In preparation for the 2022 Philippine presidential election, K-pop fans nationwide united to campaign for presidential candidate Leni Robredo. The most crucial organisation that set this in motion...Show moreIn preparation for the 2022 Philippine presidential election, K-pop fans nationwide united to campaign for presidential candidate Leni Robredo. The most crucial organisation that set this in motion, K-pop Stans 4 Leni, created a community to talk politics, campaign for Robredo, and spread truthful information concerning the election. Through interviewing a member of this organisation and circulating a survey, this research aims to research how and why Filipino K-pop fans used K-pop as a tool for their political expression and activism during the 2022 Philippine presidential election and, therefore, how K-pop can be political. Results show that the participants in the organisation are politically active in character. The organisation became a political force using K-pop mechanisms to mobilise many fans swiftly. This research concludes that the organisation used K-pop since it effectively mobilises a large demographic who support their goals. Furthermore, this thesis concludes that K-pop fandom can be political, as shown by KS4GG. However, it cannot be concluded that all aspects of K-pop are political due to a lack of political participation. As this research primarily analyses participants involved with the organisation K-pop Stans 4 Leni, this should be noted as a limitation and allows for further research to be done.Show less
This thesis explores the influence of the portrayal of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the K-drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo on public perception and attitudes toward ASD in South Korean society...Show moreThis thesis explores the influence of the portrayal of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the K-drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo on public perception and attitudes toward ASD in South Korean society. The study begins by examining the ASD portrayal in Extraordinary Attorney Woo, aiming to comprehend its positioning and characteristics in relation to general criticisms of ASD portrayals. Subsequently, interview videos featuring Korean individuals with ASD are analyzed to identify similarities and differences between their lived experiences and the drama's portrayal. An online survey is then conducted among South Koreans to investigate the impact of the ASD portrayal in Extraordinary Attorney Woo on public perceptions and attitudes toward individuals with ASD. The findings reveal that the drama presents an authentic character with ASD, fostering understanding and awareness of ASD as a spectrum disorder. However, certain aspects of the portrayal, such as romantic relationships and savant skills, do not accurately reflect the realities of individuals with ASD. Nonetheless, the portrayal of ASD in Extraordinary Attorney Woo positively influences public perception and promotes improved understanding and knowledge of ASD in South Korean society.Show less
This thesis examines the best translation techniques for subtitling Korean dramas into English, that balance preserving culture-specific references with audience comprehension. The research...Show moreThis thesis examines the best translation techniques for subtitling Korean dramas into English, that balance preserving culture-specific references with audience comprehension. The research considers the significance of cultural preservation and audience comprehension to determine the best-fitting translation technique to achieve a good balance between the two. Four main groups of viewers are identified along with their level of familiarity and interest in Korean culture and language, with the majority valuing the preservation of culture. The study analyses frequently used translation techniques and shows that there is a tendency to favour target-oriented techniques, resulting in the loss of most of the culture-specific items. A case study on the drama Squid Game reveals how target-oriented techniques often fall short in preserving culture-specific items. The paper finds that it is best to use a balanced approach between cultural preservation and audience comprehension, avoiding the usage of omission, utilizing source-oriented techniques when possible, and supplementing with translator notes for accents and dialects. This balance will ensure that subtitles accurately convey the intended meaning of the dialogue with their cultural nuances whilst simultaneously ensuring audience comprehension.Show less
This thesis examines North Korean kŭrimch’aek, a topic that has yet to receive much scholarly attention. In particular, there will be a focus on the romantic aspects found in the narratives of...Show moreThis thesis examines North Korean kŭrimch’aek, a topic that has yet to receive much scholarly attention. In particular, there will be a focus on the romantic aspects found in the narratives of kŭrimch’aek. Five different kŭrimch’aek were closely analysed and the findings discussed in the case study of this thesis. Though North Korean fiction has to comply with official state ideology, in the kŭrimch’aek several aspects showed that this does not imply flawless stories. Furthermore, romance can be seen more frequently in stories that have elements that justify actions that would generally contradict North Korean ideology. Ambiguities were found to be more prevalent in female characters, while male characters are more homogeneous. As fiction has the function to educate and to present model individuals, romance functions to enable readers to identify with these ideal protagonists. Lastly, romance adds an extra layer of depth to otherwise quite monotonous narratives.Show less
