Here is a quick look back at the most popular AAK! posts of 2013, by the number of page view.
Most Viewed Posts of 2013 (All-Time Posts)
1. Culturalism, Gladwell, and Airplane Crashes
2. Lose Weight with Korean Diet
3. The Ultimate Korean Looks List
4. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Korean Men
5. Fan Death is Real
Incredibly, the dog meat post dropped out of the top five list, supplanted by yet-another eternal Korean curiosity that is fan death. Apparently, the ladies around the world decided that they learned enough about Korean men, and decided to lose weight instead.
Most Viewed Posts of 2013 (Written in 2013)
1. Culturalism, Gladwell, and Airplane Crashes
2. How do Koreans Feel About the Chinese?
3. Malcolm Gladwell's Response to the Culturalism Post
4. Ten Most Influential Korean Movies
5. Here are Some Korean Slang Terms
The Korean's friend put it the best: "If you're going against Malcolm Gladwell, you'd better bring some elephant guns." By that measure, 2013 might be the year the Korean went on elephant hunting--but instead of blood and death, there was only a lively clash of opinions. It was a memorable experience.
The Korean wishes everyone a warm and happy end of the year. As always, thank you for reading this humble blog. See you next year.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Best of the Worst 2013
It is yet another installation of AAK!'s year-end tradition: the worst emails of the year 2013! This year has been another reaffirmation of the eternal truth that, on the Internet, the supply of stupidity is infinite. Despite seeing the examples of dumb questions from 2008, 2009, 2010 (in Parts I, II, and III), 2011 and 2012, people simply do not learn.
As usual, these are all real emails that the Korean really received. Other than redacting personal information, not a single thing about the email is changed or modified in any way. The Korean's comments and thoughts on the emails are highlighted in blue.
re: question
Kiseung had an initiation of the" Chignon",the putting up of hair.
What was the significance of that…?
Why a burial mound?
I'm sorry, who's Kiseung? And what does "chignon" mean in ancient Korean?
re: (no subject)
I DON'T GET WHY I ASIAN'S DON'T LIKE BLACK GIRL I MEAN IM REALLY DIFFERENT FROM OTHER BLACK GIRL. I DON'T HANG OUT WITH A LOT OF BLACK PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO LOUD RUDE AND GHETTO I REALLY DONT LIKE PEOPLE LIKE THAT I USAALY HANG WITH SPANISH AND I HAVE ABOUT 10 ASIAN FRIEND BUT THEY ARE CHINESE AND VIETNAMESE AND 1 KOREAN BUT SHE IS MIXED WITH BLACK I MEAN IM NOT FULLY BLACK BECAUSE MY MOM IS BLACK AND VIETNAMESE IM JAMAICAN AND VIETNAMESE.MY FAMILY DON'T REALLY GET ALONG WITH BLACK THAT MUCH IM INTO KOREAN MOSTLY AND JAPANESE I LOVE K-DRAMA AND THE CULTURE. I SPEAK IT A LITTLE BECAUSE ON MY FREE TIMES I ONLY WATCH THE DRAMAS OH AND THE GUYS ARE REALLY CUTE BUT IM NOT BEING RUDE BUT THE GIRLS ARE HARD TO TRUST I LEARNED FROM EXPERIENCES GUESS DRAMAS SRE RIGHT BUT YEAH
Right. But, yeah. Right. Right.
re: question for a korean
I was just curious if a korean and an american have children. considering when whites and blacks have children they are called maloto or millato or something so what would a korean white baby be called just curious as i live with one as a roomate.
They would be called, "Please just shut the fuck up."
re: (no subject)
I've been living here for several years now, grew up in Europe, but this country has the highest percentage of dumb, selfish, egocentric people I've ever experienced. Just hard work and discipline doesn't cut it. Moral, ethics and sincerity are equally important.
So, your question is...?
