Transnational Adoption, Hallyu, and the Politics of Korean Popular Culture

This essay examines the phenomenon of the return of transnational adoptees to Korea, as represented in the popular media. I argue that television shows and films melodramatize adoptees' narratives to produce new narratives that promote the idea of a globalized South. The essay contexualizes this process of melodramatization within Hallyu, a contemporary renaissance in Korean arts and entertainment.