Fandom Makes the World Go Round: Institutional Entrepreneurship and Cultural Translation among Hallyu Fans

This article investigates the institutional role of fans and fandom in the bottom-up circulation, reception, and translation of Korean popular culture. Specifically, we focus on fans entrepreneurship, which creates an alternative social institution based on fandom, transcending national, ethnic, religious, and linguistic boundaries. Our empirical investigation of Hallyu fans in Israel and Palestine primarily builds on an on-site survey of the Korea Festival in Jerusalem in 2021. Our theoretical contribution lies in conceptualizing fan entrepreneurship as both an institutional and an anti-institutional activity that shifts the boundary between labour and leisure; positions fandom events as an alternative institution in place of the more traditional mechanisms created by governments and industries; and actively translates Korean popular culture into local texts and contexts—an essential process for globalizing Hallyu. These findings allow us to contribute to the understanding of fans not only as active players in the global spread of contemporary popular culture, but also as leading institutional actors.