Second-Generation Korean Americans and Transnational Media : Diasporic Identifications 9781498508827, 9781498508810

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Second-Generation Korean Americans and Transnational Media

Second-Generation Korean Americans and Transnational Media Diasporic Identifications David C. Oh

LEXINGTON BOOKS Lanham • Boulder • New York • London

Published by Lexington Books An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB Copyright © 2015 by Lexington Books All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available ISBN 978-1-4985-0881-0 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4985-0882-7 (electronic) TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Acknowledgments

vii

Introduction

ix

1 2 3 4 5 6

Diaspora, Ethnicity, and Media Intra-Ethnic Organization, Ethnic Choices, and Dominant Culture Film Reception and Perceived Influences on Identification Identifying with Characters and Celebrities Reading Culture Mediating Community

1 23 55 83 99 119

Conclusion

139

Bibliography

151

Index

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v

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Carol Liebler for her guidance, patience, space, and encouragement throughout the writing of my dissertation, which is what this book has been adapted from. Her guidance has been invaluable with her insights and careful editing of my dissertation playing no small role in shaping this work. Her contributions cannot be overstated, and I thank her for her thoughtful leadership. In addition, I am appreciative of the core members of my dissertation committee, Dennis Kinsey, Bradley Gorham, and Robert Rubinstein. All are fantastic scholars, wonderful teachers, and generous committee members. They all share in common their sharp insights and, as importantly, warmth and encouragement. I thank them for generously giving their time, insights, and friendship. The conversion from the dissertation to the manuscript has taken several years, and many colleagues along the way have played a role in giving me the energy to move forward. Lisbeth Lipari and Suzanne Condray, two good friends and mentors at Denison University, provided needed encouragement during the early stages of my career as I worked on the manuscript. I also appreciate Raka Shome’s advice to move the dissertation into publication as a book, particularly during a time when I was ready to put it aside. I am also grateful for the editorial direction at Lexington Books and the anonymous review. Most importantly, I am grateful for my family. Without them, this would not be possible. Their love, encouragement, and patience was energizing even during my most stressed moments. My spouse, Eunyoung, has been a pillar of strength, and my two sons, Noah and Aaron, both born during the writing of my dissertation, have provided joy, hope, and strength to finish this work. This book is for them as they navigate their own diasporic identifications through the transnational media they consume. vii

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Many Asian Americans struggle with what it means to be a racialized ethnic minority member (Kibria, 2002; Song, 2003; Tuan, 1998). This often starts with the realization that despite their best efforts, they are not considered fully “American.” Physical markers of racial difference prevent full inclusion into dominant, White society. This is especially the case for the majority of Asian Americans, who live in predominantly White neighborhoods (Kibria, 2002), and this was true of my experience. As a Korean American (KA) racialized as “Asian,” there were few resources that I could draw upon that would empower my joined racial and ethnic identities. In media, where adolescents draw heavily to construct identities (Buckingham, 2008), there were few images of Asians and Asian Americans, and the images that were present were often gross caricatures or, in some cases, mockery. It was not until a return trip home from college when my mother presented me with a cassette tape of Seo Taiji and the Boys, a popular hip hop-influenced boy band, that I saw glimpses of identification with transnational media that might be relevant to KA youth. Yet, instead of identifying with it as my mother had hoped, I derided what I interpreted as a poor reproduction of US musical styles. Though I was not interested, others were. I saw rapid changes in the tastes of younger KAs, who identified with groups like H.O.T. (High-Five of Teenager) and Fin.K.L. (Fine Killing Liberty) that were more commercially refined offshoots of Seo Taiji. My younger sister, who was in middle school at the time, avidly followed H.O.T. and taped posters on her wall akin to the ways young girls might hang posters of Justin Bieber, One Direction, or other teen celebrities today. Though I teased her for her interests then, I realized that younger generations of Korean Americans were drawing on symbols that were missing in my adolescent years. That is where this research project turns. It seeks to understand intra-ethnic differences in secondix

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generation KA reception, uses, and fan practices with transnationally received Korean media and the ways these reception practices intersect with their diasporic identities. At this juncture, I will first explain the justifications for the research: the decision to study transnational Korean media, multiple-generation KA teens, and adolescents. Then, I will explain the theoretical importance of a research project focused on multiple-generation KA adolescents in studies of diaspora, transnationalism, identity, and media. As Hardindranath (2000) pointed out, researchers should not collapse race and cultural/ethnic difference but rather look for ethnic differences within racial communities. That brings me back to my choice of multiple-generation KA teens. The decision was based on three connected lines of reasoning: my subjectivity as a second-generation KA researcher, the strength of Korean media as a cultural resource, and the need for research on multiple-generation KAs (and Asian Americans, more broadly). As a second-generation KA fan of transnational Korean media, I am familiar with the celebrities, media texts, culture, and language, giving me insider status as I discussed sensitive questions of race, ethnicity, and identity. I also had access to KA communities because of perceptions of shared membership. Though there are a handful of other larger Asian American communities in the United States, there are only a few with a diasporic connection to a media industry as influential as South Korea’s. In a remarkable transformation, Korean media have become a leader in economic size and regional influence (Dator & Seo, 2004; Hanaki, Singhal, Han, Kim, & Chitnis, 2007; Leong, 2002; Shim, 1998), sweeping across East Asia in what has been dubbed the “Korean Wave.” Several films have been critically well received in international film festivals and directors like Kim Ki-Duk are well known to fans of international cinema. Further, crossover stars such as Rain, Byunghyun Lee, and Yunjin Kim have acted in US blockbusters and primetime television programs in major roles; and, most notably, Korean popular music (dubbed K-pop) has been finding wide interest outside of the Korean peninsula. The most prominent example, of course, is Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” which became globally popular, and at the time of writing this book, it was the most watched YouTube video with more than 2 billion views. With the availability of cyber-communities centered on Korean media, web sites that offer downloads and streaming media, DVDs with English subtitles, and the growing quality of the media industries, there are opportunities for Korean media to become an increasingly important and available transnational resource to construct diasporic identities. The focus of this book, then, is to examine the ways second-generation KA teens draw from transnational Korean media to build identification (Kellner, 1995). Studying transnational media reception is important because of the growing transnational flows of media (Croucher, Oommen, & Steele, 2009), especially for racialized ethnic minorities, who identify as part of

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diasporas. As persons and groups on the cultural margins, transnational media legitimate and link diasporic members to their perceived “homelands” (Lin, 2010), providing symbolic “raw materials” to be able to construct identities in ways that potentially resist dominant cultural marginalization. Though there is a growing and vibrant body of research in this area, most of the literature is on the immigrant generation (see Kim, 1978; Lee, 2004; Lee & Cho, 2003; Moon & Park, 2007). This is despite the complicated and revealing ways in which the second generation makes sense of and uses transnational media (Georgiou, 2006). For the second generation, ties to the “ancestral homeland” are not rooted in lived experience but in selective engagement for locally meaningful purposes (Mayer, 2003). The KA community is maturing with a growing share of its population made up of multiple generation members, so this is an opportune time for the diasporic group to explore generational changes in diasporas. For instance, second-generation Asian Americans are not concerned with acculturation, like their parents, because they speak English as their first language and because they are already comfortable in the United States; instead, most second-generation Asian Americans’ lives are marked by negotiating ethnic/racial/diasporic identities (Kibria, 2002). To better understand diasporic identity and the reception of transnational media as well as to better understand multiple-generation Asian Americans, it is important to conduct audience reception research to discover how they read messages within and between these media texts and how they use heritage transnational media to construct identities and notions of authentic belonging. It is, therefore, important to turn scholarly attention to how the second generation draws symbolically on their diasporic culture to construct identity (Espiritu, 2002). I focus on adolescents in this book because adolescence is the point in an individual’s development when self-concept is theorized to be the most malleable (Erikson, 1968). For racialized ethnic identity, adolescence is usually the time in which they become aware of their lack of full societal inclusion, leading them to seek ethnic communities and identities (Cross, 1978; Phinney, 1996; Tse, 1999). Cultural theorist Stuart Hall (1996) wrote that for diasporic youth, “new ethnicities” located in the inbetween spaces of their diasporic and host identities are most likely to form. Because adolescence is the developmental timeframe in which individuals are most likely to experience identity change and growth, it is important to study adolescents directly and to rely less on adult interviews that retrospectively reflect on shifting identifications. Though retrospective work has some benefits in identifying ethnic identity change or meaning-making by adults, this approach is limited when studying youth identity because it is, at best, an indirect approach that asks participants to decontextualize their experiences as adults and to, instead, remember attitudes and beliefs that happened in adolescence. Though the research has been fruitful, studying adults to under-

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stand youth identity suffers from serious concerns about validity. To address these concerns, this research project studies KA youth directly with the purpose of examining the relationship between KA adolescents and their uses and reception of transnational Korean media. The research also contributes to existing literature with its interest in the intersection of intra-ethnic differences in identification with viewing practices and interpretations. Much of the diasporic reception research focuses on reception practices that usually answer the question of how individuals actively construct meaning. Though this is an important component of this research project, I am also interested in media use. As Means Coleman (2002) writes, examining audiences’ social uses of media is an important, understudied, and productive site of audience reception research. Understanding how second-generation KA adolescents use transnational Korean media in the construction of new ethnicities sheds light on the ways they define personal identities and the ways group identity and boundaries are constructed. This adds to the literature on racialized diasporas’ use of transnational media as well as contribute additional research on taste hierarchies and the use of media as a social resource within youth cultures. Further, research on intra-ethnic difference will broaden existing scholarship, which almost exclusively focuses on the intersections of African American audiences and class or gender (see Bobo, 2002; Inniss & Feagin, 2002; Sun, Cooks, Rinehart, & Williams, 2002). In explorations of intra-ethnic difference, the literature tends to examine visible or empirical markers (e.g., neighborhood or school as a proxy for family wealth). When these visible intersections are not used, research often concludes that the range of interpretations reflects the diversity of audience interpretation (see Means Coleman, 2002). Following Grossberg’s (1996) call to not neglect the positivity of the subaltern and power relations within it, this study is interested in advancing understanding of intra-ethnic difference by researching interpretive communities within the diaspora—how they define their differences, how they use transnational Korean media differently, and how their locations within interpretive communities shape their reception of texts. DEFINING CONCEPTS Thus far, I have discussed transnationalism, hybridity, diaspora, and ethnicity, and for the interests of clarity, it is useful to briefly define the ways these concepts are being used in this research. Transnationalism is defined as the movement of ideas, capital, and people across borders. The focus for this project is on media that crosses national borders. Though media that crosses borders is often referred to by its nation of origin, for example, French film, I intentionally refer to transnationality to emphasize the global movement of

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media in ways that shape practices of audience reception and use (see Bailey, 2007; Gillespie, 2000). For diaspora, I borrow strongly from Georgiou (2006), who describes diaspora as scattered peoples that maintain imagined community through communication. Diasporas involve the transnational movement of an ethnic group such that there are multiple notions of home— the homeland and the adopted home, the global and the local, the romantic and the experienced (Georgiou, 2006; Karim, 2006). Drawing from Barth (1969), ethnicity refers to a group of people with a belief in a shared origin and that uses a limited sense of cultural markers to define belonging. In this sense, there are clear overlaps between ethnicity and diaspora. Ethnicity is a belief in a “fundamental essence” that provides a sense of community, pride, and uniqueness (Fishman, 1997; Kibria, 2002; Song, 2003). Ethnicity and diaspora, then, are not mutually exclusive terms. Indeed, a diaspora is the transnational movement of an ethnic group linked together through transnational communication that sustains a sense of community and shared belonging despite geographic and spatial dislocation. When diaspora is referred to in later chapters, it specifically refers to Korean ethnonational populations outside Korea, while ethnicity refers to geographical/cultural belonging that is not specific to hybridity. In a sense, diaspora is being used more specifically to refer to Korean American, rather than Korean, communities and meaning-making. QUALITATIVE DESIGN Because of the nascent quality of the research, it is advantageous to use a holistic, humanistic approach (Creswell, 1997, 2003), and qualitative methodologies are best at providing depth to understand complex processes and necessary build-blocks to utilize theory in an understudied field of research (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Using a grounded theory approach, I do not engage in abstract theorizing that is not rooted clearly in data but apply theory to the data to privilege the complexity and depth of the data (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). To answer the questions raised earlier, I employed a multiple method, qualitative design, which provides opportunities to “triangulate” patterns in data (Fortner & Christians, 2003; Kvale, 1996). Triangulation occurred through the use of media diaries, in-depth interviews, and limited ethnographic observation. Media diaries were used to gauge the participants’ attitudes and reflections immediately after interacting with the films and provided indications of how individuals’ experiences with the films change over a number of viewings. The in-depth interviews and ethnographic observations supplemented the media diaries by allowing me to explore participants’ uses of films and the meanings they

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make of them as well as an opportunity for member checks by verifying conclusions drawn from the media diaries. It is important to pause to explain the choice of film as a medium. Arguably, dramas, a loanword (in a Korean context) referring to narrative television fiction, and K-pop are more widely used in diasporic and transnational fan communities. Though it might seem paradoxical at first glance, it is, indeed, because of the nature of the use of dramas and K-pop that films were chosen. Because this study is not interested in only “fans” but in understanding interactions with transnational Korean media by a range of KAs, including those who are uninterested in diasporic culture and Korean popular entertainment, the medium chosen had to be able to appeal to a non-fan. Texts that require fan interest are less useful. For instance, popular dramas have a run of roughly twenty one-hour episodes, which means to study KA interest in previously unseen dramas would require a commitment of at least twenty viewing hours. Having them watch a range of dramas could easily reach a fifty-hour commitment. On the other hand, K-pop, which is the transnational media text most widely known to individuals outside the diaspora, suffers from its brevity. The texts are roughly four minutes per video or stage performance. Because the performances lack narrative coherence and require an abundance of extra-textual knowledge and learned ways of seeing, they are difficult to consume for the non-fan except as an unfamiliar constellation of images and sounds that is often marginalized as unusual or “exotic.” Film carves a middle ground. It allows viewers to identify with characters and narratives while making manageable demands on their time. To find participants, I recruited KA high school students from two large metropolitan areas in the southern United States. Because the ethnic church plays the central organizing role of the KA community (Kitano & Daniels, 1995; Ryu, 1991), I first contacted ministers at several major Korean ethnic churches in Dallas and Atlanta. To reach individuals that do not attend church, I used a snowball sampling technique to find more participants for the study. Altogether, I interviewed thirty-three participants, sixteen from Dallas and seventeen from Atlanta. Of the thirty-three, there are eighteen boys and fifteen girls. Participants were given five DVDs and asked to watch at least three during a seven-day period. They were encouraged to watch the DVDs as they typically would with freedom to watch with whom and how they chose. The only request was that they space their viewings during that period, primarily so that there would be more opportunities, hopefully, for reflection during the viewing period. To choose the films, I relied on two primary criteria. First, to minimize harm to participants, I did not include films that have a rating of “18 and over,” which excluded the action, war, and horror genres. Unfortunately, excluding these from the possible list limited the range of genres to comedy, romantic comedy, and drama. Of the remaining films, I found ones popular

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with young KAs. On soompi.com, a forum for Korean media fans, users listed their favorite Korean films. Using that data combined with feedback from a focus group of high school-aged KAs, the five DVDs I chose were My Sassy Girl, My Tutor Friend, My Little Bride, He Was Cool, and The Way Home. The first four films were chosen most often as individuals’ favorite films, all of which represent young adults’ and high school students’ lives. Though not at the very top of the list, The Way Home was still highly popular among fans, and it added diversity as the only film in the study that cannot be classified as a romantic comedy. Instead, The Way Home is an inspirational surprise hit about a young boy who is forced to live with his deaf-mute maternal grandmother in the countryside while his mother looks for work in Seoul. When the story begins, the boy is taken reluctantly to live with his maternal grandmother, and though he is initially angry, smug, and dissatisfied with his dislocation, he slowly comes to realize the value of his grandmother’s love and sacrifice and about the mutual care in the rural community. The movie acts as an allegory to remind Koreans that their push to rapid modernization has come at a price—a loss of the values of traditional, rural culture. Though very different from KAs’ experiences in the diaspora, participants identified with it by transposing the meaning of the modern city to the United States and the countryside to Korea as well as their intergenerational struggles with family. My Sassy Girl, on the other hand, would most likely be defined as a romantic comedy, as would the remaining three films. My Sassy Girl differs, however, in one important way. Most importantly, the film features what is often described as a gender role reversal. The female lead is more physically aggressive and drives the action in their relationship while the male character is objectified as the vehicle through which she is able to overcome the death of her former lover. Though the film is narrated from the male protagonist’s perspective, participants in this study largely see it as progressive gender representation. The three remaining films are fairly typical romantic comedies that feature patriarchal and heteronormative relationships. In My Little Bride, some viewers are bothered by the primary plot device of an arranged marriage, although some KA girls did identify with the life experiences of the female lead because of her similarity in age and life experience as a high school student. The remaining two films feature a bad boy, though unlike many US representations, their “badness” is not about desirable machismo but rather represented as a byproduct of emotional harm they had experienced as children. In He Was Cool, the male lead suffers because of the death of a childhood friend and his later accidental contraction of the HIV virus. In My Tutor Friend, his emotional dysfunction and detachment is rooted in his relationship with his gangster father.

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ROLE OF THE RESEARCHER I approached this project, realizing I am deeply involved the community that I am studying. I embraced my subjectivity, understanding that the researcher and the research are intertwined and actively reflecting upon my social location and those of my participants in order to understand how our interactions shaped the process of data collection, the participants’ responses, and my interpretations of those responses. This is particularly true for interviews in which the researcher plays a crucial role in data collection (Kvale, 1996). As a KA, who was raised in the diaspora, a benefit was that I have insider knowledge, familiarity with cultural norms and language, which aided in my ability to collect data, ability to codeswitch, and a standpoint that provided analytical depth. Also, my co-ethnic membership granted me access to the diasporic Korean community with participants and community leaders assuming that I would treat them with sensitivity and fairness. Though there is the possibility that I have blind spots because of my shared membership, the use of grounded theory meant that all claims were situated clearly in the interviews and other data. This approach illuminated possible blind spots and corrected against analysis that does not have clear support. UPCOMING CHAPTERS Chapter 1 provides the theoretical framework for this research project. It examines literature on ethnic identity, ethnicity, and diaspora from a multidisciplinary perspective, drawing on research in ethnic identity, diaspora, and transnationalism as well as the literature on media, culture, and identity. Chapter 2 focuses on dominant cultural influences on ethnic identification, on intra-ethnic differences and boundary formation, and on ethnic resources and choices that are not linked to diasporic reception of transnational media. The chapter emerged as it became apparent through the interviews that there were important contributions to understandings of multiple-generation diasporic intragroup boundary formation and identity that are not addressed fully in scholarly literature. Chapter 3 is the first of three chapters focused on transnational media reception and diasporic identity positions. It examines the ways KAs’ evaluations of Korean films are shaped by their views of ethnic identification. Specifically, the chapter examines their evaluations of the narrative qualities of the film and the perceived influences on diasporic identification as a result of watching the films for the study. Chapter 4 examines the ways diasporic identity position shapes individuals’ identification with characters in the films and the celebrities who play the roles. Finally, chapter 5 concludes the

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three reception chapters by examining KAs’ reading of culture in the films as shaped by ethnic identification. The focus of chapter 6 is to examine the ways KAs integrate transnational Korean media into their everyday practices. In particular, it focuses on the readings of culture and the uses of Korean media knowledge to construct boundaries that both include and exclude and that are formed between both non-ethnics and among KAs. The conclusion ends by connecting the major themes of each chapter with theory. It also makes the point that transnational media act as resources to define authenticity and group boundaries. Finally, the conclusion points to new theoretical directions, the study’s limitations, and opportunities for future research. REFERENCES Publisher’s Note: The interviews used as supplemental research in this text were all conducted with the participants’ and their parents’ knowledge and agreement that these interviews would be used in a later publication. Bailey, O. G. (2007). Transnational identities and the media. In O. G. Bailey, M. Georgiou & R. Harindranath (Eds.), Transnational lives and the media: Re-imagining diaspora (pp. 212–230). New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan. Barth, F. (1969). Introduction. In F. Barth (Ed.), Ethnic groups and boundaries: The social organization of culture difference (pp. 9–38). Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Bobo, J. (2002). The Color Purple: Black women as cultural readers. In R. Means Coleman (Ed.), Say it loud!: African-American audiences, media, and identity (pp. 205–227). New York, NY: Routledge. Buckingham, D. (2008). Introducing identity. In D. Buckingham (Ed.), Youth, identity, and digital media. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1–24. doi: 10.1162/ dmal.9780262524834.001 Creswell, J. W. (1997). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Cross, W. E. (1978). The Thomas and Cross models of psychological nigrescence. Journal of Black Psychology, 5(1), 13–31. doi: 10.1177/009579847800500102 Croucher, S. M., Oommen, D., Borton, I., Anarbaeva, S., & Turner, J. S. (2010). The influence of religiosity and ethnic identification on media use among Muslims and non-Muslims in France and Britain. Mass Communication and Society, 13(3), 314–334. doi: 10.1080/ 15205430903296085 Dator, J., & Seo, Y. (2004). Korea as the wave of a future: The emerging dream society of aesthetics and icons. Journal of Futures Studies, 9(1), 31–44. Retrieved from http:// www.jfs.tku.edu.tw/ Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity, youth, and crisis. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. Espiritu, Y. L. (2002). Multiple identities of second-generation Filipinos. In P. G. Min (Ed.), The second-generation: Ethnic identity among Asian Americans (pp. 19–52). New York, NY: AltaMira Press. Fishman, J. A. (1997). Language, ethnicity, and racism. In N. Coupland & A. Jaworski (Eds.), Sociolinguistics: A reader and coursebook (pp. 329–340). New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

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Fortner, R. S., & Christians, C. G. (2003). Separating wheat from chaff in qualitative studies. In D. H. Weaver & G. C. Weaver (Eds.), Mass communication research and theory (pp. 350–361). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Georgiou, M. (2006). Diaspora, identity, and the media: Diasporic transnationalism and mediated spatialities. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc. Gillespie, M. (2000). Transnational communications and diaspora communities. In S. Cottle (Ed.), Ethnic minorities and the media: Changing cultural boundaries (pp. 164–179). Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press. Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. S. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company. Grossberg, L. (1996). Identity and cultural studies: Is that all there is? In S. Hall & P. Du Gay (Eds.), Questions of cultural identity (pp. 87–107). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Hall, S. (1996). New ethnicities. In D. Morley & K.-H. Chen (Eds.), Stuart Hall: Critical dialogues in cultural studies (pp. 443–451). New York, NY: Routledge. Hanaki, T., Singhal, A., Han, M. W., Kim, D. K., & Chitnis, K. (2007). Hanryu sweeps East Asia: How Winter Sonata is gripping Japan. The International Communication Gazette, 69(3): 281–294. doi: 10.1177/1748048507076581 Hardindranath, R. (2000). Ethnicity, national culture(s) and the interpretation of television. In S. Cottle (Ed.), Ethnic minorities and the media: Changing cultural boundaries (pp. 150–163). Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press. Inniss, L. B., & Feagin, J. R. (2002). The Cosby Show: The view from the Black middle class. In R. R. Means Coleman (Ed.), Say it loud!: African-American audiences, media, and identity (pp. 187–204). New York, NY: Routledge. Karim, K. H. (2006). Nation and diaspora: Rethinking multiculturalism in a transnational context. International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, 2(3), 267–282. doi: 10.1386/ macp.2.3.267/1 Kellner, D. (1995). Media culture: Cultural studies, identity, and politics between the modern and the postmodern. New York, NY: Routledge. Kibria, N. (2002). Becoming Asian American: Second-generation Chinese and Korean American identities. Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press. Kim, Y. Y. (1978). A communication approach to the acculturation process: A study of Korean immigrants in Chicago. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 2(1), 197–224. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2011.03.031 Kitano, H. H. L., & Daniels, R. (1995). Asian Americans: Emerging minorities (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Kvale, S. (1996). InterViews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Lee, C. (2004). Korean immigrants’ viewing patterns of Korean satellite television and its role in their lives. Asian Journal of Communication, 14(1), 68–80. doi: 10.1080/ 0129298042000195161 Lee, M., & Cho, C. H. (2003). Women watching together: An ethnographic study of Korean soap opera fans in the United States. In G. Dines & J. M. Humez (Eds.), Gender, race, and class in media (2nd ed., pp. 482–487). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Leong, A. C. Y. (2002). Korean cinema: The new Hong Kong: A guidebook for the latest Korean Wave. Victoria, B.C.: Trafford. Lin, W.-Y., Song, H., & Ball-Rokeach, S. (2010). Localizing the global: Exploring the transnational ties that bind in new immigrant communities. Journal of Communication, 60(2), 205–229. doi: 10.1111/j.1460–2466.2010.01480.x Mayer, V. (2003). Living telenovelas/telenovelizing life: Mexican American girls’ identities and transnational telenovelas. Journal of Communication, 53(3), 479–495. doi: 10.1111/ j.1460–2466.2003.tb02603.x Means Coleman, R. R. (2002). Introduction. In R. R. Means Coleman (Ed.), Say it loud!: African-American audiences, media, and identity (pp. 1–26). New York, NY: Routledge. Moon, S.-j., & Park, C. Y. (2007). Media effects on acculturation and biculturalism: A case study of Korean immigrants in Los Angeles’ Koreatown. Mass Communication and Society, 10(3), 319–343. doi: 10.1080/15205430701407330

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Phinney, J. S. (1996). Understanding ethnic diversity: The role of ethnic identity. American Behavioral Scientist, 40(2), 143–152. doi: 10.1177/0002764296040002005 Ryu, C. (1991). Koreans and church. In J. F. J. Lee (Ed.), Asian American experiences in the United States: Oral histories of first to fourth generation Americans from China, the Philippines, Japan, India, the Pacific islands, Vietnam, and Cambodia (p. 228). Jefferson, NC: McFarland. Shim, D. (1998). From yellow peril through model minority to renewed yellow peril. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 22, 385–409. doi: 10.1177/0196859998022004004 Song, M. (2003). Choosing ethnic identity. Malden, MA: Polity. Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Sun, C. F., Cooks, L., Rinehart, C., & Williams, S. A. S. (2002). DMX, Cosby, and two sides of the American Dream. In R. R. Means Coleman (Ed.), Saying It Loud!: African-American Audiences, Media, and Identity (pp. 115–145). New York: Routledge. Tse, L. (1999). Finding a place to be: Ethnic identity exploration of Asian Americans. Adolescence, 34(133), 121–138. Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/journal/00018449_Adolescence Tuan, M. (1998). Forever foreigners or honorary whites?: The Asian ethnic experience today. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Chapter One

Diaspora, Ethnicity, and Media

To understand second-generation KA adolescents’ uses and interpretations of transnational Korean media, I employ a multi-layered theoretical foundation that brings together research on ethnic identity, diaspora, transnational media, media practices and interpretations by second-generation members of diasporas, and identity construction for racialized diasporas. Specifically, this book connects two strands of literature on transnational/ethnic media— ethnic identity and diaspora. Linking the two is not an easy fit, however, because they both have different perspectives and assumptions. The research on diasporas has largely emerged from the humanities and has from the beginning been concerned with questions of cultural, social, and political power (Gilroy, 1997), while research on ethnicity has been studied from both quantitative social scientific traditions that are usually apolitically expressed (e.g., acculturation, ethnic identity formation) and humanistic traditions that are more likely to consider the consequences of racialization. A limitation of research on ethnicity is that it tends to locate the work within national borders with the primary interest lying in the relationship between majority and minority relations and, to a lesser extent, the creation of community boundaries within the ethnic group. Because I am concerned with questions of transnationality and second-generation KAs, it is unsound to ignore the literature on either diaspora or ethnicity. Despite the disjunctures and complications, I borrow interdisciplinarily from cultural studies, ethnic studies, anthropology, sociology, and a bit from social and developmental psychology in order to gain the richness an interdisciplinary approach provides. I begin this chapter by first contextualizing my view of identity, drawing heavily from the work of Hall. Then, I turn to a brief review of the literature on ethnicity and on diasporas. Finally, I connect the previous sec-

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tions by engaging the audience reception scholarship that is germane to ethnic and diasporic identification. IDENTIFICATION As Hall (1990; 1996a) pointed out, identity is multiple and always changing. Identity is not about the development of a core sense of self as developmental psychologists would argue, but, rather, it is an articulation into cultural discourse. It is an assertion of agency about one’s self that is situated within the context of cultural ideologies about who one is and who one is allowed to be (Hall, 1990; Hall, 1996a). As cultural contexts change and as personal positions within cultural ideology change, individuals dynamically re-articulate their identities such that it is not about what identity is but about what identity is being. With this in mind, a preferable concept for Hall is not identity but, rather, identification because the latter implies the always changing and reacting senses of self (Hall, 1996a). Senses of self are understood in the plural because identities are multiple, fragmented, and sometimes even antagonistic selves that are called upon depending on one’s social context (Hall, 1996a). We have fragmented identities because we are a pastiche of cultural representations (Hall, 1990) that are informed by cultural myths, fantasies, and narratives. Because we live in “media culture,” many of the representations of ourselves are constructed through popular culture (Hall, 2003; Kellner, 1995). The purpose of this project, then, is to study ethnic identification for second-generation teenagers in the Korean diaspora in the United States and the ways that they use and make sense of representation as it intersects with their own identifications. ETHNIC IDENTIFICATION Before discussing the experience of being racialized ethnic minorities in a marginalizing culture, it is necessary to differentiate ethnicity and race. The concepts are commonly confounded but have important distinctions. As a taxonomic system, race is based on physical difference to create evaluative rankings in which groups are placed in social hierarchy (Fishman, 1997). Arbitrary differences are used to justify political projects of the dominant racial group (Omi & Winant, 1994), and, historically, the pseudo-scientific rankings were promoted by White groups in Western and Northern Europe, North America, and Australia to justify their political ends (Prashad, 2001; van Dijk, 1993). Some examples of these political projects include racializing the “Third World” in order to justify colonization, racializing American Indians to justify the ideology of “Manifest Destiny,” and racializing African Americans to justify slavery. Ethnicity, on the other hand, is an “enactment

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and celebration of authenticity” in which ethnic members find pride and a sense of community (Fishman, 1997). Their sense of unity becomes manifest in a group belief that there is a “fundamental essence” that makes their group unique (Fishman, 1997; Kibria, 2002). What matters for ethnic groups is not “real” distinctiveness but a perception of common ancestry and self-conscious awareness that they make up a coherent cultural group (Song, 2003). The basic difference, therefore, is about who has the ability to define whom. Race is an externally imposed system of difference meant to justify oppression; whereas, ethnicity is a self-group construction of community. It is because of racialization that certain ethnic minorities do not have the option of following the assimilation path of White ethnics (Tuan, 1998). For White Americans, ethnicity is “optional” and symbolic (Kibria, 2002; Tuan, 1998; Waters, 2004); ethnicity has little bearing on Whites’ daily lives when asserting an ethnic identity (Tuan, 1998). It is a voluntary identity that has few, if any, sustained commitments (Kibria, 2002). For Asian Americans, on the other hand, their visible distinction precludes them from being able to choose whether to identify ethnically or not. Even for Asian Americans, who desire to participate fully in dominant, White society, their efforts are marginalized (Kibria, 2002). While a certain level of acculturation and participation is possible, full assimilation is not legitimated by Whites, who feel a proprietary claim to being “real” Americans (Tuan, 1998). Regardless of how long Asian Americans have lived in the United States, having Asian features means being judged as more foreign than native (Tuan, 1998). Even understanding cultural norms and speaking fluent English is not a strong marker of American-ness. In fact, second- and third-generation Asian Americans often get complimented on their ability to speak English (Kibria, 2002). For Asian Americans, who assert their ethnic identity and dissociate with the racial classification of Asian American, this strategy is limited in its effectiveness (Espiritu, 1992). Ethnicity is not recognized or legitimated by the wider society (Song, 2003), but, instead, it acquires a racialized meaning (Kibria, 2002). In a pluralistic society, ethnic identity for minority groups is constrained by the views of other groups (Espiritu, 1992; Nagel, 1994). To conceive of ethnic identity as strictly a matter of personal choice is to deny the power of classification in defining one’s self (Espiritu, 1992). It is the interaction between the views the group has of itself and the views others have of the group that form ethnic identity (Espiritu, 1992; Nagel, 1994). Power relations between dominant and subordinate groups and, in particular, racial classification play an important role in constraining and defining ethnic identity (Espiritu, 1992; Nagel, 1994). Race acts as a marker to differentiate and essentialize Asian Americans for dominant cultural purposes (Song, 2003). Because of the racialization of ethnic identity, the freedom to exercise ethnic options is limited strictly to personal aspects of Asian Americans’ lives (Song, 2003), and attempts to publicly assert a self-defined identity are

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subordinated to socially imposed racial identities (Phinney, 1990; Tuan, 1998). For example, in Kibria’s (2002) interviews with Asian Americans, all are aware that their stigmatized racial identity acts as a marker of exclusion. Because of the understanding of the reality of Asian American racial categorization, some Asian Americans actively seek to appropriate their racial classification and infuse it with new meanings and significance (Espiritu, 1992; Kibria, 2002). Pan-Asian racial identity, for instance, has become a meaningful identity for many Asian Americans, particularly since the murder of Vincent Chin in 1982, to secure greater political power and to form solidarity in the face of racialized marginalization (Fong, 2008). However, even a growing sense of racial identity does not overshadow the importance of ethnic identity (Kibria, 2002). Even for those who acknowledge a pan-Asian racial identity, this usually occurs simultaneously with ethnic identity (Kibria, 2002). Their racial identity does not diminish ethnic identification, but, instead, Asian Americans turn to their ethnic identities as a defense against racial categorization by others (Song, 2003; Tuan, 1998). Racial identification may have little political meaning for individuals that have specific interests related to their ethnic group (Kibria, 2002), and assertions of a specific ethnic heritage can counter racialization (Song, 2003). In fact, some Asian Americans see racialized identity as an artificial imposition to personal choice, resent assumptions of intra-Asian affinity, and intentionally disidentify with Asian Americans outside their ethnic group (Kibria, 2002). Ethnic identification, however, comes with costs. As Barth (1969) noted in a classic volume, ethnic identity entails social processes of exclusion and incorporation. Because it is the members themselves that choose ethnic boundaries, belonging to the ethnic group implies a basic identity and the claim to judge others and to be judged according to the standards deemed relevant to that group’s ethnic identity (Barth, 1969). Culture is important in animating boundaries by providing a common history, ideologies, symbols, and meanings (Nagel, 1994), but because it would be impossible to include all aspects of culture in forming ethnic group boundaries and because it would limit individual expression too tightly, ethnic boundaries are maintained by a relatively small set of cultural features (Barth, 1969; Blom, 1969; Smith, 1991). To determine this small set of indicators, there is much negotiation about which cultural criteria are valued and which are suppressed (Barth, 1969). Belonging provides a sense of community, but membership also restricts personal choice as ethnic group members engage in exclusionary discourses about ethnic purity (Song, 2003). Discourses about authenticity emphasize essentialism and a duty to apply these norms in order to be a “real” member (Appiah & Gutmann, 1996). To criticize those who do not conform, terms such as “twinkie” (i.e., yellow on the outside, white on the inside) are used to

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pejoratively discipline Asian Americans as inauthentic. These discourses are problematic because Asian Americans are expected to conform to political and social scripts of behavior despite their personal beliefs, values, and experiences (Appiah & Gutmann, 1996). Yet, even with these restrictions on personal choice, ethnic identity is often sought because it provides a sense of community and self in the face of racial oppression. It creates a healthier sense of self (Lee, 2003; Roberts, Phinney, Masse, Chen, Roberts, & Romero; 1999) that blunts the harmful impact of cultural marginalization and stereotyping (Martinez & Dukes, 1997). Non-Media Resources for Ethnic Identification Among the influences on Asian American ethnic identification, the most researched and perhaps most important is the family (Kibria, 2002). An especially important site for ethnic socialization, the family plays a critical role in the development of an initial favorable orientation to one’s ethnic identity (Phinney, 1996). Learning the language and ethnic culture also starts with the efforts of parents (Phinney, Romero, Nava, & Huang, 2001). Having this background prepares children for ethnic identification as adolescents and young adults, and it gives them tools to better resist assimilation (Rumbaut, 1996). When their children face discrimination, parents and community elders also provide support by urging children to seek ethnic solidarity and to avoid racial categorization (Kibria, 2002). Korean American parents, in particular, emphasize their homeland nation’s history of struggle and triumph (Kibria, 2002). This is also true for second-generation parents, who encourage a sense of community for their children, enrolling them in ethnic organizations such as Asian American Little Leagues (Tuan, 1998). Though second-generation parents are not as strict with their views on intra-marriage and traditional culture, they actively encourage their children to form associations with co-ethnics and other Asian Americans (Tuan, 1998). Co-ethnic friendships are a particularly valuable resource for Asian Americans raised in predominantly White neighborhoods (Tuan, 1998). For those who grow up in White suburban neighborhoods, the experience is often subtle alienation, awkwardness, and discrimination (Tuan, 1998). Asian Americans, who live in ethnic enclaves, on the other hand, are more likely to have resilient ethnic identities and to exhibit better psychological health (Smith, 1991). Unlike Asian Americans that grow up in White suburbs, living in Asian American-centered communities means not having to actively seek out co-ethnics or make conscious efforts to understand identity because co-ethnics make up much of the individual’s social space (Tuan, 1998). Besides family and neighborhood influences, proficiency in the ethnic language is among the strongest predictors of ethnic identification (Phinney, et al., 2001). Another mediating influence is perceived discrimination. Asian

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Americans, who perceive being discriminated against, are more likely to be skeptical of dominant society and to identify with their ethnic group. In psychological research, it is often the realization of marginalization that leads to the process of ethnic identity formation. It is to this psychological literature to which I briefly turn. Before doing so, I want to clarify that I am examining the literature for what it might reveal about the ways intra-ethnic difference is structured but that I do not bind this book to the normative assumptions of psychological literature, which views ethnic identification as stages of psychological development. As Buckingham (2008) wrote, “Despite the criticisms that can be made here [of psychology’s normative perspective], psychological accounts do provide some useful concepts” (p. 3). For this study, I see the psychic desire to construct identity as part of a complicated web of social relations and meanings that shape viewing positions and social locations within the terrain of culture and am interested in the ways these psychic desires are expressed through social negotiations of ethnic meaning, which in turn shape identity positions through which transnational Korean media are received and used. In this sense, I am trying to merge the psychological with the social, noting that the social is shaped by psychic desires in identification practices and that an individual’s psychic construction of self is shaped by the social. This merging was an endeavor Hall (1996a) said was crucial, although he used psychoanalysis rooted in Freud and Deleuze rather than social scientifically based psychological research in his theorization of identification. ETHNIC IDENTITY FORMATION The earliest models of ethnic identity formation are based on Erikson’s (1968) work on ego identity formation. His theory states that because adolescence is marked by major physical, emotional, and social changes, selfconsciousness is heightened and self-concepts are the most malleable. Drawing upon Erikson’s work, Marcia (1966) operationalized his model with four stages. The first stage, diffused, is the point when individuals have not explored their identity. The next stage is foreclosed. This is when a commitment is made but without exploration—usually based on parental values. The third stage is moratorium, which involves exploration of identity but does not yet result in a commitment. Finally, when individuals commit to a firm identity, they reach the final stage, achieved identity. Adapted to ethnic identity, Cross (1978) reworked the four stages to be specific to the experience of African American psychological development, calling his stages pre-encounter, encounter, immersion, and internalization, which roughly correlate with the four stages operationalized by Marcia (1966).