More stupidity, after the jump.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com. But no stupid questions please. I just can't take it anymore.
re: Love
Dear Korean,
I'm in love with a Korean man I met online who was in the US on business trip. I've known him for some time now and when he travels back and forth to the US we keep in contact through email, Skype, and meet up if he's in my state. He's an aircraft mechanic. He wants to move to the US but, his English still is not perfect though it is improving greatly now. Do you know how I can help him to stay in the US longer than his passport allows? If not able to give suggestions on that can you tell me something's I should know about maybe Korean etiquette or any other useful information about dating a Korean?
Thank you,
Jennifer [NAME REDACTED]
PS: I found you by googling Korean penis size as we were intimate recently and he is very very very small; which doesn't bother me because he fits a lot better in my mouth. (I have a bit of an oral fixation.)
Sorry if my English and grammar isn't very perfect at times. I am hard of hearing and mainly use sign language to communicate and it's in French grammar. :D
Sent from my iPhone
Somewhere in the world, a deaf woman met a Korean aircraft mechanic via online dating, and now schemes of immigration fraud. All the Korean wants for Christmas is not having to hear about another man's penis size.
re: DogHQ needs your expertise
Hi,
I thought you might be interested to check out DogHQ http://doghq.co
It's a question and answers online community about dogs — health, behaviour, training.
You can answer questions, vote for the best answers, comment and edit the answers.
As an expert you can benefit from an additional exposure and referrals from your profile.
Your clients may find a lot of their questions answered on the DogHQ http://doghq.co as well.
Please let me know what do you think.
Thanks!
Michael
DogHQ Admin
Does DogHQ have a section on new and innovative recipes for dog meat?
re: Korean women
I was told that when dating a Korean woman, they either crushed your opinion or your balls. Now what I assume the person meant by that was either you have no say or you're single, but I don't think Korean women would be that mean can you please shed some light on this situation? All help is greatly appreciated.
Ok, who was talking to this guy? The Korean needs to speak with you first.
re: Could you describe Korea's culture please?
[There was nothing in the body of the email.]
This question needs to be broader and more vague to be answered properly.
re: Korean Love, Korean Drama
Dear Korean,
The Korean will let you in on a secret, Karolina. EVERYTHING YOU SEE ON KOREAN TELEVISION IS COMPLETELY TRUE. Like, 100%. They just tie the cameras on the street lamps and let them roll.
re: (no subject)
Why do korean man despite black women so. I luv korean man so much especially kim sang bum ,he is ma favrite actor .bt e prblm is just tht l'm black. Its nt ma fault tht l ws created lyk this, if l culd change ma self l culd hve done tht a long tym ago .so can't u accept blacks e way they are. This is appliyin 2 all korean out there nd pliz koment or rply.
I... I don't know. I'm too afraid to say anything.
re: North Korea AHHH!!!
Dear Fellow Korean.
North Koreans will definitely test you on your Korean ability before they decide to send you to concentration camp. In fact, North Korean gulags are full of Korean Americans like yourselves, who never listened to your parents' plea to pay attention at your Saturday Korean school.
re: Can you read and write Korean?
Hi! Just wondering if you can read and write in Korean?
No, I'm an idiot. I lived in Korea through high school and never learned to read and write. Korean educational system failed me completely.
re: How is the following written in Korean using two vertical lines
I am wanting to have the following as a tattoo using two vertical lines. Also please verify the translation.
You should just get that tattoo. You can't read it anyway, so why does it matter?
re: ask a Korean
Hello, I am 16 years old now. Please look at the attached photo (I am
the one in the leftside). Would you mind to tell me, am I pretty /
average/ugly based on Korean standard ? Just freely to tell me the
truth, I'll never mind hehe. And, please just reply it here. Thanks!
:)
[Photo attached.]
The Korean thinks he will reply to you here, in public, for everyone to see. Here is the reply: stop being dumb.
re: Well, I need a lttle bit of help with my Korean Name
Dear Korean,
I was trying to find my korean name, but it as bit difficult for me sine I don't know a lot of korean... I know it means "God is full of blessings and indicates a person who only matures after much struggle for balance between reason and heart. She's seen as someone who doesn't knows what she wants, but when she decides she dedicates with body and soul to achieve her ideals."
