Social Science Research Council

“Fandom, Science, and Nationalism: South Korea's Stem Cell Scandal”

In the case of Korea, the juncture between nationalism and globalization has been made most apparent in the many national image-making projects geared towards global consumption. What does it mean to produce a national culture 'globally'? And how do the cultural producers themselves interpret this paradoxical imperative in everyday practice? Moreover, what are some of the unintended consequences of these hybrid projects of national/global/public/private interests?

My project is designed to study cultural production, the nodal point in which these tensions, interpretations, and practices emerge. Initially, the Korean state took the lead in 'globalizing' Korea; among its many initiatives, it set up various institutions under organizations such as the Ministry of Tourism and Culture to actively promote Korean culture to other parts of the world. This desire to promote Korea, however, was taken up by a variety of other actors as well, blurring the distinctions between the practices of cultural bureaucrats and other members of society. This shared desire for national advancement through global success, and the continuously emerging set of practices to fulfill it, necessitates broadening the concept of cultural production. Giving an account of how both elite cultural bureaucrats and others experience and interpret the paradoxes of globalization/nationalism in their own lives is one way to do so.

I have chosen to simultaneously study two sites of cultural production: 1) Korea Organization for International Culture Exchange (KOFICE), a quasi-governmental institution in which bureaucrats engage in the development of highly mediatized, strategic, long-term projects to promote Korean culture abroad and 2) I Love Hwang Woo Suk Fanclub, a group of citizens who mobilized through the Internet to support Hwang, the Korean stem cell scientist defamed in a scandal in 2005. I intend to examine the role each group plays in the image-making of Korea, their investments and sets of practices, and the different ways in which they are positioned to do so. What do their actions reveal about their 'national/collective' desire, and the social contexts—national and global—in which they are embedded?