Ask a Korean! News: Racial Tension Flaring in Dallas

Oh boy:

The African American community in Dallas has been protesting a gas station run by a Korean-born U.S. citizen in a predominately black neighborhood in South Dallas for over a month, taking issue with what they claim were racial remarks by the station’s owner.

. . .

According to the ministry and the local Korean community, the conflict occurred on Dec. 9, 2011, between the Korean-American owner of a gas station in southern Dallas and a black customer over the sale of gas.

The customer, complaining that the price of gas at the station was much higher than at other stations, demanded he be able to buy gas by smaller amounts than what the owner set as the minimum sales unit. The owner refused and told him to go to another station, to which the customer responded by telling the owner to go back to his country. The owner responded by telling the customer to go back to Africa.

That triggered a boycott of the gas station by the black community in the region, followed by them speaking out against Korean and other Asian immigrant communities.

African Americans in Dallas Target Korean Business [New American Media]

There are other reports that Korean American gas station owner called the customer names first. There are also other reports that the gas station owner is not exactly a first time offender with this incident. Fortunately, Korean American groups moved quickly once this made news -- the president of the Federation of Korean Associations USA, the umbrella group for all the regional Korean American groups, plans to meet with the NAACP on this issue.

The Korean has no interest in the pointless exercise of trying to parse out who said what first. The only point to be made here is this: a lot of Korean Americans, particularly first generation immigrants, have a long way to go in terms of catching up with the way mainstream America feels about racism. Addressing this issue is a task for other Korean Americans, because we are the ones best suited to deal with this issue. 

Was the African American customer wrong to yell at the gas station owner, "Go back to China"? Sure. But the proper response is simply to note the point and move on. It is not productive to lecture other minority communities about what they should or should not do, particularly when it is undeniable that a lot of Korean Americans operate their businesses while having their noses held up on their darker-skinned customers. Avoid the temptation of the dumb tribalism -- which, it must be said, tempts the African American community just as much as it does Korean community -- and get our own house in order first.

-UPDATE Feb. 5, 2012- The gas station owner publicly apologized on a Dallas radio program, attended by African American civic leaders like city councilman Eric Johnson. The Korea Society of Dallas also donated 500 winter coats to NAACP as a gesture of goodwill. Reportedly, there are still a few people picketing the gas station, but the situation is now unlikely to escalate.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Today, TK Learned:

. . .that sooner or later, big law firms will get their revenge for allowing their associates to have a Christmas break, and a super-sized linkage post will have to suffice when one has to justify one's salary.

• So THIS is how you mummify Kim Jong-Il. [New York Times]
• And THESE are the kinds of people who will bow before Kim Jong-Il. [Time]
• Good overview of the recently deceased Kim Geun-Tae, arguably the most respected among all of Korea's democratization activists. [Busan Haps]
• The answer: I hope to God they do not. The question: Will Girls' Generation succeed in America? [The Atlantic]
• New Jersey Supreme Court now has a Korean American justice. [Philly.com]
• There are now two Korean American generals in the U.S. military. [Korea Herald]
• The reason why the idea that Groupon was a multi-billion dollar company was stupid. [Bloomberg]
• "I'm not a racist. I eat tacos!" [The Atlantic]
• La mere tigre. [The Economist]
• Having harsh immigration law in your state = arrest Mercedes-Benz executive who was visiting your state to inspect his company's factory in your state. [NPR]
• Study shows class sizes do not matter for achievements. They could have saved money and simply look at Korea's public schooling system, which crushes international exams while having 40 to 50 students in a class. [Washington Post]
• For the first time, Korea's two largest parties have women chiefs. [The Peninsula]

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Ask a Korean! News: Coffee in Korea -- Some Statistics

There is an interesting new set of statistics about Korea's fervor for coffee, which was discussed in a recent post on this blog. Basically, the Korean's observation that gourmet coffee exploded in the last five years was correct. Between 2006 and 2011, the number of gourmet coffee shops increased nearly 10 times, and the revenue of gourmet coffee shops increased nearly 17 times.

There has been a 15% increase in the total consumption of coffee between 2006 and 2011 such that by 2011, every Korean over 15 years of age drank 1.4 cups of coffee every day. Although the vast majority of coffee consumption still comes in the form of instant coffee mix, between 2006 and 2011 the consumption of coffee beans increased by 19.2% every year.

Most importantly (for the purpose of showing the spread of high-end coffee,) the increase of high-end coffee consumption is coming from outside of Seoul. In the five largest cities in Korea after Seoul, the number of gourmet coffee shops increased by 24.1%, and their revenues by 96.8%. The same numbers for Seoul is 2.3% and 45.2%. Even within Seoul, the increase is not coming from the posh parts of the city, but from the grungier neighborhoods like Dobong-gu and Gangbuk-gu.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Ask a Korean! News: Thousands of Anti-Regime Fliers Found in Cheongjin

If North Korea falls in the next few years, remember this moment: reports from North Korea say that thousands of fliers denouncing Kim Jong-Un appeared in several locations in the city of Cheongjin. The fliers directly denounced Kim Jong-Un, saying "Down with Kim Jong-Un" and "There is no future with Kim Jong-Un." The paper quality of the flier was poor, which likely means that the fliers were made within North Korea. North Korean regime blockaded all roads in and out of Cheongjin, trying to find the culprit.

If there should be serious anti-regime movement, Cheongjin, the third-largest city in North Korea, may well be the epicenter of such movement. Cheongjin is an industrial center far away from Pyongyang, with a decent-sized middle class who is privy to outside information flowing from the nearby Rajin-Seonbong special economic zone.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Happy Lunar New Year!

Hope you all had a delicious bowl of rice cake soup, and some sweet cash for bowing to your elders. Here are some old posts about Korea's celebration of lunar new year, and here is one about how North Korea celebrates the lunar new year.

-EDIT- To add a few questions about lunar new year . . .

Dear Korean,

As you may know, Chinese New Year is around the corner and it is widely seen as one of the largest annual celebrations in the world. It got me thinking, is Korean New Year (Seollal) celebrated among Korean's as widely as Chinese New Year among the Chinese? Or has it fallen out of practice like other traditional holidays?

Kevin B.

The Korean is not sure about calling lunar new year as "Chinese New Year" or "Korean New Year," but at any rate, seollal is still very much widely celebrated in Korea.

Dear Korean,

I'm a Korean American who immigrated to the U.S in late 1980. Maybe I'm wrong or just can't remember, but I'm pretty certain that people didn't celebrate Lunar New Year in South Korea back in the 1970s during Park Chung-Hee times. Would you happen to know when Lunar New Year became a holiday in South Korea?

Sae

The answer is: 1989.  The Korean previously described the vacillation between solar and lunar new year in Korea. Short version of the story is that, although Koreans traditionally celebrated lunar new year, Japan imposed solar new year in the period leading up to the colonial times. But even after the liberation in 1945, Korea could not completely make up its mind about how many holidays to assign on each new year's day. In 1954, Korean government officially relegated the lunar new year to a regular working day, and instead made solar new year's day a three-day holiday. Subsequent Korean governments tried their best to get Korean people to celebrate the solar new year, by claiming that "double new year's day" [이중과세] was wasteful, and solar new year's day was more modern. This policy continued until 1985.

