When holding two national identities, which one do you choose to represent on a worldwide stage? If you’re Korean American, who do you choose to represent as an Olympian, Korea or America? This concept with athletes also bleeds into the decisions of music artists and those joining into K-Pop groups. Each person who decides to go into the limelight and holds two salient identities will have to usually make a choice of which to highlight as they go step into the spotlight.
A prime example of that decision and multicultural nationalism is found within K-Pop group, NCT 127, a subgroup of NCT. They have several members who were not born in Korea and some that are not even of Korean descent. Johnny was born in Chicago, but he was discovered by SM entertainment when they did auditions in Chicago. He decided to go to Korea to represent in a K-Pop group as opposed to starting a music career in America. Yuta is from Osaka, Japan. He also passed one of the global auditions that SM Entertainment conducted. This in a way could even create a tension for Yuta within the two identities being the history that Korea and Japan have with each other. Would some consumers say that he doesn’t fully comprehend “han”, the innate suffering in Koreans? It is hard to say. Beyond those two, Win Win was born in China and Mark was born in Vancouver, Canada. Why did these four decide to become pop stars in Korea instead of their countries of birth? That’s too deep to get into here, but these four stars are far from the only two examples of K-Pop stars that came from outside South Korea.
This creates a curiosity to fully understand what exactly is it that allows a person with multiple national identities to decide which nation to represent as they rise up in popular culture. Is it convenience? Is it strong emotional conviction? Does it change from individual to individual?
According to Rachael Miyung Joo, many times it is to suit nation’s agendas. Perhaps having members from different parts of the world is more convenient for reaching other audiences across the globe. Example, when NCT decides to tour in North America will Johnny and Mark be most convenient when communicating with fans because they were born there and speak English fluently? China and Japan are also popular consumers of K-Pop so in these cases, will Yuta and Win Win be most convenient? Will they be the mechanism to spread “Koreanness” to Americans? These members from other parts of the world can serve as ambassadors for Korea and vice versa for their nation.
The Politics of K-Pop 
You bring up a good point about K-Pop stars that have “two national identities”. It isn’t uncommon to see Korean-American K-Pop idols active in the industry these days. In fact, almost every newly debuting group has a foreign member in it. In the case of Korean-American K-Pop idols specifically, I feel as though the K-Pop industry has a hard time accepting these idols as fully ‘Korean’, even if they racially are so. Korean-American idols that were brought up in the United States must always walk around with a ‘foreigner’ label, no matter how proficient they are in the Korean language or how well versed they are in Korean culture.
One of the most striking examples of this is Eric Nam, an racially Korean K-Pop star who grew up in Atlanta, Georgia to Korean immigrant parents. Having moved to Korea following his appearance on the TV show ‘Birth of a Great Star 2’ in 2011, Eric had to opportunity to slowly learn Korean and the culture. 8 years later, despite him being fluent in Korean and living in Seoul full-time, Eric is still very much considered a foreigner from America. Of course, interviewers are much more natural and friendly while conversing with him, but they always seem to bring up the fact that he is from America, is very good at speaking English, or has many foreign-friends. I am reminded of the two short clips we watched in class about Toby Dawson and Hines Ward. It feels as though Korea has a hard time accepting Korean-Americans as ‘one of their own’ until it is convenient to do so. It is unfortunate that Korea’s very much homogeneous racial makeup leads to situations like these where those who did not grow up in Korea are ostracized. That being said, however, I do believe that with the rapid globalization of the country and the increasing number of Korean-American idols, Korean society will grow to accept these individuals more easily and more quickly.
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As Saumya stated, it’s very rare to see a group that doesn’t include a non-Korean member with more and more K-pop fans being exposed to the culture and aspiring to be a part of this globalized movement. This influx of foreigners becoming idols, paired with the increase of Western influences in music (for example, tropical house and moombahton), definitely raises the questions of whether or not K-pop is truly just Western music in Korean, which is the sort of question that Caucasian K-pop group EXP EDITION (uncomfortably) challenges.
I often wonder if foreign idols who have been active in the industry for a long time have these sort of conflicts about their identity, especially since their participation in Korean society would definitely affect who they are as a person, but I wonder if this can also be with any foreigner who has been in Korea for even over a few years, which raises the question of what makes someone a certain ethnicity and if being in Korea for longer make someone “more” Korean. For example, Nickhun from 2PM has been active in the industry for almost ten years and is still under JYP and even runs his own Korean-language programs in foreign countries. Does that make him feel “Korean” or is it the adaptation to the culture and the language just a skillset he had to develop as a professional singer?
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