| This dissertation is an ethnomusicological study of the Hanliu phenomenon in Taiwan. Hanliu, often translated the "Korean Wave," refers to the rather sudden and recent dissemination of Korean popular culture throughout Asia. Here, I investigate Taiwanese reactions to Korean popular music and examine sociopolitical factors underlying the rise of Korean popular culture in Taiwan and the ways by which it has influenced the construction of contemporary Taiwanese identity. As a case study of a particular musical movement, this dissertation illuminates broader issues involved in the globalization of popular culture. It is based on ethnographic research conducted from 2001 to 2003 in Taipei, Taiwan, and ongoing research through the internet and communication with Taiwanese informants until March 2006.;This research reveals that the national, regional, and global are not separate spheres, but are intertwined: the processes and constructions of nationalism, regionalization, and globalization are mutually constitutive. Hanliu is a result of the globalization of technology and the media, as well as a marker of regional flows. Regional patterns of dissemination and the ongoing construction of ideas of Asian values and identities exist within and through this phenomenon.;This study uses Hanliu as a way of exploring more generally issues of the Taiwanese reception and consumption of foreign imports. I argue that the action of consuming South Korean popular music is not based solely on individual taste, but---as the Taiwanese people struggle to construct their own national and cultural identity---involves issues such as responses to globalization, growing notions of Asian values and identity, resistance to Western and Japanese popular culture, and the desire to emulate practices of Korean nationalism.;This dissertation is the first ethnographic study of Korean popular music in Taiwan. It discusses the interrelations of popular music and related phenomena, as well as the character and hybridity of Korean popular music. As a study of an important genre of contemporary popular music, it contributes to the English-language literature concerning Taiwanese and South Korean popular musics, identity, globalization, transnational flows in Asia, and concepts of and practices involved in Asian regionalism and identity. |
