Abstract
This essay examines the transcultural
consumption of new Korean masculinity in Japan using the
star construction of Bae Yong-Joon (BYJ/aka yon-sama)
as its key example. Through sociological research on the
middle-aged Japanese female fans (BYJ’s largest fan base),
this essay demonstrates how these fans desire BYJ’s
hybridized masculinity in consumption practices and how
these practices reflect the sentiments of Japan’s nostalgia
towards Korea.
This essay engages with John Frow’s argument
on desiring the ‘Other’s primitiveness’, which he suggests
is derived from a denial of coevalness. Extending this
theory, I argue that the Japanese fans’ desire for BYJ’s
hybridized masculinity can be conceptualized within the
framework of a contradictory combination of
‘counter-coevality’ and ‘cultural proximity’. In this essay,
I discuss how BYJ’s hybrid masculinity has been built up
through transcultural flows in the region caused by the
cultural proximity of geographical/spatial familiarity.
Then, I examine how some middle-aged Japanese female fans
desire his soft masculinity in terms of a counter-coeval
sentiment towards Korea caused by the temporal difference
between the two nations, possibly based on their
post/colonial experiences.
The counter-coeval desire of the Japanese
fans is evident in their pre-modernistic interpretations of
BYJ’s post-modern mom-zzang (muscular hard) body. His
mom-zzang body is representative of the coeval
ideology of post-modern globalized culture. I argue that
Japanese fans ultimately still desire BYJ’s post-modern body
through a traditional teleological lens – particularly, the
framework of Confucian wen masculinity. Finally, I
show how the fans consume their commoditized memories and
nostalgia through their counter-coeval desire of BYJ’s
hybridized masculinity, exemplified by their concept of
Otokorashii Otoko (a man like a “real man”). This form of
temporal displacement in transcultural Japanese consumption
reflects how new Korean masculinity is constructed in Korean
popular culture through the commodification of memory.
Key words: Bae Yong-Joon; Hallyu; Japanese fan;
new Korean masculinity; wen masculinity;
counter-coeval desire
Bae Yong Joon and the Yon-sama
Syndrome
On 4 April 2004, an unfamiliar word “Yon-sama”
occupied the headlines of most entertainment and sports
newspapers in Korea and Japan. “Welcome Yonsama!
5,000 fans at Haneda Airport”, “Yonsama has arrived!
Over 5,000 go crazy!”, “Yonsama paralyzes Haneda
Airport!”, “Japan’s middle-aged women’s infatuation with
Yonsama!” “Yonsama beats Beckham!!” (Herald
Kyung-je 2004; Cho 2004; Nikkan Sports 2004; Kookmin-Ilbo
2004; D. Lee 2004; Sankei Sports 2004) Numerous newspapers
devoted their front pages to describe the welcome by the
5,000 ‘crazy’ Japanese fans of the Korean actor Bae Yong-Joon
(BYJ) at Haneda international airport. The articles
emphasised how most of the fans are middle-aged women. Many
of these fans came to the airport the night before BYJ’s
arrival and stayed up all night to find the best spot to see
him. Many of them brought gifts and flowers for him.
Thousands of fans took photographs of him with their cameras
and phone-cameras. Even the evening television news programs
reported the ‘intensity’ of those middle-aged female fans,
whose eyes were filled with tears, while holding their
welcome placards. Some media wittily compared BYJ with David
Beckham by pointing out that it was a much bigger crowd than
those who turned up for Beckham – there were only about
1,000 fans gathered at the airport when he visited Japan in
June 2002 (Park 2004).
BYJ has gained remarkable recognition in
Japan since the Korean drama Winter Sonata was first
screened in April 2003 on NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai/Japan
Broadcasting Corporation) - the most influential Japanese
broadcasting company. For the following two years, the
complete series was broadcast four times on NHK due to the
overwhelming flood of requests for reruns by viewers – who
mostly consisted of middle-aged or older generations (Huh
and Ham 2005: 13). During the third run, it was broadcast on
NHK’s regular television channel every Saturday at 11:10pm.
Even though the drama was scheduled after prime time, its
average rating was 14.4%, which was double of the other
programs from the same time slot. Its highest rating was
22.2% - the highest of all drama series programs (Chae 2005:
10). In Japan, Winter Sonata has achieved enormous
success nationwide and created what is known as ‘the Yon-sama
syndrome’. This refers to the popularity of the main actor
Bae Yong-Joon. Yon-sama is a coined conjunction of
his name Yong and the Japanese word sama.
Normally sama refers to the high honour originally
reserved for royalty and aristocrats. Yon-sama
can be translated as “Prince Yong” or “My Dear Lord Yong”.
The honour of Yon-sama indicates the immense respect
for BYJ from Japanese fans. Even Japan’s Prime Minister,
Junichiro Koizumi once enviously commented on BYJ’s
popularity among voters, saying that “I would like to
emulate Yon-sama to become a Jun-sama” (OANA
2004). Francesco Guardini has suggested that a “new form of
monarchy has emerged in our time”. He has argued that sports
stars, singers, film actors and supermodels are like new
kings and queens and that they operate like a new
aristocracy (Guardini quoted in Ndalianis 2002: vii). In
2004, Yon-sama became a new king of popular culture
in Korea and Japan.
What are the reasons behind this phenomenon?
I argue that there is a tendency for Japanese fans to desire
BYJ in ways that can be considered ‘retrospective’ and
‘nostalgic’. This can be explained through John Frow’s
argument on desiring the ‘Other’s primitiveness’, which he
suggests is derived from a denial of coevalness. Extending
this theory, I argue that the Japanese fans’ desire for
BYJ’s hybridized masculinity can be conceptualized within
the framework of a contradictory combination of ‘cultural
proximity’ and ‘counter-coevality’. In this essay, I discuss
how BYJ’s hybrid masculinity has been built up through
transcultural flows in the region caused by the cultural
proximity of geographical/spatial familiarity. I argue that
middle-aged Japanese female fans desire BYJ’s star persona
which is based on his hybridized masculinity as a result of
intra-Asian transcultural flows of popular cultural
products. I argue that the transcultural flows between two
countries foreground the significance of mu-kuk-jok
(non-nationalism) in the globalization of Korean popular
culture. Mu-kuk-jok, a concept used to describe a
cultural practice that has no particular national trait or
odour, is an example of cultural proximity. Then, I examine
how some middle-aged Japanese female fans desire his hybrid
masculinity in terms of a counter-coeval sentiment towards
Korea caused by the temporal difference between the two
nations, possibly based on their post/colonial experiences.
BYJ’s popularity in Japan can be explained as a kind of
consumption of the simulacrum of Japan’s past.
This essay examines the transcultural
consumption of new Korean masculinity in Japan using the
star construction of BYJ as its key example. Through
sociological research on the middle-aged Japanese female
fans, this essay demonstrates how these fans desire BYJ’s
hybridized masculinity in consumption practices and how
these practices reflect the sentiments of Japan’s
counter-coeval desire towards Korea. This form of temporal
displacement in transcultural Japanese consumption reflects
how new Korean masculinity is constructed in Korean popular
culture through the commodification of memory. Audience
reception research was conducted from 28 August to 5
September, 2005; I interviewed four separate focus groups
with 18 BYJ fans in Tokyo and Okinawa in Japan. Each group
has five, four, seven and two participants. Among them,
seven of the participants are in their thirties; three are
in their forties; six are in their fifties and two are in
their sixties. I also collected 56 questionnaires at the
Saitama Super Arena, where BYJ’s film April Snow’s
promotion event was held on 31 August 2005. Because of the
issue of confidentiality, I use pseudonyms to indicate each
participant. Firstly, I will look at BYJ’s three central
star personae - in particular, examining the construction of
“Kang Joon-Sang”, the character he plays in Winter Sonata
– which I believe represents BYJ’s hybrid masculinity. Then,
I will examine how the Japanese female fans have received
these personae.
