Kim Kyu Hyun is Associate Professor of Japanese and Korean History at University of California, Davis. He holds a BA from Harvard-Radcliffe College and a Ph.D. in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University. He is the author of The Age of Visions and Arguments: Parliamentarianism and the National Public Sphere in Early Meiji Japan (Harvard Asia Center Publication, 2007). His forthcoming book is entitled Treasonous Patriots: Japanese Colonialism, Wartime Mobilization and the Problem of Korean Identity, 1937-1945. He has written numerous articles on modern Japanese and Korean history, Japanese popular culture and Korean cinema, among other topics, and has served as a Contributing Editor to www.koreanfilm.org, the oldest English-language website devoted to Korean cinema.

The Korean Wave, once dismissed as a passing trend only in Asia, has now firmly established itself as a global phenomenon with more than two decades of popularity. Initially known as Hallyu 1.0 and beginning around 1997, it has since evolved into Hallyu 2.0 as described by Dal-young Jin. The current state of the Korean Wave in the post-BTS and post- Squid Game era, is even more difficult to define due to the rapidly changing mediascape of K-dramas and K-pop music videos driven by insatiable consumer demand. New K-dramas are released weekly, if not daily, across a variety of streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV, Watcha, and Wavve. This panel aims to take a moment to reflect on the ever-evolving Hallyu 3.0 landscape and explore its diverse genres, artistic forms, and industries by inviting papers from leading scholars and writers in the field.

Joe Chung Hwan received his Ph.D. in English and and MA in Film Studies as double major at the State University of New York at Buffalo. His interest covers the representation of 9/11 and media-scope in the post- 9/11 era as well as cultural exchange between the Korean Wave and American popular culture. He worked as a screenplay analyst and production manager at CJ Entertainment, a major Korean film studio, for five years and taught Korean popular culture at SUNY at Buffalo. He is an assistant professor at English department of Hongik University. His recent publications include “Revisiting Joint Security Area : The South Korean Blockbuster and the Birth of ‘Norientalism’” in The Journal of Literature and Film (2022), “Korean Reality TV in the Age of Covid-19: Social Distancing and Emotional/Sensory Closeness” in The Journal of Humanities (2021), “Antihero Millennials Go to Wall Street: Representing Financial Crisis in Hollywood Films” in In/Outside: English Studies in Korea (2021) and “The Guys as a Cinematic 9/11 Eulogy: Erasing Spectacle, Showing Text, and Engaging Non-visual Senses” in Journal of American Studies (2019).

Since the 1990s, the Korean Wave (Hallyu), which refers to the popularity of Korean popular culture overseas, has become an even bigger wave that has surpassed the storm in a teacup as of 2022, after going through the era of COVID-19. Korean popular culture courses have become popular classes offered in various foreign universities out of South Korea since 2010 when Hallyu began to gain recognition not only in Asia but also in Europe and North America. Recently, media literacy has been emphasized in Korean educational institutions, leading to the opening of courses related to media in addition to the study of Korean popular culture. This presentation will examine the changes and current status of Korean popular culture courses both domestically and internationally. The speaker will discuss the limitations and possibilities of Hallyu courses from the perspective of fandom, Korean studies, and media literacy through various forms of Hallyu courses that he has taught as a lecturer and curriculum developer. First, the presentation will compare and contrast a Korean popular culture course offered as a Korean studies subject through the Asian Studies major at a university in the U.S. (2015-2016) and a course taught in English as a liberal arts course with international students and Korean students at a university in South Korea (2019). The presentation will also discuss the potential of Hallyu courses as an introductory course on the entertainment industry that encompasses media literacy, using two examples: a Korean entertainment industry course in Korean at a high school in South Korea as a pre-college program (2019) and a course taught at Hongik University as a special interdisciplinary course on practical projects, where students performed K-pop marketing and film adaptation projects with mentoring from marketing experts and current film producers (2022 & 2023).

