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In the last decade, South Korean creative and cultural content has garnered significant global interest, commonly known as the Korean Wave or Hallyu. While this phenomenon has been studied extensively in many countries, its impact on Central Europe, particularly Hungary, remains largely unexplored. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the diffusion of Korean culture in Hungary, a strategic economic partner of South Korea since the 1990s. Despite this long-standing partnership, Korean pop culture only gained traction in Hungary in 2008. The reception of Hallyu in Hungary has given rise to a unique fandom, which is characterized by diverse interests in Korean culture and the economy. Drawing on a literature review, expert interviews, and surveys of fan groups in Hungary, this paper analyzes the characteristics of Hallyu fans and market trends in Hungary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why have Asian Americans recently been depicted as villains in films?(1) Why were Korean Americans depicted mainly as merciless gun-toting vigilante shopkeepers in the Los Angeles riot news? These initial [...]

An increasing amount of Korean popular cultural content including television, dramas, movies, pop songs and their associated celebrities has gained immense popularity in Asia. The globalization, particularly in the realm of popular culture, breeds a creative from of hybridization that works towards sustaining local identities in the global context.

Global consumers are increasingly enjoying popular cultural products such as music, film, television and other audiovisual media content through online social media community networks. Recently, Korean pop music, or K-pop, has become one of the most dynamically distributed forms of pop culture in the global pop market through these ‘social distribution’ networks. This article explores the ways that this new mode of social distribution is characterised by bottom-up grassroots aspects as well as corporate-controlled top-down aspects by analysing the recent dynamics and practices of K-pop consumption and circulation on social media, using a case study of K-pop fandom in Indonesia and the ‘Gangnam Style’ phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cyber harassment of South Korean pop star Tablo circa 2010 illustrates numerous interlocking social issues including Internet participation, perpetuation of hate crimes and slander, globalization, nationalism, military service, and the vital importance of education in Korean society. This case indicates the necessity of revisiting the Internet's functions in social movement and communication. To explore why and how this unique online incident occurred in South Korea, I reviewed the literature on Internet research, criminology, and hegemony. After conducting these reviews, two broad aims for this study became clear. The first is to critically examine the ways that some bloggers spread baseless rumors about Tablo. The second aim is to clarify the circumstances in which current hegemonic discourses have developed in Korea on military service and educational background. My argument is that neither grand concepts nor generalizations can capture the intrinsic attributes of the Internet and online participation (in or outside of Korea). Instead, discontinuity, plurality, and contingency, rather than progress and inevitability, approximate the reality of the Internet and online participation. For this reason, scholarship is needed that inquires into more nuanced practices of the Internet that are also situated in social environments and articulated with local histories. Revisiting the Tablo case encourages Koreans to rethink and re-embrace the values of coexistence and tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an essay that focuses on the concept of cultural globalization by inquiring the latest success of Korean popular culture as well as its cinema industries in East Asia. It recognizes the fact that Korean cinema has responded to the sensibilities of contemporary Asians and attained success in commerce through mixed indigenous cultural elements with foreign forms and styles. The growth of its cinema has also eased cultural flow to revitalize the local media industries.