Star Persona 1: Hybridized Masculinity
The story of Winter Sonata is about
the experience of first love, lost memory and unknown family
ties. The drama starts from the innocent, but at the same
time humorous encounter of two high school sweethearts, Joon-Sang
(BYJ) and Yu-Jin (Choi Ji-Woo), the female lead. Because of
a tragic accident Joon-Sang loses his memory and the couple
are separated for ten years before they meet again. On the
day of Yu-Jin’s engagement ceremony with her old
friend/fiancé Sang-Hyuk, she runs into Joon-Sang on the
street. However, he cannot remember Yu-Jin because now he
lives a new life as Min-Hyung, a Korean-American architect.
Even though Yu-Jin knows that he is not her first love –
Joon-Sang – she cannot stop her feelings towards Min-Hyung.
Joon-Sang and Min–Hyung physically have same body, but are
different persons. She is confused between Min-Hyung and
Sang-Hyuk. Later, Joon-Sang gets his memory back, however
the situation becomes even more complicated as the secret
family ties are revealed. In the series, BYJ is Kang Joon-Sang/Lee
Min-Hyung, who smiles tenderly and maintains his pure love
for Yu-Jin. The drama repeatedly portrays the soft smile and
gentle demeanour of BYJ. Some Japanese scholars declare that
the key point of his popularity is his ‘soft smile’ (Endo
and Matsumoto 2004). At the same time, BYJ portrays a man
who willingly sacrifices himself for his lover Yu-Jin. This
sweet, touching and devoted characteristic has enthralled
Japanese audiences the most. For example, when lovesick
Sang-Hyuk is dying in the hospital, Joon-Sang/Min-Hyung
takes Yu-Jin to the hospital to let her see Sang-Hyuk:
Min-Hyung: You can go in now.
Yu-Jin: (without looking at his face) You
shouldn’t do this.
Min-Hyung: Yes, I should… You are worried
about him. Aren’t you?
Yu-Jin: (tears in her eyes) Min-Hyung…
Min-Hyung: I’m fine. You can go…
Yu-Jin: (without looking at him, with
trembling voice) What if I can’t come back?
Min-Hyung: (frightened expression) !!!
Yu-Jin: If I see Sang-Hyuk, I might not be
able to come back. Then… what should we do?
Min-Hyung: (sorrowfully) That’s… ok. That’s
better than watching you suffer in pain.
The above scene describes how Joon-Sang/Min-Hyung
puts up with emotional hardship for Yu-Jin’s sake. It seems
as if he would bear any pain for Yu-Jin. BYJ portrays a man
who cries for his lover while still holding a strong will
inside. BYJ’s character is an embodiment of a devoted man’s
image which ideally hybridized between feminine and
masculine aspects (Yu et al 2005: 81). This screen image is
often overlapped with real-life BYJ.
Many of the Japanese fans I have interviewed
have often described BYJ as an ideal, perfect man who has
‘manly charisma’ and ‘feminine tenderness’ at the same time.
In other words, they consider this hybridized masculinity as
a symbolic image of an ideal man. Interviewee Ga explained:
“He is different from any other actor or any
other guy. He is tender but not weak. His dialogues are so
sweet, poetic and intelligent but at the same time he has
such a charismatic manner.”
Na said: “In his photo album, he looks so
manly and tough! But he is still my sweet prince. Always!
Look at his smile… how beautiful!”
Ga described BYJ as an ideal man who has both
‘tender’ and ‘charismatic’ manner. Na also mentioned BYJ’s
“toughness” and “sweetness” which desirably co-exist in one
body. Kuroiwa, a producer at NHK, also points out BYJ’s
hybridized masculinity which is constructed by his
neutralized images.
Bae Yong Joon is very neutral. Not very
sexual[ly appealing], not very manly but not too feminine
either. When the woman wants to be led by somebody, he does
that. He is gentle, charming, and polite but at the same
time, when he has to say something he says something. He is
the man when the woman wants him to be a man. He fulfils all
the needs of the middle-aged Japanese women.
Kuroiwa’s point highlights that BYJ’s
hybridized masculinity might be one of the most significant
star personae to bring about the Yon-sama syndrome in Japan.
In his image, masculinity and femininity are hybridized and
unified, or in the words of one of my interviewees (Sa), he
is “gentle and feminine, yet sometimes very manly”. BYJ’s
hybridized masculinity stays in the third space; though it
contains a feminine aspect it is “not feminized”. According
to the Japanese fans’ responses, even though BYJ’s hybrid
masculinity implies femininity, they still consider him as
an ideal “manly” man. For example, Ban described BYJ as
“tender and strong, a typical man”. Based on the binary of
the words “tender (femininity)” and “strong (masculinity)”,
Ban’s expression of “typical man” has to be understood
differently from the general concept of “being a man” or
“manly”. Jan’s description, for instance, supports the
concept of ideal manliness which these Japanese female fans
desire. Jan said:
“he has masculine attraction. … [such as]
sensitiveness, softness, nobility and dignity”
Jan explained how BYJ’s feminine traits, such
as softness and sensitiveness, complete his masculine
attraction. In the later section of this essay, I will
examine how and why the Japanese fans perceive BYJ’s
hybridized masculinity as an ideal concept of a ‘manly’ man
and how this is related to their sense of nostalgia.
Star Persona 2: Purity
The drama’s ‘purity’ was also praised by the
older Japanese viewers, who said it reminded them of simpler
times from their younger days (Onishi 2004). Since Winter
Sonata was broadcasted, NHK has received countless phone
calls and e-mails and more than 20,000 letters from viewers,
many of whom write about their own experiences of love and
loss (Tabata 2003; Wiseman 2004). Comparing Winter Sonata to
the recent Japanese television dramas, some interviewees
point out the innocence of main characters. Ga stated:
“Today’s Japanese dramas contain too much
representation of sex. But in Winter Sonata we don’t see
those embarrassing sex scenes. They [the characters] love
purely.”
Those viewers, who do not like the blunt
representation of sex in Japanese dramas, fall for the
idealistic depiction of ‘pure’ love in Winter Sonata.
Some viewers describe that BYJ is an “old-fashioned gentle
man who reminds me of my first love” and some say “the high
school setting takes us [Japanese women] back to the days
before marriage”. Watching the innocence of BYJ and CJW
allows them to remember their younger selves (Wiseman 2004).
Baik Seung-Kuk, a professor of Hankuk University of Foreign
Studies, claims that the major attraction of Winter
Sonata is its storytelling which stimulates nostalgic
memory of Japanese viewers’ first love (2005: 174). Baik
states that “the sender of Winter Sonata encodes
“pure love” in the message [drama contents] and the Japanese
viewers decode them” (2005: 175). According to him, the
drama employs ‘pure love’ as a cultural code and it uses
various audiovisual methods to deliver this coded message to
the receivers (2005: 175-78). In other words, there are
dramatic signifiers which imply first love. For example,
Joon-Sang plays the piano for Yu-Jin and the title of the
piece is “The First Time”. This piano music is an example of
a signifier of first love (Y.-S. Kim 2005). As the seasonal
background is winter, there are many scenes of white snow
which also implies a sense of purity. In episode two, Joon-Sang
steals a first kiss from Yu-Jin while they are playing with
snowmen. The impact of the coded message of first love is
enhanced through the bicycle riding scene in the first
episode. In the scene, Joon-Sang rides a bicycle along a
riverside bicycle-path and Yu-Jin holds his waist, sitting
on the back seat. Romantic background music is played as
they ride along the path, and there are scenes of an orange
coloured sunset, sparkling water and golden-brown shrubs.
