Mimicking East Asian Popular Culture Products: Temporality of Urban Global Culture in Indonesia

Mimicking East Asian popular culture products: Temporality of urban global culture in Indonesia

Shuri Mariasih Gietty Tambunan English Studies Program, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia

ABSTRACT: The vibrant flow of popular culture products from South Korea and Japan has transformed the way ‘East Asia’ is perceived in Indonesia. Recent cultural phenomena as a result of this new global force are copycat (or mimicking) products, such as I-Pop’s boy/ girl band and K-Dramas remakes (sinetron or soap operas copying plots from the original K-Dramas). Instead of condemning the process of standardization, commodification and massification implying that the Asian globalization has created a homogenous popular culture scene, this research will go beyond the “economically reductionist explanations of globalization.” By looking at how the cultural industry in Indonesia is, in this moment, being strained to accommodate these foreign products, this research aims to show the cultural dynamics of today’s increasingly globalized environment through a Cultural Studies perspective. Homi Bhaba’s thoughts on mimicry, Fredric Jameson’s pastiche and Raymond Williams’ arguments on the evolution of culture will work as the conceptual foundations of the analysis. The main question to be explored will be: while mimicking the new global, i.e. East Asia pop culture, how does this force us to revisit the complexity and temporality of cultural globalization in Indonesia within the Asian context?

Keywords: East Asia, Globalization, Mimicry, Pastiche, Popular Culture

1 INTRODUCTION

On 13 November 2017, a remake of a 2002 renowned sinetron or Indonesian television soap opera was premiered in SCTV, a local television station. On the next day, “Siapa Takut Jatuh Cinta” or “Who’s Afraid to Fall in Love?” was on the top list of Google Indonesia’s Trending Search (Asih, 2017). The popularity of the remake is a fascinating and also problematic spec- tacle because the “original” sinetron in 2002 was an adaptation (or some would argue that it was a copycat) of Meteor Garden, a Taiwanese television series from 2001. Meteor Garden was a “trans-medium production” (Chua, 2012), because it was produced in Taiwan, while re-making a JapaneseManga story into a television drama. Meteor Garden was then made into Japanese (Hana Yari Dango in 2005) and Korean (Boys Over Flowers in 2009) versions, which also gained popularity in many parts of Asia. These cultural phenomena could be considered as a reaction toward to emergent transnational flow of cultural products in Asia, especially from East Asian countries, such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and even China to other parts of Asia. As a new global force, the intra- Asian cultural traffic invites scholars to re-evaluate how we understand cultural globaliza- tions. Moving on from the cultural imperialism model where globalization is considered as one dimensional force creating a homogeneous culture with a one-way flow, scholars, such as Koichi Iwabuchi and Chua Beng Huat, have argued that cultural globalization in Asia has created a regional dynamic that works as a network instead of a center-periphery dichotomy. Furthermore, as products move from one Asian country to another, in the receiving country, the products are not merely consumed; however, they are being re-produced as explained in the beginning of this article.

95 The dominant discourse that has been built around these re-produced products is how Indonesia is a “copycat” nation with no creativities as we keep on making cheap copies of East Asian products, such as television dramas (sinetron) copying the plot and narration from Japanese/Taiwanese/Korean dramas or I-Pop consisting of boy/girl bands copying K-Pop artists. This argument lies on a similar premise with the cultural imperialism model as it condemns the process of standardization, commodification and massification implying that the Asian globalization has created a homogenous popular culture scene. By choosing several case studies (K-Dramas remakes and I-Pop), this research aims to move beyond the “economically reductionist explanations of globalization.” By looking at the case studies from a Cultural Studies perspective which takes into consideration the power relation and agency of the actors involved in the meaning-making process in the cultural industry, the question to be explored in this article is: while mimicking the new global, i.e. East Asia pop culture, how does this force us to revisit the complexity and temporality of cultural globalization in Indonesia within the Asian context? As the recent phenomenon occurs in 2017, I would argue that this copycat/mimicking occurrence is a part of the Indonesians’ everyday reality and this research’s main goal is to make sense of this pragmatic observation by examining several conceptualizations, Homi Bhaba’s thoughts on mimicry, Fredric Jameson’s pastiche and Raymond Williams’ arguments on residual culture.

