Korea, Culture, Critique is a home for critical reflection on contemporary Korea. Our blog takes the highly visible artifacts of Hallyu as entry points into an exploration of the curents that birthed them, from the founding of South Korea by way of Korea's unilateral division to today's crises of technology and capital that continue to shape the media many of us enjoy. We jam out to Aespa and ask what kind of values their AI characters propagate; we marvel at BTS's international success and gauge its significance for the future of Korea; we laugh at Single's Inferno and think about the types of bodies Korean popular culture prizes above others.

We take a critical approach. This doesn't just mean we center criticism, and definitely not in the sense that we try to find faults and flaws with cultural work, but also comes from a refusal to take elements and messages from media as they are. All media is created along a particular set of axes that privilege some and marginalize others. Regardless of whether showrunners or idols intend to or not, they promote specific sets of values that can be found through careful and close reading. If we want to move towards a better world, with values that are more democratic, humane, and liberatory, then there is a need to pull back the curtain on these hidden values and refuse to take them for granted. That insistence, and recognition, and refusal, are what we call critique.

The nature of this goal is intentionally expansive, or even impossible in some senses of the word. This blog is just two people's exploration of this topic and perspective, beginning with a handful of issues we consider important and close to our hearts. We hope you'll join us in thinking slowly about the state of Korean culture today beyond this website. The website is currently in a 6-month trial phase as we figure things out. After this period, we'll recalibrate, and the site may change direction -- we may open the site for submissions or close the site completely.

With love,
Nathan and Ji-hye