But now I don't know how I'm gonna find my name, can you help me ?
Can I see your driver's license, Ms. "God of full of blessings and indicates a person who only matures after much struggle for balance between reason and heart. She's seen as someone who doesn't knows what she wants, but when she decides she dedicates with body and soul to achieve her ideals"?
re: Wax for Koreans?
Hello! Im having so many doubts about how do Koreans wax or what kind of process women in Korea do to have the beautiful skin. I've seen they have such a nice armpits, what's the secret of this? Also korean idols look incredibly flawless with their nice armpits. I've tried cold wax, one of those american products but I don't think is that useful like how Koreans use it, I'm very intrigued by this, and it would be nice if you can help me. Thank you"
Sent from my iPad
Why is it a surprise that people on television look good?
re: Im confused....
Hey Korean guy,
So basically I like Korean guys a lot more than white guys or any other race. I am mixed white and Hispanic and I started liking Korean guys while dating my first bf (he was Korean) I thought he was really .... not attractive.. at first, but later I saw him as really cute. I have no clue how it happened, but it did. But only two of my friends know I like Korean guys because to be honest I'm embarrassed. It's Not of the fact that I like them but the fact that some other girls who like Korean guys are like CRAZY about them, and their culture, and even try to act Korean. Idk I find that annoying. ..but I like Korean culture.. and I want to look Korean... but I dislike those type of girls who do that, especially if their really really white and look nothing like an Asian; I'm just being honest about my own feelings. Also for or some reason people look down on amwf relationships either as the guy has a white girl fetish or the girl has a Asian fetish. I hate the word fetish and never want anyone to call me that. Also I don't want to date a guy just because he's Asian. But I feel like more Asian guys like me because I have dark hair and pale skin and have some of "ideal" Asian features. But I hear all the time Asian guys like white girls but usually only date Asian girls. Also a lot of the Asian guys at my school know I dated an Asian guy so maybe they look at me more because of that reason. I know your not all knowing but really I would just like your opinion in all this mess in my head. I have some Korean friends but they all stick together most of the time and I don't want to hang out with them in a group and seem like a wanna be Asian girl. I only tend to make friends with the Asian people in my classes, its like I just gravitate towards them. If there's no one Asian in my class I don't really try to make friends. Even my Korean friends don't know I want to be Korean and only one knows I like Asian guys. Its because I act clueless when they bring stuff up about Korea. (I don't listen to k pop though) but I think I just like the perception of innocence and cuteness in Korean culture, I've only watched about two Korean dramas and I really loved how the relationships were so cute and innocent. I know that's probably not how its like in Korea all the time, but I like the idea. Also some Korean women looks so beautiful and mysterious yet also cute and I want to look that way too. Basically I never tell anyone this and I just need a second opinion on my weird problem, Also someone to get me to calm myself down :p
Sincerely, really confused...
The Korean never, ever wants to hear from another Asian man whining about how he can't get girls as long as these people exist.
re: Korean emotions
Asians, for the most part, pride themselves for not showing emotion, or letting others know what they are thinking. Why are Koreans so free in expressing outbursts of anger and hurt in public?
Maybe what you think you know about Asians is completely wrong.
re: Hello!
Hi there! I'm from Australia and I've been highly thinking about moving to Korea to try to become well known or famous.
Is this possible? Aron from Nu'est was American, I believe and moved to Korea to Stufy music and became famous.
Please give me a lot of detailed information on becoming famous and Arons big change ^^
Thank you
Becoming is famous is easy. More difficult is controlling what you become famous for.
re: (no subject)
1) I will reach ICN at 1030 pm on 27 September via the airline Scoot. May I know what is the cheapest way to get my way to Ibis Ambassador Seoul Gangnam Hotel?2) For the City Tour Bus around Seoul (City Circulation Course), may I know how much the 2 day pass cost? And is it possible to purchase it from the bus driver in the designated bus stops of the course, or only from Gwanghwamun bus stop?3) There is 3 type of courses for the City Tour Bus during the day, namely Traditional Market Course, City Circulation Course and the Cheongyecheon/ Palace course. Is it possible to switch around these courses using any of the 1 day pass, or I have to purchase all 3 type of passes?4) From http://english.seoul.go.