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Adopted from these earlier efforts is the most widely used contemporary model of ethnic identity formation. Phinney (1996) transformed the fourstage model into three stages of ethnic identity formation. In the initial stage, individuals uncritically accept values and attitudes in their social environment, which typically come from family and community influences. During this time, individuals may hold positive, negative, or mixed attitudes. Positive attitudes are based on socialization in their families or ethnic communities, and negative attitudes occur because of an internalization of negative images from broader society, including popular media. Holding negative attitudes leads to a preference for dominant culture and the rejection of their ethnic culture. The second stage is search or immersion. As ethnic minorities encounter more of the wider society and are exposed to discrimination and racism, they become more aware of their ethnicity (Phinney, 1996). Along with feelings of anger and dissatisfaction with the dominant group for perceived wrongs, ethnic minority members increasingly empathize with other ethnic minority groups and turn toward their own. This leads to a search or immersion in their ethnic heritage. It is during this period that many regret not learning their ethnic languages and not immersing themselves in the history and culture of their ethnic group. The final stage is achieved ethnic identity. In this stage, ethnic minority members develop a secure, confident sense of themselves as members of their ethnic group, developing realistic views of what it means to belong to their ethnic group while abandoning anger at dominant society and increasing openness to other groups (Phinney, 1996). Tse (1999) specifically tailored her model of ethnic identity formation to Asian Americans. Studying published first-person narratives, she returned to a four-stage model. Like the research mentioned above, her first stage is ethnic unawareness. In the second stage called ethnic ambivalence and evasion, Asian Americans avoid their ethnic identity and internalize the values and norms of dominant society. The third stage, ethnic emergence, is most similar to the previously mentioned theorists’ ethnic exploration or immersion stages, but, unlike the others, she splits this stage into two distinct substages. The first substage occurs in adolescence or early adulthood when Asian Americans realize that joining the dominant group is not fully possible. Asian Americans become aware of their status as visible racial minorities, leading to sensitivity and increased awareness of racism. Because of this, individuals grow dissatisfied and angry at dominant culture. In the next substage, Asian Americans explore their ethnic heritage, embrace the culture of their ethnic homeland, and seek connections with their ethnic community. However, Asian Americans learn through these experiences that they cannot completely integrate in their ethnic community. This realization leads to the final stage, ethnic identity incorporation. In the final stage, Asian Americans come to negotiate a new identity, where they recognize their status as both

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Asian and American (Tse, 1999). They come to terms with their minority status and develop pride in their Asian American identity. As a result of incorporation, Asian Americans form relationships within and beyond ethnic lines. Song (2003), a sociologist, does not conceptualize ethnic identification as stages to be progressed through but rather as choices that loosely parallel the aforementioned psychological stages. The first choice is adherence to group norms and a strong sense of belonging to the ethnic group. For those experiencing persistent or strong discrimination or exclusion, the desire for solidarity and cultural preservation is pronounced. The second choice is “opting out.” This choice is characterized by distancing behavior from the ethnic group and is chosen because of constraints to personal choice. However, the choice to opt out is rarely successful because it requires the ability to opt into another identity, which is denied because of their racially marked difference. The final choice is to take a personalized stance with partial identification in both the dominant and ethnic groups. The approach taken in this study more closely reflects Song’s approach because it does not conceptualize different ethnic identity positions as normative stages but rather as intentional identity choices. What overlaps and is conceptually useful in the psychological literature and in Song’s sociological approach is a common notion of intra-ethnic identity positions. In addition to examinations of important axes of difference and boundary formation, this study is interested in intra-ethnic differences based on ethnic choices, ones that are constrained by intra-group and dominant group meanings. Later, I point to the ways this connects to the concept of “new ethnicities” in the literature about diasporas. DIASPORIC IDENTIFICATION The nature of multiple belongings, of displacement from the “homeland,” and of transnational movement is all very much connected to the ways members of diasporas identify. Because the globalization of politics, economics, and technologies has allowed for the mass movement of people across national borders, diasporas are increasingly constituting modern societies (Thompson, 2002). As people migrate and form diasporas in their new home cultures, it leads to multiple belongings (Georgiou, 2006; Karim, 2006) and a multi-directional gaze that looks forward in the new home and back to the old homeland (Sreberny, 2000) such that belonging is never a singular notion of home or place but is multiple and contested (Christensen, 2012; Georgiou, 2006). As such, their lives are hybrid and heterogeneous (Hall, 1990). Like Hall’s emphasis on identification, living as members of diasporas is a becoming, rather than a being, of a unique positionality that sutures multiple senses

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of belonging and that forms interstitial spaces that connect the local to the global through transnational networks (Karim, 2006; Shi, 2005). But, what about the second generation? They certainly do not have nostalgia or backward gazes that shape their multiple identifications, yet as demonstrated in the literature on ethnicity, they live in a culture that marginalizes them as different, particularly if they are a racialized ethnic minority. To theorize second-generation KAs’ responses to and use of transnationally received Korean media, I draw upon Hall’s (1996b) concept of “new ethnicities.” This move is to contribute to a small but growing body of research that uses this concept as a framework for understanding the diasporic experience of second-generation racialized ethnic minorities (see Durham, 2004; Parker & Song, 2006). New ethnicities refers to the interstitial space located between locally experienced culture and the transnationally received “homeland” culture as it is imagined throughout the diaspora (Hall, 1996b). Though this concept is not unique to multiple-generation diasporic members, the process of becoming and finding a meaningful identity located between local and transnational identities is arguably more marked for racialized ethnic minorities raised in the local culture. This is evidenced in the literature on ethnic identification discussed above. Thus, the notion of ethnic identity formation can be understood through a diasporic approach as the ways individuals locate themselves within interstitial spaces as a consequence of their experiences of racialization (Espiritu, 2002; Gillespie, 2000) and their inability to return or have lived experience in their imagined “homelands.” Using transnational diasporic resources becomes a strategy of diasporic identification within new ethnicities. The uses of the resources are part of an “imagined” identity insofar as identities are constructed through their interpretations of their homeland mediated through communication technologies and shaped in diasporic communities and families. As Parker & Song (2006) noted, constructing new ethnicities is a negotiation of available symbolic resources at the intersection of one’s self, the diasporic group, and the larger socioeconomic context. Combining the two approaches, I argue that the research on new ethnicities in diaspora research can be compared to the ethnic choice of bicultural identification (Song, 2003) and the incorporation stage in the ethnic identity formation literature in which members of a racialized ethnic group incorporate their bicultural identifications (Tse, 1999). The distinction is that diasporic research tends to begin from the perspective of hybrid identifications, whereas the previously mentioned literature argues that there are either choices or developmental movement into a hybrid identity. The approach that this research takes is that there is a process of KA ethnic/diasporic identification that is motivated by both their social and cultural context as racialized ethnic minorities and their psychic desire for a perceived stable identity. I take the position that these intersect such that their psychic motiva-

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tions for private identity search are negotiated through intra-ethnic and interracial discursive practices. Their identity search takes shape in social groupings that form intra-ethnic taste communities and social hierarchies that shape intra-ethnic relations. Therefore, this research takes the view that second-generation diasporic members construct socially negotiated identity positions that are shaped by psychic motivations and articulated through intraethnic and inter-racial discourse. READING MEDIA At this point, I start by briefly discussing the literature on audience reception and audience use for persons of color to use as a framework for understanding the role of media for diasporic members, more specifically. This provides an overarching unity to the literature on ethnic identity and diasporic identity, which in lived practice has many overlaps, but in the scholarly literature has diverged along different research pathways, despite obvious interrelationships. In this project, my view of audience reception follows along the critical path first articulated by David Morley in his so-called Nationwide study, where he argued that social roles within families structure the uses and meanings drawn from television (Morley, 1980). Extrapolated to social identities outside of the family, it is reasonable to expect that social roles also lead to structured viewing positions such that meanings do not have boundless polysemic potential but rather that textual meanings are bound within a range of possible cultural interpretations shaped by the production codes of media institutions (Fiske, 1987; Lewis, 1991; Hall, 1990) and by the identity positions of the viewer (Croteau & Hoynes, 2003; Hardindranath, 2000; Means Coleman, 2002). Our social identities act as a central mediator of the interpretive process because they shape the cultural resources we activate to decode messages (Croteau & Hoynes, 2003). Lest that conclusion be confused with social determinism, it is not only about how the social shapes individual processes of meaning-making but also how meaning-making is shaped within constitutive interpretive communities (Georgiou, 2006; Storey, 1996). Because of the ways racial formations powerfully shape social life, racial identities become a salient viewing position in which different readings are made (Ang, 1990, Inniss & Feagin, 2002; Jhally & Lewis, 1992; Liebes & Katz, 1986; Park, Gabbadon; & Chernin, 2006; Squires, 2002). This is important to remember in a study of KAs because in addition to being members of a diaspora, they are also marked as racialized ethnic minorities. So, there are dual and interrelated processes of being marginalized as racialized ethnic minorities and being transnationally connected to the “imagined community” of the diaspora.

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RACIST REPRESENTATION IN POPULAR CULTURE Before turning attention to transnational media reception, it is important to first very briefly discuss the context in which transnational reception is happening, namely the dominant cultural environment and to ethnic/racial identification for KAs and Asian Americans in response to this social context. With the theoretical assumption that mediated representations provide discourses through which individuals articulate their identities (Hall, 1996a), the picture is fairly grim for Asian Americans. Dominant media routinely marginalize and objectify Asian Americans (see Espiritu, 2004; Feng, 2002; Hagedorn, 2000; Hamamoto, 1994; Kang, 2002; Larson, 2006; Lee, 1999; Locke, 2009; Marchetti, 1993; Oehling, 1980, Ono & Pham, 2009; Parrenas Shimizu, 2007; Shim, 1998; Sun, 2003). Representations of Asians and Asian Americans as “problems” for dominant culture (Riggins, 1992) leads to a sense of being culturally marginalized (Kibria, 2002; Smith, 1991), an internalization of dominant cultural hostility (Mahtani, 2001; Phinney, 1989; Phinney, 1996; Sue, 1973), and psychological consequences to self-image (Phinney, 1989). As Hall (2003) pointed out, media representations are principal sites for ideological domination. Media representations are argued to support a system of privilege by providing ideologies about race that are supportive of the White majority (Hall, 2003), media are important channels for elites to control discourses on race (van Dijk, 1993), and media perpetuate wealth, power, and status of dominant groups (Lull, 2003). To effect cultural change, a process of negotiation occurs in which subordinate groups are offered concessions in the form of cultural capital in exchange for acceptance of their inferior role and the domination of elites (Artz & Murphy, 2000). This is the crux of hegemony theory for which the goal is to offer as few incentives as necessary to gain consent of unequal social relationships. One way to do this is for ideologies to become naturalized as “commonsense” understandings of the social world (Lull, 2003). For people of color, dominant representations sometimes are so pervasive and naturalized that they come to accept these ideologies as true. This can lead to internalized oppression, when a person of color believes their oppression is deserved and “natural” (Yamato, 2004). While internalized oppression is a part of ethnic minority communities and is the expression of a strong hegemony, hegemony is never complete (Artz & Murphy, 2000; Hall, 2003; Lull, 2003). There is continual negotiation over the meanings of the relationship, and, for some, there is active resistance to it. bell hooks (1984) wrote, for example, that “speaking back” in defiance of oppression is a healing step, while Yamada (2003) writes that the recognition of invisibility and marginalization starts the process of cultural visibility.

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ETHNIC/DIASPORIC IDENTIFICATION AND TRANSNATIONAL MEDIA RECEPTION Much of the research on transnational media focuses on acculturation in the first generation (see Choi & Tamborini, 1988; Hwang & He, 1999; Kim, 1977; Yang, Wu, Zhu, & Southwell, 2004), but that research is less relevant for this project because the focus is not acculturation but rather the uses and sense-making of transnational media as symbolic resources in the construction of new ethnicities. For this reason, I examine only the literature that focuses on transnational media use as symbolic resources. In the research on KA audience reception of transnational media (perhaps, of KA audience reception of any media), the focus is on the first-generation. Two examples are Lee and Cho’s (2003) study that found that Korean housewives use transnationally received Korean serial, dramatic television programming to build gender solidarity with fellow Korean housewives through TV talk that empowers resistance against patriarchy in the household, and Lee’s (2004) research that concluded that satellite TV plays an important role in reinforcing viewers’ strength of ethnic identification. I include these because there are no studies of second-generation KA audience reception of transnational media and because there is very little Asian American audience reception research, generally. For this reason, to examine research on ethnic identification and audience reception, I turn to research on Latina/o American reception and uses of telenovelas, which are Latin American dramatic television productions that are often problematically associated with US soap operas. Understanding Latina/o Americans’ use of telenovelas is informative because these studies examine the ways second-generation Americans interact with telenovelas in constructing their ethnic identities. In Rios’s (2003) field research with second-generation Latina/o Americans, she found that the primary purpose of watching telenovelas is for cultural maintenance, while Barrerra and Bielby (2001) note that telenovelas help create and maintain a cultural bond with Latin America, assist with heritage language learning and maintenance, and reinforce and legitimize their experiences with their cultural heritage, which is marginalized in popular media. In particular, they noted that the visual representation of Latin American styles diminished the sense that practicing their culture is unusual and different. In Mayer’s (2003a) participant observation of adolescent second-generation Mexican American girls’ viewing of Maria Isabel, she wrote that all of the respondents said telenovelas are an important part of their heritage and culture and that watching telenovelas is in “their blood.” An important distinction in her research from the previous two is that Mayer’s work can connect to diaspora research because it points to the ways Mexican American youths read the show to fit their social loca-

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tion, identifying and disidentifying with a transnational text in ways that are relevant to their local context. With the exception of Mayer’s research, much of the work on telenovela use by Latina/o Americans examine transnational media use for the purposes of understanding the use and impact of transnational media in sustaining cultural “maintenance” and connections. The research is largely rooted in the binary argument of ethnic media as an assimilative or pluralistic influence (see Park, 1922; Subervi-Velez, 1986), arguing for the pluralistic merits of transnational media use. Diasporic research, though related, shifts the focus to understanding the individual within the local, the global in the construction of new spaces, and interpretation rather than instrumental use. Drawing upon these two traditions, I can understand better the ways diasporic members construct themselves at the intersection of the local and global, the ways communication technologies are used as resources for diasporic identification, the ways identifications occur at the level of the individual and of larger social formations, and the ways that transnational media are used to invigorate ethnic identification. TRANSNATIONAL MEDIA RECEPTION AND DIASPORA I start with the literature on diasporas that focus on the immigrant generation because of the ways it informs an understanding of diasporic media use as symbolic resources and then turn to the ways second-generation diasporic members use transnational media to construct new ethnicities. Though the research is not on the first-generation, diasporic audience studies of secondgeneration users is under-researched and, thus, benefits from the inclusion of research on first-generation diasporic viewing practices. For diasporas, media and other communication technologies are particularly important resources because of their scattered nature; they collapse distances, bridge farflung members, and provide common connections to the homeland culture (Gillespie, 1995). The need to stay connected often means that diasporic members are early adopters of communication technologies (Karim, 2006). Its importance is such that unlike other forms of audience identification where consumption leads to identity practices, for diasporas, it is usually the reverse—that identification leads to consumptive practices (Georgiou, 2006). Therefore, transnational media are at the core of diasporic identification. Most transnational media research on diasporas points to members’ construction of imagined identities and communities through the use of transnationally received symbolic resources to create identities within the diaspora, to construct transnationally informed meanings about the diaspora, and to act as everyday resources in the face of cultural marginalization. To construct hybrid identities located in interstitial pockets at the boundaries of local and

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transnational cultural identities, diasporic members draw on transnational media as points of identification and as ways to construct imagined communities (Shi, 2005; Thompson, 2002). Georgiou (2006) wrote, “Transnational media, then, are important resources that are . . . involved in everyday life debates of what it means to belong, of what identification with a group consists of, what the symbols of the imagined self, the Other and the community are, and how the boundaries around communities and places are appropriated” (p. 13). Their wide availability and possibilities for instantaneous connections collapse time and distance (Karim, 2006) and act as a common point of reference for members of far-flung diasporic members (Shi, 2005) that are “utilized to negotiate new, hybrid cultures among diaspora communities” (Thompson, 2002, p. 417). Engaging transnational media, diasporic members are able to rework individual and community meaning through TV talk that empowers them to perform hybrid diasporic identifications (Gillespie, 2000). They infuse diasporas with symbolic resources used to better understand their relationship to their local host societies and act as spaces to find voice and validation in the public sphere (Cunningham, 2004). As Georgiou (2001) found, Greek Cypriots in London watched diasporic TV together in a public negotiation of diasporic meaning, articulating what it means to be an authentic Greek Cypriot displaced and situated in England. In addition to diasporic meaning and identity, transnational media are also used to symbolically and ritually connect to the homeland (Georgiou, 2001; Lee, 2003; Matsagins, Katz, & BallRokeach, 2011; Shi, 2009). Viewing transnational media allows for mundane, daily renewals to “home” in an unfamiliar world (Robins & Aksoy, 2006) and provide a means to practice ritual habits that provide consistency in changing and displaced lives (Shi, 2005). Affectively, the use of transnational media can create a temporary imagining of “drifting” back home across boundaries, as Ong (2009) pointed out in his research on Filipino Brits’ karaoke parties. Transnational media also bridge knowledge as diasporic members familiarize themselves with the mediated environment of home in efforts to better connect to the experiences of faraway family (Gillespie, 2000) and to provide shared meanings and conversation topics (Mayer, 2003a). For second-generation diasporic members, their lived experiences are not the same as their parents. Their sense of home is more ambivalent, they do not share their parents’ romanticism of home, and they are intimately aware of locally experienced racism in their host societies (Sreberny, 2000). The role of transnational media does not provide ritual connections to the homeland because second-generation diasporic members’ media rituals and use of media is made up in large part by dominant media in their local home culture. For this reason, the research on transnational media use by the second generation tends to rely on the new ethnicities framework to point to the hybrid

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ways in which meaning is formed explicitly in interstitial spaces through the use of mediated resources to resist full ethnic identification and to resist dominant cultural marginalization, living on the cultural borderlands and creating new ethnicities. Its focus is on localized interpretations of transnational resources, not on transnational connections sought because of local displacements (Mayer, 2003b). Unlike for the first generation, consuming transnational media is often motivated by feelings of racially expressed cultural marginalization (Croucher, Oommen, Borton, Anarbaeva, and Turner, 2010) and is used for ethnic identification (Hargreaves & Mahdjoub, 1997). Desai (2005) found, for example, that second-generation Indian Americans’ use of transnational film forms because of their local experiences of racialization during youth identity development. They engage in media as a “performative and pedagogic act,” engaging in practices of diasporic membership and gaining knowledge that marks diasporic authenticity. In communal practices of diasporic media use and interpretation, second-generation diasporic members construct group meanings, negotiating who belongs and what counts as “cool” (Mayer, 2003b). The notion of localized meanings constitutes understanding of new ethnicities because hybrid identifications are formed at the site of the global and the local. What is seen in this literature is that transnational media are used instrumentally and selectively to make sense of racialization happening in the host society and that the construction of new ethnicities happens in response to it (Gillespie, 1995). In one of the only studies of an Asian diaspora in the United States and their use of transnational media, Durham (2004) found that South Asian American girls make oppositional readings of both Indian and American popular cultures to assert a new identity position. The girls resisted the racialized sexualization of Asian American women in US popular culture and their parents’ conservative restrictions on sexualized expression. Similarly, Gillespie (1995) found that second-generation British girls in the South Asian diaspora drew upon their ethnic cultures to counter dominant cultural marginalization while rejecting much of the cultural traditions of their parents’ generation. As she noted, “Media are being used by productive consumers to maintain and strengthen boundaries, but also to create new, shared spaces in which syncretic cultural forms, such as ‘new ethnicities’ can emerge” (Gillespie, 1995, p. 208). CONCLUSION The purpose of the chapter is to construct a theoretical framework that is rooted in the literatures of both ethnic identification and diasporic identification in the reception and uses of transnational media. By drawing on the two literatures, this research works around some of the limitations of each per-

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spective while asserting some of its own theoretical positions. The first assertion is that identification is never complete but is in continual negotiation, changing with people’s shifting social contexts and also with their changing psychic search for meaningful identities. I reject social scientific psychological notions of identity formation as normative stages of developmental change, yet the project loosely incorporates the notion that racialized ethnic minority teenagers and young adults engage in processes of identity search that can be loosely identified as uninterested, involved, and bicultural. Although I contend that the categories are likely to be muddier and certainly not developmentally progressive, I understand that there is some utility to this conceptual framework. This leads to the second assertion. I argue that psychic motivations intersect with social practices to form identity positions. That is, though motivated by psychic needs for meaningful identification, the ways second-generation diasporic members understand their identities are negotiated through discursive practices among second-generation diasporic peers, across inter-generational relations within the diaspora, within panAsian racial groups, and through their experience as racialized ethnic minorities. I understand their identity positions to be choices structured in their social and psychic contexts. Third, I argue that it is fruitful to combine research on ethnicity and diasporas because of their different contributions. The strength of diasporic research is its focus on hybrid identification constructed at the intersection of the local and transnational. Despite its theoretical utility and depth, it is enriched by research on ethnicity that argues that the process does not include self-identifications do not posit intentional hybridity. In other words, because diasporic research tends to examine users of transnational media, it can have blinders to diasporic members, who do not actively construct identities that they themselves would understand as hybrid. It is important to research these individuals, too, when it comes to understanding diasporic practices of the broader second-generation population. For example, how do diasporic members who are uninterested, perhaps hostile, to their diasporic/ ethnic membership make sense of transnational media? This is an interesting question and complicates most descriptions of hybrid practices. Fourth, this research intentionally does not abandon a diasporic approach for an ethnicity approach, and unless the ethnic group is not infused by the transnational, this research views non-indigenous ethnic minority groups as diasporic. To make this distinction, the use of ethnic/ethnicity refers to a group of people, who have a shared sense of ancestry and common cultural practices. I use the term to refer to groupings in which there is no distinction between the homeland and diaspora. The use of diaspora or diasporic refers to communities constructed outside the homeland by a transnationally migratory ethnic community and is specific to hybridity found in local/global interstitial spaces. In other words, it refers to ethnic groups, who have moved

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overseas and are infused by the transnational movement of people and ideas. Particularly because this research examines meanings and uses of media that crosses borders, this research is at its heart diasporic. Finally, my view of diasporic reception of transnational media is that meanings are always formed in response to local contexts. The lived experience of diasporas are away from the “homeland” and whatever meanings they make of transnationally received media, though influenced by the homeland, is for local purposes. This is particularly true for the second generation, whose connection to the “homeland” is more tenuous and not rooted in childhood nostalgia. Therefore, this research draws on audience reception research from both the ethnic identity and diaspora literatures to understand as fully as possible the ways KA teens use transnational Korean media to construct individual and group identity and the ways KA teens make sense of transnational Korean media through the lens of their social identity positions. REFERENCES Ang, I. (1990). The nature of the audience. In J. Downing, A. Mohammadi & A. SrebernyMohammadi (Eds.), Questioning the media: A critical introduction (pp. 155–165). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Appiah, K. A., & Gutmann, A. (1996). Color conscious: The political morality of race. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Artz, L., & Murphy, B. O. (2000). Cultural hegemony in the United States. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Barrerra, V., & Bielby, D. D. (2001). Places, faces, and other familiar things: The cultural experience of telenovela viewing among Latinos in the United States. Journal of Popular Culture, 34(4), 1–18. Barth, F. (1969). Introduction. In F. Barth (Ed.), Ethnic groups and boundaries: The social organization of culture difference (pp. 9–38). Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Blom, J.-P. (1969). Ethnic and cultural differentiation. In F. Barth (Ed.), Ethnic groups and boundaries: The social organization of culture difference (pp. 74–85). Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Buckingham, D. (2008). Introducing identity. In D. Buckingham (Ed.), Youth, identity, and digital media. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1–24. doi: 10.1162/ dmal.9780262524834.001 Choi, J., & Tamborini, R. (1988). Communication-acculturation and the cultivation hypothesis: A comparative study between two Korean communities in the U.S. Howard Journal of Communications, 1(1), 57–74. Christensen, M. (2012). Online mediations in transnational spaces: Cosmopolitan (re)formations of belonging and identity in the Turkish diaspora. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 35(5), 888–905. doi: 10.1080/01419870.2011.628039 Croteau, D., & Hoynes, W. (2003). Media society: Industries, images, and audiences (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. Croucher, S. M., Oommen, D., Borton, I., Anarbaeva, S., & Turner, J. S. (2010). The influence of religiosity and ethnic identification on media use among Muslims and non-Muslims in France and Britain. Mass Communication and Society, 13(3), 314–334. doi: 10.1080/ 15205430903296085 Cunningham, S. (2004). Popular media as public “sphericles” for diasporic communities. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 4(2), 131–147. doi: 10.1177/136787790100400201

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Chapter Two

Intra-Ethnic Organization, Ethnic Choices, and Dominant Culture

When interviewing participants, I asked questions related to interviewees’ identifications to get a sense of them but not with the intention of reporting that information as it does not directly affect research questions for this project. However, the participants’ views on their diasporic identifications and culture are worth mentioning because their perspectives contextualize their use and interpretations of media and because the findings build on research in the area of second-generation Asian American ethnicity. In particular, the findings tease out the specifics of second-generation adolescent Korean Americans’ views of diasporic identification. Unlike research that uses adult participants, this book examines a developmental period when individuals are experiencing identity change (Erikson, 1968). INTRA-GROUP SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES Before discussing the findings, it is useful to discuss the criteria to organize individuals’ responses (see table 2.1) that show how interpretive communities are structured among second-generation KAs. As Grossberg (1996) argued, it is important to not only consider inter-group differences but to also elaborate the ways that power structures meaning-making within subaltern groups. It is important to move beyond either ignoring structured differences by representing group members as more or less similar or by moving into the slippery argument that all group members are different, thus not theorizing intra-group difference as structured communities. After looking through the data and examining the intersections of gender, class, age, and ethnic choices situated in psychological motivations, I conclude that gender and psychologi23

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cal motivations matter most powerfully in the use and interpretation of transnational media. Perhaps, this is because the social class of the participants was relatively similar—suburban families in middle class and upper-middle class White neighborhoods and because the ages were necessarily restricted to a narrow band between fifteen to eighteen years old. Gender was divided between boys and girls because participants did not identify along a range of other gender identifications. Gender was, thus, a fairly clear division, but psychological motivations and ethnic choices were fuzzier and require elaboration. Though it would have been more convenient to make choices based on clearly observable differences, I found that engaging in ethnic resources alone is not sufficient in identification. For example, having many diasporic friends does not necessarily mean a KA teen identifies strongly with the KA diaspora, but in some cases it reflected their unmotivated attendance at an ethnic church and lasting friendships that occurred as a result. In these cases, having co-ethnic friends is consequential because they are important resources, but those friendships alone are not sufficient for ethnic involvement. Categorizing ethnic choices, instead, was informed by Song’s (2003) research, the psychological literature on ethnic identity stages, the anthropological literature on cultural group boundaries, and the cultural studies literature on taste hierarchies and diasporic audience reception. Song (2003) writes that ethnic minority groups choose to reject their ethnic identities, become actively involved, or negotiate their identity as a unique bicultural formation. Similarly, the diasporic research points to the construction of hybrid identities as “new ethnicities” (Durham, 2004; Gillespie, 2000; Parker & Song, 2006). New ethnicities, arguably, have some parallels to the final “stage” in the psychological literature on ethnic identity formation (Phinney, 1989). The value of the anthropological literature (Barth, 1969) and the literature on taste communities (Mayer, 2003b) is to understand that identifications happen within social contexts and hierarchies. In this case, it is KA diasporic communities and their internal structures. Through the analysis, I found that the interviewees’ responses generally fit five thematic categories, which I use to define identity positions: hostility to one’s diasporic identity, lack of interest in one’s diasporic identity, curiosity about one’s diasporic identity, explicit bicultural identifications, and heavy involvement. Arguably, all of the identity positions are hybrid because they are either intentionally constitutive of transnational meanings or are formed in response to them, but, instead of referring to the identity positions together as a globally hybrid category, I refer to the identity positions using the following terms: hostile, uninterested, curious, bicultural, and involved. I could just as well call them hybrid hostile, hybrid uninterested, and so forth, but in the interests of brevity, the hybridity of the identification is assumed. The names of the identity positions are helpful in understanding structured

Intra-Ethnic Organization

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Table 2.1. Table 2.1. Brief descriptions of identity positions Stage

Description

Hostile

Hostile individuals actively avoid associations with their ethnic identity. In some cases, they choose pan-Asian identifications or demonstrate a marked preference for dominant culture. They avoid identifying as “Korean” and usually prefer “American” or “Korean American” as self-labels.

Uninterested

Uninterested individuals are ambivalent about their ethnic identity, though lack of interest does not preclude ethnic behaviors. They tend to identify with the dominant culture and tend to define themselves as culturally “American” and self-label as simply “American” or “Korean American.” Their view of diasporic identification rests in essentializing notions of a fundamental essence, being Korean as a consequence of genetic heritage rather than culture or desire.

Curious

Individuals actively seek diasporic understanding and inclusion. They are unfamiliar with their ethnic culture but perceive cultural knowledge as foundational to being able to claim “Koreanness” and frequently exhibit awkwardness and discomfort because of their lack of cultural fluency with cultural practices, knowledge, and communities. They seek greater knowledge of and experience with the diaspora through co-ethnic friends, parents, and media, and they are as likely to identify as “Korean” as “Korean American.”

Bicultural

Individuals view themselves as both culturally Korean and American and have an actively constructed dual cultural identity. They disidentify with aspects of both cultures that they do not like, realizing they cannot nor do they want full participation in their diasporic community or dominant White community, thus fitting most closely the notion of new ethnicities. They identify strictly as “Korean Americans” to incorporate the bicultural nature of their identity position.

Involved

Involved individuals engage as much as possible in diasporic activities, including the use of transnational entertainment media, choice of friends, attendance at an ethnic church, and engaging in other cultural practices like eating and personal entertainment style. They often determine what and who counts as authentically Korean and act as opinion leaders in second-generation ethnic communities. They often express a desire to live in Korea for a few years to fully immerse in Korean life, but they do not express a disinterest in dominant culture but rather a preference for ethnic culture and the diaspora. They self-identify as “Korean,” not as Korean American.

distinctions within the diaspora, and they are informed by but differ from “stages” used in the psychological literature because the identity positions in this research emerged from patterns in data that were discovered specifically for this book and because I am not theoretically bound by the same normative logic as the psychological literature. I do not view identity positions as

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stages but rather as choices (see Song, 2003), choices that are bound inextricably from the diasporic members’ local social context. Though this research as a cross-section of KA teens does not show shifting identifications, it should be stated before moving forward that this project assumes that their choices are constantly in flux as they negotiate identification with their social contexts and with personal change. DIFFERENCES Hostile and uninterested KAs’ attitudes contrasted starkly with other participants. For hostile KAs, they expressed strong dislike for Korean culture, society, and individuals, while uninterested KAs were ambivalent and apathetic. When they exhibited behaviors that appeared to be ethnically motivated, they were quick to reject ethnic explanations. For example, participants with co-ethnic friends explained that it is only because their parents had long required that they attend an ethnic church. They emphasized that behaviors that seemed ethnically motivated are a consequence of their circumstances and that there was no purposeful ethnic intention. On the other hand, curious participants expressed an interest in wanting to know more about their diasporic identity and generally had warm feelings toward Korean culture and people and, importantly, dominant culture. This contradicts the psychological literature that states that individuals enter the “exploration stage” because of awareness of racism (see Phinney, 1989). If awareness of racism is indeed the catalyst for curiosity, participants in this study did not recognize this as being a motivation. Instead, participants cited a general sense of belonging and fantasized understanding of Korean culture and relationships when discussing their interest in Korean identity and culture. A few wanted to expand that interest and immerse, but they did not have the resources with which to make this possible. Bicultural participants were set apart by their rich reflexivity. They have strong diasporic commitments, and their behaviors often resembled involved KAs except that they also value being culturally American, noting that they are advantaged because of their bicultural understanding and experiences. Importantly, they also disidentify with aspects of both Korean and US culture, representing an identification closer to the types of new ethnicities Hall (1996) writes about—a liminal identity formed within the interstices of the local culture and a transnationally received and imagined identity formed within diaspora. Though all participants are, indeed, bicultural, participants in this identity position differed because of their reflexivity and intentionality in describing their negotiated identifications. Involved KAs, on the other hand, surround themselves with diasporic culture and co-ethnic friends as much as possible, engaging in the most

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active and visible resistance toward dominant culture. Their meaningful friendships are almost exclusively with KAs, they primarily watch transnational media, they seek co-ethnic romantic partners, they engage in ethnically specific conversations, and they try to participate in ethnic play by visiting KA-owned pool halls, singing at 노래방 (noraebang, karaoke room), and eating at Korean restaurants and cafes. HOSTILE AND UNINTERESTED KAS’ SHARED BELIEFS That hostile and uninterested participants held beliefs that differ widely from KAs in other identity positions makes sense because they are superficially interested, at best, in cultural practices such as holidays, greetings, and food preferences. Yet, they do not claim that they are not Korean. Rather, for hostile and uninterested KAs, there is a strong belief that their “fundamental essence” determines their authenticity, not cultural fluency. Philip said: I don’t like it [being Korean]. I don’t love it. It’s just whatever, something I have. It’s not like you can get rid of it. Phoop. I’m Chinese [chuckles]. I went to a Chinese camp because I hang out with Chinese people a lot, and when they spoke like basic Chinese to me, I was like, huh? Then, they were like what a retard. When they found out I was Korean, they were like Korean people suck, and I was like I know. They’re like you suck, and I was like I know.

Philip believes Koreanness is sufficiently achieved because of heritage, whether he wants it or not. Though others share this belief, his hostility was atypical. More typical is Bobby, who sees being Korean as something that is fundamental and immutable. When asked what national team he was cheering for during the 2002 World Cup, Bobby responded: Bobby: Oh, Korea, of course. Interviewer: Oh yeah? OK, I was just curious. Why were you rooting for Korea if you were, you know, raised and grew up here and you prefer living here? Bobby: Because of like, my, like, essential, deep down inside, I’m a Korean person, and right now, because I was raised here, that’s the only reason I’m so Americanized. I see my Korean ethnicity as my base, and maybe the Americanization is just like built up on that base. In other words, culture is unimportant in establishing membership. Similarly, when Grace was asked about the importance of learning Korean culture, she said, “Um, no, I don’t think it matters to me too much.” Perhaps because of

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the view that cultural knowledge does not matter, some uninterested KAs conflate being culturally Korean with being Asian. During Jessica’s interview, she stated that her parents are “typical Asian parents,” so I asked her if there is a difference between Koreans and Asians, and Jessica replied: Jessica: Um, no. Interviewer: It’s [being Korean and Asian] pretty much the same thing? Jessica: Mmhmm. It is important to note, however, that she does not feel the same way about Japanese culture. Because she enjoys Japanese anime, manga (graphic novels), and video games, she sees Japan as a unique culture that she would like to experience, unlike Korea. Bobby, on the other hand, does not racialize Korean as equivalent to Asian, but he said he relates equally well. “I don’t think you can relate any better to a Korean person than a Chinese person for me. Maybe, if I was from Korea at first, but since I’m Asian, I relate to Koreans or Chinese people equally.” Their belief that cultural knowledge is unimportant is unique to uninterested and hostile KAs. In fact, some intentionally avoided cultural participation, whereas no interviewee in any other identity position shared this point of view. CURIOUS, BICULTURAL, AND INVOLVED KAS’ SHARED BELIEFS Curious, bicultural, and involved KAs differ from hostile and uninterested KAs in their belief that cultural knowledge is necessary in claiming authentic belonging. Harry said: You can’t be naive. You have to know something. You can’t just be like totally like I’m Korean, but that’s about it. That’s all I know about myself. I’m Korean. It’s like you have to, you have to like define yourself, I guess, ‘cuz if you say you’re Korean, that kind of gives you, uh, it kind of molds you in certain aspects because if you said you were like French, there’d be different ways, you’d be raised differently, there’d be different culture stuff, and if you say you’re Korean, there’s some things that make a Korean a Korean, like the whole bowing thing or saying the whole respectable thing and doing the traditions. That’s what makes you a Korean. Well, that and your blood, but, yeah, so if you’re going to say you’re a Korean, you’re going to have to know some stuff about like the Korean culture, other than just say that you are because I can say that I’m something else, but, really, if I don’t know anything else about it, then what does that make me, it just makes me like a liar.

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His quote poignantly expressed his disgust at KAs, who do not, from his point of view, try to understand their heritage culture. He goes so far as to say they are “liars,” though it is not clear whom Harry thinks they are deceiving, whether it is others or themselves. As Harry pointed out in his comment about “blood,” KAs in these identity positions also believe their ethnicity is a fundamental part of who they are, but the expression of this belief is connected to a specific history, location, and culture. Frank explained, “I think it’s important to know your roots, where your parents came from, what kind of lifestyle they went through, maybe your grandparents if you’re second generation. . . . It’s a good thing to learn when you’re us, especially Korean Americans, we have two cultures.” John agreed, saying that knowing his “roots” is important because it gives him a sense of historical connection. We’re, um, I guess the, this is supposed to be the country of mixed races, and it is the melting pot of like civilization, but I still want like, like I said before, I wouldn’t force them [future children to know Korean culture], but it’d be nice if they, if they like, if we didn’t completely forget where we came from. I wouldn’t say I’m a real Korean culture advocate, and I don’t spread the word and stuff like that, but I like to, it’s nice to know that I do know something about where I came from, and who I really am and stuff like that.

Though John has mostly White friends and does not express Koreanness outside of his film use, he still sees being Korean as who he “really” is. Therefore, for curious, bicultural, and involved KAs, to be Korean requires having both a heritage claim as well as some knowledge and appreciation of Korean cultural practices. Their view is generally similar to the findings in sociological research on ethnicity (Fishman, 1997). Where this project differs is to demonstrate the complexities of that commonly shared belief. CURIOUS KAS’ UNIQUE BELIEFS Because curious KAs seek to understand what it means to be Korean, there is a unique sense of longing and desire for connection. Linda said, “I just think it’s that sense of you’re lacking in it. You want to explain it, but you can’t, so, it’s just more meaningful.” As well as believing that discovering her Korean identity will be fulfilling, Linda also fantasized about acceptance and intimacy that she thinks is available in Korea and that she does not find in the United States. This became evident as she talked about the physical intimacy between friends, saying, “You know girls in Korea can hold hands or link arms or whatever and not be called gay or lesbian or whatever.” Despite their fantasies, they are not yet comfortable defining themselves within the diaspora, especially around non-Koreans. In Richard’s descrip-

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tions of his rare conversations about his diasporic identification with his White friends, he said he never initiates those conversations, saying, “Usually, they start the conversation if it’s going to be something like me and how I’m Korean. I don’t make it, I don’t like overstate, like in situations, I don’t make sure they know I’m Korean. If they ask, I’ll be happy to tell them, but I don’t impose my Korean culture on them or anything.” The choice of verbs here is revealing as he said he does not want to “overstate” or “impose” his identity, suggesting that merely talking about his ethnic identity is felt to be burdensome for his White friends. Curious KAs are unique in their instability and lack of commitment around their diasporic identification, and they differ in their active search and desire to form ethnic connections, to travel to Korea, and to gain greater cultural and linguistic fluency. INVOLVED KAS’ UNIQUE BELIEFS Diasporic commitment is solidified for involved KAs, who try to surround themselves with Korean culture and diasporic friends. The difference with those in the bicultural identity position and involved identity position was a greater urgency among those in the involved identity position to engage in diasporic activities to the fullest extent possible. Of involved KAs, only Joanne did not surround herself with diasporic friends, and this is only because she is physically isolated from the diaspora since her parents do not attend an ethnic church and because she lives in a community that only has a handful of KAs. However, her mediated life is situated in transnational media, which is also true of all involved KAs in this study. When friends are nearby, involved KAs engaged in Korean cultural practices. They are also at least somewhat proficient in the Korean language. It is clear that involved participants differ because of the immediacy to which they attend to their desire for cultural immersion. Perhaps a byproduct of their desire for transnationally situated cultural life, a few in this identity position “other” US culture as strange, different, and undesirable. Amy said: Yeah, I think, because White people, you just look at, they just live different. I could watch Friends, and I’m like no one lives, hmm, I don’t know. Koreans don’t sleep with their friends. White people, they do. So, just, like I hope you know what I’m saying. Americans, the way I see their love is just like sex. And then, they have their own love, too, but sex goes in there, too, I think. Physical stuff. Americans are more messed up, I guess.

Hannah does not quite “other” Whites, but she does name Whites as less interesting than KAs.

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They’re like, um, when I chilled with them [Whites], I didn’t get into that much trouble (laughs). It was always like nice stuff that we did. You know, when I’m chilling with them [diasporic friends], I come home late and stuff because we do stuff so late. Like we start going out at like 7 o’clock or something. White kids, they wake up in the morning and do stuff and go home early.

It is also revealing to point out that only those in the involved and bicultural identity positions specifically named “Whites,” while others tended to use euphemisms like “American” or “non-Korean” when referring to their White friends. There is reluctance to name and challenge dominant society until difference becomes more strongly defined. I do not, however, want to give the impression that most involved KAs understood difference in this way. Most do not specifically “other” Whites as different. Rather, I make this point to explain that this viewpoint, while rare, was unique to involved and bicultural KAs. BICULTURAL KAS’ UNIQUE BELIEFS Bicultural KAs had the widest range of beliefs because of the ways in which individuals reconcile the integration of their dual identities in “new ethnicities.” Some chose few KA friends and engaged in diasporic identification through their transnational Korean media use, others chose to watch less Korean media and have many co-ethnic friends, and others negotiated a combination of both. The distinguishing characteristic of this group is the tension in the integration of their identifications. The first and most obvious tension is the negotiation of their Korean and US identifications. Frank said: I guess I would mix it. I would take the good parts of the Korean way, and the good parts of the American way, and try to make my own style or something like that. I don’t really think it’s more one-sided. I’m the kind of guy that takes the good of things. Like if I see something that’s pretty cool that I want to copy, and if I see it in an American movie, I guess it doesn’t matter if it’s Korean or not. For me, I guess.

For Jeannette, the process of integration offers more freedom and empowerment. She said, “I’m glad I’m more like Korean Americanized because I can be either way. I don’t have to go to a Korean grocery store to be like, you know, get all the Korean food and all that. I can go here and there. It doesn’t matter.” Though this dual identification can be seen as a benefit, tensions exist because it is also seen as a liability. Some mentioned their concerns about being criticized for having divided loyalties. Talking about the World Cup and her support for the Korean side, Karen said:

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Chapter 2 The World Cup, I go crazy. And, then, like I was talking, and I was like, yeah, let’s go World Cup because they’re having preliminaries right now, and I was like talking, but my church friends were all like, oh, whatever, who cares? Korea’s going to lose. They suck. And, somehow, we got to the topic of whether Korea and America go to war, who do I have to like cheer for, and they were like as long as you’re in America, you better cheer for America or else it doesn’t seem right, look right, but, then, how can I choose?

