• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.30
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• pp.263-291
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• 2013

In this article, I analyze Korean Dong-in culture and its relationship with Yaoi, focusing on the changes in the 1990s. While Korean Dong-in culture has developed under the influence of Japanese Dojin culture, it is not well-known that Korean Dong-in culture has its own characteristics, reflecting the unique situations surrounding the Korean society. The reason that I pay attention to the changes in the 1990s is that they have created the foundation of the current Korean dong-in culture through changes such as the import and reception of Yaoi, the creation of 'virtual community' in PC telecommunication, the enforcement of Juvenile Protection Law, and the inauguration of 'Comic World,' Among them, the import and reception of Yaoi, a genre characterized by homosexuality including sexual relationship and fanwork, played a decisive role in the change of dong-in culture from manwha circle by highly motivated amatuer artists to fandom. The circumstances that original manhwa dong-in by manwha circle and Yaoi by manhwa fandom coexisted by the mid-1990s, the enforcement of Juvenile Protection Law and the lift of ban on Japanese popular culture rapidly weakened original manhwa dong-in. Also, the popularity of Comic World as a new type of dong-in events reflected the spread of fanwork as a new trend of Korean dong-in. In summary, the import and reception of Yaoi should be considered as one of the important changes in the 1990s Korean Dong-in culture, because 1) Korean women considered Yaoi as a liberating subculture by its powerful contents-homosexuality with sexual relationship, and 2) Yaoi succeeded in attracting new population favoring fanwork as a major trend in Korean Dong-in, differentiated from original manhwa circle population.