Seriously, just fuck you.
re: find person
can you please help me to find a person,her names JI AE from gongdandong gyeongsangbukdo gumi city, i think she is now 25 years old... near home plus and we work in ProSMtek co ltd. last 2007....thank you...
Sure, I am actually standing next to every single Korean person in the world. Let me turn my head and yell "Ji Ae!!"
re: Song title
There was a hit pop song in 1977, soft and melodious, that I cannot remember. It I heard the name, I’d recognize it.
I mean, just come on man. Really?
re: Traditional Gift basket for a Korean household
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
As usual, these are all real emails that the Korean really received. Other than redacting personal information, not a single thing about the email is changed or modified in any way. The Korean's comments and thoughts on the emails are highlighted in blue.
--------------------------------------------
re: question
Kiseung had an initiation of the" Chignon",the putting up of hair.
What was the significance of that…?
Why a burial mound?
I'm sorry, who's Kiseung? And what does "chignon" mean in ancient Korean?
re: (no subject)
I DON'T GET WHY I ASIAN'S DON'T LIKE BLACK GIRL I MEAN IM REALLY DIFFERENT FROM OTHER BLACK GIRL. I DON'T HANG OUT WITH A LOT OF BLACK PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO LOUD RUDE AND GHETTO I REALLY DONT LIKE PEOPLE LIKE THAT I USAALY HANG WITH SPANISH AND I HAVE ABOUT 10 ASIAN FRIEND BUT THEY ARE CHINESE AND VIETNAMESE AND 1 KOREAN BUT SHE IS MIXED WITH BLACK I MEAN IM NOT FULLY BLACK BECAUSE MY MOM IS BLACK AND VIETNAMESE IM JAMAICAN AND VIETNAMESE.MY FAMILY DON'T REALLY GET ALONG WITH BLACK THAT MUCH IM INTO KOREAN MOSTLY AND JAPANESE I LOVE K-DRAMA AND THE CULTURE. I SPEAK IT A LITTLE BECAUSE ON MY FREE TIMES I ONLY WATCH THE DRAMAS OH AND THE GUYS ARE REALLY CUTE BUT IM NOT BEING RUDE BUT THE GIRLS ARE HARD TO TRUST I LEARNED FROM EXPERIENCES GUESS DRAMAS SRE RIGHT BUT YEAH
Right. But, yeah. Right. Right.
re: question for a korean
I was just curious if a korean and an american have children. considering when whites and blacks have children they are called maloto or millato or something so what would a korean white baby be called just curious as i live with one as a roomate.
They would be called, "Please just shut the fuck up."
re: (no subject)
I've been living here for several years now, grew up in Europe, but this country has the highest percentage of dumb, selfish, egocentric people I've ever experienced. Just hard work and discipline doesn't cut it. Moral, ethics and sincerity are equally important.
Regards,
Glad to be a non-korean
So, your question is...?
More stupidity, after the jump.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com. But no stupid questions please. I just can't take it anymore.
re: Love
Dear Korean,
I'm in love with a Korean man I met online who was in the US on business trip. I've known him for some time now and when he travels back and forth to the US we keep in contact through email, Skype, and meet up if he's in my state. He's an aircraft mechanic. He wants to move to the US but, his English still is not perfect though it is improving greatly now. Do you know how I can help him to stay in the US longer than his passport allows? If not able to give suggestions on that can you tell me something's I should know about maybe Korean etiquette or any other useful information about dating a Korean?
Thank you,
Jennifer [NAME REDACTED]
PS: I found you by googling Korean penis size as we were intimate recently and he is very very very small; which doesn't bother me because he fits a lot better in my mouth. (I have a bit of an oral fixation.)
