So far I have reviewed and examined some key theories of globalisation in order to define its distinctive characteristics in reference to the international division of labour
and issues surrounding inequality, as exemplified by the Korean case. This section examines more specifically how animation production in a world-wide context operates and investigates where to situate the Korean animation industry within that context.
The animation industry requires intensive human labour. In order to animate objects as if they are alive, numerous drawings (i.e. in-betweens) are necessary. For these drawings, many animators and artists are required. (See Chapter 6 for an explanation of the in-between work system.) Therefore, animation is a highly competitive business, particularly as regards to labour costs. Major animation companies always search for a production market with low labour costs. The key players in the world animation industry are the so-called developed countries: United States; Japan; and European countries, like France and Germany. In particular, American and Japanese animation companies play leading roles in the world of
animation production. It is therefore not surprising that many scholars have also noticed the significant role of American and Japanese animation houses. For example, Paul Wells (2002) argues that animation is one of the most significant indigenous art forms that the United States has produced and that until the present day Disney in particular is not only one of the many animation production companies operating in the country but has in fact become synonymous with the field of American animation per se (1).
Similarly, Susan A. Napier (2001) argues that it is largely through the field of animation that Japan has become a leading figure in the global cultural economy (5). These two statements indicate the significant role that animation has played in the culture and economy of these two nations. Additionally, these two nations have access to large amounts of capital which accompany and parallel their national economic power.
Likewise, the national mindset in these countries sees producing animation not only as a means of supplying a form of entertainment but also as contributing to the creative process of a highly regarded genuine art form and thus to the nation’s cultural economy
as a whole. However, in contrast to this attitude, there are countries that see animation only as a basic means to make a living. Thus, the workforces of Korea, the Philippines, China, Vietnam and India have mainly been sources of low-cost labour for world
animation production, which originates creatively elsewhere. These countries have been providing satisfactory manpower at relatively low wages, under conditions within which they compete not against the countries which are the major producers of animation products, but rather against each other, to get subcontracting orders. This situation, obviously, offers increased options for the major productions to choose and to switch their labour suppliers more readily.
Looking more concretely at the animation production process; according to Tsang and Goldstein’s (2004: 3) report, in order to produce a typical American animation, 12,000 to 16,000 drawings are needed; for a Japanese animation the requirements are 4000 drawings for every 22 minute episode. Additionally, while 2D animation is primarily based on drawings done by hand, 3D animation relies on computer effects.
Tsang and Goldstein (ibid) report that for 2D animations, about 70% to 80% of the total budget is spent on labour and labour accounts for 60% of the total costs of a typical 3D animation. These figures once again clearly illustrate that animation is a labour
intensive business. However, in so-called developed countries labour costs are relatively high. Therefore, it is common practice for the labour intensive stage of the production process to be done in countries with low wage costs. In addition to putting pressure on labour costs, increased consumption and demand for animated products call for high supply rates of those products. Today, all around the world, animated entertainments, including video games, movies, advertisements and many other media contents, are widely enjoyed. As a result of the globalisation of the media, the circulation of these products is rapid and audiences want rapid turnovers in what they see. Therefore, the major animation studios need access to a great number of artists and animators in order
to produce work within the short given timeframes. Hence, the studios have had to expand their search for sources of labour from local to global.
Animation production does not need to be fixed in one location. It is worth
highlighting, then, that modern technology helps animation be produced supraterritorily, which Giddens and Scholte both identify as one of the main characteristics of
globalisation. Companies so-called offshore back-offices can be established somewhere where low labour costs and productivity are available. These offshore back-offices do not need big business infrastructure. For this reason, in-between shots and post-production tasks that are simple and repetitive, but labour intensive, are often
outsourced abroad. This fact clearly demonstrates that the animation industry provides a perfect example of the international division of labour which this century’s speedy globalisation process has fostered. It is clear that the subcontracting position of the Korean animation industry, as an in-betweener, indicates that Korean animators have already tapped into globalisation and the international division of labour as related to the mass production of animation. As for transnational capital and the flow of “hot money” (i.e. foreign currency coming into Korea), there is no reason for the Korean government to resist foreign animation houses search for a cheap labour force in Korea (See Figure 1.1 and 1.2). As far as the Korean government is concerned, the
subcontracted animation business has increased national growth and contributed to job creation. Using fast air freight, e-mail, networked computer systems, and other elements, Korean animators’ participation in world-wide animation production has become easier and more accessible. Additionally, this illustrates how such global participation is aiding national interests and thus provides an example of why and how nationalists’ may have appropriated globalisation. We should, however, remember that globalisation is an uneven process containing many inherent inequalities and that Korean animators have experienced both edges of its many double-edged swords.
As discussed in section 2.3, Korean economic development in the 1960s was export-oriented, particularly favouring heavy and chemical industry, and I have already pointed out that their competitiveness had much to do with the enforcement of low wages and long working hours. Although not widely culturally valued (due to
Confucian values that emphasised the importance of education; See Chapter 8) either by the then Korean government or the Korean people, the Korean animation industry should also be considered an important contributor to Korea’s early globalisation process. This is because the Korean animation industry, to a certain extent, can be regarded as having exported their labour through OEM. In 1969, the first animation OEM company was founded in Korea and from the 1970s on the number of OEM companies started to increase. Initially they mostly did subcontracting work for
American and Japanese animation studios (Hwang, 1998: 182). It is therefore correct to argue that Korean animators in the 1970s, 80s and up until recent days have received benefits, especially financial benefits, from working for foreign animation productions.
Additionally, to a certain extent, this meant an increase in employment. However, in the bigger picture, American and Japanese animation production companies, with their huge capital capacity and growing assets, are the main entities which benefit from the
globalisation of animation, while Korea and Korean companies end up positioned as both dependent and weak. As a result of the fact that Korean animators’ in-between work is, to a certain extent, easy to do, it can be learned and taken over easily by others.
