Affect, Emotion and Transcultural Connections - HDR Panel: Ha Hoang and Vanessa Whittington
Date: Thursday, 24 October 2019
Time: 11.30am–1pm
Venue: EB.G.35, Parramatta South campus, Western Sydney University
Affect, Emotion and Transcultural Connections
HDR Panel - Ha Hoang and Vanessa Whittington
Discussant: Dr Shanthi Robertson
Abstracts
Affect, K-Pop Fandom, and Social Media in Vietnam
My thesis examines the so-called ‘Korean Wave’ within the local context of Vietnam. I look into fans’ reception of a South Korean television drama and, especially, of South Korean popular music (K-Pop) that is significantly involved with social media such as YouTube and Facebook. This thesis helps to shed light on the dynamics of the Wave as a transnational phenomenon, from a local perspective. In this paper that is from the thesis, I inspect K-Pop fans’ affective labour as part of what is increasingly conceptualised as the ‘affective fabric’ of social-media-based fan communities, in an affective economy. I particularly analyse the frenzy boosting of views of YouTube music videos, streaming of digital songs, and voting on digital music charts that were organised by fans of Big Bang, a K-Pop boy band. This paper reveals how affect works through the fabric of globalised social media platforms in the making of the transnational fandom; and what it means for both fan communities and the capitalist music industry.
“This is hurting us!’: Emotive and Affective Responses to Visitor Behaviour in Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park
Embodiment, affect and emotion are increasingly recognised as central to the way that heritage is created, performed and experienced, in place. This is particularly relevant to places of contested heritage, such as Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park, a World Heritage site of significant international and domestic tourist visitation, that holds specific meanings for the Traditional Custodians, the Anangu, but is also regarded as a marker of identity by non-Anangu Australians. The climb of Uluru, which is soon to close, has long been a symbol of these contested meanings. That visitors and Anangu have strong embodied emotional responses to this issue emerged in onsite research conducted by the author in May 2019. The offence that the climb causes Anangu was downplayed by some visitors, while for others, intention to climb was rationalized by race hatred. Other visitors expressed strong concern about this failure to respect Anangu wishes, finding the climb and other disrespectful behaviour such as photography of sensitive sites shocking and shameful. The strength of their affective, embodied and emotional reactions were unanticipated, raising broader questions about the prevalence of white shame and guilt in the post-colonial Australian context.
Biographies
Ha Hoang is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University. Before commencing her doctoral study in Sydney, Ha taught undergraduate courses at School of Journalism and Communication, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Her research interests include transnational flows of popular cultures, digital cultures, and youth cultures in relation to social media, in East and South-East Asia.
Vanessa Whittington is a Doctoral Candidate with the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University. She was awarded a Master’s Degree in Museum and Heritage Studies by the University of Sydney in 2017. She has a Master of Arts (Hons) in Women’s Studies/ Interdisciplinary Studies (UNSW) and a Bachelor of Arts with majors in History and Political Science (ANU). She has previously worked in senior policy and research roles for government and non-government agencies with a human services, social justice and social policy focus.