Lee Gyu Tag received his bachelor’s in English language and literature from Seoul National University, South Korea. After completing his three-year military service in the Republic of Korea Air Force, he received his master’s in communication from Seoul National University. In 2013, he earned his doctorate in Cultural Studies from George Mason University. Since 2014, he has been teaching at George Mason University-Korea. He is an expert of popular music, media studies, globalization of culture, and especially, K-Pop. He has been writing books and articles about K-Pop, popular music and Hallyu for a number of on- and off-line media, and is a committee member of Korean Music Awards. Additionally, he has been interviewed by a number of Korean domestic and international media such as CNN, New York Times, NPR Radio, Wall Street Journal, South China Morning Post, Netflix’s documentary Explained, EBS’s public lecture Class E, Joong-Ang Ilbo, Chosun Ilbo, KBS, MBC, SBS, YTN, etc.

K-Pop began as a part of Korean local popular music in the late 1990s, but has become a global popular music genre firstly in East Asia since the early 2000s then even outside East Asia since the early 2010s. Especially, after the big success of BTS and other bands in the late 2010s K-Pop is considered one of the hottest rising musical genres in the world. In the beginning when K-Pop was developed as a specific musical genre in Korea, it mostly referred to US and Japanese popular music both musically and industrially. Musically, K-Pop referred to R&B, Hip Hop and electronic dance music from US and enka and J-Pop from Japan. Industrially, the unique business model of K-Pop usually called ‘agency-idol system’ supported by ‘total management strategy’ was highly influenced by the star system of Hollywood movie studios in the early 20C and the factory processing of Motown in the 1960s as well as by Japanese idol industry in the 1980s and 1990s. It means K-Pop is basically a result of cultural hybridization between local and global. Recently, K-Pop is accepting other cultures as well as human resources from different parts of the world, which makes its hybridity deeper and more significant. International players including musicians, composers and producers are now essential parts of K-Pop and industrial collaboration between Korea and other countries is increasing. Also, other countries are using K-Pop as their reference to create their own music. However, in this procedure, sometimes unexpected conflicts happen including cultural appropriation and nationalism controversies. It shows the ambivalent aspect of K-Pop that it is becoming more and more dependent upon global popular music scene but still cannot be separated from its locality as being Korean.

Dr. Sang-Keun Yoo is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at Marist College in New York. He completed his Ph.D. in English at the University of California, Riverside, specializing in Speculative Fiction and Cultures of Science. In addition to his academic role, Dr. Yoo is the Submissions Editor for Asia and its Diaspora at The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts and the Korea Representative for the Science Fiction Research Association. Dr. Yoo’s research has been published in various international journals, including Science Fiction Film and Television and the International Journal of Korean History. He has received numerous accolades for his work, such as Fulbright scholarship and the Jamie Bishop Award.

Over the past decade, science fiction and fantasy have experienced a remarkable surge in popularity within the South Korean mediascape. This shift is noteworthy, given that these genres have historically been regarded as non-serious and degraded forms of literature in South Korea, often associated with children’s science education rather than serious fiction. With the proliferation of global streaming platforms, webtoons, and webnovels, science fiction and fantasy have now come to occupy a prominent position in the country’s cultural landscape. This paper examines three key characteristics of South Korean science fiction and fantasy (SFF) films and television dramas, focusing on three notable absences that have shaped the evolution of these genres: (1) the absence of science fiction due to past genre categorization issues and techno-nationalistic policies; (2) the absence of imagined futures within science fiction and fantasy narratives; and (3) the absence of decolonized future visions. The analysis reveals that South Korean SFF often employs time-travel narratives that return to the past rather than envisioning the future. Moreover, when future scenarios are imagined, they frequently depict South Korea as remaining under the control of Western or other neo-imperial powers. In this regard, this paper argues for the importance of fostering a decolonized and non-techno-nationalistic vision of the future within South Korean SFF. By reimagining the future, these genres can contribute to the ongoing cultural and political discourse in South Korea and offer new perspectives on the nation’s history and identity.