Promotional cartoon from Korean government, circa 1981
The old man is trying to direct people toward the lunar new year,
but over the shining buildings at the end of the road toward
the direction of "solar new year," it says "Modernization."
(source)

But old habits refused to die. In 1985, Korean government made an awkward compromise by designating lunar new year's day as "Folk Tradition Day" [민속의 날], and made it a one-day holiday. In 1989, Korean government finally relented and restored lunar new year's day as the proper "New Year's Day" [seollal, 설날], which was to be a three day holiday. The solar new year's day instead became a two-day holiday. Finally, in 1999, the solar new year's day became a one day holiday, and that is the system that is currently in use.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

50 Most Influential K-Pop Artists: 22. Kim Chu-Ja

[Series Index]

22.  Kim Chu-Ja [김추자]

Years of Activity: 1969-1988

Discography:
Before It's Late [늦기전에] (1969)

Kim Chu-Ja Stereo Hit Album No. 1 [김추자 스테레오 힛트 앨범 No.1] (1970)

Kim Chu-Ja Stereo Hit Album No. 2 [김추자 스테레오 힛트 앨범 No.2] (1970)

Stereo Hit Album No. 3 [스테레오 힛트 앨범 No.3] (1971)

After Tonight [이 밤이 가면] (1972)

Beautiful Sunday (1973)

Kim Choo Ja (1973)

Where Should I Go (1974)

Kim Choo Ja (1974)

Now (1974)

Deserted Island [무인도] (1974)

Kim Choo Ja (1980)

Kim Choo Ja Vol. 1 (1980)

Kim Choo Ja Vol. 2 (1980)

The Way [가는 길] (1980)

Blow, the Wind [불어라 바람아] (1980)

Kim Chu-Ja Comeback [金秋子 컴백] (1988)

Representative Song:  It's a Lie from After Tonight

거짓말이야
It's a Lie

거짓말이야
It's a lie
거짓말이야 거짓말이야
It's a lie, it's a lie
거짓말이야 거짓말이야
It's a lie, it's a lie
사랑도 거짓말 웃음도 거짓말
Love is a lie, smiles are lies too

거짓말이야
It's a lie
거짓말이야 거짓말이야
It's a lie, it's a lie
거짓말이야 거짓말이야
It's a lie, it's a lie
사랑도 거짓말 웃음도 거짓말
Love is a lie, smiles are lies too

그렇게도 잊었나
Is it really forgotten like that
세월따라 잊었나
Forgotten with the time
웃음 속에 만나고
Met in the smiles and
눈물 속에 헤어져
Parting in the tears
다시는 사랑 않으리
I will never love again
그대 잊으리
I will forget you

그대 나를 만나고
After you met me
나를 버렸지 나를 버렸지
You left me, you left me
거짓말이야 거짓말이야 거짓말이야
It's a lie, it's a lie, it's a lie
거짓말이야 거짓말이야
It's a lie, it's a lie

In 15 words or less:  Queen of the 70s; Korean pop music's first sex symbol.

Maybe she should have been ranked higher because . . .  Few other artists have dominated a decade like Kim Chu-Ja did.

Maybe she should have been ranked lower because . . .  She did not create her own music.

Why is this artist important?
Kim Chu-Ja ruled the 1970s. This short and simple statement is quite enough to describe the entirety of Kim Chu-Ja's spectacular career. To be sure, her career was greatly helped by the genius of Shin Joong-Hyeon, who supplied the trend-setting psychedelic and soul music. But like with Lee Sora, the vessel of creativity matters. Without Kim Chu-Ja, Shin Joong-Hyeon could not have realized his vision either.

And boy, did Kim ever realize Shin's vision. Until Kim Chu-Ja, pop music in Korea featuring a woman was an ossified formula of the Japanese-influenced trot music sung in high pitch by a woman who was standing still, like a plastic mannequin with a voice box. Take, for example, the album cover of Lee Mi-Ja, the epitome of Korean female trot singer who preceded Kim Chu-Ja by about five years:

(source)

In contrast, take a look at Kim Chu-Ja's album cover.

(source)

And of course, this one.

Dayam!
(source)

Even in the conservative Korea of the 1970s, everything about Kim Chu-Ja was sexy. Her sultry, breathy voice charged Shin Joong-Hyeon's songs with implied debauchery. Unlike the emaciated female celebrities that would come to dominate the scene for the next 20 years, Kim Chu-Ja had plenty on her body that she was not afraid to show off in her dances. She wore tight jeans or mini skirts, with cleavage-boasting tops to boot. In short, Kim Chu-Ja was Korea's first female pop star who overtly used her sex appeal.

That is not to say that Kim Chu-Ja was no greater than the cheap pretty dolls that litter the Korean pop music scene today. Ultimately, it was her undeniable musical talent that made her the icon of the decade. But awakening the raw animal spirit that still animates Korean pop music to this day was Kim's defining achievement. If you got into K-pop because of KARA's butt dance, you have Kim Chu-Ja to thank.

Interesting trivia 1:  Kim's song It's a Lie was banned by the military dictatorship, on the allegation that it instigates distrust. The military government also suspected her dance in It's a Lie to be a hand signal for North Korean spies.

Interesting trivia 2:  When Kim refused the marriage proposal by her manager, her manager struck her face with a broken bottle. She received over 100 stitches and six plastic surgery operations as a result.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Pop Music Disappointments, and K-Pop

The Korean saw this some time ago:  12 Extremely Disappointing Facts about Popular Music. Just to give a few samples:

• Flo Rida's “Low” has sold 8 million copies – the same as The Beatles' “Hey Jude”
• Creed has sold more records in the US than Jimi Hendrix
• Katy Perry holds the same record as Michael Jackson for most number one singles from an album

The Korean found this to be pretty illustrative of what matters in K-Pop also. No one in his right mind would claim that "Low" is just as significant as "Hey Jude," or Katy Perry is better than Michael Jackson somehow, because the history of Anglophonic pop music is very well known. Yet if an alien landed on Earth tomorrow and studied the Earth's biggest pop stars by simply relying on album sales, she may come to the ghastly erroneous conclusion that puts Creed on the same plane as Hendrix.

The same goes to K-pop. Non-Korean fans of K-pop may well be an alien who just landed on Earth, because the full history of the pop music in Korea is not yet available in English. But know this: Korean pop music is much, much bigger than the pretty faces that are being pushed by media companies with hot stock prices. As there was the Beatles before Michael Jackson, and Elvis before the Beatles, there was Seo Taiji before Dongbangshinki, and Shin Joong-Hyeon before Seo Taiji, with countless other talented artists in between who shaped the course of Korean pop music.

The Korean hopes to have an opportunity to have a full exposition on the history of pop music in Korea in the near future. In the meantime, let's try to have some perspective as we enjoy the music.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Suicide in Korea Series: IV. How Suicide Spread in Korea

[Series Index]

The last post discussed the global sociology of suicides, and how its implications are entirely applicable in Korea. In fact, one of the lessons that can be gleaned form the last post is this:  there is nothing particularly "cultural" about Korea's trend of high suicides. This is an important point, because many observers like to make all kinds of arguments about Korea based on Korea's high suicide rate. This is a mistake -- common humanity is quite enough to explain the entirety of Korea's trend of high suicides. The global phenomenon of suicides clearly show that Korea's high level of suicide was something to be expected out of a country that rapidly industrialized. Every single country in the world has seen a dramatic rise in suicide rate as it industrialized. Every single country in the world that industrialized later than others saw its suicide rate faster than the countries that industrialized earlier. It would defy common sense if Korea was an exception.

