10 Module 9: Popular Culture in East Asia

Pop singers like Rain (Jung Ji-hoon) and BoA (Kwon Bo-ah; BoA is short for “Beat of Angel”) set the standard for countless new artists whose works play on a whole range of electronic mediums. Influenced strongly by pop music trends in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and more recently Japan (with its J-pop phenomena) K-pop matured by the late 1990s, in some quarters strongly under the influence of American hip-hop and Black performance artistry. Many South Korean artists flit back and forth across the Pacific between Seoul and Los Angeles, the latter city being home to the largest population of ethnic Koreans in the US. Hip-hop with a Korean attitude is performed by all boy, all girl and mixed gender groups of singers and dancers.

In the spring of 2006, Rain performed in Madison Square Garden with JY Park (a Korean pop singer who aided Rain early in his career) and American hip-pop stars such as P. Diddy. Rain has also worked with Christina Aguilera (who, incidentally, spent part of her youth in Japan). Besides music, Rain has also starred in a successful TV soap opera (called Full House) about a strong-willed pop singer who stages a sham marriage with a young Korean woman he meets by accident on a trip to China. In acknowledgment of his popularity, a top American news magazine in the early 21st century stated that Rain was the second most influential performer in the world.

Rain (right) and co-star Song Hae-gyo (second from the right) in the soap opera “Full House.” (Image by Kim Jong-hak Production from tvdb)
BoA sings in several languages. (Photo by Charlie Nguyen, licensed under CC BY 2.0)

BoA, with over twenty years in the industry, was discovered at age eleven while attending an audition for her older brother. Media moguls spotted her talent and, following the model of “idol” creation perfected in Japan, she was subsequently trained and packaged to become a pop singer and dancer for the target markets of Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. A polyglot, BoA speaks not only Korean, but Japanese, English, and reportedly, Chinese with an eye on the growing Chinese market that for the moment is enamored with the style and “cool” of all things Korean. As of 2006, she had released 9 albums (several in Japan)’ and was still landing solid contracts in 2020.

(Still from YouTube video “Wonder Girls “NOBODY (Eng. Ver)” M/V”, by wondergirls)
(Photo by CBS Television, believed to be under public domain in the U.S.)

In 2009, The Wonder Girls’ single “Nobody” was listed in Billboard top 100 in the USA. The group, produced by JYP entertainment, had a retro-1960s/1970s vibe, influenced by Black singers such as Diana Ross and the Supremes.

(Photo by General Artists Corporation, believed to be under public domain in the U.S.)
(Photo by Anna Hanks, licensed under CC BY 2.0)

Another retro-1950s/1960s South Korean girl group who have toured Europe and the USA is The Barberettes 바ëČ„ë ›ìž  (right), formed in 2014. They perform songs such as “Be My Baby,” recorded by the Ronettes in 1963.

The Ronettes (left), were a girl group (two sisters and a cousin)of the 1960s and 1970s from Spanish Harlem, New York, and whose backgrounds included African-American, Cherokee, Irish, Puerto Rican, and Chinese heritage. In 1964, on their first London tour, they met up with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

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(Image by Universal Music Group)

Psy became a global legend with the release of the catchy and irreverent “Gangnam Style,” gently mocking the lives of the nouveau riche in the trendy Gangnam district of Seoul. Versions of the dance mutated endlessly worldwide. In 2012, the song became the first music video to reach 1 billion on YouTube. As of 2023, it has over 4.8 billion views, though it is now only the 11th most-watched video of all time. (Wikipedia)

Since their debut album was released in 2016, K-pop girl group Blackpink has become one of the most popular girl groups in the world, with record-breaking numbers of subscribers on YouTube and an enormous social media following worldwide. The group has been listed on both the U.S. and UK billboard charts and garnered awards around the world. In the past few years, they have collaborated with artists like Selena Gomez, Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga. Blackpink’s members, including two South Koreans, a Korean New Zealander and a Thai, also reflects the pan-Asian/international nature of K-pop, and its increasingly global reach.