This happy and smiling couple looks pure and innocent in
their high-school uniforms. To explain the representation of
first love in this scene, professor Kim Ki-Kook, of Kyung-Hee
University, uses Jean Baudrillard’s concept of “simulacre
and simulation” (2005: 95). According to Kim, this bicycle
scene is a perfect model of first love for many Japanese
fans. He argues that the above listed “romantic images are
Baudrillard’s simulacra” and the viewers indulge in this
imaginary reality which was actually never existed. One of
my interviewees, Na, said that “I watched Winter Sonata
more than 20 times (…) especially I watched the bicycle
scene again and again. It reminds me of my first love from
high-school.”
Cinema studies scholar Angela Ndalianis
claims that stars are “very personal things”, who are, she
states, “producing meaning that is personal to him or her”
(2002: xii). She argues that stars “interact and merge with
an individual’s subjectivity” (2002: xii). Na’s memory of
her first love merges with the image of a uniformed bicycle
riding BYJ. In the context of Winter Sonata, BYJ
interacts with Japanese fans’ individual memories. One of
the interviewees, Ba also stated:
“I think it’s because of those comics… when
we were girls we read lots of girl’s comics. The drama’s
story and characters are very similar to those comics.
Innocent girls and boys… first love… Winter Sonata
really reminds me of those days.”
Many scholars see stars as variously
conceptualized inner wants of the masses (Dyer 1998: 18).
BYJ is a reflection of the inner wants of the middle-aged
Japanese female audiences: in the case of Na and Ba, it is a
desire for their purity of their “past”. Dyer articulates
that “every society (and each class/group at each period of
that society) foregrounds certain needs, by virtue of both
what it promises and what it fails to deliver. Likewise,
agencies in those societies (e.g. the cinema) provide and/or
define answers to those needs” (Dyer 1998). In view of the
Yon-sama syndrome, BYJ fulfils the desires of
Japanese fans: those desires are their memories and
nostalgia.
Star Persona 3: Politeness
In Winter Sonata, BYJ is portrayed as
a well-mannered and intelligent young man. He speaks to CJW
very softly in a very respectful manner and always carefully
considers her needs – just like a well-mannered aristocrat.
Ba said:
“I was so surprised [when I saw his polite
image from the drama] because I thought Korean men were very
rude and authoritative”
In the drama, his politeness is often
exemplified through the portrayal of caring for Yu-Jin. For
example, when Joon-Sang finds out that he and Yu-Jin are
half-brother and half-sister, he decides to keep this
painful news a secret. His only concern is Yu-Jin’s
happiness and he tries to protect her from any traumatic
experience. In episode 18, they travel to a small beachside
town. Yu- Jin is excited because it is their first trip
together, while Joon-Sang is in a deep sorrow because it is
a farewell trip for him.
Yu-Jin: Let’s make lots of memories. I want
to remember every single thing!
Joon-Sang: (voice only) I don’t want to leave
anything behind, Yu-Jin… anything that would remind you of
me.
From the above scene, it is clear how much
Joon-Sang considers Yu-Jin and tries to protect her from
being hurt. Even after he finds out that they are not blood
relations he leaves Yu-Jin as he believes that Yu-Jin would
be happier with Sang-Hyuk. Because of such polite and
considerate manners, the Japanese fans gave him a noble
title “sama”. Beyond his polite image from the drama
character Joon-Sang, the real life BYJ is also praised as a
polite young man. Most of the interviewees/questionnaire
participants I met in Japan mentioned his politeness. Na
said:
“He is so polite and considerate. [Look at]
how he treats his fans. So considerate!… We love his
politeness and modesty.
Chan said: “he is humble and polite… I like
the way of he greets others.”
According to the fans’ quotes from the above,
BYJ’s politeness is singled out as the most significant
factor in desiring BYJ. In particular, these fans make an
emotional connection with the way he treats fans as a
family. BYJ calls his fans “my family” and always shows his
respect and consideration to them. For example, on his
second visit to Japan in 2004, over 1,000 fans gathered
outside his hotel. When BYJ left the hotel, all of a sudden
hundreds of fans converged on his car. In the chaotic
situation, about ten fans were wounded and hospitalized. The
Japanese media started criticizing BYJ for his changing of
his schedule which led to the tragic accident. However,
before negative public opinion spread too far, BYJ held a
press conference and politely apologized for what had
happened. He said, “I was too naïve. I believed that such an
accident would never happen. I’m so sorry what has happened
to my valued family” (Choi 2004). The deep regret for his
action was enhanced by his tears. The Japanese media soon
turned their focus from the tragic accident to his polite
apologies, accompanied by his crying. Later, in the name of
a family, each one of the wounded fans received an autograph
letter from BYJ. They consider his politeness to be one of
the most significant differences of BYJ from other stars or
other men. Some fans emphasised his polite attitudes by
comparison with the rudeness of young men in Japan today. Ma
said:
“Today’s Japanese male actors? Oh no! They
are rude, too shallow and vulgar. We can’t even compare with
him [BYJ].”
Ra also said: “Of course he has the prettiest
face and sweetest smile and that is why I love him. But I
love him also because of his polite and considerate
attitudes (…) he bows to his fans with his two hands
together. We don’t see that [polite manner] any more here.”
According to them, politeness is a value
which they hardly find in today’s Japan. These fans see the
virtues of the past from BYJ’s polite gestures. Ga said:
“Even the way he waves his hands is so
noble.”
Pan said: “[I like his] gentleness and
courtesy. He has something we Japanese have already lost”
His polite image represents something Japan
has lost, such as old virtues. For the Japanese fans, his
polite (body) gestures are a symbol of old virtues and
memories. In this sense, his body is a retrospective site.
Likewise, BYJ’s polite body became an object of Japanese
female fans’ retrospective desire. This is also evident from
the Japanese fans’ appreciation of the fake yon-sama.
At the Saitama Super Arena, where BYJ’s film April
Snow’s promotion event was held, over 30,000
enthusiastic Japanese (mostly female) fans were gathered to
see BYJ. Among them, some were busy taking photos of a
Japanese man dressed up as BYJ. Even though this man does
not look like BYJ, he can become BYJ by merely showing his
teeth (for a smile) and by politely putting his hands on the
chest. Because of this polite gesture, the Japanese fans
identify this anonymous Japanese man with yon-sama.
Again, as Kim Young-Soon and others observed in their
semiological analysis, this fake Yon-sama’s gesture
is a signifier to encode the BYJ-like characteristic – i.e.
politeness. Because this coded message is familiar to the
receivers, they could immediately decode it as BYJ’s polite
body. The Japanese fans recognize BYJ by identifying his
politeness.