Not only are they concerned about perceptions of divided loyalties, there are also difficulties concerning appropriate behaviors in the dual cultures they inhabit. Frank said, “Especially when you’re young and you go to school, American culture doesn’t have as much respect for elders as Korean people, so you learn this way at school, and you come home, and you’re almost forced to be so respectful, and it kind of ties in with your rebellious age, I guess. Mixes and clashes together. It’s like you get confused.” Therefore, negotiating their dual identifications, simultaneously, encompassed a wide range of reactions from empowerment to confusion and frustration. In addition, the negotiation of their identifications is a salient feature of their lives. For some, part of this process involved thinking about difficulties growing up as racialized ethnic minorities. Other than Sam, who was in the curious identity position, only bicultural participants, like Harry, located their pride partly in resistance to being different. Instead of becoming resentful, however, all of the participants in this identity position said they try to earn respect for the Korean community by acting as model citizens. Harry elaborated: Yeah, you have to, you have to show that you have pride, I guess, for your country because I mean you don’t want to be like I hate Koreans and give a bad image of Koreans, so you wanna, especially with the North Korean stuff. It’s bad enough now, so you gotta make it so you represent Koreans in a good way. That’s what I think. You drive, you gotta drive good and do all the right, if it’s a 4-way stop sign, drive when it’s your turn, and don’t drive all crazy because they’d be like, tsk, crazy Asian people over there. I don’t want that. I want them to be, I want to get respect, I guess.

Along with his desire to gain respect, implicit in Harry’s statement was his criticism of KAs, who give Koreans and KAs a “bad image” by expressing their dislike of Korean culture and, thus, reinforcing perceptions of Korean/ Asian inferiority. Frank also felt compelled to correct what he viewed as incorrect perceptions of KAs, but he approached this differently from Harry, who believed that rising above racist remarks and correcting them is an expression of his ethnic pride. For Frank, correction was about teaching moments.

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I guess, hmm, I think mainly is when you’re at school, and some guy calls you, “Hey, chink, come here.” Usually, it would make me really mad not because they made fun of me. The reason I would get mad is because they don’t understand, they don’t know what kind of people Korean people are. You know, and people usually get mad and are like don’t make fun of me, blah, blah, blah. I get mad because they don’t know, and when pride builds up like that, and they make fun of me because of the Korean race, eventually it goes to the point where you have enough pride to let it go. You’re just like, hey, they don’t understand. There’s no point in getting mad. They’re just ignorant. Either walk away or start to get them more open-minded and start telling them about it. Or whenever you’re with White friends, explain differences or why Korean culture appeals to me or stuff like that. I guess that type of pride builds up, and you get a sense of wanting to tell the world what you know.

For both Frank and Harry, the pressure to be representatives and to deal with the pressures of how non-Koreans view and judge KAs was a burden that is born out of the nexus of their ethnic identification and awareness that they are racialized minorities in a White dominant society. This desire to represent was one that is unique to those in this identity position. It is evident that there is overlap and difference among the individuals in the different identity positions, and it is important to understand these similarities and differences in participants’ beliefs and ideologies because those beliefs play powerful roles in shaping KAs’ diasporic identifications. Because of their differences and the normative meanings surrounding them, there are tensions between second-generation KA teenagers, thus connecting personal/psychological dimensions of ethnic identification to the social/cultural. INTRA-GROUP CONFLICT AND SELF-ORGANIZATION Regardless of the ways researchers like myself organize diasporic identity positions, this is not the way KA adolescents organize themselves. It is useful, then, to understand KA teens’ own perceived intra-group differences. These understandings have an impact on identification to the extent that participants see the group they belong to as being most desirable and morally justifiable. The divisions that the participants themselves use are: “Fresh off the Boat” (FOB), “Koreans,” and “Twinkies.” When discussing these selfdefined groups, I place them in quotations to avoid confusion with terms like Korean and KA that get used in a variety of ways by my participants. “FOBs” are first-generation Korean Americans who immigrate to the United States during adolescence or later. They are marked as “FOBs” by their second-generation counterparts because of their preference for speaking in Korean and being culturally Korean. Joseph said, “Yeah, if you speak Korean, if the natural language you want to speak is Korean, then I think

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you’re a ‘FOB.’ I just put you in that category. . . . They start speaking to you in Korean first instead of English. That’s what I think. That’s how I distinguish.” This distinction becomes a stigma and a reason for second-generation KAs to dislike “FOBs.” For example, Jeannette disliked the fact that “FOBs” primarily speak in Korean and use Korean cultural norms. She said, “They speak Korean 24/7, and yeah they just, everything they do is ‘FOB-by.’ You can just see it in them. Know it. They’re ‘FOBs.’ Their style, the way they act, dress, and talk.” Of all groups, “FOBs” are least liked by second-generation KAs. This makes sense for hostile and uninterested KAs, who want to dissociate from Korean identifications that are visibly embodied in “FOBs.” For curious, bicultural, and involved KAs, their dislike is rooted in experiences of rejection and marginalization by “FOBs,” which leads to resentment, especially because KAs are rejected at the moment they seek to make connections with the larger diasporic community. Explanations for their rejection of “FOBs,” however, do not center on “FOBs” being culturally different because this would mean KAs have to acknowledge challenges to their own cultural identification. Therefore, their reasons did not include the most reasonable one, which is that “FOBs” are more culturally and linguistically fluent in Korean and, therefore, different. Instead, they disliked “FOBs” for a wide variety of other reasons. Hannah, for example, saw “FOBs” as arrogant in their display of their Koreanness, saying, “I don’t know, they think they’re like I don’t know since they came from Korea to here, they think they’re all like I don’t know, what’s the word? They, I don’t know, they think they rule the school or something because they talk in Korean and stuff like that to us.” It is clear that Hannah has difficulty elaborating her dislike of “FOBs” and is searching for an explanation. Leonard’s reasons are clearer, but his dislike is centered in his frustration that “FOBs,” in his view, do not try to adapt to the United States. He said, “When I see ‘FOBs’ like now, I guess they’re more American [than previous generations], but they’re not. Like, like ‘Twinkies,’ they’re more like whitewashed, and they don’t really care. They’ll eat grits, but when you bring a ‘FOB’ to Waffle House, they’re like, oh, what is that [in a disgusted tone]?” Linda, on the other hand, disliked “FOBs” not because they flaunt Koreanness nor because they do not try to adapt but, rather, because she says “FOBs” are supposedly inauthentic and try to act “American.” She said, “I guess. They just have the wrong concept of being Americanized. They get too into it and forget where they come from.” What is interesting about the quotes is how they are projections of their own identity positions. For Leonard, he disliked that other KAs are not rejecting their Korean identity like he has, so his criticism centers on their lack of effort to adjust and be American (see figure 2.1). For Linda, she was exploring her diasporic belonging and wanted to find pride and acceptance in it, so she disliked that “FOBs” are neglectful of a Korean cultural identifica-

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Figure 2.1. “Twinkie” understanding of intra-group differences

tion that she strongly desires. Finally, for Jeannette, her criticism is that “FOBs” flaunt their Korean identification and do not come to the same resolution as she has to integrate both identities (see figure 2.2). While individuals in these identity positions implicitly reject “FOBs” for being most culturally Korean, this is not true for those in the involved identity position. Because those in the involved identity position identify as closely aligned to Koreans in Korea and because they are not fully accepted by “FOBs,” involved participants rationalize that “FOBs” must not be like other Koreans (see figure 2.3). In other words, involved KAs believe they are more similar to Koreans in Korea than “FOBs.” Though this does not make obvious sense, it is an important illusion if they want to maintain their desire to immerse in Korean culture. Joanne defined the difference between “FOBs” and “Koreans,” which is the term used by those in the involved identity position for their subgroup, as “FOB” rejection of US culture. “FOB” is like, “FOB” is just, they act totally, like they intentionally, I think, or they’re just different in a sense that I don’t know. You just know that they don’t know some cultural aspects of the United States and stuff. But, “Koreans,” [she includes both immersed Korean Americans and Koreans in Korea] in my definition, we know both the Korean culture and the American culture, and we differentiate, and we choose depending on the situation on which we choose to be, I guess.

Because they defined “FOBs” by a perceived choice to reject American culture, she fantasized that Koreans would adapt to US culture in similar ways as she has if they were transported to the United States, and, thus, she is able to align herself with Koreans while rejecting “FOBs” as different. Just as the other KAs in the identity positions project their own identifications on “FOBs,” she does the same for Koreans in the homeland, believing that authentic Koreans would reflect life in diaspora as “new ethnicities.” Though her belief lacks an obvious rationality, evident in her comments is that the homeland is not only an imagined construction but it is one that conveniently serves the purposes of diasporic members in the local space (see Mayer,

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Figure 2.2. “Korean American” understanding of intra-group differences

2003). The maintenance and appreciation of US dominant culture is important because it allows “Koreans” to distinguish themselves from “FOBs.” Therefore, “Koreans,” who define themselves partly in contrast to “FOBs,” can never fully immerse because their appreciation of dominant cultural norms and US popular cultural knowledge are what they define as their difference with “FOBs” and what they believe strengthens similarity with Koreans in Korea. Along with their tension with “FOBs,” second-generation KAs in the hostile and uninterested identity positions criticize “Koreans” as “wannabe FOBs” (see figure 2.1). Uninterested KAs, derided as “Twinkies,” believe “Koreans” are acting fraudulently in their attempt to be culturally Korean. Leonard, who is actively hostile, said attempts by “Koreans” to immerse in Korean culture are inauthentic and immature. Like, it’s a recent fad, you know, in middle schools for the “Twinkies” to act like “FOBs” because they think the “FOBs” are cool or something. Like, my sister, she’s completely a “Twinkie,” right. She’s into like R&B, all this American culture, right, and she can’t really eat that much Korean food because she can’t eat it at all. She’d prefer like Burger King to rice and 김치 (kimchi, spicy picked cabbage that is a typical side dish during Korean meals), you know. She’s like it smells and stuff. She doesn’t even like fish or anything, but because it’s cool and they’re in middle school, you know how it is. You want to be cool, too, so she’s trying to speak Korean and stuff, and even I can’t speak Korean, but she can’t speak Korean correctly, so it annoys me.

“Koreans,” in turn, ridicule “Twinkies,” saying they are “whitewashed” and define them by using pejoratives such as “Twinkie” or “banana” (White on the inside, yellow on the outside). Amy, who surrounded herself with trans-

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.

Figure 2.3. “Korean” understanding of intra-group differences

national media and co-ethnic friends, said, “You know some people, the true ‘Twinkies,’ they don’t have any Korean friends. They’re White. Their boyfriend’s White, their best friends are White, they talk White. It’s like, oh my god, totally, blah, blah, blah. You know? They’re the ‘Twinkies.’” “Twinkies,” on the other hand, bristle at being defined as Korean, claiming that knowledge of Korean language and culture is unimportant since they live in the United States. In fact, some take pride in the term “Twinkie,” interpreting intentional diasporic choices of other KAs as both racist and as an ungrateful rejection of their US identity. More than any other group, “Twinkies,” therefore, most often self-identify as American or Korean American (see figure 2.1). Other participants who use the term “Korean American” are those in the bicultural identity position, though their understanding of it is different. They use the term because they view themselves as spanning both Korean and American cultural identities (see figure 2.2). Because of bicultural KAs’ negotiation of their dual identifications, “Koreans” think “Korean Americans” are situated between “Twinkies” and “Koreans.” The reason for this is that they understand KA identity as spanning a continuum from American to Korean. In this mental model, bicultural KAs are thought to be less Korean than “Koreans.” For “Koreans,” bicultural KAs are sometimes viewed with skepticism because they cannot understand why diasporic peers, who are aware of Korean popular culture and who are proficient in Korean, would choose what they perceive to be a less robust diasporic identity.

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Because of these differences in perspective, there is intra-ethnic animosity, and membership and self-identification within one of these groups shape diasporic identification. Participants in the study do not understand these differences as a matter of choice, but they view all groups as discrete and separate with their own normative logics about which group is developmentally or ethically superior. This creates barriers between groups and barriers for identification because ideas about who they are shape and limit the choices they can make. DOMINANT CULTURAL INFLUENCES Perhaps because participants live in predominantly White neighborhoods, they unreflexively internalized dominant cultural ideologies about race and racism (see table 2.1). Specifically, they adopted postracialism as an organizing cultural logic, which has become the prevailing way of understanding racism (Giroux, 2003; Squires, 2010). As Prashad (2001) wrote, “This [postracialism] is the genteel racism of our new millennium” (p. 38). Postracialism, as an outgrowth of neoliberal ideologies, privatizes racism to individual acts of prejudice (Giroux, 2003; Jones & Mukherjee, 2010), which can only make cultural sense when accompanied by the belief that racism itself is a relic of the past. For Whites, it means that they are unburdened by historical responsibilities and legacies of racism (Ono, 2010). Instead of recognition of systemic wrongs, dominant White culture, instead, openly supports colorblindness as a normative (non)racial ideal and celebrations of multiculturalism that deny critical perspectives (Cobb, 2011; Ono, 2010). The consequences, especially, are an assimilationist rhetoric that is not un-raced but rather assumes Whiteness as the preferred race-neutral norm (Gilroy, 2012; Temple, 2010). For anti-racists who resist, they are vilified as (reverse) racists for supposedly exacerbating divisions that postracialism has long deemed over (Bonilla-Silva, 2010; Mukherjee, 2006; Oliha, 2011; Prashad, 2001). Postracialism blames anti-racists as “pathologically self-interested” as they are denounced for playing the race card (Jones & Mukherjee, 2010). Despite the ways “color-blind” discourse favors Whites and harms KAs’ interests in challenging racism (Brandzel & Desai, 2008; Simpson, 2008), all participants accepted the belief that making explicit choices to associate with a particular ethnic group is racist. This is true even for the rare few that describe US culture as racist. Regardless of how individuals identify, they are conflicted about their diasporic identification because they believe their ethnic choices are racist because these choices require a recognition of ethnicity, which is conflated with race. Therefore, to make intentional choices to be friends with other KAs is to accept oneself as racist in a postracial framework. Further, there is very little awareness of, much less belief in, systemic

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racism. This is an intriguing finding because the psychological literature states that “ethnic identity exploration” is motivated by a realization of racism and knowing that they are not fully accepted within dominant (White) society (Cross, 1978; Phinney, 1996; Tse, 1999). The difference in my findings may be because KAs interviewed for this research are not adults like those seen in most studies, so they may have not had the years to reflect on what has motivated their diasporic interest, or they may have forgotten what motivated their interests, leaving them to reconstruct possible motivations years afterward. Another reason may be because none of the participants in this study live in ethnic enclaves. Living in largely White communities, it becomes more difficult to challenge cultural ideologies that have wide currency in White suburbia, making White racism invisible. Or, it may indeed be the case that diasporic identification may not necessarily be linked to awareness of racism but other motivations. Whichever is the case, KAs in this study do not articulate their decision to identify as being motivated by White racism. The only racism they recognize is their own ethnic choices, which they mark as racist. For hostile and uninterested KAs, they articulated this ideology about the racism of diasporic choices to justify their desire to assimilate into White society and to act with hostility or ambivalence to the diaspora. Uninterested KAs explained that their lack of “racist” choices meant that they are the most progressive and morally correct. Because of their position of moral rightness, they branded other KAs as cultural frauds, at best, and racists, at worst. Curious KAs, on the other hand, are the most unsure of how to negotiate the tension of engaging in what is understood as racist behaviors and a curiosity in exploring and knowing their heritage culture. The ways that they act upon this tension are dependent on whether they more closely align themselves with uninterested KAs or involved KAs. Margaret, who is starting to surround herself with co-ethnic friends, has only recently begun to think of her interest in socializing with other KAs as desirable. In a discussion that moved from talking about her search for friends to desires for marriage, she described the “evolution” of wanting to marry a White man to wanting to marry a co-ethnic husband, illustrating the struggle between dominant, White values and her process of diasporic identification. Margaret said, “Like I don’t know when but my junior high years, I was like, yeah, I’m going to marry a White guy, but I don’t think I was serious. I don’t remember. That was like a long time ago. But now I’m like, yeah, I’m going to marry a Korean.” It is evident that her preference for a co-ethnic partner emerged only after she became interested in her diasporic identity. Involved KAs, on the other hand, agreed it is racist to purposefully date KAs but justify this “racist” decision because they believe maintaining connections with their diasporic culture outweighs the cost of their “racism.” Joanne, who immerses herself in Korean media but who had mostly non-

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Korean friends said, “Dating doesn’t matter, but I guess marrying would have to be Korean because they have to know the culture.” Joanne, likewise, negotiated her perceived racist choice by restricting it only to marriage, while avoiding ethnic choices prior to marriage. Like involved KAs, bicultural KAs take ownership of their ethnic preferences as being an intentional choice in spite of the cognitive dissonance created by believing those preferences and choices are racist. They weigh the costs and the benefits of their decisions and live with unresolved tension over their unsatisfactory reconciliation of their need to ethnically identify and their desire to not be racist. Therefore, despite negotiating dominant ideologies about race differently, all groups accepted ideologies of ethnic choice as racist. SCHOOL INFLUENCES The dominant institution that most strongly shapes KAs’ diasporic identities other than media was their school (see table 2.1). For all participants in this study, their schools are predominantly White and powerful sites for reproducing White values and ideologies that circulate through culture. For uninterested KAs, being surrounded by Whites is so unnoticeable that none elaborated on the racial composition of their school environment. It is not until they become ethnically curious that KA adolescents examine their racial exclusion. Jim typified this understanding of difference. Jim said, “I’m used to it because I grew up in that neighborhood. In my elementary school, I knew like two or three Black kids, and then, but I only hung out with one of them. The rest of them are basically White, and I’m the only Asian.” Despite his racial exclusion, Jim did not understand his exclusion as problematic, but, instead, it was merely an environment he lived in. Other than awareness of difference at school, there is very little critical awareness of schools as a site of marginalization. Because of their lack of racial reflexivity, second-generation KAs in this study uncritically accept dominant racial ideologies. NON-KOREAN FRIENDS Consistent with naturalizing dominant ideologies, participants did not elaborate on how dominant ideologies are reinforced through their non-Korean friends, who are mostly White. Participants in the study were reluctant to speak about the reasons for choosing White friends. They also did not talk about the influence White friends have on identification. Instead, they framed their friendships with Whites as being solely because of convenience (see table 2.1). Eric said the fact he has almost all White friends is because of

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more opportunities to find a group with which he shares beliefs, attitudes, and interests in common. I don’t have many Korean friends, you know, and even if I did want to and try to find not only Koreans but Koreans I would associate myself with, you know what I’m saying? There are so many Whites at my school and stuff, that it’s like I can find my clique, you know. I can find people I enjoy being with, but the Korean selection is so much like, I don’t know, smaller, and it’s like I don’t know.

After Whites, the second most common non-Korean friends included other Asian Americans. The friendships challenge existing research that states that Asian American friends are sought mostly in the “integration stage” when individuals realize they share broader interests and experiences with Asian Americans than their specific ethnic group (Tse, 1999). Most participants in this study, who have Asian American friends, were in the uninterested identity position. Part of the explanation for having Asian American friends had to do with convenience, but it was primarily because they believed it was easier to identify. Michael said, “I guess you can relate to them more.” Despite stating a greater ability to identify and relate to Asian American friends, participants said they do not discuss their different ethnic heritages or shared experiences as Asian Americans, suggesting that either this is not a salient identification for them or that they do not want to confront the realities of racism together. Bobby, however, did hint at White racism leading him to choose more Asian American friends, though he was reluctant to state it explicitly. I always grew up in like a majority White neighborhood, so maybe when I was, uh, in elementary school, it would be me getting separated, but nowadays like there’s no like bullying or in high school; there’s none of that, so I just see myself going toward the Asian crowd in my school, so it’s not really me separating myself from them [Whites], but it gets like that, I guess.

One reason for having Asian American friends and being ambivalent about diasporic identification may be because it could be a way to create a unified identity in the face of racism but in a way that they are not burdened with conforming to the norms and expectations of their specific diasporic cultures. In fact, it is mostly boys who cannot speak functional Korean who have nonKorean Asian American friends. Girls spoke Korean more proficiently and tended to associate with Whites and KAs, not other Asian Americans.

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KOREAN CULTURAL INFLUENCES The primary influence in the families of second-generation KAs is parents (see table 2.1); participants said siblings exerted very little influence, regardless of whether individuals viewed their sibling as “whitewashed” or “Koreanized” and, regardless, of age and gender. Hannah and Margaret both described their siblings as “whitewashed,” yet they identify strongly. Karen, Philip, and Jessica, on the other hand, said their siblings are “Koreanized,” but they are ambivalent. Instead, the more influential family resource was parents. Parents provide their children with opportunities to experience Korea directly, to learn the language, and to be introduced to ethnic institutions. Though second-generation KA children chose the extent to which they developed or did not develop diasporic resources, the resources must be present for KAs to make choices. Without them, KA teenagers are limited in their ability to explore and engage in diasporic activities. For example, if their parents choose not to teach their children Korean, then children have fewer means in which to participate with the diasporic community and in cultural activities. TRIPS TO KOREA One resource parents provided their children is the experience of visiting Korea (see table 2.1). This is important to ethnic identification because visiting Korea was seen as a transformative experience for several participants, leading them to become interested in or to reflect upon their sense of belonging in and to Korea. In fact, only one of the uninterested participants had visited Korea recently, providing some evidence that taking a trip during adolescence may lead to increased interest and exploration. In other words, all but one individual, who had visited Korea as a teenager, remained uncurious. Eric is an example of a KA for whom his trip was meaningful. Up until like, okay, I went to Korea, I didn’t care . . . I never thought about what it would be like to be Korean, you know. And like, but, I don’t know. It was like these teenagers, their idea of hanging out and having fun was like drastically different than mine. . . . Sometimes, I wish I could go and just take like a year or two and live in Korea, you know, and just like, I don’t know, just like be there.

For Eric, the trip was so powerful that he not only started to question what it means to be Korean, it led him to want to immerse in his diasporic culture. Richard spent several months in Korea on a student exchange, so he experienced daily life that others do not.

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Like, I noticed that they [the family Richard stayed with] would make it a big thing to eat together, but usually here, it’s just like grab something and you’re done. Um, like, they had different ways to enjoy themselves for like fun, like they’d go tumbling or something like at the local trampoline, whereas I’d stay home and watch TV or something. It was just very different, and I liked it.

For both Eric and Richard, it was the experience of everyday difference that led them to become more curious about and proud of identifying with Korea. Along with experiences of everyday life in Korea, a benefit of visiting is that the trips helped KAs improve their language proficiency. Joanne said that learning Korean while she was visiting was the catalyst in her later immersion, saying, “But then I had gone to Korea for the summer vacation or something, and like no one spoke English, so I had to learn Korean. That’s when I started speaking it. And, so, when I got back that year from Korea, I started watching Korean stuff and that’s how I maintained speaking Korean.” This is particularly revealing because Joanne does not attend a Korean church and only has a small handful of co-ethnic acquaintances. Therefore, her Korean experience played a substantial role in choosing to immerse in Korean popular culture and learning Korean. Like Joanne, Linda said being in Korea helped her with language acquisition. “It’s weird. Over here, if you try to speak Korean to other people, it doesn’t really come out, but if you go there, no one really understands your English, so you’re forced to use Korean, and you get used to it and improve.” Therefore, visiting Korea is transformative in two ways. First, it leads to increased interest in identification, and, second, individuals improve their Korean proficiency, which is a valuable resource for diasporic exploration. LANGUAGE AND FAMILY Another way parents aid their children in improving their ethnic language proficiency is to encourage the use of Korean at home and to create a culturally Korean household (see table 2.1). In Linda’s household, her father intentionally created a Korean-only space. Linda said, “My father didn’t want me to lose any of my Koreanness or whatever, so they like banned any English from my house.” Richard and Sam’s parents were the most active parents, instilling linguistic and cultural knowledge in their respective sons. Richard said, “[His mother] made sure it was like important for me to know my heritage and my language and write and read and everything.” Sam’s parents also found practical ways to increase their sons’ Korean proficiency by having him watch Korean television, read Korean newspapers, and read Korean language history texts. Like Richard and Sam, those exploring their diasporic identities provided the richest descriptions for their reasons for learning Korean. Primary among

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the reasons is because of validation. Linda wrote that Korean allows her to express herself in ways that are not possible in English. When I asked her if this is the only reason for her interest in speaking Korean, she said, “To prove that I can. I’m not that much of a banana [a term like “Twinkie,” meaning white on the inside and yellow on the outside].” Margaret, also, said speaking Korean is a source of pride. Most of my friends are all Americanized, but they’re still Korean, but they don’t know a lot of Korean at all. And so like when their parents, when I talk to their parents, I know I’m supposed to talk in Korean because they’re adults, so I’m just like talking in Korean, and they’re just like wow, you’re so good in Korean! It makes me feel so good! They’re like talking to their children, and they’re like why can’t you improve Korean like her and stuff, so I’m just like I’m good. (Laughs). It makes me feel good. Yeah.

Therefore, language proficiency can aid or act as a barrier in finding acceptance as “authentically” Korean. Not surprisingly, uninterested KAs are the least interested in learning Korean. Philip, who I mentioned as one of the most hostile to his ethnic identity, had many available ethnic resources. His parents moved to a school district with the most concentrated KA population in Georgia, they sent Philip to Korean school, and they were one of the few who invested in Korean satellite television for their children. Despite these efforts, Philip rejected and rebuffed his parents’ attempts, saying, “[My] parents have come to realize they won’t always get it [cultural displays, including speaking Korean].” Therefore, parents play a crucial role in providing linguistic opportunities, but as seen with other choices, the individual’s investment in learning the language and using resources made available by his/her parents is critical in diasporic identification. ETHNIC INSTITUTIONS Another way parents provided cultural resources for their children is by introducing them to ethnic institutions and ethnic resources in the community. Primary among these is the ethnic Korean church. The ethnic church is important because it is the physical and social location for Korean schools in the community, and it is also a space for individuals to develop their ethnic identifications. Korean schools, known as 한글 학교 (hangeul hakgyo), are the only formal education most children receive in Korean, and every parent in this study felt that at least some attendance during their children’s youth was a worthwhile investment. Participants, too, appreciated in hindsight their forced attendance. Joseph said, “In fact, if I didn’t go to 한글 학교 (hangeul hakgyo, Korean school), I wouldn’t know how to speak Korean because I’ve

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never been to Korea.” Sam also said learning Korean was useful. When asked if Sam resented giving up his Saturday mornings, he replied, “I mean, it doesn’t bother me. I understand they’re trying to keep the heritage, and trying to teach me Korean because they keep saying being bilingual and fluently bilingual will help me in college and everything.” In addition to learning Korean through the ethnic church, it is also a site that offers spaces to reinforce and practice their diasporic identification. An important way the Korean church does this is its facilitation of diasporic contact. Eric said that going to his church allowed him to retreat to a Korean sanctuary in the United States. Eric continued, “I mean, it’s just like when you step into a Korean church, you can feel the connection, relationships there, you know, there’s just like an atmosphere, and it’s just like this is different from the rest of America, you know. This is different. The whole people still respect their elders. That, you know, just stuff like that.” For Tony, the church was the only place for him to be with co-ethnic friends. Tony said, “My Korean friends are mostly church friends. I don’t have a lot of Korean friends here because there aren’t a lot of Koreans in my town, like, at all. At my school, I think there’s like 5, out of like 800 people.” For Tony, it was not only contact but also the opportunity to engage in traditional Korean activities, albeit with a Christian twist. One of the activities he participates in is 사물놀이 (samulnori, Korean traditional drumming), substituting Christian expressions for shamanist chants. With other youth in his church, Tony performed this ethnic activity in their church and in the general community, leading to increased pride. We learned it from a teacher ‘cuz our body worship instructor person wanted us to perform for the New Year’s Service because you know how Korean parents are into that Korean stuff. It’s like aw, yeah! We did it for New Year’s, and then we kept getting invited to like other stuff, like Cultural Night events, so like once we went into a library to do like, to play for like Korean culture stuff.

As mentioned earlier, participation in the Korean church alone does not mean individuals will identify as members of the diaspora. At church, uninterested KAs avoided cultural activities and sought like-minded diasporic peers. CO-ETHNIC FRIENDS Through the ethnic church, KAs find most of their co-ethnic friends (see table 2.1). In my research in Dallas and Atlanta, KAs in every identity position have co-ethnic friends. This is somewhat inconsistent with research that states having co-ethnic friends is a strong predictor for individuals in the “integration stage” (Phinney, Romero, Nava, & Huang, 2001). It is possible

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that my research differs as an artifact of the recruitment process, which happened primarily through Korean churches, but whatever the reason, participants in this study have co-ethnic friends, regardless of identity position, and have well-elaborated reasons for their friendships. This contrasts with their lack of explanation about their White friends. Having co-ethnic friends, though, does not mean they identify as Korean. Jessica’s friends were almost all KAs, but she was not interested in diasporic identification. In fact, she displayed some hostile attitudes toward her ethnicity, saying she has no interest in visiting Korea and derided Korean culture and entertainment during our interview. Again, having co-ethnic friends did not mean KAs identified as members of the diaspora, but having few diasporic friends acted as an intra-diasporic barrier. Linda, for example, only has one co-ethnic friend, who, like her, is not proficient in Korean and is exploring her ethnic identity. Though she wants to surround herself in Korean culture and friends, she is unable to do so because she does not have a network of friends who act as a resource to facilitate her movement into communities of involved KAs. Because having co-ethnic friends is a resource in identification, it is not surprising that cultural maintenance is cited as one of the major reasons for having and wanting co-ethnic friends. Being in the bicultural identity position, Frank acknowledged both US and Korean cultural influences, but he said that having diasporic friends acts as a buffer against dominant culture, saying, “I still like the American culture, but I would never want to give up my Korean culture. So, I guess I’d want to be like two-sided sometimes, but I don’t want to lose any part of, you know, what I want. Maybe that’s why I have more Korean friends, I don’t know. I guess I just don’t want to lose that Korean culture in me.” An important aspect of cultural similarity for some participants is the bond created through shared language. Lena said, “I think I like speaking Korean and English together, you know, and most of them [friends] are Korean, so I talk more in Korean, so. I hang around those people who can speak Korean well.” Similarly, Jeannette indicated that language works as a social adhesive for co-ethnic friends because code switching creates a shared secret language. She said, “Yeah, we, like, mix words. (Laughs). For the most part, we speak English to each other, but whenever you know when you don’t want to say something in front of someone else, we speak to each other in Korean words. If it’s a person of a different race, we speak to each other only in Korean, so we only understand.” As well as perceived cultural similarity, participants also said their shared Korean heritage and essence is a reason to bond with co-ethnic peers. Tony, who is curious and separated geographically from co-ethnic friends, said, “I think it’s just that feeling of belonging, I guess, you know. Just being in a group of people that are like the same as you and just stuff like that.” Lucy linked this explicitly to shared ethnicity, which she referred to as “race” and the inertia

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of this shared identification. She said, “I think it’s just like if you’re one race, you just tend to like get to know each other even though you have other friends. Kind of know about each other and get to know each other.” Frank’s view differed slightly because he did not see his desire to be with KAs as motivated by a shared mythology about a fundamental Korean essence but because of a shared history and heritage. Being more with Korean people, they altogether as a group, we’ll be more in contact with what’s going on in Korea, too, so I guess it kind of interweaves between each other, it kind of flows through. It constantly reminds you that, hey, you’re Korean. You’re in America, you’re an American citizen, but you’re still a Korean citizen in your blood, so don’t forget your heritage.

A push influence for having co-ethnic friends is to respond to White ignorance, rejection, and marginalization. Sam was one of only a few in this study who explicitly cited racism as a reason for him to become ethnically curious and said that Whites rejected him because of White supremacist beliefs. Sam said, “I don’t know. Cuz everybody has like, uh, I don’t mean to demean people, but you can obviously tell there’s a lot of racism even in these days, too. It’s kind of like if I hang out with a bunch of White people, they have their Aryan pride and be like why are you hanging out with us, why don’t you go hang out with Korean people?” When meeting with Margaret to deliver the DVDs and to get permission from her parents, her friend, who is White, was visiting, and when testing one of the DVDs, Margaret saw one of her favorite actors and asked her friend whether she thought the actor in the movie was “hot.” Margaret’s friend responded that she does “not like Asian guys” and later said to Margaret, “You Koreans are weird.” When asked about this during our interview a few days later, she responded that fighting with her friend is not worth it. We’d probably get in a big fight because I know how to be patient, and I know how to let things go. Not for her. She has to prove you wrong. She’s like, more like, how can you say that or something? And, then, we’ll like go back and forth like insult, but not like insult, so if she, if I, if she says Usher is so goodlooking, isn’t he? I’d be like not really, I don’t really like him. Then, she’d be like how can you not like him? He has a good body, but I don’t really like him, and she’d be like [gasps], and that’d be it. I wouldn’t push it any further. I wouldn’t be like well you don’t like Korean guys, you know, that would be just like blown.

This desire to not deal with ignorance was also mentioned by Richard, who said, “Yeah, like, my friends, if my, sometimes we get in discussions like, oh, who do you think is hot? There have been times I’ve mentioned Hyori [a Korean singer], and people don’t know who she is, so I show them pictures, and they’re like, oh.” Richard grudgingly described the marginalization of

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his diasporic interests as hurtful and as a reason he avoids conversations about his ethnic identity. Another reason he avoids these conversations is because he said some of his friends exoticize Asian women. He said, “Actually, well, most of them don’t [care about Korean women], I don’t think, because it’s like a, it’s a foreign girl, so maybe not, but there are a few friends I have that are struck with Asian fever, so any Asian girl actually is hot to them.” For some participants, it is not worth the effort to overcome White marginalization and objectification. Another reason some KAs move toward co-ethnic peers is because they reject having to conform to White norms, particularly in their expressions of fun. Hannah said, “Even if I chill with White friends, I can’t take them to 노래방 (noraebang, karaoke rooms) because they’re going to be bored because they don’t understand what we’re singing. If I sing American songs, my Korean friends are going to be like what the heck?” Because her friends are involved KAs and identify ethnic spaces as their own, they resisted White privilege and norms, which they have to submit to in most other social situations. Because of White privilege, some KAs think there are barriers with Whites in what an individual can do. In a conversation with Linda, she talked about feeling different. Linda: Kind of. Even though I’ve been here for a little while (in Dallas), I don’t really know them [Whites] that well. It’s like different lives. Interviewer: I think I did some of that [engage in Korean cultural behaviors with Whites], too, when I was younger, I might pick something out of someone else’s 도시락 (doshirak, lunchbox) or whatever, but, um. Linda: You can’t do that to like other people here. Jeannette also noticed the increased salience of difference. Oh. I don’t know. It [forming a co-ethnic peer circle] just kind of happened that way. It wasn’t anything planned. I guess you just don’t feel connected after a while [with Whites]. You just start to notice you’re different, I guess. Because that’s one reason, like back in the day [in junior high school], all these different races used to hang out, but now, it’s like Koreans, Whites, and you fit your own kind of category. But back then, you don’t really notice much, but you kind of find your own place to fit in.

For Amy, however, her response was not just a sense of difference but antipathy toward Whites. She said, “I just don’t care about them basically. They’re not my race. I don’t need to care about them, I guess. I don’t know why. I don’t have a reason. They just look stupid. I don’t care about them. They can do their own thing. I’ll do my thing.” Despite resistance to White

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racism as a reason some participants turn to their diasporic community, there was still an undercurrent of anxiety that their decisions are racist. Jeannette, who mentioned previously that she feels increasingly different from White peers, qualified her comment about feeling a unique connection with KAs. Like, you could be like at like a party or something, and you see a Korean person, and that’s probably the first person you go to because you already think, you kind of feel like you connect with them. It’s just easier to approach them ‘cuz you already feel connected with them in a way. . . . We’re the same race. I don’t mean to sound racist [emphasis added] or anything, but that’s not how I’m being.

Frank also qualified his preference for KA friends as not being racist. He said, “I don’t have that many school friends because I kind of choose not to (laughs). I prefer to have Korean friends, I guess. I’m not being racist [emphasis added]. It’s just more comfortable for me for some reason.” It should be noted, however, that most KAs do not cite White racism or Korean cultural maintenance as reasons for having co-ethnic friends. The reason most frequently given is because of long friendships developed through participation in the ethnic church. When Jessica was asked why she has more church friends than school friends, she said, “Because most of my school friends move away, and church friends, they stay around pretty long.” Her response was especially typical of uninterested KAs that have primarily co-ethnic friends, although this reason was given by individuals in other identity positions, too. Lucy said, “We just grow up together that way. Because like church friends, you grew up together, you actually grew up together. School friends, schools get bigger, and you switch classes, and you meet new people every year, so I think that makes me and my church girls more closer because we’re together like all the time. Every year, we’re together.” The attitudes above are not necessarily unique to a specific identity position, but there are some attitudes that are. Some hostile participants, for instance, actively dislike KAs. They particularly dislike second-generation KAs that they see as “wannabes.” Philip was particularly effusive about his disgust for KAs. I hang out with the people who don’t like the Korean people. There are those people that are really popular and all this other crap like I’m the best, I’m the best, touch my penis, or whatever, right? Other people are like I’m so Korean, I’m so Korean, whatever, you know, like Korean pride, Korean pride, Asian pride, and all this other crap, but there are other people in my church who are like shut the hell up, be quiet, and whatever. I’ll just hang out with them, like, the people at school, they don’t hang out with Korean people.

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What is striking about this statement is that while Philip derided KAs that identify strongly with their diasporic culture, he did not share the same disgust for KAs who associate with non-Koreans. In fact, these are the people he said he seeks out, especially if they share his resentment for Koreans. In fact, it is the only criterion mentioned when choosing co-ethnic friends. This attitude, however, is not common among most second-generation KAs in this study. Curious participants sought connections to the diaspora, and some also created a fantasized, utopian understanding of KAs. This is because they believe and hope that they can achieve acceptance that is not made available by dominant culture and non-Koreans. Linda said, “I’d prefer to have a lot more Korean friends I could get close and comfortable and do whatever I want without being looked at weirdly because they’re used to it already, instead of what I have now, which is kind of distant.” Her fantasized life is even more interesting when contrasted with her lived experience, which is that she is socially excluded at her church because she is shy and because she does not have the cultural fluency to talk about Korean popular culture. Therefore, she maintained a fantasized view despite evidence in her environment that would tell her that her fantasy is idealized. Unique to involved KAs is that they often talk with their co-ethnic friends about their shifting identification from being “whitewashed to Korean,” suggesting that they believe this shift represents an arrival at the correct sense of self. Amy said, “Me and my friends kind of talk about it, too. It’s like, wow, how did you become so different? I remember when you first came, you chilled with like White people, you know. I’m like, yeah, I don’t know what happened to me, either.” Therefore, more than any other identity position, their shared diasporic membership becomes a salient part of their friendships. Unique to the bicultural identity position is some participants’ desire to achieve greater “balance” in the friends they have. Karen lamented that her friends are almost all within the diaspora. Yes, most of my closest ones are Korean, but then like as I came into high school, well, in middle school, it was like naturally American or Korean or Indian friends, but as I came into high school, it kind of became divided, I guess, and so I felt a little uncomfortable about that. I was like I want to kind of have more American friends, too, but then like, for some reason, it’s just easier to approach Koreans, but then I’m trying to get more friends of different kinds and stuff because I really want to.

Harry not only wanted a more balanced profile of friends, he said it is morally unjustifiable to have an ethnically homogeneous group of friends. But, I’m going to try not to do that [only associate with KAs at college] because I have a lot of friends that are going there [to the same university],

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also, and I don’t wanna, I know I’m going to have to study a lot, but I also don’t want to cut off my connections with them [KA friends], so I’m going to work hard to keep my friendships alive, and, uh, start new ones. Not only hang out with Korean people because that could be bad [emphasis added].