 

The stellar pop group Blackpink—K-pop goes Pan-Asian. (Photo by Delicato, licensed under CC BY 4.0)
BTS (Bangtan Boys), a top Korean boy band of the post-2013 era rooted in hip-hop and with an androgynous style, complete with makeup in the current male fashion wave. (Photo by Billboard, uploaded by Yun_Q, licensed under CC0 1.0)
Based on an Internet novel of the same name, My Lovely Sam Soon was released as a soap opera in 2005. (Image by MBC Production from tvdb)

Over the last two decades, gripping Korean soap operas become known for tear-jerking drama, sometimes earthy humor, and urbane sophistication with compellingly intricate plots on real-life themes. They also combine emotionally-resonant music and visually stimulating cinematography. Among the most popular have been the love story Winter Sonata  (which gained near cult-status among women between 30-50 in Japan), the humorous urban white collar drama All About Eve, appealing to 20- to 30-somethings in Korea, and My Lovely Sam Soon, following the misadventures of a somewhat plain, twenty-nine-year-old unmarried woman in a contemporary urban setting.

Lee Young-ae starred as Jang Geum in Jewel in the Palace. (Image by MBC self-production from tvdb

A true phenomenon is the 45-episode historical drama Jewel in the Palace  (Dae Jang Geum, literally, “The Great Jang-geum”) which in 2003-2004 drew a massive following all over East Asia and has been shown on cable in the US. Set in the 18th century, it is the story of a young woman, Jang Geum (played by Lee Young-ae) whose mother was driven from her position as head of the king’s kitchen by the evil plotting of jealous palace ladies. Her mother succumbs to the hardships of the road and Jang Geum later makes her way to Jeju Island, where she trains as a traditional doctor. She then passes the medical exams and is assigned in the King’s palace. Drawing on her previous cooking knowledge, her doctor’s training, and her alliances with persons in power, she single-mindedly clears her mother’s name while managing to survive a host of plots hatched by scheming palace officials and ladies. She is at one point given the unheard-of honor of being the King’s personal physician and aids in discovering the cause of a killing epidemic. Along the way she captures the fancy of handsome, upright young official (played by Ji Jin-hee), and despite many obstacles the couple eventually marries. The drama, based on a true story adapted by Kim Yeong-hyeon, features incredibly detailed costumes and settings that include many of the traditional Korean foods described elsewhere in this course. The lead actress and actor have both become media phenomena in their own rights and the drama’s set has become a major tourist attraction. Such period serial dramas are now made and promoted elsewhere in Asia, including China, with its controversial block-buster series about the life of imperial women depicted in Story of Yanxi Palace (2018).

Ha Ji-won as the famous kisaeng entertainer Hwang Jini in the eponymous historical drama serial in 2006. (Image by KBS Media from tvdb)

Another important aspect of the Korean Wave is the emergence of world class Korean directors. Korean film began in the early 20th century. The first talking picture was a traditional love story, produced in 1935, entitled Ch’unhyang-jun  (The Story of Ch’unhyang). Due to periods of chaos and disruption, few films survive from the period before the Korean War (1950-1953). Korean filmmaking, however, enjoyed a renaissance and “golden age” in the later 1950s and 1960s, though the widening of TV audiences and the importation of Hollywood films affected the market for home-grown films in the 1970s and 1980s.

Since the late 1990s, new generations of directors have appeared, producing engaging and sometimes highly acclaimed (and sometimes controversial) films such as The Day a Pig Fell into the Well (Hong Sang-soo, 1996), The Contact (Chang Yoon-hyun, 1997), The Isle and Samaria (Kim Ki-duk, 2000 and 2004) and Oasis (Lee Chang-dong, 2002). Aside from these more serious works, in recent years, a strong popular film market has developed. Among the titles for 2006 that humorously explore issues of gender and sex in today’s South Korea, were My Scary Girl  by Son Jae-gon, Desopo Naughty Girls, by E J-yong, and Lee Hae-yong and Lee Hae-joon’s Like a Virgin (Cheonhajangsa Madonna)—the latter is about a young male protagonist who dresses like a young woman, falls in love with a male Japanese teacher, and ends up on the school Korean wrestling team. In 2020 Bong Joon-ho’s biting thriller Parasite (2019) became the first non-English language film to win the United State’s Academy Award for Best Picture.

