International Journal of Communication 11(2017), 2250–2269 1932–8036/20170005
Copyright © 2017 (Benjamin Han). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No
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K-Pop in Latin America:
Transcultural Fandom and Digital Mediation
BENJAMIN HAN
Concordia University Wisconsin, USA
This article examines the transnational popularity of K-pop in Latin America. It argues Kpop
as a subculture that transforms into transcultural fandom via digital mediation,
further resulting in its accommodation into Latin American mass culture. The article
further engages in a critical analysis of K-pop fan activism in Latin America to explore
the transcultural dynamics of K-pop fandom. In doing so, the article provides a more
holistic approach to the study of the Korean Wave in Latin America within the different
“scapes” of globalization.
Keywords: K-pop, fandom, Latin America, digital culture, Korean Wave
The popularity of K-pop around the globe has garnered mass media publicity as Psy’s “Gangnam
Style” reached number two on the Billboard Charts and became the most watched video on YouTube in
2012. Although newspapers, trade journals, and scholars have examined the growing transnational
popularity of K-pop in East Asia, the reception and consumption of K-pop in Latin America have begun to
receive serious scholarly consideration only in the last few years. Numerous reasons have been explicated
for the international appeal and success of K-pop, but it also is important to understand that the
transnational and transcultural fandom of K-pop cannot be confined solely to its metavisual aesthetics that
creatively syncretize various genres of global popular music such as Black soul and J-pop. K-pop as hybrid
music accentuated with powerful choreography is a form of visual spectacle but also promotes a particular
kind of lifestyle represented by everyday modernity in which social mobility in the form of stardom
becomes an important facet of the modernization process in Latin America. K-pop is thus more than just a
transnational vector of global popular music; it is a metatext that further extends into modern consumer
cultures such as fashion and technology.
More significantly, although there are many intersecting points between the Korean Wave in Latin
America and other parts of the continent, Latin America offers an interesting case study for the
examination of K-pop fandom because of the significant role that digital mediation plays in the
appropriation of K-pop into mainstream Latin American culture. As Choi (2014) explains, K-pop fandom in
Benjamin Han: bmshan@gmail.com
Date submitted: 2016–09–03
1
This paper was supported by the Academy of Korean Studies Grant (AKS-2016-C01).
International Journal of Communication 11(2017) K-Pop in Latin America 2251
Latin America is unique because, unlike the K-pop fans in East Asia, Latin Americans do not possess the
financial freedom to travel to Korea to attend concerts of their favorite artists, prompting them to rely
more on the digital to express their fan loyalty.
Nevertheless, despite the growing scholarship of K-pop in Latin America, many existing studies
have focused more on the transnational appeal of K-pop in terms of its visual and sonic qualities. For
example, drawing on quantitative analysis, Madrid-Morales and Lovric (2015) analyze the different
attractive variables of K-pop to Latin American fans. In addition, Flores Yapuchura (2013) argues that
young Peruvians are attracted to K-pop because it serves as a new symbolic referent to strengthen values
of resilience and respect that have been slowly diminishing in the Peruvian society. Similarly, del Pilar
Álvarez (2013) claims that K-pop allows Latin Americans to construct new meanings around Korea, a
virtual and imaginary space that they cannot physically inhabit. Although these studies are valuable in
probing the transnational popularity of K-pop to Latin Americans, my article is invested in exploring
concrete ways that digital fandom practices popularize K-pop as a legitimate form of transcultural fandom
in Latin American society.
In undertaking this analysis, I employ a bottom-up rather than a top-down approach to engage in
what Iwabuchi (2010) describes as a “contextualized field research and a sophisticated understanding of
their [fan] activities” (p. 88). Accordingly, I draw on interviews, surveys, and fan blogs to engage in a
critical analysis of K-pop fandom in Latin America. I was privileged to have access to the results of an
online survey conducted by the Korean Broadcasting System Broadcast Research Institute from December
8 to 19, 2012. In addition, I conducted a separate independent survey with 20 Latin Americans who are
active members of various K-pop fan clubs on Facebook.2
Rather than analyze the transnational appeal of
K-pop, I espouse a holistic approach to the study of K-pop as well as Hallyu in Latin America via
Appadurai’s (1996) disjunctive “ethnoscape,” “technoscape,” and “mediascape” of globalization. I focus
specifically on these three “scapes” because they have played the most pivotal role in the globalization of
K-pop in Latin America. I also discuss the significance of Korea–Latin America relations as a catalyst to the
development of K-pop as transcultural fandom, which is an area that many scholars have overlooked.
K-Pop as Transcultural Fandom
Transnational fandom is concerned primarily with the mobility of media and cultural products
across national boundaries. It is often understood as a byproduct of resistance against the global
dominance of U.S. popular culture, as well as a “contraflow” comprising non-Western media and cultural
texts, further underscoring the decentering of globalization. In contrast, transcultural fandom is less
concerned with mobility and more concerned with cross-cultural communication and identification, which
further expands into cultural values and virtues, despite transcultural fandom’s peripheral global status as
a subculture. Fandom scholars Chin and Morimoto (2013) advocate for a new theory of fandom studies
2
I would like to thank JungBong Choi for giving me access to the Korean Broadcasting System survey.
Among the 1,345 survey respondents, 334 were from 16 countries in Latin America. The responses from
the survey have not been reproduced in this article. The quotes reproduced in this article come from a
survey conducted by myself. All translations of Spanish are mine.