Therefore, there is wide, but structured, diversity in KAs’ attitude toward their friends, and having co-ethnic friends is related to identity position but only to the extent that co-ethnic friends are intentional choices. GENDER INFLUENCE Overall, boys were less interested than girls in transnationally received culture and were more immersed in US culture. This is something that did not escape the attention of the participants. Margaret said, “We like hang out and stuff [with the boys], but we don’t talk about Koreans or anything. We just talk about like whatever. Like I was in a room, I’d be talking about the same thing whatever. Like I was in a room, I’d be talking about the same thing if I was in a room with a bunch of Caucasians or something. It’s just like that.” There are two reasons participants gave to explain this gendered difference in diasporic participation and identification. The first is that Korean culture is gendered female by the boys, which is a point I return to in the next chapter when discussing their uses and attitudes toward Korean media. Because of this, boys turn toward activities that are gendered “male” such as interest in US sports and action films, the latter for which every participant, regardless of identity position, considers better than Korean films because of their higher production values. The second reason participants gave was because girls were more proficient in Korean than they were. Tony noticed boys’ preference for US culture, saying, “The guys are more into like, you know, like what’s in America and stuff like that, in my opinion. At least that’s what I’ve seen so far.” I asked Tony if he noticed that girls are more aware and interested in transnationally received Korean culture. Tony said, “At least the Korean girls that I know because like Korean girls, I think, are more into like keeping in touch with like, like Korean trends or stuff like that.” While girls’ greater interest in their diasporic identification was noticed by many of the boys, especially when it came to Korean media use, most of the girls were surprised when I told them boys in my study noticed girls’ increased interest and involvement in their ethnic identity. Another reason for this gender gap as explained by the participants in the study is because of language. Tony said he cannot connect with most of his co-ethnic male peers when it comes to their shared diasporic background because he sees them as not having the language tools to be able to share experiences with Korean media or culture. “A lot of them, they’ve forgotten how to speak Korean and stuff like that.” As mentioned earlier, being unable

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to speak Korean acts as a barrier against exploring and, especially, immersing in one’s ethnic identity. Because of these gendered differences, girls were much more active in Korean media participation and fandom. CONCLUSION Intra-diaspora diversity in second-generation KA adolescent communities is generally structured by identity position. As individuals, who are constructing “new ethnicities” by reconciling their place in dominant culture and meaning within the diaspora, understanding what it means to be “Korean” is a salient feature of these KA adolescents’ experiences. In this research, those differences emerged into five major social identity positions: hostile, uninterested, curious, bicultural, and involved. These identity positions structure meanings about their identification, and they also shape their reception practices (as will be described in upcoming chapters). However, identity positions are not necessarily the ways they view their own internal differences. Second-generation KAs view the second-generation KA community in essentially bipolar ways: “whitewashed” and “wannabe Koreans” with explicitly bicultural KAs positioned somewhere between the two poles. Identification within these poles shapes everyday practices and dramatically situates their worldviews. Regardless of their self-identification or the identity positions I have identified, none rejected White dominant culture. It is integrated deeply into their views about race, racism, and identification. There is little reflexivity about the ways White friends subtly marginalized KAs’ diasporic interests or practices. For KAs, schools and neighborhoods placed in White, Southern suburbs acted as sites that unreflexively shaped KAs’ worldviews. Their worldviews were not only shaped by dominant cultural institutions but also by diasporic ones, including their families, churches, and friendships. These acted as necessary but not sufficient resources in diasporic interests and investment. As pointed out in Song’s (2003) discussion of ethnic choices, KAs had to mobilize those resources for them to shape their diasporic identification. One major choice as will be described in chapter 4 is the ways they use transnational Korean popular culture as resources to not only shape their own identification but to shape intra-ethnic boundaries and community. REFERENCES Barth, F. (1969). Introduction. In F. Barth (Ed.), Ethnic groups and boundaries: The social organization of culture difference (pp. 9–38). Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Bonilla-Silva, E. (2010). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and racial inequality in contemporary America. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

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Brandzel, A. L., & Desai, J. (2008). Race, violence, and terror: The cultural defensibility of heteromasculine citizenship in the Virginia Tech massacre and the Don Imus affair. Journal of Asian American Studies, 11(1), 61–85. Cobb, J. N. (2011). No we can’t!: Postracialism and the popular appearance of a rhetorical fiction. Communication Studies, 62(4), 406–421. doi: 10.1080/10510974.2011.588075 Cross, W. E. (1978). The Thomas and Cross models of psychological nigrescence. Journal of Black Psychology, 5(1), 13–31. doi: 10.1177/009579847800500102 Durham, M. G. (2004). Constructing the ‘new ethnicities’: Media, sexuality, and diaspora identity in the lives of South Asian immigrant girls. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 21(2), 140–161. doi: 10.1080/07393180410001688047 Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity, youth, and crisis. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. Fishman, J. A. (1997). Language, ethnicity, and racism. In N. Coupland & A. Jaworski (Eds.), Sociolinguistics: A reader and coursebook (pp. 329–340). New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press. Gillespie, M. (2000). Transnational communications and diaspora communities. In S. Cottle (Ed.), Ethnic minorities and the media: Changing cultural boundaries (pp. 164–179). Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press. Giroux, H. A. (2003). Spectacles of race and pedagogies of denial: Anti-Black racist pedagogy under the reign of neoliberalism. Communication Education, 52(2), 191–211. doi: 10.1080/ 0363452032000156190 Grossberg, L. (1996). Identity and cultural studies: Is that all there is? In S. Hall & P. Du Gay (Eds.), Questions of cultural identity (pp. 87–107). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Hall, S. (1996). New ethnicities. In D. Morley & K.-H. Chen (Eds.), Stuart Hall: Critical dialogues in cultural studies (pp. 443–451). New York, NY: Routledge. Jones, B., & Mukherjee, R. (2010). From California to Michigan: Race, rationality, and neoliberal governmentality. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 7(4), 401–422. doi: 10.1080/14791420.2010.523431 Mayer, V. (2003a). Living telenovelas/telenovelizing life: Mexican American girls’ identities and transnational telenovelas. Journal of Communication, 53(3), 479–495. doi: 10.1111/ j.1460-2466.2003.tb02603.x Mayer, V. (2003b). Producing dreams, consuming youth: Mexican Americans and mass media. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Mukherjee, R. (2006). The racial order of things: Cultural imaginaries of the post-soul era. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Oliha, H. (2011). In love and war: Racial disharmony and America’s discordant racial articulations in the wake of the Jeremiah Wright media spectacle. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 6(3), 257–271. doi: 10.1080/17447143.2011.605139 Ono, K. A. (2010). Postracism: A theory of the “post”—as political strategy. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 34(3), 210–253. doi: 10.1177/0196859910371375 Parker, D., & Song, M. (2006). New ethnicities online: Reflexive racialisation and the internet. The Sociological Review, 54(3), 575–594. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-954X.2006.00630.x Phinney, J. S. (1989). Stages of ethnic identity development in minority group adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 9(1–2), 34–49. doi: 10.1177/0272431689091004 Phinney, J. S. (1996). Understanding ethnic diversity: The role of ethnic identity. American Behavioral Scientist, 40(2), 143–152. doi: 10.1177/0002764296040002005 Phinney, J. S., Romero, I., Nava, M., & Huang, D. (2001). The role of language, parents, and peers in ethnic identity among adolescents in immigrant families. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 30(2), 135–153. Retrieved from http://www.springer.com/psychology/ child+%26+school+psychology/journal/10964. Prashad, V. (2001). Everybody was kung fu fighting: Afro-Asian connections and the myth of cultural purity. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Simpson, J. L. (2008). The color-blind double bind: Whiteness and the (im)possibility of dialogue. Communication Theory, 18(1), 139–159. Song, M. (2003). Choosing ethnic identity. Malden, MA: Polity.

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Squires, C. (2010). Running through the trenches: Or, an introduction to the undead culture wars and dead serious identity politics. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 34(3), 210–253. doi: 10.1177/0196859910371375 Tse, L. (1999). Finding a place to be: Ethnic identity exploration of Asian Americans. Adolescence, 34(133), 121–138. Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/journal/00018449_Adolescence.

Chapter Three

Film Reception and Perceived Influences on Identification

Before discussing the participants’ reception of the films, it is useful to elaborate on the films mentioned in the Introduction. Four of the films selected for the study would most likely be classified as romantic comedies, though Korean films do not conform as closely to the genre. Of the movies, My Little Bride is the closest to a standard romantic comedy. My Sassy Girl, on the other hand, contains elements of science fiction, and both My Tutor Friend and He Was Cool include teenage drama and, sometimes, gang fights as a feature of the story. In contrast, The Way Home is markedly different as a dramatic character-driven story about a young boy and his grandmother. To reiterate, the reason for not having a greater diversity of film genres is due to ethical concerns around showing young participants DVDs that are rated “18 and over,” which, unfortunately, eliminated all popular action, horror, and thrillers. My Sassy Girl’s original Korean title 엽기적인 그녀 (Yeobijeogin Geunyeo) is more closely translated as “bizarre woman.” Though the film’s title would suggest it is about the female protagonist, the film is narrated from the point of view of the male lead (Gyeonwoo) and his relationship with a headstrong, “bizarre” woman (unnamed). What sets this film apart from the other films in this study is the female lead’s dominance over the relationship. She makes relationship decisions and is violently aggressive, leading participants to see this film as reversing traditional gender roles. Later, it is revealed that her bizarre behavior, such as pushing Gyeonwoo into a lake simply to see his reaction or making him wear her high heels, is her way of dealing with the loss of her lover. After an accidental meeting, Gyeonwoo takes responsibility for the “bizarre woman,” helping her recover by spending time with her and acting as emotional support for her. The film, a commercial 55

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success across much of East Asia, was the only film in this study to be universally enjoyed by all participants. My Little Bride is a conventional romantic comedy with an unconventional plot device that received mixed reactions from participants. In the film, two families are tied closely because of the bond between the family’s grandfathers, who promised that they would wed their sons and daughters. However, because both grandfathers only have sons, the promise is extended to their grandchildren, who are the film’s leads. With the passage of time, only one grandfather is still alive, and his dying wish is to see the promise fulfilled before his death. To do so, he stages a medical emergency to create urgency in getting his grandson to marry his deceased friend’s granddaughter. The families persuade the college-aged boy and the high school girl to have a fake wedding and marriage until the grandfather dies. Though popular for Korean audiences, the plot device of an arranged marriage, particularly with a young girl of the participants’ same age, was disturbing to several involved female participants. 동갑내기 과외하기 (Donggabnaegi gwawaehagi), the Korean title for My Tutor Friend, is literally translated as tutoring someone born in the same year, and as the title suggests, the film centers on a tutor and a student of the same age, but despite their similar ages, they are in different life stages. The tutor is in college, earning money to help pay her way through college and helping her mother with her fried chicken restaurant, and the student is still in high school because he has failed to graduate multiple times. Despite his wealthy family hiring several tutors, they resign in quick succession because they are afraid of him, a wealthy “bad boy,” whose primary interests are partying and fighting. The tutor, in contrast, is socially awkward, stubborn, and naïve. A commercially conventional film My Tutor Friend was liked by many of the participants and by most of the girls in the study because of the attractiveness of the male lead. He Was Cool was enjoyed by some and met with indifference by others, creating the most ambivalent response. The story is more serious than My Tutor Friend, and the violence is more graphic, though it ends happily as is convention with romantic comedies. In the story, the male lead is an orphan, whose father died of AIDS when he was a young child and whose best friend drowned in the ocean. Because of these experiences, the character is cold to his peers but is respected because of his coolness, attractiveness, and fighting prowess. The female lead, on the other hand, is a diligent student, who attends a high school adjacent to the vocational high school of the male lead. While leaping over her school’s wall, she falls on the male lead and accidentally connects at the lips, triggering their relationship as the male lead views their “kiss” as something of a covenant that binds them in a relationship. The final DVD was The Way Home. The film was a surprise commercial success as a character-driven independent film that focuses on a young,

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urban boy and his relationship with his deaf-mute grandmother. In the opening scenes, the boy’s mother leaves him with his maternal grandmother in a dilapidated house in the countryside while she looks for work in Seoul. The film’s central message is about the adaptation of the boy to the country and his reluctant but growing appreciation for the love of his grandmother and the interconnected lives of rural people. Despite its slow-moving storyline, reactions to this film were generally favorable, with many participants reacting strongly and making parallels to their lives. IDENTITY POSITIONS AND EVALUATIONS OF FILMS Most participants in the study said they enjoyed the films, though several pointed out aspects of the films they did not like. A few uninterested KAs said that at least one of the films has no redeeming qualities. This point of view was unique to individuals in this identity position. In Grace’s media diary about My Tutor Friend, she wrote, “I thought the movie was rather dull and unnecessarily violent at times. The plot and action moved pretty slowly, which made it difficult to retain my attention.” When asked about her unfavorable response to the film, Grace said, “I don’t know. I never, like, nothing like interested me, and I just. I don’t know. It’s so hard to explain. I just didn’t. There was nothing that appealed to me about it.” Similarly, Sara wrote that the film was unappealing, saying, “Um, I don’t know. Now, that when I think back, I can’t like think of anything that I really liked about it. I’m trying to remember what I thought when I was watching it, but it wasn’t like horrible, but I just didn’t think I like, there wasn’t anything about it that was like enjoyable or anything.” Andy’s response was much more visceral. In his media diary for He Was Cool, he showed his disgust for this film by generalizing his dislike for Korean televisual culture. Andy wrote, “But it still seemed similar to so many other Korean dramas. It screams, ‘Bad boy hero meets weak cowardly girl. Girl softens boy’s heart. Love is in the air. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.’ O-R-I-G-I-N-A-L-I-T-Y.” Participants in the curious and bicultural identity positions mitigated their criticism by expressing mixed opinions or qualified criticism of the films. For curious KAs, their dislike of the films is filtered through their search for diasporic meaning. In his evaluation of He Was Cool, Eric said: Yeah. I thought it was like, parts of it were like really corny, like the beginning when, uh, she accidentally kisses him, and it goes to this side view, and they’re like glowing. I was kind of like, hmm, but at the same time, it’s like I thought it was interesting how he was so like we’re dating now, and she didn’t even put up resistance because obviously she was physically attracted to him, you know, and it’s like, otherwise, why wouldn’t you say something about it.

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Eric disliked the film for its “corny” jokes, but he was able to find humor, anyway, mitigating his initial criticism. Sam, on the other hand, had mixed opinions about The Way Home. In Sam’s media diary, he wrote, “I had some good and bad thoughts on the movie but nothing that the good was overtaken. I usually don’t like these movies since the elderly and the weak are picked on, but I liked the ending considerably.” Bicultural participants also expressed mixed opinions about the films, but when they disliked a film, they were careful to qualify their criticisms to make sure that the criticism was not read as Korea-bashing or pro-United States, revealing their negotiated viewing position. In a media diary about He Was Cool, John wrote, “I don’t feel that this film was bad. It just wasn’t that good. However, there are many American films that are worse.” Commenting on the same film, Jeannette wrote, “Not very good, but America has bad movies, too (ex: Napoleon Dynamite), haha.” Both John and Jeannette contextualized their criticism of He Was Cool by making it clear that their disappointment with the film should not be interpreted as suggesting US films are better. Therefore, even in their dislike of particular films, participants’ identity positions acted as intra-ethnic interpretive communities that shaped their reception of the texts. As mentioned earlier, though, most participants enjoyed the films, regardless of their identification. Criticism was generally rare, so it was not that different identity positions led to enjoyment or dislike but rather that the reasons for and the articulation of the evaluations differed. For instance, uninterested KAs elaborated less than others on the reasons for enjoying the films, but several of them enjoyed the movies, nonetheless. Tim wrote in his diary about He Was Cool, “Overall, I thought this movie was good.” Joseph similarly said My Tutor Friend is one of his favorite films, saying, “Definitely one of my top 10 movies.” Bobby said, “I can’t say that I’ve seen a lot [of romantic comedies], but I’ve seen some, so from what I’ve seen, I’d like choose this as the best romantic comedy kind of movie that I’ve seen, you know.” Even Philip, who is hostile, found enjoyment in one of the films, writing, “I LOVED THE MOVIE!!!! My favorite movie genre type is romantic comedies, and My Sassy Girl, really hit the spot. It was PERFECT. I completely loved it though it just had to have a love triangle (sort of . . . the guy she liked was already dead . . . oh well).” Philip’s quote was particularly revealing because while he passionately expressed his enjoyment of the film, at the same time, he made an implicit criticism of Korean media, generally, with his parenthetical comment about “love triangles,” which he implied is a formulaic narrative device in Korean popular media. Along with uninterested KAs, several curious KAs wrote that some of the films are among their favorites. However, their responses were not simply visceral, gut-level responses but were generally grounded in their active

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identity search. The films had added value because of their ethnic meaning. In response to a question about why he liked My Tutor Friend, Jim said: Um, because not only do you have the son fighting, but it’s evident that he learned his fighting from his father ‘cause that one scene where, uh, he punched at his father, and even though his father is a decently large man, he still dodges it really fast and then he hits him. You know, it’s kind of nice to see that for once, you know. Not that he just learned it but that he picked it up from his dad and everything. And even though the ending was really cut off really short and really fast, it ended well enough in my opinion to make me happy about it and stuff.

Though Jim did not explicitly mention ethnic identification, he hinted at this by talking about the relationship between the father and son in the film, especially because this is the only father and son relationship in any movie that he says is salient to him. Therefore, it is possible that he counted this film among his favorites because he identified with it. Writing about My Little Bride, Andy wrote, “The movie was a wonderful work of comedic romance.” By saying that this is the best romantic comedy he has ever seen, he simultaneously praised the film but also bound the evaluation in ways that reflect his gender identification, saying it was a great romantic comedy, not necessarily a great movie. Tony wrote that He Was Cool was a great film, but he also gendered his praise, writing, “I thought this was a great movie. It wasn’t too grossly romantic (although as a guy some parts were really corny) and some parts were hilarious . . . like when Ye Won runs through the streets with 파마 (pama—Korean pronunciation for perm) curls still in her hair . . . lol . . . and also when she gets her head stuck in the fence.” In Tony’s evaluation of My Little Bride, he made explicit that his enjoyment was enhanced by his ability to identify ethnically. He said, “Um, well, just the fact that you know like it’s Korean, and it kind of hits home in a way. Like I understand it a lot better, I would think. There are a lot of American movies that I watch that I liked a lot, too, but I don’t, if you do it in Korean, it’s so much better, I think.” Perhaps, because of transnational diasporic connections, several participants mentioned that the films are among their favorites. Linda, for example, wrote an unqualified favorable evaluation for He Was Cool. “I LOVED THIS MOVIE! I got pulled right into the romanticism that the movie just flew by, and I was disappointed the directors didn’t make it longer I was impressed with the large amount of quality action that was put into this movie without ruining the romantic mood and how everything fit in place perfectly without being too random.” While curious KAs elaborated richly on their evaluations of the films, individuals in the involved identity position did not. In fact, Amy is the only participant to comment, saying, “The movie [He Was Cool] was very funny. I liked it because it had a happy ending. I liked the fighting scenes.” This is likely

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because their enjoyment of the films was not extraordinary but, rather, a mundane part of their lives as ethnically involved KAs, yet unlike ambivalent KAs, their reasons for enjoyment were articulated, not simply as a general affective response to the film. Bicultural participants also enjoyed the films, though they were less animated in their appreciation than curious KAs. Their responses were enthusiastic but were sometimes expressed clinically, deconstructing the qualities of the films and indicating familiarity. For example, John said My Sassy Girl was one of his favorite films. Well, that’s actually one of my favorites, like one of the ones high on my list of Korean films to begin with because I don’t know. It was really quirky and funny, and when it wanted to, it could make you, it could be really emotional and like romantic, and I don’t know. It was just. This one, I’d have to say was like seriously expertly written. It’s just all the little things that happen that make you feel like, uh, when they just miss each other on the escalator and stuff like that, you’re going, aw, man, you didn’t see her coming up, she’s like 2 feet away from you, and I love movies that do that to you, and that does that to you like every 5 minutes.

He liked the film so much that he asked me to sell it to him to keep in his personal collection. Sandra was also a fan of the film. She said, “I have to say that by far this is one of the best movies I have ever seen. Everything about this movie is perfect from the cast to the story plot. My Sassy Girl is one of those movies that will make you yearn for a significant other.” About My Little Bride, Harry wrote, “The thoughts and impressions I got from this movie was that it was very neatly done. It’s a movie that did not disappoint and will not and cannot disappoint in my opinion.” His quote is interesting because of two reasons. First, My Little Bride did, in fact, disappoint several in this study, particularly involved KAs. Second, his praise is a universalizing one, suggesting that anyone should be able to enjoy and appreciate the film. His favorable opinion about this film, as I will show later, is unique to the bicultural and the uninterested identity positions. Individuals in all identity positions enjoyed and praised the films, but their responses differed notably in ways that reflect their identification. The reasons for uninterested KAs were less well elaborated, and in Philip’s case, praise was couched in criticism of Korean media, generally. Curious and bicultural KAs, on the other hand, had more well-developed reasons for enjoying the DVDs, whether it was because of the films themselves or because of their experiences watching the films. To reiterate, identity positions shaped participants’ reception to the films and created interpretive communities that draw on similar symbolic resources and beliefs in their reception practices.

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IDENTITY POSITIONS AND EVALUATIONS OF PLOT Though there are few generalized comments about disliking films, participants, particularly uninterested KAs, found several disagreeable plot elements. Philip stated concisely his boredom with the film, My Tutor Friend, writing in his media diary, “this movie made me want to sleep so bad.” Jessica, on the other hand, wrote in her media diary that My Tutor Friend is formulaic. “Why does it always have to involve a gang in a film? Why can’t it be something else? And why does it have to deal with Korean schools?” In responding to a question about My Little Bride, Bobby said, “Um, it was very typical and like predictable, like it was.” Michael, likewise, said, “I guess it was predictable, I guess I could say, so it wasn’t unpredictable, which I, which I wanted it to be, so it would’ve been more fun, I guess.” Grace, speaking about The Way Home, said, “Like, The Way Home, for example, I just thought it was slow, like nothing, and I felt like nothing was happening, and when it did happen, it happened like all at once, and so it was like hard to relate to.” For several uninterested KAs, they framed their disinterest in the films around a discourse about the films as boring. It is a common way for them to disidentify with the films without making their criticisms ethnically specific. Though there are participants not in the uninterested or hostile identity position that find the films boring, they constitute only a small handful. Only three participants in the curious, involved, and bicultural identity positions combined found one of the films boring or formulaic. There were four in the uninterested identity position alone, which suggests that a reason for finding a film boring or interesting was related to diasporic identification. Indeed, KAs in other identity positions found stories to not only be interesting but novel and creative. About My Little Bride, Tim said, “I thought this movie was good. The movie was interesting and original.” Dick went a step further, making explicit the connection between the creativity of the plot and his diasporic identity, saying that the plot of My Little Bride is one that Hollywood is unable to imagine. In his media diary, Dick wrote, “I don’t think Americans would have thought [of] a scenario as this one, in the Young Bride.” Implicit in the criticism of Hollywood is praise for the Korean film industry, which, in turn, is a form of resistive pride in the creativity of popular media in his heritage homeland. Though this alone is not sufficient evidence of diasporic identification playing a role in the evaluation of a film’s plot, when combined with the disproportionate criticism of those in the uninterested identity position of the plot’s dullness and unoriginality, it becomes clearer that diasporic identification informs participants’ evaluations of the film texts.

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EVALUATIONS OF DEPTH Like criticisms of the film’s plot, the only criticism of the film’s depth comes from a single uninterested KA. Andy, talking about He Was Cool, said, “It’s just not deep. They have deeper and twisted plots in Mr. and Mrs. Smith because they’re both agents from other sides.” This is a particularly interesting comparison because Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which is a spy film featuring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, has been panned by critics for its shallowness. In contrast, He Was Cool deals with plot elements such as having a father with AIDS, social isolation from peers, and the death of a friend and its consequences. The criticisms, however, should not be overstated because most comments from uninterested KAs were about the favorable quality of Korean films’ depth, particularly in response to The Way Home. For instance, Jessica wrote, “Another good movie because it told a story of a selfish young boy, who had changed by the love of his grandmother. You can learn something good from it.” Similarly, Sara wrote in her media diary, “Overall, I think this movie was very heartwarming and touching to watch. The transformation of Sangwoo’s feelings toward his grandmother was wonderful.” Despite their comments about the film’s depth, none of the uninterested KAs framed their evaluation of its meaningfulness within the context of ethnicity but cited the universal theme of love between a grandmother and grandson. Curious KAs, in contrast, were the most expressive about depth in The Way Home, connecting this depth with a specifically Korean dimension. In his media diary, Richard wrote, “I admit with some embarrassment that this is the only movie I have watched where I have cried. Again, this movie touched me on a personal level which I don’t think any American movie could do. If I look for an emotional experience, I generally choose Korean movies over American movies.” Here, Richard identified Korean films as having a particularly powerful role in stirring emotion, and through the course of his interview, he said this is because he views Korean films as deeper and more relatable. Margaret was even more explicit about the link between diasporic identification and connection with the film. American movies, they don’t really have strong symbolicness or something like that. They’re more like this, what is this? And, that’s it. They’ll do it, but they won’t like, people, some people won’t really understand what this means, but in 집으로 (Jibeuro, The Way Home), I knew what that meant, but, um, I don’t know. I haven’t seen any American movies that were in depth like 집으로 (Jibeuro, The Way Home).

In other words, Margaret saw the film as meaningful because she read it as a specifically Korean text. She identified with the movie and actions in the movie because they are Korean, and she saw those behaviors as unknowable

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to non-Koreans, constructing inter-ethnic boundaries, which differs from the universalizing narratives by uninterested KAs. There are kids like him that treat their grandmothers like that, but in America, like, it’s like if they made a movie like that with American actors or whatever. To me, it’s just too fake. I don’t know because I’ve never seen when people are like, when little kids treat their grandmothers like that, the grandma’s more like, they don’t really teach their grandchildren anything. They just spoil them more. That kind of made me think that Americans don’t learn stuff like that. If Americans saw like 집으로 (Jibeuro, The Way Home), maybe some of them would understand, but some of them would be like this is a dumb movie. But to me, I think Koreans are more understandable and stuff, and it’s realistic. I can, I can if someone says that’s a true story, I’m like oh really? I would believe it was real to me. If it would be made again by an American, I’d be like whatever, it’s not real.

Therefore, for Margaret, a principal reason for thinking The Way Home has more depth was because of the diasporic connection she makes with the film and her belief in its uniquely Korean message. Lena, who is in the involved identity position, viewed The Way Home as representative of Korean films’ superior depth. In her media diary, Lena wrote, “Korean movies have more POINT to it. Some American movies have no point to it, and it just drags on. I don’t like it.” Interestingly, Lena generalized her belief in the greater depth of Korean films while disparaging US films to make her point. This was an attitude only present in involved KAs but, even then, not widely. Bicultural KAs echoed the above sentiments with the exception that a few in this did not see the film as just a Korean film but as symbolic of their bicultural experiences. John said: It really seemed like a metaphor for what’s happening to some of the people I know. I mean, the fact that everyone’s losing touch with where they really came from, how people still actually live in Korea, and, and, god, it tugged on my heartstrings. I can’t even describe how it felt. It was just really emotional, and I really, really, the fact that there didn’t even have to be dialogue for it to, you know, show you something, the grandmother didn’t even say anything but still she’s, I don’t know, I’m sorry, I can’t think of words to describe what I’m trying to say.

In this metaphor, he saw the spoiled urban grandson as being symbolic of second-generation KAs, who reject their ethnic identity because of the excesses of their experience in the United States. Sandra also saw the film as a metaphor. Well, I think for most first-generation KAs and second-generation KAs, there’s that language barrier. Well, for me, it’s ok, but I have some cousins,

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Chapter 3 like, they were born here, and they can’t speak much Korean, and their parents can’t speak much English, so there’s kind of a drift between them, you know, so they never actually get close, and that’s what I saw between them at first because you know how she’s mute, and there wasn’t a way of communication between them at first. That’s what I kind of saw.

These two points are interesting because John and Sandra are drawing on this transnational text in ways that have direct meaning on their local experience in the diaspora. VIEWS OF CHILDISHNESS Another difference appears with KAs that evaluated films as childish versus being cute. The fault line is both gendered and based on diasporic identification. For instance, uninterested boys were the only ones to criticize the use of special effects as unsophisticated. In Michael’s diary about My Tutor Friend, he wrote, “They had some special ‘Matrix-like’ effects, which I think is lame.” In response to a question about the effects in He Was Cool, Leonard likewise said, “Oh yeah, there were parts like that one whole scene, where she’s jumping over the wall, and she, like, jumps so high, which is unreal. And when, um, I guess how she acted in the scene was more anime-ish.” The criticism of the film’s cartoon-like effects extended to boys’ criticism of the childishness of the stories. Especially criticized was My Little Bride, as several curious KA boys commented on its slapstick humor. In his media diary, Tim wrote, “This movie was very Koreanized. It had lots of Korean humor and culture. Korean culture is childish and very happy. . . . This movie will be good for little girls. Little Americans would enjoy this movie because this movie is very childish and girlish. Some American people will probably think this movie is silly.” In his criticism of this film, Tim generalized to Korean humor and culture, overall. He also revealed his “double-consciousness” as he viewed the film through the lens of “Americans,” noting his concern for what “American people” would think about the movie. Involved and bicultural girls, on the other hand, did not view Korean culture as childish but rather as cute. Lena compared Korean films to US films in response to He Was Cool, saying, “Um, it’s [Korean media] just better for me. It’s just cute and yeah.” Jeannette said she liked all but The Way Home, claiming, “The rest of them I liked because they’re really cute and stuff.” Both KA boys and girls gendered Korean humor and viewed it as different from “US humor,” reflecting locally received gender expectations, but the evaluation of this difference is inflected by their identification within the diaspora. Uninterested and curious boys disparaged Korean culture as childish and girlish, whereas boys in the involved and bicultural identity

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positions did not make the same criticism. Uninterested and curious KA girls, on the other hand, withheld criticism, while involved and bicultural KA girls interpreted the films in favorable ways as cute. COMPARISONS WITH US FILMS In their evaluations of the films, several participants discussed what they see as differences between Korean and US films. Perceived differences were so salient that several participants made unprompted comparisons in their media diaries, whereas others were asked to elaborate during the interviews. Consistent with criticisms of Korean culture and media, some uninterested KAs stated directly that US films are better. Andy said, “The movies seem weak compared to American movies. The plot runs waist-deep, no deep, dark, hidden secrets about the characters other than a few minor ones. The special effects copied from The Matrix has been a bit overused in all movies.” A criticism unique to uninterested and hostile KAs is that the Korean films are not “American.” This demonstrates the association of “American as good” and “Korean as bad” for these participants. In Philip’s diary about He Was Cool, he wrote, “The action admittedly is well choreographed, but it is slow and there is not enough of it to please an American audience. I think, for my tastes (or lack of), I’d rather have a mindless American sex/violent film than the mind-numbing randomness equivalent to Napoleon Dynamite that this movie repeatedly hammers into one’s skull.” What gives the film value, then, is its “Americanness” and its potential to appeal to “American” audiences. It is apparent Philip is identifying strongly with dominant culture through this binary construction—a standard that suggests that at best Korean films can be as good but not better than US ones and a standard that allows similar films to be criticized as derivative. Leonard made a similar critique that places Korean films in an unfavorable binary relationship to their US counterparts. In praising My Sassy Girl, he, at the same time, criticized Korean films. It was just, some of them were funny. Like, My Sassy Girl, it had a pretty clever ending, even though I already knew it. It was a good ending compared to like, you know, their standards in American movies are supposed to, like, you don’t expect Korean movies to be amazing just because like everything I see in their media is a copy from something in America [scoffs]. You know, like, there’s nothing original really. But, I’d say that movie, that movie could compare to a lot of movies in America as in how well it was made and stuff.

Leonard clearly liked My Sassy Girl, but he did not accept the film on its own terms. In his praise, he disparaged Korean films, generally. Saying that My Sassy Girl differs from Korean films and that it compares well to US films is

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to, first, say that other Korean films are worse than US films and, second, to say that for a film to be considered good, it has to conform to Hollywood conventions. Only bicultural KAs said Korean and US films are equivalent. Referring to My Tutor Friend, Harry wrote in his diary, “Comparing the action alone without the rest of the movie, I would say it’s as good as any other action out there.” Speaking about My Tutor Friend, John said, “I think that this film is just as good as certain American comedies.” Their response is likely because they are negotiating both their diasporic identification as explicitly bicultural KAs. Those who found Korean media preferable are mostly in the involved and bicultural identity positions. Writing about My Sassy Girl in his media diary, Dick wrote, “Very unique. Had a different kind of story line than most American movies.” He implied that Korean films are preferable to US ones because US films are more formulaic. Paul, who identifies biculturally, tempered his preference for Korean films in his media diary about My Tutor Friend, writing, “[It’s] better ‘cause Korean, however some American movies are better graphic and better in general.” This quote shows his negotiated diasporic identification, recognizing that US films are preferable in some ways yet initially wanting to write that Korean films are “better.” Karen, on the other hand, dismissed the idea that higher production value makes US films better, writing in her media diary that “American movies are ‘flashy,’ as in you can tell that they invested a lot of money into making the film. But Korean movies are just more . . . interesting, diverse, and. . . . I don’t know. But this doesn’t mean that I dislike American movies.” Also responding in her media diary, Lena wrote, “Korean movies are more funny, they make a lot of graphics, and they make it funny, but American movies aren’t like that.” In the participants’ evaluations of Korean films, it was apparent that individuals’ identification within diaspora shapes the way they interpret and evaluate the film texts as part of interpretive communities. PERCEIVED INFLUENCES ON DIASPORIC IDENTIFICATION The only participants that said they were less interested in the diaspora after watching the films were hostile and a few uninterested KAs, who expressed relief after their participation in the study ended. Andy said that having to engage in transnational films for an extended period of time is “boring” and something he realized he wants to avoid in the future. [Sighs]. Uh, let’s see another Korean movie, ugh. I guess Korean movies are something like every now and then for me to watch but not like all the time because like after four days of this, I’m kind of tired of watching Korean

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movies, I guess. I find it interesting and all, but not for like every single day I watch Korean stuff. That bored me like out of my mind.

When I met with Jessica, she celebrated the end of the project and wrote about her growing disgust with the films in her media diary. She said, “I’m getting tired and sick of Korean movies. I don’t think I can last anymore. Arrrggghhhhh . . . !!!!” When she finished her role in the project, she wrote, “I’m so glad this is the last movie. YAAAAAAAY! *celebrates*.” Philip also expressed disgust with having to watch the films, despite his enjoyment of My Sassy Girl, the first film he watched. He wrote, “Because, I mean, I could have been like, but I was like originally the Korean culture, blah, blah, blah, and then the second movie, oh yeah, Korean culture, but by the third movie, I was like I don’t even want to talk about Korean culture. I don’t even care.” Philip’s visceral response was so powerful that he said he will never watch another Korean film again, except for My Sassy Girl, which he read as an anti-Korean text. Other uninterested KAs did not locate their growing disinterest as related to ethnicity but, instead, said it is the tedium of watching films, generally. However, because only individuals in the uninterested identity position mention this, it implicates diasporic ambivalence as at least having some role in leading to this response to the viewing experience. Bobby said, “The first day I got them, I wanted to watch them, so it was good, but after a couple days, it became more of like a hassle to watch because it takes two hours of your time, you know.” Sara echoed Bobby’s response, saying, “Well, I thought it was, I don’t know. I really liked the first one, and, I don’t know, the other two, they were ok, but, I don’t know, I just didn’t, I thought it was, I was like really bored trying to sit through it, sort of.” To reiterate, all of the responses that indicate growing disinterest in ethnic identity or transnational media use are specific to uninterested or hostile KAs. In the research, many responses have had some overlap between identity positions, but disinterest, at least among individuals in this study, belonged solely to those uninterested in or hostile toward diasporic identification. NO CHANGE Most participants in this study said watching the films had no impact on their identification within the diaspora. However, with more probing, participants pointed to self-reflection and diasporic interest as a result of watching the films. Individuals likely did not want to admit to themselves or me that films of any kind influence them. This is similar to the third-person effect in which participants of media research think that media affect others more strongly than themselves (Davison, 1983). With this in mind, I probed further to understand how participants make sense of the perception of no change. The

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most common reason individuals said the films do not shape diasporic identification was because of their prior knowledge of Korea. Bobby said he was not impacted by the films because the films do not provide new information. Um. It’s like everything I expected it to be, you know. Like, some people might say like Korea has gotten like really modernized, you know, but I already knew that, you know, so like maybe like a few years before or into the past if I saw these movies, I would’ve gotten like more of an impact on these movies, but I think I’m more knowledgeable now into how Korea is. I don’t know how because I’ve never been there, but I guess it’s from what my parents say, like what I see on TV and stuff or like on the news.

Michael said that his notions of Korea were confirmed through the films, saying, “Mmm, no, I already had an image of Korea, and that’s pretty much what it was.” Margaret also said her previous knowledge was the reason the films did not influence her. “Not really. Because mostly I know like a lot, and I know what’s real and what’s not, so I’m just, yeah. Not really.” Jeannette echoed the sentiment that her familiarity and knowledge are why she was not affected. The difference, though, was she does not say it is because of her knowledge of Korea, generally, but because of her knowledge of specific films. She said, “When they first came out, I watched it over and over again. I guess after you watched it a lot, it doesn’t have the same effect on you.” Jeannette’s reason, therefore, differed because she located her response in her familiarity with a specific Korean text and not general comments about culture and society, which is consistent with other identification practices of bicultural KAs. Frank also located his response in his experience with films. For him, however, it was not the specific film text but his view of film as merely entertainment. I don’t know. I don’t think it would really change me much. I would just take it as another movie that I see here and there. Like American movies. I don’t like to be influenced that much by things I see. So, I just take it as watching another movie like I rented it from Blockbuster. It would have the same effect. It’s not like this is special because it’s Korean made, you know. It’s another movie. Enjoy it. It really wouldn’t influence me that much.

To maintain the ideology that film is impotent, he must conclude that Korean films are also unable to influence him. Though the length of the section suggests that only a few participants said they were unaffected, this is not the case. The belief that media do not influence diasporic identification was the overwhelming response. However, the majority of respondents simply said “no” when asked if they were influ-

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enced by the films. When asked why, they simply said they did not know or repeated that the films had no effect. Because of the lack of well-elaborated data, those quotes are not included, but it should be emphasized that this was the response most often provided. The desire to view film, specifically Korean film, as unable to effect change is itself an interesting finding because that belief likely shaped their interaction and use of Korean media. INCREASED INTEREST AND ETHNIC PRIDE Individuals that said they benefited from watching the films crossed all identity positions. However, this was not a widespread view with the exception of curious KAs, who said the experience of watching the films had a profound impact. The desire to watch more Korean movies was especially strong for this group. Consistent with their interest and curiosity, they expressed excitement about watching the movies. Michael said, “Yeah, I liked it because I’m Korean, I guess. And, uh, I never really watched Korean movies before, so it was something I was looking forward to.” Linda also said she was excited about watching the films. She said, “Since the movies were a lot more interesting, I actually looked forward to them because I never saw that many Korean movies, any Korean movies, than what you gave me.” Richard, too, said watching the films created a desire to explore more Korean films. “It’s [Korean films] out of the norm, so the impact it makes on me is like, wow, maybe I should explore this more. Um, that’s what, that’s the feeling I got out of this, maybe I should explore because these are pretty popular movies for like, so maybe I should explore the Korean movie thing more.” For curious KAs like Richard, clearly, the impact of the films occurs in the nexus between their own identity search and the novelty of watching Korean films. In addition to excitement about the films and a desire to view more, the experience also led to an appreciation of Korean films, more generally. Will previously held unfavorable views of Korean media before his participation in the study because he linked all Korean media with his perceptions of Korean television programs that he gendered as feminine. Will said, “I used to, I guess I used to think all of them [Korean media] had the exact same storyline and that they were boring. Probably mainly because of the Korean dramas. This is the first time I’ve actually watched like Korean movies, so I don’t know what other movies are like, but the main reason is probably because of the Korean dramas.” His decoupling of Korean dramas with film led to an increased interest and appreciation for Korean popular culture, and his experience with Korean films was so strong that he stated he wants to identify ethnically in other aspects of his life, too. For some bicultural KAs, there was an increased desire to watch Korean films more frequently, but unlike curious KAs, their increased interest is not

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because of the films’ novelty. Instead, their reasons indicated a familiar relationship with Korean films. Sandra said, “Yeah, I kind of want to watch Korean movies again more now or, like, the good ones. Build up my collection, I guess. I really want to watch 킬러들의 수다 (Gilleodeulae Suda, Guns and Talk). I love that movie.” Also noticeable is that Sandra desired to make a material commitment to buy Korean DVDs. Harry, on the other hand, was interested in becoming more familiar with Korean popular culture. He said, “I wanted to know the actors’ names, but I kind of got lazy. Maybe, I don’t know. Yeah. I don’t know. I wanted to know, it made me want to know who the actors were, the Korean actors, and it kind of made me miss not watching Korean stuff anymore, but, yeah, that’s about it.” Because popular cultural knowledge was one of the primary cultural indicators to demonstrate Koreanness (as will be described in chapter 6), it is reasonable that wanting to regain that knowledge was an attempt to reclaim Korean authenticity. EXPERIENCING CULTURE When writing in her media diary about Korean culture in My Little Bride, Linda, who is in the curious identity position, expressed longing to be a part of Korean culture. Love the Korean culture. The reason I probably love it so much is that I never really had the chance to become as familiar with it as I wish I did now nor experience some of the things I’ve heard so much about, like growing up in an old part of the country in those old-fashioned houses, riding bikes to school with friends and/or “oppas” (kinship term meaning older brother but can refer to any male a few years older), wearing uniforms to school, having childhood friends close enough that you’re actually EXPECTED to walk home linking arms everyday, and especially the freedom to go anywhere you feel like going when you have the time because you can just ride the bus there.

For Linda, watching the films created longing for an idealized view of Korean life. This type of creative imagining was unique to curious KAs, indicating a fantasized play where she and others constructed mental models of Korean life that, in her case, help her resist local and everyday experiences of marginalization. Eric, likewise, said that the films allowed him to imagine himself in a cultural world that is part of his identity but removed from his lived experience. I’m so used to American movies and stuff, you know, in American movies, you’ll see like props and stuff, and you’ll see White people everywhere or like in the middle of an American city. But, these were like in the middle of Seoul,

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and there are like Korean people everywhere, and I was like wow, these people have so many Korean friends. I wonder what that’s like, you know. It was like, it kind of like gave me a look into a world I’ve been looking for and haven’t found since I went to Korea.

Because the films stimulated and made more tangible participants’ imagined views of Korea or their memories of Korea, the films generated a longing to visit. For Sam, the reason he wanted to go to Korea was to experience unique, everyday culture in Korea. Probably made me want to go to Korea again because of all the steak and 고기 (gogi, meat) they got to eat and stuff, and all the nice food they got to try and all the chicken and all the stores, though some scenes didn’t make me want to, because they were like this is cologne from America, and I was like, uh, okay. Parts like that made me feel indifferent, but parts where they were eating traditional Korean foods, writing books, taking the subway and everything, kind of made me want to go back.