This does not mean, however, that the precise way in which Korea came to have such high rate of suicide is uninteresting. As long as we do not draw the wrong conclusion -- i.e. Korea is culturally predisposed to high suicides -- the manner in which Korea experienced increased suicide is worth exploring. So in this post, we will take a discursive look at how suicide spread in Korea in the last 15 years or so.

I.  Middle-Aged Men After Post-East Asian Financial Crisis

As the Korean explained in the previous post, if there was anything surprising about Korea's suicide trends, it was that the rate of suicide was extremely low as the country developed economically in the 1980s, not that the rate is as high as it is today. As recently as 1995, Korea's suicide rate was 10.8 per 100,000, lower than the current-day OECD average of 11.1 per 100,000. But by 1998, Korea's suicide rate exploded to 18.4 per 100,000. And it is safe to say that this astonishing rise is entirely due to East Asian Financial Crisis, which completely destroyed most of then-existing social safety nets in Korea.

(More after the jump.)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.


As one might be able to imagine, the first group to be negatively affected by the financial crisis was near-retirement age men. These men grew up in a world in which there never was a shortage of job, and as long as they had a job, everything -- housing, healthcare, children's education, retirement -- was taken care of. As Korea was undergoing the most devastating economic shock in its history, the rug was pulled underneath them. Their jobs were gone, and they were often too old to begin anew. In a conservative country in which men are expected to provide for their family, this sudden emasculation was, for many people, too much to bear.

The relevant statistics bear this out. In 1997, the suicide rate for Koreans aged 60-64 was 20 per 100,000. Just one year later in 1998, the same rate was 34.1 per 100,000. The same was true for Korean men aged 50-54:  the suicide rate for them in 1996 was 30 per 100,000, while the same rate two years later in 1998 was 48.5 per 100,000.

II.  Social Leaders

One suicide often serves as a model for another. Like many other diseases, suicide spreads through a defined community. Even as Korea's economy was recovering from the East Asian Financial Crisis, high suicide rate became the new normal for middle-aged Korean men. It is, therefore, not surprising that the a wave of suicide swept through the highest levels of Korea's leadership, which is mostly comprised of middle-aged men.

Perhaps the first post-financial crisis case of suicide by a well-known member of the leadership class was the death of Chung Mong-Heon, the president of Hyundai Asan. Hyundai Asan was a branch of Hyundai conglomerate that was in charge of developing the North Korean venture. Shortly before his death, Chung was under investigation for having channeled approximately $15 million to North Korean regime, at the bidding of the previous South Korean administration that sought to have a better relationship with North Korea.
Hyundai Asan, which opened the historic tourist courses in North Korea, was on the verge of bankruptcy. On August 4, 2003, Chung Mong-Heon jumped from his office, and fell 12th stories into his death.

Since then, suicide of social leaders usually came in response to public humiliation. Other notable social leaders who committed suicide since Chung's death include: 

• Ahn Sang-Yeong:  In February 2004, former mayor of Busan hung himself in jail while being investigated on bribery charges.
• Nam Sang-Guk:  In March 2004, then-president of Daewoo Construction jumped off a bridge over the Han River while being investigated on attempting to bribe the president's brother. His suicide caused a particular row, as it came shortly after Korea's president publicly criticized Nam.
• Park Tae-Yeong:  In April 2004, then-provincial governor of Jeollanam-do jumped off a bridge over the Han River while being investigated on corruption charges. 
• Park Yong-Oh:  In November 2009, former president of Doosan group, Korea's 15th largest company, hung himself at home. Park had lost control of his company to his brothers shortly before his suicide. 
• Lee Jae-Chan:  In August 2010, then-president of Saehan Media and the grandson of Samsung's founder jumped out of his condo to his death. Lee's company, which was in the business of producing video cassette, was the one of the few ventures of the Samsung conglomerate.
• Im Sang-Gyu:  In June 2011, chancellor of Suncheon University and former Minister of Agriculture and Forestry found dead in his car, dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. Im was under investigation for bribery charges.

But undoubtedly, the most infamous case of social leader's suicide was the suicide of former president Roh Moo-Hyun. Roh was being investigated on the allegation that he had received $6.4 million bribes. In May 2009, while hiking a hill near his house in Gyeongsangnam-do, Roh jumped from a cliff to his death.

III.  Celebrities

By 2005, the contagion of suicide reached another group of high profile individuals -- that is, celebrities. Of course, celebrities occasionally committed suicide previous to 2005. Seo Ji-Won and Kim Gwang-Seok, for example, committed suicide in 1996. But since 2005, Korean celebrities took their lives at an alarming rate. Just to list the celebrity suicides since 2005 that were notable in one way or the other:

• Lee Eun-Joo:  A rising star who appeared in the biggest hit movie of the year, Taegukgi. Lee committed suicide in February 2005, at age 25. Her suicide caused a sensation, as it was the first major celebrity suicide in a decade.
• Yuni:  Debuted as an actress and also performed as an idol singer. Yuni committed suicide in January 2007, at age 26. Rumored to have been suffering from depression, caused partially by viciously negative Internet messages criticizing her transition into a singer who emphasized skin exposure.
• Jeong Da-Bin:  At one point, Jeong was the star of Nonstop 3, one of the most popular sitcoms in Korean television history. Yet by 2007, her career was going downhill. Jeong committed suicide in February 2007 at age 27, in her boyfriends house. There were allegations that she was actually murdered, but police investigation concluded the death as suicide.
• Ahn Jae-Hwan:  Ahn was a minor star who had over $4 million in debt due to several failing businesses. He committed suicide in September 2008, at age 36. There were also unproven allegations that he was actually murdered. Many people were also aghast at the negative comments on the Internet directed to Ahn's wife Jeong Seon-Hee, who made a politically unpopular remark on her radio show a few days before Ahn's passing.
• Choi Jin-Sil:  Choi may have been the biggest star in Korean television history. She had a tumultuous marriage and divorce with Jo Seong-Min, a baseball star five years junior. Her career suffered along with her divorce, but it was coming back to life. She committed suicide in October 2008, at age 40. 
• Jang Ja-Yeon:  Jang was a minor star who committed suicide in March 2009, at age 29. Her suicide note caused a massive sensation, as it said that the management company forced her to have sex with media businessmen, including the head of Korea's largest newspaper. The police investigation, however, could not corroborate the charges.
• Choi Jin-Yeong:  The younger brother of Choi Jin-Sil was a famous actor in his own right. He was taking care of his sister's children. Choi committed suicide in March 2010, at age 39.
• Park Yong-Ha:  Park was a co-star in Winter Sonata, the first Korean drama that garnered international following and served as the foundation for the international popularity of Korean dramas. Park committed suicide in June 2010 at age 33. He was the first internationally-known Korean celebrity to have committed suicide.
• Song Ji-Seon:  Song was an anchorwoman for sports news. She claimed that she was dating a baseball player who was 8 years junior, who denied the claim. The day after the baseball player denied the claim, Song committed suicide in May 2011 at age 30.
• Jeong Jong-Gwan:  Jeong was a soccer player who was being investigated for fixing matches. He committed suicide in May 2011, at age 30.
• Chae Dong-Ha:  Chae was a former member of SG Wannabe, an idol group. Chae committed suicide in May 2011, at age 30. He was a first case of suicide among internationally popular singers.

