K-pop and Youth

During my three years teaching stint in Malaysia I was indeed surprised to discover that Korean pop cultures are so popular with youths in Malaysia. . All around Kuching city (in Borneo, Sarawak), you can see Korean culture had definitely make an influence on the youth and business with the opening of numerous cosmetic shops selling Korean cosmetic, shop selling clothing imported from Korea as well as the springing up of  Korean restaurants, which is a popular hangout place with youths. My students, girl and boy would come to class dress up looking like their favourite k-pop stars, especially their hairs style and clothing. All around the college and city  youth are walking around looking like their idol. Indeed, Korean pop culture is popular with the Malaysian main ethnic groups such as the Malay, Chinese and Indian who is said to have different taste in music and television and most prefer to be entertained in their own language (Park, 2012).  It is therefore said that Korean pop songs, music and soap operas is crossing the divide.  This is what got me interested to look into the rise of the popularity of the Korean culture with Asian youth especially K-pop.

The spread of Korean popular culture in recent year had gain immense popularity with Asian youth particularly in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South-East Asia countries.  It ranges from Korean soap opera, movies, pop song and fashion that have crawl into the life styles of the youngster (Shim, 2006). Hallyu or Hanryu  is referred to as the Korean wave or  referred to as the 'Kim Chic' with  everything ranging from shoes styles, fashions, music, food and even to eyebrow-shaping are the rage with youth across Asia where as before it was the Japanese and Hollywood that influences the youth in Asia (Shim, 2006).

K-pop’s group are mainly comprised of boy bands and girl bands and their members are often styles similarly to increase the visual appeals to youth.    The K-pop stars have perfect looks, with the help of  plastic surgery, dress in the latest fashion and highly stylised and synchronised movement to the music, make k-pop rather attractive (Seabrook, 2012). The range of K-pop songs is broad and include playful early teen pop, rock ‘n’ roll, electro and house acts. K-pop song is rather catchy and very fresh and their similar outfit is rather appealing to youth and added to its popularity (Seabrook, 2012).  Below I have posted three popular K-pop videos which hopefully will help to illustrate what was described above.

"Nobody" Wonder Girls 

                                       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZv6SLuZYxM

The K-pop song "Nobody" (see above video) with its retro- theme music, hairstyles, costume and retro-themed music by the Wonder Girls released in October 2008 was a rage. Within hours the song ranks No. 1 on various digital music sites (Choi, 2011). The song is recorded and released in four different languages: Korean, English, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese. In October 2009, the Wonder Girls’ “Nobody” made it to the Billboard Hot 100 (Choi, 2011).  However, "Nobody" was surpass by the song 'Gee' by Girl Generations, (see video below)  which was to reach 50 million view on YouTube and is one of the most viewed K-pop video from September 2011 to September 2012 (Soshified, 2013).

'Gee' by Girls Generations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7mPqycQ0tQ

"Gee' was in its turn surpassed by "Gangnam Style" by Psy which become the first YouTube video to reach one billion views even surpassing Justin Bieber's  single 'Baby"  (Grunger 2013).  

'Gangun Style' PSY  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

If you have watched the video, you would have observed that the K-pop singers are usually young and pretty. Their music video is set in a contemporary setting with a touch of themes that have a blend of tradition values of family, friendship and romantic love (Seabrook, 2012).  K-pop is also a blend of new and old and not just a blend of traditional or western theme. The music is made up of 'lush soundscapes made with the latest synths and urban beats', often sung with a mixture of English and Korean (Seabrook 2012, p.90). The addition of English to the song make it more appealing with  the music adapted to suit the Asian way of thinking. The girls are sexy and demure in their styles and their lyric or video do not generally refer to sex, drinking, or clubbing which is the great themes of Western hit-markers (Seabrook 2012, p.90). Although K-pop may seemly to be all wholesome for the youth with its theme of family values and all clean lyric, however, in my research I found a documentary by SBS, Dateline broadcast on 19th March 2013 which showed the other side of the influence of K-pop.