Sam’s quote is revealing because unlike uninterested and hostile KAs who view US culture as good and Korean culture as less desirable, his idea of “good” is “authentic” Korean artifacts that are not widely available in the United States, which spurs a desire to “return.” Tim’s reason to want to visit was less defined as he simply stated that the movies made him want to visit. He said, “Yeah, it was actually these movies that made me want to go to Korea more and stuff.” Eric, too, wanted to return after watching the films, saying, “Yeah, not only did it make me want to learn the language and stuff, you know, it made me want to go back like really badly.” For Elaine, her reason for wanting to visit was because of her interest in co-ethnic celebrities. Elaine said, “I want to go to Korea more, and I want to actually like meet some of the actors [laughs] like 권상우 (Gweon Sangu).” Her interest, then, was marked by a desire for real relationships with the celebrities that she admired on screen. For involved KAs, the reason for wanting to visit was rooted in the “fun” of everyday culture, not in the traditional or the extraordinary. They expressed familiarity with Korean culture through their desire to engage in ethnic play instead of discovery. Lena, for example, said, “The food, you know. It’s different from here. Like KFC, they’re all different from here and other stuff; they’re all different from Korea. I just want to go there and like shop because I don’t think, I haven’t like personally shopped there and bought clothes. My mom might’ve, but I haven’t, so I want to go there and look at the clothes and just visit.” Ironically, she did not mention traditionally Korean foods but rather a US-based fast food chain to experience everyday differences, which points to a desire for difference within familiar contexts. Hannah, likewise, said she wanted to go to experience everyday teen life. She

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said, “It reminded me, it made me want to go there because it seems like they have fun. You don’t need a car to like walk around because everyone walks around, anyways. They’re in high school, so yeah.” Though this quote could be read as her desire for independence that is not necessarily related to diasporic identification, that reading is unconvincing since she and her friends drive in the United States and thus have the freedom of mobility. It is clear her response was related to ethnic play because of a later response to a question about whether she wanted to “hang out” with peers in Korea. Hannah replied, “(Laughs). Yeah. For like a summer. Like with Korean friends.” Specifically, Hannah was referring to her diasporic friends in the United States, so her desire to visit is a desire to share ethnic experiences with KAs in Korea, reinforcing their cultural bonds through shared experiences and memories while maintaining some distance from full participation in everyday Korean life. Several bicultural KAs also mentioned a desire to visit Korea, but their reasons were not well elaborated. John said, “Yeah, after watching these movies, I really want to go back to Korea. I haven’t been in a while.” Frank’s interests were also expressed fairly superficially, saying, “Mostly, it just makes me want to go back to Korea. Most of it’s food, too, because Korea’s got the best food, and I’m a food guy.” However, despite the superficial veneer, when later expressing his desire to immerse, Frank said it is because he wanted to experience Korean cultural expressions of “fun,” pointing to more meaningful choices. Korean movies start to like get everything into the movies that go on these days. I guess, um, it helps us wanna, we see them have so much fun, like going to 노래방 (noraebang, karaoke rooms) or drinking or having parties and stuff. I guess it kind of makes us homesick somehow and makes us want to go to Korea or something. It kind of gets us excited somehow. Yeah.

Though Korea is physically distant, he can connect vicariously with the life of young people through their play in the films. This desire for connection is made more prominent with his statement that he felt “homesick” after watching the films because it suggests that he was psychically or spiritually away from home—that he is in a foreign place. The desire to go, then, is rooted in diasporic identification that is formed through desired experiences in or return to the homeland. Lucy also said she wanted to immerse for similar reasons as Frank and, in addition, to confirm culture in the films. Lucy said, “After I watched them, that’s when I told my mom I want to go to Korea and see if Korean schools are like that.” For Lucy, she wanted to extend her media and diasporic peer involvement in the United States to a complete immersion into Korean culture so that her mediated experiences are supplemented with real ones, no

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longer satisfied with imagining but rather hoping to be in and part of the culture, albeit briefly. I wanna go to Korea ‘cause I told my mom that I want to go to Korea in the summer. Just to go to school there for a week, just to see how Korean schools there are, if people are really like 얼짱 (eol-jjang, most attractive face), 주목짱 (jumok-jjang, best fighter), and all that 짱 (jjang, top person) stuff. Eww, I’m number one in here, so don’t mess with me kind of thing. I want to see if guys are actually like that, and if girls are actually so mean. I just want to see if the Korean dramas are overexaggerating it or if it’s actually like that.

Karen, likewise, was motivated to experience culture for herself by wanting to immerse in the life of a teenager in Korea. Karen said: I personally really want to attend high school in Korea. A high schooler’s life in Korea seems so much fun; they have more freedom due to easy transportation, they have pretty uniforms, and there are so many cute guys there. I said this to my cousin, who is 33 years old, and he told me that is only what the movie shows. Having gone to high school in Korea, he told me that school in Korea was much harder, and less fun than what is shown in movies. I totally know that he is telling the truth. But I can’t help wanting to experience the adventures and the fun of Korean high schools that the movies portray.

It is interesting that although she realizes Korean media “feeds my fantasy of a teenager’s life in Korea,” she still was compelled to want to immerse. Her response, then, is less about a desire to confirm the veracity of media images but rather to become a part of the images of Korea that have populated her mind and imagination. For involved KAs, they did not elaborate much on their reasons for wanting to immerse, but for the few who did, their desire was located in their belief that Korean culture is more “fun.” Talking about My Sassy Girl, Michelle said, “I think this one made me want to go to Korea more just like how they went partying with like their school uniforms, and they flash their IDs and stuff, I thought that was so cute.” Dick also mentioned “fun” in Korea, saying, “I’ve just always wanted to experience like the schools in Korea ‘cause, I don’t know, they seem more fun. It’s not as formal as America, I guess. Well, I guess it is in a way because you can fight, and the teachers won’t really do anything.” Interestingly, Dick justified his desire to immerse as masculine. Fun for him is framed around fighting and being tough, which may be in response to gendered views of Korean culture as feminine. Curious participants said they wanted to immerse in Korean life because of opportunities to experience everyday Korean life for a teenager, but they framed their explanations around a desire to learn, rather than to confirm or experience previously held views of Korean cultural life. Elaine said:

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Chapter 3 Well, basically, the movies I’ve seen are centered around like high school, so I would like I want to start learning more, start to learn more about their high school. That’s why I think. Well, maybe, because I have a friend my age who goes to high school in Korea, maybe just because I want to see what he’s going through in high school, too, but I think, um, the movies add to that my wanting to know.

Tony has less defined views of Korean life, so, for him, immersing in Korea would be a way to learn about the culture. Yeah, I kind of wanted to like, after watching these movies, I kind of wanted to go and live in Korea, you know, because like I guess for the sake of trying something new or something. But, I don’t know, it kind of made me want to go to Korea and see what life is like there, honestly. Even though I know a lot about Korean culture and stuff, like I haven’t actually like lived in Korea, so I’m sure it’s a lot different from how it is in America. You know, that kind of stuff.

LEARNING Participants in all identity positions said they learned about Korean culture and language by watching the films. Even a few uninterested KAs said they learned about Korean culture through the films. In Sara’s diary about My Little Bride, she wrote, “Overall, watching this movie was a fun experience, and it provided insight into both the Korean films and Korean culture.” Philip, too, wrote that he learned about Korean culture through watching My Sassy Girl, claiming, “I learned plenty from the movie, such as Korea isn’t as stiff as I thought it was. The abortion/you’re-the-father joke was, to me, a complete shock in a Korean drama/comedy. Also, the homo-esque jokes, the transvestite he was meeting, and the sexually explicit jokes were not expected but funny as heck.” Important to both of their statements about learning is that Sara and Philip did not learn from movies that they evaluated unfavorably nor did they learn anything valuable from the overall experience of watching the movies. In stark contrast, learning about culture for curious KAs was important in creating a vivid picture of life in Korea. When asked if the films were important in learning about culture, Linda replied, “Yeah, because I have no other way to see what life is like in Korea or how people my age act.” For Eric, watching the films created a visual and more visceral image of Korea. “It [his views of Korea] turned into a movie. Like they go through what we go through, there’s not so much of a gap there. You get what I’m saying? The best way I could describe it is that my stereotype went from a picture to a movie, where it flowed.” For Eric and other curious KAs, his understanding of Korean culture was previously static and lifeless, but his view of Korea

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became fuller and more alive as a result of watching movies, including the ones for this research project. Michelle is the only involved KA, who said she learned about culture in the films. For her, learning shaped her views of progressiveness. Talking about My Sassy Girl, Michelle said: Yes. Yeah. Just like how, um, in the scene where he’s 업어’ing (eobeo’ing, piggybacking) her. He’s trying to like take her home, and some random guy sticks a condom in his pocket. I didn’t know Korea was so outspoken with, uh, protection and stuff. I thought they were more like hush-hush on that. I think watching movies like that, seeing scenes like that, it just kind of like, um, shows me how much Korea can change, I guess, or what I didn’t know.

Perhaps because her knowledge of Korea is filtered through her parents, through her friendships cultivated at church, and through her church itself, she previously understood Korea to be sexually conservative and generally not progressive. However, watching the movies shaped her knowledge of Korea, particularly modern-day Korea, and this knowledge is possibly a reason to identify more actively as she felt Korean society is increasingly progressive and more like the kind of culture she would want to inhabit as a member of the diaspora in the United States. Another form of learning was perceptions of increased proficiency with their ethnic language. The only individuals that did not comment on language were uninterested KAs, which again reflects their disinterested orientation to the films. On the other hand, curious KAs were the most likely to mention the impact of language. An often-repeated point was that watching the films created a desire to learn the language. Jim said, “Um, it just made me more frustrated because of the fact I didn’t know the words and that I wanted to know it, but I knew inside that I wasn’t going to do anything about it. I’m just too lazy.” Watching the films, for Jim, was an ambivalent experience because he wanted to be more ethnically engaged by knowing the language, which would grant him further inclusion and acceptance as “Korean,” but also knowing that learning the Korean language is difficult, it frustrated his identity exploration. Sam, on the other hand, wanted to improve his Korean and wished for diasporic friends or partners with whom he could speak. Sam said, “I guess it made me want to learn the language better a little bit, be able to write and speak it a little bit more. I guess if I had someone else Korean to talk to and do that with, that’d be nice.” Therefore, it not only created a desire to learn the language but to have at least one culturally and linguistically fluent KA friend, reflecting a hope for future change, unlike Jim’s resignation about his inability to speak proficiently. For Linda, though, she favored mediated learning over face-to-face learning. She said, “Yes, [learning Korean through media is] so much better because it’s so much more interesting. If you’re

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interested in something, you want to do it more, right?” For Linda, Korean media are the primary sites at which she wants to learn Korean, and she actively engaged in language learning through them. For Linda, this was especially important since she had only one diasporic friend with whom she could share and learn. The only other participant that mentioned wishing his Korean proficiency was better was Paul, who is in the bicultural identity position. However, his response differed from curious KAs because his is not necessarily a desire to learn but a desire to be fluent. Paul said, “Oh yeah. I wish I spoke Korean better because like my accent, sometimes, I’m dyslexic, like seriously. Like, if I’m saying Victoria’s Secret, I say Sictoria Vecret, you know. I’m really retarded sometimes. And, like, when it comes to Korean, I’m like [mutters], oh my God, I’m insane.” For Paul, his inability to speak fluently became a source of embarrassment at times, especially because he had several firstgeneration KA friends, including a girlfriend, who have native fluency in Korean. In addition to wanting to learn Korean, some participants said the films affected their proficiency in Korean even in the short time they watched the movies. This perception of increased language proficiency was only expressed by curious KAs, though. Linda, who earlier mentioned that she wanted to learn Korean through media, said, “Never had to go through that much Korean talking in one week, five days, whatever, something. It was so much. That was a lot. I think it helped with my Korean because I actually started understanding better.” In addition, she also said she began to use Korean more. I started talking more like that. Maybe, learn more Korean, get used to it. Even when I’m chatting online with my friends, I say like Korean stuff to that. There are some words you can’t say in English like 삐져 (bbijyeoh, roughly translated as being upset or holding a grudge but nuanced in less serious ways) and 멋있어 (meoshisseo, similar to the slang use of cool). You probably can, but they’re not very often used.

Participants in the involved and bicultural identity positions, in contrast, do not say their Korean has improved, but a few in these identity positions say their vocabulary has, particularly their knowledge of slang, again reflecting a desire for everyday participation with Korean peers. Amy said she watched the subtitles in some of the films to learn new words in them, saying, “Uh, hmm, I don’t know which one. I think it was 그 놈 (Geu Nom, [short for] He Was Cool) though. Maybe, no, it was 그 놈 (Geu Nom, He Was Cool). There were more new words that I didn’t really know.” Frank echoed Amy’s learning of new vocabulary, saying, “I think it’s more of like, Korean movies are kind of like a renewal of the language because there’s always new slang coming in and new types of ways people do stuff.”

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RESISTANCE TO WHITE NORMS AND VALUES Several participants mentioned reading the films in counter-hegemonic ways. One of the ways the films helped was by providing norms that are different than their experiences with primarily White culture. For Linda, watching My Little Bride created a desire for Korean norms in her everyday experience. Um, like, the couple got together because of the grandpa, right? And that was just because of a mere wish before he died. We would never have that here. Over there, it kind of makes sense compared to all the dramas I’ve seen, not surprised they actually did it because of the grandpa’s whim. That’s what I consider truly Korean. Being able to do something over there and consider it normal without having too much opposition from other people. Here, it would never happen.

While this plot device is a point of disidentification for many, it is not for Linda. She resisted being viewed as an outsider for wanting to practice Korean cultural norms. Lucy, on the other hand, said she already practices what she perceives are Korean norms, which resists the White dominant culture of her everyday life. Maybe because like friendship, like, it just seems Korean people are more straight-up, but more American people try to tell you the truth, but they twist it, so it sounds nice. They do it in a nicer way. Korean people, they just say it. They’re very blunt. Maybe if I didn’t watch Korean dramas, I’d be a little more nicer. I’m not blunt where I’m just like eww, you look fat in that. That’s not something I’m going to say, but then I do have a reputation for being straight-up. When I need to say something, I’ll say it. Some people are like oh, I can’t say it. It’s too mean.

Though her belief in this perceived cultural difference is suspect, her belief provided counter-ideological behavioral norms in which she can find validation. She was able to resist dominant, White middle class standards because she appropriates Korean norms for meaningful purposes in her locally experienced life that are transmitted through Korean media. As well as providing different behavioral norms, films also transmit different norms about body image and attractiveness. For Paul, he exercised frequently to achieve a more hegemonically masculine physique, and watching My Tutor Friend gave him a prototypical Korean male body, which he strived to attain. Paul said, “And, I guess the movies, they sometimes make me want to get like, I don’t know, like, uh, the one with 권상우 (Gweon Sangu) . . . you want to go work out again and get like an 8-pack or something. Yeah. But, nothing real big.” The use of a co-ethnic actor as his ideal for creating his own body image shaped identification by pointing to a cultural norm for desirable body size that differ from the hypermasculine ideal in

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the United States, thus reflecting his desire to have a desirable body based on Korean standards. This was also true for Karen, who said that watching media like these films provide her with different standards of attractiveness. She said, “It’s kind of funny. Americans here, they want, they think being tan is pretty, but in Korea, you want to be all pale. And, in Korea, you want all straight hair, but in America, wavy is pretty, too, and stuff. It’s funny. It’s like different standards.” Therefore, these films affected Paul and Karen’s self-image because they model themselves on a more similar and attainable model of attractiveness. Having these norms affect the way they wanted to present themselves, so it acted as an opportunity and site for resistance to dominant norms of beauty. The films also shaped identification by providing counter-ideologies about Korean culture and society. Will explicitly pointed to the impact viewing contemporary Korea has on his views on Korea’s growing modernization, saying, “I guess I could see how well Korea’s doing now, uh, like they’re moving up in technology and stuff faster than here, and like I guess the lifestyle would be kind of similar to here ‘cause like their housing and stuff is getting better and like I don’t know, like and then like you can see the way how like their schools and stuff work.” By watching the films, he takes pride in Korea’s industrialization, combatting cultural views of Korea as undeveloped. For bicultural individuals, counter-ideologies they name deal with humanizing representations of Koreans. Frank framed this discussion of Korean humanity within the discourse of modernization. Like modern Korean culture because up to that, my parents always talked about Korea and then I always knew about the past and the kings and what happened back then. All the entertainment they have coming into America now, it shows the modern Korea. Like we’re not always with people like with the old instruments and stuff. It reminds me they’re just civilized people having fun, having entertainment, just the good modern society.

In Harry’s media diary about My Sassy Girl, he wrote, “But what I realized is that we’re all human beings and our psychological emotions will be affected regardless of our national background. This idea of strong Koreans might be from the fact that not many Koreans are reported for these kinds of things, and it’s not really a good thing to talk about.” Therefore, watching Korean media provide vivid counter-ideologies about Korean society and culture that validated their diasporic identification.

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CO-ETHNIC ATTRACTION Counter-ideologies and norms led several individuals to desire Korean romantic relationships. This can be understood as a form of cultural resistance because it means they are rejecting dominant ideologies of White desirability. The desire for a diasporic romantic partner was a frequently expressed influence of the films by individuals in all but uninterested participants. For instance, Eric said his desire for a Korean girlfriend was first manifest after watching My Sassy Girl, saying, “Um, especially My Sassy Girl, I thought she was extraordinarily beautiful, and I was like, wow, there are Korean girls that look like that? I’ve gotta find one.” Tony also wanted to find a Korean girlfriend as a result of watching the movies, and he explicitly linked his desire to counter-ideologies about Korean women as less materialistic. When I asked Tony if the films influenced him, we had the following conversation. Tony: Uh, I don’t know, like meeting the right girl, and having her really being like falling in love with you, like really fall in love, not so much like this materialistic love that’s like happening a lot more in America and stuff like that. Interviewer: So, when you’re saying the right girl, are you also imagining the right Korean girl or just the right any girl? Tony: Korean (chuckles). Though he expressed desire for a KA girlfriend as a result of watching the films, he couched his desire in coded ways that do not immediately reveal this desire as an ethnic one, which makes sense given the widespread adoption of postracialism in which his ethnic desire could be interpreted as racist. Linda also described the films as leading her to the conclusion that co-ethnic men are more desirable, though she did not shy away from drawing differences. I feel I could relate more to them than to an American guy. You have that whole you have to be nice, sweet always. Suck up to them, which I find really boring and not interesting at all. So, if I wanted a guy or something like that to always be with, I’d want it to be a lot more interesting and fun and comfortable to be with. That’s why I always look for a Korean guy because of these movies. You see a lot more of the personality you want in Korean guys.

Therefore, several curious KAs said their desire for co-ethnic relationships grew more strongly as a result of watching these films. Involved KA girls also were more interested in being romantically involved with KA boys because of the representations of Korean men in the

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films. The difference with curious KAs was the familiarity with which they talked about this desire. Hannah said characters in films that she likes affected her search for a suitable boyfriend. She said, “Yeah. You know 차태현 (Cha Taehyeon), at my school, there’s a guy who looks like him, so I started liking that guy because he acts like him. How 차태현 (Cha Taehyeon) acts in real life and everything, it’s really cute and stuff. So, I started liking that guy, and, yeah.” For involved individuals, romantic and sexual desire was more specifically personal as they actively sought romantic relationships with real-life individuals in their social circles, who reminded them of Korean characters and actors rather than imagining possible future relationships. Bicultural KAs also pointed to the role of identification in desiring diasporic relationships. For Karen, transnational media, such as the films seen for the study, were influential in providing counter-ideologies about desirability, saying that Korean actors provided “perfect” ethnic prototypes that challenge the influence of dominant media. Like, if I didn’t watch this, I’d totally think that American boys, guys, they’d come into my eyes equally as Korean guys would. The Korean celebrities, they’re not human. They’re too good-looking, too skinny, they’re too like, they can sing well, they can dance well, they’re like perfect. Not really, I take that back, but they set up the standards. Of course, my personal standards are like different or whatever, but knowing that these people exist, I know that there are some good-looking people in this world.

For Harry, on the other hand, his desire for a diasporic romantic partner was because of perceived cultural similarity. Harry said, “Yeah, I probably want more of a Korean girlfriend just because there’s more you can relate, there’s more understanding, more relatable stuff.” Not only does he state that cultural similarity is important in his ability to “relate,” but he said that being in a co-ethnic relationship is more meaningful, too. Harry said, “I think it’d be, more, probably be more like meaningful if it was a Korean relationship than like the typical anyone.” What both of these quotes share is the importance of media in shaping their increased desire to be romantically involved with a KA. CONCLUSION A major finding of this chapter is that evaluations of the films and perceptions of their influence on ethnic identification was shaped by their identity positions. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, their reading positions are consistent with their larger patterns of diasporic identification. Hostile and ambivalent KAs, for example, believe they are uninfluenced by Korean media and couch their

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enjoyment in perceptions of a film’s universal qualities. Hostile KAs may even engage in resistive readings in which their enjoyment is predicated on their reading of a Korean film as an anti-Korean text whose criticisms are leveled at Korean media or society. The participants who responded most strongly to the films were curious KAs. Because the experience of watching transnational Korean movies was novel, it became a salient moment as they sought actively to give meaning to their diasporic identifications. For several curious KAs, in fact, the viewing of films was thought to be transformative, providing vicarious moments of participation in Korean cultural life. When they did not enjoy a film, their lack of enjoyment was delimited to only specific elements of a text, for example, high schools as a setting, rather than the entire film. For involved and bicultural KAs, the experience was mundane. Viewing the films was a regular part of a larger Korean media diet, and, therefore, this particular viewing was not seen as impactful, although they said that Korean cultural texts are meaningful in their diasporic identification. Whether in evaluations of films or perceptions of influence on identification, identity positions shaped participants’ reception of the texts. In the following chapter, I will describe the ways in which their identity positions shaped their identifications with characters and actors. REFERENCE Davison, W. P. (1983). The third-person effect in communication. Public Opinion Quarterly, 47(1), 1–15.

Chapter Four

Identifying with Characters and Celebrities

Through identification with shows and the celebrities that inhabit them, second-generation KAs are better able to resist ideologies in US popular media by developing diasporic identification and pride. In this study, all participants identified and (dis)identified with characters and actors, but the form it took differed based on their diasporic identification and the interpretive communities to which they belong. This chapter begins with (dis)identification with characters in the films and closes with extra-textual identification and desire toward the actors and actresses who played them. CHARACTER (DIS)IDENTIFICATION Like their evaluations of the films, participants that said characters are boring fall in the uninterested and bicultural identity positions, but the explanations of characters’ dullness differed. Uninterested KAs did not provide contextual information or specificity in their criticisms. For example, referring to My Tutor Friend, Sara said, “I don’t know. I didn’t think the characters had like any meaning to them or like any personality. I guess they had personalities, but they just seemed so flat.” Importantly, her criticism generalized to all major characters in the film. Further, because she did not find the characters to be engaging, she said she was unable to identify with them, indicating that her identification was strictly based on narrative quality, not personal relevance. In her media diary, she wrote, “This movie was difficult to get through. I had trouble getting involved in the plot and empathizing with the characters.”

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On the other hand, when bicultural KAs criticized characters as boring, they were specific in their critique. Talking about the female lead in He Was Cool, Jeannette wrote, “They made her character too blah. She looks too much like a pure FOB, and the main character guy isn’t going to fall for a girl like her, or it seems very unlikely for a guy who’s pretty up there in status to go down a notch when he can get really pretty girls.” Jeannette’s criticism differed from Sara’s because of its specificity and because she located her criticism of the character in her dislike for “FOBs,” revealing her attitudes about intra-diasporic groups. She disliked the character less for what she does in the film than for how she reminded her of “FOBs,” pointing out that the meanings and identifications made by KAs are formed in locally situated social contexts. It should also be noted that the criticism of the character was specific to the female lead of He Was Cool and did not spill into criticisms of other characters in the film. John also disliked a character in He Was Cool, saying that because the male lead is an unoriginal type in Korean media. Therefore, he contextualized his disinterest in the character within a broader framework of Korean media knowledge. John wrote, “I think that every character in this film has been done at least a hundred different times in a hundred different films. Eun-Sung and Ye-Won had good chemistry on film, but the story line was too unoriginal.” Uninterested/hostile KAs also criticized characters in the films in other ways, not just as boring. Responding to the female lead in He Was Cool, several participants said this character was too submissive. In her media diary, Jessica wrote, “The girl, I thought, she could’ve stood up for herself more.” Andy was even more critical in his diary, writing, “The heroine of the movie acts too weak all the time. There are instances when she tries to act tough, but it’s just not working.” Philip also criticized the character not as submissive but too “dramatic.” He wrote, “The girl, Han Ye Won, on the other hand, annoyed me the entire movie. She just seemed too . . . extreme. Perky and sugary one minute and then drama queen, red-eyed crying the next.” Notably, all of their criticisms were broader ethnic and gendered critiques (i.e., Korean women as submissive or dramatic), not contained to characters in the films. The final difference was that only uninterested KAs criticized Korean masculinity in He Was Cool and My Tutor Friend. These two films had the most action sequences and represented the male leads in ways that more closely fit norms of hegemonic masculinity (see Kimmel, 2006). In Andy’s media diary about He Was Cool, he wrote, “I don’t like the bad boy attitude of the lead male character. Dark, brooding, harboring many secrets, the character’s actions were fairly predictable throughout the movie.” Grace made a similar criticism about the male lead in My Tutor Friend, saying, “There was nothing that appealed to me about it [the movie], especially his, like, character. He seemed so like cold. I don’t know.” Though it is unclear whether

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Andy and Grace disliked this character type generally or if it is a critique of Koreans, Bobby clarified that his dissatisfaction with the character’s “bad boy” image is related to beliefs about some Korean men. Bobby said, “That guy’s face just pissed me off. I don’t know. Just some Korean guys they try to look so like bad-ass like this one right here, and that just annoys me, so yeah.” Though criticisms of the characters led to disinterest and dislike of the characters, many more participants found characters in the films interesting, identifiable, and worthy of emulation. EXEMPLARS OF KINDNESS AND SINCERITY Uninterested KA girls, especially, connected with the male lead in My Little Bride because of his perceived kindness. In Sara’s media diary, she wrote, “Sangmin was very caring and loving in the ways that he considered the feelings of his wife. He didn’t punish her for cheating on him and kept their secret [of being married] in school. He also helped her finish her project.” Grace echoed this view, “Um, I just, um, I think he was like, he seemed like, he seemed just like really nice, he seemed like supportive of the situation, he seemed, you know, like a good husband to her. I don’t know.” In both of their responses, it should be pointed out that Sangmin’s personality was not ethnically specified, which was a way that other KAs made sense of the characters with whom they identified. For curious KAs, there were only a few comments praising the characters as admirable, and, interestingly, the praise is precisely for the characters that received the most criticism by uninterested KAs, namely the male and female leads in He Was Cool. Instead of reading Eunseong, the male lead, as emotionally cold, Tony read the character as someone to look up to. He said, “Yeah, like, like, he’s kind of 깡패 (ggangpae, gangster) [chuckles], and he’s tough on the outside, but like, honestly, he really like likes her and stuff. I don’t know. I think that was admirable for me. You know, that kind of thing.” Elaborating on his comment, Tony said: Like some of the stuff where he works so hard for her without her knowing it. You know, kind of those things. There’s one part in the movie where I think he works at a construction site to get money to buy her a ring or something like that. I don’t know. That was really, out of everything he did in the movie, that was like 멋있어 (meoshisseo, cool). [Laughs].

Therefore, Tony read the character as not emotionally distant but as quietly devoted to his girlfriend. His ethnic connection to the character appeared to be strengthened even further as he felt it necessary to code-switch to describe his admiration for him.

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Though Yewon, the female lead in He Was Cool, was criticized for being too “girly” by several uninterested KAs, Will read her character differently; he saw her femininity as emerging from her character’s growth. I guess I thought that, um, she changed a lot, too, throughout the whole movie. Like the beginning, she kind of acted tough, too, but later on, she becomes nice and stuff. Like, like they kept, like she kept the promise [to meet a year later] even though they were testing [she was taking a college entrance exam]. I liked how she would go through, giving up the test, just to meet him at the phone booth.

From his identity position, he read the character’s actions as not clumsily submissive but rather more nobly as commitment to and self-sacrifice for her boyfriend. Involved participants also viewed characters favorably. The one consistent comment made was that the characters are nice. Talking about her views on the female lead in My Sassy Girl, Hannah said, “But then like, she had that soft side. When they sneaked into the amusement park, like you know how that army dude, was kind of psycho, I guess, because his girlfriend broke up with him or something. He was about to kill 차태현 (Cha Taehyeon), and then like the girl was like, no, don’t kill him and saying stuff like do you really love her?” Michelle, likewise, said the male lead in My Sassy Girl was considerate. “I think it’s because the girl is really assertive a lot more than your average girl, and I just liked how he just kind of took it on and was still really good to her and stuff. I thought that’s what made it cute, the way the guy treated the girl.” For involved KAs, favorable comments about the male and female leads in the films are located specifically in the film, My Sassy Girl. This was true for bicultural participants, too, who focused on the male lead. Harry admired Gyunwoo, the male lead, for swallowing his pride while caring for the female lead. I liked that movie because he tried to do like everything for the girl. He says that like he wants to heal her, and so it was like he was doing everything he can to, um, to do what the girl wanted, to benefit her. So like, that thing, one scenario that really comes to mind is the scene where they want to switch shoes, so she wants him to wear her high-heeled shoes, and she wants to wear his sneakers because they’re more comfortable, so like in that scenario, he became short-tempered, and he was like that’s crazy, why would I want to do that, there’s people here that are going to watch, but in the end, he did switch, so you know?

In addition, Sandra said Gyunwoo was admirable because of his trustworthiness and faithfulness to “the girl,” who is unnamed in the film. She said, “It was just really admirable because he could have taken advantage of her while she was drunk, but he just took care of her and stuff like that even through all

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her bossiness and like abusiveness, he still stuck by her and stuff like that.” It is possible but unclear whether the reasons for Sandra and Harry’s statements about Gyunwoo in My Sassy Girl is related to diasporic identification, but, for Lucy, she made it clear that she saw his consideration of the girl as a Korean trait. After Lucy talked about Gyunwoo, I asked if she thought co-ethnic men are more considerate of their girlfriends. Lucy replied: Not to this extreme but more than American guys ‘cause I have a friend, her boyfriend, it was sweet, but I don’t think any American guy would prepare a whole day of just surprises, you know. It’s kind of like 닭살 (daksal, chicken skin—similar to goose bumps). He went over to their house on their 100th day [anniversary], you know, he made her a cake, he made his friends come over and play in this orchestra thing, while he decorated her house with a whole bunch of candles and stuff.

Seeing the characters as reflective of co-ethnic relationship partners, Lucy’s connection to the characters went beyond the text. This led her to not only co-ethnic boys as more considerate but also as more desirable partners. In response to whether she thought Gyunwoo is an ideal boyfriend, she replied, “Well, I think that’s every girl. Wouldn’t everyone want that, though? I think all girls want that. Trust me, all girls want that. Not everybody wrote that kind of stuff?” Her claim that this type of romance is more ideal and found more often among KA boys suggests that the representation reinforced her desire to be in a co-ethnic relationship. EXEMPLARS OF MASCULINITY In addition to saying the characters were kind, several boys identified with the characters by noting the “coolness” of the male leads. The comments are especially prevalent among curious KAs, but uninterested KAs also noted that the male leads were “cool” or “tough.” Referring to the male lead in He Was Cool, Philip said, “I thought the main dude was perfect for the bad-ass kind of guy part. His acting was good and the nice guy under badass image cliché was made perfect by the actor. I had no complaints about him.” Though he thought the actor plays the part well, he still bound his praise by criticizing the character type, limiting the extent to which he identified with the character by categorizing it as only a type and a clichéd one on top of that. Curious KA boys, in contrast, expressed the most admiration for the fighting skills of the male leads in He Was Cool and My Tutor Friend. Responding to a question about My Tutor Friend, Sam said, “The guys I probably liked the best was because they could fight, and they were one of

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those I will protect you kind of people. That’s what I liked.” For Sam, he identified with the lead in My Tutor Friend because he viewed the character as using his fighting skills in noble ways. Jim, who also identified with this character, said, “And then, oh yeah, my other one [favorite character] would have to be the guy in My Tutor Friend or something, just because of the way he seemed like a pimp. I don’t know. I had a whole conversation with my mom about that whether she changed her mind about me getting earrings after I watched that.” What is interesting about this statement is that he said he never felt able to ask for earrings using US actors because his mother would dismiss it as an example of the excesses and moral deficiencies of US culture. Because co-ethnic characters exhibited similar behaviors, his mother could not rely on an ethnic/cultural rationale for denying her son’s desire for a pierced ear. For him to successfully persuade his mother he relied on his identification with the character, which may have increased his desire to identify later or at least to think in diasporic terms. He said: Especially because most likely if I were to watch a movie like that with my mom, and it was American, she’d be like you see, America, blah, blah, blah, but because it was a Korean movie, she didn’t say anything and went along with it.

Therefore, watching this movie gave him a masculine, “cool” Korean exemplar with whom to identify because his previous impressions of co-ethnic men before watching these films were that they are androgynous or effeminate. Richard was impressed with the character in He Was Cool. He said, “It was just cool how his character was. Like, his friends always had his back, and like, he was like, like everybody was always afraid of him and stuff, like intimidated by him. I thought that was cool.” For Tim, this character was not just someone to be impressed with but also someone whom he tries to emulate. I asked him why he wanted to be like the character, and Tim replied, “He was just like the ideal guy. . . . Because he’s a good fighter, good looking, and everyone likes him.” For Tim, he is able to cast an ethnic mold on what he viewed as a prototypical male figure, which likely increased his desire to identify with that character and possibly as a member of the diaspora, generally, especially as this contrasts with boys’ views of Korean culture as feminine. Involved and bicultural KAs also liked the two male leads in He Was Cool and My Tutor Friend for similar reasons. In Hannah’s diary about He Was Cool, she wrote, “I liked this movie the best out of all of them because the guy main character had that tough image but then inside he was really a nice guy.” Lena, also, liked this character, saying, “He came out like really like 멋있어 (meoshisseo, cool), you know, with all the fighting and stuff. I

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like that.” For bicultural KA girls, the two aforementioned characters were identified as ideal men with whom they fantasized about being involved. Writing about the male lead in He Was Cool, Karen said, “I don’t think I would ever be able to meet a guy like that.” Jeannette, talking about the male lead in My Tutor Friend, said, “This is kind of like the fantasy guy, and he’s like the ideal kind of guy, the actual kind of boyfriend, something you dream about, oh, someone that’s like kind of bad, but he’s still sweet to you. Something that never really happens.” For both Karen and Jeannette, the characters allowed them to create a desired and fantasized prototype of sexual and romantic attraction. Though they both believed the character is unrealistic, they engaged in fantasized diasporic play about being with a co-ethnic “bad boy” in their imagined prototype of ideal masculinity. . . . In fact, girls’ conversations about male leads in transnational popular culture was a complaint for KA boys—that girls “dream” about the characters and actors. While girls’ interest in male leads was rooted in attraction, for Dick, it was about admiration and emulation. About My Tutor Friend, he wrote, “Really liked the guy, was very tough, and was good at fighting.” Similarly, while talking about He Was Cool, John said, “I’d have to say of all the guy actors in Korea, he looks the coolest. 송승현 (Song Seunghyeon) is the coolest, in my opinion. He’s like the Brad Pitt of Korean actors.” In John’s US media comparison, his intentional bicultural identification was clear as he made connections across his multiple identifications (though this comparison does marginalize the Korean actor somewhat). For Harry, he was so impressed with the character in My Tutor Friend that he desired to be like him. In his diary, Harry wrote, “I liked the male character the most. This is mostly because he was a cool character, and you start wishing that you were like him.” Having role models who are co-ethnics, then, influenced his desire to identify and evaluate himself, using standards within the diaspora. GENDER ROLE REVERSALS Most participants viewed the on-screen relationship in My Sassy Girl as a gender role reversal. Consistent with KAs’ other readings, their opinions and attitudes about the “role reversal” differed based on the individuals’ social locations. Hostile individuals were unique in the ways they read the role reversal because it was seen as inconsistent with Korean culture and people. In other words, they felt the role reversal was anti-Korean, revealing a mental construction of role reversal as progressive and Korea as un-progressive. Philip, for example, claimed that the gender role reversal is antithetical to Korean culture, and it was what allowed him to enjoy the film. In his media diary, he wrote:

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Because of his identification with the text as anti-Korean, he misinterpreted “American or Korean way.” This refers to Western-style rooms that feature beds and Korean-style rooms that feature ondol heating and sleeping on mats on the floor. Instead, he viewed this as a way for characters to reject Korean culture by choosing “American” engagement. Further, he related the female lead to non-Korean friends. Speaking about one of his Chinese American friends, he said: She’s one Chinese girl that I know at my school, and she beats on me and whatever, and she beats on me, she beats on everyone, and she writes poetry. It’s all messed up. It’s sadly very bad, but, you know, the school will take anything. It’s sad. All messed up. Stupid ass poetry about like cars and hell or something, and she does the weirdest crap to like everyone, to me, especially, I guess. Like, weird crap.

Relating characters to non-Korean friends was unique to Philip; however, it should be noted that he does not make this identification outside the constraints of race. His identification with the film as anti-Korean allowed him to identify with the film text beyond ethnicity but within racial boundaries. Specific to uninterested and curious KAs is that only in these two identity positions did boys focus on the male lead in their discussions of a gender role reversal. Although Joseph criticized the male lead as “too wimpy,” this is the only character with whom he said he has ever been able to identify. Joseph said, “I just don’t think I’ve ever seen a character like him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie, where it seemed like I could be that person.” When uninterested participants said they strongly identify, they explained it through reasons unspecific to diasporic meanings. Bobby said My Sassy Girl evoked a powerful emotional connection to the characters. When asked whether he thought this was related to their shared ethnicity, Bobby said, “That was just, I don’t think that had anything to do with them being Korean or it being a Korean movie, I guess.” Whereas hostile KAs identified because they could read the film as anti-Korean, uninterested KAs identified because they read the film as universal. For curious KA boys, their identification was marked by diasporic exploration. For Richard, it was Gyunwoo’s everyday experiences and troubles that made him a character with whom he could identify. Richard wrote, “Gyun-woo (the narrator) was funny and realistic. I could relate easily to the misfortunes he ran into and the letdowns he met.” But it was not the everyday

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experience of his local context in Georgia but a nostalgic memory of everyday life in Korea. His identification was related to a schoolboy crush. Actually, while I was in Korea, I met this girl who was friends with my mom, actually the daughter of my mom’s friend, and we stayed there, we stayed over there for a couple days, and, um, so like we had known each other previously when we were pretty young [pauses], and I had gotten to know her a little bit, and, um, I don’t know. I don’t know. It was probably too young to categorize it as dating or anything, but this movie, she reminded me a lot of her, like she would hit me a lot, and in this movie, there’s a lot of fighting involved. I don’t know.

For Richard, his identification with Gyunwoo became linked to ethnicity, other diasporic KAs, and an emotionally salient personal experience. In fact, Richard watched My Sassy Girl regularly to remind himself of the girl for whom he had lingering romantic feelings. Eric’s reasons for enjoying the film, on the other hand, were linked to an opportunity to see a different aspect of Korean life and people he previously had not known. In particular, Eric was drawn to the female lead because he was pleasantly surprised by her counter-stereotypical representation. Um, let’s see. I liked how refreshingly aggressive the girl was because I didn’t expect that at all just because she seemed like besides her being drunk, she seemed like a nice, cute, like a normal Korean girl, you know, but then she turns out to be overly aggressive and like dominating and just like it seemed like their roles were switched, you know, like the guy was submissive to the girl, you know, and I have like never seen that, you know.

One reason Eric said the counter-stereotypical representation was enjoyable is because it provided an opportunity for him to explore an aspect of Korean life and relationships with which he was not familiar. Eric said, “It kind of like shined a light into this part of Korean female life, you know, not only did I know was not there, but that I didn’t, basically, I haven’t ever seen before, and that was one of those like refreshing things.” For involved KAs, identification was not about learning but about personally salient or meaningful diasporic connections. Dick, like Richard, was reminded of a former relationship. He said, “In that one [My Sassy Girl], I guess I did [identify] a little bit because a long time ago, I dated this girl. She was very tough. Well, I guess she tried to act tough, so, yeah, I kind of saw that, but that’s it. That’s about it.” Though he did not share her ethnicity, he later told me all of his former girlfriends were KAs, so it is possible that his connection of the character to a person in his everyday life was influenced by diasporic identification. Hannah, when writing about My Sassy Girl, saw the toughness of the female character as unique to Koreans, so much so that she thinks “Americans” would not enjoy the film because of this perceived cultu-

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ral difference. Hannah wrote in her media diary, “If this movie came out to America, I don’t think people will watch it because the girl is too manly”— Hannah proved prescient; the US remake of the same title was a straight-toDVD release in August 2008 and was financially unsuccessful. She defined the film as a uniquely Korean one that non-Koreans would not be able to enjoy, and, in an inversion from uninterested and hostile KAs’ views, she defined US culture as more rigidly patriarchal. Bicultural KA boys, on the other hand, viewed the perceived role reversal as unusual. Harry, in his media diary, wrote, “At first, I thought she was quite eccentric, doing unusual things (saving the innocent) and also taking on an unusual dominant role in the male and female relationship.” He marked the character as one he was uncomfortable with, referring to her as “unusual,” “eccentric,” and “dominant.” For Frank, the novelty of the on-screen relationship was what brought pleasure. “Usually, the girl is like all clinging to the guy in Korean culture because they’re usually like oh, 오빠 (oppa, older brother), I love you so much or whatever. But in this one, it’s like the total opposite. She was like bring me some water or something. I think that’s what made it so important and what makes it stand out.” When I asked if he thought this relationship style was a desirable one, Frank responded by reading Gyunwoo as empowered. Of course, a guy would really not like that much, but the way he responded to it wasn’t always like I’m sorry the whole time. He still had his own thoughts. In some way, she had more power over him, but on the other side he still had her in his grasps. Do you know what I’m saying? How do I say this? I don’t know. I won’t finish that. Never mind.