Fake
yon-sama
As observed from the three star personae, BYJ
can be characterized as embodying a hybrid masculinity, as
well as a combination of the attributes of purity and
politeness. This is counter to the previous representations
of dominant and hard masculinity of Korean men. In the next
section, I will discuss how this hybrid masculinity differs
from pre-existing ideas circulating about Korean masculinity
in Japan.
New Korean Masculinity, BYJ
BYJ’s Kang Joon-Sang character in Winter
Sonata has changed many Japanese people’s perceptions of
Korean men. A Korean women’s studies’ scholar Kim Eun-Shil,
who is researching the effects of the Yon-sama
syndrome on postcolonial relations between Japan and Korea,
states: “to the Japanese, Korea used to be associated with
images of the ‘dark, noisy and smelly,’ but now Yon-sama’s
middle-aged fans associate Korea with ‘beautiful things’ and
see Yon-sama as an idealized man” (Onishi 2004). In
particular, it is evident from the result of research
questionnaires that Japanese women’s perceptions of Korean
men has changed from that of a previous uncivilized macho
image to one that is highly idealized, such as BYJ. For the
question “is BYJ’s character/image different from those
pre-existing images of Korean men which you have seen from
other movies, dramas or in your real lives?” among 56
participants, who answered this question, 46 participants
answered “Yes”. Among them, 38 participants described the
pre-existing Korean men’s images using negative expressions,
such as “dark, scary, sly, aggressive and violent”. In
particular, many of them use the word “scary”. Dan explained
as follows:
“Before, they had scary images. After I knew
BYJ, the images of Korean men have become better and I feel
friendly towards them.”
Nan said “Previously [Korean men’s images
were] violent and scary. But BYJ is tender, gentle and he
takes his life seriously.”
According to the above quotes, since the
Japanese fans were introduced to BYJ from Winter Sonata,
their perception of Korean men has dramatically changed from
a scary machismo to that of a tender gentleman. One of the
participants, Kan, explains that these scary images are
mostly from the media representations of “protesting
students against the dictatorship during the 1980s”. Ba also
points out that “some Korean middle-aged men I see in
[television] dramas are quite bossy and they don’t treat
women fairly”. As Kan and Ba described, the Japanese built
up the pre-existing idea of Korean men through the media
presented images. These negative images were represented
mostly due to the historico-socio-political crisis and its
source traces back to the Japanese occupation era.
During the 35 years of Japanese occupation,
Korean people were exploited and Korean traditions,
industries and culture were completely oppressed. Following
the Liberation in August 1945, another traumatic historical
event, the Korean War (1950-1953) further devastated Korea.
Due to these national tragedies, Koreans have always has
been portrayed as a poor and filthy people, living in a
dirty and undeveloped country. In particular as a
neighbouring country and a former colonial empire, Japan has
always treated Korea as an inferior country with a
second-rate culture. An article in the Wall Street
Journal describes this prejudicial view towards Korea:
(But) in Japan the Korea craze is
particularly surprising, because it has gripped a generation
that has never shown much interest in Japan’s nearest
neighbor. Japan’s colonial rule in Korea, from 1910 to 1945,
left some now-older Japanese conflicted about the country or
dismissive of it. For decades, many Japanese looked down on
Koreans as inferior both racially and economically. (Fuyuno
2004)
This article points out that the old
generation, who were born during the period of Japanese
occupation, has changed its point of view after the advent
of BYJ. Most of these fans express their surprise at seeing
a new Korean male image, in the form of the tender and soft
BYJ. How, then, this new Korean masculinity has been created
and why this is well resonated especially with the Japanese
female fans? For this, I will explain the kkon-mi-nam
syndrome in Korea within the framework of the popularity of
mu-kuk-jok pretty boy images in the region.
Asia’s shared imagination, Mu-kuk-jok
kkon-mi-nam BYJ
According to my field research, along with
his ‘noble’ smile and “well-mannered” attitudes such as
politeness, BYJ’s feminine “pretty” face seems to appeal to
Japanese middle-aged female viewers the most. In this
manner, he is often described as so called a kkon-mi-nam
star. The literary meaning of kkon-mi-nam is a
‘flowery pretty boy’. Kkon-mi-nam refers to pretty
looking, with smooth fair skin, silky hair and a feminine
manner. Originally starting from Japanese shojo manga
(Korean term sunjeong manhwa), the pretty boy images
have been repeatedly produced in the Korean entertainment
industry since the late 1990s. Television commercials,
dramas and billboards have glorified pretty boys. A scholar
of Korean literature, Kim Yong Hee explains that “the
kkon-mi-nam syndrome is developed from a consequence of
deconstruction and hybridization of female/male sexual
identities rather than males merely becoming feminized”
(2003: 104). She argues that the new mixed sexual identity,
in the postmodernist popular culture, increases the
hallucinated imagination and satisfies the complex human
desire (2003: 104). According to Kim, a kkon-mi-nam
fulfils a complex human (especially female) desire, which
macho men are deficient in. The phenomenon declares that the
era of the machismo male has passed and the epoch of the new
hybrid masculinity has arrived. This is well explained in
the trend of transcultural mixtures of male star sexuality
in Asian countries; J-pop Bishonen bands such as SMAP,
Arashi and winds; K-pop boy groups such as HOT, Shinhwa and
Dongbangshinki and Taiwanese boy bands such as F4.
Specifically the kkon-mi-nam images of male Korean
stars are the embodiment of hybridized Asian pop cultural
icons. The above listed Asian male pop-stars share the
images of the hybridized masculinity of girl-like
prettiness. Due to these similar feminine images, it is
almost impossible to recognize their nationalities by their
appearances. This is, I argue, because of a mu-kuk-jok
(non-nationalistic) trait which has appeared as a result of
the Asian transcultural flows of various pop-cultures and
pop-cultural products.
Asian pretty boy pop-stars possibly can be
described as a globalized, transcultural and
non-nationalistic (mu-kuk-jok) product. The Korean
term mu-kuk-jok means ‘no nationality’ which implies
no particular national taste or odour, i.e. culturally
odourless as Iwabuchi suggests (2002: 27). BYJ’s image is
actively accepted in other Asian countries because it
reflects the ‘odourless’ aspect of a mu-kuk-jok pretty boy.
This can be also explained Appadurai’s term mediascape which
recognises the media’s capabilities to produce and
disseminate information and images through transcultural
flows (1996: 35). He also suggests the concept of “shared
imagination” to explain non-nationalistic sentiments,
arguing: “part of what the mass media make[s] possible,
because of the conditions of collective reading, criticism,
and pleasure, is what I [have] called … a “community of
sentiment”, a group that begins to imagine and feel things
together” (1996: 8). What Appadurai claims here is that
collective experiences through the mass media can create
‘sodalities’ of worship and taste. Likewise transcultural
media influence between various Asian countries creates
odourless – culturally acceptable – presentation of pretty
boys. The consequences of mediascapes, various pop-cultural
flows, cultural mixing and metamorphosis all combine to
create the odourless and mu-kuk-jok image of the
pan-Asian pretty boy. I argue that BYJ is popular amongst
Japanese audiences due to his odourless kkon-mi-nam
image. This image is culturally acceptable in Japan, because
it shares similarities with shojo manga’s pretty teen
boys or J-pop Bishonen bands. BYJ’s hybrid
masculinity is a localized form of regional feminine
masculinity. Therefore the Japanese audiences can readily
desire BYJ’s hybridized masculinity as they are already used
to the regionally circulated pretty boy images. The
mu-kuk-jok hybridized masculinity of BYJ as a result of
the transcultural flows is one of the driving forces behind
the Yon-sama syndrome in Japan, and it is based on
the geographical familiarity – “spatial proximity” – between
the two countries. Another significant impetus is Japan’s
nostalgic desire for their “past” which BYJ’s polite body
signifies. This implies that there is a “temporal lag”
between the two countries.
 |
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Sunjeong manhwa’s typical pretty boy |
BYJ’s pretty boy image
|
Desiring the past: our memory is in your
present body
Japanese fans’ desires towards BYJ’s
hybridized masculinity represented in his polite and
feminine image, is heavily dependent on the cultural
proximity between Korea and Japan based on the geographical
familiarity and the transcultural flows of mu-kuk-jok. I
also argue that another element of Japan’s desire towards
BYJ’s hybrid masculinity is their sense of counter-coevality.
