Sun Jung is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne in Australia, currently researching―Global Korean Cinema and Transcultural Consumption. She also has previous professionalexperience as a reporter/journalist in the field of journalism as well as a scriptwriter for Koreanfilm productions.
(November 2006)
Bae Yong-Joon, Hybrid Masculinity & the Counter-coeval Desire of Japanese Female Fans (Part 1)
Bae Yong Joon and the Yon-sama Syndrome
On 4 April 2004, an unfamiliar word “Yon-sama” occupied the headlines of most entertainment and sports newspapers in Korea and Japan. “Welcome Yonsama! 5,000 fans at Haneda Airport”, “Yonsama has arrived! Over 5,000 go crazy!”, “Yonsama paralyzes Haneda Airport!”, “Japan’s middle-aged women’s infatuation with Yonsama!” “Yonsama beats Beckham!!” (Herald Kyung-je 2004; Cho 2004; Nikkan Sports 2004; Kookmin-Ilbo 2004; D. Lee 2004; Sankei Sports 2004) Numerous newspapers devoted their front pages to describe the welcome by the 5,000 ‘crazy’ Japanese fans of the Korean actor Bae Yong-Joon (BYJ) at Haneda international airport. The articles emphasised how most of the fans are middle-aged women. Many of these fans came to the airport the night before BYJ’s arrival and stayed up all night to find the best spot to see him. Many of them brought gifts and flowers for him. Thousands of fans took photographs of him with their cameras and phone-cameras. Even the evening television news programs reported the ‘intensity’ of those middle-aged female fans, whose eyes were filled with tears, while holding their welcome placards. Some media wittily compared BYJ with David Beckham by pointing out that it was a much bigger crowd than those who turned up for Beckham – there were only about 1,000 fans gathered at the airport when he visited Japan in June 2002 (Park 2004).
BYJ has gained remarkable recognition in Japan since the Korean drama Winter Sonata was first screened in April 2003 on NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation) - the most influential Japanese broadcasting company. For the following two years, the complete series was broadcast four times on NHK due to the overwhelming flood of requests for reruns by viewers – who mostly consisted of middle-aged or older generations (Huh and Ham 2005: 13). During the third run, it was broadcast on NHK’s regular television channel every Saturday at 11:10pm. Even though the drama was scheduled after prime time, its average rating was 14.4%, which was double of the other programs from the same time slot. Its highest rating was 22.2% - the highest of all drama series programs (Chae 2005: 10). In Japan, Winter Sonata has achieved enormous success nationwide and created what is known as ‘the Yon-sama syndrome’. This refers to the popularity of the main actor Bae Yong-Joon. Yon-sama is a coined conjunction of his name Yong and the Japanese word sama. Normally sama refers to the high honour originally reserved for royalty and aristocrats. Yon-sama can be translated as “Prince Yong” or “My Dear Lord Yong”. The honour of Yon-sama indicates the immense respect for BYJ from Japanese fans. Even Japan’s Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi once enviously commented on BYJ’s popularity among voters, saying that “I would like to emulate Yon-sama to become a Jun-sama” (OANA 2004). Francesco Guardini has suggested that a “new form of monarchy has emerged in our time”. He has argued that sports stars, singers, film actors and supermodels are like new kings and queens and that they operate like a new aristocracy (Guardini quoted in Ndalianis 2002: vii). In 2004, Yon-sama became a new king of popular culture in Korea and Japan.
