Korean Wave And The Youth In Contemporary China

In this research, I choose Kim Soo Hyun, a Korean star who gets popular due to the drama "My Love From the Star", whose Online Fans Group as a study case to write an online ethnography about Korean Wave and youth culture. The group Ⅰ focus on in my study is the online youth group who are identified as "Brain-damaged fans" (nao can fen) and the theoretical frame I invoke is Korean Wave’s globalization.The term "Brain-damaged fans" refers to those who like Korean celebrities so much that nationalists deem them shallow, ignorant, and unpatriotic. My study explores the infulences of Korean wave on these youths’ cultural identity, nationalistic affect, daily life and youth cultural diversity in contemporary China. My argument is that the influences of Korean Wave on China’s youth group and culture are constructive rather than destructive, which reflects on three main aspects:1) As the cultural proximity between China and Korea, making them closer as well as causing cultural conflicts in China’s society with the process of Korean Wave’s influx. Thus, the identity of "Brain-damaged" is the manifestation of cultural stratification.2) The nation attempts to enact relative regulations to prevent the influx of Korean Wave into China’s domain. "Brain-damaged" is essentially an expression of social segmentation. As the outward performances of fans’ activities and behaviors show their cultural belongs to Korean Wave, thus they are pushed into the opposite side of the mainstream society. Accounting on above points, their nationalistic affects are hided.3) Lastly, through the modernity imagination, youths’ daily life is profpoundly influenced by Korean wave, such as their standard of beauty.4) Korean Wave takes an effect on the diversity of China’s youth culture.This study contributes to the anthropological theory of globalization and the study of Asian inner cultural communication. Combining online-observation and in-depth interview contributes to the exploration of study methods of the modern anthropology.