Copyright by Ji-Hyun Ahn 2013 The Dissertation Committee for Ji-Hyun Ahn Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Visualizing Race: Neoliberal Multiculturalism and the Struggle for Koreanness in Contemporary South Korean Television Committee: Shanti Kumar, Supervisor Joe Straubhaar Mary Celeste Kearney Mary Beltrán Madhavi Mallapragada Robert Oppenheim Visualizing Race: Neoliberal Multiculturalism and the Struggle for Koreanness in Contemporary South Korean Television by Ji-Hyun Ahn, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2013 Dedication To my parents and grandparents for their persistent love and support Acknowledgements There are many people whom I would like to thank for their generous assistance during my graduate school days. The academic journey of completing my dissertation project and pursuing a doctoral degree in the US would have been impossible without their support and encouragement. First and foremost, my biggest gratitude goes to my supervisor, Shanti Kumar. I am certain that I would have not been able to finish my dissertation without his passion for the project and enormous support given to me. Whenever I felt unconfident or uncertain about the project, he always believed the best of me, encouraged me with warm words, and challenged me to think more deeply and critically. I will always remember the atmosphere of our meetings where he inspired me with his genuine interests in my work and with his broad and deep intellectual knowledge. His steadfast encouragement, educational commitment, and intellectual inspiration have nurtured me to grow as a scholar. I just cannot thank him enough. I also want to acknowledge my amazing team of committee members. Joe Straubhaar guided me to broaden my perspective beyond Korean media and popular culture. Whenever I visited him, I came out of his office with new ideas and plans. Mary Kearney helped me to be a critical thinker. She pushed me to critically re-engage with Western theories about gender and race. I feel so lucky to have Mary Beltrán, who joined our program when I was about to do my dissertation proposal in 2011, as my committee member. Her move to Austin from Wisconsin was a true gain on my side. Her classes were enormously helpful for me to shape my argument about mixed-race representation. Madhavi Mallapragada is a great mentor who has shared wise tips to balance work and life and has given me full emotional support. She taught me how to be a caring teacher through herself as a model. Last but not least, Robert Oppenheim helped me to get involved with the Center for East Asian Studies so that I can share my research interests with Asian Studies colleagues and provided opportunities to apply for research fellowships. I am so sure that those six committee members are the best dream team that I could ever imagine. I also thank The University of Texas at Austin for providing financial support for my dissertation. My dissertation was dually funded by a Continuing Fellowship from the Graduate School of UT and a POSCO research fellowship from the Center for East Asian Studies at UT. In addition, I have been supported by the Department of Radio-Television- Film during my graduate studies in the form of Teaching Assistantship and Assistant v Instructorship. I also owed to the RTF staffs Char Burke, Bert Herigstad, and Gloria Holder for their kind assistance. I am very grateful for the friendships that I have enjoyed during my graduate studies. First of all, I appreciate my RTF friends for their support. I must thank my Korean RTF family: Kyungsun Karen Lee, Shinhea Claire Lee, Hogeun Seo, Yoonmo Sang, Minsoo Jennifer Kang, Sujin Choi, Taehyun Cho as well as senior RTFers Herim Erin Lee, Namsu Park, Najin Jun, and Young-Gil Chae. I have so much enjoyed all the time we spent together. Whenever I feel happy or weary, they were always there for me. My life as a graduate student could not be explained without their existence. I especially thank Claire for arranging all the fun events/meetings. Claire, you were the glue to our group. I am also thankful for my fellow RTFers: Amanda Landa, Jacqueline Vickery, Morgan Blue, and Jessalynn Keller, Suzanne Schulz, Coin Tait, Alex Cho, Stuart Davis, Joshua Gleich, Caitlin McClune, Yi Lu, and Swapnil Rai. Because of their support, help, and friendship, I was able to step up and establish my academic life in the US. Although not an RTFer, Tien-Wen Lin also deserves my gratitude. Since the first day we met in Madhavi’s class during our first semester at UT, she has been one of the most sincere friends whom I can trust and share many things with. Beside my academic circle, a big thanks must go to my church friends. To Austin Stone group members: Liz Coufal, Steve Coufal, Emily Ng, Joshua Patterson, Michelle Law, Erin Feldman, and Janet Kuo, it was really a pleasure to meet all of you and I thank you for your prayers. To my beloved friends: Esther Lim, Da-Ae Shin, Jennifer Yom, Eunna Chung, Shinhea Claire Lee, and Hyun Jeong Ha, you are the treasures of my graduate school days. Our group meeting each week was definitely one of the most cherished moments in my life. I will never forget what we have shared and experienced in this group. Thank you for your incredible support and prayers. In particular, I would love to thank my dearest friend, Hyun Jeong Ha. I feel so blessed to have met her in Austin. Hyun Jeong, you are my best friend both spiritually and intellectually. Thank you for being there and making my life so much more exiting. Last of all and most importantly, my deepest gratitude goes to my family. I appreciate my parents and grandparents for their infinite love, support, and prayers. To my grandparents, your outpouring of love towards me shaped my personality. I appreciate your legacy and will try my best to share what you have granted to me. To my little brother, thank you for your presence in our family. To mom and dad, you have always been proud of me and supported me to achieve my dreams. Thank you for everything you have provided for me. You are the best part of my life. vi Visualizing Race: Neoliberal Multiculturalism and the Struggle for Koreanness in Contemporary South Korean Television Ji-Hyun Ahn, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2013 Supervisor: Shanti Kumar “Visualizing Race: Neoliberal Multiculturalism and the Struggle for Koreanness in Contemporary South Korean Television” investigates visual representations of multicultural subjects in both celebrity culture and the reality television genre to examine the struggle for Koreanness in contemporary Korean television. My aim is to explain the transformation from a modern monoracial Korea to a multicultural, global Korea as a national project of what I call “neoliberal multiculturalism” and to problematize the implicit tie between the two words, “neoliberal” and “multiculturalism.” Using the category of mixed-race as an analytical window onto this cultural shift, I attempt to link the recent explosion of multiculturalism discourse in Korea to the much larger cultural, institutional, and ideological implications of racial globalization. To illustrate this shift, the dissertation analyzes both black and white mixed-race celebrities as well as ordinary multicultural subjects appearing on Korean reality programs. I examine historical archives, popular press sources, policy documents, and television programs in order to analyze them as an inter-textual network that is actively negotiating national identity. Utilizing the concept of neoliberal multiculturalism as an overarching framework, the dissertation explicates how concepts such as nationality, race, gender, class, and the television genre are intricately articulated; it also critically deconstructs the hegemonic vii notion of a multicultural, global Korea presented by the Korean media. I argue that Korean television deploys racial representations as a way to suture national anxiety over an increasing number of racial others and projects a multicultural fantasy towards Koreans. This interdisciplinary project contributes to several fields of study by explicating the changed cultural meaning of mixed-race in the age of globalization, defining the organic relation between the medium of television and racial representation, broadening our understanding of Asian multiculturalism and the racial politics in the region, and examining the particulars of ethnic nationalism appearing in the Korean media and popular culture. viii Table of Contents List of Tables ........................................................................................................ xii List of Figures ...................................................................................................... xiii Chapter 1. Introduction ........................................................................................ 1 1.1 Introduction: Problematizing Korean Multiculturalism ........................ 1 1.2 Research Project .................................................................................... 6 1.3 Theoretical Background and Analytical Framework .......................... 13 1.3.1Multiculturalism in a Global Context: Challenges of the Nation Building Project ......................................................................... 13 1.3.2Neoliberal Multiculturalism: Theorizing the Tension between Neoliberalism