Abstract
Korean pop, also known as K-pop, has become a phenomenon widely spread worldwide as a part of entertainment and culture. Youths have readily accepted K-pop culture to the point that people take it as their cultural identity. This has happened worldwide, and Malaysia is no exception. Hence, the fear of them losing their own culture as they accept K-pop culture in their life might cause cultural identity within themselves. Therefore, this research analyses the factors that influence the Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris undergraduates' acceptance of K-pop culture using Cultural Identity. This study uses quantitative methods, and the survey was distributed through social media platforms such as email, Telegram, and WhatsApp. Using a simple random sampling method, 414 respondents were collected from undergraduates from Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris students and analysed using a software called SPSS. The analysis shows a high correlation between two factors that influence a K-pop fan and the level of acceptance of K-pop culture. The correlation coefficient results are 0.778 for the attitude factor and 0.779 for the social media factor. Both indicate that the strength of the relationships is high. The research finding shows that cultural identity happens when youth are influenced by external and internal factors, especially social media. This study contributes to the development of cultural identity theory and as an awareness to society on how K-pop culture may lead to a person having a crisis in their cultural identity. Hence, this study can be utilised by stakeholders to take action on encouraging Malaysians to accept their own culture using the same factor as how K-pop culture is being influenced among the youth. This also can be used for future researchers to conduct higher empirical research.