For boys in the bicultural identity position, this relationship style is slightly uncomfortable, but they enjoyed the film by making resistive readings that fit with their view of desirable gender norms in Korean relationships. For bicultural girls, they connected characters to their friends or were themselves told they were similar to the female lead in My Sassy Girl. Sandra said, “So, um, I don’t like, a lot of my friends that I’ve seen this movie with are like you remind me of her because you’re so bossy and abusive, and I’m just like, ok, whatever, so yeah.” Like Sandra’s friend, Jeannette related this character to one of her friends, saying, “We call her 엽기 (yeobgi, bizarre) and so, it reminds me of her and this 언니 (eonni, older sister) at school because she’s really like gangster tough, always threatening people and stuff.”

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DIASPORIC COMPARISONS WITH CHARACTERS Some individuals identified with characters so strongly they tried to embody the characters’ personalities. Hannah shared a story about a friend who appropriated the lead female character’s personality in My Sassy Girl. Yeah. I think when girls watch that, my friends, when they watch that, they try to act like those girls. I could still see it. My friend, she came from Korea in middle school, when it was middle school, I guess, but she’s like younger than me. She’s like 15. But, then, she chills with like all of them [her KA friends], so then I have to hang around with her, too, and she acts like that girl, 전지현 (Jeon Jihyeon) girl. I so know it. Her screen name is like 엽기 (yeobgi), too. It’s like 엽기 (yeobgi, bizarre) girl. And yeah.

The re-invention of one’s identity around a character in a Korean film reinforced diasporic identification by developing a profound link between a Korean character and their own personalities. For curious KAs, who had not visited Korea in several years, they sometimes watched to vicariously experience Korean life through the characters and their mediated lives. Margaret fantasized occasionally about how her life would be different and, she believed, better if she lived in Korea. Characters in Korean movies allowed her to imagine what these experiences would be like. She wrote the following in her media diary: A Korean movie is very likely to interest me more than an American one would because it puts the characters in situations that seem like natural and everyday happenings, yet still seem rare, uncommon and unlikely to ever happen to Korean-Americans (such as myself) who grew up away from the only place able to offer them (Korea) and so, because I am able to relate to the characters and see how their lives are affected by those events (hey, if we can’t have it happen to us we might as well watch what someone else thinks would happen to a character similar to us).

This vicarious transnational experience through Korean characters in transnational media was powerful in helping KAs like Margaret explore and engage everyday Korean life and relationships. Without this resource, it would become much more difficult to imagine life in Korea. IDENTIFICATION WITH ACTORS AND ACTRESSES While characters were important in diasporic identification, the way most participants in this study were able to develop counter-ideologies was through their interest in Korean celebrities. One function celebrities serve for KA fans is a point of comparison. KA girls, in particular, compared them-

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selves and their friends to Korean celebrities. Margaret, for instance, said, “One of the people who go to my church looks like 이병현 (Lee Byeonghyeon), and 이병현’s (Lee Byeonghyeon) really, really, really good looking, but my friend, he’s not. I don’t know where you have the resemblance, but you really do look alike, and he’s like okay. Like he doesn’t really care, but I’m like, huh, yeah.” By making these comparisons, they reinforced diasporic identification with celebrities and with transnationally received popular media, and they also enlist friends to think in ways that reinforce diasporic belonging. Notably, the comparisons are limited to co-ethnic celebrities. To compare their friends to Hollywood stars would be considered unusual. Jeannette said, “We compare to Korean people. Korean Julia Roberts? That’s weird. I think we usually compare ourselves with other Korean celebrities, stuff like that.” Shared ethnicity was considered critical in the comparison, and because of this, only KAs were able to engage in these comparisons. When I asked Jeannette and Sandra separately in their interviews if they made comparisons with characters in US films to their co-ethnic friends, both Sandra and Jeannette responded as if the question itself was unusual. This may be a reason they were unwilling to share transnational media with nonKoreans because they would not be able to engage in diasporic play and because they saw it as exclusively theirs. Girls, in particular, followed actors’ lives and careers carefully and made favorable comparisons against Hollywood celebrities, reinforcing a counterideology that Korean actors and actresses are more desirable and talented than their Hollywood counterparts. Desirability was an especially frequent comparison. Amy, for example, described a different standard for attractiveness as being based in her interest in co-ethnic celebrities. She said, “They [Korean actors] look cuter. Like no White people look cute to me. Some, some are just like because they’re like so big-eyed, white, so white, yellow hair, some are like, wow, he’s hot, but I’m not like, oh my god, he’s hot. (sighs). It’s your eye. They look hot. They don’t. To my eyes, they [Korean actors] look hot.” While Amy implies that Korean actors’ shared ethnicity is why she finds them more desirable, other girls stated it explicitly. They said their shared ethnicity is specifically what makes Korean actors more attractive. Karen said, “It’s just a Korean nationality tie or something, and, like, I guess, in my eyes, Korean celebrities seem cuter or seem more handsome or more good-looking or more beautiful or whatever than American people.” It is important to note that both Amy and Karen delimited their stated physical attraction to co-ethnic celebrities by locating it specifically from their points of view. This is to say that they did not argue that Koreans are universally more attractive. Though their perspective disrupts dominant conceptualizations of beauty, its potential to do so is limited to individuals in the diaspora and, perhaps, to a larger racialized community of Asian Americans.

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KA girls’ attraction and interest in Korean actors also led to fan-related diasporic activities that can build resistance against dominant culture. First, they sought out other media texts with their favorite stars. Margaret bubbled with excitement when describing how she followed her favorite actors’ work: “It’s really interesting to me. Actors and actresses. Oh my gosh! Like, if there’s an actor that I really, really, really like, and he’s in this drama, I just watch it. It’s like that.” Having favorite stars, then, led to more transnational media use, greater interest, and, consequently, greater diasporic commitment as more behaviors and thoughts were committed to her favorite co-ethnic stars. For other girls, it meant finding out about the personal lives of their favorite actors. Joanne was motivated to find as much extratextual information as she could about her favorite stars and even a little about stars she was not as interested in. She said, “I know who they are, and I usually know what they’ve been in but not everything unless I’m really interested in what they do.” Like seeking out other media, seeking personal information about her favorites also reinforced diasporic identification because it created greater investment in knowing about the lives of favorite actors. Still, for a few other girls, it led to a desire for a real relationship with actors. Karen shared a story about a friend that spent her savings to buy a gift for a celebrity whom she has yet to meet but wants to meet when she visits Korea. Karen described this as “taking it too far,” but it clearly shows the personal investment some girls make with transnationally received Korean media. Part of this reason may be that Korean actors seem more accessible, despite their cultural differences, because of their shared ethnicity. Hannah, who was in the involved identity position, also talked about her fantasized desire to meet and marry a Korean actor: Hannah: I always think in my head that when I go to Korea I might see them [Korean celebrities]. And, like, I don’t know. You know. Interviewer: But like using that same kind of thinking, if you went to Hollywood, then. Hannah: Yeah, but there’s too much because Korea’s tiny, and America’s all huge and stuff, so, and, like, um, yeah. And like my mom wants me to get married to a Korean guy, so if I go to Korea. Possibly because of the internalized post-racialism, Hannah was reluctant to describe her ethnically situated desire to meet a co-ethnic celebrity as motivated by diasporic identification and even shifted her desire to the limitations of geography. The latter can be seen as a metaphor for the social gulf she feels with non-Korean actors, whom she may admire from afar, and the closeness and intimacy she feels with Korean actors in their smaller social

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space. The desire Hannah shared for co-ethnic actors was not atypical of girls in the diaspora, who said they engage in this talk frequently. For boys, the interest in Korean actresses was simply as objects of attraction. Very little else seemed to be important. When I interviewed Paul, he mentioned some of his favorite actresses. I asked what he liked about the actresses, and he replied, “Hmm, let me think. I think 효리’s (Hyori) attractive. Yeah. She’s hot, and, then, but she’s too slutty, you know what I mean? She shouldn’t just show everything, you know, so that’s kind of lame, and, then, well, I’m not sure [chuckles]. I mean, 전지현’s (Jeon Jihyeon) pretty hot, but, yeah.” Paul’s inability to find any qualities other than attractiveness appears to be shallow, but it played a critical role in creating counter-ideologies about attractiveness and desirability. For some participants, finding coethnic actresses attractive created a different standard of beauty and provided exemplars of prototypical beauty. John: Yeah! I think she’s really pretty. Oh man, there’s this one actress in my head, who I believe is like the, like the model of what defines beauty in my head, and I do not remember who she is. She’s really famous at one point [snaps fingers]. Oh no, she’s not really famous at one point. She’s still really famous [snaps fingers]. Oh, my god! This is driving me insane! Have you seen Tomato, the drama? Interviewer: Yeah, 김희선 (Kim Hiseon). John: That’s it! 김희선 (Kim Hiseon)! I think she’s gorgeous. Having a Korean standard of beauty through specific Korean exemplars reinforced diasporic identification because being attracted meant it was more possible that he would seek and become attracted to a KA in the diaspora. Yet finding and idealizing a co-ethnic actress as an idealized standard of beauty builds diasporic identification outside the Hollywood mold, but without existing investments, those cultural resources are not available. Some diasporic identification must precede the availability and activation of these resources, which, in turn, strengthen diasporic identification and commitments. Michael, for instance, said it was problematic that he does not know many Korean actresses to whom he can be attracted. Interviewer: Yeah, so, uh, I’m guessing then that if you’re saying that she’s (전지현, Jeon Jihyeon) cute, then she’s probably the only Korean girl, Korean actress that you think is cute, right? Michael: Mmhmm. Interviewer: I mean, do you know any others?

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Michael: No, that’s the problem. When diasporic resources do become available, their uses and interests in them is a resource that transnational media provide to resist dominant cultural marginalization through the (counter-) politics of desire. CONCLUSION There are two major findings that warrant further discussion. First, like in chapter 3, second-generation KAs respond to films in ways that are consistent with their reading positions formed at the site of diasporic identification. The reasons characters are liked or disliked are shaped by their diasporic identification. For instance, uninterested KAs expressed liking as being because of unspecific or universalizing reasons while more easily generalizing dislike of particular characters to Korean society. The different texts also provided different reasons to identify and disidentify based on both identity position and gender that demonstrate the complexities of identification practices. Whether it was the kind-hearted Gyunwoo that was either read as an exemplar of Korean male sensitivities in relationships or read resistively as an anti-Korean co-ethnic man or whether it was representations of cool masculinity in My Tutor Friend and He Was Cool, KAs identified in ways that made sense to them in the intersection of their identity positions, gender, and social contexts. Another important finding is the integration of diasporic identification into their everyday lives. Involved and bicultural KA girls, in particular, engaged in ethnic play by comparing their real-life co-ethnic friends with the characters in the films and fantasizing about romantic and sexual relationships with the actors they have come to admire. Though the identifications may seem trivial, their very banality is what leads to their integration into everyday life, play, and relationships—mediated and real. More than the moment of contact with the text, it is the integration of play and desire made possible through the symbolic resources of transnational Korean media texts that subtly and repeatedly reinforce diasporic identification. In the next chapter, it concludes an examination of reception and identity positions through an examination of the ways that KA participants made sense of Korean culture that was received through the movies. REFERENCE Kimmel, M. S. (2006). Manhood in America: A cultural history. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Chapter Five

Reading Culture

Participants’ understanding of culture plays a critical function in their readings of transnational films. Their identity positions profoundly shape the perceived cultural meanings, and cultural values received along. Reading culture in films allowed participants to claim ownership of the films, to experience cultural life vicariously through them, and to develop a sense of legitimation and pride because of them. The responses, as it should be clear by now, are not uniform, nor are they wholly idiosyncratic, either. As Ang (1990) wrote, readings are constructed through audiences’ social contexts and the exercises of power within them. For the second-generation KAs in the diaspora, their readings of culture focused on the tensions between the traditional and modern, love and romance, social hierarchy, and points of disidentification. I begin by first discussing KAs’ identification and disidentification with culture experienced through the films and conclude with the specific ways they read culture. CULTURAL CONNECTION While there are several participants that did not like one or more of the films, only Philip, who was in the hostile identity position, expressed his disgust for what he perceived as Korean culture in the films. In his media diary for He Was Cool, Philip wrote: Korean culture was blotted everywhere in here. School brawls, demand for respect between females to males, younger males to older males, the food, the flirting methods, and the general stupid useless drama I find in all F.O.B.s was all there. I didn’t find anything American about this film. The way the actors talked and walked just oozed Korean to me, and it made me very bored and irritated. 99

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This statement revealed how, for him, Korean is defined as “bad” and US American as “good.” The more Korean he viewed the film to be, the more he disliked and disidentified with it. This response, however, appeared to be unique to Philip because no other participant disidentified with Korean culture, generally, because of the film texts. However, bicultural KAs disidentified with specific parts of Korean culture while simultaneously identifying with others. Responding to He Was Cool, Harry wrote that Koreans are too prideful. The Korean culture in this movie that I noticed was from the male character. The Korean inability to express thoughts freely and easily. This is done often by Korean males, who don’t know how to communicate. Also I think this movie had a great deal of pride issues. This is another attitude that Koreans carry around everyday. Pride gets many Koreans into trouble that could have been easily avoidable.

About My Tutor Friend, Harry also wrote that Koreans are short-tempered, saying, “This movie shows a lot of the violent and short temperedness of the Korean culture. The pugnacious male character was able to represent how most Korean males would behave. Quick to fight and easy to anger.” What bothered Jeannette was not pride but meddling interference, something she believed constituted co-ethnic cultural practice. Recounting what she did not like in My Sassy Girl, Jeannette said: I hate that. When he’s getting in the hotel or whatever, and the main guy working there is like I know what you’re doing there, blah, blah, blah, and the guy is paying for it, you know, how I guess the money and stuff. Little things like that. One thing I really hate about Korean people is that they have to butt in about everything, and, oh my god, I hate that. Ugh.

Her reading is likely shaped by past experience because in the film text, the interference could be seen as acting like a responsible citizen. The motel clerk calls the police because he is concerned that the male lead, Gyunwoo, has intoxicated the “girl” in order to rape her. Though Gyunwoo’s intentions in the film are to help a stranger, who was drunk on the subway, the construction of the narrative suggests it was unknown to the clerk, which is the tension that creates his humorous “interference.” Jeannette’s reading of personal intrusion is clearly one of the aspects of ethnic culture that Jeannette dislikes. Yet, while she mentioned it as unique to co-ethnics, at the same time, she surrounds herself with co-ethnic peers. At first glance, it seems counter-intuitive that bicultural KAs disidentify and characterize co-ethnics pejoratively. Generalized comments such as Harry’s and Jeannette’s seem odd coming from those who strongly identify in the diaspora, yet on further reflection, it makes sense for bicultural KAs to have negotiated identifica-

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tions that are formed partly within both acceptance and rejection of elements of the diaspora. Therefore, they read disidentifications in transnational Korean media, which supported and reinforced their liminality in the construction of “new ethnicities.” CULTURAL IDENTIFICATION The transmission of culture through transnational media is an opportunity for diasporic identification. By watching Korean media, second-generation KAs gained insights into ethnic culture that were otherwise unavailable. Participants engaged in transnational media actively for the purposes of gaining cultural knowledge, learning Korean norms, and finding a different site of identification. Curious KAs, especially, mentioned that they felt a deeper connection to their homeland through the films (see chapter 3, as well). Watching the DVDs was Eric’s first exposure to Korean films, and he said the experience, especially watching My Sassy Girl, filled a personal void. I can’t say that I’ve ever done that [picture myself in the film] before actually just because I’ve never been so like, this is like my first Korean movie, you know, and maybe that’s why I liked it so much. I was like so absorbed with it, you know, and, uh, I guess I never had that like affinity toward a movie before. And, um, I wonder if it’s because like my, like emotional life is like lacking of Koreanness if you will if that made it that much more attractive. Like how if you’re really hungry, then like it doesn’t matter if it’s a taco or a hamburger or a pizza, you’re going to want it really bad. You’re going to enjoy it. Kind of like I didn’t care that it was Korean, I still enjoyed it.

Eric talked about a profound need to explore through Korean media because it gave him access to a cultural identity he wanted to know but with which he was not familiar and which was not readily available to him. Similarly, Bobby experienced new emotions and connections through his viewing of My Sassy Girl. There was a sense of intimacy that I have never experienced in mass market US films. The movie really sucked me in from the beginning, and I found myself in love with the plot and the characters. I was nervous during the final minutes of the movie because I feared that the ending would be anything but a happy one. With the final twist at the end that tied up all the loose ends, I was elated, and this movie became one of the best films I have ever seen.

For both Bobby and Eric, the experience of watching Korean films for the first time was a vehicle to transnationally connect in ways they had not previously done, playing an apparently substantial role in their understanding and exploration of diasporic identification.

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Richard was explicit about the link, connecting the experience of “intimacy” closely with Korean culture. Speaking about his overall experience with the films, Richard said: Yeah, I think I identify more with, um, because there’s like some things that, there’s like sayings, there’s like certain actions in Korean culture that only Korean people would know or only people who know about Korean culture and like I guess you could say the same for American things that there are only behaviors that people do that only Americans would get, but I can feel like, I can feel, I can know what the character is about just by those Korean things like what they say and how they act, so, yeah, I think I relate better to Korean actors in Korean movies that I think.

What is important in his quote is the belief that he can understand and connect more with Korean culture and actors, despite his lack of diasporic friends and cultural and linguistic fluency in the United States. Because of this sense of connection, Richard said he wanted to explore more films and implicitly his own diasporic identification further. “It’s out of the norm, so the impact it makes on me is like, wow, maybe I should explore this more. Um, that’s what, that’s the feeling I got out of this, maybe I should explore because these are pretty popular movies for like, so maybe I should explore the Korean movie thing more.” Karen, likewise, said she is able to stay connected to Korea through transnational media. I guess I have Korean pride in me, and, like, if I lived in somewhere like Tennessee or like somewhere in the Midwest, where there aren’t any Koreans, I guess I would be totally different, but, here, I was still influenced. I still had, I, my connection with Korea wasn’t cut off, through media, through parents, or through other like Koreans around me, so, like, I was still revealed and exposed to the Korean way and life and stuff, and I don’t want to let that go because I love Korea. [My friend] totally doesn’t. She’s like I’m American. I like Japan, England, and then it’s Korea. I’m like, ugh.

Interestingly, the only substantive difference in diasporic behavior between Karen and her friend was that her friend does not use Korean media. Paul’s use went a step further than Karen’s, where the media texts created such a strong desire for connection that he wanted to involve himself beyond the film by physically locating himself in Korea. Discussing He Was Cool, I asked Paul if he was implying that he wants to live in Korea, and Paul responded, “Yeah, I want, I mean, I don’t think it’d be that bad wearing a [school] uniform and stuff.” For several individuals, the films were not just entertainment but a site to identify transnationally and within the diaspora. Whether it was to find counter-ideologies, to connect with co-ethnics, to explore ethnic culture, or to create fantasies about life in Korea, watching transnational Korean films provided an opportunity for diasporic connection.

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COUNTER-IDEOLOGICAL INTERESTS AND CULTURAL CONNECTIONS One reason individuals liked to explore through film was because film texts provide opportunities for resistance against White dominant culture. Elaine wrote in her media diary after watching My Sassy Girl: “I thought in some ways that it went against the stereotypical Korean culture. Like how the guy’s parents wanted a girl and how he thought he was a girl until he was 7. Also the main girl character always wrote stories with a girl hero in it. The girl saves the boy and the girl is much tougher than the boy. The boy listened to and did what the girl said.” Much of Elaine’s enjoyment of this film text is that she is able to see counter-stereotypical ideas both around gender and her diasporic identification with which she can enjoy and identify. For Linda, she enjoyed Korean movies because normalcy is defined in ways that let her see beyond the immediate context of her everyday life. In her media diary about He Was Cool, Linda wrote: Of course, Korean movies have that “special something” that completely differentiates them from American movies mostly because if you think about it, the story would have NEVER turned out the way it did if it was shot in America because our views of “normal behavior” is so different. In Korea, fist fights between gangs in a movie involving a school seems almost natural but in America, people would have different reactions to it. It’s difficult to explain, but it’s our differing “norms” and methods of solving problems.

Linda’s quote demonstrates her connection to the film because of her ability to read an oppositional message to dominant US culture. She saw norms and values that privileged her standpoint and created a desire for her to at least have a vicarious connection to a culture she imagined as more accepting and similar to her. After watching My Little Bride, she wrote: If I watch an American movie, I just watch it, laugh and cry, whatever. But Korean movies, I guess, because there’s that sense of longing, and you actually want that experience, but you can’t actually have it. A Korean movie is very likely to interest me more than an American one would because it puts the characters in situations that seem like natural and everyday happenings, yet still seem rare, uncommon and unlikely to ever happen to Korean-Americans (such as myself) who grew up away from the only place able to offer them (Korea) and so, because I am able to relate to the characters and see how their lives are affected by those events (hey, if we can’t have it happen to us we might as well watch what someone else thinks would happen to a character similar to us).

Despite having different lived experiences, her ethnic identification was salient and important to her, and she believed characters in the films have experi-

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ences similar to hers, despite their different environment, culture, and relationships. In this way, films and other transnational media aided in maintaining the fantasy of similarity because she can live vicariously, though not actually, in Korean culture. For Amy, transnational media have been necessary for her to maintain her “Koreanness” and not be swept away toward a desire to identify as White. I’d probably go after American stuff because if I don’t have Korean stuff, media is just something you need, entertainment, so. You can’t have a funny friend next to you all the time, and you need funny stuff to live. So, I guess, okay. I guess life would be a little bit worse. It’d probably change my mind. You know how I think Korean people are more funnier. If I don’t get my mind off of that, you know, then I’ll probably go after White people. And if I start watching it more and more, I’ll be like they’re funny, too. God, they’re funny.

Watching transnational media allowed her to identify and resist ideologies in US media. Amy, like several others, mentioned that their views of themselves would be changed fundamentally without access. Without counterideologies present in transnational media, KAs would have fewer resources to resist dominant culture, and they would be less likely to want to identify as diasporic members. CULTURAL MEANINGS AND PRIDE Like second-generational Mexican American girls in Mayer’s (2003) research, participants, with the exception of some uninterested KAs, said it was “natural” to be interested in transnational media. Will said, “Like the reason I can relate more is probably because like, like I am Korean, and how the people in the movie are like Korean and stuff, and you can just relate more to how they live and their way of life, kind of, I guess.” Will used several qualifiers because he is unable to pinpoint the reason for his connection other than a “fundamental essence.” He felt this connection despite the fact that he was born and raised in the United States and was most culturally and linguistically fluent in a US context. Therefore, his “natural” magnetism to Korea was likely driven by a desire for diasporic identification, though he is not quite able to articulate the reasons beyond an imagined similarity rooted in ethnicity rather than actual lived experience. Linda also pointed to her “fundamental essence” as the reason for viewing transnational media, but she hinted at other culturally specific reasons, as well. She said, “I’m not quite sure, either. It just feels more natural. It just comes out automatically. You don’t notice it. It’s like in dramas, I’m like I’m not that strange after all because other people do it, too.” The last part of her quote is revealing because it is not just her “natural” impulse to watch trans-

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national media, but it is also the cultural validation that is provided. Several participants felt marginalized in dominant media and their primarily White schools and neighborhoods, but through popular Korean texts, they were able to find validation in what is perceived in dominant culture as undesirable beliefs, practices, and embodied being. They felt validated because these differences can be connected to “normal” behaviors in their ethnic culture, and these behaviors are performed by characters they identify with and admire. Participants believed that Korean media texts are more relevant despite the cultural divide in the setting and culture of their heritage homelands and their own local experience. Karen said: I guess that, too, but because we have the Korean culture in our background like the actors and actresses, or the characters in the movies, and I do, too, for example, if I watch American movies, for example, like any teenage movies, I can’t like, an American movie will portray a teenager as someone who like dance in their room like with, I don’t know, I guess, I don’t, I think I can relate to, but then I was going to say I can relate to Korean teenagers more than American teenagers, but I don’t think that’s true, either, ‘cuz like Korean teenagers in Korea are totally different from me, too. I don’t know why, but I just feel that way. Yeah, I do. Maybe, I want to feel that way. I don’t know.

Karen verbalized what bicultural KAs, in particular, experience. They realized they do not have the same experiences as Korean characters in media, but the desire to identify led to diasporic choices. For instance, Lucy elaborated on her reasons for finding Korean media more relatable: I think I could see myself more in Korean stuff than American things. I don’t see myself in like, I don’t know, like TV shows, and I don’t see myself in like, One Tree Hill, because Chad Michael Murray’s in it. I don’t see me in that. I could see me in like, I don’t actually see me, but it’s like it’d be weird if I was in that, but it wouldn’t be weird if I was in that, you know, just because, oh, I’m Korean, and they’re Korean, so it just looks better [chuckles].

Not only do KAs turn to transnational media because they are marginalized in US popular media, but they turned to Korean media because they have internalized the belief they do not belong in US media. For instance, despite feeling marginalized, Lucy was not unhappy with underrepresentation in US media because for her, inclusion, not exclusion, was understood as unusual. She categorized US media as belonging presumably to Whites (them) and Korean media as belonging to KAs alone (us). This sense of propriety over Korean media, while problematic in some ways, is a resource in diasporic identification. For KAs, Korean media reinforced a belief in a unique identity. Paul said, “I think I’m just more interested in them because they’re Korean. I mean, everybody knows about them [Hollywood films], American people here, but I guess you want to be differ-

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ent. I’m not sure. I never really thought about it [chuckles].” Linda wrote about this sense of uniqueness when responding to He Was Cool. Korean culture and even the movie’s setting was crucial to my enjoyment of Korean movies like the parks, schools, uniforms, and even the gathering of students to hear a speech from the principle [sic] (when the girl got her head stuck in the fence). It gives me a strange feeling like I’m able to completely understand what’s going on and personally relate to because of my heritage (it sounds corny but it makes you feel kind of “special” because something that others might consider uncommon is actually normal for you).

For both Paul and Linda, they found pride in their uniqueness. What is not as obvious is that they subvert their marginalization in the United States by empowering a part of their lives that they perceived as being routinely marginalized. In other words, they have reappropriated their marginalized diasporic identitification as a source of pride. Because of their close identification with transnational media, they were also proud that Korean media industries have “good” production value and were influential in many Asian nations. Frank said his pride comes from a sense of shared accomplishment. It’s like when you do something you’re proud of, wow, I did that. If you do something as a group, you get the same pride. In some extended, stretched out way, I guess, whenever you see Korean people do something extraordinary, you’re like wow, that’s my race. Somehow, you did that together, so I wanna, that kind of appeals to me, our race is even capable of doing this stuff, too. We can still compete with American culture and entertainment, you know.

Frank’s diasporic identification played a central role in his feeling of extended kinship and pride, which is made salient with his marginalization in the United States. The growing success, then, of Korean films acts as validation of the significance of his heritage homeland as a global influence. John said: I think it’s cool [that Korean film is well-received]. Now that we’re out of our economic funk, and we’re booming, we’re finally showing what we can do, and I think that’s really cool. I mean, I know that other countries make really great films as well, but everyone still sees America as the top whatever, but, um, I’m glad to see that we’re still, we’re finally recognizing Korea’s talent in the film industry.

The difference between Frank’s and John’s statements is that John’s point of reference for his pride was located in the United States, a characteristically diasporic response. It was not as much about extended kinship but about validation from the United States, a nation he identified as the most influen-

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tial source of global media. John may also have felt a greater sense of validation because acclaim was coming from the nation in which he finds membership. As his friends were also almost exclusively White Americans, he can point to the success of Korean media in the United States, a source of validation for diasporic identification. Richard was not aware of the growing presence of Korean media in US media outlets, but he was aware of the growing online presence of Korean media fans. Um, like before, the only Korean movies I’d watch was something from the video store that my mom got, and it was like some historical movie that was really famous in Korea, some military movie or something like that, and, um, these movies [the ones for the study] really made me realize that there’s this whole different aspect that I’d not like cared to explore, and like from the forums and stuff, like people really enjoy the movies, and some even say they’re better than the Hollywood movies, so, yeah, it makes me proud that this new Korean movie thing has really like erupted. Yeah, I’m pretty proud.

With Richard’s quote, the relationship between validation, pride, and diasporic identification is clarified. As he received more validation and became prouder of Korean media, he felt a greater desire to explore and identify with Korean popular entertainment. In addition to legitimation found online, validation through interpersonal contact was mentioned. Lucy said: Yeah, ‘cuz like I have some Asian friends that listen to Korean music and watch Korean dramas. I had a friend who graduated last year. She’s Chinese. She loves Korean music. I don’t know if she understands the words, but she loves it. She like knows all their names. She loves. She watched a lot of the Korean dramas. I don’t know if she watched them in Korean or if she had subtitles, but she watched a lot of them. At first, I was like why are you watching it? You’re not even Korean. But then I don’t remember a specific time, but I remember when like people would just be like, yeah like, Korean music, Korean dramas, Korean celebrities were better than other Asian celebrity types of stuff because I don’t go around watching Chinese or Japanese stuff. There’s like, non-Korean, but other Asians who are listening and trying to be Korean. It feels kind of prideful in a way.

Lucy’s sense of diasporic pride rose as she received validation from Asian American friends who are not KAs. In this case, her pride came not from a relative comparison between Korean and Hollywood media but because of her favorable view of Korea in relation to other Asian nations. Yet, it did not make sense for her that her Asian American friends watched Korean media because the texts did not have the same purpose in diasporic identification (she is unaware of the racial identification that takes place), but the message

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she drew from this was that Korean popular entertainment was superior than her (non-Korean) Asian American friends’ transnational media, thus reinforcing her desire to identify within the diaspora. This may even have led to a decreased desire to identify racially since she perceived her media and culture as better. In fact, despite her Asian American friends’ interest in Korean media, she was uncomfortable conversing with them about Korean popular entertainment. Pride was not the only connection KAs make through transnational media. Another was transnational crossings facilitated through Korean popular culture. Amy said Korean media allows her to feel closer to Korean peers in Korea. I just learned more about what’s going on in Korea and what’s going on between the high schoolers. Maybe that’s not what happens, but at least in dramas that’s what happens. And at least that’s what other high school people in Korea are interested in because I heard these are the good movies that everyone watched, basically. So, I get to enjoy what they enjoy, too.

Though she realized that media selectively filter culture, she was still able to connect to the mediated experiences that her Korean peers enjoyed. This created a greater sense of connection the nation, culture, and people, reinforcing her desire to immerse in Korean life. The transnational crossings built connections to Korea, and they also provided counter-ideologies that acted as a resource for diasporic identification. KAs found validation, realized they are not “weird,” and were given the tools to criticize dominant culture. This empowers KAs to know their marginalization is due to systemic marginalization in the United States and to become empowered through transnational media and diasporic identification. READING CULTURE Evaluations of ethnic culture seen in the film was also shaped by participants’ identity positions. Unlike disidentifications mentioned earlier, these criticisms were not linked to decreased interest in diasporic identification. For example, some curious KAs were discouraged by what they saw as Korea’s embrace of creeping (Western) modernity, wanting to identify with a culture they viewed as uniquely different from the one in which they currently lived. Therefore, their criticism of Korean modernity was implicitly a criticism of US culture and their marginalization in it. After Jim watched The Way Home, he wrote, “Basically I discussed about how the Korean culture is changing and how kids are very spoiled.” In other parts of the interview, Jim made apparent that the change he was referring to is Korea’s rapid modernization and the perceived loss of traditional practices and values.

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Sam, also, said modernization created some undesirable cultural changes, but, unlike Jim, he placed blame for this change squarely on Western forces. Responding to questions about The Way Home, Sam said: And you can tell, you can just tell by the generational gap how influential the West is. Grandma has no idea what it is. The kid is all about American food, all about the American toys, the pots and everything, stuff like that. You could tell how he was being influenced by this as a new generation and how he wasn’t used to what she goes through as an old one . . . I guess it’s good and bad in both ways. It’s good because with Western hegemony, you have more technology, more of that industrial thing to bring up the economy. It’s bad because have you ever gone to like another country to buy like national souvenirs like a French store or something, and all you see are American stores? You’re just kind of like, where are all the traditional stuff kind of thing? If the West does come in, all the traditional things might die away with that.

Common to both of these criticisms is Korea’s changing culture. As mentioned earlier, some KAs in the curious identity position want to explore what they see as traditional and distinctly Korean. Because they are searching for what it means to be Korean, several curious KA boys wanted to see Korean culture remain consistent with their assumptions of what Korean culture “really” is. Their concern was that not only does the United States not value their unique ethnic heritage, Korea was not doing well to protect it, either. Linda saw traditional culture differently. She did not see cultural loss with modernization, but she saw a desirable marriage of the traditional and modern. In her media diary about My Little Bride, she wrote: I also liked how the old Korean “customs” (like wearing a han bohk [Korean traditional clothes] after the wedding, the old-fashioned house, wearing school uniforms, and rules) joined together with the new generation because it reminded me that although I did not grow up/become familiar with the old Korean customs, I am still part of it (it’s still something I can proudly and assuredly call my own) and how the main characters’ parents got along so well and even chose a home for their kids together which also fits into the idea of “true Korean culture” I’ve created and accepted for myself.

Unlike Sam and Jim, she was upbeat about the hybridity of tradition and modernity, which can also be read as Korean and United States, because, as a KA in the diaspora, this is a social location in which she feels more comfortable. This may also be a gendered difference since modernization may be associated with greater gender liberation. Some involved KAs, on the other hand, said Korean culture was not changing quickly enough and that it is too traditional. Speaking about My Little Bride, Amy said, “This is the White part of me. Their [Korean] culture

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is too traditional. You know, White people, they’re like the stereotype of White people is like forget about that. Koreans have the stereotype that they’re like strict and mean.” This statement ran counter to our conversations throughout the interview because other than this single statement, she used the pronouns “us” or “our” when referring to Korean culture and people, but in this quote, she shifts to “they” and “their” to refer to Koreans in a linguistic move that dissociated herself from traditional Korean cultural life. Because she was more invested in immersing and being a part of Korean culture, she disidentified with the traditional and embraced cultural change—a dramatic difference from KAs that are actively searching for meaning. Harry, who was in the bicultural identity position, on the other hand, framed traditional culture as both desirable and undesirable, reflecting his dual identifications and the complexity this creates. Responding to My Sassy Girl, Harry wrote, “I noticed that the main characters never kissed in the movie. This, I think shows more of the conservative side of Korean culture. Now days even kid movies have some sort of final scene with kissing in it. If I’m right about that, there wasn’t any kissing in this movie; I think it goes to show how conservative but also how great this movie was.” Harry equated conservative expressions of love with undesirability or backwardness, yet he also viewed this as desirable by writing that not kissing and being conservative about expressions of love was also “great.” As will be discussed later, the “great” of this comment is connected to beliefs that Korean expressions of love is “purer” than what they experience in the United States. CRITICISMS OF US MEDIA CULTURE In addition to criticisms of ethnic culture, participants also engaged in counter-ideological discourses that criticized US media culture. After watching My Sassy Girl, a few boys criticized US representations of hegemonically masculine men. Sam said, “That’s what I particularly hate about American movies. They always stress the guy, some like huge, super guy that the girls like, you know. He can’t ever be like the guy can’t just be introverted or quiet.” The boys argued that US media construct a hyper-masculine ideal that is emasculating to those who do not embody it, viewing hyper-masculinity as well as strict gender roles as a flaw in US culture. Perhaps because participants were recruited through churches, another counter-ideology expressed by many participants was the perceived greater morality in Korean media. Margaret wrote, “I’m getting tired and even a little irritated at the amount of violence, drug abuse, et cetera. Most nonkiddy movies are silently required to have to appeal enough to the American audience to make it into the top ten.” Implicit in her response is that she saw transnational media as more moral, and this was something with which she

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preferred to identify. Her identification, in turn, became a source of diasporic pride, which led to more diasporic activities like watching Korean media, further reinforcing diasporic identification. A particularly salient aspect of morality for the participants was sex. KA participants said US popular media too often feature gratuitous sex. Sandra said, “In American movies, there are a lot of unnecessary sex scenes and couples just hooking up and stuff like that.” Because of this focus on sex, many KAs want to disidentify with US media and prefer Korean media’s depictions of romance. John said, “There are some movies that are romantic that I like a lot, I think, but of all the movies I like that are really romantic, actually, most of them are Korean.” This reinforced a desire to identify in the diaspora because co-ethnic love is seen as more sincere and more romantic, thus creating more desire to find a KA boyfriend or girlfriend and eventually a co-ethnic spouse. LOVE AND ROMANCE Participants, particularly in the involved and bicultural identity positions, said co-ethnics value love more highly. Amy said, “In 그 놈 (Geu Nom—He Was Cool), there was no sex; it was just like love, you know. It’s a movie, you know. That’s love. That’s like another kind of love.” In her reading, Amy distinguished Korean and US expressions of love and extended this difference beyond the medium of film to include a discussion of cultural attitudes about love, generally. By doing so, she justified her desire to immerse in the diaspora. Similarly, Paul also saw representations on screen as representative of cultural attitudes about love. His quote, though, was not about the sincerity of love in different cultural contexts but relationship styles in response to being in love. Asked about My Little Bride, he said, “Yeah. Like, Korean people do a lot more cute stuff for their like, you know, boyfriend or girlfriend. American people are like, here, flowers, you know, but, like, how he went and painted, stuff like that.” Together, Paul and Amy’s quotes reveal that they make sense of Korean cultural expressions of love on screen as representative of love off screen. Partly because of these interpretations of Korean love as sincere and pure, several participants were bothered by the arranged marriage shown in My Little Bride. This is especially true for involved KA girls. Lena, who had previously talked about what she saw as the sincerity of Korean love, wrote in her media diary, “A 16 year old girl getting married is a weird KOREAN CULTURE.” When later asked about this, she said, “I thought even though your grandfather, and his friend made a promise, I don’t think it’s right for a 16 year old to get married. She needs to study, and go to college, and other things that she needs to do throughout high school. And I don’t think you can

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make someone marry someone by force. They would have to love each other to get married.” The plot device of an arranged marriage with a young girl elicited a strong response evidenced by her use of all capital letters and a moment of disidentification that othered Korean culture as unusual. It was apparent that at least part of the reason she had such a strong response was because she otherwise identified with the film text, so seeing a young coethnic girl agree to an arranged marriage was off-putting because this was not what she thought was appropriate and, in fact, referred to the practice of arranged marriage as “weird.” So powerful was this sentiment that some involved KA girls questioned why the movie was created. Joanne said, “Well, like, it was actually like, 어린 신부 (Eorin Shinbu, My Little Bride) when I watched it, I was like why did they make this movie? I was like wondering why they made it? I didn’t understand [why] they would take such high-profile actors and actresses and put them in such crappy movies. . . . 어린 신부 wasn’t even cute.” Her question is an interesting one, especially given the financial success and widespread popularity of the film. For her and several others in the involved identity position, it was difficult to understand the popularity of the film because they saw themselves as reflective of authentic “Koreanness.” They expected other Koreans to think like them, and it created cognitive dissonance to see some evidence that Koreans might not. Individuals in other identity positions were generally unbothered by the plot device. It did not bother uninterested KAs because, arguably, they are not invested in the film texts. Sara, for example, wrote, “This [arranged marriages] was hard to grasp coming from an American point-of-view.” Locating herself almost as a cultural tourist from her “American” social location, she was confused but not adversely affected by the plot device. Joseph typified this lack of personal investment in the film, saying, “The whole idea that this guy is marrying a 16 year old is a little off-putting. Even still, it was a good chick flick comedy.” Therefore, unlike Joanne, his disidentification with this plot device did not ruin the filmic experience or cause him to question the production or meanings in the movie. Curious KAs, on the other hand, have views that fit between these two. Margaret was similar to Joseph in her views on this plot device, saying, “It’s just that the plot bothered me a little, a lot actually. And, uh, I tried to like [it] because sometimes if I don’t mostly like the plot is like pointless, but the movie itself is really good.” Though she was bothered more than Joseph because of her greater degree of personal investment in the film, she was still able to enjoy the movie. Richard, though, was bothered. “Like, I didn’t, I wouldn’t have ever thought some director would’ve made a movie like this, actually, so that confused me. Because I’m pretty sure that was a popular movie because the rest of them seem to be, so it just like confused me why Korean people would like to watch a movie like that.” Like Joanne, he

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wondered aloud why the film is made and questioned why Koreans like the film. In fact, he mentioned that he was so bothered that he asked his mother what her opinion of the film was and was dismayed to hear that his mother thought the film was entertaining. Richard: She liked this movie a lot. She thought it was funny. I think, she didn’t really have a problem with the age difference thing, whereas I was weirded out by it. She just said it was a good movie. She wasn’t really bothered by it. I was saying wasn’t it kind of weird that they were that far apart, and she said, yeah, but that actually happened like to her mother’s generation, so she knows more of it than me. Interviewer: I thought you were weirded out by the arranged marriage thing as opposed to the age difference thing? Richard: Oh yeah, the arranged, the arranged marriage at like a young age, that sort of thing without. Like she would say like, oh, sometimes they wouldn’t even see each other and then get married, but at least in this they knew each other, and even if they met each other, that was weird to me because the grandfather had said this was my wish that that would happen. Interviewer: You mentioned that, um, you felt like kind of out of touch because a lot of Korean people liked it. Did you also feel that way when you talked with your mom and she liked it? Richard: Yeah, I felt, that’s why I asked her to make sure, didn’t this weird you out? And, she said, yeah, it was not a normal thing, but she could see why people liked it, but I was still kind of confused as to why. Unlike involved KAs, he did not assume Koreans’ views were like his, but the film caused him to question his diasporic belonging and caused him to realize he was not as transnationally connected with Koreans as he thought himself to be before watching the movie; it caused him to uncomfortably reevaluate his identification with the diaspora. Bicultural KAs, as a whole, were not bothered by the plot device. No interviewee in the bicultural identity position disliked the use of this plot device, and though Karen disliked arranged marriages, she bound this cultural practice within the narrative limits of the film. She said, “Well, the whole arranged thing, I thought it was kind of cute because it was a movie. But, in real life, I wouldn’t like it. I don’t know why. I remember the first time I saw it, I didn’t like that that much, either. I thought it was so cute how the whole thing worked out and stuff, but for some reason, I don’t know.” Karen, therefore, is bothered by arranged marriages, but she was able to enjoy it

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because of the way it advances the plot. John, on the other hand, is not bothered because he viewed arranged marriages as simply a part of his ethnic culture and not something that is better or worse. He said, “Well, I mean, I know, I know they do it, and they still kind of do it, but it doesn’t bother me that much. It’s just how they do things in Korea.” Another reason John was able to enjoy the film was because he understands that it was simply a plot device. I mean, I just took it as it came because that’s the whole premise of the movie; otherwise, there’d be no plot, so I laughed when it happened. I mean, it didn’t bother me because I doubted whether it would really happen, at least not now, anyway. It might’ve happened a while, like maybe the 20s, which wasn’t that long ago, but I’m still pretty sure they still did that then.