2252 Benjamin Han International Journal of Communication 11(2017)
that moves beyond a nation-centric framework to examine the nuances and complexities of transcultural
fandom arising from “affective affinity” that draws fans to transcultural objects despite linguistic, cultural,
and geographical boundaries, further provoking transcultural identification. In doing so, Chin and
Morimoto (2013) employ Hills’ concept of “transcultural homology” in which “homological structures may
interpellate fans across cultures in ways that both operate through and exceed the intentions of media
industries” (p. 99). Hills (2002b), in his examination of transcultural fandom of otaku in the United States
and the United Kingdom, argues that fans in both national contexts share an identity of devaluation in the
figure of the otaku, which leads to transcultural identification. Applying his argument, the “transcultural
identification” of Latin American fans with K-pop is not a matter of cultural or national differences, but a
means to cement their subcultural identity in the form of K-pop fan to counter their mass culture. In other
words, Latin Americans’ affective affinity for K-pop does not develop on its own; rather, it is an ongoing
internalization process of mainstream culture into K-pop fan identity.
As Sullivan (2013) points out, the unique characteristic that defines a subculture is the
“internalization of mainstream cultural materials into their own [fans] personal lives” (p. 196). Therefore,
fans’ assertion of subcultural identity leads to vibrant fan activism in which they function as cultural
emissaries or what Otmazgin (2013) refers to as “cultural mediators” who play a key role in globalizing
fandoms. This is a deviation from textual poaching practices common in other fandoms. More importantly,
K-pop fans rely on the digital to accommodate K-pop into mainstream culture to gain legitimate media
distribution outlets and attain recognition as a viable subculture despite its peripheral status in its national
context. This slow appropriation of K-pop into Latin American mass culture thus blurs the clearly
demarcated boundaries of subculture and mass culture in what Postigo (2008) describes as “practices of
one community (fandom) bleeding into the other (mass culture)” (p. 71).
Cultural Diplomacy and K-Pop in Latin America
In the cover story “Characteristics and Potential of South America for Korean,” Lee (2012) of the
Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange writes, “An interesting point about Hallyu in South
America is that people’s interest in Korean cultural content grew ‘naturally’ despite the geographical and
cultural differences between Korea and South America” (para. 3). This is a commonly shared perception of
the development of K-pop fandom in Latin America. This claim not only is reductive but also mirrors a
narrow perspective of global media and cultural flows. It simplifies the discussion of the Korean Wave as
solely a nascent cultural phenomenon rather than a historically informed cultural flow stemming from
economic, political, historical, and social factors in the formation of the larger Korean cultural sphere in
Latin America.
It is an anomaly that K-pop has penetrated the Latin American market and enjoyed success
among young Latin Americans despite their lack of a shared common language and geographical
proximity. In their article “Multiple Proximities Between Television Genres and Audiences,” La Pastina and
Straubhaar (2005) reappraise the notion of cultural proximity to argue that although the term is heavily
dependent on language and geography, it also functions on many different levels. They write, “One way to
begin thinking about the complex attractions between cultural texts and audiences is that there is cultural
proximity at multiple levels” (p. 274). They further write, “Aspects of them are geographic or spatial:
International Journal of Communication 11(2017) K-Pop in Latin America 2253
local, subnational regional, national, supranational regional, global” (p. 274). They claim that there are
multiple layers of cultural proximity, and cultural negotiation often occurs at the local level. The authors
also invoke Singhal and Svenkerud’s (1994) term cultural shareability to claim that audiences from
different cultures might share “common values, images, archetypes, and themes across cultures that
permit [TV] programs to flow across cultural boundaries” (p. 278).
The concept of multiple proximities is a useful starting point to understand the popularity of Kpop
in Latin America both as a transnational and transcultural fandom that traverses national, linguistic,
and cultural boundaries, and it induces us to make reductionist assumptions in an attempt to identify
common themes and values in K-pop that resonate well across cultures, often ignoring questions of
medium and genre specificity. For example, a 25-year-old female fan from Libertador San Martin,
Argentina, wrote, “The style, choreography, and song lyrics are sound compared to the lyrics that people
listen to in Latin America.”3
Similarly, a 23-year-old female fan from Medellin, Colombia, responded, “The
lyrics and melody of K-pop are very romantic; they talk about first love, deceptions, being in love, and
unrequited love, which are different from Latin music (which I happen to like too). They are very sexual
and women tend to be very romantic.”4
Indeed, many Latin American K-pop fans have commented on the
theme of “pure” romantic love invoked in K-pop lyrics.
These responses not only provide a simplistic understanding of the transcultural appeal of K-pop
encapsulated in the universal theme of love but also illustrate, as Chin and Morimoto (2013) would argue,
the role of “affective affinities that spark fan interest in transcultural fan objects” (p. 92). In addition,
transcultural fandom in the form of K-pop consumption entails constant dialectical tensions with local
mass culture. Perhaps, it was a coincidence that Latin Americans came across K-pop while navigating the
Internet as active fans of Japanese manga and pop. Yet, the simultaneous fannish consumption of
Japanese and Korean popular culture not only aligns with what Hills (2002a) would characterize as fans
negotiating “multiple fandoms of varying intensities at different times” (p. 89), but indicates that
transnational fandoms bleed into one another. Accordingly, K-pop fandom in Latin America did not emerge
out of a vacuum, but is intimately intertwined with other transcultural fandoms. For instance, in the case
of Latin America, what generated the spark of curiosity in Latin American listeners was the “Pump It Up”
dancing game that played K-pop songs (Rocha, 2013). More significantly, the uniqueness of K-pop fandom
in Latin America is that it is transcultural rather than transnational.
