600 pounds not uncommon
2. Caught off coast of Maine or Spain, but prices determined by Tsukiji market, Tokyo
3. Shipped to Tokyo

D. 1970s: Sushi spreads in US because of Japan's economic growth and US desire for healthy food
E. 200-mile laws and environmental regulations lead Japan to look for tuna outside Japan
F. What had been sport fish or cat food becomes global commodity
G. Tsukiji market sells $US6 billion of fish annually, sets world prices
H. US rod and reel or harpoon versus Spain traps
I. Japanese-ness remains

1. Presentation and packaging: Whole Foods, NYC
2. Restaurants maintain Japanese appearance
3. Japanese buyers and consultants on docks determine quality of tuna: color, texture, fat content, body shape, handling, packing
4. Whole fish flown to Tokyo
5. Tsukiji certifies its quality, fish may then be flown back to LA or NYC

J. Fishers in New England engage with Japanese cultural capital
K. "Globalization doesn't necessarily homogenize cultural differences nor erase the salience of cultural labels. Quite the contrary, it grows the franchise" (2000: 61).

 

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