International Symposium
Influence of Cowboy Culture on Korean Popular Culture and Beyond

This international symposium contemplates on the influence of American culture in genres of popular music, fashion, film and television, and literature. Blue jeans and American style popular music emerged in the expansion of American popular culture by means of cold war cultural hegemony and underground economy of consumer products—both officially and unofficially. Scholars of Korean studies and related disciplines make a presentation about genres such as fashion, literature, movies, and popular music. The popular songs like Arizona Cowboy (1958) and Shoeshine Boy (1952) in the US army camps in South Korea were powerful mediators of disseminating the indigenous perception of as well as the misconception of American popular culture. Subsequently the generation born in the 1940s (so-called baby boomers) in Asian countries of the U.S. alliance (South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and so on) grew up consuming blue jeans, American popular music, and American-brand consumer products. This symposium includes an expansive version of “American cowboy culture” in post-WWII Asia with the introduction of Hollywood movies, tourist attractions, and children’s toys. For example, many Japanese tourists used to go to Hawaii to participate in cowboy-themed entertainment in the 1980s while children developed desire for “Woody” (Sheriff Woody Pride) in Toy Story (1995).

In Japan, although cowboys in American Western films were perceived as having something in common to samurai warriors, only jeans were accepted as fashion, not the cowboy style. In the lineage of the history of blue jeans in Japan. Scholars in this symposium speculate on since when and how jeans became acceptable forms of menswear in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.

In Korea, many versions of the Western film were shown to the public in theaters or created as a Korean version throughout the twentieth century. Scholars want to discuss how Korean musicians and film makers adapted the US-based “Western” film as a genre for the audiences of Korea and beyond its national, linguistic borders.

Likewise, since 1953, musicians based on the Stage were trained and earned popularity, and images of the ‘American Dream’ were addressed — in a complex and decentralized way — in popular songs like Shoeshine Boy (1952), America Chinatown (1954), and Arizona Cowboy (1955). This symposium will explore this American cultural impact on Korean popular music in the 1950s and 60s, focusing on the US Eighth Army Club’s culture as a major cultural medium through which Korean pop music was transformed.

Scholars in Japan have been somewhat isolated from an international or pan-Asian development of American popular culture. This symposium will become an opportunity for Japanese scholars of fashion, cinema, and popular music to see a larger context of the US cultural hegemony in the Pacific region.

Project Director
Yayoi Motohashi [Associate Professor, Kyoto Institute of Technology]

Co-organizer
Kyunghee Pyun [Professor, State University of New York, Fashion Institute of Technology]

Date
December 12, 2025 (Friday)
10:00–16:55

Venue
2F, KYOTO Design Lab, Kyoto Institute of Technology
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Admission
Free, no registration required.

Language
English

Themes

• Influence of American Cowboy Culture on Asian Street Fashion
• Transnational Forms: Swordplay, Assassins, Wandering Ronin and Cowboys
• Cowboys in the Western Film, Blue Jeans, and Street Fashion
• The Eighth Army Club Culture: Impact of American Music on Korean Popular Culture in the 1950s
• Popular Songs of “Country Music” in South Korea and Japan
• The Making of Arizona Cowboy: Imagery of “the American West”

Speakers and Titles (organized by the last name in capital)
Jean AMATO	Cowboys in Pan-Asian Forms: Swordplay, Assassins, Wandering Ronin Abstract & Biography
Shin AOKI	Were They “Cowboys”?: A Brief Sketch of Country Music Performers in the U.S. Military Touring East Asia, 1945-1959 Abstract & Biography
Zhaohua Ho	The Reception of the Cowboy Image as a Subcultural Symbol in Taiwan and the Influence of American Culture
Youngna KIM	The Impact of American Popular Culture in Korea: Embodied by Blue Jeans Abstract & Biography
Yung Bin KWAK	From Arizona to Manchuria Towards Space and Beyond: A Critical Genealogy of Cowboys in Contemporary Korean Imaginary Abstract & Biography
Junhue LEE	Romanticizing Cowboys and Ranches in Korean Popular Music: Reception of the Country & Western Genre in the 1950s Abstract & Biography
Yayoi MOTOHASHI	From Cowboys to Rock: The Transcultural Evolution of Denim and American Style in Japanese Fashion Abstract & Biography This research was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 23K00227.
Mari NAGATOMI	Cowboys as Folk: American Country Music and Western Movies in the early 1960s Abstract & Biography
Ying-chen PENG	A Different Blue: The Rise of Jeans in China’s Reform Era Abstract & Biography
Kyunghee PYUN	Consuming “Cowboy” in Korean Material Culture: Impact of “American Style” from the 1950s to the 1980s Abstract & Biography
Jaye RHEE	Once-Unfamiliar Names, Imagined Homes: Transnational Longing in Korean Ballads and Contemporary Art Abstract & Biography
Hyun-Suk SEO	Once Upon a Time in Manchuria Abstract & Biography

Moderator
		Yutaka Nakamura Yutaka Nakamura is a cultural anthropologist, design anthropologist, and holds a Ph.D. from Hitotsubashi University. He is the CEO of Atelier Anthropology LLC., a professor at the Tama Art University’s Liberal Arts Center & Graduate School of Art and Design, and is in charge of Insight Design at KESIKI INC. While researching topics such as violence in “marginal” societies, social suffering, cultural expressions of anti-violence, and social design for de-violence, he also launched Atelier Anthropology LLC., a design firm based on anthropology. https://atelier-anthropology.com/about

*Photos and videos will be taken during the event solely for documentation and publicity purposes. These may be used in KYOTO Design Lab’s official media, such as the website, social media, and publications. If you prefer not to appear in photos or videos, please inform a staff member during the event.