Just for Ph.D Candidate : Paper research about Mr.Bae Yong Joon [Part 7]

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 7)

Post-modern body, mom-zzang

The hybridity of BYJ’s image is exemplified by its conscious mixtures of masculinity and femininity, and as observed earlier the kkon-mi-nam syndrome is the most significant driving force of this trend. Another possible force behind the construction of BYJ’s hybridized masculinity is the “mom-zzang syndrome”. The literary meaning of mom-zzang is ‘body-master’. The word mom means ‘body’ and zzang is the vernacular for ‘the great’ or ‘the best’. A neologism, mom-zzang refers to the socio-cultural phenomenon of having a good looking body in Korea. The term was first used in 2003 (Yu et al 2005). In the case of female, mom-zzang normally signifies a skinny and glamorous body while it means ‘muscular body’ for males. This phenomenon emerged from an Internet web-site run by a 40 year old mom-zzang woman and whom has a great – toned, skinny and at the same time curvy – body. Beginning with a couple of photos of this mom-zzang ajumma (means a middle-aged woman in Korean) the mom-zzang syndrome has swept Korea away.

mom-zzang ajumma

Korean people started building up their bodies to make themselves look good and sexually attractive. The result of this socio-cultural syndrome is often evident in the feverous changes of their lifestyles – spending more time and money on their body through yoga, exercise and healthy food. Since then, the mom-zzang fever continued to the ‘well-being’ phenomenon. Professor of Won-Ju University, Lee Mi-Rim explains this phenomenon:

In the post-modern era, along with the growing interest in human body, creating a great body became a phenomenon (…) The well-being life style – rather spending time and money for sports dance, yoga, meditation, exercise and low fat, organic foods – became a barometer of modernization. The general concept of well-being refers to a life style or culture which pursues a beautiful happy life through the harmony between physical and spiritual health. This well-being life specifies living well; living a healthy, easy and balanced life. It emphasizes the spiritual aspect more than the material aspect (…) (Lee 2005).

Lee points out here that this socio-cultural phenomenon indicates that Korean people’s interests have changed from something modern (financial stability and economic growth) to post-modern (such as their bodies and health). The mom-zzang syndrome is neither new nor exclusive; it is a global phenomenon, as Appadurai’s concept of ‘mediascapes’ illustrates, spread by new media and communications technologies such as the Internet and satellite television, usually in a form of advertising or commercial application.

This tendency is evident in the globally iconic post-modern lifestyle of “metrosexuality” which is often represented by David Beckham, a soccer player, and Hollywood actor Brad Pitt. According to a British journalist Mark Simpson, metrosexuality is ‘the trait of an urban male of any sexual orientation who has a strong aesthetic sense and spends a great amount of time and money on his appearance and lifestyle (Simpson 1994). As Simpson explains, a metrosexual refers a man with an aesthetic style and taste on fashion, beauty, art and culture. While a metrosexual embraces the homosexual lifestyle, it usually refers a heterosexual male who is in touch with his feminine side.

BYJ is often referred to as being a symbol of metrosexuality. According to the article, “Rampant republic of Mr. Beauty, the era of male consumption” of Film2.0, in today’s Korea, fashionable and beauty-sensitive men have become an object of consumer marketing. At the centre of this trend, there are many metrosexual stars including BYJ (Han et al 2006). For example, from the LG-card television commercial, BYJ is portrayed in a relay of juxtaposed images of a busy urban living professional career man who knows how to enjoy his modern life through leisure, travel, fashion, music and arts. In this commercial, his image is similar to Joon-Sang from Winter Sonata (Ma 2005). He is an exact embodiment of urban cool guy:

displaying typical metrosexual life style such as swimming, shooting, traveling in a convertible sports car, walking into the luxurious restaurant while holding a bunch of flowers, and playing a trumpet at a Jazz bar in a fashionable brand suit . (Ma 2005)

BYJ is a commercial barometer for the popularity of metrosexuality. Regarding the global trend of metrosexuality, Kang Yu Jung, the chief editor of a cultural quarterly Cultura, argues that there are two major impetuses for the rise of metrosexuality; one is a natural manifestation of contemporary male desire of becoming more beautiful; the other is a support of gigantic industry capital (Kang 2006). It is a manifestation of hybrid male desire that still maintains an element of masculinity, but paradoxically incorporates feminine yearning of being beautiful.

