Product Review

South Korean masculinities have enjoyed dramatic influence in pan-Asian popular culture, which travels freely due to its non-nationalistic appeal. This book investigates transcultural consumption of three iconic figures the middle aged Japanese female fandom of actor Bae Yong-Joon, the Western online cult fandom of the horror film Oldboy, and the Singaporean fandom of the popstar Rain. Through these three specific but hybrid masculine contexts, the author develops the concepts of soft masculinity, as well as global and postmodern variants of masculine cultural impacts. Jung argues that Korean masculinity is being reconstructed through its regional and sometimes global circulation as part of the Korean Wave, producing new forms that negotiate local Korean forces and international consumer forces to create culturally odorless forms that travel easily and find ready consumption.