Sorry if my English and grammar isn't very perfect at times. I am hard of hearing and mainly use sign language to communicate and it's in French grammar. :D
Sent from my iPhone
Somewhere in the world, a deaf woman met a Korean aircraft mechanic via online dating, and now schemes of immigration fraud. All the Korean wants for Christmas is not having to hear about another man's penis size.
re: DogHQ needs your expertise
Hi,
I thought you might be interested to check out DogHQ http://doghq.co
It's a question and answers online community about dogs — health, behaviour, training.
You can answer questions, vote for the best answers, comment and edit the answers.
As an expert you can benefit from an additional exposure and referrals from your profile.
Your clients may find a lot of their questions answered on the DogHQ http://doghq.co as well.
Please let me know what do you think.
Thanks!
Michael
DogHQ Admin
Does DogHQ have a section on new and innovative recipes for dog meat?
re: Korean women
I was told that when dating a Korean woman, they either crushed your opinion or your balls. Now what I assume the person meant by that was either you have no say or you're single, but I don't think Korean women would be that mean can you please shed some light on this situation? All help is greatly appreciated.
Ok, who was talking to this guy? The Korean needs to speak with you first.
re: Could you describe Korea's culture please?
[There was nothing in the body of the email.]
This question needs to be broader and more vague to be answered properly.
re: Korean Love, Korean Drama
Dear Korean,
I'm a girl from Poland. I became interested in Korea few years ago and since that moment more and more I fall in love with this country. And that's what I'm curious about - Korean love - do they take it THAT seriously like in Korean Dramas? Is it true that a man can do anything to get a woman he's fallen for? Or is it a bit exaggerated and there's no different between Korean love and love in Europe? I know that Korean Dramas are only TV shows, but they are also beautiful ways of showing love - delicate and artistic - not like in Hollywood films.
Thank you in advance,
Karolina.
Karolina.
The Korean will let you in on a secret, Karolina. EVERYTHING YOU SEE ON KOREAN TELEVISION IS COMPLETELY TRUE. Like, 100%. They just tie the cameras on the street lamps and let them roll.
re: (no subject)
Why do korean man despite black women so. I luv korean man so much especially kim sang bum ,he is ma favrite actor .bt e prblm is just tht l'm black. Its nt ma fault tht l ws created lyk this, if l culd change ma self l culd hve done tht a long tym ago .so can't u accept blacks e way they are. This is appliyin 2 all korean out there nd pliz koment or rply.
I... I don't know. I'm too afraid to say anything.
re: North Korea AHHH!!!
Dear Fellow Korean.
Hello, I am a high schooler in Seattle.
Now, I'll be going to Seoul over summer break and what worries me most is North Korea right now.
What will happen if the war starts when I'm over there? Will I be able to come back to the States or will I be stuck in Korea until the war's over?
Which leads to...
So, let's say that I'm stuck in Korea and the war has started.
I can't speak Korean very fluently, though I can understand it. I can read most Korean but I suck at writing.
What will happen to me?
Will the North Koreans hate on me or send me somewhere to a concentration camp or something?
I'm sorry to load you with all these questions but I'm really scared for what's going to happen.
I (like everyone else) have family there and I have my future planned out and I don't want this to come as a surprise to me.
Please let me know if you can offer any help!
Thanks!
North Koreans will definitely test you on your Korean ability before they decide to send you to concentration camp. In fact, North Korean gulags are full of Korean Americans like yourselves, who never listened to your parents' plea to pay attention at your Saturday Korean school.
re: Can you read and write Korean?
Hi! Just wondering if you can read and write in Korean?
No, I'm an idiot. I lived in Korea through high school and never learned to read and write. Korean educational system failed me completely.
re: How is the following written in Korean using two vertical lines
I am wanting to have the following as a tattoo using two vertical lines. Also please verify the translation.
일단 아시아계가 백인을 가지 않을 거 야
Once you go Asian, you won't go Caucasian
First line: Once you go Asan
Second line: you won't go Caucasian
Thank you!
