‘I don’t like K-pop, only JYJ-pop’: Disenchanted Pop Cosmopolitans in Transnational K-pop Online Fandom

Elan Lazuardi — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0700

K-pop has gained considerable traction not only throughout East and Southeast Asia but also across European and American fandom, thereby integrating these audiences into what Henry Jenkins describes as “pop cosmopolitanism”. Based on an online ethnographic study conducted in 2012 involving fourteen fans who regularly participated in JYJ3, a fan-operated website dedicated to the K-pop group JYJ, this paper investigates how fans construct their identities as part of a transnational modern community while simultaneously cultivating moral discernment. Drawing on Hannerz’s concept of “cosmopolitan” and Jenkins’s notion of “pop cosmopolitan,” the analysis demonstrates how transnational fans leverage their exposure to diverse cultural and social contexts in their processes of self-fashioning, both culturally and morally. The findings indicate that fans’ engagement with JYJ transcends mere aesthetics or eclectic preferences. Instead, their attachment is influenced by a reflexive awareness of the industry’s “manufacturedness,” JYJ’s role as underdogs, and the moral and emotional responsibilities fans perceive toward the group. Through participation in JYJ3, fans negotiate the significance of caring for, protecting, or distancing themselves from idols and fandom, with these negotiations becoming central to their self-understanding as cosmopolitan subjects. These negotiations become central to how they understand themselves as cosmopolitan subjects. This study suggests that global pop culture fandom – within K-pop and beyond – is increasingly driven by moral work. It advocates for expanding analyses of pop cosmopolitanism to encompass the nuanced moral work through which fans navigate evolving expectations of care and responsibility within networked fan cultures.

Dunia Majapahit dalam Hikayat Hang Tuah: Kajian Sastra Perjalanan Carl Thompson

Pranatama Kesdihandaru — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 09:09:00 +0700

This paper will discuss the depiction of the world, representation of others, and agenda in the Hikayat Hang Tuah text, episode of the journey to Majapahit. Hang Tuah's journey to Majapahit is the most significant episode narrated in the Hikayat Hang Tuah text. The author of the Hikayat Hang Tuah text not only reports on the depiction of the world in terms of landscapes and places, but also the people of Majapahit. The depiction of the world of Majapahit through the perspective of the Malay author is interesting to study because it reveals the hidden agenda within it. The Hikayat Hang Tuah text used in the field of research is the edited text by Kassim Ahmad. Meanwhile, Carl Thompson's travel literature, which focuses on world depictions, representations of others, and agendas, is the material object of this paper. This study uses a descriptive analytical method that describes facts followed by analysis and interpretation. The data in this study consists of a series of words or quotations in the form of narratives and dialogues that describe the depiction of the world, the representation of others, and the agenda. Based on the results of the analysis, it was found that the depiction of the world in the form of landscapes, places, and people is both objective and subjective. Based on the analysis of the depiction of the world and the representation of others, the agenda is revealed in the form of ethical and political implications.

Sasdaya: Gadjah Mada Journal of Humanities

‘I don’t like K-pop, only JYJ-pop’: Disenchanted Pop Cosmopolitans in Transnational K-pop Online Fandom

Dunia Majapahit dalam Hikayat Hang Tuah: Kajian Sastra Perjalanan Carl Thompson