The Latin American nations that have been more receptive to Korean popular culture, in general,
have historical ties to South Korea. The migration of the Korean diaspora to Latin America began as early
as 1905 when thousands of Koreans arrived in Mexico as indentured servants. Korean migration to Latin
America continued after a few decades as 50 Koreans immigrated to Brazil and 12 to Argentina between
3
“La moda, la coreografías, y las letras de las canciones. Son sanas a comparación con la letra de las
canciones que se escuchan en Latinoamérica” (original quote in Spanish).
4
“La letra y la melodía del KPOP son muy románticas, hablan del primer amor, de decepciones amorosas,
sobre estar enamorado y amor no correspondido, a diferencia de la música latina (que me encanta
también). Son muy sexuales y la mujeres solemos ser muy románticas” (original quote in Spanish).
2254 Benjamin Han International Journal of Communication 11(2017)
1956 and 1957 (Morimoto et al., 2004). During the 1960s, the second wave of Korean immigrants arrived
in Mexico City and dispersed to Guadalajara, Tijuana, and Puebla (Castilla, 2009).
The incitement of Korean migration to Latin America opened doors for new business
opportunities. Thus, Korean electronics corporation GoldStar (now known as LG) established business
partnerships with Panama since 1962 through the export of color TV sets and video recorders (“Kǔmsŏng
Chungnammi,” 1992). In 1977, Samsung Electronics also entered the Latin American market with the
export of more than 40,000 color TV sets to Panama as the demand for color TV sets increased (“K’ŏlrŏ
TV,” 1997). A decade later, Samsung became the first Korean electronics company to establish an
assembly plant in Tijuana, Mexico, with an investment of US$420 million to manufacture electronic
appliances such as color TV sets, refrigerators, and washing machines (Jyoung, 2003). There were two
economic factors that led Korean companies to invest in Latin America: (1) cheap labor and (2) better
access to the profitable North American market (Jyoung, 2003).
The growing visible presence of Korean businesses in Latin America meant a need for better trade
relations, which resulted in the strengthening of the Korea–Latin America relationship in the 1990s and
into the 2000s. As Jyoung (2003) explains, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Panama had significant business
investments from Korea. These nations represented 52.1% of the total US$1.4 billion investment made in
the Latin American region by the end of 2001 (Jyoung, 2003). In 2002, Korea and Chile became more
active trade partners with the signing of the Free Trade Agreement. Most recently, Colombia became the
third country after Chile and Peru to sign a bilateral trade agreement with Korea in 2013. As a result,
Korea’s overall trade with Latin America grew by 29% in 2010 to a record US$48 billion. According to the
Korea International Trade Association, Korean exports to Latin America jumped 30% to US$29.7 billion,
and imports from Latin America rose 27% to US$14.1 billion (Bamrud, 2012). What is more interesting
about these economic exchanges is the sheer number of Korean technological consumer products that
have been introduced to Latin American consumers. Korea’s top exported goods to Latin America include
automobiles, electronics, home appliances, and petroleum products (Bamrud, 2012). The penetration of
Korean products into the Latin American market helped publicize Korea as a technologically advanced
nation to Latin American consumers, further cementing a national image of Korea affiliated with electronic
brand names.
Thus, many Korean electronic brands, such as LG and Samsung, have been active partners in the
promotion of their consumer products via K-pop in Latin America (see Figure 1). Most notably, LG
sponsored a local K-pop dance contest known as K-pop LG in Colombia from 2011 to 2013. In 2012,
Samsung became the official sponsor of the Big Bang Alive Galaxy Tour in which Big Bang, a South Korean
boy band, made a world tour in 13 countries on four continents, including Peru. These Korean
conglomerates also sponsor many locally organized K-pop contests in Latin America in partnership with
the Korean Cultural Center and Korean embassy by giving away cameras, laptops, and miniaudio
components to contestant winners for brand penetration purposes (see Figure 2).
International Journal of Communication 11(2017) K-Pop in Latin America 2255
Figure 1. A K-pop mobile application available in Colombia.
Image courtesy of LG Electronics.
The collaboration between major Korean electronics companies and cultural organizations in the
promotion of K-pop across Latin America instilled a new perception about the country, enabling Latin
Americans to distinguish Korea from other Asian countries such as China and Japan.5
According to a study
mentioned in Chosun Ilbo, Korea ranks 10th in Chile in the category of national attractiveness, followed by
11th in Mexico, and 13th in Colombia (“Korean Brands Enjoy,” 2009). More importantly, for Latin
Americans, Korea signifies a modernized and an advanced technological capitalist society that Latin
American nations strive to emulate. The concept of modernity is one of the most polemical ideas debated
in Latin America. As Schelling (2000) notes, a “narrow, evolutionary understanding of the ‘transition to
modernity’ in Europe was exported as a model to be followed by the ‘developing world’ in order to
5
This observation is based on my 10 years of experience living in the Caribbean and Latin America.
