'They make me very happy': Practices, perceptions, and affective connections of K-pop fans in Canada

As the expansion K-pop and the Korean Wave continues to develop in tandem with digital media technologies and the global fandoms that form around them, questions surrounding the flows of media, images, ideas, capital, and people as well as meaning and affect across borders continue to warrant investigation in order to further understandings of mediated globalized processes of cultural reception, negotiation, and exchange. Through a framework of transcultural fandom, parasocial relationships, and understandings of fan affect, this thesis undertakes an examination of the role affective identities and attachments of K-pop fans plays in the motivation of fan practices and the development of perceptions and understandings of cultural difference.