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IMAGINED COMMUNITY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF K-POP COVER DANCEAMONG YOUTH IN VIETNAM AND INDONESIA Phan Thanh Thanh This research demonstrates how K-pop cover dance practices have been art

IMAGINED COMMUNITY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF K-POP COVER DANCE

AMONG YOUTH IN VIETNAM AND INDONESIA

Phan Thanh Thanh

This research demonstrates how K-pop cover dance practices have been articulated and used to expand youth self-identity in Vietnam and Indonesia beyond the nation state through cultural connectivity Through the cultural connectivity, I argue that studying this form of youth culture will lead to a greater understanding of the social meanings and relationships created among the groups, and will also help contribute to a greater level of understanding of space as a constructed and imagined entity, as well as the role K-pop cover acts can play in mediating this construction The regional collective of ASEAN (Association

of Southeast Asian Nations) plus its permutations, which is most commonly conceived of as ASEAN +3 (China, Japan, Korea), effectively ties Southeast and East Asia together in a common region with shared economic trade, political coordination, and cultural influence

My argument suggests that even Southeast Asia more often finds itself the recipient rather than that of the donor of cultural flows as the latter region (East Asia), ASEAN countries including Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand are also developing beyond the cultural global forces to remake their culture on their own rights at the local level

While American popular culture still dominates many media forms, the media ties between East and Southeast Asian nations are arguably creating a “pan-East Asian identity,” particularly in regards to middle class urban representation (Chua 2004), what Lim (2008: 45) refers to as a “taste continent” of imagined East Asian identity K-pop cover dance is used as

a tool to redefine Asia as an urban, imagined space, one containing cosmopolitan consumers This study is based on qualitative research with in depth interviews and close participation in everyday activities of the groups named YG Lovers Crew with its 12 official members from

18 to 23 years, St319 with its 20 official members from 15 to 25 years old, plus a Vietnamese Thai drama fan in Hanoi; I-Generation with 9 members from 22 to 26 years old, plus an Indonesian Korean drama fan in Jakarta It addresses the following questions: How young people (teenagers) from Vietnam and Indonesia form themselves in social space to contest their youth identity to be both Vietnamese/Indonesian and K-Pop fans Hence, in my

research, I propose to study those cover dance groups from the approach of fan culture, emphasizing youth perspectives in relation to both the nation-state and the global cultural capital

K-Pop Cover Dance

Cover dance (such as the K-Pop Cover Dance) is the imitation of the dance choreography of the original bands; together with cover the gestures and the customs of the original videos This makes the audience have the feeling that they are watching the real MVs

or the real concerts Because of covering the dance movements, the realness of steps, gestures, and timing are highly appreciated as fidelity to the original movement is emphasized (Kang 2012) Large Korean media agencies organize and run global K-pop cover contests, disseminating details about these contests via You Tube and the internet (Kim 2012)

Generation Y

In this study I focus on the group of Youth generation “Y” According to the Pew Research Center Poll in 2010, the term “Generation Y” includes people who born between

1980 and 1996 while other groups “Generation X”; “Baby Boomers”; “The Silent Generation” covers those who born from 1965 and 1979; 1946 and 1964 and 1928 to 1945 respectively Following this definition, all members from mentioned groups from both Vietnam and Indonesia belong to the generation Y Moreover, the Pew poll was conducted globally in response to the question: What values make a generation unique? There were five key values identified by Generation Y respondents, namely: technology use, music culture, liberalism, smart and clothes, while two values were totally absent from the Generation X group: music culture and clothes (Pewinternet.org 2010)

