Taming the Primitive: Multiculturalism and the Anthropological Vision of South Korean Media

Abstract

This study examines the meaning of ethnographic documentaries newly produced in South Korea. These TV programs present primitiveness to an extreme, which may reflect social changes in Korea. The South Korean media first started to show strong interest in international and intercultural issues, particularly non-Western cultures, as the society opened up to having a multicultural population; and there was also the international popularity of Korean pop culture known as Korean wave, hallyu. Korean TV documentaries illustrate complex responses to social changes and cultural diversification of the society, but recall colonialist views from the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Europe. A colonialist vision is being emulated through concrete visuals, despite historical and cultural discrepancies between 19th-century Europe and 21st-century East Asia. This raises theoretical questions about an alternative form of postcolonial power in contemporary East Asian society.