Korean Studies, School of Modern Languages and Cultures HKU

This course is a survey course on Korean popular culture during the past 20 years. It will explore both the production side and consumption side of “soft power” as commodities, and study the consumption/spread of Korean popular culture in Korea, Asia and the rest of the world. Our approach will be based on humanistic studies, using cultural studies, history, literary, visual studies methodologies. In order to achieve this, we will analyze different aspects of pop culture studies and production and contextualize them historically. The course will consider: fundamentals of popular culture studies, studies on globalization of “national” culture, K-pop, K-drama, musical theater, idol phenomenon, tourism, food, film, and literature.

Interdisciplinary Elective Course
KORE2038	Global Korean pop culture	6 credits

This course is a survey course on Korean popular culture during the past 20 years. It will explore both the production side and consumption side of “soft power” as commodities, and study the consumption/spread of Korean popular culture in Korea, Asia and the rest of the world. Our approach will be based on humanistic studies, using cultural studies, history, literary, visual studies methodologies. In order to achieve this, we will analyze different aspects of pop culture studies and production and contextualize them historically. The course will consider: fundamentals of popular culture studies, studies on globalization of “national” culture, K-pop, K-drama, musical theater, idol phenomenon, tourism, food, film, and literature.

Prerequisite: KORE1021. Introduction to Korean culture and society
Assessment:100 % coursework
(Not on offer in 2017/2018)