Students Examine Korean Pop Culture in New Jan Term Class

Korean pop culture has become front and center on the global stage—and in Jan Term! This past month, English Department Professor Yin Yuan’s Jan Term course, K-Dramas, K-Pop, and K-Cinema: Surfing the Global Korean Wave, dived deep into Korean pop culture and investigated what it means when a country’s culture becomes global.  

“I’ve been watching K-dramas for more than 15 years, so it’s something that I like and I’ve thought a lot about,” shared Professor Yuan. 

“It’s a class that is both an introduction to Korean pop culture, in that we do a survey of Korean pop culture from the aspects of television, film, and music, but it’s also an examination of the fundamentally ambivalent status of this thing we call ‘Korean pop culture,’” described Yuan. “It’s called Hallyu, which means the ‘Korean wave.’ That concept in particular is not just Korean pop culture, but Korean pop culture’s prominence on the global stage. A lot of the class is trying to understand what Hallyu means and who gets to define it.”

Chemistry major Kaitlin Quezon ’24 said she took the Jan Term class because she is an avid K-pop fan, but enjoys the historical and cultural component of the class. “I get to learn a lot more than just K-pop and K-drama and K-cinema. Even though I’m not interested in history, this class really interested me more because I do love to learn more about Korean culture, not just K-pop and K-drama.” 

Students in the class delivered presentations on K-pop music videos or K-dramas of their choice and had the opportunity to teach a portion of the class. “In a more traditional classroom, I feel like the instructor has more materials and then the students are learning that, but in this class, I’m learning as much from them as they are from me, so I’m particularly excited for what they bring to the table,” shared Yuan. 

Diana De Paz Baldizon ’22, a Business major with a concentration in Marketing and Global Business, shared how this classroom experience has been unlike any other. “Our homework every day is to watch or listen to K-dramas or K-pop videos… so that’s the first time homework has ever been like that for me, especially as a Business major.”

The class even had its own Twitter hashtag, #smchallyu, where students exchanged ideas with each other. “Our discussion forum is basically Twitter. It’s a whole new way of doing a discussion forum,” described Baldizon. “It’s fun because it’s a very modern way of doing work, and it’s entertaining and actually pretty refreshing to be able to do it this way.” 

Students in Yuan’s Jan Term class also focused on rethinking scholarly and academic work in light of pop culture and fandom. “This class has made me realize that the stuff you do as a fan and in fandoms is still considered work of merit, and it’s still professional work, so I guess it brought a whole new perspective of being able to do the things I love but [in a way that] still holds value,” said Baldizon. “It makes me think that I don’t have to give up the things I enjoy to be able to do the things that I do—to be able to do things of merit and professionalism.” 

Professor Yuan shared what she hopes students took from the course: “One, is to see popular culture as something that has a lot of critical potential. We don’t have to divide our lives between the part of us that consumes popular culture and the part of us that goes to school. I think popular culture has a lot to offer us in terms of helping us to think critically about our moment and also about transcultural resonances. I would say, for me, that that’s really the big thing. I want there to be a space for students to engage with things that they’re personally interested in and find an intellectually stimulating experience.”

“Jan Term is for exploring something new,” said Quezon. “This is definitely a class worth taking, whether you’re a K-pop fan or not. It’s a really fun experience.” 

This spring, Professor Yuan will teach English 118, Behind Squid Game’s Front Man: The Korean War and Asian/American Literature, a look at 20th and 21st century literature in Korea and the United States, and how the Korean War shaped American imperialism. The course fulfills the Global Perspective and Artistic Analysis Core Curriculum requirements, and is open to non-English majors.