DOI: 10.4324/9781003292593-30 Given the phenomenal popularity of mukbang (a live-streamed eating show) among young people, frst in Korea and now globally, it is no longer a secret that they like to watch other people eating and cooking in the digital age. This chapter provides an overview of the evolu- tion of mukbang culture in Korea while exploring the sociocultural meanings of this new cultural phenomenon. The chapter suggests that mukbang as a social phenomenon is deeply rooted in the precarious contexts of Korean youth, also known as the ingyeo generation. Young people’s increasing engagement with mukbang illustrates how a shifting sociocultural structure engages with an emerging afective structure through digital mediation. Young Koreans’ nego- tiation of their precarious present and future through vicarious experiences of binge eating implies how the basic needs of eating are mediated, spectacularized and resignifed as a subcul- tural practice. Mukbang Goes Global A friendly looking South Korean (hereafter Korean) woman in her 20s broadcasts herself gob- bling up 240 sushi pieces in one sitting on her personal channel on the Korean live-streaming platform AfreecaTV. This young woman, known as Tzuyang, is among many other Internet infuencers that frequently perform binge eating on their personal channels. In each video, Tzuyang eats various types of food extravagantly – far more than the amount a person would consume weekly. By binge eating for an anonymous audience on the Internet, she has become a microcelebrity, or infuencer – that is, an ordinary person who becomes popular online and is committed to “deploying and maintaining one’s online identity as if it were a branded good” (Senft 2013: 346). After her debut in 2018 at the age of 21, Tzuyang became a pioneering eating show performer. Amid her stardom in 2020, viewers accused her of using undisclosed advertising (known as backdoor advertising or dwitgwanggo in Korean) in her content. Tzuyang publicly apologized for the controversy and announced that she was quitting her online broad- casting career, although she returned to the job after a three-month break (Lee and Abidin 2021). Her channel regained popularity. As of August 2022, Tzuyang’s YouTube channel has 6.75 million subscribers, and it is estimated that she may earn as much as a million US dollars annually. Tzuyang’s anecdote reveals important aspects of the digital mediation of gastronomic prac- tices in 21st-century Korea. Increasingly, young people are showing how and what they eat to anonymous viewers through digital platforms. Their desire in presenting and performing eating online is to be microcelebrities who attract large audiences and make large profts. This desire is subject to the continuous pressure of sharing, commodifying and marketing their lifestyle – especially eating and cooking – to others. Furthermore, as Tzuyang’s involvement in backdoor advertising shows, the digital performance of infuencers’ seemingly ordinary practice of eating 23 Precarious Eating Young Koreans’ Digital Practice of Mukbang Kyong Yoon