Unfortunately, this list does not include many more minor celebrities who also committed suicide.

The celebrity suicides are particularly pernicious to the society at large, because the celebrities' young age and general appeal tend to cause emotional identification with the general public. Thus, suicides by celebrities fuel copycat suicides like none other. (This may partially explain why Korea's female suicide rate is higher than world average, particularly among women aged under 40 -- because young women generally are more susceptible to copycat suicides.)

In case of Korea, the copycat effect was immediate and visible. On the day after Choi Jin-Sil's death, for example, three women committed suicide in the exactly same manner as Choi, by hanging themselves with medical bandages. In 2008, October was the month with the highest number of suicides, with 65% more suicides compared to September.

Which group will the suicide contagion strike next? All suicidal trends are worrisome, but it is particularly dispiriting to see the group that appears to be next in line for the suicide contagion -- that is, bullied children. In the last few months, there has been a rash of suicides committed by middle school and high school children who were viciously bullied by their classmates. These news reports amplify the stories of these students who took their lives, planting ideas to other similarly situated children. (This, of course, is not to say that those stories do not deserve to be heard.) Fortunately, unlike social leaders, celebrities or even middle-aged men, the behaviors of school children can be modified more easily, as they spend their lives in a regulated environment, namely school. The recent rash of suicides did cause the government and civic groups to react quickly and present measures to address bullying and suicide prevention.

However, at bottom, it is too much to expect that any particular social group could be immune to suicides in a high suicide society. Many theories are given to explain Korea's high suicide rate in particular groups -- for example, a culture that emphasizes the importance of honor (to explain the spate of suicide among social leaders,) excessive stress caused by vicious attacks on the Internet (to explain the suicides among celebrities,) and so on. Those theories may well be true. But ultimately, as stated at the beginning of this article, Korea's high suicide rate is not being caused by one particular reason or another. Simply put, what is supposed to happen is happening in Korea now, as Korea traveled from pre-modernity to post-modernity in just 60 years. While it is certainly important to address the more proximate causes of high suicide rates in Korea, the most important ingredient may be time.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Today, TK Learned:

. . . that rain means slower traffic.

• Must-read piece on how East Asian Studies scholars in the U.S. attempted to silence Iris Chang, author of Rape of Nanking. [Sandcastle Empire]
• File sharing is exactly like stealing. [The Atlantic]
• Korean baseball teams hold spring camp in Arizona. [Arizona Daily Star]
• Pvt. Danny Chen was forced by comrades to crawl 100 meters on gravel while being pelted with rocks, hours before he killed himself. [Daily Mail]
• Hyundai Elantra is the 2012 North American Car of the Year [Yahoo]

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Ask a Korean! News: The Business of K-Pop

Here is a fun article from late last year about the business side of K-pop, and how the "idol industry" is dictated by business concerns.

*             *            *

YG-Version of Girls' Generation -- The Answer Lies In the Stock Market

On November 21, the media reported news about a new girl group by YG Entertainment ("YG") with a sensational headline. The headline from OSEN [TK: an entertainment newspaper] read:  "YG's New Girl Group Contracted Not to Have Plastic Surgery." The story reported:  "In its exclusive contract with a seven-member girl group to be debuted early next year, YG Entertainment is reported to include a clause that prohibited plastic surgery." It also quoted comments from a YG representative:  "The new girl group is entirely consisted of members who did not receive any plastic surgery, and their contract with the company specifies that they would not receive any plastic surgery in the future." The representative further said: "The contract was made possible because the company focused on creating a new girl group that emphasizes the members' natural beauty."

The representative added:  "This girl group began with looking at the pretty singers from other management companies, and wondering what color they would take if they performed YG's music. The previous color for YG emphasized talent, but good looks are now included as well. It will be a group that has not existed in the pop music market previously. This group already garnered attention because it would include Kim Eun-Bi, from Mnet's Superstar K 2. Right now it has seven members, although it could add one or two more. They are planning to debut by early next year."

The purpose of this news article appears to be rather clear, considering the timing and the content. The article ran two days before YG's initial public offering with KOSDAQ. It is common-sensical to view this as an information leaked in order to create a buzz right before the IPO. Regardless of the type of business, releasing information about a promising new product right before an IPO is not even a strategy -- it is just common sense.

YG Announces Plans to Benchmark Other Management Companies

But actually, the article was rather shocking, not in the least to the fans of YG, because the girl group described in the article is contrary to YG's original image as a label in every conceivable way. It was akin to YG attempting to imitate SM Entertainment, DSP Media or Core Contents Media. To a certain extent, it could be seen as a betrayal of YG's original direction. The article blatantly states:  "This new girl group is the first group where YG can confidently say that we took the looks into account," and plastic surgery was unnecessary because of their excellent looks. By adding the extra bit about how they were "looking at the pretty singers from other management companies," YG reveals that it is benchmarking other management companies.

(More after the jump.)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.




So far, YG's label has aspired not simply to ignore the looks, but to actively recruit those who came up short in the looks. Big Mama is a prime example. Even as YG entered the idol market through Big Bang, it leaked such information as "the members were ignored by other management companies because of their looks." Thanks to this directionality, the idols from YG could garner the image of "idols beyond idols" or "actually talented idols," opening up the third market between idols and artists.

Also, by adding the information that the group was made up of seven members with possibly one or two more, the article implied a birth of a large girl group. It is a matter of course that the more members a group has, the less an image of talent the group projects because more members mean less role for each member in songs and performances. This is nearly a mathematical conclusion, and it is a conclusion that is hugely divergent from YG's directionality. As discussed above, YG is a label that discovered its own niche market. The large girl group described in the article appears to be an attempt to enter into the pre-existing idol market. In this sense, this group can hardly be called a YG idol -- they are merely created by YG.

New Girl Group Changes in Just Two Hours

But this is where it gets interesting. This shocking information was partially reversed in just two hours, by Star News. The Star News article, titled "YG's New Girl Group Has 5-7 Members, No Plastic Surgery Due to Their Age," contains a quote from YG representative: "The new girl group that will meet the fans next year will have 5-7 members, and the candidates are still undergoing rigorous competition because the membership is not finalized."

First, the number of members went from seven-plus to five-to-seven. And whereas the OSEN article said YG was confident that it could present pretty members without resorting to plastic surgery, the Star News article said: "We inserted the no-plastic surgery clause because every candidate for the new girl group is in her teens, aged between 15 to 19." The subsequent reports mostly followed the line in Star News rather than OSEN. This level of reversal cannot be explained in any way other than YG's intent to change the information and the nuance thereof. And the thought behind it must be the negative effect of the first article on the IPO on KOSDAQ.