The K-pop effect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjWqshVF5lA

The above video narrated the effect of K-pop where many young girls are going for surgery to look like their idol.  In a scene, a mother gave her daughter, who has just graduated from high school, a graduation gift, plastic surgery, double eye lips surgery (one of the most popular plastic surgery in Korea). The mother stated that her daughter think she look ugly compare to the K-pop star who look pretty and like a doll.  In my opinion, the girl look rather pretty without the double eye lips surgery. Perhaps, the girl could have been counsel before she even thinks of undergoing the plastic surgery. In any case, youth should be given guidance to distinguish between the good and bad influences whether it is Eastern or Western popular culture. 

So, although I may not be a fan of K-pop but I have to admit the song is rather catchy. I can unashamedly said that I found myself singing to the song 'Nobody"! 

Reference:

‘Gee’ Music Video Hits 100 Million Views on YouTube". Soshified. 1 April 2013.

Choi, Y.J. 2011, The Globalization of K-Pop: Is K-Pop Losing its Korean-ness? Situations Vol. 5 (Winter 2011).

Gruger, W. (2013). PSY’s ‚Gangnam Style ‘Video Hits 1 Billion Views, Unprecedented Milestone. Billboard.

Park, J. ( 2012)Malaysian firms tap into K-Pop power, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-18589777 

Seabrook, J. (2012). Factory Girls. New Yorker, 89.

Shim, D. (2006). Hybridity and the rise of Korean popular culture in Asia. Media, Culture & Society, 28(1), 25-44.

The K-Pop Effect: A look at how the K-Pop music is scene is literally changing the face of Korea's youth, fuelling an obsession with beauty via cosmetic surgery, based on the looks of their celebrity idols. [online]. Dateline (SBS Melbourne); Time: 21:50; Broadcast Date: Tuesday, 19th March 2013;

Hi! everyone meet Ya Wen!

Wong Ya Weng, she is 17 years old and a year 12 student at  Mansfield High School She is a awesome girl and cheerful girl. She happy to let me interview her. Her mum (my good friend) give me permission  to interview her after I told her I needed her daughter for my blog.  Ya Weng is a sweet girl and I hope you will get to know a little about her.

Give a quick intro about yourself.

My legal name is Wong Ya Weng though it's pronounced as Huang Ya Wen in pinyin.

I am 17 years old and I can speak Mandarin, English and Bahasa Malaysia. I am a Malaysian who love nasi lemak and pretty much every Asian cuisine!  I am not picky about food but I don't like celery and coriander. I have a secret obsession with teddy bear.I used to sleepwalk and I walked into someone (not in my family) who was showering!(Ooopp!). I am shy among new people but crazy around people I know. I don't sleep at night any more. It's always early in the morning I sleep. I enjoy going crazy with singing and random dancing with my sister Racheal at midnight. I love chocolate with almond nuts or hazelnut.  I love playing basketball and soccer..

Detective Conan

Tell me What types of books do you like to read?

I does not like to read novel because I thinks my  English is not good enough.  In my spare time, occasionally  I would prefer to  read romance book  . But my  greatest love is reading  the manga anime Detective Conan

Tell me about why you like Detective Conan and at the same time,  a little background on detective Conan because I know nothing about Detective Conan?

Detective Conan was a 17 years old high school  teenager before he was drug by a villainous team/group which turn him into a 7 years old kid. Detective Conan is an excellent detective actually he is a genius teenager detective before he was drug by villain.  Now he is a 7 years old kid solving crimes. with a a group of friends, who are kids like him and who are enthusiastic in solving crimes. At the same time he has to use his childhood friends' dad (detective as well) or his uncle to help him because no one would believe a kid can solve these mysteries.  Another character in Detective Conan is a teenage girl whom I think is cool,  was also drugged and also turn into a kid. However, she happen to be  the girl who made the drug because she used to be in the villainous group but she was forced to drug Detective Conan and now she join force with Detective Conan to solve crimes. At the same time she is experimenting on making an antidote.I really likes Detective Conan because he is so interesting and really intrigue me and rather captivating.


 Which one is your favourite episode of Detective Conan?

 I don't have a particular episode, perhaps I really like, maybe one episode where Detective Conan suddenly turn back into a teenager and meets with his childhood friend whom he likes but he does not know how to express his feeling.  Rather like me at time because sometime I feel the same way as him, don't know how to express my feeling!

Can you tell me what types of shows do you watch?

