Lots of international fans are asking about this paper. I just finished reading it.. here's what I think!
Although the paper confirms through data that Southeast Asian fandom is a key participant for PLAVE, it demotes them to a local niche fandom or a subject requiring guidance, rather than recognizing them as independent cultural agents.
This reveals an elitist perspective that dismisses the reception practices of specific regional fandoms as obstacles to global expansion, serving as a quintessential example of how non-Western fandoms are objectified within global K-pop discourse.
The paper's framing of PLAVE's failure in global expansion exposes a fixation on Western validation as the ultimate metric of success. By interpreting the group's vibrant Southeast Asian reception through a deficit-oriented lens rather than recognizing it as a genuine, localized success, the author inadvertently reveals an epistemic subalternity, effectively perpetuating the flawed notion that K-pop's true legitimacy is determined by the Global North.
It feels like they're looking at PLAVE through a lens that was never meant to fit K-pop in the first place.PLAVE represents a entirely new genre and stands in a category of its own; it simply cannot be placed on the same track as traditional K-pop idols.👀
Coldplay X BTS - My Universe
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260701 🐈⬛ Zero's Cantabile
Yeoreobun.. congrats on your debut! 🎉🫶🏻
Literally got goosebumps, it's so beautiful. They made our voices and the final performance look so magical 🥹
Thank you WE GO-6, thank you System, thank you Yeoreobun. Let's stay together for a long time, at least 600 years??? Haha wegohae⁶⁰⁰
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