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Nam-gung Hyuk, Korean Martial Arts Genre Virtual Streamer – Performance Strategy of Martial Arts Genre in New Media, and Regeneration of Genre Readers

  • Journal of Popular Narrative
  • 2025, 31(1), pp.51~110
  • Publisher : The Association of Popular Narrative
  • Research Area : Interdisciplinary Studies > Interdisciplinary Research
  • Received : January 7, 2025
  • Accepted : February 17, 2025
  • Published : February 28, 2025

Seo, Won-deuk 1

1연세대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The period around 2020 marked a time when Korean martial arts fiction faced a decline in the web fiction market due to the rise of the fantasy genre, but it then experienced a resurgence. During this time, martial arts genre not only returned through web fictions and webtoons but also through virtual streaming. The virtual streamer Nam-gung Hyuk(남궁혁), who emerged in the early 2020s, serves as a pioneering example worthy of analysis. This paper aims to explore Nam-gung Hyuk's strategies as he navigates the martial arts genre and to investigate its theoretical significance. First, is characterized as "the third son of the Nam-gung family and an MZ martial artist." He strategically embodies this characterization through three aspects: appearance, knowledge, and action. This directly correlates with voice, martial arts genre schema, and engaging in activities befitting martial arts genre through gaming. Second, aimed to lower the barriers to entry for martial arts genre and to cultivate readers through methods such as “martial arts genre explanation(무협가리)”. In a landscape where young female readers form the majority, refrained from using overly complex martial arts genre terminology and sought to explain martial arts genre through “introductory sessions(유입설명회)” or "martial arts genre explanations." Third, Nam-gung Hyuk's long-term activities have led to the (re)generation of a reader base that consists of "regular readers" of martial arts. Specific broadcasting formats serve as evidence of his success in this regard, and a lecture he conducted at Cheong-gang University that same year demonstrated that his knowledge and strategic performance could gain validation from the previous generation. In theoretical terms, contributed to opening the martial arts genre to women and provided a sense of chivalry(侠) that potentially enabled new forms of subjectivity for individuals situated within capitalism. This discussion, centered on the emergence of Nam-gung Hyuk in the 2020s, can contribute to broadening the scope of martial arts research, which has predominantly focused on novels and films.

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