Banal Orientalism on YouTube: “Eat Your Kimchi” as a New Cultural Intermediary and its Representation of South Korea

Abstract

This study examines the emergence of YouTube and its content creators as a major platform for introducing, mediating and interpreting South Korea to global audiences. By exploring Eat Your Kimchi (EYK), a YouTube channel based on content about Korea, this study discusses the novel roles and strategies of YouTubers as transnational cultural intermediaries, who as white expats continue to translate and interpret the East (i.e., South Korea) to the West, (i.e., Anglophone audiences). Firstly, EYK employ a strategy of selectively articulating their dual identity both as amateurs with no academic background or authority, and as cultural experts based on their hands-on experiences in South Korea. Secondly, EYK reproduce the discursive themes of infantilizing and othering South Korea, emphasizing cultural hierarchy, though in a subtle, everyday manner. This study suggests these discursive strategy and themes as seminal constituents of banal Orientalism that EYK as transnational cultural intermediaries produce in the process of introducing Korean society and its people to the globe. By highlighting banal Orientalism, which is repeatedly and successfully constructed in EYK’s discourses, we call attention to the cultural politics of YouTubers as one of the most influential transnational cultural intermediaries for online representation across countries, their cultures and societies.

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