This study examines how young people become, and feel about being, K-pop fans in a Western context, which is geographically and culturally distant from K-pop's place of origin. Drawing on qualitative interviews with K-pop fans in Vancouver, Canada, the study explores (1) how young fans encounter K-pop and negotiate its cultural distance, (2) how K-pop and its fandom are stereotyped by non-fans, (3) how the stereotypes are negotiated by the fans, and (4) how the fans engage in a particular sense of belonging through K-pop.
BrusilaJ (2001) Musical otherness and the Bhundu boys: the construction of the “West” and the “Rest” in the discourse of “World Music”. In: PalmbergMBaazME (eds) Same and Other: Negotiating African Identity in Cultural Production, Stockholm: Nordic Africa Institute, pp. 39–59.
4.
ChoiJB (2015) Loyalty transmission and cultural enlisting of K-pop in Latin America. In: ChoiJBMaliangkayR (eds) K-pop: The International Rise of the Korean Music Industry, New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 98–115.
5.
ChoiJBMaliangkayR (2015) Introduction: Why fandom matters to the international rise of K-pop. In: ChoiJBMaliangkayR (eds) K-pop: The International Rise of the Korean Music Industry, New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 1–18.
6.
Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (2002) Canadian content requirements for music on Canadian radio. Available at: https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/cancon/r_cdn.htm (accessed 10 April 2018).
7.
DuffettM (2013) Understanding Fandom: An Introduction to the Study of Media Fan Culture, New York, NY: Bloomsbury.
8.
DuffettM (2014) Introduction. In: DuffettM (ed.) Popular Music Fandom: Identities, Roles and Practices, New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 1–15.
9.
DwyerT (2012) Fansub dreaming on ViKi: “Don't just watch but help when you are free. The Translator18(2): 217–243.
10.
EpsteinS (2017) From South Korea to the Southern Hemisphere: K-pop below the Equator. Journal of World Popular Music3(2): 197–223.
11.
FiskeJ (1992) The cultural economy of fandom. In: LewisLA (ed.) The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 39–49.
12.
FlerasA (2014) Racisms in a Multicultural Canada: Paradoxes, Politics, and Resistance, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
13.
FuhrM (2016) Globalization and Popular Music in South Korea: Sounding Out K-pop, London: Routledge.
14.
GrayJSandvossCHarringtonCL (2007) Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World, 1st edn, New York, NY: NYU Press.
15.
GrayJSandvossCHarringtonCL (2017) Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World, 2nd edn. New York, NY: NYU Press.
16.
GrossbergL (1992) Is there a fan in the house? The affective sensibility of fandom. In: LewisLA (ed.) The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 50–65.
17.
HanB (2017) K-pop in Latin America: Transcultural fandom and digital mediation. International Journal of Communication11: 2250–2269.
18.
HarringtonCLBielbyDD (2005) Flow, home, and media pleasures. Journal of Popular Culture38(5): 834–854.
19.
Hills M (2002) Transcultural otaku: Japanese representations of fandom and representations of Japan in anime/manga fan cultures. Available at: https://cmsw.mit.edu/mit2/Abstracts/MattHillspaper.pdf (accessed 1 October 2017).
20.
JinDY (2016) New Korean Wave: Transnational Cultural Power in the Age of Social Media, Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press.
21.
JungE-Y (2015) New wave formations: K-pop idols, social media, and the remaking of the Korean Wave. In: LeeSNornesAM (eds) Hallyu 2.0: The Korean Wave in the Age of Social Media, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, pp. 73–89.
22.
JungS (2013) K-pop beyond Asia: Performing trans-nationality, trans-sexuality, and trans-textuality. In: LentJAFitzsimmonsL (eds) Asian Popular Culture in Transition, New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 108–130.
23.
KallenE (2003) Ethnicity and Human Right in Canada, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
24.
KimY (2013) Korean Wave pop culture in the global Internet age: Why popular? Why now?. In: KimY (ed.) The Korean Wave: Korean Media Go Global, New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 75–92.
25.
MazanáV (2014) Cultural perception and social impact of the Korean Wave in the Czech Republic. In: MarinescuV (ed.) The Global Impact of South Korean Popular Culture: Hallyu Unbound, Lanham, MD: Lexington, pp. 47–63.
26.
MorimotoL (2017) Transnational media fan studies. In: ScottSClickM (eds) Routledge Companion to Media Fandom, London: Routledge, pp. 280–288.
27.
NapierSJ (2007) From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Mind of the West, New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
ParkerDSongM (2006) New ethnicities online: Reflexive racialisation and the Internet. Sociological Review54(3): 575–594.
33.
SandvossC (2005) Fans: The Mirror of Consumption, Oxford: Polity.
34.
ShimDNohKW (2012) YouTube and Girls' Generation fandom. The Journal of the Korea Contents Association12(1): 125–137.
35.
Stanfill M (2011) Doing fandom, (mis)doing Whiteness: Heteronormativity, racialization, and the discursive construction of fandom. Transformative Works and Cultures. Available at: dx.doi.org/10.3983/twc.2011.0256 (accessed 1 December, 2017).
