In South Korea, nation-building projects and media-driven narratives have often presented racial others through stereotypes that discipline bodies and desires. However, embedded within these transgressions is an ethnic recentering that is outwardly inclusive yet still assimilative in ways that maintain the social marginality of racial others in the country. Most notably, ethnic minority representation, as presented, reinforces a pseudo-integration that expects and normalizes internalized ethnic inferiority of non-Koreans rather than expressing a progressive integration that transgresses language and belonging not affixed to ethnic mixing. This exploratory research uses interview data and works in popular culture to investigate the effects of gentrification in Seoul, Korea. It specifically explores the symbolic ‘movement’ of Itaewon (a popular commercial site in Seoul) from an ethnic enclave and a tourist hub for multiethnic celebration to a cinematic landscape for Korea’s ethnic recentering, which coincided with the 2020-hit drama Itaewon Class. In so doing, this research expands on ethnic centering as a growing concern amongst migrant workers while providing new insights into ‘placetaking’ as a growing social response to visible multiculturalism in the country.

Authors:
Robert Hamilton, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Robert Hamilton is a University Assistant Professor/Lecturer at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in South Korea

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