2256 Benjamin Han International Journal of Communication 11(2017)
overcome poverty and reach comparable standards of living” (p. 6). Canclini (2000) explains that the
development of modern societies based on European models was a central concern for Latin American
nations. Canclini further argues that Latin America’s failure in the four processes of modernity
(emancipation, renewal, democratization, and expansion) underscores “the current crisis of economic and
cultural development in Latin America” (p. 39). On the contrary, for Latin Americans, South Korea as both
a non-Western and postcolonial nation has achieved what seems to be a fluid transition to modernity
under financial recession, neoliberalization, and globalization. As Peruvian foreign trade and tourism
minister Jose Luis Silva stated at the Korea–Latin American Countries Business Forum held in Seoul in
2011, “The Koreans are a role model for us” (Bamrud, 2012).
Figure 2. A poster promoting a K-pop festival in Peru in 2013.
Image courtesy of LG Electronics.
The Twin Pillars of K-Pop
Besides the role of diplomacy in prompting the introduction of Korean brands and culture to Latin
American consumers, both the intertextual and intermedial consumption of K-dramas via different
distribution platforms have played an instrumental role in the development of K-pop as transcultural
fandom in Latin America. Therefore, the distribution of K-pop in Latin America must always be examined
in tandem with K-dramas because many Latin Americans have been first introduced to Korean popular
music through dramas featuring idol stars.
International Journal of Communication 11(2017) K-Pop in Latin America 2257
The early distribution phase of K-dramas in Latin America was part of Korea’s larger globalization
project after the Korea–Japan World Cup in 2002 when South Korea caught global attention with the
energy and fervor displayed by Koreans. As part of South Korea’s official nation-branding campaign,
popular Korean TV dramas such as All About Eve, A Wish Upon a Star, and Winter Sonata were distributed
free to Latin American TV stations under the auspices of the Korean embassies in Latin America (Mérida,
2015). In the case of Chile, Escalera al Cielo (Stairway to Heaven) was first broadcast on TVN in 2006; in
2012, Mega transmitted Casi el Paraíso (Boys Over Flowers) from Mondays to Fridays at 12 p.m., which
garnered a rating of 6.5 (Vallejos, 2012).6
In the case of Peru, a terrestrial TV station known as Panamericana TV began broadcasting Kdramas
in 2006. Although Panamericana TV was not the first television station in Latin America to
broadcast K-dramas, it aired hit dramas such as My Lovely Samsoon and Stairway to Heaven based on an
agreement with the Korean embassy in Peru. According to Claudia Zavaletta, former assistant
programming manager at Panamericana TV, the Korean embassy in Peru first offered K-dramas to TV Perú
(the official national television channel of Peru) at a very low cost. TV Perú had already been broadcasting
Japanese TV programs to its viewers (C. Zavaletta, personal communication, November 14, 2013). The
embassy was searching for another media outlet and thus offered the same K-dramas to Panamericana
TV. When the TV station started broadcasting K-dramas, audience demand was initially high. According to
Zavaletta, K-dramas garnered a solid rating of 12 despite being broadcast at 9 p.m., the prime-time hour
of TV programming, and competed against other locally produced TV programs (C. Zavaletta, personal
communication, November 14, 2013). As K-dramas became more widely accessible online, ratings
suffered. Moreover, the shift toward the production of reality-based TV programs, hourly formats, and
constant changes in the station’s programming lineup further caused K-dramas to slide to a mediocre
rating of 6 in recent years. In 2015, under the auspices of the Korean Cultural Center in Argentina, the
Argentinian TV channel Magazine broadcast The Secret Garden every Saturday at 8 p.m. (Trzenko,
2015).7
Most recently in 2016, Telefé, a terrestrial station in Argentina, aired Stairway to Heaven.
K-Pop Fan Activism and Digital Mediation
Just like any other fandom across the globe, K-pop fans in Latin America rely on the digital as
they engage actively in diverse fan activities, such as sharing recent news about their favorite idols or
artists, circulating new music videos, or serving as DJs for online streaming K-pop radio stations. K-pop
fans in Latin America not only function as communities formed around shared interests and values but
also reflect the rapidly changing digital culture in Latin America and K-pop’s influence on the latter. For
instance, a 23-year-old female fan from Medellin, Colombia, stated, “Yes, definitely. During my spare
time, I spend approximately 17 or 18 hours a day on the Internet watching dramas and searching for their
protagonists and soundtracks, which are things that I never did before. I also browse social media for
6
A single rating equals 1% of all households with TV sets.
7
The decision to broadcast K-dramas in Argentina is attributed to the online petitions organized by Kdrama
fans in Argentina and the Korean Cultural Center in which more than 13,000 participated in the
movement.
2258 Benjamin Han International Journal of Communication 11(2017)
groups or pages that share the same interest in the dramas.” 8
Another 23-year-old male fan from
Veracruz, Mexico, similarly said, “Yes, now more and more fans of K-pop make an effort to acquire the
stylish gadget in Korean dramas or applications like Line or KakaoTalk, among others.”9
When asked how the popularity of K-pop and K-dramas has shaped digital media practices, a 25year-old
female K-pop fan from Libertador San Martin, Argentina, responded,
The Internet is the only medium that we have to stay informed about K-pop artists since
media like TV or radio no longer do it. We had to learn ways to communicate with Korea
and other countries in order to receive information. We had to learn how to use Korean
applications (Naver and Line), and yes, it has transformed our use of digital media.10
A 23-year-old female fan from Santiago de Cali, Colombia, responded similarly to the same question:
It was sufficient to only use the Internet for a variety of things (such as Facebook,
Twitter, etc.) and to communicate with friends and families. But with the arrival of Kpop,
you get to know many different groups and the Internet is the only means that
many consumers and fans of K-pop can vote for their favorite bands and watch live
contests featuring new K-pop bands (such as Who is Next YG Entertainment 2013).