This work looks at the South Korean PC bang in the theoretical framework based upon the third place theory created by Ray Oldenburg. After an introduction to the PC bang, their role in contemporary...Show moreThis work looks at the South Korean PC bang in the theoretical framework based upon the third place theory created by Ray Oldenburg. After an introduction to the PC bang, their role in contemporary South Korea will be explained by comparing them to the characteristics described in the third place theory. Numbers on the PC bang visitors were gained from official records from KOCCA (Korea Creative Content Agency). The research was done in two parts. First, a survey was deployed through online South Korean communities to find data on people’s feelings about the PC bang, and second, personal observations on the Korean PC bang were added. My conclusion is that the PC bang does not fully comply with the third place theory as set by Oldenburg, but that it provides a new form of third place. By bringing both the online and offline space in one place together, it gives way to new forms of socializing, for which revision of the original third place theory is necessary.Show less
This thesis examines the construction of agriculture in 15 North Korean propaganda posters issued between 1995 and 2010 provided by the Willem van der Bijl collection. The analysis adheres to an...Show moreThis thesis examines the construction of agriculture in 15 North Korean propaganda posters issued between 1995 and 2010 provided by the Willem van der Bijl collection. The analysis adheres to an altered version of the Four Sites theory by Gillian Rose to connect the results to the relevant socio-political context to uncover change, continuity, and trends in the visual construction of agriculture. The analysis discovers three main results: a strong presence of patriarchal values, the reuse of old revolutionary symbols related to Kim Il Sung, and various specific agricultural campaigns that offer a window into the economic turmoil that is the 1990s and 2000s. It concludes that the construction of agriculture portrays a successful socialist agricultural system. But the posters also reveal the government’s attempt to cope with economic distress and prevent collapse by seeking to motivate North Korea’s adult population through posters.Show less
In recent years the moon jar has become known as a symbol of a national Korean identity. Moon jars are made of porcelain and have a large, spherical body that is made in two separate halves which...Show moreIn recent years the moon jar has become known as a symbol of a national Korean identity. Moon jars are made of porcelain and have a large, spherical body that is made in two separate halves which are luted together. The vessel emerged out of practicality and was appreciated for its purposefulness and distinctly Korean aesthetics. From the colonial period onwards, the vessel was reinterpreted by Japanese scholars to suit their colonial narrative. Following liberation of colonial rule, the moon jar was elevated to the status of a national symbol and promoted through active strategies of cultural diplomacy. Nowadays, the moon jar is approached aesthetically and philosophically in American and British Museum. By analyzing catalog text it can be concluded that the moon jar is seen as an exemplary artwork representing Chosôn aesthetics and philosophical values.Show less
South Korea-China bilateral relations deteriorated in the wake of the THAAD announcement in July of 2016. China considers the anti-ballistic missile defense system currently situated on South...Show moreSouth Korea-China bilateral relations deteriorated in the wake of the THAAD announcement in July of 2016. China considers the anti-ballistic missile defense system currently situated on South Korean soil a gross violation of their national security. Subsequently, Chinese public opinion of South Korea regressed swiftly due to negative representation of South Korea’s security policies throughout Chinese state media. In response, South Korea employed public and traditional diplomatic approaches to restore bilateral favorability. Through a mixed method exploratory study, which considers quantitative and qualitative data, the effectiveness of public diplomacy in the given context was clearly deduced . This approach is seldom employed in the field of diplomacy research and thus resulted in a more innovative understanding. The findings demonstrate the insignificant impact that public diplomacy had on Chinese public opinion subsequent to the THAAD incident. Influential Chinese state media, effective traditional diplomatic alternatives, and insufficient coordination represent the key roadblocks for public diplomacy’s efficiency in targeting the Chinese population. Anticipating these variables can facilitate further development of public diplomacy strategies by South Korean policy makers.Show less
This quantitative study was conducted to tackle the absence of quantitative research into socialist thought within nationalist press in the 1920s. Leftist nationalist thought has been marginalised...Show moreThis quantitative study was conducted to tackle the absence of quantitative research into socialist thought within nationalist press in the 1920s. Leftist nationalist thought has been marginalised ever since the U.S. occupation of the Southern regions of the Korean Peninsula. The repression of leftist thought that the U.S. instigated continued in the South Korean state in the spirit of the Cold War and was consequently ignored by many scholars of Korea. It was after bans on leftist literature were lifted in 1988 that it sparked renewed interest by scholars. While recently more works surrounding leftist culture have been produced, studies examining the growth of socialism as political thought within the 1920s remain scarce. The development of nationalist groups in this period is important as here lie the foundations for leftist ideologies that played a major role in the division of the Korean Peninsula. Furthermore, leftist culture still remains stigmatised within South Korea today and the importance of it has yet to be fully recognised. During the first ten years of the colonisation of the Korean Peninsula (1910-1945) the Korean populace dealt with harsh repression of nationalist sentiment. After the nationalist uprisings on March 1st 1919, it became clear to the Japanese that change was needed. This coincided with the more liberal Taisho era in Japan proper