Hong Sang-soo’s award-winning film The Day a Pig Fell into the Well  (1996) explored the twists and turns in the lives of young urban professionals. (Image by Dong A Exports Co., Ltd from TMDB)
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Kim Ki-duk’s controversial Samaria (2004) pushed the boundaries of sexual liberation and the irreverent in South Korean cinema. (Image by Kim Ki Duk Film.co,Ltd from Wikipedia)
Parasite (2019). (Image by Barunson E&A from TMDB)

Early Chinese Pop Music and Contemporary Film

Music

Rock singers like Cui Jian and bands like Tang Chao (Tang Dynasty) and Heibao (Black Leopard) emerged in the mid to late 1980s, influenced by Western rock bands and the success of pop singers such as Deng Lijun (Teresa Teng) in Taiwan and others in Hong Kong that rose to fame on the karaoke craze that swept East Asia in the 1980s.

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Tang Dynasty (Tang chao) is a prototypical Mainland Chinese heavy metal band formed in 1989. (Image by Tang Chao via Wikipedia)
Influential Taiwanese pop singer Deng Lijun (1953-1995) in the 1980s. (Photo uploaded by jdxyw, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)
Cui Jian, grandfather of Mainland Chinese rock and roll rose to popular acclaim in the 1980s. (Photo by www.china.cn)
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Multi-talented Taiwanese R&B and pop singer Jay Chou (b. 1979) has created a whole industry around himself since 2000, selling over 30 million records, and is still going strong. The performer in 2016. (Photo by GEM_Ady, licensed under CC BY 2.5)
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Hong Kong pop singer duet Twins, popular Canto-pop singers since 2001. (Photo by Sry85, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)
Born in Beijing, Hong Kong Canto-pop singer Wong Faye rose to fame in the 1990’s by her versatile singing style in Cantonese and Mandarin and sometimes outlandish fashion. (Photo by Brandon Lim, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)
Hong Kong rock band Beyond became popular in the 1980s. In 1993, their lead singer Wong Ka Kui tragically passed away while shooting a Japanese reality TV show. (Photo uploaded by Sasudio via Hobby Database)
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Dakou CDs. Notice the slit on the bottom right of each disc. (Photo by Angela Steele and Lila Babb, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 US)

The early Mainland rock sounds appealed to a somewhat rebellious generation of urban “hooligans” (liumang) that reflected the profound and often unsettling social shifts in China between the end of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1970s and into the early 1980s, an era of greater openness and market experimentation.  By the mid-1990s a phenomenon called dakou (cut CDs), in which intentionally damaged CDs (seconds, non-releases, and overstocks) were dumped on the Chinese market by Western companies and sold at a fraction of the original cost, along with pirated CDs, created a new interest in rock music. Groups sometimes made their own recordings and distribute them outside official channels. Among these trends emerged a less rebellious and diverse mix of popular, underground, and folksy bands that included Qingxing (Sober), Supermarket, New Pants, NO, Tongue, and urban folksinger Hu Mage. The mix also included successful ethnic minority bands such as Mountain Eagle (Yi rockers from Sichuan) and Red Plateau from Tibet.

“Super Girl” champion Li Yuchun reflected the energy of the first decade of the 21st century in China. (Still from YouTube video “2016超çș§ć„łćŁ°Super Girl10ćčŽć›žéŠ–2005超çș§ć„łćŁ°ćˆć”±èżžć”±ç‰č蟑”, by 芒果TV正风鱑道 MangoTV Monsoon)

In the summer of 2005, a television station in Hunan province organized a nation-wide amateur “Super Girl” singing contest, sponsored by the Mongolian Cow Yogurt Company. Millions of viewers voted by cell-phone, prompting some Western and Hong Kong reporters to see the event as an experiment in national democracy. The winner, Li Yuchun, from the Sichuan Music Academy, appeared on the cover of the international version of the popular U.S. news magazine Time.

Film

Foremost among the developers of contemporary mainland Chinese film since the end of the Cultural Revolution are the Fifth Generation directors Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, who were strongly influenced by Italian and American cinematography and films. Both emerged in the mid-1980s with films like Red Sorghum and Yellow Earth. The term “Fifth Generation” refers to their generational order in the history of Chinese film, which grew up in the early 20th century mainly in Shanghai and developed under the dual influences of Hollywood and Soviet propaganda films in the ensuing decades.

