This dissertation research examines the Korean Wave phenomenon as a social practice of globalization, in which state actors have promoted the transnational expansion of Korean popular culture through creating trans-local hybridization in popular content and intra-regional connections in the production system. This research focused on how three agencies – the government, public broadcasting, and the culture industry – have negotiated their relationships in the process of globalization, and how the power dynamics of these three production sectors have been influenced by Korean society’s politics, economy, geography, and culture. The importance of the national media system was identified in the (re)production of the Korean Wave phenomenon by examining how public broadcasting-centered media ecology has control over the development of the popular music culture within Korean society. The Korean Broadcasting System (KBS)’s weekly show, Music Bank, was the subject of analysis regarding changes in the culture of media production in the phase of globalization. In-depth interviews with media professionals and consumers who became involved in the show production were conducted in order to grasp the patterns that Korean television has generated in the global expansion of local cultural practices. In conclusion, the Korean Wave has rekindled national forces in spreading local popular content globally in three ways: 1) by deconstructing a binary approach of West vs. non-West, and Global vs. Local in order to understand media cultures and practices; 2) by understanding the rise of Northeast Asian media connections as part of a global culture; and 3) by decolonizing non-US/UK state actors to perceive their actions, which hinges on the ongoing centrality of nation-states in the global media sphere. / Media & Communication

韓國流行音樂（K-Pop）逐漸在世界各地展露頭角，在台灣更使得哈日風潮逐漸被取代，成為最暢銷的外語專輯。本研究欲探討韓國流行音樂如何進軍以台灣為首的大中華市場，希望藉由Super Junior的例子，找出K-Pop成功行銷的秘訣。 經研究發現，不論是S.M.或是avex taiwan的規劃，種種努力皆是以「華語歌手、藝人」的角度來生產「在地偶像」，希望減少觀眾對Super Junior所代表「韓國」的印象，進而在華語流行音樂市場中創立新偶像。 / Korean Pop Music (K-Pop) gradually gained popularity around the world and became the most popular foreign pop music genre in Taiwan in 2009, replacing the long dominating Japanese Pop Music. The purpose of this study is to investigate how K-Pop entered the Greater China market by looking at the marketing strategy of Super Junior in Taiwan. The major finding of this dissertation is that all of S.M. and avex taiwan’s efforts were directed to making Super Junior a “local idol” in Taiwan. In other words, they wanted Super Junior to be a Chinese pop music star. These two companies tried to reduce the Korean impressions on Super Junior, and tried to create a new idol group in the Chinese pop music market.

The topic of this dissertation is the anatomical, psychological, and cultural examination of a human face in order to effectively construct an anatomy-driven 3D virtual face customization and action model. In order to gain a broad perspective of all aspects of a face, theories and methodology from the fields of art, engineering, anatomy, psychology, and cultural studies have been analyzed and implemented. The computer generated facial customization and action model were designed based on the collected data. Using this customization system, culturally-specific attractive face in Korean popular culture, “kot-mi-nam (flower-like beautiful guy),” was modeled and analyzed as a case study. The “kot-mi-nam” phenomenon is overviewed in textual, visual, and contextual aspects, which reveals the gender- and sexuality-fluidity of its masculinity. The analysis and the actual development of the model organically co-construct each other requiring an interwoven process. Chapter 1 introduces anatomical studies of a human face, psychological theories of face recognition and an attractive face, and state-of-the-art face construction projects in the various fields. Chapter 2 and 3 present the Bezier curve-based 3D facial customization (BCFC) and Multi-layered Facial Action Model (MFAF) based on the analysis of human anatomy, to achieve a cost-effective yet realistic quality of facial animation without using 3D scanned data. In the experiments, results for the facial customization for gender, race, fat, and age showed that BCFC achieved enhanced performance of 25.20% compared to existing program Facegen , and 44.12% compared to Facial Studio. The experimental results also proved the realistic quality and effectiveness of MFAM compared with blend shape technique by enhancing 2.87% and 0.03% of facial area for happiness and anger expressions per second, respectively. In Chapter 4, according to the analysis based on BCFC, the 3D face of an average kot-mi-nam is close to gender neutral (male: 50.38%, female: 49.62%), and Caucasian (66.42-66.40%). Culturally-specific images can be misinterpreted in different cultures, due to their different languages, histories, and contexts. This research demonstrates that facial images can be affected by the cultural tastes of the makers and can also be interpreted differently by viewers in different cultures.

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