and prompted a change of leadership in the colony. With the arrival of governor-general Saitō Makoto, a more liberal period in the colony was ushered in and among many changes, indigenous press was allowed under watch of colonial government. Immediately after the allowance of press, newspapers and monthly magazines produced by Koreans developed rapidly. It was within this colonial setting that a unique public sphere emerged in which, for a brief period, critical dialogue between nationalist and the colonial government was able to occur. Nationalists quickly made use of this newfound freedom. Two nationalist ideologies began playing a major role within this public sphere: cultural nationalists and socialists. Cultural nationalists advocated the construction of a new culture, which was the necessary basis for an independent Korean nation. They favoured long-term cultural ventures that would aid with the creation of a new culture and prepare Koreans for becoming independent. In contrast, socialists proposed other ideas for the way to independence in the form of Marxist ideas, often on a short term basis. Socialist authors took a critical stance towards cultural nationalists, they criticised the elitist nature of their plans and in later years even accused them of accommodationism. While dialogue between these nationalist groups occurred throughout much of the press, the dialogue within the monthly magazine Kaebyŏk (開闢) is of interest. Kaebyŏk became the most prominent and longest running magazine of the 1920s. Publishing a total of 2447 articles from its inception in 1920 until its ban by the colonial government in 1926, Kaebyŏk has often designated as the centre for cultural nationalist thought, and while authors have highlighted that socialist published within Kaebyŏk too, there are often conflicting claims as to how significant it was. This leaves a gap in our understanding of the importance of socialism within Kaebyŏk. New developments into computational approaches for the humanities expanded and became known collectively as the ‘Digital Humanities’. Approaches within this subfield offer new opportunities that were previously unachievable; through the use of computational approaches, a distant reading of large numbers of texts is possible within a small amount of time. Scholars have already begun to tap into the possibilities that this brings, but most research that is being done focuses on western historical documents and corpuses. This is due to two reasons: the availability of digitised western texts greatly outweighs counterparts and many of the tools available to conduct such research are based on western languages (mostly English). Research into other fields such as Korean studies is rising, yet groundwork for approaches easily applicable to western texts is still being laid by DH scholars. Scholars engaging in the question of the development of socialism in the 1920s have generally done so through qualitative research, bringing into focus the contents of the text. While this provides important insights into the texts and ideologies itself, it offers limited understanding of the larger trends that occurred within Kaebyŏk and the growth of socialist thought. Through the use of the aforementioned new computational approaches, this study aims to fill this gap by answering the question: How did the numerical volume of socialist publications within Kaebyŏk develop quantitively throughout its lifetime? By reducing the development of socialist thought to a numerical approach, we put in focus the larger trends of this development, but through doing so forfeit gaining new insights into the qualitative content of the texts. To achieve this, the study makes use of a method called topic modelling, which tries to disseminate ‘topics’ from a set of documents. These ‘topics’ show as result a word cluster that needs interpretation of a human actor. To achieve this on Kaebyŏk, we will make us of the Latent Dirichlet Allocation algorithm in conjunction with gibbs sampling. By examining the produced topics and linking these to what is known about both socialism and cultural nationals articles can be tagged. A total of two topics that represent cultural nationalist ideology were found, and three that represent socialist ideology. We then examined the composition of articles and tagged these based on the found topics to produce a bar chart showing the amount of socialist and cultural nationalist articles per published issue of Kaebyŏk. The findings of this study show the prominence of socialist articles within Kaebyŏk. With initial growth in December 1922 and a small decline, we can see a resurgence of socialist articles in September 1923, whereafter they become the most present ideology when compared to cultural nationalism. Socialist articles remained present in significant numbers until the very last publication of Kaebyŏk in August 1926. Cultural nationalist articles declined sharply after September 1923, and only occasionally appeared in small numbers. This study confirms assertions by qualitative studies from Robinson (1988) that socialist influence was noticeable and Park (2015) that socialist intellectuals used Kaebyŏk as an outlet too. However, this study breaks from the expected pattern of the decline of socialist articles after the enactment of the peace preservation law and prohibition of publication for two months. None of these measures seem to have had significant effect on the amount of publications of socialist articles when compared to the period between September 1923 and the enactment of the peace preservation law. This provides evidence for the claim that the peace preservation law only became actively enforced after 1927. Additionally this study adds to the field of digital humanities by showing the possibility of using the KoNLPy package, alongside manual additions to stop-word lists, to gain useable data from older Korean texts. Furthermore, it employed the PyLDAvis package to examine the produced topic model in a more intuitive manner than the command line. It also allows for easy distribution of the results. Lastly, this thesis aims to show the possibilities that lie within cooperation between quantitive studies and qualitative studies. Without the previously conducted close readings and studies produced through this, this research would have been impossible.Show less
