Turns out that one part of my demonic essay is going better than expected: I have now written a full third of what I need, almost all of it relating to Super Junior. They are the perfect material for discussions of hybridity, cultural consumption and globalisation: financially successful, multi-cultural kinda (that's another whole essay there - the polarisation of Chinese and Korean identities), multi-lingual, with (African-)American song and dance styles, obvious and deliberately cultivated pan-Asian support, a largely untapped but frickin' huge international fanbase, elaborate fan rituals, merchandise, twitter accounts... Gah.
It's a pity I need to range a bit wider, because it's all there. Clothing, definitely:
a) Eunhyuk has an NY cap, a British jockey's helmet and hip hop-style chains
b) Leeteuk talked about a 'James Dean' look for their latest music video
c) Yesung wears crucifix earrings
d) there are printed tees all over the place
e) best of all, at a concert a couple of years ago they wore costumes including Fred Flintstone, Harry Potter, a Chinese emperor, Robin Hood, Jack Sparrow, Dracula, a pilot, Bruce Lee and Zorro. It's screaming globalised pop culture!
I mean, these guys have been in Cosmopolitan. They've been interviewed by MTV. They're on a Chinese stamp. Their most famous song was performed by 3000 prison inmates in the Philippines. Their ex-member, who's Chinese, shot his second-last music video in New Zealand (as an image of paradise - yay Han Geng! ^^). And then there's fan-subbing!
*deep breath*
The problem would be how to reference all that. The official-sounding sources would be in Korean, and the unofficial ones are forum threads, polls, youtube comments and illegally translated game shows. Is anthropology relaxed enough to accept those?
Back to it. ^^
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