The middle-aged Japanese fans desire BYJ’s hybrid
masculinity to commemorate their olden days. Shin Kyung-Mi
argues that the Yon-sama syndrome reflects the
Japanese people’s yearning for the “good days” of the
Sho-Wa era (2006: 241). The Sho-Wa era lasted
from 1926 to 1988, when the former Japanese emperor Hirohito
died. During this era, Japan experienced rapid economic
growth. Shin states that “Sho-Wa nostalgia is a
phenomenon which reflects the yearning for the era of the
fast economic growth of 1950-1970 by the Japanese who are
tired of today’s economic depression (2006: 241). As
observed above, the fans’ quotes mentioning BYJ’s
politeness, by watching his polite gestures and images,
Japanese viewers could fulfil their Sho-Wa nostalgia.
Shin also adds that the main themes of Winter Sonata
(pure love, devotion and politeness) resonated deeply with
the desire of Japanese viewers in their 30s, to 50s who
spent their youth during the Sho-Wa era. Ma Jung-Mi
argues that “star image is a signifier which can exemplify
‘the flow of consciousness’ of the time” (Ma 2005). In the
case of Yon-sama syndrome, BYJ became a star in Japan
because of his polite and feminine image which exemplifies
the Japanese viewers’ longings and desires towards old
virtues, which they believe they once had, but now have been
lost. For example, one of the participants, Tan stated:
“I think he is a real man. [He is]
Intelligent, humble, polite, takes care of others, elegant
and has a strong will. We used to have that kind of man in
Japan. But now it’s hard to find that kind of character
[virtue] from young Japanese men.”
As is evident in the above quote, his polite
image, represented through soft body/hybrid masculinity,
projects Japan’s imagined past, but his hybrid masculinity
is not conceived as “an equal interlocutor but marked by a
frozen, immutable temporal lag” (Iwabuchi 2002: 552). NHK
producer Kuroiwa explained this as follows:
Only one month after (the drama Winter
Sonata has been aired) we received many long letters
from the audience. “Oh… I had the same experience when I was
young…” they recall the memories of their first love and
really wanted to express themselves (…) When Bae Yong Joon
visited Japan, he acted so gentlemanly and politely. We used
to have such men in Japan but not any more. They [the
Middle-aged Japanese female fans] really hate the way the
Japanese young generations behave.
Both Tan and Kuroiwa pointed out that Japan
“used to” have such values, which implies a temporal lag
between Korea and Japan. To the Japanese audiences Korea is
still the “past” and pre-modern. The above quotes show –
through desiring BYJ’s soft body – how the middle-aged
female fans support Japan’s counter-coeval gaze towards
Korea. His body has become the repository for the nostalgic
desires and memories of the middle-aged Japanese women.
Regarding the notion of nostalgia and
memories commoditized in the modern world, John Frow, in his
book Time and Commodity Culture, articulates that
“many accounts of modernity view the world retrospectively,
in sadness (Chow quoted in Frow 1997): a fortiori,
many accounts of postmodernity mourn a loss of history and
of memory” (1997: 7). In his view, this memory is not from
the historical world, but rather from a world made up of an
immense accumulation of “spectacles”. Citing Guy Debord’s
The Society of the Spectacle, Frow says:
in Debord’s analysis the ‘present age’ is
defined in more precise terms as a set of social relations
of production, and the ‘sign’, ‘copy’ and so on reappear as
the category of the ‘spectacle’: the fetishized form of the
commodity in a system of representation which is in part to
be understood as the system of the mass media, including
advertising and design; in part more specifically as the
social force of television (which can often be directly
substituted for the word ‘spectacle’); but at times more
generally as the visual, or the forms taken by the gaze
within a consumer-capitalist society (1997: 5).
Therefore, in the case of television viewers,
their retrospective gaze actually reinforces to desire the
“spectacle”, which signifies and copies the real world and
real history. In the case of BYJ, the Japanese fans’
retrospective gaze magnifies their desire towards the
coded/imagined world, exemplified by BYJ’s politeness in his
soft body. Through Japanese fans’ nostalgic gaze, his soft
body becomes a spectacle of their glorious past. Their
memories and nostalgia are commoditized through detaching
the real world and actually exemplify the world’s real
unreality. Frow argues that “the time of the commodity is
irreversible time: the time of things, and of mass
production, the opposite at once of an earlier, cyclical
time and of ‘historical time lived by individuals and
groups”(1997: 7). Therefore, the commodity demonstrates the
images, time, space and even senses which have never
existed. If the viewers’ commoditized memories reconstruct
the non-existed time of the unreal world, what is it that
these viewers are looking for – something that belongs to
the past? Through desiring commoditized memories, these
viewers might desire the Other’s primitiveness. This
concept of desiring the Other’s primitiveness is
derived from the idea of denial of coevalness. Frow says:
The concept of coevalness or cotemporality is
intended to specify the conditions under which the interests
of both ‘observed’ and ‘observer’ societies can be put into
relation. Coevalness is assumed to be grounded in the shared
intersubjective time that precedes all more culturally
specific experiences of time, and it is this that opens the
way for ‘truly dialectical confrontation. The word
coevalness is equivalent to the German Gleichzeitigkeit, and
is meant to include the senses both of co-occurrence in
physical time (synchronicity) and of co-occurrence in
typological or epochal time (contemporaneity). (…) Its
counter-concept, Ungleichzeitigkeit (non-synchronicity, the
uneven layering of times within any historical formation)
seems to me in fact to provide a more adequate way of
understanding the unequal relations that hold within a
synchronic framework characterized by uneven development and
a global division of labour. Not everyone occupies the same
NOW (…) (1997: 9).
As Frow argues above, each cultural group has
a different structure for the experience of time. Frow’s
concept of ‘unequal time’ can be explained through my term
“counter-coevality”. Counter-coevality stresses its negative
view on not sharing the synchronic time structure between
the observer/consumer and the observed/commodity while
Frow’s idea of non-synchronicity emphasizes the aspect of
multiple histories and relativization of cultures. In the
case of the Yon-sama syndrome, the commoditized
memory reinforces the Japanese fans’ desire for BYJ’s
politeness – soft body, which is based on their sense of
counter-coevality towards Korea and Korean cultures.