What are the reasons behind this phenomenon? I argue that there is a tendency for Japanese fans to desire BYJ in ways that can be considered ‘retrospective’ and ‘nostalgic’. This can be explained through John Frow’s argument on desiring the ‘Other’s primitiveness’, which he suggests is derived from a denial of coevalness. Extending this theory, I argue that the Japanese fans’ desire for BYJ’s hybridized masculinity can be conceptualized within the framework of a contradictory combination of ‘cultural proximity’ and ‘counter-coevality’. In this essay, I discuss how BYJ’s hybrid masculinity has been built up through transcultural flows in the region caused by the cultural proximity of geographical/spatial familiarity. I argue that middle-aged Japanese female fans desire BYJ’s star persona which is based on his hybridized masculinity as a result of intra-Asian transcultural flows of popular cultural products. I argue that the transcultural flows between two countries foreground the significance of mu-kuk-jok (non-nationalism) in the globalization of Korean popular culture. Mu-kuk-jok, a concept used to describe a cultural practice that has no particular national trait or odour, is an example of cultural proximity. Then, I examine how some middle-aged Japanese female fans desire his hybrid masculinity in terms of a counter-coeval sentiment towards Korea caused by the temporal difference between the two nations, possibly based on their post/colonial experiences. BYJ’s popularity in Japan can be explained as a kind of consumption of the simulacrum of Japan’s past.
This essay examines the transcultural consumption of new Korean masculinity in Japan using the star construction of BYJ as its key example. Through sociological research on the middle-aged Japanese female fans, this essay demonstrates how these fans desire BYJ’s hybridized masculinity in consumption practices and how these practices reflect the sentiments of Japan’s counter-coeval desire towards Korea. This form of temporal displacement in transcultural Japanese consumption reflects how new Korean masculinity is constructed in Korean popular culture through the commodification of memory. Audience reception research was conducted from 28 August to 5 September, 2005; I interviewed four separate focus groups with 18 BYJ fans in Tokyo and Okinawa in Japan. Each group has five, four, seven and two participants. Among them, seven of the participants are in their thirties; three are in their forties; six are in their fifties and two are in their sixties. I also collected 56 questionnaires at the Saitama Super Arena, where BYJ’s film April Snow’s promotion event was held on 31 August 2005. Because of the issue of confidentiality, I use pseudonyms to indicate each participant. Firstly, I will look at BYJ’s three central star personae - in particular, examining the construction of “Kang Joon-Sang”, the character he plays in Winter Sonata – which I believe represents BYJ’s hybrid masculinity. Then, I will examine how the Japanese female fans have received these personae.
To be Continue...Part 2
(November 2006)
Bae Yong-Joon, Hybrid Masculinity & the Counter-coeval Desire of Japanese Female Fans (Part 1)
Bae Yong Joon and the Yon-sama Syndrome
On 4 April 2004, an unfamiliar word “Yon-sama” occupied the headlines of most entertainment and sports newspapers in Korea and Japan. “Welcome Yonsama! 5,000 fans at Haneda Airport”, “Yonsama has arrived! Over 5,000 go crazy!”, “Yonsama paralyzes Haneda Airport!”, “Japan’s middle-aged women’s infatuation with Yonsama!” “Yonsama beats Beckham!!” (Herald Kyung-je 2004; Cho 2004; Nikkan Sports 2004; Kookmin-Ilbo 2004; D. Lee 2004; Sankei Sports 2004) Numerous newspapers devoted their front pages to describe the welcome by the 5,000 ‘crazy’ Japanese fans of the Korean actor Bae Yong-Joon (BYJ) at Haneda international airport. The articles emphasised how most of the fans are middle-aged women. Many of these fans came to the airport the night before BYJ’s arrival and stayed up all night to find the best spot to see him. Many of them brought gifts and flowers for him. Thousands of fans took photographs of him with their cameras and phone-cameras. Even the evening television news programs reported the ‘intensity’ of those middle-aged female fans, whose eyes were filled with tears, while holding their welcome placards. Some media wittily compared BYJ with David Beckham by pointing out that it was a much bigger crowd than those who turned up for Beckham – there were only about 1,000 fans gathered at the airport when he visited Japan in June 2002 (Park 2004).