Nichole
Sent from my iPad
Sent from my iPad
You should just get that tattoo. You can't read it anyway, so why does it matter?
re: ask a Korean
Hello, I am 16 years old now. Please look at the attached photo (I am
the one in the leftside). Would you mind to tell me, am I pretty /
average/ugly based on Korean standard ? Just freely to tell me the
truth, I'll never mind hehe. And, please just reply it here. Thanks!
:)
[Photo attached.]
The Korean thinks he will reply to you here, in public, for everyone to see. Here is the reply: stop being dumb.
re: Well, I need a lttle bit of help with my Korean Name
Dear Korean,
But now I don't know how I'm gonna find my name, can you help me ?
Can I see your driver's license, Ms. "God of full of blessings and indicates a person who only matures after much struggle for balance between reason and heart. She's seen as someone who doesn't knows what she wants, but when she decides she dedicates with body and soul to achieve her ideals"?
re: Wax for Koreans?
Hello! Im having so many doubts about how do Koreans wax or what kind of process women in Korea do to have the beautiful skin. I've seen they have such a nice armpits, what's the secret of this? Also korean idols look incredibly flawless with their nice armpits. I've tried cold wax, one of those american products but I don't think is that useful like how Koreans use it, I'm very intrigued by this, and it would be nice if you can help me. Thank you"
Sent from my iPad
Why is it a surprise that people on television look good?
re: Im confused....
Hey Korean guy,
So basically I like Korean guys a lot more than white guys or any other race. I am mixed white and Hispanic and I started liking Korean guys while dating my first bf (he was Korean) I thought he was really .... not attractive.. at first, but later I saw him as really cute. I have no clue how it happened, but it did. But only two of my friends know I like Korean guys because to be honest I'm embarrassed. It's Not of the fact that I like them but the fact that some other girls who like Korean guys are like CRAZY about them, and their culture, and even try to act Korean. Idk I find that annoying. ..but I like Korean culture.. and I want to look Korean... but I dislike those type of girls who do that, especially if their really really white and look nothing like an Asian; I'm just being honest about my own feelings. Also for or some reason people look down on amwf relationships either as the guy has a white girl fetish or the girl has a Asian fetish. I hate the word fetish and never want anyone to call me that. Also I don't want to date a guy just because he's Asian. But I feel like more Asian guys like me because I have dark hair and pale skin and have some of "ideal" Asian features. But I hear all the time Asian guys like white girls but usually only date Asian girls. Also a lot of the Asian guys at my school know I dated an Asian guy so maybe they look at me more because of that reason. I know your not all knowing but really I would just like your opinion in all this mess in my head. I have some Korean friends but they all stick together most of the time and I don't want to hang out with them in a group and seem like a wanna be Asian girl. I only tend to make friends with the Asian people in my classes, its like I just gravitate towards them. If there's no one Asian in my class I don't really try to make friends. Even my Korean friends don't know I want to be Korean and only one knows I like Asian guys. Its because I act clueless when they bring stuff up about Korea. (I don't listen to k pop though) but I think I just like the perception of innocence and cuteness in Korean culture, I've only watched about two Korean dramas and I really loved how the relationships were so cute and innocent. I know that's probably not how its like in Korea all the time, but I like the idea. Also some Korean women looks so beautiful and mysterious yet also cute and I want to look that way too. Basically I never tell anyone this and I just need a second opinion on my weird problem, Also someone to get me to calm myself down :p
Sincerely, really confused...
The Korean never, ever wants to hear from another Asian man whining about how he can't get girls as long as these people exist.
re: Korean emotions
Asians, for the most part, pride themselves for not showing emotion, or letting others know what they are thinking. Why are Koreans so free in expressing outbursts of anger and hurt in public?
Maybe what you think you know about Asians is completely wrong.
re: Hello!
Hi there! I'm from Australia and I've been highly thinking about moving to Korea to try to become well known or famous.
Is this possible? Aron from Nu'est was American, I believe and moved to Korea to Stufy music and became famous.