Cultural media flows

According to Iwabuchi (2002) in non-Western countries, the USA has long been closely associated with images of modernity such as of romance, freedom and affluence However, over the past twenty years, the diverse movement and dynamics of the international flows of images and ideas around the globe has expanded within media flows This has occurred at a time when the political, economic and technological contexts within which media organizations operate have become increasingly global in scope and scale As a result, media scholars have begun to pay attention to various global media flows, among multiple countries, which not only include the “dominant flows” coming from the US-led Western

media, but also the contra-flows coming from Bollywood, the Latin American telenovelas

and the geo-cultural media flows of the pan-Arabic entertainment network (Iwabuchi 2002, Thussu 2007) Since the late 1990s South Korea has emerged as a new center for the production of transnational popular culture, exporting its own media products into Asian countries (Kim 2007)

Korean pop music which is part of South Korean popular culture is considered as a common experience for communities who never actually meet This also helps contribute to a greater level of understanding of space as a constructed and imagined entity The role K-pop cover dance in Asia and ASEAN countries can play in mediating this construction and is used

as a tool to re-define Asia and ASEAN as an urban, imagined space, one containing cosmopolitan consumers

I apply the term “cultural capital” to explain the cultural practice of K-pop cover dance in Vietnam and Indonesia For Bourdieu, “cultural capital” acts as a social relation within a system of accumulated cultural knowledge, such as education, intellect, style of speech, dress or physical appearance that confers power and status Bourdieu’s central innovation (1984) was to coin the concept of “cultural capital”, which he used with the more familiar idea of economic capital Cultural capital, like economic capital, is a resource to be drawn upon in the pursuit of power Cultural capital is not secondary to economic capital, as each is exchangeable and important in different contexts (cited in Harker, 1990, p.13) One prominent implication of Bourdieu’s work is that the power of a variety of groups may be based on different capitals This term is useful to understand a variety of K-pop cover dance groups in Ha Noi and Jakarta; to understand how the cultural capital that K-pop cover dancers gain, is turned into economic capital, and how the groups use their economic capital

to attain a higher level of cultural capital

The groups selected for the research examination wereSt.319 (Saint 319) and YGLC (YG Lovers Crew) from Hanoi, Vietnam and I-Generation (Indonesian Generation) from Jakarta, Indonesia, who have made use of K-pop Global Cover Contests and social internet sites such as You Tube and Facebook to display their hybrid identity and leverage their social status as middle class young people in their countries in particular and in the region and globe

in general

YG Lovers Crew and St319 from Vietnam

In Vietnam, a number of groups perform K-pop dance music, mostly in the big cities such as Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City and Hai Phong In total, there are about 20 such groups, but the number varies a lot, and there are many small and little known groups at local high schools and universities, and also fan club dance cover groups all over the country In Hanoi, the most famous groups are St.319, LYNT and YGLC, and they faced strong competition at the beginning in 2011 YG Lovers Crew and St319 were the groups studied for this research While the groups above still remain, St.319 is an example of the most successful K-pop cover group in Vietnam and well-known internationally on YouTube as its fan base outnumbers other groups It is known among the international K-pop fan community The group even has

a higher ambition to become a local entertainment group targeting different areas besides being a K-pop cover group YG Lovers Crew is also a dance group based in Hanoi formed as part of the K-pop Global Contest celebrated by Korean music industries Currently, they perform many different kinds of dance genres besides K-pop cover dance, such as Hip Hop, modern dance The reason for them to cover K-pop dance is not only because of their love

to K-pop and Korean artists but also to be well-known in the fan community and to contribute

to the entertainment industry of Vietnam

Figure 1 YGLC (on the left) and St.319 (on the right) in Hanoi, Vietnam (Photos by YGLC

and St319 groups)

I-Generation from Indonesia

With nine members (three males, six females) aged from 20 to 26, I-Generation from Indonesia cover all hits of “Girl Generation”-a K-Pop band from South Korea The group is the winner of the contest “K-Pop Festival in Kangwan Korea in 2013” In the future the group wants to build up their fame and cultivate more fan base The first reason for them to dance

cover is because of their love for K-Pop, secondly, they want to improve K-pop cover competitiveness and standard in Indonesia since according to them K-pop cover in Indonesia

is not very strong and popular They also want to use their awards to persuade their Government to support them and recognize K-pop cover dance as a kind of sport activities in Indonesia Lastly, they want to let other countries know about K-pop cover in Indonesia This

is important as an avenue for connectivity in the region

Figure 2.I-Generation (a K-pop cover dance group from Jakarta, Indonesia) is performing at