Kim Eun Joung is a Research Professor at the Institute of Culture, Contents, and Technology at Gachon University. Her primary research interests include technology, gender, science fiction feminism, virtual bodies, and posthumanism. She is currently focusing on the critical analysis of female narratives in digital media and is actively involved in several research projects related to serious gaming and the Metaverse, with a particular interest in human interactions with AI-powered virtual humans. Kim has authored the publication, Comic Webtoon Criticism , and has contributed to the development of the tactical role-playing game Before Saying Good-bye , as well as the interactive fiction project Proctor B: The New World.

“Webtoon,” a term coined in South Korea during the early 2000s by amalgamating “web” and “cartoon,” represents a unique category of digital comics. They are set apart from “digital comics” or “webcomics” by their distinguishing features, which include a vertical scrolling format and optimization for mobile devices. As a significant part of the Korean Wave, they have contributed to the growth of digital media in both local and global creative industries. This paper seeks to understand the emergence of Webtoons as a mainstream popular culture phenomenon in Korea, despite the traditionally limited influence of comics in comparison to Japan and the United States. To this end, this paper examines the role of digital webtoon platforms such as Naver Webtoon and Kakaopage in shaping the Korean comics culture and broader media ecology. These platforms have introduced transformative features including partial free distribution, enhanced communication between readers and artists, artist incubation systems, agile profit policies, and transmedia production. As a result, Webtoon platforms and creators are developing innovative content tailored for online and mobile consumption, adapting to various visual media formats such as movies and TV dramas, and generating significant revenue through intellectual property rights. This presentation offers a critical analysis of the birth and continuous evolution of Webtoons within the context of media structural administration, emphasizing the significance of platform-driven societies in shaping contemporary popular culture.

Kim Bo Young is a leading South Korean science fiction writer whose works have significantly influenced numerous emerging authors since the early 2000s. Kim made her debut with “The Experience of Touch,” which won the inaugural Science Technology Creative Fiction Novella Award of Korea in 2004. Kim’s literary accomplishments include numerous accolades, such as the Grand Prize at the first Annual Korean SF Novel Award for “The Seven Executioners” and the fifth Grand Prize at the first Annual Korean SF Novella Award for “How Alike Are We.” Kim’s short story “Evolutionary Myths” was featured in the American science fiction magazine Clarkesworld, while her short story collection I’m Waiting For You and Other Stories was published in English by HarperCollins in the US and UK. Additionally, Kim’s translated short story collection On the Origin of Species and Other Stories, published by Kaya Press, was nominated for a National Book Award, and her work Whale Snows Down was nominated for the SFF Rosetta Award. Prior to her literary debut, Kim worked as a video game scenario writer and producer for the game developer team Garam and Baram.

Rooted in a strong secular pragmatic culture, South Korean literature has historically prioritized accurate representation of historical remains and facts, while deemphasizing fantastical elements. As a result, science fiction has traditionally been viewed as a tool for popularizing science, rather than as a literary genre. This tendency to downplay fantasticity and fictionality is exemplified by the recent publication of Ursula K. Le Guin and Joanna Russ's essays and interviews, with a notable absence of their fictional works. This trend highlights a prevailing understanding and consumption of science fiction as a vehicle for progressive thought, rather than as a literary genre for social critique and imagination. Nevertheless, given the historical marginalization of science fiction in Korean literary history, the genre holds the potential to become a platform for minority voices and social issues. Recent developments in the Korean literary landscape have seen a growing appreciation for female science fiction writers, including not only international figures like Le Guin and Margaret Atwood, but also domestic writers such as Djuna, Choyeop Kim, Bora Chung, and Serang Chung. This trend has led to a rising number of young, predominantly female, readers engaging with the genre as a progressive, feminist form of literature, although this should not be considered its exclusive purpose. Another factor shaping the Korean science fiction literary landscape is the limitations of the Korean language market, which has traditionally pressured writers to avoid niche markets and standardize literary ideas for wider appeal. However, the emergence of global streaming services and the growing global status of Korean literature offer new opportunities for Korean science fiction writers to reach broader audiences in the world thus explore diverse themes. In this regard, this paper will examine the current trends and future prospects for the genre in Korea, taking into account the cultural, historical, and market forces at play.