Document Type
Article
Abstract
The cultural phenomenon known as “youth culture” (ch’ŏngnyŏn munhwa) emerged in South Korean society at the turn of the 1970s. It encompasses Western fashion trends, music genres, leisure and nightlife. Labeled as a foreign and decadent trend by the authorities, this so-called counterculture was the target of repeated crackdowns. It is sometimes perceived as a force of protest or resistance, but it had more ambiguous relations to the regime. Popular entertainment magazines such as the Sunday Seoul or the Chugan Kyŏnghyang helped propagate youth culture and provided resources about new trends to young people, but also kept a certain distance to its more controversial aspects. The magazines’ attitude towards youth culture alternated between curiosity, benevolent complicity and moral condemnation. Youth as it was depicted in these magazines included not only those who participated in these new trends but also portrayals of disciplined young people generally aligned with the regime’s conservative ideology. Depending on social class and background, some young people were openly hostile to youth culture. Even those who participated in it generally had a liberal position that didn’t necessarily involve a progressive or anti-regime political position.
Citation Information
Diverchy, Thibaut. "Modern Youth or Moral Decadence: Discourses on South Korea’s “Youth Culture” in Magazines of the Late 1960s and Early 1970s." Asia Pacific Perspectives 19, No. 2 (2026)