Mock Koreaboo: Appropriating Appropriation

Abstract

Within the K-pop fandom, there are major divisions between types of fans. One of the most notorious type of fan is the Koreaboo, a pejorative term used for global fans perceived as wishing they could be Korean themselves and seen as being far too invested into K-pop itself at the expense of the rest of Korean culture. One of the major hallmarks of being a Koreaboo, according to critics, is the unnecessary incorporation of Korean vocabulary into non-Korean speech, particularly words like oppa. K-pop fans have innovated a form of speech which I am terming “mock Koreaboo” for the purpose of condemning this form of being a fan and positioning themselves as above koreaboos. Through the use of elitist stances (Jaworski & Thurlow 2009), K-pop fans index their disapproval of Koreaboos and their fetishization of Korean culture, creating a separate indexical order from Koreaboo speech.