The line about how YG prohibited plastic surgery because "it may be a health risk for teens, and it may work contrary to the teenage appeal" appears to focus on the public morality. Since YG lost a lot of points on the public morality front because of the marijuana incident involving G-Dragon, member of Big Bang, YG apparently is redirecting the plastic surgery point from praising the members' looks to covering the public morality front. The reduction of the number of members shows the consequence reduction of idol-ness, and the line about how the number of members is not yet determined served to mask the appearance of a micro-managing company.

In other words, the leaked information is redirecting the product from benchmarking other management companies to emphasizing YG's own business model. This is so particularly because the later article emphasized Kim Eun-Bi from Superstar K 2 even more, as Kim augments YG's own "talented idol" image. In just two hours, YG made a U-turn on the directionality of the new girl group.

Why the Benchmarking, and Why the U-Turn?

What explains this confusion? To deduce the answer, we must first figure out why YG leaked an information that appeared so remote from its own character at such a sensitive time period. The answer is actually easy:  a successful IPO of an entertainment management company is much more than how much domestic market share it has.

Korea's entertainment market is small. When examined on the level of the scale or revenue, even the best labels are excellent mid-sized enterprise. A mid-size enterprise that plays in a gambling-like game, to boot. Thus, every investor is focused on the game of hallyu, the Korean Wave -- at least as far as stock market is concerned.

The world's second-largest market, i.e. Japan, is 30 to 40 times larger than Korean market. As the Japanese market begin to open up, the amount of money exchanging hands is exponentially greater. But the problem is that YG is not particularly strong in Japan. In Japan, YG is less successful than SM with Dongbangshinki and Girls' Generation and DSP with KARA. Strictly speaking, YG may not even be as successful as JYP Entertainment, which just launched 2PM in Japan. The best singles sale by Big Bang in Japan was last year's "Tell me good bye," which sold 46,449 copies. The YG label album that sold the most in Japan is also from last year's "Big Bang 2", which only sold 91,217 copies.

The same goes for 2NE1. The album "NOZLA", which was released this past September, sold 45,781 copies thus far -- decent for an album debut, but like Big Bang the singles sale is lagging. 2NE1's first Japanese single, "Go away," was released on November 16, and sold 13,581 copies in the first week. This is approximately 10,000 copies less than the debut singles by Rainbow or After School, and around the same number as "Madonna" by Secret. Given these numbers, the prevailing analysis is that 2NE1 is not headed toward a greater commercial success than Big Bang.

Thus, to convince the investors that YG will be successful in the Japanese market, YG may have been compelled to fade out YG's own colors and announce that it would emulate other management companies that had created better results in developing the Japanese market.

Then why reverse course in just two hours? Perhaps YG thought, regardless of the initial consideration, benchmarking other management companies would cause more anxiety among the investors after all. It would decrease the stability of the label, as it is attempting to do something new. It would also cause a concern that YG was abandoning its development of the American market -- in which YG had more success than others -- in favor of the Japanese market. As most analysts still believe that 2NE1 is better suited for the American market than Girls' Generation, it may appear that YG was retreating rather than advancing.

YG's Initial Thought Was Not Wrong

At any rate, YG's IPO happened on November 23, and immediately became a hit. The stock opened at KRW 68,000, double the offering price of KRW 34,000, and closed at the ceiling of KRW 78,200. By November 25, the stock price went up to KRW 97,200. Of course the price cooled thereafter, but YG's IPO so far has been a remarkable success.

However, looking back after having succeeded in the IPO, it must be noted that the first strategy by YG regarding the new girl group was not exactly wrong. The brand value of a management company does not persist simply by producing the same type of product. Given the speed of Korea's pop culture trend, change is necessary.

Currently, through 2NE1, YG is moving away from the hip-hop/R&B image of the label. "Ugly" by 2NE1 is deep into rock and electronica. It is a good strategy to keep fresh the existing groups with slightly different musical colors, while new groups gradually move away from the old business models to establish the difference -- like the way SM Entertainment gradually moved from H.O.T./S.E.S. (first generation) to Dongbangshinki/Girls' Generation (second generation) to ShiNee/f(X) (third generation).

In addition, even if hallyu expands to the U.S. and Europe, Japan is now the most important foreign market and always will be. The center of foreign market strategy will always remain in Asia. Japan, with the most transparent and enthusiastic market as well as geographical proximity, will have to serve as the base camp for exploring the foreign markets. There are always good reasons to create a model that enables a company to operate smoothly in Japan.

Thus, rather than producing another 2NE1, the original idea that may be derided as imitation in the short term could have been a better option for the management company, as it responds to both the needs of the label to reinvent itself as well as the necessity of establishing a base camp for developing overseas market. In fact, I would expect YG's new product would take that direction, regardless of what it said on news articles.

At any rate, should YG's new product create a clear hallyu effect, Korea's entire pop culture industry would benefit. As the IPO finished successfully, it is time for YG to concentrate on the final check-ups on the new product. I look forward to next year.

YG판 소녀시대 소동? 주식시장에 답있다 [Dong-A Ilbo]

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Ask a Korean! Wiki: What is Weird About America?

Dear Korean,

A friend posted this link to his Facebook profile a couple weeks ago. I had no idea that supermarket checkout-baggers were such a weird thing, that nobody uses checks anymore, and "that so much American cheese is coloured orange." It was mentioned a couple of times in the posting that most of the contributors were from Europe, which is fairly similar to the States, shared culture, politics, history etc. 

I guess I'd like another perspective on "America's Quirks." I would love to hear the substantive, as well as the off-base insubstantive comments. What are the most striking differences you've noticed from living in the States for so long? What do Koreans living in/visiting the states bitch about when they're blowing off steam over a $13 (!!!) bottle of Chamisul?

Just Curious

Just off the top of his head, and keeping strictly on the frivolous side, here are a few things the Korean has found peculiar about America:

• Wearing shoes indoors. HATE HATE HATE it. So disgusting. The Korean will never get over this.
• Insane amount of soda drinking. The Korean is pretty certain that in his first year in America, he drank more soda than he ever drank in his life at age 16.
• Ridiculous portions of food. (Discussed in this post.)
• Ice in every drink. 
• Excessive use of napkins.
• General preference for cooler temperature in everything (ambient, food, drinks, etc.)
• Drinking alcohol only (i.e. without eating something at the same time.)
• Music too loud in bars.
• Cell phones have the same area code as any landline, instead of its own prefix. (In Korea, all cell phone numbers begin with 010 no matter where you live.)
• To address a mail, going from small to large (i.e. "Number-Street-City-State-Country-ZIP") instead of large to small ("Country-Province-City-Number-ZIP").

The Korean will add more to the list as he thinks of additional items, but let's hear from the readers. What do you find peculiar about America?

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Liberal Education and Coffee

Korea famously boasts an excellent educational system, which sends over 80 percent of its high school students to college. But as Korean economy faces a persistent problem of youth unemployment, commentators are observing that Koreans are being over-educated. Essentially, the idea is that Korea has youth unemployment because it has too many college graduates. The following BBC article nicely captures that sentiment:

South Korea's education system is held up as a model around the world. Some 80% of its high-school students now go on to further education. But according to South Korea's president, that academic success is creating its own "social problem" - a youth unemployment rate of 6.7% in October, more than twice the national average, even as parts of the labour market are hungry for workers.

"Because there are so many people graduating from university at the moment, and looking only for high-end jobs, there's a mismatch between the job-hunters, and the positions available," explains Kim Hwan Sik, director of vocational training at the Education Ministry.