Zhang Yimou’s To Live  (1994), starring Gong Li (pictured) and Ge You, is based on the novel of the same title written by Yu Hua. (Image by Shanghai Film Group from TMDB)
Award winning director Zhang Yimou. (Photo by Dick Thomas Johnson, licensed under CC BY 2.0)
Film director Chen Kaige in 2013. (Photo by Dick Thomas Johnson, licensed under CC BY 2.0)
Promotional poster for the 2017 re-release of Chen Kaige’s landmark 1993 film Farewell My Concubine, starring Gong Li, Zhang Fengyi, Leslie Cheung, and Ge You. (Image by Beijing Film Studio from TMDB)

In the early 2000’s, a number of younger directors, who are loosely referred to as the Sixth Generation by film critics but actually have very different and individualistic film styles, were garnering increasing attention both in and outside China. A lot of their films are very edgy and bring a poignant criticism to contemporary life in China. These include Wang Xiaoshui’s Beijing Bicycle (2001) and Shanghai Dreams (2005), Jia Zhangke’s Platform  (2000) and The World (2004), and Lou Ye’s Suzhou River (2000).

Lou Ye’s startling, tragic love story Suzhou River (2000), starring Zhou Xun, and set in contemporary Shanghai. (Image by Dream Factory from TMDB)
Wang Xiaoshui’s Shanghai Dreams (2005), starring Gao Yuanyuan, won the Jury Prize award at the 58th Cannes Film Festival. (Image by Stellar Megamedia from Movie Poster Database)
Hong Kong born actor Bruce Lee (Lee Jun-fan/Li Xiaolong) faces off against Chuck Norris in the 1972 classic martial arts film The Way of the Dragon. (Still from The Way of the Dragon, uploaded to YouTube by FIGHTING CINEMA)

Beginning in the late 1950s, film markets in Hong Kong and Taiwan grew. A huge number of martial arts films with stars that included the incomparable martial artist and actor Bruce Lee were produced in Hong Kong in the next decades. Acclaimed films from the 1990s and 2000s by Taiwanese filmmakers, and those working in and producing films for the wider Chinese-speaking diaspora include Eat Drink Man Woman (1994); Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon  (2000) by Ang Lee, a Taiwanese director based in the US; and the influential films of Hong Kong’s Wong Kar-Wai including Chungking Express (1994), In the Mood for Love  (2000), and 2046  (2004). Tsui Hark is another highly-influential Hong Kong director and is famous for his martial art and action films such as Swordsman (1990) and its sequels, Once Upon a Time in China (1991) and its sequels, Time and Tide (2000), and Seven Swords (2005).

(Still from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, by Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., scene uploaded to YouTube by Movieclips)
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(Photo by Dick Thomas Johnson, licensed under CC BY 2.0)

The fight scene in the bamboo forest (left) in Taiwanese director Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) has become a classic. Actors Chow Yun-fat and Zhang Ziyi battled on stalks of bamboo. Zhang Ziyi (right) rose to international fame in this film and director Zhang Yimou’s House of Flying Daggers (2005). She has since starred in numerous films, a historical drama, and most recently a remake of the Japanese film classic, Godzilla. This photo is dated 2019.

Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love  (2000), starring Maggie Cheung (left) and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (right). (Still from In the Mood for Love, by Jet Tone Productions, uploaded by Caspy2003, licensed under CC BY 2.0)
Swordsman II: The Legend of the Swordsman (1992) written by Tsui Hark, starring Jet Li and Brigitte Lin. (Image by Golden Princess Film Production Ltd from TMDB)
Tsui Hark in 2011. (Photo by Raffi Asdourian, licensed under CC BY 2.0)
Green Snake (1993) by Tsui Hark, starring Maggie Cheung and Joey Wong. (Image by Hong Kong Siyuan Production Company, from TMDB)

Chinese actors such as Jackie Chan, Jet Lee, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Chow Yun-Fat, Maggie Cheung, Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi have become household names in many places around the globe.

(Still from The Shaolin Temple, by Chung Yuen Motion Picture Company, uploaded to YouTube by Action Movies)

Jet Li’s first credited film role was in 1982’s Shaolin Temple, which was the first martial-arts film filmed in Mainland China, and one of the first Hong Kong-Mainland co-productions.

Films about China’s Borderlands

In recent years a few production companies have produced well-received films highlighting the lives of people groups populating the geographical borderlands of China.

Knife in the Clear Water is a 2016 film directed by Wang Xuebo concerning life in a remote Hui Muslim community in Northwest China. It won awards at several international film festivals. The plot revolves around an elderly man who is pressured by family members to sacrifice a prize bull in the wake of his wife’s passing. Like other films depicting China’s border areas, human activity is set in sublime landscapes.
(Image by Beijing Ocean & Time Culture Communication Co., Ltd et al, from TMDB)
(Image by He Li Chen Guang Group et al, from TMDB)
Paths of the Soul is a 2015 low-budget film directed by Zhang Yang and featuring everyday Tibetans walking on a 1,200 mile pilgrimage to sacred Mt. Kailash. None of the people in the film were actors, and there was no script. The film earned over 40 million yuan in its first 11 days in theaters.