Everything revolves around digital media and it is the only way to support your favorite
bands and learn more about them from afar.11
Similar to other technologically advanced continents such as Asia, Europe, and North America, Latin
America is becoming more wired, and the Internet allows its citizens to easily consume and appropriate
media and music from around the globe. According to the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, there
8
“Sí definitivamente . . . yo en lo personal el tiempo que gasto en internet viendo drama y buscando a sus
protagonista y ost es de aproximadamente de 17 o 18 horas (al día) . . . cosa que nunca había hecho. . . .
Constantemente los busco en las redes sociales . . . busco grupos o páginas con el mismo interés en los
dramas” (original quote in Spanish).
9
“Sí, ahora más y más fans del K-POP se esfuerzan por obtener el gadget de moda en los dramas
coreanos, o apps como LINE ó KAKAOTALK, entre otras” (original quote in Spanish).
10
“Internet es el único medio que tenemos para estar informados acerca de los artistas del kpop ya que
ningún medio como TV o radio lo hacen. Hemos tenido que aprender de algún modo como comunicarnos
con Corea y otros países para recibir información. Hemos tenido que aprender a usar aplicaciones
totalmente en Coreano, y digamos que si, ha transformado nuestro uso de los medios digitales” (original
quote in Spanish).
11
“Sí bastante debido a que sólo se utilizaba el internet para variedad de cosas (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
sólo para una comunicación entre amigos y familia pero al llegar el Kpop, conoces muchos grupos y es la
única forma que muchas personas y fans del Kpop pueden votar por sus grupos favoritos, que pueden ver
en vivo algún concurso de algún nuevo equipo de Kpop (who is next-YG ENTERTAINMENT 2013). Todo
gira alrededor de los medios digitales y así apoyar a tus grupos favoritos, es lo único que podrías hacer
desde lejos y para conocerlos más” (original quote in Spanish).
International Journal of Communication 11(2017) K-Pop in Latin America 2259
are approximately 255 million Internet users in the Caribbean and Latin America. Despite the staggering
number, these data indicate that access to the Internet is not equally distributed across all regions. For
example, the Internet penetration rate in Peru, a country that has been very receptive to K-pop, grew
from 3.0% in 2005 to 36.5% in 2011 (Glickhouse, 2013). In addition, data from the National Institute for
Statistical Information indicate that only 16% of Peruvian households had an Internet connection, whereas
56% of Peruvians were able to access the Internet in 2011 (OpenNet Initiative, 2013). Although these
statistics indicate the continuing presence of a digital divide in Latin American societies, further segmented
by issues of class and geography, they illustrate that access to K-pop is confined to those who have access
to the Internet, further rendering it as a transcultural subculture on the peripheries of Latin American
mass culture.
Despite the technological barriers that Latin America still faces today, Latin Americans’
participation in K-pop fan culture via different digital media practices is nothing novel compared with other
fandoms across the globe. But what makes K-pop fandom in Latin American unique is that fans are
invested in imparting the embodied values and beliefs of their favorite artists rather than engaging in the
manipulation of original songs or music videos to create new cultural texts that are specific to their local
culture. In other words, K-pop fans in Latin America participate more in affective consumption,
underscoring “cultural fidelity” as an essential fabric of their fandom. Instead of reappropriating K-pop to
meet their cultural tastes, Latin American fans adapt to new cultural practices to recognize and validate
themselves as transcultural fans. Moreover, the ongoing efforts of these fans to accommodate K-pop
transculturally into mainstream Latin American media and culture are an indication of the ongoing tension
between popular culture from “other” or foreign countries and cultural industries in Latin America, as Kpop
slowly receives recognition from Latin American society as a legitimate fandom.
According to my e-mail communication with A*Dream (AsianDream), a popular K-pop dance
cover group based in Mexico, fandom activities involving money collection and gift mailing to their favorite
artists or idol bands are not part of Latin American fan culture. A member of A*Dream who I interviewed
explained,
Something that has caught our attention is the inclusive manner in which one expresses
his or her opinion or criticizes an artist. The fans have changed their criticisms and
appreciation of certain situations as if they were in Korea. For example, if a member of
an idol band has a boyfriend or girlfriend, or finds him- or herself in a scandal, which is
common in Latin America, the fans view these instances negatively and their attitudes
toward them are also negative. Not all the fans are like that, but there are a significant
number of K-pop fans in our group who have changed their behaviors. (W. Romero,
personal communication, November 28, 2013)12
12
“Algo que llama mucho nuestra atención es que inclusive en la manera de “opinar” o”criticar” a un
artista, los fans han cambiado sus críticas y apreciación de ciertas situaciones como si estuvieran en
Corea. Ejemplo, si un idol tiene novio o novia o se encuentra en un escándalo que normalmente en países
latinoamericanos es normal, los fans de aquí lo ven como algo malo y su actitud hacía este tipo de
2260 Benjamin Han International Journal of Communication 11(2017)
A typical fan activity that is distinctive to Korean culture is “wreaths of rice,” known in Latin
America as coronas de arroz. In this particular fan activity, Koreans purchase wreaths of rice and send
them to their favorite artists as a sign of affection. Latin American fans have adopted this popular fan
activity. For instance, in 2013, a fan club of the K-pop idol group 2PM based in Nicaragua joined efforts
with other fan clubs scattered in other Latin American countries to purchase 20 kg of white rice, which
they sent to 2PM to congratulate them on their performance in Seoul (K-pop Nicaragua, 2013). This is not
only an example of affective affinity but also a form of transcultural fan labor in which fans remain faithful
to a fannish activity that is culturally specific to a nation, thus further ensuring cultural fidelity.
