Introducing K-Town: Consumption, Authenticity, and Citizenship in Koreatown’s Popular Reimagining

This article examines representations of Koreatown provided by three contemporary television/web programs: Ktown Cowboys (2009), K-Town (2012–13), and Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (2013). I argue that the act of consumption by second-generation Korean Americans is deployed centrally in each program, albeit for considerably different purposes. In Ktown Cowboys and K-Town, consumption by second-generation Korean Americans serves to validate their claims to a reimagined Koreatown, or K-Town, as well as to the larger U.S. society. In Parts Unknown, their consumption instead functions to authenticate Koreatown as a culturally unique, and thus newly desirable, ethnic space for the masses.