She applied the "Page 99 Test" to her new book, Finding Mr. Perfect: K-Drama, Pop Culture, Romance, and Race, with the following results:
Page 99 of Finding Mr. Perfect: K-Drama, Pop Culture, Romance, and Race examines online discourse among some Korean pop culture fans who expressed interest in forming intimate relations with Korean men. After analyzing some of the quotes from the online spaces, I make the following observation:Learn more about Finding Mr. Perfect at the Rutgers University Press website.However, the comments risk perpetuating Western Orientalist stereotypes of Asian masculinity that effeminized them when such characteristics are deemed to be facts applicable to all Korean men rather than as one of many facets of Korean masculinity. After all, to say that “a Korean guy is a guy before he is Korean” implies that Korean men are somehow atypically masculine because of their Korean-ness and only conform to the conventional concept of a “guy” when he prioritizes that identity above his identity as a Korean, as if the two identity categories cannot coexist.If the readers open my book to page 99, they would be able to deduce approximately half of the book’s main argument.
The book is largely divided into two parts. Chapter 3: Digitalized Intimacies of Hallyu (which page 99 is a part of) and Chapter 4: “Korean Men Are So Bad Because They Are Perfect”: Hallyu Tourists’ Experiences in Korea examine Hallyu tourism from the transnational fans’ perspectives. I argue that while the Korean pop culture fans’ racialized erotic desires for Korean masculinity are problematizing the overtly racist stereotypes of East Asian masculinity that proliferated in the West for a long time, such desires risk essentializing Korean masculinity in different ways if the fans are not careful with how they conceptualize their desires. Meanwhile, Chapter 1: Mouth Agape and Ecstatically Screaming: National Media and Industry Personnel’s Conception of Foreign Hallyu Fans and Chapter 5: “How Can We Compete with Men Like That?”: Korean Men’s Perception of Their Newfound Popularity examine the Korean government and some Korean men’s perspectives on Hallyu tourism. In these chapters, I argue that Korea operates through its own racialized erotic desires for foreign fans. The main message of the book is that Hallyu tourism is driven by the disparate racialized erotic desires of the Korean government, some Korean men, and a subset of Korean popular culture fans. If readers open the book to page 99, they can find the first part of my main argument.
--Marshal Zeringue
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