Representing the Western Super-minority: Desirable Cosmopolitanism and Homosocial Multiculturalism on a South Korean Talk Show

Abstract

Airing on Joongang Tongyang Broadcasting Company (JTBC), a South Korean television network, Non Summit represents multiculturalism on the small screen through light-hearted, loosely structured debates between eleven men from different nations that is moderated by three Korean hosts. This study approaches the show’s representation of multinational, homosocial masculine friendship and commentary as a text that advances the goals of damunhwa, a locally specific articulation of multiculturalism. Non Summit does this by constructing a normative ideal of a cosmopolitan citizen who espouses liberal progressive values and appreciation for superficial multicultural difference. The ideal, which the show associates with the West, is occasionally ruptured through fleeting moments when non-Western members challenge Western superiority and Koreanness, however, the ruptures are patched through the show’s policing of difference through shared, heteronormative masculinity and homosocial friendship.

[Retracted] The Innovative Trend of Piano Teaching in Music Education in Multicultural Education under Ecological Environment

“…Teachers are in a dominant position in the classroom, and students only passively accept the knowledge and information transmitted by teachers. This teaching model is more like a conscious mechanical imitation, which is widely used in the enlightenment stage of piano teaching [ 9 ]. Lim and others believe that if teachers want to innovate the piano teaching mode in the multicultural education environment, they must first cultivate students' multicultural thinking and help students establish a variety of aesthetic concepts.…”

De-/Re-Whitening Russianness: A Liminal Space of White Privileges Represented in Non-Summit

“…Corporation (JTBC) aired from 2014 to 2017 that made its own unique contribution to producing multicultural discourses in Korean society (Kang 2018;Oh 2020). In the show, male panelists with roots in various countries outside Korea participate in discussing global and local issues as main characters.…”

“…This has fostered a general perception of South Korea (hereafter Korea) 1 as a multicultural society. Non-Summit , also translated as Abnormal Summit , 2 was a popular entertainment show by Joongang Tongyang Broadcasting Corporation (JTBC) aired from 2014 to 2017 that made its own unique contribution to producing multicultural discourses in Korean society (Kang 2018; Oh 2020). In the show, male panelists with roots in various countries outside Korea participate in discussing global and local issues as main characters.…”

“…This dichotomous structure of the debate is one of the key features of the show, having panelists perform an argumentative operation as a means of entertaining viewers (Lee 2019). Non-Summit has demonstrated its popularity and power not only by consistently maintaining a viewing rate of over 4 percent throughout its entire run, but also by creating minor celebrities out of several of its foreign representatives on the show (Oh 2020).…”

“…This research generally has examined Non-Summit as a white, Western, heterosexual, and male-dominant space, 3 and has critically discussed representational power and domination in the show. Scholars have problematized institutional practices privileging the casting of white Westerners as para-Koreans in the show (Eydam 2020), thereby making invisible lower-class, dark-skinned immigrant workers and other disenfranchised non-Western bodies in Korea (Oh 2020; Kang 2018). Building on these works, I investigate Non-Summit as an ethnically and nationally diverse space with complex configurations of white power and dominance in the show.…”