It is therefore not surprising that Korean animators are easily threatened by fluctuations in their wages and a concordant fear of unemployment. The big American and Japanese animation companies are capital holders who can freely travel around the world to look for lower wages and an expendable labour force. Korean animators are stuck in a highly competitive labour market and must fight against such free flow of capital. Moreover, the in-between work Korean animation houses specialise in requires repetitive
performance which leads the in-betweeners to become overspecialised in that particular work and (as later chapters will demonstrate) they do not aim for more highly skilled work. This means that whilst wages are flexible, the kind of work they do is not, which also increases the risk of unemployment. It could be possible to conclude from all this that for Korean animators their in-between position within globalisation is an inevitable necessity despite the inequality they experience.
The Korean animators’ (or in other cases, cultural producers) participation in globalisation processes then raises a question: what differentiates them from factory workers in the general manufacturing sector? From the outside, and taking into account these working conditions, animation does not seem to be an art form which individual animators pursued as careers in order to be seen as “artists”, but only as a kind of commercial-oriented enterprise wherein the work prioritised by the major holders of capital in the globalisation process is that which gets done. In contemporary society, theorising the existence of a binary division between commerce and art is not necessary (although Chapter 4 is a theoretical discussion on this matter in this thesis) because the boundary between the two is rather blurred and unclear and it is a difficult and
subjective matter to discuss. Instead perhaps it can be argued that globalisation and participating in the global production of animation offers an opportunity for Korean animators to work out for themselves where their standing point is; commercial, artistic, or both? Whichever stance individual animators decide to take, there are various
conflicts and negotiations which become necessary during the process which will be examined with the concept of in-between in later chapters.
Further to this point, as discussed above, the re-localisation process also seems to have occurred amongst Korean animators. Korea’s specific socio-historical elements affect their thoughts and their work with global multinational companies. In terms of local nationalism that has grown firmly out of Korea’s history, Korean animators want
to create more independent and creative Korean animations. Quite often criticised as a copy cat of Japanese animation (See Chapter 7, Figure 7.2), Korean animators’ efforts to create their own distinctly Korean animation can be understood as, to a certain degree, reflecting their nationalistic feelings. Hatred towards the US and Japan is also quietly expressed through personal drawings (See Figure 6.4 and 6.5). Globalisation has indeed made Korean animators highly skilled at in-between work, and as a result of this and their long OEM experiences, possibilities have been opened up for their work to be more hybridised in creative terms. Thus, perhaps as a way of responding to and reshaping the impact of global forces on their work, Korean animators aim to become more creative and to develop the fullness of the expression of Koreanness as reflected in their animation work.
2.4 COCLUSIO
The world we live in is more globalised than ever before and yet this very phenomenon of globalisation is experienced in fundamentally different ways by different groups of people around the world. Bauman writes (1998: 1), “For some, ‘globalisation’ is what we are bound to do if we wish to be happy; for others ‘globalisation’ is the cause of our unhappiness.” Globalisation treats every single nation and individual differently and for some it is a complex process that is cruelly unequal and causes unhappiness. Research on globalisation that examines global production tends to focus on its macro processes (i.e. world policy, economic changes, etc.). However, in the course of evaluating such macro process, socio-historic and psychological aspects should not be underplayed or forgotten but rather highlighted and emphasised. In this vein it is vitally important to examine the social and cultural contexts within which individuals situate themselves because these become the primary foundations for different experiences of globalisation.
The question of how experiences of globalisation are reflected and presented is the main
focus of this thesis, and for this, I use the concept of in-between (which will be discussed in depth in the following chapter) throughout the thesis. However, in order to explore experiential accounts of globalisation processes, this chapter has delivered a theoretical framework which has referenced the views of Giddens (i.e. modernity) and Scholte (i.e. supraterritory), the international division of labour and inequality, alongside Korea’s specific socio-historical situation. In doing so it has argued that current OEM animation production by Korean animation studios reveals struggles, conflicts and dilemmas caused by 1) globalisation’s uneven process whereby large-scale capital holders (i.e. the USA, Japan) reap most of the benefits on offer; and 2) the clash between Confucian values and Western cultural assumptions. As a result of the struggles and difficulties outlined here, Korean animators’ identities develop in a hybridised fashion which is reflected in their animation works. In some ways globalisation affects everybody with the same brush and yet, the specific historical and sociological contexts within which people experience the effects of this brush result in differing consequences of it. This chapter delivers a socio-historical platform from which Korean animators’ in-between experiences of globalisation can be fully explored.
Chapter 3
Rethinking the Concept of In-between beyond Hybridity
This chapter provides an overview of hybridity. For the purpose of this research, hybridity is one possible concept to ascertain the negotiation processes between the global and the local. The chapter begins by looking at the different definitions of hybridity to outline its characteristics. Then, the chapter moves on to examine the work of two scholars, Homi K. Bhabha and Stuart Hall, in order to discuss what they mean by
‘hybridity’. Within this framework, it is argued that hybridity can possess political meaning, particularly in post-colonial culture. It seems necessary to further examine hybridity in the frames of globalisation if one is to study how Korean animation
professionals carry out their tasks. That is the main focus of this research: the animators’
experiences of globalisation. Furthermore, this chapter aims to distinguish my use of the concept of in-between from the one understood in the post-colonial studies, together with hybridity. Thereby, I discuss both hybridity and globalisation in the later section of the chapter. Acknowledging certain limitations and weaknesses of hybridity as a
suitable conceptual frame for the exploration of the Korean animators’ experiences, this chapter opens up a space to invoke the notion of in-between.