Also, Wax Kim, a former disc jockey for an online K-pop Mexico radio station (http://www.kpop.com.mx/radio/)
catering to Latin American listeners, explained to me how K-pop fans in Latin America
would pay out of pocket to organize special events dedicated to their favorite idol bands. For example,
administrators of fan clubs in Latin America often rent movie theaters and organize public screenings of Kpop
music program such as Inkigayo (see Figure 3). For such organized events, administrators sell the
admission ticket for US$3 (W. Kim, personal communication, December 19, 2012). These examples of fan
activities help create a unique fan culture in Latin America, which allows them to share this particular
transcultural experience, further rendering the internalization of K-pop music into their everyday lives.
In other words, Latin Americans’ growing engagement with K-pop through different social media
platforms, such as Facebook and YouTube, evolves into digital communities where reassertion of social
and cultural identities occurs within the participation in everyday modernity. Latin Americans’ affective
identification with virtues of K-pop idols and artists in overcoming social struggles, especially class
conflicts, in achieving their stardom induces Latin Americans to construct new subjectivity in which social
mobility is imagined. In an ethnographic study on the reception of the Korean Wave in Peru and Brazil, Ko,
No, Kim, and Simões (2014) found that Latin Americans who passionately consume Korean media and
popular culture are members of the lower social class. Thus, for Latin American fans, the provocation of
transcultural identification with K-pop offers an alternative social space where fans can imagine becoming
a modern subject through the dissolution of class hierarchies. When I asked the fans how K-pop has
affected their characters, an 18-year-old female fan from Mexico City explained,
I like K-pop very much without separating it from Asian culture; Asian culture is very
spiritual. The change I experienced was beyond my identity: how hard work, effort, and
desire to get ahead can lead to a good outcome. I work harder daily in order to be able
to continue my life and to fulfill my biggest dreams and those that no one would want to
try. This does not stand out in our culture; in fact, it rarely does.13
situaciones es mala. No todos los fans son así pero hay una población considerable dentro de los Kpopers
que ha cambiado su comportamiento” (original quote in Spanish).
13
“Me gusta mucho el Kpop pero sin separarlo de la cultura asiática como tal; la cultura asiática es muy
espiritual. Mi cambio fue algo más de identidad: de como el trabajo duro, el esfuerzo y las ganas de salir
adelante te pueden llevar a un buen fin. Me esfuerzo más a diario para poder seguir mi vida y cumplir mis
sueños así sean los más grandes y los que nadie quiera intentar. Esto no sobresale en nuestra cultura, de
hecho muy pocas veces” (original quote in Spanish).
International Journal of Communication 11(2017) K-Pop in Latin America 2261
Figure 3. 2PM México fans gathered in a movie theater.
Image courtesy of 2PM México.
A 21-year-old fan from Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico, responded,
It has motivated me to want to learn a new language, and, as a woman, the aspect of
makeup. I was someone who usually didn’t wear makeup, but I found that aspect of
culture is attractive; and I now wear it for self-esteem.14
A 17-year-old female fan from Palmira, Colombia, responded,
Yes, it has influenced my way of thinking, acting, and deciding. Socially, too. Now I
always look for an opportunity to meet more people with similar interests via K-pop and
14
“Me ha motivado a querer aprender un nuevo idioma y como mujer el aspecto del maquillaje, soy una
persona que no solía hacerlo pero encontré ese aspecto cultural atractivo y lo hago por simple autoestima”
(original quote in Spanish).
2262 Benjamin Han International Journal of Communication 11(2017)
think that K-pop is a subculture where everyone in the world can be accepted, and it is
like a big family.15
A 19-year-old female fan from Veracruz, Mexico, similarly responded, “Yes, it has influenced me
personally. The people that I interact with are not the same; my eyes and ears have opened to a different
world outside of the United States and Canada.”16
All of the aforementioned survey responses highlight K-pop having some impact on the social
identities of Latin American fans. Virtues encapsulated in K-pop stars, such as hard work, resilience,
patience, and dedication required in fulfilling one’s dream, are internalized into the personal lives of Latin
American fans. They see K-pop idols and bands as role models that they strive to emulate in helping them
(re)imagine a new sense of social identity as an everyday and modern cosmopolitan subject that frees
them from the constraints of society. Hebdige (2002) argues that members of a particular subculture
express an alternative identity within the formation of an intermediate space. He further claims that
subculture allows one to exercise autonomy from the constraints of society. Latin Americans’ affinity for Kpop
does not touch on the issue of resistance or opposition toward U.S. hegemony or imperialism; rather,
it induces Latin American K-pop fans to navigate an interstitial space of social identity in which social
struggles can be overcome. Therefore, Latin Americans’ transcultural identification with K-pop is not about
the exotic appeal or the “otherness” of Korean culture; rather, the consumption of Korean culture allows
them to imagine a new social identity not restricted to social hierarchies. This search for an alternative
identity suggests that K-pop fans are in a constant personal battle with the perception of the dominant
society, often becoming victims of peer scrutiny, such as being name-called loco/a (crazy) for listening to
what their friends and family members often describe as música de chinos [Chinese music] (Cami9, 2013;
Diaz, 2013). Despite these interpersonal struggles, what keeps the Latin American fans intact as a tightknit
community of fans is the intangible social exchange values that K-pop brings them to their personal
lives. When I asked A*Dream, “Why do you love K-pop and what benefits does it bring to you?” They
explained,
A*Dream loves K-pop because we value the formation of their artists and idols. We
know that they are people who have prepared for many years, and behind every new
video and song exists years and months of hard work. . . . What we respect about K-pop
is that it has granted us an opportunity to realize our dreams through the medium of
music, brought us the joy of sharing an interest with our friends, and learned to
15
“Sí, ha influido en mi forma de pensar, actuar y en el decidir. También en lo social ya que siempre
busco la oportunidad de conocer más personas con mis mismos gustos por el K-pop, y siento que el K-pop
es una subcultura donde todo el mundo puede ser aceptado y es como una gran familia” (original quote in
Spanish).