BYJ has gained remarkable recognition in Japan since the Korean drama Winter Sonata was first screened in April 2003 on NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation) - the most influential Japanese broadcasting company. For the following two years, the complete series was broadcast four times on NHK due to the overwhelming flood of requests for reruns by viewers – who mostly consisted of middle-aged or older generations (Huh and Ham 2005: 13). During the third run, it was broadcast on NHK’s regular television channel every Saturday at 11:10pm. Even though the drama was scheduled after prime time, its average rating was 14.4%, which was double of the other programs from the same time slot. Its highest rating was 22.2% - the highest of all drama series programs (Chae 2005: 10). In Japan, Winter Sonata has achieved enormous success nationwide and created what is known as ‘the Yon-sama syndrome’. This refers to the popularity of the main actor Bae Yong-Joon. Yon-sama is a coined conjunction of his name Yong and the Japanese word sama. Normally sama refers to the high honour originally reserved for royalty and aristocrats. Yon-sama can be translated as “Prince Yong” or “My Dear Lord Yong”. The honour of Yon-sama indicates the immense respect for BYJ from Japanese fans. Even Japan’s Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi once enviously commented on BYJ’s popularity among voters, saying that “I would like to emulate Yon-sama to become a Jun-sama” (OANA 2004). Francesco Guardini has suggested that a “new form of monarchy has emerged in our time”. He has argued that sports stars, singers, film actors and supermodels are like new kings and queens and that they operate like a new aristocracy (Guardini quoted in Ndalianis 2002: vii). In 2004, Yon-sama became a new king of popular culture in Korea and Japan.
What are the reasons behind this phenomenon? I argue that there is a tendency for Japanese fans to desire BYJ in ways that can be considered ‘retrospective’ and ‘nostalgic’. This can be explained through John Frow’s argument on desiring the ‘Other’s primitiveness’, which he suggests is derived from a denial of coevalness. Extending this theory, I argue that the Japanese fans’ desire for BYJ’s hybridized masculinity can be conceptualized within the framework of a contradictory combination of ‘cultural proximity’ and ‘counter-coevality’. In this essay, I discuss how BYJ’s hybrid masculinity has been built up through transcultural flows in the region caused by the cultural proximity of geographical/spatial familiarity. I argue that middle-aged Japanese female fans desire BYJ’s star persona which is based on his hybridized masculinity as a result of intra-Asian transcultural flows of popular cultural products. I argue that the transcultural flows between two countries foreground the significance of mu-kuk-jok (non-nationalism) in the globalization of Korean popular culture. Mu-kuk-jok, a concept used to describe a cultural practice that has no particular national trait or odour, is an example of cultural proximity. Then, I examine how some middle-aged Japanese female fans desire his hybrid masculinity in terms of a counter-coeval sentiment towards Korea caused by the temporal difference between the two nations, possibly based on their post/colonial experiences. BYJ’s popularity in Japan can be explained as a kind of consumption of the simulacrum of Japan’s past.
This essay examines the transcultural consumption of new Korean masculinity in Japan using the star construction of BYJ as its key example. Through sociological research on the middle-aged Japanese female fans, this essay demonstrates how these fans desire BYJ’s hybridized masculinity in consumption practices and how these practices reflect the sentiments of Japan’s counter-coeval desire towards Korea. This form of temporal displacement in transcultural Japanese consumption reflects how new Korean masculinity is constructed in Korean popular culture through the commodification of memory. Audience reception research was conducted from 28 August to 5 September, 2005; I interviewed four separate focus groups with 18 BYJ fans in Tokyo and Okinawa in Japan. Each group has five, four, seven and two participants. Among them, seven of the participants are in their thirties; three are in their forties; six are in their fifties and two are in their sixties. I also collected 56 questionnaires at the Saitama Super Arena, where BYJ’s film April Snow’s promotion event was held on 31 August 2005. Because of the issue of confidentiality, I use pseudonyms to indicate each participant. Firstly, I will look at BYJ’s three central star personae - in particular, examining the construction of “Kang Joon-Sang”, the character he plays in Winter Sonata – which I believe represents BYJ’s hybrid masculinity. Then, I will examine how the Japanese female fans have received these personae.
To be Continue...Part 2
Notation :
Just for Ph.D Candidate in
- Political Science
- Political Science
[International Relationship /Foreign Affairs /Political Analysis/
Pilosophy & Social Science/ Political Economy/ Political Sociology ]
Pilosophy & Social Science/ Political Economy/ Political Sociology ]
- Mass Communication
- Culture and Theory
... Paper research abuot Mr.Bae Yong Joon...
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