Understanding the Potential for a Hallyu “Backlash” in Southeast Asia: A Case Study of Consumers in Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines

Korean cultural products (known as Hallyu) are now the dominant incarnation of East Asian culture throughout Southeast Asia and have introduced consumers to Korean industry, cosmetics, and culture. Recent work has concentrated heavily upon this region and the new dynamics Southeast Asian countries can offer to the study of inter-Asian cultural links, particularly during the political amalgamation of the ASEAN economic community. Yet in the more developed Southeast Asian nations of Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines, there is some evidence of a rejection of and animosity towards Hallyu products from consumers who are beginning to question and disapprove of the high number of Korean products in their countries. Through interviews with over 70 consumers dissatisfied with Hallyu across these three nations, this project identifies three main areas under which this potential for a Hallyu “backlash” occurs: perceptions of colonial-esque attitudes and cultural imperialism from Korea; the movement of Hallyu from an innovative new “high culture” to a static and out-of-date “low culture”; and the increasing availability of new and different international products that threaten to usurp Hallyu. Such evidence represents a potential change in East and Southeast Asian relations, as well as the long term difficulties inherent in using Hallyu as a vehicle to maintain Korean influence

Contemporary Thai horror film: a monstrous hybrid

This thesis aims to dispute derogatory and disdainful attitudes towards contemporary Thai film, ones that follow a long history of viewing Thailand and Thai culture as inferior. Through conducting a case study of the popular horror genre I illustrate that New Thai cinema follows a hybrid film form that has resulted in such condescending interpretations. This is an amalgamation of an earlier post-war 'characteristically Thai' film style that is a product of the lower-class rural context and the globally dominant EuroAmerican 'Natural Language' of horror. Furthermore, I illustrate that while Thai film in the post-war era targeted the provincial lower-classes, the post-97 New Thai industry has now shifted to an elite-sponsored model that promotes social conformity in the face of social crisis. My research indicates that the continued presence of lower-class characteristics from this earlier era of film disrupts the ideologically conservative agenda of New Thai productions and functions as a traumatic expression of lower-class subjectivity in this increasingly elitist age. The film form of contemporary Thai productions can therefore ultimately be attributed to the continuing and increasing level of social inequality within the country and the increasing political polarisation of Thai society in recent years

Imagining East Asia in Southeast Asia: A Case Study of the Reception of Korean TV Dramas Amongst Thai Viewers

This paper is part of a wider project which aims to address the cultural relationship between the Southeast Asian region and the very problematic and abstract label of East Asian Popular Culture. This paper aimed to investigate how such products have been received within a nation that is separate from East Asia yet still a part of Asia and heavily connected to this region in various political, geographic and economic ways