South Korea's Wasted Youth [BBC]

(Aside:  In a typical BBC fashion, it messed up the name of Korean grandmother interviewed in the article by referring to her as Ms. Eun Ju-sung. In all likelihood the lady's name would be Ms. Ju Sung-Eun, and in no event should she be referred to as Ms. Ju-sung. Readers of this blog would know that BBC is prone to egregious errors when it comes to covering Korea.)

The Korean thinks the idea that Korea has "too many college graduates" is incorrect, for a number of reasons. To give a short (and incomplete) summary of the reasons:

1. The idea ignores the fact that Korea currently has the lowest birthrate in the world, which means Korea will soon face a severe shortage of people generally, and young people in particular. Whatever youth unemployment there exists currently is a temporary problem.
   
   
2. Research on this topic shows that it is not the college degree that hinders employment, but differences in other skills. In other words, the young unemployed population is unemployed not because their standards are too high, but because they are not desirable candidates for the employers.
   
   
3. The idea is based on the erroneous premise that as long as we deny people from attending college, we can sufficiently crush their aspirations enough for them to accept menial jobs.

In this post, however, the Korean exclusively wants to discuss the reason he considers the most important, that is:  4. Liberal education has value that reaches far beyond employment, such that it enriches the society even if the educated people are unemployed.

To be sure, the benefits of liberal education is not obvious -- which is partially why Korean president Lee Myeong-Bak has said: "A soccer player does not need a diploma from Seoul National University; he only needs to kick the ball well," as he joined the chorus of observation that Koreans are getting over-educated. But in some rare instances, one can get a clear and unobstructed glimpse of the benefits of liberal education manifested in a society. One of those rare instances involve coffee in Korea.

(source)

(More after the jump)

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Let us back up for a bit and get some terminologies and history straight. First, about the term "liberal education." There may be many definitions of the term, but as good as any is the definition offered by the Association of American Colleges and Universities:  "philosophy of education that empowers individuals with broad knowledge and transferable skills." Under this definition, liberal education prefers to produce generalists rather than specialists. Instead of focusing on a specific area, liberal education asks the students to be broadly knowledgeable about various topics and cultivate the life skills that can be used in any situation.

Korea's educational system, including primary (K-6th grade), secondary (7th-12th grade) and tertiary (college and beyond) education, is strongly premised on the philosophy of liberal education. Korea's colleges are set up similarly as American colleges, which generally emphasize liberal education. More importantly, Korea's middle and high schools demand the students to be proficient in a number of subjects at the same time -- as many as 15 subjects in high school which includes Korean, English, math, science, social studies, literature, ethics, music, fine arts, etc. Students have relatively few choices for electives. Critics of Korean educational system argue (mistakenly, in the Korean's estimation,) that this system is wasteful for students, whose energy would be better served by specializing in a number of electives.

Second, about coffee in Korea. As the Korean explained previously, Korean people's love for coffee runs deep. Although coffee obviously is a recent introduction to Korea, virtually every Korean at every level of society -- rich, poor, urban, rural, old, young -- loves drinking coffee. Korea's love for coffee, however, did not translate to a particularly high quality of coffee. For a long time, and for the most part, the only coffee available in Korea was the Tasters' Choice instant coffee mix, intermixed with a healthy dose of coffee creamer and sugar. Even as recently as five years ago, the only coffee that was halfway decent in Korea was from a handful of Starbucks outlets, located primarily in Seoul.

Now, here is the main point:  in the last five years, the quality of coffee in Korea improved astronomically. To be sure, Tasters' Choice instant coffee mix remains popular among Koreans, particularly in the older generation. (It is the only coffee that the Korean Father drinks, for example.) But gone are the days when the choices for a decent coffee in Seoul were between Starbucks and Starbucks. (Emphasis on the word "decent" here -- Starbucks in Korea is just as good as Starbucks in America, so you can guess the quality of the best coffee Korea had to offer as recently as five years ago.)

There are more than a dozen "gourmet coffee" chains in Korea, and the average quality of coffee available from those coffee shops is incomparably better than the quality of the average coffee available just five years ago. When one seeks out the best coffee shops of Seoul, their coffee compares favorably to any coffee that the Korean has ever had around the world. (New York Times noticed, apparently.) The Korean can say without any hesitation that five years ago, Seoul had worse coffee than Washington D.C. Now? Seoul is blowing D.C. out of the coffee mug.

But how did this happen? Korea's coffee tradition is extremely short. And just five years ago, excellent coffee in Korea was completely unavailable. Korea is a country marked by fast changes, but even the Korean himself did not expect this. How does a country go from shitty coffee to excellent coffee in just five years?

The big part of the answer is Korea's liberal education. This may seem unlikely -- what does educational system have to do with coffee quality? But think about what is required for a general increase in quality of coffee over the whole society. It is not enough to have a small cohort of specialists. Even if Korea had a small number of world-class coffee roasters, those roasters won't be able to make a living if they could not sell their coffee. The general public needs to have the ability to make fine distinctions, separate good from the bad, and support the work of the specialists by paying for their product.

Here is where the value of liberal education shines. Few Koreans ever received a detailed, professional education in coffee. However, they received an education in a number of different subjects, such that they grow to have a certain body of meta-skills that connects the different knowledge gained from all the different subjects. If the population of a given country has a stronger set of such meta-skills, that country ends up operating at a higher level.

The application of chain of events is extremely subtle, and rarely can one isolate the contribution of the meta-skill in any given social enhancement. Korea's improvement in coffee quality, however, provides as clear a picture as one could get. One of the meta-skills acquired through liberal education is an appreciation of fine differences, gained through art, music and literature. Give better coffee to a population that knows how to make small distinctions, and what happens? Coffee quality improves dramatically.

Of course, even in this best case scenario that shows the benefits of liberal education, the causal mechanism is not neat. There are certainly other intervening factors. If Koreans had not loved coffee (however crappy that coffee was) for the last few decades, it is doubtful that they were able to notice and go for improved coffee, even if they had the best liberal education possible. (This is probably why, for example, pasta in Korea is still not that great, although the quality of pasta in Korea also has been improving significantly in recent years.) Certainly some part of the trend is fueled by hipster poseurism, with a number of people going along with the trend without truly understanding the coffee quality in an effort to look cool. But regardless of these caveats (and there may be more,) the main point holds:  there is no way the quality of coffee over an entire country could improve so dramatically in just five years, unless you have a liberally educated population capable of making fine distinctions.

In fact, how Korea came to have good coffee is a scale model of how Korea came to be a first-world country at an unprecedented speed. The improvement of coffee quality in Korea is merely the improvement of Korean society, writ small. One thing must always remember this about Korea:  no country in the history of mankind has gone from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the richest in just 60 years, while going from a dictatorship to a democracy to boot. And a major reason why Koreans could have pulled off such a miracle is because Koreans consistently employed a version of liberal education -- a Confucianism-based educational philosophy that is designed to build a whole person, rather than injecting specialized knowledge as if adding options to a car.

(Aside:  Here is a Washington Post article that makes the same point, stated slightly differently.)