Please give me a lot of detailed information on becoming famous and Arons big change ^^
Thank you
Becoming is famous is easy. More difficult is controlling what you become famous for.
re: (no subject)
1) I will reach ICN at 1030 pm on 27 September via the airline Scoot. May I know what is the cheapest way to get my way to Ibis Ambassador Seoul Gangnam Hotel?2) For the City Tour Bus around Seoul (City Circulation Course), may I know how much the 2 day pass cost? And is it possible to purchase it from the bus driver in the designated bus stops of the course, or only from Gwanghwamun bus stop?3) There is 3 type of courses for the City Tour Bus during the day, namely Traditional Market Course, City Circulation Course and the Cheongyecheon/ Palace course. Is it possible to switch around these courses using any of the 1 day pass, or I have to purchase all 3 type of passes?4) From http://english.seoul.go.
Seriously, just fuck you.
re: find person
can you please help me to find a person,her names JI AE from gongdandong gyeongsangbukdo gumi city, i think she is now 25 years old... near home plus and we work in ProSMtek co ltd. last 2007....thank you...
Sure, I am actually standing next to every single Korean person in the world. Let me turn my head and yell "Ji Ae!!"
re: Song title
There was a hit pop song in 1977, soft and melodious, that I cannot remember. It I heard the name, I’d recognize it.
I mean, just come on man. Really?
---------------------------------------------------------
If you managed to read this far, your brain probably melted. Here is the worst email of the year, which will blow away the last remaining bits of your senses.
::DRUMROLL::The Worst AAK! Email of the 2013!!!::DRUMROLL::
re: Traditional Gift basket for a Korean household
Okay, I feel helpless with this. Here is the situation, my daugter is seeing a Korean, his family is Korean (mother is from Pusan?) and his father is military. This past weekend the family came to see my daughter - a 5 hour drive. We in turn will be going to see them. I would like to put together a gift basket, but am not sure of what to give. I have scoured the web sites and these are what I came across as items to put into a gift basket. My son-in-law(to be) says to not bring anything - although his parents dislike that he has become too "Americanized" I feel since they have a traditional Korean home, I would bring a basket with some or all of these items:
Korean Tea - ginseng, yuja, persimmon
Asian Pears
Soju for father in law
Sriracha and other hot sauces (mini bottles)
Segmented servign dishes
Rice
Chopsticks
Lychee
Bok Choy
See, I am at a complete loss. I am learning the bow, when and how to bow to whom (elders), and am attempting to learn han'gul. I do not want to go without a gift, so please, I know you do not answer all of your e-mails, but I am hoping that you response to this one. I see them in 2 weeks.
Thank you in advance for any and all help!
Racist gift basket! This is straight out of a stand-up comic routine, except this email was written sincerely--which makes this email doubly awesome. Congratulations, you well-meaning lady who wants to pack lychee and bok choy for Koreans! You win the Worst Email of 2013.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Thoughts on Jang Seong-taek's Execution
Dear Korean,
Now that Kim Jong Un has executed his own uncle-in-law, what do you think is in North Korea's future? What does Joo Seong-Ha think?
The Second Generation Vietnamese-American College Student
For those who do not follow North Korea-related news, this happened: Kim Jong-un, the fresh-faced third-generation dictator of North Korea, had his uncle-in-law executed. Jang Seong-taek, who joined the Kim family by marrying Kim Jong-Il's sister Kim Gyeong-hee, was widely seen as North Korea's No. 2 in power. No more--Jang was arrested in the middle of the Labor Party meeting, was "tried" plotting the overthrow of Kim Jong-Un before a military tribunal, and was executed within days of his arrest. Currently, it is believed that Jang's cohorts are meeting a similar fate of getting arrested and summarily executed.
Obviously, this is a huge deal. There are two North Korea-stories that can possibly be bigger: death of Kim Jong-Un, or North Korea's collapse. Naturally, Mr. Joo Seong-ha has been pushing out copious amount of writing. Although Mr. Joo's writings on topic are far too much to translate, they center around a single theme: North Korea is in serious disarray and may collapse soon. In particular, Joo points to the military tribunal's judgment over Jang, and notes how much North Korea is admitting its failure.
