The international expansion of Korean popular music (K-pop) reflects the increasing dislocation of cultural globalization from Western centers, spurred by the rise of cultural, economic, and political institutions within different regions. This study adopts a translation theory perspective on how the meanings of such cultural products from the “periphery” become transculturally intelligible. In this endeavor, we analyze the role of online fan-generated paratexts in translating the global consumptionscape of K-pop. We reveal how translation practices enable cultural understanding and reinscribe transcultural identity politics, inverting and unsettling “traditional” center-periphery dynamics. Fan translation practices emerge as a key node in processes of cultural globalization, underscoring the role of consumer-as-translator and situating cultural globalization not only in localized spaces but also in the mediated transcultural space of the paratextual field.
CITATION STYLE
Cruz, A. G. B., Seo, Y., & Binay, I. (2021). Cultural globalization from the periphery: Translation practices of English-speaking K-pop fans. Journal of Consumer Culture, 21(3), 638–659. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540519846215
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