Japan’s counter-coevality to Korea is mainly
due to the temporally lagged procedure and phase of
modernization. Unlike Japan’s voluntary active modernization
since the mid-1800s, known as Meiji Ishin (Meiji
Restoration), Korea went through the forced and compressed
modernization during the early and mid-1900s led by Japan
and America retrospectively. During the colonial era
(1910-1945), Japan was able to build up the modern
socio-cultural infrastructure relatively fast through
exploiting the various colonized Asian countries, including
Korea. Matsuzawa Tessei explains that under the Japan’s
imperialistic aggression and colonization, there was an
influx of Korean and Taiwanese immigrants, who were
exploited by Japanese government in construction, transport,
gravel yards, factory services etc” (1988: 154). Even after
the occupation, while Japan experienced rapid economic
growth from the 1950s to 1970s (Sho-Wa era), Korea
had to go through the devastating Korean War and the
post-War reconstruction. After the division of the Korean
peninsular, along with America’s political intervention,
(South) Korea experienced a dark era of dictatorships from
1962 to 1988. During the era, under the catchphrase of
“turbo modernization”, Korea underwent rapid and compressed
economic development but at the same time, faced up to the
serious socio-political conflicts such as Kwang-Ju
Massacre, and the retrogression of democracy (Min 2003:
25-58). While Japan experienced a flourishing modernity,
Korean had to undergo a filthy, dark era. Likewise, the
phases of modernization between Korea and Japan indicate a
significant temporal lag. The two countries occupy a
“different NOW and THEN”. This asynchronous temporal
experience could be the main reason of the counter-coeval
gaze of the Japanese fans towards BYJ’s soft body. This is
well-described by Koichi Iwabuchi’s argument, which I will
now turn to.
As Iwabuchi states that “this is the “Asia”
where Japanese consumers find their lost purity, energy, and
dreams” ("Nostalgia for a (Different) Asian Modernity: Media
Consumption of "Asia" in Japan" 2002: 550), the Japanese
audiences find their lost virtues from BYJ’s hybridized soft
body. Iwabuchi argues that “the politics of the
transnational evocation of nostalgia is highlighted when it
is employed to confirm a frozen temporal lag between two
cultures, when “our” past and memory are found in “their”
present” (2002: 549). In the case of BYJ’s images from
Winter Sonata, the Japanese fans find their “past” and
“memory” in Korean actor BYJ’s “present” body. BYJ’s soft
body embodies the fans’ nostalgia. His body is, however,
fetishized by these fans’ nostalgic fantasy. His hybridized
body is stereotyped by Japanese fan’s retrospective gaze,
which only has to be remained as pre-modern, feminine and
soft. Likewise Japan’s nostalgic desire of Korea through
BYJ’s hybridized masculinity can be described as
counter-coeval and to some extent, imperialistic. This
counter-coeval view is evident in the Japanese fan’s
consumption tendency of BYJ’s photo album The Image
Vol. One, which contains his sexy muscular images. His
muscular body reflects the mom-zzang syndrome, one of
the most popular socio-cultural phenomena in Korea during
the early 2000s.
Post-modern body,
mom-zzang
The hybridity of BYJ’s image is exemplified
by its conscious mixtures of masculinity and femininity, and
as observed earlier the kkon-mi-nam syndrome is the
most significant driving force of this trend. Another
possible force behind the construction of BYJ’s hybridized
masculinity is the “mom-zzang syndrome”. The literary
meaning of mom-zzang is ‘body-master’. The word
mom means ‘body’ and zzang is the vernacular for
‘the great’ or ‘the best’. A neologism, mom-zzang
refers to the socio-cultural phenomenon of having a good
looking body in Korea. The term was first used in 2003 (Yu
et al 2005). In the case of female, mom-zzang
normally signifies a skinny and glamorous body while it
means ‘muscular body’ for males. This phenomenon emerged
from an Internet web-site run by a 40 year old mom-zzang
woman and whom has a great – toned, skinny and at the same
time curvy – body. Beginning with a couple of photos of this
mom-zzang ajumma (means a middle-aged woman in
Korean) the mom-zzang syndrome has swept Korea away.

mom-zzang
ajumma
Korean people started building up their
bodies to make themselves look good and sexually attractive.
The result of this socio-cultural syndrome is often evident
in the feverous changes of their lifestyles – spending more
time and money on their body through yoga, exercise and
healthy food. Since then, the mom-zzang fever
continued to the ‘well-being’ phenomenon. Professor of Won-Ju
University, Lee Mi-Rim explains this phenomenon:
In the post-modern era, along with the
growing interest in human body, creating a great body became
a phenomenon (…) The well-being life style – rather spending
time and money for sports dance, yoga, meditation, exercise
and low fat, organic foods – became a barometer of
modernization. The general concept of well-being refers to a
life style or culture which pursues a beautiful happy life
through the harmony between physical and spiritual health.
This well-being life specifies living well; living a
healthy, easy and balanced life. It emphasizes the spiritual
aspect more than the material aspect (…) (Lee 2005).
Lee points out here that this socio-cultural
phenomenon indicates that Korean people’s interests have
changed from something modern (financial stability and
economic growth) to post-modern (such as their bodies and
health). The mom-zzang syndrome is neither new nor
exclusive; it is a global phenomenon, as Appadurai’s concept
of ‘mediascapes’ illustrates, spread by new media and
communications technologies such as the Internet and
satellite television, usually in a form of advertising or
commercial application.
This tendency is evident in the globally
iconic post-modern lifestyle of “metrosexuality” which is
often represented by David Beckham, a soccer player, and
Hollywood actor Brad Pitt. According to a British journalist
Mark Simpson, metrosexuality is ‘the trait of an urban male
of any sexual orientation who has a strong aesthetic sense
and spends a great amount of time and money on his
appearance and lifestyle (Simpson 1994). As Simpson
explains, a metrosexual refers a man with an aesthetic style
and taste on fashion, beauty, art and culture. While a
metrosexual embraces the homosexual lifestyle, it usually
refers a heterosexual male who is in touch with his feminine
side.
BYJ is often referred to as being a symbol of
metrosexuality. According to the article, “Rampant republic
of Mr. Beauty, the era of male consumption” of Film2.0,
in today’s Korea, fashionable and beauty-sensitive men have
become an object of consumer marketing. At the centre of
this trend, there are many metrosexual stars including BYJ
(Han et al 2006). For example, from the LG-card television
commercial, BYJ is portrayed in a relay of juxtaposed images
of a busy urban living professional career man who knows how
to enjoy his modern life through leisure, travel, fashion,
music and arts. In this commercial, his image is similar to
Joon-Sang from Winter Sonata (Ma 2005). He is an
exact embodiment of urban cool guy:
displaying typical metrosexual life style
such as swimming, shooting, traveling in a convertible
sports car, walking into the luxurious restaurant while
holding a bunch of flowers, and playing a trumpet at a Jazz
bar in a fashionable brand suit . (Ma 2005)
BYJ is a commercial barometer for the
popularity of metrosexuality. Regarding the global trend of
metrosexuality, Kang Yu Jung, the chief editor of a cultural
quarterly Cultura, argues that there are two major impetuses
for the rise of metrosexuality; one is a natural
manifestation of contemporary male desire of becoming more
beautiful; the other is a support of gigantic industry
capital (Kang 2006). It is a manifestation of hybrid male
desire that still maintains an element of masculinity, but
paradoxically incorporates feminine yearning of being
beautiful.
Apart from the adoption of updated fashions
and styles, this paradoxical male desire is also exemplified
though various fitness activities such as exercise, yoga and
diet to transform his body into a more desired form. As
observed from BYJ’s LG-card commercial, it is crucial for a
metrosexual lifestyle to build an ideal body form through
fitness. Starting from gay and metrosexual lifestyle,
fitness soon became a vital element of global trendy
lifestyle. Barry Glassner explains that fitness has become a
widespread and growing interest over the past couple of
decades, among middle and upper class Americans (1989: 180).
