About the Seminar:
K-pop and K-drama have transformed contemporary beauty aesthetics among you
ng Thai people. K-pop cover dance\, or the reproduction of choreographed mo
vements from Korean music videos\, is a definitive social activity among As
ian sissies (young feminine gay men). Thai sissies are among the mos
t passionate and proficient practitioners of K-pop cover dance\, and some g
roups\, such as the Wonder Gays\, Boys’ Generation\, and Millenium Boy [
sic]\, have become national and international celebrities. Semiprofessi
onal cover dancers constitute a class of “hyper-fans” who become “demi-idol
s\,” with boys love fan followings in their own right. Additionally\, young
Thai tom (masculine lesbian) gender performances are now being mode
led on K-pop flower boys. I argue that Thai modeling of K-aesthetics embodi
es aspirations for personal and national development that index participati
on in a new cosmopolitan Asian sphere. Cover dance and related phenomenon i
n Thailand highlight recent shifts in Asian regionalism\, idol fandom\, and
transgressive gender performance.
About the Speaker:
Dredge Byung’chu Kang is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the
University of California\, San Diego. His research focuses on the intersec
tions of queer and trans* studies\, critical race theory\, and inter-Asian
regionalism. Dredge’s second project\, tentatively titled Amazing Waves
: Queering East Asian Popular Culture through Thailand\, explores the
impact of the Korean Wave and Cool Japan on the performance of Thai gender\
, sexuality\, and race as well as queer Thai influence on other Southeast A
sian nations such as Vietnam and the Philippines.
Sponsor: The Centre for Korean Research
By: Dredge Kang
Type: Seminar