Kangwan, South Korea in 2013 (Photo by I-Generation)

Figure 3.Author and I-Generation in Jakarta, May 2014

Transnational flow of K-pop in Vietnam and Indonesia

After the Vietnam War in 1975 and after Doi Moi in 1986, there were relatively poor

sources of music domestically because most Vietnamese popular music was still old style, from the war when it was used as Viet Minh propaganda, or songs describing the beauty of

the nation via both national TV channels and loa Phường (district public radio).Many, mostly

urban Vietnamese living in Vietnam tried to consume different music products made by Vietnamese overseas who moved out of the country after the Vietnam War via video tapes The most famous overseas music company at that time was ‘Thuy Nga Paris’1 This company released both old Vietnamese Diaspora songs from the South of Vietnam (Saigon) during war time, parodies of US/UK-pop songs, parodies of Hong Kong songs and some original English language songs (Cunningham & Nguyen 1999) Melodies of many famous American pop songs, Hong Kong and Chinese songs were copied for Vietnamese pop songs by the overseas Vietnamese Sometimes, the meanings of the songs in Vietnamese were totally different from the originals

There seems to be a general desire to consume modern, global music (US/UK-pop which is referred to Western-led American pop music) with famous names such as MLTR, Boyzone, The Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears appearing in the 1990s via Vietnamese National Television and via cheap CDs and DVDs After that, the Korean cultural flow became popular in Vietnam around the late 1990s (with Korean drama) on Vietnamese television and at the beginning of the 2000s (with Korean pop music) together with the emerging of the internet

The Vietnamese Government’s apparent attitude toward Korean culture has influenced its reception in Vietnam Thomas Mandy in 2004 argued that the enjoyment of East Asian (specifically Korean) cultural productions in Vietnam might be viewed as a way in which people resist and negotiate with the regime due to this new post-communist media revolution Moreover, there is also a competition in the domestic music market for external cultural influences, because the State realizes that local programs do not meet the needs of consumers However, this represents a rich and creative area for Vietnamese artists to move into; to develop new themes, from the old nationalistic and patriotic theme (based on war and propaganda songs), to a new material pop culture (Thomas 2004)

The reason Vietnamese consumers have greater choice in terms of consuming international cultural products is because the country has opened its markets and entered the world economy According to the World Bank, the GDP of Vietnam in the three years from

1 Thuy Nga Production is the largest and most successful music company in HaiNgoai, particularly in the USA since 1980s, with their products including live shows, CDs, audio cassettes and karaoke discs The founder and leader of Thuy Nga is To Van Lai, a university psychology professor who wants to bring Vietnamese traditional folk together with contemporary Vietnamese music, and also using popular world pop music such as rock and pop (Cunningham & Nguyen 1999).

1985 to 1987 rose from 14,094,688,428 US$, to 26,336,617,864 US$ and on to

36,658,108,169US$ respectively, and after Doi Moi in 1986, GDP was almost double that of

the previous year (www.Worldbank.org 2014a) After that, the Vietnamese economy gradually and stably increased, and in 2013 the country’s GDP was 171,391,820,360 US$, almost seven times that in 1986, and high enough to rank Vietnam as a lower-middle income country (www.worldbank.org 2014a) Vietnam’s poverty rate has also dropped, from almost 60% in the 1990s, to under 10% today (www.worldbank.org 2014b) By 2011, the whole country had 26.8 million netizens (VASS 2012) out of a total population of 91.5 million people, more than one-third of the population uses the internet and around 95% of those are between 15 and 24 years and live in urban Vietnam, mainly Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (Cimigo 2011) However, there is a paradox with respect to Vietnamese Government policies, for on the one hand there is a fear of losing a grip on the ideology of the regime, while on the other hand, the Government wants to open-up and compete on the world stage (Nguyen-Vo 2008)