Mountain Witch: Yokai Monsters in Japanese Pop Culture

Part of a famous scroll painting of yokai from the Edo period. [Click image to zoom] (Painting by unknown artist, believed to be under public domain in the U.S.)

Japan has a rich tradition of various mysterious supernatural beings called “Yokai,” a word sometimes translated as “demon” or “monster” and borrowed from the Chinese yaogui centuries ago. There are hundreds of different yokai that appear in various forms, exhibit various traits (mischievous to monstrous) and reside in places ranging from the domestic to the wild, including streams, trees, mountains, and seas. Many richly illustrated accounts of the yokai survive from the Edo period and the monsters have been the subject of many paintings and illustrations. Pioneering Japanese folklorist Yanagita Kunio collected many stories about yokai told orally in the village of Tono in northern Japan, stimulating large scale collection efforts all over the country that resulted in numerous collected stories. Some of the more famous yokai include kappa, which look like a cross between a salamander and a turtle and seem to have inspired the famous Ninja Turtles of pop culture, the tsuchigumo spider woman, and an anthropomorph with birdlike features called tengu. The monstrous oni, human in form but often with bizarre hair, horns, color, and gnashing teeth suitable for eating humans, has been re-cast in many forms in contemporary films, digital games, and manga in a manner that yokai expert Prof. Michael Dylan Foster describes as “folkloresque”—a phenomena that draws on an earlier folk form, but is translated into a new context of meaning, sometimes only an essence or inspiration. Foster’s books Pandemonium and Parade and The Book of Yokai, describe many of the traditional yokai and their current incarnations in pop culture. The persistence of yokai today may be linked to how certain anxieties of modern life can be expressed and mitigated by the supernatural beings, a function that may be rooted in prior ages.

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(Photo by Michiko Suzuki)
(Image by University of California Press, 2024)

Yokai expert and folklorist Michael Dylan Foster, UC Davis, and his book “The Book of Yokai.”

Yokai expert Noriko Tsunoda Reider, Miami University, Ohio. (Photo from DEALL, The Ohio State University)

A subset of oni are the female “mountain witches” known as yamauba or yamanba. The mountain witches may appear as voluptuous younger women, or more typically as ancient hags. The creatures are know for their cannibalistic ways, though at least one had a prized “golden son” Kitaro, who figures in many stories. According to yokai expert Prof. Noriko Tsunoda Reider (a graduate of the East Asian department at Ohio State), the yamauba have been revived in contemporary pop culture, though the creatures have a long history of being represented in various media, such as traditional Noh theater. For instance, in 1999-2000, at a department store in Shibuya district, Tokyo, a number of young women arrayed themselves in extreme costumes and makeup, earning themselves the name yamanba-gyaru (“Mountain Witch Girls”). Other representations have appeared in manga, anime, films, and gaming, such as Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 anime film Spirited Away, in which the old female bathhouse keeper Yubaba has some traits similar to mountain witches.

Discussing the social meaning of contemporary Yamauba (and yokai in genral) in popular culture, Reider notes that while the activities of the mountain witch girls are group-oriented and involve display, friendship building, and passive rebellion, the traditional yamauba, “lives independently and does not need human companionship, although she may enjoy human company now and then. The vicious yamauba who eat human flesh do not attack humans just for fun; they attack because they need something to eat or the humans have encroached on the territories” (Reider 2021:145). Thus, the meaning of the “yamauba-esque” costumes and other expressions in contemporary society form within new contexts and create new facets of mountain witch traditions.

Painting of a Noh performer in a “mountain crone” (yamauba) costume. [Click image to zoom] (Painting by Tsukioka KĂŽgyo [1869-1927], believed to be under public domain in the U.S.)
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The yamauba-esque Yubaba in Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. (Still from Spirited Away via Ghibli Wiki)
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”Ganguro, or ”yamanba-gyaru” young women, Japan, 2006. (Photo by unknown photographer, licensed under CC BY 2.0)
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Painting, c. 1764, entitled “Sessen Doji offering his life to an ogre” (i.e. an oni). (Painting by Soga Shƍhaku [1730–1781], believed to be under public domain in the U.S.)
Noh drama mask of oni, 18th c. Japan. (Photo by Tokyo National Museum, licensed under CC BY 4.0)
A 4-episode series on Japanese folklore, called Oni: Thunder God’s Tale, was released on Netflix in October of 2022. (Image by Tonko House and Netflix Animation, from TMDB)
(Still by Toho Company Ltd., believed to be under public domain in the U.S.)

