K-Pop Male Androgyny, Mediated Intimacy, and Vietnamese Fandom

Abstract

This chapter explores the Vietnamese fandom of Korean popular culture in relation to the recent developments in mobile and social media. It particularly looks into the Facebook-based fan communities of K-Pop star G-Dragon to examine fan receptions of his androgynous look. It attends to the specific way that K-Pop elements—such as androgyny for example—work with the digital fabrics in affecting emotional realms of fans in socio-geographically dispersed contexts. I argue that with the affordances of mobile media and Facebook, mediated androgynous K-Pop male idols engender a range of feelings and emotions within fan communities at both individual and collective levels. I also argue that it is through these feelings and emotions that fan intimacies are generated and altered. The findings I present provide a nuanced account of what is not adequately explained about the role of social and mobile media in the transnational success of K-Pop. This chapter offers a ‘microscope’ through which emotions are uncovered and intimacies are revealed through a particular case study of Vietnamese fan communities, adding often-overlooked nuances to the wider picture of K-Pop fandom. Furthermore, the chapter provides more examples and insights for the emerging studies of the affective fabrics of digital cultures. It shows how K-Pop fandom is a fascinating site at which we can examine how emotions and feelings can become intensified, contagious, and then achieve their collective dimension in the digital world.