The last two decades, the popularity and accessibility of K-Pop have transcended Korean and Asian borders, reaching new audiences and gaining new fans, with K-Pop groups becoming not solely...Show moreThe last two decades, the popularity and accessibility of K-Pop have transcended Korean and Asian borders, reaching new audiences and gaining new fans, with K-Pop groups becoming not solely dependent on having a fanbase in Korea for their continuation. Not only have the music and visuals gone international, but also fan culture, having been adapted by international fans as well. But what makes Korean fandom culture stand out in comparison to other fan cultures? Regarding K-Pop and fans, what has been mostly covered in scholarship and media is the spread of Korean entertainment products as drama series and music, the phenomenon Hallyu, and fans as consumers of these products. The practice of fans making donations in the name of their idols is placed within the framework of gift exchange practices and parasocial relationships. This research looks at what this phenomenon could tell us of the role and position that fans and fandoms have within the Korean entertainment industry in regard to their favourite idols and the changing approach to and dependencies of their fans.Show less
This thesis examines the role of Tokto/Dokdo in the creation and maintenance of South Korean nationalism, and the way in which Tokto narratives are created and disseminated in Korean society. It...Show moreThis thesis examines the role of Tokto/Dokdo in the creation and maintenance of South Korean nationalism, and the way in which Tokto narratives are created and disseminated in Korean society. It aims to answer the question: how is the Tokto/Takeshima conflict portrayed and communicated through South Korean Tokto-related children’s literature? Based on a critical discourse analysis of a selection of the most popular Tokto children’s literature, this thesis identifies a set pattern that characterizes Tokto children’s literature as a genre. Furthermore, this thesis challenges the modernist notion that nationalism is a top-down affair, as the analysis of Tokto children’s literature shows that nationalist sentiment stems from an interplay between governmental and civil efforts. In the case of Tokto children’s literature, that is the effort to promote and proclaim Tokto as a vital part of South Korean national identity. Lastly, this thesis argues that Tokto children’s literature reflects the agenda of Tokto activists, who seek to strengthen a particular notion of South Korean national identity that centres on the idea of Japan as continuous external threat.Show less
This thesis looks at the Park Chung Hee's legacy in the context of collective memory theory. After 40 years Park's legacy still lives on. This can partially be explained by collective memory theory...Show moreThis thesis looks at the Park Chung Hee's legacy in the context of collective memory theory. After 40 years Park's legacy still lives on. This can partially be explained by collective memory theory. Elements of collective memory theory can help us understand the continuing existence of Park's legacy. Yet the collective memory theory gives no guarantees for the future.Show less
Alcohol commercials are a universal phenomenon. In Asian countries such as South Korea however, given the cultural and societal emphasis on traditional gender roles, the way alcohol is sold and...Show moreAlcohol commercials are a universal phenomenon. In Asian countries such as South Korea however, given the cultural and societal emphasis on traditional gender roles, the way alcohol is sold and consumed differs from other countries. Commercials often show the consumer how the producers believe people will use their product in a natural environment or otherwise how they want the consumer to view this certain product. This paper, therefore, analyzes different alcohol commercials in order to answer the following research question. How are South Korean women portrayed in Korean alcohol commercials and how does this differ from cultural and societal reality? The gender differences that can be noticed in all of these researches contain an important message within them, which is that gender inequality in South Korea is still an ongoing issue. Through commercials in which these female actors are portrayed as if they are truly part of the Korean culture, there is a dissonance between the truth and what people want to believe. People want to believe that, as a woman in South Korea society, they can take part in any activity they want. Truthfully, however, they are portrayed through these commercials as a marketing object that sells and as someone who is in any case still the inferior half of society.Show less
Aan de hand van twee casestudies wordt gekeken naar identiteitsvorming en activisme bij leden van studentenverenigingen in Zuid-Korea die behoren tot een seksuele minderheid. Enerzijds ligt de...Show moreAan de hand van twee casestudies wordt gekeken naar identiteitsvorming en activisme bij leden van studentenverenigingen in Zuid-Korea die behoren tot een seksuele minderheid. Enerzijds ligt de focus op identiteitsvorming: Wat is het verband tussen LGBTQ+ netwerken en identiteitsvorming? De eerste casestudy is gericht op Dancing Queers, de LGBTQ+ studentenvereniging bij Sŏgang Universiteit. Aan de hand van diepte-interviews met clubleden wordt gekeken naar de verschillende functies en doelen van de vereniging. Anderzijds wordt er gekeken naar activisme bij de clubleden: Wat is het verband tussen LGBTQ+ netwerken en activisme? De tweede casestudy werpt een blik op de politieke functie van netwerken, en focust zich op de ‘Arrest Me Too’ beweging die werd geïnstigeerd door een lid van Dancing Queers. Dit naar aanleiding van artikel 92-6 uit het Militaire Wetboek, die stelt dat homoseksuele geslachtsgemeenschap tijdens legerdienst strafbaar is.Show less
