From Holy Land to ‘Hallyu Land’: The symbolic journey following the Korean Wave in Israel

Abstract

The majority of academic literature on Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, focuses on its acceptance in the geographically and culturally proximate societies in Asia and the economically wealthy markets of North America. Very little attention has been given to other regions such as Africa, South America and the Middle East. Thus, looking at the Israeli case study allows us to examine how Korean culture is being accepted in non-Asian, non-western and non-English contexts. The most salient characteristic of Hallyu fans in Israel is that the majority of them have never been to Korea. They experience Korean culture mostly through Korean TV dramas, and fandom itself becomes a cultural journey between the known and the unknown. This journey resembles the practice of pilgrimage, e.g. an emotional exploration of new places accompanied by a deep sense of fulfilment. Korean culture is perceived as an exotic and distant ‘other’. At the same time, this ‘other’ is domesticated by local fan communities and serves as a means to connect one’s own identity with Hallyu’s ‘promised land’. Based on media and discourse analysis, an online survey and interviews with Israeli fans, this article examines the popularity of the Korean Wave in Israel and its impact on Korea’s image among fans. The article also explores the inner world created among fans of the Korean world, the formation of a fan community and their fictional ‘Hallyu Land’.

The BTS sphere: Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth’s transnational cyber-nationalism on social media

“…As Gellner (2006, p. 7) points out, banal nationalism can be formed when “two men are of the same nation if and only if they recognize each other as belonging in the same nation.” In the BTS sphere, there are also frequent remarks on belonging to online communities similar to belonging to a physical home-like space or a nation-state. The sense of togetherness is one of the most significant fundamentals of BTS communities, but not a physical nation-state (Lyan & Levkowitz, 2015). As Schneider (2018, p. 236) points out, “the need for community cohesion that nationalism relies upon indeed connects seamlessly with the kind of group dynamics that many digital technologies today promote,” and BTS fans utilize digital media to build their solidarity.…”

Hybridity, Confucianism, and Ambiguity in the South Korean Soft Power Model in Hallyu 1.0

“…Aside from the fact that K-dramas were sold more cheaply than Japanese ones, many scholars found that the popularity of K-drama revealed a female-led consumption due to a strong focus on romance (Shin, 2007;Siriyuvasak & Hyunjoon, 2007;Jung, 2011;Jiang & Leung, 2012;Ainslie, 2015;Lyan & Levkowitz, 2015). Like other scholars, Otmazgin and Lyan (2014), in their study of Israeli fans, observed that most female fans were in their late teens or early twenties when the drama My Lovely Kim Sam Soon, broadcast in Israel in 2006, ignited the wave there.…”

Hybridity, Confucianism, and Ambiguity in the South Korean Soft Power Model in Hallyu 1.0

“…Aside from the fact that K-dramas were sold more cheaply than Japanese ones, many scholars found that the popularity of K-drama revealed a female-led consumption due to a strong focus on romance (Shin, 2007;Siriyuvasak & Hyunjoon, 2007;Jung, 2011;Jiang & Leung, 2012;Ainslie, 2015;Lyan & Levkowitz, 2015). Like other scholars, Otmazgin and Lyan (2014), in their study of Israeli fans, observed that most female fans were in their late teens or early twenties when the drama My Lovely Kim Sam Soon, broadcast in Israel in 2006, ignited the wave there.…”