K-Pop and the Creative Participatory Engagement of Thai Fans: When Cultural Hybridity Becomes Cultural Authenticity

Abstract

K-pop products generally avoid cultural particularity, but they speak to specific neoliberal aspirations of middle-class urban audiences in Asia, even if such dreams are a distant reality in working-class regions in Thailand. This paper features the popular “Deksorkrao” YouTube channel, produced by a group of K-pop fans in Thailand’s northeast. We provide a discourse analysis of their home-made cover of Blackpink’s “Pink Venom” that incorporates symbols particular to agricultural life. We argue that this form of creative participatory engagement is a uniquely authentic expression that speaks to a familiar discourse in Thai life, but uses K-pop as its vehicle.