This point is worth reiterating:  a society with liberally educated people operates at a higher level. Of course specialized knowledge is necessary, especially in today's world dominated by technology. Yet equally necessary are liberally educated people who have a strong set of meta-skills applicable to all fields of knowledge. Those educated people appreciate the specialists' works and support the specialists by consuming such works. They provide feedback in a way that helps the specialists do better in their fields. They provide a political and social structure -- democracy, free enterprise and the like -- in which the specialists can truly shine.

Most importantly, liberally educated people do better in a rapidly changing world. Even if the world may appear to be changing into a completely different place, the relevant meta-skills remain the same as long as it is humans who are driving the change. The specialized skill du jour may change with time, but the meta-skills that are required to quickly pick up the new specialized skill and/or understand the product of the specialized skill do not change. The stronger the population's meta-skills, the faster the population is able to adopt to the rapidly changing world.

Koreans had no historical experience with coffee, but now have good-to-excellent coffee. Koreans had no historical experience with democracy, but now have the most robust democracy in Asia. Koreans had no historical experience with modern shipbuilding, steel production or consumer electronics, but now are world leaders in those industries. Liberal education in Korea made such rapid adaptation and advancement possible.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Documentary about Tiger JK, with English Subtitles

Reader Marc H. sent along some links for a nice documentary showing Tiger JK and his family, conveniently subtitled with English. You can watch it here, and part 2 is here.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Kim Jong-Il's Death - Bonus Question: Do South Koreans Care About Reunification?

Dear Korean,

I heard B.R. Myers on a radio interview recently. His idea of the biggest threat to the regime is something like this:

"The biggest risk to the regime is that the North Korean public is growing increasingly aware that the South Koreans basically just don't care about the North. The regime has convinced through propaganda that the North needs to sacrifice and lead difficult, poor lives so they can one day kick the Yankees out of the South and reunify. But here's the problem. The South doesn't actually hate America. The South doesn't want to live under the North Korean leader (whoever it is). The South really just has no interest in reunification and is scared of the costs. And the North Korean public is very slowly realizing this."

How convincing does the Korean find this argument? Is North Korea a subject that most Southerners are not particularly interested in? Whats your take on this argument?

Corey N.

This question was in the comment section of an earlier post. Against his questions policy, the Korean will feature this question because it is quite relevant to the current situation. The Korean thinks that, as knowledgeable about North Korea as Prof. Myers is, he is slightly overstating his case.

Let's take this question in stages -- the first level is: do South Koreans care about North Korea?

This is not to say that Prof. Myers is doing this, but it is very easy to misinterpret the way South Koreans feel about reunification. From an outside point of view, one may fairly surmise that South Koreans must think about North Korea constantly, every day, all the time, because North Korea presents such a huge existential threat to South Korea. But when faced with reality, South Koreans rarely think about North Korea because there is not much more one can do other than ignoring the danger to some degree. The situation is not unlike post-9/11 New York, where New Yorkers were able to continue with their lives despite living with the possibility of another horrendous terrorist attack. And often, outside observers over-interpret this type of indifference into something more.

But this is a mistake -- the fact that South Koreans do not constantly talk about North Korea and plan their lives around North Korea does not mean South Koreans do not care about North Korea. In fact, South Koreans care a great deal about North Korea. To give a reference point, South Koreans (as a whole) care more about North Korea than Americans  (as a whole) care about gay rights. North Korea is a huge social issue in South Korea such that a lot of South Korean public policies revolve around North Korea and a lot of bright South Korean minds are focused on how to deal with North Korea.

(More after the jump.)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.



If we accept that South Koreans generally care about North Korea, the next question is -- do South Koreans want reunification about North Korea?

On this question, the answer is somewhat subtle. The fairest way of characterizing the sentiment would be that South Koreans are conflicted, but slightly leaning more toward wanting reunification. At the level of the general public, there are sincerely held sentiments going both ways, and both ways are quite reasonable. South Korean public believes in Korean nationalism, and thinks that the tyranny in North Korea must end through reunification. At the same time, South Korean public is genuinely worried about the potential chaos and cost following the reunification.

But the critical next question is -- does this South Korean public ambivalence matter? Finally at this point, the question is not a matter of facts, but of opinions. And here, the Korean believes that it does not matter that much, because of the reason that the Korean pointed out in an earlier post: Korea is a leadership-oriented society.

Again at the level of general public, there is genuine ambivalence about reunification. On any given day, depending on the circumstances, that ambivalence can tilt more in favor of or against reunification. But there is no meaningful group of people who strongly clamor for reunification right away, nor is there a meaningful group of people who vocally oppose reunification. In such a situation, it is very important to focus on the sentiment toward reunification at the leadership level, not at the general public level -- because it will be South Korea's leadership that will determine the direction toward which South Korea will head.

South Korea's leadership (i.e. politicians, journalists, professors and other opinion-makers) by and large reflects the public's ambivalence. But importantly, at the leadership level, there is a group of people who are vocally in favor of reunification. On the other hand, there is no group of people at the leadership level who are sincerely opposed to reunification. At most, there may be some leaders who express deep concern over the cost of the reunification. In this type of situation, South Korean public can be persuaded to favor reunification, despite their reservation.

And that is pretty much exactly what is happening now. Although there may be moments when the South Korean public feels negatively about reunification, such negativity almost never percolates to the leadership level such that there is a sustained movement away from reunification. That may happen in a decade if North Korea shows no sign of change and the generation of young South Koreans who knew North Korea only as a nuisance come of age in the mainstream Korean society. But as of now, such movement is not there. Given this, Prof. Myers' point that South Koreans "just don't care about the north" or that South Korea "just has no interest in reunification" is an overstatement.

But the Korean is willing to give Prof. Myers a benefit of doubt. Perhaps the overstatement was because it was a radio interview, in which one can be a little more hurried with word choices compared to a written work. And at any rate, South Korea's interest in North Korea is not Prof. Myers' main point. His main point is that North Koreans' realizing the true conditions of South Korea presents a threat to the North Korean regime, because it weakens the regime's propaganda that says the people of South Korea are constantly looking toward North Korea to be rescued from the imperialistic wolves from America. And that much is most certainly true.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Lose Weight with Korean Diet - Part 1

Dear Korean,

I have been trying to lose weight. I have lost some, but I am down to the last ten pounds, and can not seem to dispel the weight. Most of the weight loss information I obtain seems to be wrong, so I need a new perspective. I thought viewing weight loss through another culture's view point might help me. How can Korean diet help lose weight?

Audrey

Given that weight loss is always high on the list of new year's resolutions, the Korean figured this is a good question to open up the new year. Can Korean diet help you lose weight? Allow the Korean to put it this way:  Korea is the thinnest country in the developed world, while America is the fattest. As of 2009, only 3.5% of Koreans over the age of 15 was obese. The same number in America was an astounding 34.3%. Obviously, there are reasons other than diet that Koreans are slimmer than Americans. (For one, ready availability of public transportation in most cities, leading to more walking. Genetics, for another.) But it should be equally obvious that Korean diet and eating habits have a great deal to do with the svelte figures of Koreans.

A few more caveats about Korean food and eating habits are necessary. First, as Korea is a country marked by rapid change, Korea's diet and eating habits are changing rapidly as well. For example, the unhealthy kinds of Western food are freely available in Korea, and Koreans have come to eat a great deal of them because they taste great. The Korean will present the healthy kind of Korean diet and eating habits here, but that is not to say that everyone in Korea eats in a traditional manner.