Vietnamese government policy plays an important role in controlling pop culture among the youth Officially and on the surface, the government has tried to protect Vietnamese popular culture by controlling cultural imports from foreign countries Moreover, there is a fear of the possible impacts of consumerism and Western-style trends on Vietnamese culture and in line with Communist ideology (Nguyen-Vo 2008) At the same time Vietnamese authorities found, like governments everywhere, that the internet was notoriously difficult, time-consuming and expensive to monitor and control (Pam Nilan 1999) Therefore, unofficially and on a deeper level, the government has continued to leave it

to the underground youth culture to decide Moreover, there are few rules or punishments in place for music products which plagiarize foreign music, those which have melodies similar

to Hong Kong songs or styles similar to K-pop The Vietnamese government’s regulations, which have been strong in terms of political spheres, are quite loose in terms of pop music which is dominated by young audiences and producers

Moreover, young Vietnamese indicate that they consume cultural products mainly according to their own tastes, regardless of the products’ nationalities Likewise the cultural tastes which the young people are living and experiencing has changed to reflect the

advanced standards of living and cultural modernity they are experiencing Before DoiMoi, it

was only propaganda music that dominated the Vietnamese music scene; however, now

young people are concerned with the quality of cultural products, such as their refinement, creativity, individuality and diversity Therefore, Vietnamese nationalism has surged, suggesting an alternative globalization process is developing among the younger generation

in terms of its identity

Indonesia is a big country with a large population, ranked at the fourth of the world after China, India and the USA (Suryadinata, et al2003) Indonesia also is the largest Muslim country in the world (Stepan 2010) Within the country there are 1,072 ethnic and sub-ethnic groups in total; Malay is the third largest ethnic group after Javanese and Sundanese Ethnic Chinese, accounted for 1.5 % of the population, and are considered as the engine behind Indonesian economic growth (Suryadinata et al 2003) They are the principal minority who are active mainly in business in the major cities and relatively prosperous and widely resented

by ethnic Indonesians (Suryadinata et al 2003) However, the scope of my research is not to focus on the ethnic, religion and political conflict issues in Indonesia but to understand how one of the ethnic group (Chinese Indonesian) reflect or represent themselves by consuming and reproducing K-pop

Indonesian youths have been exposed to many kinds of foreign music during the past few decades According to Bodden (2005),"throughout the 1990s, 'alternative' musical genres such as rap, punk, and hard rock, derived from North American and European commercial cultures, captured the enthusiasm of large number of Indonesian youth" After the Suharto era (from 1967 to 1998), Japanese pop (J-pop or J-rock) also started to be popular in Indonesia (Surajaya 2010) Other cultural forms such as dramas from Japan, Taiwan and Korea have been accelerated on the basis of media liberalization processes in the post-Suharto era (Kim 2010) K-pop's popularity in Indonesia around 2010 “refers to the intricate intersection between capitalist desires of the Korean entertainment business sector, the globalized desires

of the Indonesian media industry, and the local audiences' desire for cool, modern pop cultures” (Jung 2011)

However, in comparing K-pop cover phenomenon between Vietnam and Indonesia, the effect of K-Pop among youth in Indonesia is not as big as in Vietnam due to the various ethnic majorities with different tastes Ethnic majorities are Javanese and Sundanese and

Malay who have different tastes in Pop music For example, Dangdut music2is the Indonesia’s most popular music which is close to Hindu and India music style (Weintraub2010) It is considered to be the popular music of working class The performers usually wear very short sexy clothes to show sexy dance movements Sometimes the audience can dance with performers as they singalong with songs about heartache, suffering and loss Malay pop style3 is consumed among middle lower class in Indonesia while foreign pop music such as US/UK or K-Pop is consumed among the upper middle class in Indonesian society However, K-Pop also has influenced some current Indonesian Pop music4and some bands have styles inspired by K-Pop (Interviewed with Katherine, Chinese ethnicity, female, born in 1990, a K-drama fan on 11, May 2014, Jakarta) Also in the interview with Iman-the leader of I-Generation, he also indicated that he does not like Indonesian pop very much because it is very close to the Malay style