16
“Sí ha influido en mi persona. Las personas con las que me relaciono no son las mismas, mis ojos y
oídos se han abierto a un mundo diferente fuera de Estados Unidos y Canadá” (original quote in Spanish).
International Journal of Communication 11(2017) K-Pop in Latin America 2263
organize and manage a group of people and to work as a team. (W. Romero, personal
communication, November 28, 2013) 17
Although one cannot make a reductive claim that K-pop alters the identities of Latin Americans because
identities work on many different levels, we can deduce that the consumption of K-pop is clearly a type of
identity expression in the form of interpellation where fans are immersed in ideological structures of K-pop
that shape their identities, which lead them to misrecognize themselves as participating in the imaginary
worlds of their favorite K-pop idols and artists.
What is further unique about K-pop fandom in Latin America is that its status as a subculture has
not continuously remained submerged under the dominant mainstream culture. As a digitally mediated
fandom, the accommodation of K-pop into mainstream culture has further implications for the national
cultural industry, as well as how it gets appropriated into the mainstream culture to reach its transnational
fandom status. Accordingly, K-pop fan activism in Latin America is not only a shared community of K-pop
aficionados, but further expands into mainstream culture to be disseminated through legitimate
distribution channels in opposition to Internet piracy culture. A concrete example of the contestation
between the mainstream culture and subculture occurred on August 31, 2011, when the official Facebook
page of the popular Peruvian dance reality show El Gran Show (The Grand Show) posted a survey
question to its viewers. (The show is broadcast on Americana Television and features 11 dance
contestants who compete against each other in different music genres.) The question was, “What rhythm
would you like to see our heroes and dreamers dance in our 5th gala?”18
More than 2,300 comments were
posted in response to this survey question, and the majority of Facebook users requested that the show
feature K-pop dance. For example, one Facebook user posted, “Korean music K-pop will be something
innovative” (Mendoza Marreros, 2011).19
Another Facebook user posted, “K-pop is a big challenge because
it has a variety of choreography; let’s see if contestants can dance to it. If they do, we, the fans of K-pop,
will be glued to the TV screen without taking our eyes off for a minute” (Kim, 2011).20
Another user
posted, “K-pop would be the best . . . and to everything else that always repeats . . . to see something of
a novelty” (Sambrano, 2011). 21
Despite the activism of K-pop fans, the producers of El Gran Show
reluctantly ignored their opinions because of K-pop’s subcultural status in Latin America; instead, the
17
“A*Dream ama el K-Pop porque valoramos la formación de sus artistas y idols. Sabemos que son
personas que se preparan por muchos años y que detrás de cada video y nueva canción existen años y
meses de elaboración. . . . En lo que respecta a nuestro grupo (A*Dream) el K-Pop nos ha traído la
oportunidad de hacer realidad nuestro sueño de estar en el medio musical, nos ha brindado la satisfacción
de compartir un gusto con nuestros amigos y aprender a organizar y administrar a un grupo de personas
y trabajar en equipo” (original quote in Spanish).
18
“Que ritmo te gustaría ver bailar a nuestro heroes y soñadores en nuestra 5th gala?” (original quote in
Spanish).
19
“Música coreana el KPOP sería algo innovador” (original quote in Spanish).
20
“kpop es gran desafío tiene varias coreagrafías, a ver si pueden bailar eso . . . si lo hace nosotras las
fans de kpop estaremos mirando allí en la tele sin despegar ningún minuto” (original quote in Spanish).
21
“k pop sería el mejor . . . ia q todo lo demas siempre lo repiten . . . de ve de haber algo novedoso”
(original quote in Spanish).
2264 Benjamin Han International Journal of Communication 11(2017)
producers announced on the show’s Facebook page that the rhythm of cumbia would be featured in the
next program. The program’s failure to officially recognize K-pop as a fabric of Latin American music
culture because of its inferior cultural status as toxic foreign music is an illustration of television’s
investment in the dissemination of nationalist narratives, as the original question asked which music
Peruvians would like to see their “heroes and dreamers” dance to.
El Gran Show is a further testament to how K-pop fans as cultural emissaries actively participate
in dialectical tension between the local and the global as they engage in fan activism to accommodate Kpop
into the national popular culture. As the producers of the show ignored the comments of Facebook
users, enraged K-pop fans voiced their resentment toward the program for its aversion. Some of the
criticisms voiced against the program included
Well, K-pop obtained more than 2,000 votes and cumbia wins. They should not ask that
type of question if they do not respect the votes of Internet users. There are about
2,235 comments requesting K-pop!!! And you put on cumbia??? In which world do you
live? We have already seen this thousand times. (Asia Light World, 2011)22
Another Facebook user wrote with resentment,
Seriously, I am not going to watch The Grand Show, what Grand Show!! For god’s sake,
they should have innovative choreography. They repeat the same dance all the time for
all seasons . . . it bores me. They should change or improve . . . what infuriates me the
most is why even bother to ask if they are not going to pay attention. Okay, I no longer
get angry . . . only. (as cited in Asia Light World, 2011)23
This example of activism illustrates that K-pop fandom is no longer restricted to affective consumption but
also converts into affective labor against the dominant hegemonic media structures and power.
