JAKARTA - In the past few years, the hallyu wave has spread overseas again. Not only in terms of entertainment, but slang terms that are often used in South Korea are often used. Have you ever heard a friend say "Annyeonghaseyo" when greeting you?
One of the popular words is Mukbang. Mukbang is a combination of two words Meokneun (Eat) and Bangsu (Broadcast). This term became known in early 2010. At that time, Mukbang's activities were carried out on streaming service sites that began to spread in South Korea. There are Afreeca, Youtube, and Twitch which are becoming popular as streaming services.
The term Mukbang is carried out when a person directly records himself consuming various types of food ranging from live seafood to junk food in large portions. Mukbang then becomes a field for producing easy money purses. There are even some Korean artists who become Broadcast Jockey (BJ), one of which is Ellin Crayon Pop.
Recently, Charna Rowley, a youtuber from England, claimed to be the first Mukbang star in the UK (United Kingdom). Rowley, who is 22 years old, decided to resign from his job and focus on making content recording himself on the Youtube site. Rowley wanted himself to be the UK's first Mukbang star.
He has become consistent in recording his videos in the past month. His YouTube video contains him eating large portions of food. Not infrequently, Rowley invites his girlfriend to participate in the video.
Unfortunately, not many know that Mukbang is more associated with live recording than direct uploading. From their own origins, most BJs are open to streaming and let the audience witness the action eating something directly. However, that meaning is increasingly shifting as technology develops.
Rowley says "I'm just showing how confident I am - I may have something tucked in my teeth or around my mouth but people love how cute I am."
Even so, there are negative comments that often come to Rowley's Youtube channel. "I have one negative (comment) saying how fat I am, I can be beautiful if I don't try to eat a lot but I don't answer." Rowley explained, who enjoyed the adsense from the videos he made.
So far, Rowleh has been making 2.5 hours of Mukbang videos per week on his YouTube channel and has so far spent £ 1,000 or Rp.18 million to fund his mukbang videos.
With her Mukbang activities, Rowley maintains her health by regularly registering for four gym sessions a week to check her body health. He admits that showing his act of eating in front of the camera has increased self-esteem and Rowley enjoys receiving requests from subscribers of his Youtube channel what to eat.
One of the videos that received many views was when he did Mukbang for Chinese food which was done by home delivery. The video has been viewed more than 59 thousand to date. Even though it is called dangerous, quoted from Metro UK, in fact the Mukbang phenomenon is unlikely to stop anytime soon.
Lonely People
Quoting from Tirto.id, social scientists have competed to provide explanations for why mukbang is a popular phenomenon among millennial cyber addicts. Jeff Yang, a cultural critic and senior vice president at global research firm Kantar Futures, gave Quartz his unique insight that mukbang actors and fans are really lonely people.
"The cause is the loneliness of single or unmarried people, in addition to the social aspects inherent in Korean eating culture," he said.
Yang's eating culture in Korea is the tradition of eating together within the family circle. This culture is closely related to people in Asia, including Indonesia. Professor Sung-hee Park of the Division of Media Studies at Ewha University told CNN that the word "family" in Korean means "those who eat together," so mukbang shows have a special meaning in the hearts of fans.
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