[KS] 2020 Kyujanggak Booktalk Series: 2nd Lecture

[icks at snu.ac.kr]

Dear All,

 

The International Center for Korean Studies, Kyujanggak, Seoul National
University is hosting a booktalk series, which introduce a work in Korean
studies to facilitate the exchange of views and information among scholars.
We will have our 2st booktalk via ZOOM on June 16, 10AM (KST). If you would
like to join, please register at https://forms.gle/RXeXE6RtvsK3MCGt6. We
will send you the details you need to log in one day in advance. Thanks in
advance!

 

About the Author: Youjeong Oh (Univ. of Texas at Austin)

Youjeong Oh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian Studies,
University of Texas at Austin. This is her first book.

 

About the Book: Pop City: Korean Popular Culture and the Selling of the
Place

Pop City examines the use of Korean television dramas and K-pop music to
promote urban and rural places in South Korea. Building on the phenomenon of
Korean pop culture, Youjeong Oh argues that pop culture-featured place
selling mediates two separate domains: political decentralization and the
globalization of Korean popular culture. The local election system
introduced in the mid 90s has stimulated strong desires among city mayors
and county and district governors to develop and promote their areas. Riding
on the Korean Wave-the overseas popularity of Korean entertainment, also
called Hallyu-Korean cities have actively used K-dramas and K-pop idols in
advertisements designed to attract foreign tourists to their regions.
Hallyu, meanwhile, has turned the Korean entertainment industry into a
speculative field into which numerous players venture by attracting cities
as sponsors.
By analyzing the process of culture-featured place marketing, Pop City shows
that urban spaces are produced and sold just like TV dramas and pop idols by
promoting spectacular images rather than substantial physical and cultural
qualities. Popular culture-associated urban promotion also uses the
emotional engagement of its users in advertising urban space, just as pop
culture draws on fans' and audiences' affective commitments to sell its
products. Oh demonstrates how the speculative, image-based, and
consumer-exploitive nature of popular culture shapes the commodification of
urban space and ultimately argues that pop culture-mediated place promotion
entails the domination of urban space by capital in more sophisticated and
fetishized ways.

 

 
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