He argues that fitness is a post-modern pursuit because it
restores human faith which was lost during the modern era of
machine, science and technology (1989: 181). Likewise,
represented by a toned and well-being body, maintaining an
ideal body form has become an essential part of a model
post-modern lifestyle. The mom-zzang syndrome is a
“localized” form of this global trend of the post-modern
lifestyle. This phenomenon proves that Korea shares some
post-modern values with the rest of the world, especially
the developed Western world. Some scholars criticize that
the mom-zzang syndrome promotes highly unrealistic
ideals about the human physique, not to mention the
commercialization of sex (Hong et al 2004). However, it also
gives evidence that, having gone through the materialistic
modern era, Korea has entered the ‘well-being’ post-modern
era.
Localized global/regional masculinity BYJ
The mom-zzang syndrome has led a boom
of the well-being/mom-zzang marketing in almost every
industrial sector. The Korean entertainment industry was not
an exception. In particular, star management companies adopt
mom-zzang marketing to produce their ‘star’ images.
Korean fe/male stars are soon transformed to mom-zzang
through hard training, exercises, yoga and diet. Especially
Korean male Hallyu stars aggressively employ their
mom-zzang images to approach the foreign (mostly Asian)
audiences. This phenomenon reinforces the hybridity of
Korean masculinity along with the kkon-mi-nam
syndrome. The Korean male Hallyu stars boldly cultivate
their hybridized sexual images to appeal to the complex
desires of regional audiences. The ideal amalgamation
between femininity (kkon-mi-nam) and masculinity (mom-zzang)
of Korean male stars reflects a specific Korean – and
Pan-Asian – ideal of a new masculinity. This ideal form of
hybrid masculinity implies localization of global
masculinity (mom-zzang) and regional masculinity (kkon-mi-nam).
BYJ is an excellent example of this concept
of new masculinity as he aggressively displays the
hybridised masculinity in his works including dramas, films,
commercials and photo albums. Among these various works, the
photo album and photo exhibition particularly highlight his
mom-zzang body. In November 2004, BYJ released his
first photo album The Image: Volume One to
commemorate the 10th year of his acting career, followed by
photo exhibitions in the major cities in Japan and Korea (Yun
2005). The photo exhibition was held in Seoul, Busan
(Korea), Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sapporo (Japan).
The exhibitions were attended by more than 600,000 fans and
the total earnings were donated to various charitable
organizations in both countries (Yun 2005). These
exhibitions and photo album have created a big impact in
Asia because BYJ has shown a totally different side of his
image by showing off his muscular and semi-nude body.
BYJ’s
muscular image from his photo album
For this mom-zzang project, BYJ had to
spend the entire three months to only train his body with
his personal trainer in California and finally created a
whole new body. In Japan, despite the high price of the
photo album – 14,700 yen (AU$170), the 50,000 limited
editions were sold out in 5 days. Reprinting meant that more
than 200,000 copies of photo books were sold in Japan (K. S.
Lee 2004).
Soft body of Wen Masculinity
From the photo album, BYJ displays the images
of a tough, dark and bloody muscular fighter, unlike his
previous soft and tender image. There are three general
responses from the 18 Japanese fans I interviewed, regarding
his new mom-zzang body; four fans hated it (some even
denied it); two fans liked it; and twelve fans reluctantly
liked it. Na and Cha meet the first category; Na said “I
don’t like those (muscular and half naked) images. I think
they are too sexy.” Cha even said “I didn’t have a look at
them yet because I’m afraid that my BYJ fantasy might be
destroyed.” She denies BYJ’s new sexy look because she still
desires her imagined memory inscribed by Kang Joon-Sang from
Winter Sonata. On the other hand, only two find him
sexy based on those photos. Ba stated:
“I actually became a fan after I saw the
photo exhibition. Before this I thought he was just a boring
man. Only for those old bored ajumma (middle-aged
woman), but from those photos I found him very sexy. Then I
started watching his dramas.”
Ba is a single woman in her mid-forties. She
runs a private English language school and studied in
America for five years when she was young. I assume that her
background of overseas experience could have given her a
different view on BYJ’s muscular body from the other
middle-aged Japanese fans. However I will not further
discuss the Ba’s case in depth because her opinion is in the
minority. The majority of my interviewees show the tendency
of reluctant reception for his new sexy body. Ga explained:
“I was so shocked and disappointed when I
first saw his nude (and sex scenes) from the movie Untold
Scandal. I was even crying. (…) when I saw his photo
album, finally I decided to take it as one of his challenges
and I respect his efforts.”
Sa said “He wasn’t just trying to sell his
body through selling photo books. That was a kind of fan
service. Also he donates the entire profits to the poor in
Asian countries. I respect his works and his will power.”
As observed from these comments, the majority
of his Japanese fans do not accept BYJ’s sexy masculine body
as it is. Unlike Ba’s open attitude towards his new sexy
images, the last group actually add some explanations and
other reasons as a precondition of acceptance. As Ga and Sa
explained above, it is not his sexy and muscular body they
desire; it is something else such as his will power or
challenging spirit. Because Ga is one of the most dedicated
fans, who is in her mid-fifties she has travelled to Korea
to meet BYJ three times during the first half of 2005; she
confessed that BYJ is a kind of ‘religion’ for her.
Therefore, it is possible to assume that no matter what kind
of work BYJ has done, Ga would ‘religiously’ believe that it
is worth consuming and she would create justifiable reasons
for herself. Some of these ‘reluctant receivers’ suggest
other reasons to receive his new images. Ra said:
“I saw his dark and mean side from those
photos. I love to discover his other sides.”
Ja also said “It’s okay for me. They are very
different from the previous images of his dramas but
attractive. But I still prefer the tender and soft side (of
him).”
In relation to the reception of his sexy
muscular images, Ra and Ja stressed discovering the
different aspects and other side of BYJ, rather than
receiving his mom-zzang body as it is.
As observed from the above four comments from
the reluctant receivers, it is evident that they commonly
praised BYJ’s effort, will power and spirit. Instead of
desiring his sexy body itself, these middle-aged Japanese
female fans desire his star persona such as his mentality
and cultured manners. This is evident in the questionnaire
answers for the question “please explain the most
significant aspect of BYJ which attracts you the most”.
Among 56 participants, more than half of them (32) answered
that they are attracted to BYJ because of his personality
and “the way he lives and thinks” – which includes ideas
such as sincerity, seriousness, humbleness, will-power and
hardworking. Han described her reasons as follows:
“[His] appearance is very good. But I’m
attracted to what he has inside. Sincerity, humbleness, he
always takes his life seriously. He always tries to progress
and to become better with challenging spirit like building
up his body for a photo book. He has the most important male
value inside of him.”
Han insists that his mature mentality is the
most important factor which makes him an ideal male figure.
For her, his muscular body only reinforces his mature
mentality. Given their explanations about BYJ’s mom-zzang
body, it is clear that these Japanese fans desire his
masculinity in the framework of receiving his mentality not
his sexy body. This tendency can be conceptualized through
Kam Louie’s theory of “Chinese Masculinities” (Louie 2002).