A comparison of the price of Internet in Vietnam and in Indonesia shows that the price

in Vietnam is cheaper In the Vietnamese context, the price of a Wi-Fi internet package at home is even cheaper in comparison with other countries in the region For example, the Internet package for family at the lowest rate is already $25USD5 in Jakarta, Indonesia while

in Hanoi, Vietnam the same service is less than $10USD (equivalent to 180,000 VND)6 (Interviewed with Katherine, female, born in 1990, a K-drama fan on 11, May 2014)

Cultural capital among K-pop cover groups

There are several types of cultural capital the groups’ members possess as indicated in this study such as their education, dance skills, English language proficiency, family backgrounds and technological skills e.g the use of cameras, videos and internet resources Their cultural capital is also shown in the way they work and organize their groups’ activities, including the marketing strategies and plans they have developed for the future

2 “Juwita Bahar - Buka Dikit Joss [Official Music Video HD],” YouTube, Last modified June 14,

2014,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7dR0wSxXxA

3 “ST12 - P.U.S.P.A | VC Trinity”, YouTube, Last modified June 14, 2014, http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=AK66nMGhoek

4 “SM*SH - I Heart You (official video)” YouTube, Last modified June 14, 2014, http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=4gTmNr1Bx2E and “Cherrybelle - Diam Diam Suka VC ( Official MV BerryGood Version )”, YouTube, Last modified June 14, 2014, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63Z5_HnWrBA

5 “Harga Paket Internet First Media Terbaru” Last modified June 14, 2014, http://www.daftarpaketinternet.com/harga-paket-internet-first-media-terbaru-2014

6 “Internet Vnpt Khuyến Mãi” Last modified June 14, 2014, http://internetvnpt.com.vn/

First I will investigate and analyze the common cultural capital possessed by both the study groups At the group level, by practicing K-pop dance covers, the members of YGLC, St.319 and I-Generation do not only show their love for K-pop music and K-pop stars, but also show their ambition to jump into the national music industry and entertainment sector St.319 even has produced new products from Vietnamese songs with inspired K-pop dance and Western Rap on their own As a consequence, practicing K-pop covers can be seen as the first step for them towards becoming famous, both domestically and internationally

At the individual level, even though dancers have strengths in different areas and make use of the capital they possess in different ways, they all have a good educational background Dancers in the study from Vietnam and Indonesia are B.A holders, even some are M.A holders In the Vietnamese cases, there are even dancers who studied abroad in Australia, the UK, the USA and Singapore for B.A and M.A curriculums Even though not all their families/parents are rich or in the ‘elite’, they have similar, dual approaches when it comes to their children’s career choices: accepting for their children to pursue both academic career and entertainment career To be more specific, on the one hand they expect their children to perform well at school and university, but they would also like their children to do what they want, and are confident in their children’s ability to negotiate for their futures and work hard This family approach gives the children space to decide on their own path

Moreover, practicing dance gives the young people a chance to experience and cultivate their own cultural capital, such as building their confidence, working in groups and time management skills, among others It also helps the children develop a sense of peer group emotional belonging and provides opportunities for their futures, including in business Whether they will continue working in the entertainment sector as professional artists, dancers or producers, or will follow their educational/academic lives and train for a job, keeping their career lives and hobbies separate, they still keep those skills and forms of capital with them to strengthen and nurture their daily lives This also reflects the fact that there are more choices for young people nowadays A successful career is not rigidly associated with an academic career or working as white-collar workers Success is now based

on an individual’s actual experience, competitive benefits, capacity and passion

The members of St.319 who studied or are studying abroad include the leader and founder, Aiden Nguyen – who was at London South Bank University, Mi Nhô Nguyen (Min)