Author: Elaine Chung
Source: From Koreanness to K-ness: Contemporary Korean Culture and Society
Link: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/181845/
Abstract
The Anti-Extradition Bill movement in Hong Kong garnered worldwide attention in 2019-2020. Among a handful of foreign entertainment celebrities who vocally supported the movement, the South Korean actor Kim Eui-sung was the most actively engaged and the only one who visited Hong Kong to express solidarity with the protestors. This chapter traces a range of materials, including his social media accounts and media coverage of his trip to Hong Kong, to investigate the discourses of South Koreanness produced by Kim’s activism.
It analyses the ways he represented the values of Korean society and the political inspiration of Korean history to shape the appeal and, thus, the soft power of South Korea. Findings will enrich existing scholarship on transnational celebrity activism and Korean soft power as they demonstrate that (1) history and civil society are resources of South Korean soft power beyond popular culture and (2) the role of celebrities in constructing and leveraging these soft power resources through activism that is independent of or even critical to the state actors.