Hallyu and its effects on the complexities of Asian Australian identity

Abstract

This thesis analyses the role of Hallyu (Korean popular media) amongst Asian Australian people as they negotiate the tensions between belonging in Australia and connections to their Asian heritage. By looking at how and why participants use and engage with Hallyu 1.0 (Korean television content, ‘K-dramas’) and Hallyu 2.0 (Korean Pop Music, ‘K-pop’), the thesis offers a deep, qualitative study of the mediated experiences of being Asian in Australia. Young diasporic Asian people grow up with a distinct awareness of their cultural differences in Australia. They are often conflicted between feeling obligations to remain connected to their Eastern heritage, whilst trying to find belonging within a Western society. As a global media phenomenon, Hallyu offers symbolic material with which Asian Australians can construct and negotiate their identities. Hallyu (trans. Korean Wave) encompasses a global circulation of Korean media and popular culture which has had an increase in both media and scholarly attention. However, whilst literature goes into great depth on the reasons for its global success, there is a lack of investigation into how Hallyu media as a cultural product is a valuable facilitator for young Asian individuals who are exploring, testing, and understanding their complex identities as being ‘of’ Australia and simultaneously ‘other’. This thesis contributes to this understanding through semi-structured interviews with nine 1.5 – 3rd generation Asian Australians, aged 18-30 years old, as well as moments of ethnographic observation with selected Hallyu fans. The results show that interviewees feel misunderstood and excluded from White Australian society. In the context of being racialised through their Asianness, participants also discuss a sense of solidarity in being Asian Australian. Hallyu reconnects participants to the Eastern values of their individual cultures, despite being a Korean cultural product. Hallyu provides positive Asian representation and makes being Asian ‘cool’. It also encourages negotiation between Eastern and Western cultures that allows participants to build fluid identities and negotiate the inherent tensions of diaspora. Broadly, this project engages with understandings of dual-identities and how pop culture can influence and contribute to negotiations of identity. Hallyu acts as a heuristic diasporic media for Asian Australians and its consumption and reception provide insights into how young Asian Australians use pop culture to facilitate an understanding of themselves.