Mixed-Race Politics and Neoliberal Multiculturalism in South Korean Media (East Asian Popular Culture)

This book studies how the increase of visual representation of mixed-race Koreans formulates a particular racial project in contemporary South Korean media. It explores the moments of ruptures and disjuncture that biracial bodies bring to the formation of neoliberal multiculturalism, a South Korean national racial project that re-aligns racial lines under the nation’s neoliberal transformation. Specifically, Ji-Hyun Ahn examines four televised racial moments that demonstrate particular aspects of neoliberal multiculturalism by demanding distinct ways of re-imagining what it means to be Korean in the contemporary era of globalization. Taking a critical media/cultural studies approach, Ahn engages with materials from archives, the popular press, policy documents, television commercials, and television programs as an inter-textual network that actively negotiates and formulates a new racialized national identity. In doing so, the book provides a rich analysis of the ongoing struggle over racial reconfiguration in South Korean popular media, advancing an emerging scholarly discussion on race as a leading factor of social change in South Korea. Annotation This text studies how the increase of visual representation of mixed-race Koreans formulates a particular racial project in contemporary South Korean media. It explores the moments of ruptures and disjuncture that biracial bodies bring to the formation of neoliberal multiculturalism, a South Korean national racial project that realigns racial lines under the nation's neoliberal transformation. Specifically, Ji-Hyun Ahn examines four televised racial moments that demonstrate particular aspects of neoliberal multiculturalism by demanding distinct ways of re-imagining what it means to be Korean in the contemporary era of globalization. Taking a critical media/cultural studies approach, Ahn engages with materials from archives, the popular press, policy documents, television commercials, and television programs as an inter-textual network that actively negotiates and formulates a new racialized national identity Front Matter ....Pages i-xvii Introduction (Ji-Hyun Ahn)....Pages 1-33 The New Face of Korea (Ji-Hyun Ahn)....Pages 35-72 Front Matter ....Pages 73-73 From National Threat to National Hero (Ji-Hyun Ahn)....Pages 75-101 Consuming Cosmopolitan White(ness) (Ji-Hyun Ahn)....Pages 103-128 Front Matter ....Pages 129-129 Televising the Making of the Neoliberal Multicultural Family (Ji-Hyun Ahn)....Pages 131-157 This Is (not) Our Multicultural Future (Ji-Hyun Ahn)....Pages 159-189 Back Matter ....Pages 191-231