2 DISCUSSION

2.1 Crossing the borders: Culturally modified narrative elements in television dramas’ remakes The transnational flow of these dramas as they are dispersed to many parts of Asia has constructed the thematic and visual element driving a distinct textual and genre formulation. This was also the case for Taiwanese television dramas as they were rapidly exported to many parts of the region in the early 2000s, especially with the popularity of Meteor Garden as explained earlier in this article. At that time, “The rating for MG reached 5,1 with a 29,9 share and this was considered as a very high rating. This has also influenced other television station’s policy in importing East Asian television series” (Merdikaningtyas, 2001: 3). Soon after, the Japanese and Korean versions were made and broadcast all over Asia. These three similar, yet different, dramas reflect how the textuality of television dramas in Taiwan, Japan and Korea, are constructed in connection to one another. “By ‘textuality’, I mean the different ways in which something can function as a text for its readers” (Couldry, 2000:71). Thematically, the three dramas have the same story line, focusing on the romantic involvement of the characters as they become entangled in familial issues. Visually, the Tai- wanese, Japanese and Korean versions depict urban consumerist lifestyle, emphasizing the good-looking characters in a city setting. In the matter of style and format, dramas from these countries are commonly done in a one hour-long format consisting of a number of episodes. This kind of inter-textual reworking alongside has shaped the textual and visual elements of these television dramas as they flow across Asian countries, reaffirming a particular

Figure 1. 96 formulation of textuality. The fabricated thematic and visual elements echo how the dramas from Japan, Taiwan and Korea have formulated the textuality, which is heavily influenced by their transnational disposition. As an illustration, the early development of Korean and Taiwanese television dramas came as a response to a regional market need. For that reason, there are a number of similarities in the thematic content and visual aspects as these dramas are produced based on dramas, which were circulated earlier. The circulation network has indeed shaped these comparable textual elements. Furthermore, on the consumption level, as audience members moved from Japanese dramas to Taiwanese and then Korean dramas in the year 2000, they were seeking for familiar formulae. In 2002, a year after Meteor Garden became a huge hit in Asia, a local television station in Indonesia broadcast Siapa Takut Jatuh Cinta which was a local television drama copying the characters, plot and other narrative elements from the Taiwanese television drama. Since then, a number of local television dramas or sinetron start copying other East Asian television dramas. What is stimulating from this phenomenon is the assumption of familiar formulae as mentioned earlier. The industry, in this case the television station, aims to gain as much profit as possible by taking advantage of the momentum. Creating a sinetron with similar narrative elements with Meteor Garden was a sure win and surely enough, Siapa Takut Jatuh Cinta (2002) was a success and was even considered as the moment in Indonesian television when Oriental-looking actors and actresses were establishing their repertoire in Indonesian television. Within the period of F4’s popularity, the four main male actors in Meteor Garden, there were sudden recognition and acceptance of “oriental” looking actors and actresses in television programs and films. These “oriental” looking actors were often seen as similar or identical to Chinese Indonesians, who have been at the brunt of long-term historical discrimi- nation in Indonesia. “Oriental” looks became the mainstream discourse of East Asian-ness in Indonesia. “Oriental artists, mostly from Chinese descendants in Indonesia, became very popular and fans adored them including the artist’s hairstyle and fashion style” (Juliastuti, 2004, p. 95). Juliastuti emphasizes the irony of this, as the Chinese ethnicity was a discrimi- nated minority before the abolition of the Assimilation Law. Other remakes, such as Buku Harian Nayla (2006) which was copying characters and plots from the Japanese television series One Litre of Tears and Benci Jadi Cinta (2006), a remake from a Korean series My Girl, are other reproduced texts which carry thematic similarities and visual aspects as these dramas from the “original version”. In the 2017’s version of Siapa Takut Jatuh Cinta, the narrative elements are not completely similar with Meteor Garden (2001) even though it keeps the basic foundation of the story: a poor (economically) struggling girl who fell in love with a rich (snobbish) boy. The visual rep- resentation is still quite similar with the Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean versions portraying a high-class and urban lifestyle with good-looking characters. These textual and visual elements have become the formulae of these types of television dramas as they move from its origin country to other Asian countries formulating its textuality. Siapa Takut Jatuh Cinta (2017) retains this textuality even though upon further investigation, the sinetron formula still dominates the narrative elements. For example, in the mise-en-scène, the exaggerated multiple close-up shots used to emphasize on the dramatized shots with dramatic music are still used constantly throughout the episode. Another example is the notion of piety in which the main female character, Laras, in her troubling times when she was evicted from her house and lost her scholarship to the prestigious college, she went to the mosque and pray (episode 9). Afterward, her problems were solved even though it was not all solved at once, the idea of praying as a part of the solution could be found in most of Indonesian local soap operas or sinetron. The textual reproduction offers the audience familiar formula (from the East Asian television dramas) in their meaning-making process of the original Japanese/Taiwan- ese/Korean television dramas, while conforming to a specifically sinetron narrative elements.

