Banal Orientalism on YouTube
“Eat Your Kimchi” as a New Cultural Intermediary and its Representation of South Korea
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19182425 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mikah Lee (0000-0002-6905-8214, corresponding author), Y Cho (0000-0003-0785-5573) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 69-88 |
| Publication date | 2021-09-30 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Asian Communication Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1738-2084 • E-ISSN: 2765-3390 |
| Publisher | Korean Society for Journalism and Communication Studies (PUBLISHER • KR) |
| DOI | 10.20879/acr.2021.18.2.69 |
| OpenAlex | W3205346158 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 30 |
This study examines the emergence of YouTube and its content creators as a major platform for introducing, mediating and interpreting South Korea to global audiences. By exploring Eat Your Kimchi (EYK), a YouTube channel based on content about Korea, this study discusses the novel roles and strategies of YouTubers as transnational cultural intermediaries, who as white expats continue to translate and interpret the East (i.e., South Korea) to the West, (i.e., Anglophone audiences). Firstly, EYK employ a strategy of selectively articulating their dual identity both as amateurs with no academic background or authority, and as cultural experts based on their hands-on experiences in South Korea. Secondly, EYK reproduce the discursive themes of infantilizing and othering South Korea, emphasizing cultural hierarchy, though in a subtle, everyday manner. This study suggests these discursive strategy and themes as seminal constituents of banal Orientalism that EYK as transnational cultural intermediaries produce in the process of introducing Korean society and its people to the globe. By highlighting banal Orientalism, which is repeatedly and successfully constructed in EYK’s discourses, we call attention to the cultural politics of YouTubers as one of the most influential transnational cultural intermediaries for online representation across countries, their cultures and societies
Aesthetics · Art · Cultural appropriation · Cultural identity · Globe · Hybridity · Intermediary · Literature · Media studies · Orientalism · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Psychology
You May Know Me from YouTube
The cultural logic of digital intermediaries
The cultural economy in the digital age
Two-Way Engagement in Public Diplomacy
Social Darwinism as History and Reality
Micro-celebrities from the North
Jamie Oliver and Cultural Intermediation
This Is What the News Won’t Show You”
Dealing with digital intermediaries
All the World’s a Stage
Humour and Hatred
Disrupting the Nation-ness in Postcolonial East Asia
Practical orientalism – bodies, everyday life and the construction of otherness
Bourdieu, the media and cultural production
The institutionalization of YouTube
Cultural Intermediaries in the Digital Age
Intermediaries and Imaginaries in the Cultural and Creative Industries
Contemporary cultural diplomacy in South Korea
Vlogging White Privilege Abroad
The social mediascape of transnational Korean pop culture
Social distribution
Users like you? Theorizing agency in user-generated content
The Discomfort of Strangers
Land of the Morning Calm, Land of the Rising Sun
Who Needs Cultural Intermediaries
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |