[Grace Kao] Webtoons in college classrooms

While TV dramas may portray college classes with assigned readings, essays and tests, the truth is that professors also must adapt to technological shifts, especially in terms of media consumption.

Webtoons are an important medium through which the Korean Wave flows. For those of you who are unfamiliar, webtoons are vertical “scrolling comics” built for viewing on a cellphone. They originated from and were developed in Korea. They enjoy a large fan base. For some people outside Korea, this serves as their primary gateway to understanding the country.

Webtoons are also big business. On June 27, 2024, Webtoon Entertainment (backed by Naver) offered its initial public offering, WBTN, on the US NASDAQ exchange at $21 per share, raising $315 million, and valuing the total market cap of the company at $2.9 billion. Their annual revenue is $1.3 billion, and they boast 170 million active monthly users. A total of 900 titles have been adapted to streaming series, films, books and games. Of course Webtoon Entertainment is not the only company that allows artists to publish in this medium, but it is the largest and the one with which I am most familiar.

In my class on Hallyu, I cover materials on K-pop, K-dramas and webtoons. Still, it was not clear to me how to incorporate it in my class.

Through a contact from a Yale alumna, I reached out to the folks at Naver Webtoon in the US. Kirsten Pointer, the University Programs Specialist at Webtoon, organized a zoom visit with three of her colleagues that work on localization. Localization is the process through which webtoons created in one language (say, Korean) are not only translated but also made intelligible to a foreign audience in another language (for example, English). Of course, these professionals do not want to lose the essence of what is Korean about them -- as in K-pop, audiences are attracted to the “Koreanness” of the cultural product. It might mean that they maintain Korean names, but when puns are Korean-specific historical references, they can add footnotes and use a concept familiar to American audiences (when translating from Korean to English). This group was all US-based.

Of course, there are now non-Korean webtoon creators. The extent to which their work will be localized for Korean audiences will be interesting to watch. I wonder if there’s an interest in non-Korean webtoons in Korea.

In my class, homework assignments earlier in the semester included not only readings, but approximately five hours of K-dramas per week. The entire class watched “Itaewon Class,” but I also divided the class into teams, where they watched other dramas. By the time we reached the unit on Webtoons, we all read “All of Us are Dead” (a webtoon and K-drama about zombies in high school, which provided commentary on socioeconomic status, friendship and interfamilial relationships). We talked a bit about the similarities and differences between consuming webtoons versus dramas. We also talked about series such as “My ID is Gangnam Beauty” which was adapted into a K-drama and starred Cha Eun-woo, an idol from the group Astro. For some of my students, webtoons were more compatible with their busy lives -- they could easily read an episode or two between classes or when going to bed. I imagine that people in Korea can easily read them on the subway. Of course, Wi-Fi in Korea is generally far superior to that in the US.

This summer when I visited Korea, Webtoon Entertainment in Seoul gave Lee Won-seok (formerly at Washington University in St. Louis and now at Yale) and me a tour of its large and sleek facilities. Our visit was led by Yesul (Ashley) Kim and Choi Woung-bi, both of the Strategy and Growth Team. We learned about how artists produce webtoons and the titles that have been most successfully adapted to K-dramas on Netflix. We spoke to dozens of people at the company where we exchanged ideas about their products and we talked about what our students liked and disliked. I found the staff at Webtoon in Korea to be very curious about American audiences. Often, the trait of the US that is most difficult for me to convey to Korean professionals (both at Webtoon and in the K-pop industry) is polarization in terms of race, class and political affiliations that affects all aspects of life in the US. This atmosphere has implications for the consumption of and interest in the Korean Wave. In my classes, those who are most interested in the Korean Wave are students of color (Asian, Latinx and Black), women and self-identified LGBTQ+/queer students. In Korea, gender and age seem to be more important in accounting for differences in taste and attitudes.

I teach my students that understanding a social phenomenon is more intuitive when you have a comparison. For instance, it’s easier to talk about Asian Americans when we describe how they are similar to and different from whites, Hispanics and African Americans. My visits to Korea have not just taught me about Korea, but also the characteristics and quirks of the United States.

Grace Kao

Grace Kao is an IBM professor of sociology and professor of ethnicity, race and migration at Yale University. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. -- Ed.