He was able to move past the plot device because he viewed it as an element of the story and a relic of the past, a view Harry echoed. The reason I think I liked it so much was because I didn’t focus on that [the arranged marriage]. It’s like, this is like a kind of like improbable plot that cannot really work in real life, you know, so it’s just like a scenario thing, and I was curious what would happen in the scenario because I knew it wasn’t like real life, not real real because I know it still happens, but it doesn’t happen anymore in Korea, I think. If you can get past that point, I think it’s a good movie because it’s really funny. It’s about a guy who’s going all out for this girl, and the girl doesn’t know it until the end, but I thought it was good.

Clearly, the plot device produced varied reactions, but the reactions were patterned by identity position. Uninterested KAs could enjoy the film because their identities are removed from being Korean, so they viewed this plot device with cultural distance. It is those in the involved identity position, whose identities are most strongly defined as “Korean,” who could not imagine Koreans enjoying this film because of their self-definition as most authentically “Korean.” Bicultural KAs, though, explicitly located themselves within “new ethnicities” and realized their identifications were not bound by being Korean and were, thus, less deeply impacted by representations of cultural life with which they do not identify. SOCIAL HIERARCHY Another cultural practice in the films, which was widely disliked, was social hierarchy. Jeannette, who disliked what she saw as Korean interference, also was frustrated by hierarchy, apparently disidentifying with aspects of culture that restricted her independence. Talking about He Was Cool, she said, “People think they deserve respect ‘cause they act gangster and hardcore or be-

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cause they are older.” For other participants, they focused on patriarchy and gender hierarchies. A handful of participants from all identity positions, except for involved KAs, commented on what they viewed as problematic patriarchal practices. Leonard, responding in his media diary to He Was Cool, wrote, “It was a lot of the ‘male domination’ in the relationship.” Also referring to He Was Cool, Lucy said, “I doubt American girls would let their boyfriends have so much control over them.” Therefore, for both Lucy and Leonard, whose diasporic identification differed, patriarchy in Korean culture was a common target of criticism. In addition to patriarchal domination in relationships, patriarchy was interrogated in the household. Leonard noted that the female lead’s father in My Sassy Girl was domineering. He said, “Oh, oh yeah, with the father when he was like you need to stop seeing my daughter and then it was more like even his wife was like you have to tell him right now. It’s not like she can’t tell him, but she wants him to tell him because he’s, he’s, I mean, like the father’s seen as the leader of the family. He makes all the decisions and stuff.” In Jim’s diary about My Tutor Friend, he also pointed to the father’s role in reinforcing patriarchy in Korean homes. Jim wrote, “It showed Korean culture very well, especially at the dinner table. It also showed how the father is usually the dominant figure in the family.” Though there was frequent criticism of hierarchy, most participants interpreted formal hierarchal relations as desirable. Joseph felt so strongly that he wrote in his diary after watching The Way Home that respect for elders should be a universal value. Joseph wrote, “From what I understand the older you get, the more respect you are supposed to get. I suppose this movie just emphasizes the importance of this concept. I think that this custom is very important and should be assimilated into all cultures.” His connection to this cultural value was also informed by his experiences in the United States and his dissatisfaction with what he saw as a lack of respect for the elderly in the United States. Yeah, I think that’s a really important part of Korean culture. As you grow older, like other people that are younger than you need to respect you and call you 형 (hyeong, older brother) and stuff, and I don’t think a lot of cultures do that because like Americans just like stick their parents in nursing homes and junk like that, and I think that’s really wrong because if you look at, I think if you look at Korean grandparents and stuff, I think they’re a lot more stronger because people like pay more attention to them.

Elaine also argued that a system of respect is important because it reinforces interdependent relationships. Elaine wrote in response to My Sassy Girl: “Korean culture—responsibility. Just because of one word from the girl everyone seems to assume that the girl is with the guy [In the film because subway riders assume a relationship, Gyunwoo takes care of the female

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lead].” Therefore, Elaine said that the maintenance of roles, responsibility, and respect were crucial and desirable aspects of Korea’s interdependent culture. Particularly in the context of family, all participants valued respect for parents and siblings that they see as a feature of Korean households. Grace wrote in her diary about My Little Bride: “The most striking aspect of Korean culture seemed to be the respect showed to elders. The entire marriage was orchestrated simply because of the wishes of the grandfather. The young couple agreed to the marriage only to please him and ignored their own conflicting desires.” For Elaine, she wrote in response to My Tutor Friend that both leads showed respect for their parents, noting, “Jihoon is very respectful of his father; his father is shown as a strong and cool character. The father never seemed to lose control of his anger. Suwan is respectful maybe a little afraid of her mother. Suwan does what her mom tells him.” After asking her whether she felt this respect was a desirable aspect of Korean culture, she framed her answer in response to US popular media, replying, “Yeah, because they don’t, they don’t overdo it [show respect], hmm, I don’t know. Well, Americans, Caucasian kids, they show respect for their mom and dad, but that’s not necessarily, um, movies. It is on cartoons, though, but [giggles] I don’t think I’ve seen that, maybe.” At least in the context of film, Elaine viewed showing respect as a cultural practice she valued and that was available in transnational Korean media while being absent in her dominant media choices. Lena also mentioned noticing respect in My Little Bride. She wrote, “My thoughts about Korean culture in the movie was how they were so respectful to their parents.” In her media diary about The Way Home, Michelle provided justification for respecting parents and grandparents because of the sacrifices they make for their children. My thoughts about the Korean culture is wrapped up in the part where she went to go to the market to sell her stuff and with that money, she bought him shoes, lunch, and choco-pies. Although she never bought anything for herself when she could have used a new pair of shoes, I feel like the giver/guardian whatever you may call them will treasure you as their gift and give you everything they can, I feel like in Korean cultures there is a lot of sacrifice that is happening.

Bicultural KAs also preferred ethnic systems of respect and age hierarchies in households. Frank, talking about The Way Home, said: I guess. I prefer, I guess, the Korean way. I’ve always hated it because I was the youngest one, even among my cousins, I was the youngest, so I was always respecting my cousins, too, and stuff like that. After a while, you just get sick of it. But, then, after I grew up, I had a respect for it. I had a respect for the

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respect that Korean culture has. If you think about it, it’s just one big circle. When you’re younger, you give respect, and when you’re older, you get respect because you’re older. After I grew up, I just realized how much more of a nice guy you can become through that respect.

Harry wrote in his media diary about The Way Home that a lesson he had taken from the film was to be more respectful, linking respect explicitly to ethnic culture and families. “Korean culture in this movie is probably that we should always love and remember our elders. This is a big part of the Korean culture. I know that I do uphold these standards but I also believe that I can do more to honor my elders.” CONCLUSION The reception practices of second-generation KA participants for this study fit with Hall’s (1996) concept of “new ethnicities.” Participants’ reception practices and reading positions were shaped by their negotiated identifications within dominant culture, their local neighborhoods, intra-group difference within the diaspora, and the ways they were able to position themselves. Intra-ethnic differences mattered in reception practices because these differences acted as sites that shape identification, becoming reading positions within interpretive communities. The thesis of this chapter is that different identity positions shape readings and evaluations of ethnic culture in the texts. For second-generation KA adolescents, identity position shaped their reception of culture and moments of disjuncture in their lives. Their hopes for the future of their homeland cultures were shaped by who they are and how they conceive of their diasporic identification, making clear that members of diasporas use the resources of transnational media to shape local meanings and identities. The next chapter explores the ways in which identifications through media brought KAs closer and the ways in which popular media was mobilized to create divisions. REFERENCES Ang, I. (1990). The nature of the audience. In J. Downing, A. Mohammadi & A. SrebernyMohammadi (Eds.), Questioning the media: A critical introduction (pp. 155–165). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Hall, S. (1996). New ethnicities. In D. Morley & K.-H. Chen (Eds.), Stuart Hall: Critical dialogues in cultural studies (pp. 443–451). New York, NY: Routledge. Mayer, V. (2003). Living telenovelas/telenovelizing life: Mexican American girls’ identities and transnational telenovelas. Journal of Communication, 53(3), 479–495. doi: 10.1111/ j.1460-2466.2003.tb02603.x

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Ang (1990) wrote that more research on the ways audiences integrate and use media into the everyday contexts in which they live needs to be conducted. For second-generation KAs, two major themes became apparent. First, they used transnational media as a “social adhesive” to connect with their parents and diasporic peers, facilitating relationships and deepening identification for themselves and their diasporic networks. Next, they used transnational media to formulate inter-group and intra-group boundaries. Knowledge of transnational popular entertainment acted as a marker of diasporic belonging that builds community and excludes those thought to not authentically belong. DIASPORIC CONNECTIONS Through transnational media, KAs were able to connect with family and diasporic friends. Participants often talked socially about the media they use and their cultural implications, creating diasporic bonds through conversations about media texts. Because of opportunities for connection, several parents I met encouraged their children to use Korean media. Though some parents’ attempts were unsuccessful because of their children’s choices to disengage with transnational media, many children chose to use media precisely because of their parents’ encouragement. For instance, Tony watched Korean media because his mother thought they were influential diasporic resources. He said, “But, uh, my mom’s always telling me to watch it because it’ll help me expand my Koreanness (laughs). You know it’s like I can pick up on more of the language and stuff and as long as it doesn’t cut into like my schoolwork and other more important stuff, she’s okay with me watching it, and she’ll like encourage me to watch it sometimes.” While some parents merely provided mediated resources for their children, other 119

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parents used transnational media as a bonding ritual for the family. It is important to note that though they could have chosen among other alternatives, parents chose a diasporic resource as a shared activity. Richard continued, “I watch dramas that my mom watches. I don’t stray from her, like, type of drama. Um, like, usually, she’ll watch it on my computer through her membership thing, so I’ll be in here doing something else, and I’ll just glance over, and if I like a certain episode, I’ll probably watch it again.” Though Richard did not state this explicitly, his mother later told me that she purposefully watched transnational media when her son was nearby to engage his attention. For many parents, the choice to connect through this diasporic resource was not only motivated by their interest in having their children identify but because without this media, there would be no other opportunities to connect. Joseph said, “Probably because that’s like how my mom likes to relax and then usually she doesn’t want to get online with me or anything, so it’s like unless they’re like reading or something, it’s usually they’re watching Korean dramas because we don’t really watch American dramas because my mom doesn’t understand very well.” Because his parents were not proficient in English or comfortable with US cultural texts, transnational media were one of the only sites at which Joseph was able to connect with his parents. For this research, becoming closer to parents was especially noticed by curious KAs. Because this was often their first exposure to Korean cinema and because they occasionally watched with their parents, they noticed changes in their relationships. The reason for this difference was likely because involved and bicultural KAs would have already used transnational media before the study and because uninterested KAs were not oriented toward transnational media in ways that led to feelings of closeness. Margaret, for one, said that through watching My Sassy Girl, she was able to bond with her family. She said, “It was so much fun [watching with my mom]. We couldn’t stop laughing because it was so funny. I didn’t think it’d be funny because he’s like in it, like ugh. It’s like fun because the way my mom laughed cracked me up, and I’m like ahha, this is so much fun, and we like bonded throughout that, too, so haha.” In addition to bonding with her mother, she said the film helped her bond with her brother, who is usually uninterested in diasporic resources. She said: It was cool because he doesn’t understand Korean a lot, and it was cool that it had subtitles and that we could, most of the time when me and mom watch something, we’re laughing, and my brother’s, he’s like, well, he’s laughing, too, because like how they’re acting it out. It’s funny how they like look, but we’re laughing because it’s funny how they look and what they said, but he doesn’t understand what they said. But for this movie or whatever, it was both. Yah! You understand, so that was cool, too.

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Therefore, My Sassy Girl was a joyful site at which Margaret was able to connect with family as members of the diaspora. For Tony, the opportunity to bond with his mother through transnational films like My Tutor Friend was salient because he has limited opportunities to connect, otherwise. Because you know how like in America, there aren’t a lot of Korean outlets, so like most of the movies I watch are American and, you know, even if we watch them together, my mom doesn’t really like understand like what’s in American movies, like the humor, and some of like the idioms and stuff they say. So, she’s always like what did they say, what does that mean? And, I can’t really explain it that well. We go through watching the movie together, and I end up enjoying it, but then my mom doesn’t really get to enjoy it because she doesn’t really understand the whole meaning of the movie and like the, you know, what the characters are saying. She’ll get the main idea, but she won’t get everything else. Watching a Korean movie together, um, I think since like everybody gets to enjoy it, I think it’s a lot better for our like family time.

The experience was meaningful for his mother, too. Through this experience, Tony’s mother sought more opportunities for connection with her son through transnational media. Tony said, “She’s like we should get an, uh, allregion DVD player and get some Korean movies to watch all the time. And, I’m like, okay, that’s fine with me.” Whatever the reason for watching together, participants in the curious, involved, and bicultural identity positions mentioned that because of their shared experience, they felt closer to their parents. I asked Lena if she would feel as close to her parents without transnational media. She said, “I don’t think so. You know those shows that make you laugh or whatever like those gag-man stuff, we talk about those, and we joke around about that stuff.” Through this shared experience of watching Korean media, KAs also found opportunities to learn about ethnic culture and history from their parents. After John watched 태극기 휘날리며 (Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War), he asked his parents about the Korean War. Actually, instead of looking it [information about the Korean War] up online, I talked to my parents about it, and, yeah, I found out that, um, I always knew that my grandparents didn’t like Japanese people [whispers] very much, but I never really knew why, and I did find out why, and that amazed me because like, um, apparently, my grandparents were actually like my age during that, during the Japanese invasion, not the Korean War, and that was really interesting because I didn’t realize how bad it really was when that had happened.

Through this conversation, he was able to develop a personal connection to that history and to his grandparents, who suffered during the war, Japanese colonialism before the war, and the difficult reconstruction after the war.

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This connection strengthened identification because he became personally involved in the history of his family in the war. When I asked him how he felt after the conversation, John replied: It makes me feel more complete because, I guess, my nearest relatives live seriously on the other side of the planet. We’re like the only family in both my mom’s and my dad’s family that live in America, so I really don’t know anything about my life, so, plus, I’m an only child, so I’m really by myself and my dad’s family that lives in America, and so it’s nice when like they come to visit or I talk to them or I talk to my parents about stuff like this, and I get to find out really more about, I guess, who I am. That sounds kind of cheesy, but yeah.

The film, then, took on meaning beyond the text, and it was a catalyst to developing diasporic identification through his transnational and temporal connection to his family’s history during the tragedy of war. In addition to connections with immediate family, transnational media provided pathways for KAs to make transnational connections to extended family in Korea. By watching Korean media, it provided KAs with insights into culture that they could discuss with their family abroad. Tim, for example, asked his cousins about the 짱 (jjang, the best) phenomenon, where individuals recognize social superiority by naming and claiming the title as the best student, the best fighter, the most attractive peer, the coolest peer, etc. He said, “Well, I’ve been hearing about that stuff lately. My cousins will tell me that stuff really does happen, but it’s pretty serious how they have like neat like rankings or whatever, like leaders in their school and stuff. That just doesn’t happen in America, so it was pretty like interesting to see that.” Cultural differences he saw in media texts provided Tim an entry point to make transnational connections by talking to his cousins about a Korean cultural phenomenon. This crossing, then, reinforced his diasporic identification as he became more connected to his extended family through discussions about media. In Tim’s case, this transnational crossing was not accidental. His mother told me during our first conversation that she tried to get Tim to watch popular Korean films as a way for him to connect to the diaspora and to engage transnationally with his extended family. DIASPORIC PEERS The diasporic connections participants make with family are important to identification and arguably are the most influential, yet most salient to participants were connections made with and through diasporic friends. Participants described transnational media interests as circular, saying that co-ethnic friendships created interest in Korean media while Korean media created

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opportunities for diasporic bonds. For instance, before situating himself in a network of co-ethnic friends, Dick watched transnational media occasionally, but, later, he shifted his media use so that he watched it nearly exclusively. During high school, it [transnational media] got more interesting for me. Before, I was just like watching it, but I didn’t have too much of an interest, but since like in high school, there’s like different groups of people, like the Koreans and jocks and all those things, and I just tend to hang out with the Korean people, and that made it more interesting.

Watching and sharing media with a group of co-ethnic friends increased interest because transnational media acted as a social adhesive, lubricating relationships and creating shared moments of identification and pleasure. Without these friends, many KAs would not know what to watch, so they need their friends to be opinion leaders on which media they should share. Elaine said: Like, this one friend, she’s gonna be a freshman in high school, and sometimes in meetings, they would talk about, tell me like funny scenes from like certain videos, and they would ask me if I watched it, and I would say no, and they’d be like watch it, watch it, and I would get interested, I would get interested because the plots they discuss, I get interested, and then I ask my dad if I could borrow it, and if he asks me where like I’ve heard of the movies because usually I don’t hear by myself or go researching for videos by myself, so, um, I would explain what happens in the video, the basic plots I’ve heard, and he’ll let me watch it.

Particularly for Elaine and other curious KAs, they relied on involved and bicultural KAs to inform them of diasporic choices they might want to make. I asked Elaine whether she felt closer to her friends by talking about shared media experiences, and she replied, “Sure! Because now I get to join in on their conversations and know what scenes they’re talking about and which actors they’re talking about ‘cuz I can’t, when they say an actor’s name, I can’t picture their faces, I only know their names, and now I know a couple more actors and actresses.” With co-ethnic friends, watching the films provided transnational popular cultural knowledge, which, as discussed later in the chapter, is a necessary cultural marker to interact with some KA peers. Therefore, watching the films permitted a greater degree of access because it demonstrated their participation in Korean popular culture, which led to feelings of increased closeness as they could join conversations with co-ethnic friends. Similarly, Karen said that she developed diasporic bonds through shared media experiences. She said, “Yeah, of course, it makes you feel better, it makes you feel like what, it’s always better to know what they’re talking about because you’re actually in the talk, and, like, yeah, it’s more fun if you

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know what they’re talking about.” For Lucy, this connection was so important that she and her friends had an annual ritual of watching each other’s favorite Korean television dramas. In the summer, every summer, I have these two 언니s (eonnis, older sister) that come back [from college]. Well, when they were in high school, we would collect the videos of the dramas we like, each person, it’d be like me and three 언니들 (eonnideul, older sisters). We’d all take one drama during the year and save the videos, spend the night and watch as many as we can. Like a marathon.

Through these ritual “marathons,” they re-affirmed their connection to the media text by watching it again, and they also created a new, shared experience by showing dramas that are uniquely important to each of them. One of the ways sharing media experiences created closeness was by energizing conversations. KAs got a regular infusion of diasporic interest through the enjoyment in their shared conversations and experiences, motivating further interest and discussion. Karen said, “Like, if I don’t feel that way, I’m like I don’t feel that way, and she’ll be like, no, I think it’s really awesome, but say if we both like, we’re like, oh my gosh, yeah, really, really! I guess it just gives us something to talk about.” Conversations like these led to closeness. While KAs also bond in multiple ways, connections through conversations about transnational media were specific to their diasporic experience and could deepen diasporic identification. Through these shared conversations and experiences with transnational media, individuals sometimes fantasized about being in the films. Karen wrote in her media diary about a conversation she had with a friend about My Little Bride: “I watched it with my friends. One of my friends was wishing that she could play the part of the main girl character, simply because she kisses the main guy character, whom she apparently likes (actually, as long as a person is a celebrity, she wouldn’t mind . . .).” Imagining themselves as part of the film text reflected a deeper level of investment in the film text and in diasporic investments as the salience of their shared, unique experiences became a part of their fantasized worlds. One particularly energizing type of conversation was those about their favorite stars. This is not surprising given the salience actors and characters play in individuals’ diasporic identification and teen interests as described in previous chapters. Frank said discussions about stars gave his network of friends a unique bond. Like talents, singers, actors, stuff like that. You can hear about the news, the latest gossip in Korea. It’s kind of fun to talk about it, too, oh did you hear so and so did something. Kind of like gossip in, what is it called? Like tabloids in

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America. It’s kind of fun to talk about it. It gives an extra conversation to talk about, instead of just what goes on at home or whatever.

One reason the conversations create diasporic bonds is because they are conversations in which most non-KAs cannot participate. In fact, Frank and his friends engaged in these conversations intentionally for the purpose of shared diasporic identification. All of my Korean friends, we go to school, and there are a lot of White people there. Our time together [is] usually on the weekends and stuff, we’re like enough of America, we kind of get sick of it. In some ways sick of it, you know, because it’s enough. I kind of want to know what’s going on in Korea now. It gives us another topic. It gets us interested and stuff like that.

Having these conversations re-affirmed that they share a unique identity and relationship, which acted as a subtle form of resistance. The conversations are used to intentionally connect to their shared diasporic identifications and to disconnect from dominant cultural experiences. Even when conversations do not seem to have much depth, they still can serve a diasporic function. Margaret said: No, I’m not obsessive. I’m not like have you seen this one, have you seen this part, how far are you? Oh my god, this part was so cool. I’m not like that. Mostly, they’ll ask me. They’ll be like what dramas are you watching? I’m like Wonderful Life. And they’re like and? I’m like that’s it. They’re like nuhuh. I was like, yeah, do you watch it? Yeah, where are you? That’s it.

Despite the brevity of her conversations, they served as checks on diasporic activity. She and her friends checked to see that they were engaging in diasporic behaviors. Though they did not engage in in-depth conversations, the regularity of the conversations played a role in creating social consensus and validation of one’s own diasporic choices. In other words, participants wanted to assure themselves that their friends are engaging in transnational media because it keeps each other accountable and validates their own use. As I describe in the next section, accountability is salient because KAs police the borders of diasporic belonging, not only with non-Koreans but also amongst themselves. READING BOUNDARIES KAs in different identity positions used transnational media to define boundaries and as markers of authentic “Koreanness.” In this section, I explore how participants read these specific texts for the purposes of inclusion and exclusion. All participants said to varying degrees that the films in this study

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are exclusive to co-ethnics. However, the frequency and type of responses differed between individuals in the different identity positions. For the uninterested KAs, who said the films are exclusive to co-ethnics, they said White Americans would find the culture in the films unusual. Referring to My Tutor Friend, Joseph said: I don’t think I would [recommend the film to non-Korean friends], I don’t think it would make sense because it has too much Korean stuff in it like the whole high school thing and wearing the uniforms and all that junk and about older siblings and superiority and like 형님 (hyeongnim, formal term for older brother but in this context refers to a gang boss).

In Joseph’s response, he pointed to his “double-consciousness” as a member of the Korean diaspora in a dominant White society. His reasons for not sharing are rooted in a desire to avoid being made to feel ashamed for some of the cultural aspects of My Tutor Friend. In response to a question about the arranged marriage in My Little Bride, Joseph was more explicit about social rejection. He said, “That one has even more [Korean culture]. It would just like freak people out.” In his answer, Joseph avoided naming the “people” the film would bother, but this comes in response to questions about sharing the films with his White friends. In this context, it is likely that he avoided showing the films because of the concern he would be stigmatized by White peers if he does. Curious, bicultural, and involved KAs were less explicit about fears of stigmatization. Instead, they framed their discussions of exclusivity around the idea that non-Koreans cannot understand Korean culture. This is a subtle but significant shift. It moves away from objectifying themselves by empowering White opinions and toward objectifying Whites as lacking the cultural vocabulary or insight to appreciate the movies. After watching He Was Cool, Tim wrote in his media diary, “The movie was very Koreanized. I turned on the captions, but it did not match the Korean subtitles. Korean humor is different than American humor for many reasons. The jokes were humorous to me, but not to my American friends.” For Tim, his response was buttressed by his personal experience of showing a Korean talk show to a White friend, who, in turn, ridiculed the program. Likewise, Elaine said that non-Koreans could not appreciate or understand Korean films, and when I asked whether she thought her White friends were incapable of understanding the film He Was Cool, she replied, “Mmhmm. And the cleaning up thing, the school scene, where she had to clean up, um, our school, we don’t have to do that and stay afterwards and clean up unless you’re in detention, but yeah.” What is interesting is that the scenes at school that she mentioned were also experiences she did not have, and yet despite her own lack of firsthand experience,

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she believed that her White friends would be unable to imagine and understand. Responding to The Way Home, Harry wrote, “I don’t think there will ever be a movie made just to honor the elderly in America. I don’t think Americans would also take this movie very seriously. This might just be a movie that Americans wouldn’t be able to comprehend except grandparents.” About the same film, Sandra said, “I don’t think a lot of people who grew up in America could understand it in a way. I don’t know how to put it into words. I think a lot of it has to do with me being Korean and like knowing or understanding.” For both Harry and Sandra, they think their diasporic identification provides them with a unique window to understanding culture in this film. Karen, also, said her White friends would not have the same enjoyment as she or other KAs do when watching the films, yet her response reveals contradictions. In an excerpt from Karen’s media diary about My Sassy Girl, she wrote: It is definitely different. They [White friends] won’t be able to relate much to the movie. And I believe they won’t find some things as funny, interesting, or entertaining as any Koreans would (for example, they wouldn’t understand the parodies. Oh well, neither did I. At least I know that they were parodies). But for some reason, I think that this movie would be liked by Americans, too.

Through this quote, Karen showed her unresolved and complicated views as she juggled her bicultural identity position. FILMS AS CULTURALLY INCLUSIVE Uninterested KAs most frequently said the films are culturally inclusive with the fault line to claim inclusivity versus exclusivity being their enjoyment of a film. In other words, if they enjoyed the film, they imagined that it has universal appeal, and if they did not enjoy the film, they said it was because the film is culturally foreign. Further, their claims of inclusivity revolved around the universality of the films as opposed to claims of non-Koreans’ ability to understand diasporic culture. In Grace’s media diary about My Little Bride, she wrote, “Despite the rather unique Korean culture exhibited in the movie, I felt this movie was quite comparable to American movies. Family life and relationships are similar in every part of the world, including in America. The plot and characters, therefore, were not necessarily exclusively Korean.” Grace explicitly denied the film’s cultural specificity, saying it was universal in its story and appeal. In Jessica’s media diary about The Way Home, she became tangled in a contradiction of viewing the film as both Korean and US American. She said, “I think this movie was less different in comparing with American movies than the others in my opinion. It showed

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more culture, but it actually had a point other than people falling in love. It wasn’t as cute as the others either. Blah. . . . My brain’s not working.” Like Grace, she tried to dismiss elements of the film that would signify it as culturally Korean in order for her to enjoy it as an “American” or universal text. In fact, her comment about the film’s universality also included a pointed criticism of Korean film as shallow love stories and implicit praise for US films as having more substantive themes. Therefore, she enjoyed The Way Home because she read it as not typically Korean but as “American.” The ability to read the film as “American” was critical to the enjoyment of the films for hostile KAs. As discussed earlier, Philip disparaged all but one of the films in the study, My Sassy Girl. In his media diary, he wrote, “Anyhow, I thought this movie . . . like it let out more Americanized, rather than Koreanized flirting. The dating and the comedy in her bullying and the drunkenness and the outrageous stunts made this seem just an anachronism to the Korean times I thought I knew. If this movie ever gets dubbed into English, it’s going to sell like mad.” He did not only read My Sassy Girl as “American,” but he read the film as anti-Korean. He was able to enjoy it because the text has enough ambiguity for him to project upon it his own dislike for Korean culture, reading it as anti-Korean parody. Philip wrote, “The parents of both the girl and the guy were funny. Typical Korean parents. The movie seemed to be mocking them by portraying them exactly as they are, people that can’t hold their drink sometimes, mothers that beat their kids with anything they have at hand, fathers that make you hold dumbbells up while lecturing. It was funny.” Therefore, for uninterested and hostile participants, they read the texts as “American,” a signifier for “universal” normality, when they enjoyed them and as Korean, a signifier for alien difference, when they did not. For curious participants, who had an inclusive view of the films, they said the films follow similar conventions as ones produced in Hollywood. Sam read The Way Home as “really American” because it employs a conventional storytelling arc and not because he thinks it is culturally universal. In response to why he thought the film is similar to US films, he said: It was really American because you expect in American movies for a rebellious kid to turn nice and become a better person. In turn, when I watched this movie, I knew the kid was going to become a better person somehow. Because it’s like you don’t send a rebellious kid to the grandma for no reason even if it’s just to take care of, I already saw that the point of the story was to change the kid to become more nice and everything to his grandma.

For Sam, it was not that he sees culture in the film as universal but the production and storytelling of the movie as similar to US films. In Jim’s media diary entry for My Tutor Friend, he said the film was similar to a Hollywood production because of its production value. Jim wrote, “This

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movie would have to be the closest out of the others to an American movie. It was very nicely done and could have made it in the US.” Tim wrote that My Sassy Girl is similar in its dramatic value and imagined its popularity among non-Koreans, saying, “This movie was similar to American movies in many ways. There is always drama, and at the end they get together. I say this movie will do good if it was released to America.” In Sam’s, Jim’s, and Tim’s media diaries, they interpreted the film as similar to Hollywood but only in its production, not in the universality of the message, story, or culture, so the story retains the integrity of its ethnically specific cultural meanings. Consistent with involved KAs’ views of diasporic identity, none viewed the texts as understandable by non-Koreans, and only a small handful of bicultural KAs said the films could be enjoyed by non-Koreans. Like uninterested KAs, bicultural KAs, who pointed to the films’ universality, saw the films as having universal themes or at least culture that is understandable, but unlike uninterested KAs, they did not dismiss the role of culture in the films. Instead, they believed that non-KAs have the capability to understand the films within their cultural context, not outside or apart from it. Talking about He Was Cool, John said, “I think that the aspects of Korean life shown in the film are accurate enough, but there wasn’t enough in the film to actually be lost on American audiences.” CONSTRUCTING BOUNDARIES Unlike local US-produced media, which was used by everyone in this study, only a few of the KAs in this study watched transnational media regularly. Using transnational media required an active choice because Korean media were not readily available and because the use of Korean media was discouraged, implicitly and explicitly by White peers. Despite these barriers to use, second-generation KA teens, particularly in the involved and bicultural identity positions, searched and engaged in Korean media to reinforce their views of diaspora and inter-ethnic and intra-group boundaries that sustain it. INTER-ETHNIC BOUNDARIES With the exception of a few bicultural KAs, participants were reluctant and sometimes defensive about sharing transnational media with non-Koreans. Even when their friends, particularly Chinese American friends, showed interest and excitement about Korean media, they still hid or glossed over their own use. The reasons were because of a past history of rejection from their non-Korean peers or because of a belief that they have a special right to

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possess and hold on to Korean popular culture, believing they alone had the unique cultural background and right to enjoy it. Several participants mentioned that when they were young, they shared or talked about their interests in Korean media with their non-Korean friends and experienced subtle rejection over their interests. Richard said that though his White friends were not intentionally trying to reject his diasporic interests, they do so by showing no interest when he talks about Korean stars. In response to whether he would share the movies he watched in this study with them, he replied, “I wouldn’t recommend those movies only because I don’t think they’d be interested, actually. I could throw the idea out there, but with previous experiences that I’ve had with like if I share like, not movies, but if I share something that I think they won’t like, they won’t, so I don’t really bother.” Because of his friends’ lack of interest in a part of his identification that he finds salient and increasingly important, he hid it from them in case it might result in the hurt and embarrassment of his earlier rejections. Embarrassment was best evidenced in my interview with Lucy. I asked her why she does not watch transnational media with her White friends, and she said, “Because they [White friends] don’t watch it. It’s not like they would understand what I’m saying, and if they’re [Korean entertainers] doing something stupid, and I imitate it I’m going to look stupid. If they don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll just look really retarded.” In this statement, there was already a sense of being socially ostracized because her interests did not fit White cultural norms. Her “double consciousness” about how White friends may view her diasporic interests was a subtle but powerful disciplining mechanism in hiding visible expressions of diasporic identification with individuals outside of the diaspora. I pressed her further to explain why her White friends would perceive Korean media as odd, and she replied: It’s not like they’re living in Korea, or it’s not like they’re surrounded by only Koreans. They live in a White world with White friends, and if one of my White friends were like can I watch one of your Korean movies, I’d be like, uh, okay, you know. I don’t know if they’d like it or not, you know. I don’t want them to think like Korean movies and Korean people are like weird.

In her reply, she again pointed to this fear of social reprimand while, at the same time, making an implicit critique of Whites’ lack of multicultural fluency or interest because of their privileges living in a society and media that privilege Whites. This fear of White reprisal is a salient one since all the participants live in neighborhoods where they have little choice but to interact with and become friends with Whites. However, with their White friends, there was conscious and unconscious social anxiety to conform to White norms to gain social acceptance and not be considered “weird.” That feeling of weirdness, howev-

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er, was also appropriated as a form of empowerment, at least in diasporic circles. Being “weird” was a reason for enjoying and identifying with Korean media because it allowed unique identification to which only they and their co-ethnic friends had access. By believing others were unable to “get” Korean media, they claimed special knowledge and an empowered identity through their perceived ability to understand. Dick said, “Because like I said in the surveys [the media diaries], they’re [the movies] unique, I guess, because people in America would never get these kinds of ideas like The Young Bride.” Viewing the texts as encoded as culturally Korean, he viewed it and himself as unique through their shared membership in the diaspora. Amy elaborated, saying that the ability to decode or “understand” the film text is unique to KAs. She said, “Oh, okay. Because like, I mean, I think American people may not be able to understand these stuff. They’re just going to be like, you know, some of the ‘Twinkies’ have a hard time understanding these stuff.” Amy, like Dick, carved a unique identity, but she created even more social space and hinted at intra-group tension by placing “Twinkies” between KAs like herself and non-Koreans. By locating “Twinkies” in this way, she points out what she saw as an unattainable cultural gulf because if even some co-ethnics cannot understand, then she implied there was little possibility that a non-Korean would be able to “get” Korean media. Because of the interaction of social rejection fears and their belief in ethnic propriety, inter-group boundaries are rigid. In fact, questions about sharing media with non-Koreans were understood to be outlandish. Most reacted like Lucy when I asked about the possibility of inter-ethnic sharing. Interviewer: Okay. When you talk about celebrities and stuff with your friends, do you ever talk about these celebrities with your White friends? Lucy: No! [Laughs]. Interviewer: Or the shows or anything? Lucy: No. [Laughs]. Because transnational media were considered such a unique part of their identification and were considered media that Whites would likely ridicule, Lucy responded as if the question itself was ridiculous, laughing heartily at the thought of sharing Korean media with her non-Korean friends. Though Lucy did not share her interests, a few bicultural KAs do. The motivation for those who share Korean media was to resist White norms and to create multicultural understanding. Sandra said, “Yeah, I’d show it to them, and, then, try to make them understand. I think I have shown it to some

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people.” Frank purposefully took opportunities to share his pride in his diasporic identification. Some of my White friends have Xangas [social networking homepages], too, and they were going around and went to my Xanga, and I have a Korean song on it. Then, they started to listen to it because it just comes on, and the next day at school, they were like wow, is that Korean music or whatever? I was like, yeah, and they were like yeah, that’s pretty cool, and I’d start talking to them and be like we have a lot more. I have another friend, he’s Vietnamese actually, and, um, he saw a Korean movie with Vietnamese subtitles or whatever, and he told me I saw a Korean movie and was like, hey, it’s pretty good. I was like, hey, why don’t you watch, there are a lot of other movies, too, and I pointed out what other good movies are. I wouldn’t be like walk up to someone and be like we have Korean music because there are some people who aren’t going to be interested, I guess. If they are, we just talk more about it.

For those few bicultural KAs who do share, they felt their efforts were worth the possibility of rejection and social censure. They shared because they knew they could not simply escape to ethnic enclaves, so they decided to experience culture on their own terms. Therefore, sharing transnational media was an outgrowth of these two salient identities—a proud diasporic identification and a recognition of their cultural Americanness. INTRA-GROUP BOUNDARIES One of the ways second-generation KA teens policed borders of “Koreanness” was by defining diasporic identification as knowledge of Korean popular culture. However, the use of transnational media knowledge as a reason for exclusion or inclusion was an invisible boundary by most that used transnational media regularly. With some probing, participants, who were unfamiliar with Korean popular culture, noticed that Korean media knowledge was an obstacle to inclusion. I asked Lucy, an involved KA, if she noticed this, and while she was not aware of it immediately, she did think of a friend who started using Korean media to be included in their group. There’s one girl who does not speak Korean. At home, she speaks English to her parents and everything. Usually, it’s just me and another girl who watch all the dramas, the movies, and we’re always talking about it, and, I don’t know, one day she just started watching dramas, too. It wasn’t weird, necessarily. It was just like I guess she watches, too, but she’s not all that into it like me and another friend, so I guess because we talk about it and enjoy it so much that she started watching one of the dramas we were talking about, so she just got into it that way.

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This quote also points to the other major indicator of whether someone is perceived as “Korean” or not—language ability. In this quote, Lucy subtly defined one friend as less Korean because of her friend’s inability to speak Korean proficiently and, also, her non-use of Korean media. In fact, when her friend started watching Korean dramas, there was still skepticism with the suggestion that friend was “not all that into it like me.” Erecting barriers defined and protected diasporic “authenticity” because it was not easy to gain proficiency in either requirement: language or knowledge of Korean popular culture. Further, while language was a rough indicator of one’s overall cultural fluency, Korean popular cultural knowledge was an indicator of one’s desire to ethnically identify because participants must choose to seek what they should watch and make efforts to watch them. For curious KAs, particularly, these barriers seemed overwhelming and exclusive. For instance, Jim had several KA friends, and when talk centered on Korean popular culture, Jim felt excluded, saying, “They don’t talk about it a lot, but once in a while they’ll go into a conversation, and I’ll be like okay, and I’ll be standing there and just doing my own thing.” For Jim, this created a desire to learn about Korean popular entertainment in order to feel fully included. But, like whenever, but most, some people at our church like sometimes have conversations about different Korean movies or dramas, and every time they start talking about that, then I’m left out of the conversation. Then, I have to just talk to other people about other things. Those times, I’m like, gosh, I wish I saw this or blah, blah, blah, so I could talk about it. I guess that’s one of those times I wanted to watch it.

Therefore, by not watching Korean media, it became more difficult to gain full inclusion and be seen as really Korean. Though uninterested and curious KAs, to a lesser extent, viewed fundamental essence as the indicator of Koreanness, this was not true for others, particularly involved and bicultural KAs. Being ethnically Korean only gained partial inclusion. KAs also had to be culturally Korean, and what defined cultural competency was not historical, social, or political knowledge or competency in Korean cultural norms; it was simply knowledge of Korean popular entertainment. This allowed second-generation KAs to define their identity around something they could develop fluency in. If other cultural markers were included, “FOBs” would have agency to police the borders of KA diasporic identity on their own terms, a “right” first-generation KAs perceived as theirs that was the central tension between first- and secondgeneration KA teens in the diaspora. By using Korean popular cultural knowledge, second-generation KAs could regulate boundaries of diasporic inclusion because learning about Korean popular culture does not require the

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exercise of a Korean cultural habitus, yet it is how uninterested and curious KAs are restricted from gaining inclusion. Lena, who was in the involved identity position, said all of her close friends watch Korean media and that only acquaintances do not. Interviewer: Do you have any friends that don’t watch shows and stuff? Lena: Um, not like a close friend, but just someone that I know. Interviewer: But not a close friend? Lena: Yeah. I think everyone else watches it, you know, like TV shows or dramas or whatever. They watch that once in a while. Though she did not specifically name Korean media viewing as a boundary for inclusion, her quote hinted at it. It was an invisible boundary for those with popular cultural knowledge but a tangible one for those without it. Perhaps, because of this lack of awareness, there was little effort by most involved and bicultural KAs to share transnational media with co-ethnics who were less involved in diasporic belonging. The burden to do so fell upon those who sought inclusion, and that burden creates social pressure to watch. Hannah, who was in the involved identity position, was not as interested in Korean media as her close circle of friends, and she felt excluded because of it. She said, “I remember one time they were talking about this drama, and I didn’t watch it, and all of them watched it. I was just sitting there while they were talking about it. It was so boring. They kept talking about it and talking about it, and I didn’t know what they were talking about because I didn’t watch it. So, you have to watch it in order to [fit in].” Hannah’s quote demonstrates the subtle ways in which the boundaries of “Koreanness” were policed by those with Korean popular cultural knowledge. Despite feeling excluded, there was little resistance to the view that fluency in Korean popular culture is necessary to be considered Korean. This belief became normalized even among those who were aware and hurt by their intra-group exclusion. KAs, who wanted to identify but did not have this cultural capital, blamed themselves, and believed their own diasporic identification was invalidated. Linda, who was in the curious identity position, found difficulty fitting in with other KA girls, and I asked why she was not yet able to fit in. Linda: Because I’m not very Koreanish, and I wish I could be because they just came here like 2 years ago. Interviewer: What do you mean by Koreanish?