2.2 Crossing the border: Reconstructing a sense of authenticity in Indonesian boy/girl bands On 22 November 2012, the Tourism Minister, Mari Elka Pangestu, speaking at the Indonesia Creative Products Week (PPKI), stated that “The domestic music industry is threatened by 97 the entry of Korean Pop (K-Pop), and now is time for us to create I Pop.” In this sense, I-Pop has become a reaction to the popularity of K-Pop. Jung (2011) argues that in Indonesia, K-pop’s popularity has lasted longer because, on one side, the Korean entertainment industry seeks out market possibilities to sell and distribute their products. On the other side, for the Indonesian media industry, there is a desire to be globalized and South Korean popular music products offer a new kind of global as an alternative to the global West. K-pop has also shaped up the mainstream discourse of how Indonesians imagine East Asia. Many scholars have formulated how one should understand this global phenomenon of K-Pop. Shim (2008) argues that K-Pop is all about the “idol-making system and global marketing strategies.” It is not about the product itself, such as the music or the singer’s capability in singing, but K-Pop is an industry in which idols are made and products are disseminated through a strategically structured global distribution and marketing. These strategies inte- grate the production process consisting of training of talents and even the management system. Training here involves not only the training of singing and dancing, but also on how to be multi-skilled entertainers by, for example, learning other languages to appeal to fans in different countries, emphasizing its global characteristics. Furthermore, K-Pop’s “cross bordering characteristics” as argued by Siriyuvasak and Shin (2007) are significant because as a culturally specific product, for example how it is mostly presented in Korean language, K-pop needs to have cross-bordering characteristics to guarantee that it will be able to enter other countries. One strategy is to mix the language in order to creating a sense of identification for different consumers in different countries. The specificity of Korean-ness, such as the Korean lyrics, needs to be repressed and even reduced. One could argue that by, for example, creating lyrics that could be understood by consumers from different countries, K-Pop is creating a “sense of authenticity” and it is actually “denationalizing K-Pop.” I-Pop is reproducing K-Pop in the Indonesian context. The development of I-Pop could be seen from two different stages. The earliest ones happened in 2010–201 with the popularity of SM*SH and Cherrybelle. They are ‘look and sound-alike’ groups that mimic its Korean counterparts and they actually receives a lot of resistance from the Indonesian consumers. Both have been repackaging K-pop’s image and music in order to look and sound like the South Korean idol bands but with a speed-up idol making system. The second stage of I-Pop development was in 2012 to 2013, when S4 (boyband) and SOS (girlband) were formed as the products of Galaxy Super Star talent show, which was collaboration between YS Media Entertainment (Indonesia) & Rainbowbridge Agency (a South Korean- based K-pop Artist Incubation Company). Both boy/girl bands were trained for 8 months in a training camp in Seoul and they underwent a physical transformation as they dyed their hair and changed their fashion style. Their music videos were made in South Korea by a Korean video director with Korean models. They also performed in South Korea and learned Korean language so they were able to sing in Korean. S4 and SOS mimic K-pop in a distinct ‘Korean’ way in the sense that the members trained in Seoul, transformed physically to look precisely like K-pop idols, sing some songs in Korean and use Korean language to greet their fans I-Pop has reworked the idol making system and standardized practices of the South Korean popular music scene as it mimics the ‘new’ global in K-pop. I have argued elsewhere (Tambunan, forthcoming) that the examples from the second stage of development of I-Pop reflect an intensification of Korean-ness articulating K-pop elements. Compared to earlier I-pop groups, S4 and SOS amalgamate the actuality that they are “made in Korea” Earlier waves of I-pop have reproduced K-pop products by mimicking the songs, dance movements and also the idol making system. However, for its later predecessor, it is more significant to enhance the Korean-ness of their products. Another form of textual reworking of idol bands happened in late 2011. In a talent show competition, Boyband Girlband Indonesia (Nov 2011-Feb 2012), there were 8 finalists and the winner was Sunni, a group of 8 teenage girls wearing hijab from Gresik, East Java. In July 2015, a girldband which claimed that they represent ‘Hi-Pop’ (Hijabers Pop), Noura, was formed. All four members were originally Hijabers models and they went through audi- tions. In several interviews, the claimed that they were singing pop songs influenced by 98 Figure 2.

