Group Images of Korean Women on Douyin: Representation, Generation, and Identification

Since 2023, the slogan “Question Korean women, understand Korean women, learn Korean women” has become popular in Chinese social networks. Previously, Chinese netizens have not paid such attention to women from other countries. In response to this phenomenon, this paper combines neoliberal feminist theories with thematic analysis to obtain a total of 80 valid samples from the Douyin platform to analyze the image of Korean women disseminated on the Douyin platform. Finally, it is concluded that the image of Korean women’s strict self-discipline, internal and external cultivation, sobriety of thought, and the spirit of courageous struggle have to a certain extent promoted the awakening of self-consciousness of female netizens in China; on the other hand, it is also necessary to realize that the image of Korean women disseminated in Douyin is not completely true, and it is also necessary to be alert to the phenomenon that the gender dichotomy has been reduced to the attraction of network traffic and capital as a sharp weapon.