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“Cosplay”: Imaginative Self and Performing Identity

It is a study by Rahman et al. to examine the cosplay subculture in Hong Kong by using

participation, photography, observation, and interviews. It aims to understand the motives and

experiences behind the partakers of cosplay and pays attention to variables of the extended self,

boundary negotiations, and authenticity (Rahman et al., 2012). The article dives into describing

the pleasurable experiences, self-gratification, fulfilment, and meaningful experiences that

individuals derive from cosplay.

Cosplay has become a global phenomenon due to globalisation and technological

advancements. The article outlines how globalisation has increased in terms of popularity

especially in Hong Kong with the widespread portrayal by the media (Rahman et al., 2012). The

article further dives into listing the challenges that currently affect the Asian subcultures mainly

the cosplay subculture. The enthusiasts of cosplay have formed a type of community through

friends, online societies, and events. The article notes that the postmodern cosplay community is

held together through shared emotions, lifestyle, new beliefs and practices. The subculture

communities exist in the form of symbolic and ritual manifestation commitment portrayed by the

members. The article also describes how manga, a 2D anime, is transformed into cosplay, a 3D

live character existing in the real-time (Rahman et al., 2012).

In summary, the article describes cosplay as a stage for presenting and expressing the

alternate self as well as a way of building an individual’s trust, communication skills, and

confidence. It describes how understanding and support play a significant role in the lives of

participants of not only cosplay but also other genres of subcultures. The study succeeds in

asserting that individuals form links to support each other through participatory activities. It thus
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explains why it is common to see a cosplayer connect with others as a way of admiration and

encouragement.

How to Drop a Name: Hybridity, Purity, and the K-Pop Fan

The author of this article is Elain Chun. The article discusses how K-pop fans negotiate

with competitive lingual practices across nations on YouTube. It analyses interactions that

emerged from reaction videos posted by two English-speaking supporters. According to the

article, the utterances of Korean names by the two supporters sparked linguistic absolutism

which suggested the precise articulation of names and how K-pop supporters shaped the two

fans’ articulation as a hybrid (Chun, 2017). The article outlines the trajectory that results from

hybridising a language. The presentation of the evaluation reflecting on ideological orientation

towards hybrid language is listed.

Chun describes K-pop as a music style borrowing from hip hop, R&B, and electronic

music and as well as from Hallyu which is a musical style consumed across Asia (Chun, 2017).

The article describes the arguable novelty of K-pop and the use of bits of English in its lyrics.

The report further examines the linguistics tags that resulted from Cortney and Jasmine who

posted a real-time reaction video to K-pop on YouTube (Chun, 2017). The semiotic description

of how their Korean utterances were heard as a hybrid by most of K-pop fans. Chun establishes

hybridity as a matter of cultural status rather than objective fact and attributes it to the context of

discourse. Majority of the K-pop fans in the prescriptive acts had an extreme static ideology of

strict absolutism whereby they pronounced Korean and English names with their respective

phonology. Later, a group of six fans challenged the absolutists’ assumptions and suggested a

relativist perspective which acknowledged that different lingual institutions have different norms
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(Chun, 2017). In summary, the study analyses the linguistic hybridity in K-pop that is mediatised

especially by YouTube on both domestic and global scales.

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References

Chun, E. W. (2017). How to drop a name: Hybridity, purity, and the K-pop fan. Language in

Society, 46(1), 57-76.

Rahman, O., Wing-Sun, L., & Cheung, B. H. M. (2012). “Cosplay”: Imaginative self and

performing identity. Fashion Theory, 16(3), 317-341.