In “K-Pop in Mexico: “Flash Mobs, Media Stunts, and the Momentum of Global Mutual Recognition,” Erica Vogel examines the cultural exchange between South Korea and Mexico through music and how fans, especially K-Pop fans, act as both producers and consumers along with being self-promoters of the genre.

Through this, you can see how Korea and K-Pop began to focus more intensely on other markets besides China after the strain the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system caused on their relationship. THAAD is an American anti-ballistic missile defense system used to shoot down incoming missiles. In October 2013, the South Korean military asked the Pentagon to provide information on about THAAD in hopes to strengthen defenses against North Korean ballistic missiles. Controversy began as Chinese officials were convinced THAAD was actually meant to track missiles launched from China rather than North Korea. With these political tensions, Korean companies were seeing a strain on their relationship with their Chinese financiers. Even Chinese members of K-Pop groups face pressure as Zhang Yixing, better known as Lay, of EXO has not promoted with the group in recent years, and WayV, NCT’s Chinese subunit, is under a different label in China, not S.M. Entertainment, and cannot use the NCT name.

This led the South Korean music industry to turn their focus to other markets, such as Mexico. There has been a recent surge in K-Pop songs having Spanish lyrics or being Latin inspired. We see this in songs like KARD’s “Hola Hola” and even BTS’ “Airplane pt. 2,” which was co-written by Ali Tamposi, the songwriter for Camila Cabello’s hit “Havana.” Super Junior’s “Lo Siento” even features Leslie Grace, a Dominican-American artist, who expressed in an article for Forbes that “We’re setting the bar for cross-cultural collaborations, which is something that has never been [done] in this realm and that is huge. So it’s just been fulfilling to see that, at the end of the day, people connect to good music no matter what a good song in that way is really, really, really, really cool.”

Soompi, a popular website that covers Korean pop culture in English, now has a Spanish site as well, and now stops in Mexico and Latin America regularly appear on tour dates for K-Pop acts. Just recently, in January of this year, S.M. Entertainment held an SMTown “Special Stage” in Santiago, Chile as the agency’s first flagship event in South America, featuring a large number of artists under the label.

K-Pop’s penetration into Latin American industries only works because the fans have become their promoters, their greatest advertisement. Vogel discusses ways in which fans play a role in K-Pop’s global recognition, such as fan clubs and dance cover groups.

In “Transpacific Talent: The Kim Sisters in Cold War America,” Benjamin M. Han, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Tulane University, explores American Orientalism through the exchange of talent between the United States and Korea during the period of the Cold War. Throughout his work, Han refers to ideas such as the “perpetual foreigner” and “Americanized Asians,” along with referring to America as a “melting pot.” These concepts allow me to better understand why racial plagiarism is so prevalent within Asian entertainment both in America and in Asia.

The idea of the melting pot is equivalent to assimilation. The metaphor implies a homogenous society, or a fusion of cultures, in which immigrants typically have to give up parts of their culture in order to fit in. On the other hand, the stereotype of Asians as the perpetual foreigner is the idea that no matter how long they or their family has been a part of American society, they will never be seen as true, genuine Americans. With this in mind, despite the systematic oppression they face, African Americans do not face this same issue of being labeled a foreigner. We see this in the theory of black, white, and Asian racial triangulation. This leads me to believe that because of the melting pot ideology and the want to dissolve the label of perpetual foreigner, Asians often racially plagiarize black culture in an attempt to do so.

We see a soar in popularity with Asian American music artists such as Brian Imanuel, better known as Rich Brian, and his record label, 88rising, which has done a remarkable job of bringing Asian artists into the mainstream. Sean Miyashiro, founder of 88rising, defines the goal of the label as “dedicated to celebrating global Asian culture.” However, black culture permeates many aspects of their work from the music and lyrics to the cinematography of the videos produced, even more so than Asian culture itself. Imanuel’s old stage name used to be Rich Chigga, and he even used the n-word in his song “Dat $tick.”

American rapper and actress, Nora Lum, better known as Awkwafina, donned a “blaccent” throughout her role as Peik Lin Goh in the film Crazy Rich Asians, monetizing blackness and black stereotypes to be rewarded in a way that actual black people are not. Black culture is so prevailing within Asian entertainment because by capitalizing on black culture, Asians are able to seem more like an insider and gain acceptance by the majority.