Beginning in the twenty-first century, Korean television dramas became a transnational media phenomenon called Hallyu (also known as the Korean Wave, Han’ryu, Hanliu). Some Hallyu fans not only watch the dramas, but they also travel to Korea to immerse themselves in Korean cultures they saw in the dramas. What makes Korean television dramas so appealing to the disparate Hallyu fans? What is it about the dramas that inspire their viewers to travel to Korea? This article is based on data gathered from digital archival research of online Hallyu fan forums, and ethnographic interviews and participant-observations I conducted in Korea where I interviewed the Hallyu tourists. I build on existing research on Hallyu and transnational media studies. However, I suggest that existing theoretical frameworks of ‘cultural proximity’ or ‘Orientalism’ do not accurately capture the essence of my Hallyu tourist informants’ reasons for consuming Korean television dramas and traveling to Korea. I suggest that rather than the dichotomous framework of cultural proximity and Orientalism, Hallyu should be observed through the framework of transnational intimacy. More specifically, I suggest that Hallyu fans’ romantic and intimate desires for Korean men are central to the transnational popularity of Korean dramas and Hallyu tourism.
Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 22 citations exist upstream.
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.