A growing phenomenon originating in South Korea in 2013 features young attractive people sitting in front of a webcam, broadcasting themselves eating large quantities of food, while textual chatting with their invisible viewers. The term for this is Muk-bang, which combines the Korean words meokneun (eating), and bangsong (broadcast). Muk-bang has been growing in popularity throughout Asia, with the most popular videos on YouTube reaching two million viewers. Popular muk-bang creators report making more than a hundred thousand dollars a year. Press coverage and popular videos present Muk-bang as a ‘weird’ practice by presenting the idea of fetishization, vicarious consumption, and virtual relations guarding against loneliness and ‘eating alone’. While the press and popular videos provides valuable insights and assumptions, we can learn more by interviewing Muk-bang audiences. An ethnographic research with Muk-bang audiences allows us to examine cross-cultural representations of food on new media. Of specific interest to this study, China has become one of the main participators in this cultural practice. While the gender imbalance in South Korea has been declining over the last two decades, China has only recently eliminated the one child policy, leaving many more men in the country than women. How does Muk-bang as a cultural practice reflect this specific condition – what pleasures and connections are the participants gaining? For this project, I will conduct ethnographic interviews and participant observation in order to examine the benefits participants are gaining from participating in Muk-bang phenomenon. The final product of this project will be a Tumblr page (English and Chinese) with visual and audio contents that reflects on the research conducted from interviewing Muk-bang followers.
About the presenterYun Yi Zheng
I am an undergraduate student studying Media & Communication Studies and Asian Studies at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.