As the enraged fans continued to engage in affective labor via online comments for not
recognizing K-pop fans as a critical mass, the original announcement on the official El Gran Show
Facebook page was later removed; then, on November 10, 2012, a little more than a year after this online
uproar, El Gran Show featured K-pop dance for the first time. The competitors appearing in the program
danced to the rhythms of Shinee’s “Ring Ding Dong,” Big Bang’s “Fantastic Baby,” Super Junior’s “Sorry,
Sorry,” and, of course, Psy’s “Gangnam Style.” On November 20, 2012, Peruvian newspaper El Comercio
22
“Vaya, el kpop obtuvo más de 2000 votos, y gana la cumbia, no Deberían Hacer ese tipo de pregunta si
es que no respetan el voto de los cibernautas, hay como 2235 comentarios pidiendo K-pop!!!!…….Y uztds
ponen ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿cumbia??????????? n q mundo viven eso ya lo hemoz visto miles d veces”
(original quote in Spanish).
23
“de verdad yo no voy a ver el gran show..que gran show!!..por dios deben tener coreografías
innovadoras…TODO LO QUE BAILAN SE REPITE SIEMPRE..EN TODAS LAS TEMPORADAS..YA
ABURRE.DEBERIAN CAMBIAR O MEJORAR..LO QUE MAS ME ENFURECE ES QUE POR QUE PREGUNTAN SI
NO VAN A HACER CASO!! BUENO YA no me hago higado.., solo..” (original quote in Spanish).
International Journal of Communication 11(2017) K-Pop in Latin America 2265
featured an article in which the producer of the show, Ricky Rodríguez, expressed his contentment
because the ratings for the show had increased from 8 to 14 in the last few weeks. However, the producer
did not acknowledge the role that K-pop played in elevating the show’s ratings, which further frustrated Kpop
fans (“Productor de ‘El Gran Show,’” 2012). Another newspaper article published in La República also
reported that El Gran Show beat its competitor program El Valor de Verdad (The Value of Truth) in ratings
for the first time. El Gran Show garnered a rating of 15.9 compared with El Valor de la Verdad’s 14.3
rating (“‘El Gran Show’ Venció por Primera Vez,” 2012). Again, the newspaper’s failure to give due credit
to the show’s success ignited online comments in which K-pop fans pointed out that it was the inclusion of
K-pop that helped to catapult the show’s ratings.
Another example of how K-pop is appropriated into Latin American mainstream media is when it
was first featured on “Bailando por un Sueño” (“Dancing for a Dream”) in 2014, a segment of Showmatch,
one of the most watched prime-time TV programs in Argentina. With the support of DJ Mosquito
(Alejandro Velazquez) who oversaw the program’s music and worked as the director of VEGA Radio, which
streams online 24 hours of K-pop music, Showmatch showcased K-pop to the Latin American audience. To
celebrate this milestone achievement, K-pop fans in Argentina organized a flash mob through social media
platforms, including Facebook. On November 23, 2014, fans gathered at Planetario Galileo Galilei in
Buenos Aires to perform a flash mob (“Flashmob en el Planetario,” 2014). The event was streamed live on
cable channel C5N.
The cultural contestation between K-pop fans and Latin American popular media is a true
testament to how a transnational subculture on the fringes of Latin American mass culture reluctantly yet
slowly gets accommodated into mainstream culture. More importantly, it demonstrates how K-pop fans in
Latin America participate in vibrant digital mediation to obtain official recognition of their fandom as it is
disseminated through national media outlets to gain its status as both transnational and transcultural
fandom.
Conclusion
The study of K-pop in Latin America as a transnational vector of the Korean Wave indicates K-pop
fandom as transcultural rather than transnational in which Latin Americans’ development of affective
affinity for K-pop is not rooted in its exoticism and cultural novelty. The development of transcultural
identification with K-pop is the result of fans’ simultaneous consumption of multiple transcultural fandoms.
More importantly, Latin Americans’ affective affinity for K-pop is in constant oscillation with their mass
culture as it undergoes the process of cultural emission. As Latin American fans engage actively with the
affective consumption of K-pop, fans negotiate social identities in the form of class struggles that resist
the hegemonic class hierarchies as a result of neoliberal forces in Latin America.
In considering the popularity of K-pop in Latin America as a transcultural fandom, one must
consider the conflating issues of diplomacy, economy, migration, and media exchange that have resulted
in crystallizing K-pop as a digitally mediated intermedial and intertextual fandom in conjunction with other
media genres and formats. More significantly, K-pop gets accommodated into mainstream culture via
digital fan activism that further gets distributed through legitimate media distribution platforms. Finally, K-
2266 Benjamin Han International Journal of Communication 11(2017)
pop does not directly travel across national and geographical boundaries as a transnational fandom, but
more so as a distinctive form of transcultural fandom that deconstructs the dominant theoretical paradigm
of the East–West, informing studies of media and cultural flows within the forces of globalization.
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