Second, even if we confined ourselves to traditional Korean food and eating habits, there are still certain things about traditional Korean food and eating habits that are rather unhealthy. An easy example is sodium -- generally, Korean food has a lot of salt. (Remember, kimchi is essentially salted cabbages, and Koreans eat a ton of it!) Another easy example is that the way Koreans drink, particularly as they eat. Again, the Korean will remind everyone that this post is not saying: "If you ate exactly the way Koreans ate, you will lose weight." Rather, the point of this post is to say: "there are a lot of healthy things that Korean food and eating habits have, about which people would do well to learn."

With that said, let's get right to it. How can you lose weight like a Korean?

1.  Eat Less

If you must only take away one point from this post, take away this point:  Koreans are slim because they eat less. Forget all those gimmicky diets for a minute, and focus on the obvious -- if you eat a lot, of course you will gain weight! As long as you lower the caloric intake enough, you can lose weight while eating nothing but Twinkies and powdered doughnuts.

Here is an alarming observation. Based on the Korean's experience, American portions are between 50 to 100% larger than Korean portions. This is particularly egregious at restaurants. The Korean is not small at all -- he is 6' 1", 195 pounds. Yet he can comfortably split, say, one order of fried rice from a nearby Chinese food into a full lunch and dinner. However, the Korean sees plenty of people around him in the restaurant, finishing the entire order in one sitting.

(More after the jump.)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.




Just think about this -- for every meal, Americans eat as much as double the amount of food that Koreans eat. How could you possibly not get fat with that much food? Don't be deceived by "one order" of food in America -- nobody needs to eat that much. Split one order into two meals. Or if that is still too much temptation, immediately throw away half of the food that you ordered. The Korean absolutely hates wasting food as much as you do, but consider it as a price to pay to lose weight. Or better yet, do what Koreans do and . . .

2.  Cook at Home

If you cook at home, you can control the portion, adjust the level of unhealthy elements in food, and avoid the delicious but unhealthy things with which restaurants and processed food companies cram their food. As the Korean said earlier, Koreans' eating habits are changing, and fewer Koreans eat home-cooked meals. But it has been the Korean's experience that Koreans eat at home more frequently.

To be fair, the fact that Koreans are more likely to eat home-cooked meal is not completely positive, because it is women who are staying home to cook. But as far as health and weight loss is concerned, there should be no question that home-cooked meals are better.

But of course, it would depend on what you eat at home. So . . .

3.  Eat More Vegetables

For this point, a picture will be better than a thousand words. A little bit of background is necessary here. The Korean Parents visited the Korean's house in the winter of 2010, and the Korean Mother prepared a party meal for the Korean In-Laws and some friends. This is what the prepared table looked like:

First, notice the portion size. It may not look like much, but this much food plus a bowl of rice for each person fed eight fully grown adults. Second, notice what kind of food was being served. The Korean made it easy in the next picture. Red square is for meat, blue hexagon is for seafood, and green circles are for vegetables.

Just look at the amount of vegetable involved at a party table. Volume-wise, the Korean would say at least 80% of the total food served was vegetables. Compare this to, say, a typical Thanksgiving dinner, where the massive turkey is the highlight of the meal. (And even the vegetables involved in a Thanksgiving meal is soaked in butter and/or sugar.) Note that this party table is not anything special, but just a larger version of an everyday Korean meal, which is comprised of a bowl of rice, some soup, and a few side dishes. And the vast majority of such side dishes are vegetables. 

One must remember that traditional Korean cuisine is born out of poverty, not opulence. Because of that, most of Korean cuisine is not very rich, nor do they require extremely sophisticated cooking methods, unlike Chinese or French cuisine, for example. But such heritage of poverty actually makes Korean cuisine the perfect diet food, precisely because it relies so much on vegetables. There are over a thousand edible herbs in Korea, and Korean cuisine completely maximizes their use. In fact, regardless of the popularity of Korean BBQ (a distinctly American phenomenon of meat-loving,) traditional Korean cuisine is nearly vegetarian. This is the right way to eat.

(Aside: Here is another reason why the Korean hates David Chang -- he apparently "had no idea there were such endless varieties of namul," or vegetable side dishes, until he visited Korea recently. Namul is the backbone of any Korean cuisine! What a fraud.)

The Korean does understand the difficulty that Americans face when it comes to eating vegetables -- they are just so darn plain. How many different kinds of salad can one eat in a row? To make vegetables a permanent part of your life, it is not enough to like vegetables. You have to be addicted to vegetables. And to be addicted to vegetables, you should . . .

4.  Use Spices

Here is another defining characteristic of Korean cuisine -- it uses tons of spices and condiments. In fact, some of the spices and condiments are themselves a complicated dish. For example, this is how to make bean paste (doenjang 된장):  boil beans, grind the boiled beans into pulp, shape the ground beans into large chunks, dry the chunks in a warm room, hang the chunks in the sun for a few months, soak the chunks in water for a month, then add salt and ferment for a few months. All this, for just one condiment!

The result of using so many spices and condiments is that although Korean food utilizes mostly simple, vegetable-based ingredients, the finished dish (when done correctly) ends up having a complicated, layered flavor profile. And this is what makes Korean vegetable dishes not just delicious, but addictive. This is especially true with kimchi, probably the most complex Korean vegetable dish. (One Washington Post food writer called kimchi "cabbage crack," although regrettably she got her start with a recipe from David Chang. Gaah!)

Okay then, just what are you supposed to cook and eat? The Korean will get to that in the next post in the series.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Today, TK Learned:

. . . that it has been an unusually mild winter in Washington D.C.

• R.I.P. Gordon Hirabayashi, 1918-2012. America owes a debt to him.  [Angry Asian Man]
• What's wrong with worrying too much about national debt? "[F]amilies have to pay back their debt. Governments don’t — all they need to do is ensure that debt grows more slowly than their tax base." [New York Times]
• Only one employee is mowing the entire U.C. Berkeley campus, and some professors don't have telephones.  [Washington Post]
• More schooling leads to higher IQ.  [Marginal Revolution]
• Ban Ki-Moon's humor is of a painful kind.  [Foreign Policy]

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Ask a Korean! News: North Korea Bans the Use of Foreign Currency

Apparently, the first order of business in post-Kim Jong-Il North Korea is to ban the use of foreign currency in markets, such as American dollar or Chinese renminbi, with a potential death penalty against those who violate the order. The order came down on Dec. 30 of last year. This move signifies that Kim Jong-Un is willing to keep trying to revert to a communistic, controlled economy, although the last attempt at reverting to a controlled economy -- the currency reform (apparently done at Kim Jong-Un's initiative also) -- was a miserable failure.

There is no reason to believe that this measure will have a different fate. Some North Korean watchers go so far as to say that this order can't be actually implemented, because it is practically impossible to stop the use of foreign currency in North Korean market. At the wholesale level, virtually all transactions are done in either dollars or yuan. If the regime does try to enforce this order, North Korean commerce (what little there is) would be completely paralyzed.

The more Kim Jong-Un tries to strengthen his grip over his country, the more quickly it will slip away. The total loss of control won't be long.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.