Cosmopolitan Empowerments and Biographical Trajectories among Young French Fans of Hallyu

This article explores the passion of young French people for the Hallyu, within the framework of an analysis of the contribution of the “consumption of difference” (Schroeder 2015) to the formation of the self through the figure of the 'cosmopolitan amateur' (Cicchelli and Octobre 2018a). We will first look at the reasons for the success of Hallyu in France then discuss the different forms of empowerment stemmed from the consumption of Korean products, among young people (74 in depth-interviews with young fans aged 18-31) with no previous link with Korea, which nurture their biographical trajectories.