Kyong Yo on is an associate professor of cultural studies at the University of Briti sh Columbia’s Okanagan campus. His research interests include digital media \, migration\, and Korean popular culture. His recent studies of transnatio nal Korean popular culture have been published in several journals\, includ ing Journal of Youth Studies (2019)\, International Communicat ion Gazette (2019)\, and Popular Music & Society (2018). He i s the author of a forthcoming book entitled Digital Mediascapes of Tran snational Korean Youth Culture (Routledge).
This study examines the role of the Korean diaspora in the recent transnational flow of Korean media and popular culture\, known as the Korean Wave or Hallyu. While there are ongoing debates about who consumes Hallyu and how it is consumed\, rec ent audience studies have increasingly examined overseas fans of Korean med ia in regions geo-culturally distant from Korea. As a result\, there has be en a lack of studies on diasporic Korean audiences in the existing studies of Hallyu. To address this lacuna\, this study explores how Hallyu affects\ , and is affected by\, young diasporic Korean audiences. Drawing on intervi ews with young Korean Canadian audiences in Vancouver and Toronto\, conduct ed between 2015 and 2018\, the study shows how diasporic youth critically e ngage with Korean media and popular culture.