He argues that the paradigm of the “binary opposition
between wen the mental or civil, and wu the
physical or martial” fit Chinese masculinity, which can not
possibly be explained in contemporary Western conceptions of
maleness (2002:10). This theory can be broadly applied to
the concept of East-Asian masculinities as it is based on
the notion of Confucianism which holds a deep influence over
East-Asian cultures. According to the dyad wen-wu, an
ideal man would be expected to embody a balance of wen
and wu (2002:11). However, historically wen
tended to be considered superior to wu. Because
Confucius is the god of wen, in China the strict Confucian
country, wen – mental attainment – was often
considered a more elite masculine form than wu –
physical attainment (2002:17-18). In the case of BYJ, the
Japanese fans seem to focus on his wen masculinity –
mental and cultural attainment.
In order to explain the concept of wen
masculinity, Chinese Studies scholar Riyan Wang suggests the
idea of “soft” masculinity demonstrated by traditional
talented scholars. She states: “the sexual attractiveness of
such educated males mostly derives from their cultural
cultivation and literary talent. Masculinity displayed
through cultural or literary engagement is soft (although by
no means weak) in contrast to that of ‘tough guys with
muscles’” (Wang 2003). According to Wang, wen
signifies the cultural/cultured/civil which indicates soft
masculinity while wu signifies the physical,
indicating hard masculinity. However, this dichotomous
wen-wu concept does not seem to explain the Japanese
fans’ desire for BYJ’s muscular body. These fans desire his
muscular – wu – body by means of his effort and will
power of cultivation – wen. No matter how sexy and
muscular his body is, for the Japanese fans, it only
signifies his mentality and civil-ness. As mentioned above,
in Confucian societies, historically wen was
considered to be superior to wu. Therefore these
fans, who must have been influenced by the Japanese
Confucian tradition, would prefer wen masculinity to
wu masculinity. That the Japanese fans prioritise
wen above wu is detected by some other quotes, as
seen below.
A couple of interviewees, who do not like his
muscular body, still repetitively emphasized that they like
BYJ because of his manly attitudes or masculine images.
However, their perception of “manly” and “masculine” are
somewhat different from the general Western concepts of
those terms. Ka explained:
“(BYJ is manly) because he is such a
faithful, loyal and sincere person (…) He donated such a
large amount of money [to the poor and the sick people in
Asia]. He always says that he’ll return the blessing [from
his fans] to the fans. I respect such loyalty.”
Ka adds “Maybe because Korean men serve the
army, they seem reliable.”
Cha said: “Compared to Japanese actors, they
[Korean actors] seem more mature [that’s why they are
manlier].
As observed, for the Japanese fans, the terms
“manly” and “masculine” are understood within the orthodox
paradigm of human virtues such as “sincerity” “loyalty” and
“maturity”. As a central Confucian virtue, yi –
righteousness – is “supposed to encase ideas of loyalty,
faithfulness, friendship and honour” (Louie 2002: 36), BYJ’s
cultured manner and civil body exemplifies Confucian wen
masculinity. Gan said:
“BYJ is soft, humble, sincere and loyal. He
is a man like a real man”
Gan described BYJ as a man like a “real man”
(Otokorashii Otoko) mentioning his softness and loyalty.
These participants’ responses all focus on how manly BYJ is,
while also highlighting his wen-masculinity. In particular,
apart from Gan, three more participants/interviewees used
the term “Otokorashii Otoko” to indicate BYJ’s wen-masculinity.
Its literary meaning is “a man like a man”, and it can be
translated as “a man of men”, “a man like a real man” or
“manly like a man should be”. Again, the Japanese fans
desire his wen – soft body as a form of ideal
masculinity. This tendency proves that Japanese fans desire
BYJ by means of looking for the traditional virtues not by
yearning for a physically attractive muscular body. Japanese
fans desire his post-modern mom-zzang body through
the paradigm of wen masculinity, a pre-modern
ideology. In the case of Japanese fans’ desire of BYJ’s
masculinity, according to my field research, the major
driving force is counter-coevality. That is evident in the
Japanese fans’ consumption practice of BYJ’s soft body –
hybrid masculinity – where they fulfil their desires of
nostalgic memories of the virtues of past societies.
Conclusion
The middle-aged Japanese female fandom of
Korean actor BYJ can be conceptualized through the
disjunctive post/modern paradigm of time and space between
the two countries. This is a reflection of what Appadurai
has claimed: “space and time are themselves socialized and
localized through complex and deliberate practices of
performance, representation, and action” (1996: 180). This
is evident in a post-modern representation of BYJ’s hybrid
masculinity as a form of transcultural product based upon
the cultural and geographical proximity and nostalgic desire
of Japanese fans based on the different temporal experience.
As examined through the popular contemporary
Asian male images of kkon-mi-nam and bishonen,
BYJ represents the hybridized Asian masculinity which is
constructed through the repetitive intra-Asian transcultural
flows. In addition, mom-zzang image expanded BYJ’s
hybrid masculinity into the global scale, which implies
metrosexuality. This localization of regional and global
masculinity subsequently creates mu-kuk-jok of BYJ’s
body, which enables the transcultural fandom of BYJ in Japan
and other Asian countries. For middle-aged Japanese female
fans, his mu-kuk-jok hybrid masculinity, which
demonstrates a feminine, pre-modern and soft body, is
nothing but an apparatus to travel to their “past”. This can
be conceptualized as consumption of memories and nostalgia
through desiring other’s primitiveness, in this case, BYJ’s
soft body. BYJ is commoditized, stereotyped and fetishized
through the Japanese fans’ gaze that is looking for the
“otherness” of traditional or exotic cultures based on their
sense of counter-coevality and imperialistic view.
As examined the Japanese fans’ responses to
BYJ’s mom-zzang body, this counter-coevality is also
evident in their pre-modernistic interpretations of his
post-modern body. As mentioned earlier, BYJ’s hybrid
masculinity (kkon-mi-nam and mom-zzang) is an
embodiment of complex pan-Asian female fantasy and a
manifestation of contradictory global male desires. In
particular, his mom-zzang body represents the coeval
ideology of global lifestyle. However, Japanese fans still
desire his post-modern body through traditional teleology –
in a framework of wen masculinity of Confucianism. As
examined from Frow’s argument, through his hybrid
masculinity, these fans desire their commoditized memories
and nostalgia which have never existed. This exemplifies the
world’s real unreality, which only emphasizes the other’s
primitiveness and our (Japanese) modernity. Given the idea
of otokorashii otoko (a man like a real man/a man
amongst men) which implies traditional wen
masculinity, it is clear that the Japanese fans desire their
“past” in BYJ’s “present” body. This is evidence of Japanese
fans’ counter-coeval gaze towards Korea and Korean culture.
The middle-aged Japanese female fans invigorate their
nostalgic fantasy through desiring the hybridized Korean
masculinity, exemplified by Bae Yong-Joon. In this respect,
it is noteworthy what BYJ has chosen a blockbuster epic
about a loyal King of Kokuryo Dynasty – Taewangsashinki
(2007) for his next television drama series. What BYJ is
trying to sell next is clear – Korea’s (and regional)
history (which is collective memory, more real than reality)
and nostalgic fantasy of supposed traditional values.
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Biographical note
Sun Jung is a PhD candidate at the University
of Melbourne in Australia, currently researching on “Global
Korean popular culture and Transcultural Consumption”.
Jung’s research is based on audience reception research in
the various cultural markets includes Japan, Hong Kong,
Singapore, Thailand, Bhutan and Australia. Jung has
postgraduate qualifications in cinema studies and
communications. Jung also has previous professional
experience as a reporter/journalist in the field of
journalism as well as a scriptwriter for Korean film
productions.