Japan’s most famous monster? The 1954 film Godzillareflected Japanese anxieties over the Post WWII society. The film became an international cult classic. Although not a “traditional” Japanese yokai the creature holds many similarities to monsters in the genre.

Republic of Mongolia and Inner Mongolia: Heavy Metal and Folk Punk

The Hu performing in Budapest, 2023. (Photo by Elekes Andor, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Hu broke onto the heavy metal scene in 2016. One of their world tours included a gig in Columbus, Ohio. Conveying the spirit of the open steppe, The Hu trace their name back to the “Huns” (Hunna) who were precursors of the Mongols and included groups such as the Xiongnu. Contemporary Mongolia, lying on the northern border of China, has a lively pop music and film scene. The group includes indigenous “throat singing” and instruments like electrified horse-head fiddles (morin khuur). The Hu are one of several successful Mongolian heavy meatal bands. Hit songs include “Wolf Totem” and “Yuve, Yuve, Yu.”

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(Photo by Thesupermat, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

Hanggai, a multi-cultural rock group mixing traditional and punk themes was founded in Beijing, China, in 2004 by Inner Mongolian and Han musicians. A 2016 album Horse of Colors features grassland themes that permeate their music. The group sings in both Mongolian and Chinese.

Additional Media Playlist

This Playlist contains links to videos and articles that will enhance your understanding of the written text and offer new insights on East Asian Humanities. 

  • Japan 
    • Yokai 101 – Yokai expert Michael Dylan Foster gave a virtual lesson on the basics of yokai in 2021 for the Japan Society of Northern California.
    • Japanese Commercials – This YouTube channel has been posting compilations of Japanese advertisements since 2019
    • Chicano/ Chicana Culture in Japan – A fascinating New York Times feature on the chicano subculture in Japan
    • Chola Culture in Japan – Another fascinating video about a subculture in Japan that complicates the discourse about “cultural appropriation” that carries much weight in the U.S.
    • Wagakki Band – A 2020 live performance of the song Senbonzakura by Wagakki Band
    • “Have a Nice Day” – A music video of one of the musical group World Order’s most famous songs
  • China
    • Long-spout Tea Pouring – A Great Big Story video about the art of long-spout tea pouring
    • Livestream Shopping – A BEME News feature about the burgeoning e-commerce live-streaming world in China
    • The “3-second” E-commerce Live-streamer – China Insider analyst David Zhang discusses the unique techniques of e-commerce live-streamer Zheng Xiangxiang and how she fits into the booming world of Chinese e-commerce live-streaming
    • Li Ziqi Interview – Goldthread producer Venus Wu interviews online influencer Li Ziqi about her videos and perspectives
    • The Shaw Brothers – A short video essay on the history of Hong Kong’s biggest film producers
    • Zhang Yang’s Paths to the Soul – An article written for The Ohio State University’s MCLC that discusses the surprising success of this documentary about a remarkable Tibetan Buddhist ritual
  • North and South Korea
    • The South Korean Entertainment Phenomenon – A CBC News video reporting on how South Korea became the video entertainment juggernaut it is today
    • Korean Wave  – A new report expanding on the nature of the Korean Wave
    • K-Pop Trainee Visa – A news report explaining how South Korea has begun to offer a visa for those interested in gaining the same musical training as K-Pop stars
    • New Jeans at Busan National University – A fan recording of New Jeans (billing themselves as the “new genes” of South Korean pop music) performing their song “How Sweet” at Busan National University in May, 2024.
    • Waacking Dancer Lip J – Lip J (Hyowon Cho) is a highly accomplished waacking dancer from South Korea. Her art form combines traditional Korean dance moves with popular dance and music from the West.
    • The Story of Arirang – A video introducing Korea’s most famous song.
    • “Friendly Father” – A propaganda music video by North Korea that went viral on TikTok in May 2024

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East Asia Via the Humanities Copyright © 2024 by Mark Bender is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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