HongKong TV crime series 

Korean Varieties  show

I loves to watch Hong Kong crime television series. Crime series is  rather intriguing, interesting, thrilling and capture my attention. I don't   like to watch those romantic drama where girls fall in love with boy and they lived happily after. But I love to watch the Korean varieties show. The show is a bit silly but I found it rather funny and it help me to distress from studying. I also loves to watch horror movies, the scarier the better.

 what are the types of musics do you like to listen to?

Girls Generation

S.H.E

I prefers to listen to Chinese music but I must said I am an all rounders except for rap and metallic music. I think there are too many swear words and I cannot relate to it. My favourite music band is the Girls Generations, a girls band from Korea. I love Korean music, their music sound  happy,  upbeat,  and make me want to dance. Their dancing is  great and I really wish I could dance like them . My other all time favourite Chinese girls band  is from Taiwan,  S.H.E. (Which happen to by favourite girls band too!). I love their songs especially their song lyric is rather meaningful and I found I can relate to the music, like they are speaking to me when I listen to it. The girls band  inspired me to join the church youth band and   I found I rather enjoy  playing  in a group singing!. I also enjoy playing guitar and violin. The girls band really inspire me to want to play beautiful music.


That is Wong Ya Weng or Huang Ya Wen in Pinyin from Brisbane and I hope you all get to know her a little. She feels shy to let me use her photo.

Reference:
All photos are downloaded from Google. image. 

Vampires, Desire, Girls and God: Twilight and the Spiritualities of Adolescent Girls - Joyce Ann Mercer

The book, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer hit the self of bookstore in 2005 and become an overnight pop cultural phenomenon among U.S. teen girl.  I asked myself what make teen girls read Twilight and follow the adventures of Bella and Edward, who is a Vampire?   Is it because vampire is sexy with a hint of danger or because Bella is a damsel in distress who needs to be rescued? 

Mercer, 2011, in her article argued that the appeal of Twilight is the result of the ability to explore the sexual and spiritual desire of girls.  Over a period of twelve months she talked to girls between the age of eleven and fifteens asking them the questions “Are you reading Twilight? What do you think?” The feedback is rather interesting and gives an insight with the obsession of vampire.

A cleverly designed marking campaign targeting these teenagers from upper middle class with the spending power who have been coached into loving vampires and into buying the products such backpacks, guidebooks and clothing to share their pleasure with their friends. Social media such as Twitter which focus everything on Twilight from press release, blogs and discussion group all help to keep the interest and consummation high.

 The fears of isolation from friend of appearing and the feeling of being left out and the inability to don’t share any inside knowledge of Twilight.  Luci, one of the girl interviewed said,

“The day I finally said, ‘this is it I just have to read the stupid thing’ was one day when my friends at lunch started saying, ‘Oo, look at Andrew, he’s going to imprint on you’ [a reference to the mysterious, fated bonding that falls upon werewolves in Meyer’s books] and I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ and they sort of laughed at me turned their backs on me because I didn’t know how to be in the conversation. That felt bad.” (p. 267).

But when she finally gets to read the book, she said, “ .. but these books are definitely page-turners. And now I know what everyone is talking about. I don’t like to be left out” (p. 267).

The pleasure the girls get from reading Twilight, ‘a kind of jouissance clearly involving the readers’ desires evoked through the account of Bella and Edward’s erotic yearning, alongside the pleasure of curiosity about what would happen next in the lives of these characters’. (p. 267)

Lexi, who is 13 years old, who told Mercer,

          “but actually the main reason I couldn’t stop is that when I read this book I feel all these intense feelings inside, when I’m in these stories it’s like I’m the one in love. . . . Oh, and Edward is so hot.” (p. 265)

Edward, the sexy vampire with a hint of danger and Lexi, the Bella in the book, the damsel in distress,  the ability of Lexi to relate to the characters in the book and movie.  It is any wonder young teenagers are swooning over Edward and not over Homer Simpson?  

The question is: Should teenager read Twilight? Is it bad for them?

Reference:

 Mercer, J. A. (2011). Vampires, desire, girls and god: Twilight and the spiritualities of adolescent girls. Pastoral Psychology, 60(2), 263-278. doi:10.1007/s11089-010-0322-7

http://link.springer.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/article/10.1007/s11089-010-0322-7/fulltext.html