Fostering Youth-Led ASEAN Interest Group in South Korean Universities: Preliminary Studies of Two ASEAN Roundtables
Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemics, most of the youth's extracurricular events and activities in South Korean universities had been halted. These included the student-led interest group that was purposed to promote better understanding and people-to-people connections from South Korea and other regions, including the Southeast Asia region and the ASEAN organization. This paper aims to provide initial insights into how these student-led ASEAN Interest Groups show their eagerness to survive the pandemic semesters and keep their existence as a common and sustainable space for youth in South Korean universities better to understand the Southeast Asia region and its people. As a preliminary case study, this research conducted mini field research observation on-site and virtually in two ASEAN roundtable groups in two South Korean universities for two months (mid-September 2021 to early November 2021). These activities include participating in both groups' regular meetings, monitoring social network service (SNS/social media) accounts, disseminating voluntary primary demographic and aspirations surveys for the groups' members, and in-depth interviews with the groups' in-office and former coordinators. The result from this mini-ethnographic study later deliberated into how these student-led ASEAN interest groups in South Korean universities can play a role in lime lighting a young, dynamic, and prospective region of Southeast Asia amongst young Koreans that still have a limited understanding of the Southeast Asia region and culture, that in the future can play in building a sustainable and future-oriented ASEAN-South Korea partnership.
References
Anantasirikiat, S. (2019). Branding ASEAN, Bridging People in South Korea. USC Center on Public Diplomacy. https://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/blog/branding-asean-bridging-people-south-korea
Aji, Helmy Yahya Rahma, and Anissa Rosalin Anindhita. 2022. “SKYFITY: Bridging the Gap Between ASEAN and Korean Youth in Fostering ASEAN -Korea Partnership.” Jurnal Politica Dinamika Masalah Politik Dalam Negeri Dan Hubungan Internasional 13 (1): 103–18. https://doi.org/10.22212/jp.v13i1.2909.
ASEAN-Korea Centre. (2022). 2021 Survey on Mutual Perceptions of ASEAN and Korean Youths: Key Findings of the Online Survey on Mutual Perceptions of ASEAN and Korean Youths, February 2022. https://asean.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Infographics_Major-Findings-of-the-Survey.pdf
ASEAN-Korea Centre. (2023). 2022 Survey on Mutual Perceptions of ASEAN and Korean Youths: Key findings of the Focus group interview on Mutual Perceptions of ASEAN and Korean Youths. https://www.aseankorea.org/synap/skin/doc.html?fn=BD_202310251030445910&rs=/upload_data/asean/upfilePath/synap/result/
Beloan, B., Mongan, F. F. A., & Suryandari, N. N. A. (2022). Economic Colonialism: Korean Wave (Hallyu) Hegemony. International Journal of Religious and Cultural Studies, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.34199/ijracs.2022.04.02
Chen, W., Song, S., & Yap, K. (2021). The unintended consequences of the pandemic: the new normal for college students in South Korea and Taiwan. Frontiers in Public Health, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.598302
Choe, W. (2021). New Southern Policy: Korea’s newfound ambition in search of strategic autonomy. Asie.Visions, (118). Ifri. https://www.ifri.org/sites/default/files/migrated_files/documents/atoms/files/choe_new_southern_policy_korea_2021.pdf
David, F. (1993). Strategic Management (4th Ed.). Macmillan Publishing Company.
Dongil Kim, HyeYun Gladys Shin, Yeonjae Lee, Seohyeon Choi, and Kyungwon Lee. 2022. “Examining Global Competences in ASEAN and Korean Youths.” The SNU Journal of Education Research 31 (2): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.54346/sjer.2022.31.2.1.
Fatanti, M. N., Prabawangi, R. P., Ananda, K. S., Fatah, R. Z., & Dahnil, E. A. (2022). Going online to seek answers: Best practices for online research during COVID-19 pandemic. In Exploring New Horizons and Challenges for Social Studies in a New Normal (pp. 110-115). Routledge.
Gera, Krity & Hasdell, Peter. (2021). Digital Ethnography for Social Design: Challenges and Opportunities in the Pandemic. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80829-7_26
Glodev, Victor, Gustaf Wijaya, and Rachmah Ida. 2023. “The Korean Wave as the Globalization of South Korean Culture.” WACANA: Jurnal Ilmiah Ilmu Komunikasi 22 (1): 108–20. https://doi.org/10.32509/wacana.v22i1.2671.
Korea University. (2021). Graduate Course Registration System. Korea University. https://sugang.korea.ac.kr/graduate/
KU GSIS. (2020). Why study at KU GSIS? Korea University Division of International Studies and Graduate School of International Studies. https://int.korea.edu/kuis/grad/intro.do
KU GSIS. (2021). KIEP-KU GSIS GPAS. Korea University Division of International Studies and Graduate School of International Studies. https://int.korea.edu/kuis/grad/other_kiep.do
KU GSIS Southeast Asia Society [@seas_kugsis]. (2019a). The view of the Gyeongbokgung Palace is the Joseon dynasty's main palace. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw9oeNPlXpV/
KU GSIS Southeast Asia Society [@seas_kugsis]. (2019b). Welcome to East Asia Society! Please join us every Tuesday and learn more about interesting issues in Asia! Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu-v1jwFbqk/
Kumoro, Nindyo. 2022. “Ethnographic Methods in the Globalized and Post-Pandemic Society: A Virtual-Collaborative Fieldwork.” In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Language, Literature, Education and Culture, ICOLLEC 2021, 9-10 October 20. Malang: EAI. https://doi.org/10.4108/eai.9-10-2021.2319678.
SNU GSIS. (2021a). International Area Studies Courses. SNU GSIS. https://gsis.snu.ac.kr/courses_international-area-studies?year=2021&semester=fall
SNU GSIS. (2021b). Why GSIS. Seoul National University Graduate School of International Studies. https://gsis.snu.ac.kr/why_gsis
Weiner Davis, T., & Obertino-Norwood, H. (2024). Pandemic ethnography: Fieldwork in transformed social space. Qualitative Research, 24(5), 1272-1290. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941241230230 (Original work published 2024)
Copyright (c) 2025 East Asian Review
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
East Asian Review applies the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, with the copyright on the published articles held by the journal. Authors are required to transmit the copyright to this journal once the articles are accepted. This journal is granted a non-exclusive license to publish the articles as the original publisher, along with the commercial right to publish printed issues for sale. Since this journal applies an open-access mode, authors may post articles published by this journal on personal websites or institutional repositories both prior to and after publication while providing bibliographic details that credit this journal.
By publishing with this journal, the copyright holder grants any third party the lawful right to use their published article to the extent provided by the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
Subsequently, people are lawfully permitted to share, distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the published articles, even for commercial purposes, so long as they provide appropriate credit or attribution (Title, Author, Source, and License of the work), include a link to the license, indicate if any changes were made, and redistribute the derivative outputs under the same license (CC BY-SA 4.0).