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Linda: Like lacking in what’s popular in my own age, actors, singers, dancers, movies, dramas. Her quote shows the importance of popular cultural knowledge as an indicator of authentic “Koreanness.” Because of this perceived deficiency, she chastised herself for not being “Koreanish,” and she was unable to overcome her embarrassment with transnational media conversations. “If I have something really fun in an American movie, I could talk about it with my other friends for some reason, but in Korean movies, I feel uncomfortable with, because obviously you talk with Korean people about Korean movies, and they know a whole lot more than me, about the actors than me.” Therefore, knowledge of Korean media are used to police boundaries of diasporic identification for second-generation KAs. Clearly, though, not everyone wanted to identify as members of diaspora, so it is important to note that some KAs, primarily in the hostile and uninterested identity positions, chose to not use Korean media in order to reject diasporic identification. GENDER DIFFERENCES As mentioned previously, boys and girls read Korean media differently. Likewise, their use and their views of it differ. The main reason for this difference is that KA boys gendered Korean media as feminine. Girls, on the other hand, did not see Korean media as gendered and often expressed surprise that boys do. When asked, Elaine provided a typical response. She questioned, “Girly? How is it feminine?” This perception of feminine Korean media was not held by girls, and girls often pointed to the fighting in these films as evidence. Though girls did not see Korean media as feminine and perhaps because they did not see Korean media as feminine, they were more invested in Korean media as a group. When Karen was asked with whom she talks about Korean media, she said, “Mostly girl friends because guy friends are less interested, I think. If they are interested, they get bored after five minutes of talking about it, but girls can talk about it for hours.” For boys, the reasons were because of a generalized perception of “girliness” in Korean culture, which they believed produce media that are cute and focus on love themes. Tony said the reason Korean media are “girly” is because Korean culture itself is. He said, “Like some of the stuff, like my pastor [of the English ministry] told me, he went to Korea, and some of the clothes the guys wear are pretty weird, so I don’t know. It’s just that. But, I think that Korean stuff is more girly, I guess. I don’t know.” Because a respected member of the KA community affirmed Tony’s beliefs about Korean culture’s perceived feminine qualities, his disinterest in Korean media was legitimized. Because there is not as strict differentiation across gender

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performativity, Tony saw this as feminine and undesirable as opposed to a more favorable interpretation, such as Korean culture being less rigid in its gender roles. Tim said Korean media was feminine because Korean actors and actresses act “cute.” He said, “Yeah. I can’t explain it that well, but, you know, Korean acting, they always do like the cute Korean act or whatever. There’s a lot of that stuff in these comedies.” Similarly, Joseph saw love themes as feminine, saying, “Because most of them are just sappy, corny junk that girls like. Where the girl and the guy is trying to get married, parents are stopping them, and girls are like, oh, it’s sad, but guys are like, let’s go watch an action film.” Joseph’s quote is especially revealing as it equated love themes and “girliness” with “junk.” This association clearly shows his attitude and other boys’ attitudes toward gendered media. Not only was it more difficult to identify with because it was feminine, it was undesirable as something to want to identify with because it was considered worthless. It is not surprising, then, that boys were less interested in transnational media and their own “girly” ethnic culture, and it also reveals the ways in which transnational texts are interpreted through the lens of local experience for members of diaspora, which had clear implications for differences in the use between boys and girls. I asked Leonard what he sees as the differences in use of Korean media by boys and girls. Leonard: No. God, I forgot his name. But they’re always talking about like Korean guys [celebrities] who they think are hot or whatever. Interviewer: Okay. What about your guy friends? Do they talk about that stuff, too? Leonard: Um, guy friends? Not really. They’re not really. Anyways, they don’t really talk about that stuff. They’re more into American. I don’t know why, but I guess the girls are into the dramas and stuff, and the guys don’t really like that. Chick flick kind of stuff. I like it, though. Referring to Korean films as “chick flicks,” there is not only a gendered difference in use but a value attribution of “chick flicks” as inferior. The logic for many KA boys, thus, becomes KA culture is gendered feminine, and gendered feminine culture is inferior, meaning that KA culture is inferior. This view formed in their everyday experience had implications on diasporic identification and gendered differences in media use. Differences led several boys to criticize KA girls for their media talk and interest in male celebrities. I asked Frank which gender was more interested in Korean media. He replied, “Girls, of course. It’s always the girls who are

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like competing. Guys are like they’re all hot. Girls like go specifically into detail. They’re like this guy’s so cute here. Me, I’m not into comparing.” Therefore, KA boys did not see girls’ interests in Korean celebrities as expressions of diasporic interest, but, instead, they marginalized girls’ talk as trivial and low brow. Dick was blunt with his criticism, saying, “When you listen to it, it’s kind of stupid because they’re dreaming about a guy who’s an actor, and they can’t ever like have a relationship with him. I don’t know. In that aspect, I think it’s kind of, yeah, stupid.” CONCLUSION The purpose of this chapter was to understand the ways transnational Korean media were situated into the everyday practices of second-generation KA adolescents. On the one hand, KAs used transnational media to create shared experiences with family and friends. Particularly, for families, shared transnational media viewing bridged parents and children, who sometimes stood across a cultural and linguistic gulf. With diasporic friends, conversations about Korean media and rituals of shared viewing constructed a sense of unique and exclusive interests around shared ethnicity and cultural knowledge. But, as with all community building, inclusion and closeness for some create boundaries of exclusion and marginalization for others. Boundaries of intra-group and inter-ethnic exclusion were one way in which transnational media were used to define authenticity. For some KAs, believing Whites and even other Asian Americans are unable to “get it,” their belief that their use is special was reinforced. However, for uninterested KAs, believing Whites cannot “get it” meant that the text itself was undesirably “Korean.” Identity position, then, is one site in which meaning-making about inclusion and exclusion are contested. Intra-group differences work somewhat differently, and through this chapter, I hope to have addressed a conspicuous absence in audience reception studies of race and/or ethnicity, which is the undeveloped scholarship on intra-group differences within diasporas in reception and, especially, use. For second-generation adolescents, KAs used transnationally received Korean popular cultural knowledge as a marker of authenticity and a condition for full acceptance. Though all KAs were viewed as at least partially belonging, boundaries were erected to legitimate certain forms of diasporic identification and expression as more valued than others. For curious KAs, in particular, this often led to social pressure to learn more about Korean popular culture. Another intra-group difference that shaped reception and use was gender and, more specifically, KA boys’ gendered views of Korean media (and culture). Because of their dual identifications as both a diasporic member and

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a gendered subject, boys’ use of Korean media must meet two conditions to be used and valued: interpreted as masculine and considered valuable to ethnic identification. Because of this ambivalence, boys were less enthusiastic about Korean media use because claiming it usually means enhancing one identification at the cost of another. Therefore, as transnational media reception and meaning-making was shaped by identity position for second-generation KA teens, their uses and boundary formations were also shaped by gendered readings in diaspora. REFERENCE Ang, I. (1990). The nature of the audience. In J. Downing, A. Mohammadi & A. SrebernyMohammadi (Eds.), Questioning the media: A critical introduction (pp. 155–165). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Conclusion

The purpose of this book has been to explain the relationship between second-generation KA adolescent diasporic identification and transnational Korean media. It examines the complexities of local meaning-making and use by pointing to intra-group differences within the Korean diaspora in the United States. This contributes to understanding the use of transnational media by a racialized ethnic group, and it elaborates on diasporic identification for second-generation KAs. In my research, I have found that transnational media play an important role in diasporic identification and the formation of intra-group boundaries around transnational media and that transnational media are interpreted in ways specific to one’s diasporic identification. To guide the research, I asked second-generation KA adolescents how they use transnational Korean media, how they “read” transnational Korean film texts, and what perceived influence on diasporic identification they observed. With these questions in place, I interviewed thirty-one participants in both Dallas and Atlanta, choosing the two locations because they provide an opportunity to interview KA teenagers who live in cities with a sizable Korean community but without a residential ethnic enclave. The result of this qualitative, exploratory approach yielded valuable data on the complex ways in which second-generation KAs watch, understand, and use Korean media. It also opened unanticipated avenues, which led me to discover non-media influences on diasporic identification that fills gaps in literature on multiplegeneration Asian American diasporic identification. Through this study, I argue that most participants do not fit psychological “stages” of ethnic identity formation in neat categories but rather cluster around identity positions shaped by the ways they understand the nexus of their local experience as racialized ethnic minorities and their symbolic use of transnational Korean media. Sense-making is not fully idiosyncratic, though. It is formed within 139

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community, structuring a range of interpretation. As Georgiou (2006) wrote, diasporas engage in everyday debates about what it means to belong. But, for second-generation KA teens, the outcome of the debates did not lead to consensus but instead led to intra-group differences structured around processes of identification that are shaped by the psychological and the social. The groupings consist of hostile, uninterested, curious, bicultural, and involved identity positions, which are terms I use for communities of meaningmaking centered on identification within diaspora. It elaborates on the concept of new ethnicities by pointing out that it is not only a hybrid space with shared meanings (see Gillespie, 1995; Thompson, 2002) but also a contested space with assertions of power over meaning-making, legitimacy, and authenticity. Individuals in the uninterested identity position may exhibit diasporic behaviors but without purposeful decision-making. Rather, it was their parents that take them to an ethnic church, which provided exposure to co-ethnic peers. What marks this identity position is not overt actions like going to a Korean church or having KA friends, but, rather, it is indifference to being culturally Korean. To the extent that they engage in diasporic activities, it is not motivated by identification but by circumstance. Participants in the curious identity position, on the other hand, actively seek to give their ethnic identification meaning. This project demonstrates that Song’s (2003) notion of diasporic choice is more important than mere behavior. Perhaps, the reason diasporic choices are not emphasized in some of the literature is because of the research’s tendency to rely on the developmental reflection of adult participants rather than the direct experience of adolescents. For example, when KAs are no longer under the direct supervision of their parents, diasporic behaviors as adults may correlate more strongly with diasporic choices, but as children and teenagers, manifestly diasporic behaviors do not necessarily signal intention. I would advise future researchers to consider intentional interests and choices as important to understanding diasporic identification. Another difference with existing literature is that this research shows that recognition of racism is not the primary motivator for individuals to change from uninterested to curious about their ethnic identity (e.g., Espiritu, 1992; Kibria, 2002; Phinney, 1996) and that racialized members of diaspora are not fully aware of locally experienced racial marginalization (e.g., Desai, 2005; Durham, 2004; Sreberny, 2000). Instead, KA teens name ethnic pride and belonging as the motivating agent. It is certainly possible that racism may have been an unknown or unspoken catalyst in shaping diasporic interests, but racism does not appear to be interrogated. It may be that teens do not have the discursive resources to speak about racism because KA teens in this study are socialized in White neighborhoods and institutions and have learned not to discuss racism, or perhaps they are not self-aware enough to

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articulate racism as a reason for their diasporic interests. Oyserman and Sakamoto (1997) found, for example, that Asian Americans tend to blame themselves before pointing to more logical and likely explanations of racism, so it is possible that participants in my study are underestimating their recognition of racism and marginalization as motivating them to ethnically identify. Nonetheless, the way that my respondents made sense of diasporic identification is not explained through understandings of racism but by a motivation to be more “Korean.” What needs to be reiterated again is intention or “ethnic choices” (Song, 2003) as closely tied to diasporic identification. Song (2003) wrote that there are essentially three choices that can be made: seeking ethnic group membership, “opting out,” and partial identification. Each comes with benefits and costs. The benefit is finding solidarity and empowerment in an identity and group that is marginalized by dominant culture (Song, 2003). The cost of membership is the regulation of behavior by the ethnic group (Appiah & Gutmann, 1996; Shibutani & Kwan, 1965; Song, 2003); there is less freedom because they are defined in part by their membership to the group and its expectations. To give up freedom requires intentional choices, and so does giving up the benefits of membership. The role of deliberate choices needs to be emphasized because participants in this research did not merely move through identity positions as if pre-programmed, but they made choices that reflect their desires, their social location, and their ability to take advantage of diasporic resources. The latter depended largely on accessibility. This is where parents played their most prominent role in diasporic identification. As Kibria (2002) wrote, families are important sites for ethnic socialization. Racialized ethnic minorities learn their ethnic language and culture largely through the family (Jung & Lee, 2004; Phinney, Romero, Nava, & Huang, 2001) and “tools” to resist assimilation (Rumbaut, 1996). This is particularly true for participants whose parents emphasize their diasporic homeland’s tumultuous history and who emphasize being “Korean” (Kibria, 2002). In addition, some parents sent their children to stay in Korea with relatives, which participants mentioned as having a profound impact on diasporic identification, and some parents act as a gateway to the larger diasporic community, including the ethnic church. The church is a major site of diasporic socialization because it is there that second-generation KA teenagers attend Korean language schools, participate in traditional Korean activities such as 사물놀이 (samulnori—traditional Korean drumming), and meet co-ethnic friends. In this study, friends are an important resource because they provided cultural support and connection, a shared sense of history, and shared experiences as racialized co-ethnics in the United States. However, it is not necessarily the case that having resources available leads to diasporic identification. Several, particularly in the uninterested identity position, say it is coin-

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cidental that their friends are KAs, an artifact of their long-time church attendance. Therefore, while individuals must have available resources to be able to make diasporic choices, the resources alone do not mean secondgeneration KA adolescents will identify as constituting the diaspora. In other words, availability to resources is necessary but not sufficient in leading to diasporic identification; individuals must make deliberate choices that reflect the complexity of diasporic identification for multiple-generation diasporic members (Georgiou, 2006). Participants weigh their diasporic choices against their experiences living in predominantly White communities that lead to subtle alienation (Tuan, 1998). Though few mentioned White racism explicitly, they do mention incidents where their attempts to share aspects of ethnic identification, such as transnational media use, have been marginalized, leading to a reluctance to speak with White friends about their diasporic interests and pressure to conform to White norms in order to fit in. Across all groups, the influence of White norms and values is apparent as participants all enjoy US popular media and internalize locally situated dominant ideologies about race and racism; namely, that making decisions based on race or ethnicity is racist. Because of this internalized “colorblind” view of race, KAs perceive diasporic choices as inherently racist. Participants who choose to identify in the diaspora pay a heavy psychological cost of having to acknowledge themselves as racist for doing so. If individuals choose to identify as Korean, they do so because they believe the benefits of diasporic group membership outweigh the stigma of being considered racist. As Espiritu (1992) wrote, ethnic choices are not only personal ones, they happen at the intersection of ingroup and outgroup views. They are formed in response to dominant culture and prevailing views of race (Durham, 2004). One ingroup tension that is heavily negotiated is the boundary for inclusion (Song, 2003). Anthropologists have found that ethnic group boundaries are defined by a small set of cultural indicators that allow flexibility in defining themselves within their ethnic group (Barth, 1969; Blom, 1969; Smith, 1991). These indicators themselves are subject to being contested because, though few, the negotiation of the cultural indicators favors or privileges certain individuals within the ethnic group. For second-generation KAs, their intra-group boundaries include three groups: “FOBs” (fresh off the boat), “Twinkies” (yellow on the outside, white on the inside), and “Koreans.” Second-generation KAs define “Twinkies” as KAs who are interested primarily in dominant White culture. In other words, “Twinkies” are those that have made few deliberate choices to identify ethnically. “FOBs” are first-generation KAs, who are marginalized by “Twinkies” and “Koreans.” Finally, being “Korean” is defined by one’s Korean heritage, Korean language proficiency, cultural adaptability, and popular cultural use and knowledge.

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Upon careful examination, it is apparent that second-generation KA adolescents define in ways that privilege social locations situated at the nexus of their local context and individual and group meaning-making around transnationally received diasporic resources. Interestingly, “Koreans” believe they are more similar to Koreans, who live in Korea, than “FOBs” are. They create an imagined fiction that Koreans in the homeland would act in similar ways as them and would embrace an acculturated identity if in the United States. This is a blatant critique of “FOBs,” who are thought to not adapt to US culture and who are, therefore, ironically considered not truly Korean. This is a strategic attempt to take power away from “FOBs” in defining Koreanness. Popular entertainment use and knowledge as a cultural indicator is also an empowering criterion, not because it advantages “Koreans” against “FOBs” but because it advantages them against “Twinkies.” Using transnational Korean media represents a deliberate choice to be aware of Korean popular culture. Watching and knowing about transnational media signals to others an interest in Korean identity. It is different from other diasporic behaviors like going to church because it requires an independent, purposeful choice that is not readily available to all teens in the diaspora. Using transnational Korean media means KAs have to be able to be proficient in Korean to understand the programs, films, and music, and KAs have to make the effort to find and use transnational Korean media. Though using Korean media can lead to group solidarity and closeness, this requirement acts as a boundary for others, who seek to identify but do not have access and/or knowledge of Korean popular entertainment. Because they do not know Korean media, they are not accepted as “authentically” Korean and are, thus, hampered in their choice to identify. Therefore, transnational Korean media are used as a boundary for inclusion and exclusion for second-generation KA adolescents. This is done to empower particular intra-group members, who have influence in constructing requirements for membership. This helps explain why second-generation KAs, and possibly other groups, value media knowledge. Media do not only serve as a social adhesive but as a social boundary. Diasporic identification exists at the confluence of transnationally received diasporic resources, diasporic choices, group membership or exclusion, and meaning-making in the diaspora. This social location shapes the way secondgeneration KA adolescents understand the transnational Korean films they viewed and also their perceptions of possible influences. Likewise, gender plays an important role in one’s social location that position readings of the films. Rumbaut (1996) writes that racialized ethnic minority girls are more likely to choose a “hyphenated identity,” though he does not explain the reason. In my research, the reason for girls’ diasporic identification has a cultural and media explanation. Second-generation KA boys gender ethnic culture as feminine, regardless of identity position, and because of the internalization of US patriarchy and hegemonic masculine ideals, KA boys asso-

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ciate “girliness” with weakness and undesirability. Therefore, because Korean culture is “girly,” its media are also gendered feminine and, thus, perceived as an object of ridicule. Because boys do not use transnational Korean media as frequently as a result of their gendered perceptions, they do not gain cultural capital learned through media, and they are not granted inclusion as “Korean” because they lack knowledge of Korean popular entertainment. For second-generation KA girls, transnationally received Korean media comport with their gendered socialization and may possibly be empowering as they are empowered as agents, who have the power to define community standards and boundaries. Thus, gender plays a powerful role in the use of transnational Korean media and ethnic identification. As mentioned earlier, it is clear that the location of participants’ diasporic identification substantively shapes their understanding of the movies watched for the study. Meanings are created at the interaction between an individual and the media text (Lewis, 1991), so it is important to understand both the media texts and the reception of them. Researchers of ethnic media repeatedly show ethnic media have an assimilative and pluralistic function (Park, 1922; Subervi-Velez, 1986). This is not necessarily the case for transnational media. Transnational media are not created as subordinate media within dominant culture, and likely because of this, no participant mentioned an assimilative function (into dominant US culture) of transnational media, at least not located within the text. Some uninterested KAs say they have become increasingly disinterested in Korean media and culture as a result of watching the films, but this is a response to the films, not bound within the film text itself. Instead, most of their comments are reflective of a pluralistic role that increases identification and commitment to diasporic participation. Riggins (1992) wrote that the symbolic presence of ethnic media acts to validate the group, and several individuals, particularly curious KAs, say their ethnic pride has increased as a result of learning about the global popularity of Korean media. Further, researchers have found that ethnic media play a pluralistic function through the use of ethnic language and the transmission of ethnic culture (Johnson, 2000; Riggins, 1992). Participants, especially curious KAs, also mention that their Korean language proficiency has improved as a result of watching the movies and mention that watching the movies increases their interest in becoming more proficient. While understanding these findings in the context of ethnic media research is informative, more relevant is the research on transnational media use by second-generation diasporic populations. That research, however, is limited, and this book will help to fill in this gap, which is particularly important as globalization has led to more diverse nations as well as greater transnational media flows. Because the existing research on Asian Americans’ use of transnational media has nearly exclu-

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sively examined first-generation immigrants’ transnational media use, this research helps to expand the literature by examining second-generation Asian American, specifically KAs and their use and reception of transnational media. One major thread that runs through the research on transnational media use by second-generation Latino Americans is that transnational media provide a cultural connection (Barrerra & Bielby, 2001; Mayer, 2003a; Rios, 2003). When viewing the films, some participants in this study vicariously experienced everyday life and culture. Experiencing Korea through media was particularly salient for curious KAs, who have not visited Korea as a teenager and who have faint, if any, memories of Korea. By seeing characters move through stories and perform the activities of everyday life, participants were able to form vivid, fantasized views of Korean life. Creating these fantasies leads to an increased desire to identify and visit. For those who have visited as adolescents, watching films and other media reinforce their perceptions of Korea and remind them of their own experiences. Watching films is also the primary way second-generation KAs learn current trends and slang, allowing them a sense of transnational connection with co-ethnics in Korea. One of the major purposes of watching transnational media is, therefore, for cultural maintenance (Rios, 2003). In addition to allowing for cultural connection, watching transnational media legitimizes their cultural heritage (Barrerra & Bielby, 2001). Transnational media “works” because it is seen as “cool” by some second-generation KAs, allowing them to choose fashion styles, modes of play, social interaction styles, romantic partners, and other life choices because transnational media legitimates their ability and desire to do so. Diasporic activities that are marginalized as unusual in their local, everyday experience are empowered by transnational media because participants see that those behaviors are “normal” in a Korean context. Therefore, they are more inclined to challenge dominant norms and values because they see norms and values legitimated through the symbolic work of transnational media. Through the desire to challenge and make meanings that are set in the context of the local experience as racialized ethnic minorities and the particular experience of being members of the Korean diaspora, they form “new ethnicities” located neither in nor apart from US and Korean culture. Watching transnational media, clearly, does not shape all individuals in the same way, nor do participants make sense of the media texts in similar ways. Instead, individuals read transnational media in ways that fit their social location (Durham, 2004; Mayer, 2003b). Participants in the uninterested and hostile identity positions, for example, are the only ones to generalize their criticism of the specific films watched to Korean media and society. They even couch their praise for certain shows within larger critiques. Therefore, they demonstrate a clear preference for dominant US culture, with a few saying their interest in Korean media and culture has decreased as a result of

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watching the movies. This fits with the preference for White values and norms found in uninterested individuals (Tse, 1999). Participants in the curious identity position, on the other hand, are mixed in their evaluations of the films. Depending on the extent to which they ethnically identify, their enjoyment is sometimes effusive and linked with their diasporic identification. For some in this identity position, watching the films was their first experience with Korean media, and they described the experience as having a profound and, sometimes, transformative impact. This is because the films provide counter-ideologies and representations that challenge US-produced images of Korea(ns) and Asia(ns). One example noted repeatedly is seeing images of modern Korea. Because many participants associated modernity with liberal progressiveness, they see modernization in Korean films as a “positive” representation that they locate pride in. Therefore, the texts provide opportunities for resistance through identification with Korean norms, values, and representations read in the film texts. For involved KA participants, these counter-images were used to fuel a strong desire to participate in everyday Korean cultural life. They hope for faster cultural change (i.e., modernity) because they want Korea to reflect the modern society in which they live (i.e., the United States). Because of the ideology of modernity as progress, they wish for Korea’s economic and technological advancement because it serves as a source of pride and also because they want to immerse in modern Korea. So, when they see images that evoke the traditional and the antiquated like the arranged marriage in My Little Bride, it repulses involved KAs, who uniformly and vehemently panned the movie. This is despite the film’s popularity in Korea and despite being generally well-received by their peers, who are not in this identity position. Bicultural participants view the films through a lens that they have integrated as both “American” and “Korean” and most clearly demonstrate explicit “new ethnicities.” They are comfortable criticizing Korean culture and media because of their bicultural identification, but they qualify their criticism to make clear that it only applies to a specific aspect of culture, certain individuals, or a specific media text. They are careful to not generalize to Korean culture. This is also true when they criticize certain aspects of dominant US culture, such as perceptions of hypersexuality. Unlike involved KAs, they are not bothered by aspects of Korean culture they dislike because existing in the space of new ethnicities means coming to terms with the realization that full inclusion into the ethnic culture is not possible (Tse, 1999), so they exist and find comfort in the interstitial space at the boundaries of Americanness and Koreanness. However, this does not mean they have a value-neutral identity; participants in the bicultural identity position still show preferences for others in the diaspora, valuing KA relationships most highly, including friends, family, and romantic partners.

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The perception of change is also formed within individuals’ social locations. For most, they say watching the films leads to no change in their diasporic identity and has in no other way had an effect. Participants perceive this to be the case primarily because they had previous knowledge of Korean culture and society before watching the films, so there is nothing novel in the media text. In addition, several also espouse the ideology that the films are merely entertainment, so they want to dissociate from the possibility that the films influence them, thus allowing them to avoid acknowledging they can be influenced. This desire to protect one’s esteem is best explained by the third-person effect, which states that individuals tend to overestimate effects of media on others and underestimate effects of media on themselves (Davison, 1983). Not all felt unaffected, however. There were some in all of the identity positions that stated some learning or increased interest happened as a result of the films, though it was predominantly those in the curious identity position who say they have been affected and, in some cases, profoundly so. Therefore, effects on diasporic identification also are influenced by the social location of the participants. Though the findings are specific to second-generation KAs, the findings have theoretical transferability to other multiple-generation racialized diasporas. Conducting this research is especially vital as the mass flows of people around the world are increasing in scale and distance and as communication technologies now make connections more accessible, decreasing temporal and spatial limitations with earlier transnational media that had to physically travel to reach the diaspora. Understanding multiple-generation diasporas becomes critically important as a matter of social change, and it is also theoretically important in complicating the understanding of diasporas, which are themselves organized with competing intra-group discourses and interests, sociopsychic processes, and a larger sociocultural context. LIMITATIONS There are some limitations in the research, which needs addressing. The first is the variety of the films. Because I was interviewing teenagers, I was only able to show movies which are rated “15 and over” for ethical reasons. This limited the range of movies to include romantic comedies and dramatic films. No action, horror, sci-fi, or thriller on Korea’s top ten highest grossing domestic films is rated below “18 and over” in recent Korean film. This may have reinforced gendered views of Korean culture, and the lack of variety led a few in the uninterested identity position to say watching the films became tedious. To overcome this limitation, it may be beneficial to expand the scope to less popular films or to seek approval by the Institutional Review Board to include more provocative films in an ethically responsible way.

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Another limitation of the research is the recruitment of the participants. The goal was to start through KA churches and reach others through snowball sampling, but snowballing was largely ineffective, and I was only able to recruit a small handful through participants’ social networks. Because of this limitation, most participants are involved in a local ethnic church. Reaching a group that has no diasporic connection may change some of my findings, and reaching a non-Christian population would most likely change some readings of the films. Further, it would be beneficial to interview a larger group. I have thirty-one sets of interviews, diaries, and observations in this study, which is more than what is typical for grounded theory, but because they split on five different identity positions, it would have been beneficial to have more participants in each. This would be very difficult to do, however, because of constraints on time and resources and an inability to recruit based on identity position as it is not a visible part of participants’ identities. Another limitation of the research is the relatively small age range included. I could not interview teenagers under fifteen years of age because, then, I would have almost no popular film from which to choose. Having an increased range of participants would add clarification to whether age identification plays a role. Instead, possibly because of the truncated range, only gender and diasporic identification emerged as categories of difference. Finally, it is possible I may have unintentionally primed individuals to respond in certain ways. Simply because of my own social location as a KA researcher, this may have influenced their interactions with me. Though this may have been a limitation, it should be noted this is also a strength. Without my experiences in my diasporic community, I would understood less well their social context and would not have been able to understand their use of codeswitching, which reinforces ethnic identification and closeness (Lo, 1999). FUTURE DIRECTIONS This research examines a specific group of second-generation Asian Americans to add specificity to research about “Asian Americans,” who make up a wide, diverse group. With that project in mind, research that also looks at other groups of Asian Americans would add increased complexity and greater knowledge about Asian Americans. For example, Kibria (2002) wrote that KA parents are unique in their emphasis of their collective sense of struggle, which Koreans refer to as 한 (han). Other Asian American groups, such as Chinese Americans, are more ethnically diverse and have Chinese-language film industries located in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The differences for each Asian American ethnic or heritage group and their transnational media differ, which could lead to important differences. The overlaps could help clarify similarities in response,

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perhaps, based on Asian Americans’ similar racialized experience in the United States. In addition to different ethnic and heritage groups for Asian Americans, it would also be revealing to examine groups with different social experiences. For example, the experiences of Korean adoptees differ markedly from second-generation KAs because of their home environment and use of diasporic resources. Also, biracial KAs have different home experiences and experiences with White American culture. These differences are important to explore and understand, and future research would do well to examine them. REFERENCES Appiah, K. A., & Gutmann, A. (1996). Color conscious: The political morality of race. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Barrerra, V., & Bielby, D. D. (2001). Places, faces, and other familiar things: The cultural experience of telenovela viewing among Latinos in the United States. Journal of Popular Culture, 34(4), 1–18. Barth, F. (1969). Introduction. In F. Barth (Ed.), Ethnic groups and boundaries: The social organization of culture difference (pp. 9–38). Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Blom, J.-P. (1969). Ethnic and cultural differentiation. In F. Barth (Ed.), Ethnic groups and boundaries: The social organization of culture difference (pp. 74–85). Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Davison, W. P. (1983). The third-person effect in communication. Public Opinion Quarterly, 47(1), 1–15. Desai, J. (2005). Planet Bollywood: Indian cinema abroad. In S. Dave, L. Nishime & T. G. Oren (Eds.), East Main Street: Asian American popular culture (pp. 55–71). New York, NY: New York University Press. Durham, M. G. (2004). Constructing the “new ethnicities”: Media, sexuality, and diaspora identity in the lives of South Asian immigrant girls. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 21(2), 140–161. doi: 10.1080/07393180410001688047 Espiritu, Y. L. (1992). Asian American panethnicity: Bridging institutions and identities. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Georgiou, M. (2006). Diaspora, identity, and the media: Diasporic transnationalism and mediated spatialities. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc. Gillespie, M. (1995). Television, ethnicity, and cultural change. New York, NY: Routledge. Jung, E., & Lee, C. (2004). Social construction of cultural identity: An ethnographic study of Korean American students. Atlantic Journal of Communication, 12(3), 146–162. Kibria, N. (2002). Becoming Asian American: Second-generation Chinese and Korean American identities. Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press. Lewis, J. (1991). The ideological octopus: An exploration of television and its audience. New York, NY: Routledge. Lo, A. (1999). Codeswitching, speech community membership, and the construction of ethnic identity. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 3/4, 461–479. Mayer, V. (2003a). Living telenovelas/telenovelizing life: Mexican American girls’ identities and transnational telenovelas. Journal of Communication, 53(3), 479–495. doi: 10.1111/ j.1460-2466.2003.tb02603.x Mayer, V. (2003b). Producing dreams, Consuming youth: Mexican Americans and mass media. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Oyserman, D., & Sakamoto, I. (1997). Being Asian American: Identity, cultural constructs, and stereotype perception. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 33(4), 435–453. Park, R. E. (1922). The immigrant press and its control. New York: Harper & Brothers.

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Index

acculturation, 12 adolescence, xi; identity, xi ambivalence with films, 67 audience reception, intra-ethnic difference, 117 Asian American: second-generation, x assimilation, desire for, 39 attraction with co-ethnics, 79–80 audience reception, 10; media use, xii; interpretive communities, 10; social identities, 10 Chinese American, 148 co-ethnic friends, 5, 45–21; codeswitching, 46, 85; cultural maintenance, 46; disidentification. See disidentification; diverse friends, desire for, 50–51; ethnic church; ethnic church, co-ethnic friends; ethnic resource, 141; resistance to White marginalization and norms, 47–49, 145; shared ethnicity, 46–47; transnational media; transnational media use, diasporic friends colorblind ideal, 38 cultural learning, 74–76, 145; vivid picture, 74 cultural validation, 104, 107 culture, authenticity, 28–29 cute, 64

diaspora, xii, 1, 8–9, 16 diaspora, transnational media use, 13–15; communication technologies, 13; hybridity, 13–14; imagined communities, 13; new ethnicities. See new ethnicities and transnational media use; transnational connections to homeland, 14, 108; TV talk and authenticity, 14 diasporic identification, 8–9, 139; actors, 93–94, 95; hybridity, 8, 16; local meaning-making, 17; multiple belongings, 8; second-generation, 9; transnational media, 121–122 disidentification, culture, 99–100; patriarchy, 114–115 disidentification, diaspora, 44, 49 disidentification, films, 64–65, 66–67 disidentification, characters, 83–84; He Was Cool, 83–84; My Tutor Friend, 84 double-consciousness, 126, 130 drama, xiv emulation with characters, 88–89, 93 ethnic authenticity, views on, 135 ethnic choices, 8, 24, 141 ethnic church, xiv, 44–45, 75, 110, 140, 141, 148; cultural practice, 45; ethnic space, 45; friends, 49; Korean language school, 44

159

160

Index

ethnic identification, 2–4; co-ethnic friends. See co-ethnic friends; costs of, 4, 141; ethnic church; ethnic church; family, 5, 42; film pleasure, 58–59, 62–61; immersion in everyday life, 42–43; language; language; parents; parents; perceived discrimination, 5; psychic desires, 5; racialization, defense against, 4; trips to Korea, 42–43; White suburbs; White suburban context, alienation ethnic identity formation, 6–8 ethnicity, xiii, 1, 2, 16; boundaries, 4; exclusionary discourses, 4 ethnic play, 88–89, 92, 93, 97, 124 ethnic pride, 106, 110, 140 ethnographic observation, xiii FOB, 33–35, 133, 142–143; rejection by, 34; dislike of, 34, 35 fundamental essence, 27, 29; ethnic connection, desire for, 104; marker of authenticity, 133 gender, 24; roles, 135; Korean culture as feminized, 135–136, 143 gender difference, 51; Korean culture, views of, 51; linguistic proficiency, 51; transnational media use, 137 grounded theory, xiii habitus, 133 hegemonic masculinity, internalization, 143 He Was Cool , xv, 56; attraction to, 88; childish, 64; disidentification, 65, 99–100, 114; enjoyment, 58, 59; identification, 85, 103; masculine exemplar, 87, 88–89; pure love, 111; slang learned, 76; superficial, 62; unique, 105–106, 126; universal, 129; unoriginal, 57 hierarchy, 114–117; disidentification, 114–115; elder respect, desirability of, 115, 116–117 identification, 2; articulation, 2; fragmented, 2; identity positions, 15;

psychic motivations, 15; social contexts, 24; through popular culture, 2 identification, actors and actresses, 93–97 identification, culture, 101–102; emotional connection, 101–102, 146; immersion, desire for, 102 identification, film, 85–89; kindness, 85–87; transnational connection, 102, 103, 109 identity position, 24, 25, 52, 139; intraethnic differences, 26 identity position, bicultural, 24, 25, 26, 28–29, 146; cultural negotiation, 37–38; ethnic pride, 32–33; racialized responsibilities, 32 identity position, comparison with US films, 65–66; bicultural, 66; hostile, 65; involved, 66; uninterested, 65 identity position, curiosity, 24, 25, 26, 28–29, 29, 146; fantasized community, 29, 50, 144 identity position, depth evaluation, 62–64; bicultural, 63; curious, 62; involved, 63; uninterested, 62 identity position, disidentification with characters, 83–88; bicultural, 84; uninterested, 83, 84 identity position, film evaluations, 57–60; bicultural, 58; curious, 57–58, 58–59; hostile, 58; uninterested, 57, 58 identity position, gender role reversal, 89–92; bicultural, 92; curious, 90–91; hostile, 89–90; involved, 91; uninterested, 90 identity position, identification with characters, 85–89; bicultural, 86–87, 88–89; curious, 85, 87–88; involved, 86, 88–89; uninterested, 85, 87 identity position, hostility, 24, 25, 26, 27–28 identity position, involved, 24, 25, 26, 28–29, 30–31, 146; immersion, desire for, 30; othering US culture, 30, 31; views of Whites, 30–31 identity position, plot evaluation, 61 identity position, uninterested, 24, 25, 27–28, 145 influence, increased interest, 69–70

Index influence, no change, 67–68; because of prior knowledge, 68 internalized racism, 11, 105 interdependence, desirability of, 115 inter-ethnic boundaries, 125–127, 129–132, 137 interpretive communities, 23, 58; identity position, 80, 97; intra-ethnic, 60 intra-ethnic: conflict, 38; difference, xii, 5, 8, 23, 52, 117, 137, 139; FOB. See FOB; identity positions, 8; Korean American understandings of, 33–38; taste communities, 9; twinkie; twinkie intra-ethnic boundaries, 129, 132–135, 137, 142; cultural knowledge as ethnic marker, 133, 142, 143; exclusion, 134–135, 143; language. See language, intra-ethnic marker K-pop, x, xiv Korean American, adoptee, 149 Korean American, biracial, 149 Korean wave, x language, 5, 43–44; code-switching. See co-ethnic friends, code-switching; disidentification with, 44; gender; gender difference, linguistic proficiency; intra-ethnic marker, 133; learning through film, 75–76; validation, 43 love, views on, 111–113 masculinity, exemplars of, 87–89 media diaries, xiii modernization, views of, 108–109 My Little Bride , xv, 55, 56; arranged marriage, views on, 112–114; childish, 64; cultural longing, 70–71, 77, 103; ethnic identification, 59; exclusive, 131; identification with leads, 85, 124; kindness, 85; modernization, 109; pure love, 111; traditional culture, 109, 116, 146; unique, 61, 131; universal, 60, 127 My Sassy Girl, xv, 55; anti-Korean, 65, 128; co-ethnic attraction, 87; conservative culture, views on, 110; counter-ideological to US culture, 103, 110; cultural identification, 101; cultural practice, 115; gender role

161

reversal. See identity position, gender role reversal; kindness of male lead, 86; identification with main characters, 86–87, 93; patriarchy, views on, 115; unique, 66; universal, 90 My Tutor Friend, xv, 56; attraction to male lead, 88–89; childish, 64; cultural disidentification, 100, 115; disidentification with, 83; equivalent to US films, 66; ethnic identification, 58–59; fantasized male ideal, 88; masculine exemplar, 77, 87–88; traditional culture, 116; unique, 125–126; unoriginal, 57, 61; US films, similarity to, 128 new ethnicities, 9, 24, 31, 52, 139; racialization, 9; symbolic resources, 9 new ethnicities, transnational media use, 14–15, 100, 114, 117, 145, 146; hybridity, 14; localized meanings, 15; racial marginalization as motivation, 14 pan-Asian racial identity, 3, 41 parents, 42; as ethnic resources, 119, 140, 141 postracialism, 38; internalized, 39, 79, 95, 142 proprietary claims, 105–106 race, 2; conflation with ethnicity, 27–28; ethnicity and race, differentiation between, 2; racialization, 3–4; voluntary identity for Whites, 3 racial identity, 18, 28, 41 racism, awareness of, 38 racist representation, 11; hegemony, 11; marginalization, 11; speaking back, 11 resistance, 103–104; against White norms, 77–78; desire for actors, 94, 95; fan activity, 95; Korean norms, 103; politics of desire, 97; self-image, 77; sexual attraction, 96; standards of attractiveness, 77, 94, 96–97; through pleasure, 61; view of Korea, 78, 146; view of Koreans, 78 role of the researcher, xvi

162

Index

social adhesive, transnational media as: diasporic friends, 122–123; family, 119–121 social capital, 123, 143–144 symbolic empowerment, 108, 144, 145 third person effect, 67, 147 transnationalism, xii; transnational media, x, xii, 144; transnational connection. See identification, film, transnational connection transnational media, intercultural understanding, 131–132 transnational media reception, 12–15; cultural maintenance, 12, 104; diasporic reception. See diaspora and transnational media use; identity position, 144, 145; Latina/o reception, 12; local meaning-making, 12, 139, 142; symbolic resources, use as, 12; transnational connection, 122, 144; universal, 127–128 transnational media use, diasporic friends, 122–125; cultural fluency required, 126–127; diasporic identification, 124; diasporic validation, 125; everyday use, 137; exclusive to diaspora, 125, 131,

137; gender, 143; unique community, 125 triangulation, xiii twinkie, 4, 36, 142–143; views of, 131 US culture, criticisms of, 110–115; gratuitous sexuality, 111; hegemonic masculinity, 110; morality, 110 vicarious participation, 70–71, 93, 144; desire for immersion, 71–74 The Way Home , xiv, 56; evaluations of depth, 62–64; metaphor, 63–64; traditional values, 108–109, 115, 116–117, 127; universal, 127, 128 weird, 130 White marginalization of Korean media, 126, 129, 130, 142 White, criticism of, 130 Whiteness, 38 White suburban context, 38, 130, 140, 142; alienation, 5, 40; Asian American friends, 41; internalized worldview, 52; schools, 40; White friends, 40–41 youth identity, xi