Cultural globalization from the periphery: translation practices of English-speaking K-pop fans

The international expansion of Korean popular music (K-pop) reflects the increasing dislocation of cultural globalization from Western centers, spurred by the rise of cultural, economic, and political institutions within different regions. This study adopts a translation theory perspective on how the meanings of such cultural products from the “periphery” become transculturally intelligible. In this endeavor, we analyze the role of online fan-generated paratexts in translating the global consumptionscape of K-pop. We reveal how translation practices enable cultural understanding and reinscribe transcultural identity politics, inverting and unsettling “traditional” center-periphery dynamics. Fan translation practices emerge as a key node in processes of cultural globalization, underscoring the role of consumer-as-translator and situating cultural globalization not only in localized spaces but also in the mediated transcultural space of the paratextual field.