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The Turn to 'Bad Koreans'
- Source :
- Television & New Media. 17:335-349
- Publication Year :
- 2015
- Publisher :
- SAGE Publications, 2015.
-
Abstract
- This article examines the production and negotiation of Korean American televisual images in U.S. reality and travel food programs. We explore two different representations of Korean Americanness, the first in CNN’s Parts Unknown and the second in Bravo TV’s Top Chef, to identify the demand for ethnic transformation that Korean Americans face and examine how these trials reanimate the role of Korean Americans on television. We argue that the iconoclastic figure of the “Bad Korean” highlighted in Parts Unknown challenges stereotypical portrayals of Korean Americans by positioning cast members as active and disruptive cultural producers. In our analysis of Top Chef, we focus on the emergence of the “Shifting Korean” to highlight the transformative process demanded by the reality television genre. We conclude by querying the representational possibilities for Korean Americans, asking what claims the “Bad Korean” and “Shifting Korean” can make on cultural authenticity.
- Subjects :
- Cultural Studies
Visual Arts and Performing Arts
media_common.quotation_subject
05 social sciences
Ethnic group
Media studies
050801 communication & media studies
Advertising
06 humanities and the arts
060202 literary studies
Race (biology)
Negotiation
0508 media and communications
Korean americans
0602 languages and literature
Sociology
Reality television
media_common
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15528316 and 15274764
- Volume :
- 17
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Television & New Media
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........67f105b1ecf8351181faab833e0a2765