Apart from the adoption of updated fashions and styles, this paradoxical male desire is also exemplified though various fitness activities such as exercise, yoga and diet to transform his body into a more desired form. As observed from BYJ’s LG-card commercial, it is crucial for a metrosexual lifestyle to build an ideal body form through fitness. Starting from gay and metrosexual lifestyle, fitness soon became a vital element of global trendy lifestyle. Barry Glassner explains that fitness has become a widespread and growing interest over the past couple of decades, among middle and upper class Americans (1989: 180). He argues that fitness is a post-modern pursuit because it restores human faith which was lost during the modern era of machine, science and technology (1989: 181). Likewise, represented by a toned and well-being body, maintaining an ideal body form has become an essential part of a model post-modern lifestyle. The mom-zzang syndrome is a “localized” form of this global trend of the post-modern lifestyle. This phenomenon proves that Korea shares some post-modern values with the rest of the world, especially the developed Western world. Some scholars criticize that the mom-zzang syndrome promotes highly unrealistic ideals about the human physique, not to mention the commercialization of sex (Hong et al 2004). However, it also gives evidence that, having gone through the materialistic modern era, Korea has entered the ‘well-being’ post-modern era.

Localized global/regional masculinity BYJ

The mom-zzang syndrome has led a boom of the well-being/mom-zzang marketing in almost every industrial sector. The Korean entertainment industry was not an exception. In particular, star management companies adopt mom-zzang marketing to produce their ‘star’ images. Korean fe/male stars are soon transformed to mom-zzang through hard training, exercises, yoga and diet. Especially Korean male Hallyu stars aggressively employ their mom-zzang images to approach the foreign (mostly Asian) audiences. This phenomenon reinforces the hybridity of Korean masculinity along with the kkon-mi-nam syndrome. The Korean male Hallyu stars boldly cultivate their hybridized sexual images to appeal to the complex desires of regional audiences. The ideal amalgamation between femininity (kkon-mi-nam) and masculinity (mom-zzang) of Korean male stars reflects a specific Korean – and Pan-Asian – ideal of a new masculinity. This ideal form of hybrid masculinity implies localization of global masculinity (mom-zzang) and regional masculinity (kkon-mi-nam).




BYJ is an excellent example of this concept of new masculinity as he aggressively displays the hybridised masculinity in his works including dramas, films, commercials and photo albums. Among these various works, the photo album and photo exhibition particularly highlight his mom-zzang body. In November 2004, BYJ released his first photo album The Image: Volume One to commemorate the 10th year of his acting career, followed by photo exhibitions in the major cities in Japan and Korea (Yun 2005). The photo exhibition was held in Seoul, Busan (Korea), Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sapporo (Japan). The exhibitions were attended by more than 600,000 fans and the total earnings were donated to various charitable organizations in both countries (Yun 2005). These exhibitions and photo album have created a big impact in Asia because BYJ has shown a totally different side of his image by showing off his muscular and semi-nude body.

BYJ’s muscular image from his photo album

For this mom-zzang project, BYJ had to spend the entire three months to only train his body with his personal trainer in California and finally created a whole new body. In Japan, despite the high price of the photo album – 14,700 yen (AU$170), the 50,000 limited editions were sold out in 5 days. Reprinting meant that more than 200,000 copies of photo books were sold in Japan (K. S. Lee 2004).

To be Continue...Part 8

Notation :

Just for Ph.D Candidate in
- Political Science

[International Relationship /Foreign Affairs /Political Analysis/
Pilosophy & Social Science/ Political Economy/ Political Sociology ]

- Mass Communication

- Culture and Theory

... Paper research abuot Mr.Bae Yong Joon...