Islamic values. Their single, “Kekasih Halalmu” or “Your Halal Lover,” exemplifies a different kind of textual reworking if compared to the previous boy/girl bands. From the analysis, I would argue that the idol making system in which each boy/girl band is fabricated through multiple media activities resonate the idol making system, even though the Indonesian one is done within a shorter time period. There is a significant distinction between the two generations of I-pop. S4 and SOS are products that actually accentuate “made in Korea”. As entertainment companies fabricate different ways of mimicking K-pop, it also reflects the elements that constitute K-pop as a new global product. Furthermore, Hi-Pop embodies a more culturally modified textual reworking as the formation of both girl bands that are chosen as examples in this research could be further contextualized within the context of Islamic reawakening in the Reformasi period (Budiman, 2011). By utilizing distinct K-Pop features and culturally modified elements, I-Pop and Hi-Pop are results of a cultural fusion and intertextual reworking of K-pop that could not be simplified as solely products of plagiarism.

3 CONCLUSION

From a Cultural Studies perspective, I would argue that to make meaning out of these cultural phenomena as products of plagiarism distorts the complexity of cultural globalization in Asia. By investigating the chosen case studies, one could argue that by copying the elements, be it the narrative elements in the television dramas and the industrial characteristics in the boy/girl bands, the Indonesian popular culture industry diminish creativity and submit to the new global force. However, through the aforementioned radical contextualization, I would argue that more substantial abstraction is needed to explain this phenomenon. Mim- icry, proposed by Homi Bhabha, is a helpful concept to understand how mimicking East Asian television dramas or K-Pop could be a kind of performance that exposes the arti- ficiality of these popular culture products as “symbolic expressions of power.” From this conceptualization, there is agency in mimicking the “colonizer” while challenging the power relation. Could we conclude that there is agency in these textually reworked products? It is also problematic to look at the East Asian countries as “colonizers” because this would lead us back into the center-periphery dichotomy and the one-way flow of cultural globalization in the cultural imperialism model. I would also argue that the intricacies of the textual reworking could be understood as what Raymond Williams explains in his book Marxism and Literature on how the complexity of culture could and should be understood not only its materiality and social charac- terizations but also from its “dynamics interrelations at every point in the process.” I would argue that one of the main characteristics of urban culture is “temporality” because of the speed-up everydayness in the cities. Anything that regain popularity and become what Wil- liams would argue as the “dominant” culture does not exist in a long period because they will be taken over by the other “dominant” cultural forms. In this case study, research findings 99 reveals that the basic formula of Indonesian sinetron is in a sense dominating the process of textual reworking that no matter how similar the remakes are with the “original version” it would never be completely similar. On the other hand, when for example I-Pop has transformed significantly over the last 7–8 years in Indonesia, the evolution of K-Pop as the dominant culture which at some point diminish its dominance and then revive its popularity only by textual reworking and transformations. Additional research needs to be done to further explore this complexity of the cultural process of East Asian popular culture products in relation to the Indonesian counterparts.

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