부산대학교 도서관

Many Chinese fans of Hallyu have fallen in love with the Korean culture it represents, but it does not seem to have made them more favorable toward South Korea. The potential of Hallyu as a soft power has been greatly limited, particularly with the rise of fan nationalism. The goal of this thesis is to develop a preliminary theoretical model of “fan nationalism” by conducting semi-structured interviews with 23 Chinese Hallyu fans to understand better and assess the nationalism of Hallyu fans in China from the viewpoint of audience interpretation. This study uses the grounded theory method to show how external structural and human agency, as well as catalytic factors, contribute to sentiments of extreme patriotism and narrow-minded nationalism that fuel fan nationalism. Fans are likely to adopt evasive, withdrawn, or even expeditionary actions toward Hallyu and South Korea in stages after fan nationalism takes hold. Therefore, the active participation of fans is likely to harm Korea’s cultural diplomacy in addition to encouraging the spread of Korean culture. This thesis argues that the role of Hallyu fans is a double-edged sword. Chinese Hallyu fans have the potential to 1) enhance or undermine Chinese people’s understanding of Korean culture; 2) assist or hinder the peaceful resolution of China-Korea cultural conflicts; and 3) exert political influence and even direct foreign policy.