The judgment claims that Jang sought the help of the military to overthrow Kim Jong-Un; Jang thought the military may have been willing to assist him as North Korea's economic devastation gets worse. It also claims that Jang planted a number of followers in the high ranks of the North Korean regime. Even suggesting these would have been unthinkable under Kim Jong-Il--an indication, according to Mr. Joo, of how deep the rot in North Korean leadership class has reached.
Jang's execution also pushes the situation closer to my personal opinion regarding North Korea, formed upon Kim Jong-Il's death: North Korea will fall suddenly, unpredictably and uncontrollably. This may appear unlikely, but my opinion is that it is the most likely possibility when other options are considered. The personality cult that lends legitimacy to Kim Jong-Un's rule is barely holding on. North Korea's economy lies in ruin, and there is a vast chasm between North Korea's current situation and any meaningful, Chinese-style reform that may nurse North Korea toward stability. Yet, even as a long shot, reform would have been the only way forward for North Korea's long-term survival.
It would be outrageous to call Jang Seong-taek, who was as barbaric of a ruler as anyone in the North Korean regime, a reformer of any sort. However, any reform that would save North Korea would probably have come through Jang. He did have a sophisticated understanding of how the world works, and how North Korea is seen internationally. Jang visited South Korea in 2002, and was instrumental toward establishing the special economic zone in Rason. But North Korea now disavows Jang's attempts at reform; the military tribunal specifically noted in its judgment that Jang was "selling the nation" by establishing the special economic zone. With that pronouncement, North Korea banged shut another door when it could least afford to do so.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Now that Kim Jong Un has executed his own uncle-in-law, what do you think is in North Korea's future? What does Joo Seong-Ha think?
The Second Generation Vietnamese-American College Student
For those who do not follow North Korea-related news, this happened: Kim Jong-un, the fresh-faced third-generation dictator of North Korea, had his uncle-in-law executed. Jang Seong-taek, who joined the Kim family by marrying Kim Jong-Il's sister Kim Gyeong-hee, was widely seen as North Korea's No. 2 in power. No more--Jang was arrested in the middle of the Labor Party meeting, was "tried" plotting the overthrow of Kim Jong-Un before a military tribunal, and was executed within days of his arrest. Currently, it is believed that Jang's cohorts are meeting a similar fate of getting arrested and summarily executed.
Obviously, this is a huge deal. There are two North Korea-stories that can possibly be bigger: death of Kim Jong-Un, or North Korea's collapse. Naturally, Mr. Joo Seong-ha has been pushing out copious amount of writing. Although Mr. Joo's writings on topic are far too much to translate, they center around a single theme: North Korea is in serious disarray and may collapse soon. In particular, Joo points to the military tribunal's judgment over Jang, and notes how much North Korea is admitting its failure.
The judgment claims that Jang sought the help of the military to overthrow Kim Jong-Un; Jang thought the military may have been willing to assist him as North Korea's economic devastation gets worse. It also claims that Jang planted a number of followers in the high ranks of the North Korean regime. Even suggesting these would have been unthinkable under Kim Jong-Il--an indication, according to Mr. Joo, of how deep the rot in North Korean leadership class has reached.
Jang's execution also pushes the situation closer to my personal opinion regarding North Korea, formed upon Kim Jong-Il's death: North Korea will fall suddenly, unpredictably and uncontrollably. This may appear unlikely, but my opinion is that it is the most likely possibility when other options are considered. The personality cult that lends legitimacy to Kim Jong-Un's rule is barely holding on. North Korea's economy lies in ruin, and there is a vast chasm between North Korea's current situation and any meaningful, Chinese-style reform that may nurse North Korea toward stability. Yet, even as a long shot, reform would have been the only way forward for North Korea's long-term survival.
It would be outrageous to call Jang Seong-taek, who was as barbaric of a ruler as anyone in the North Korean regime, a reformer of any sort. However, any reform that would save North Korea would probably have come through Jang. He did have a sophisticated understanding of how the world works, and how North Korea is seen internationally. Jang visited South Korea in 2002, and was instrumental toward establishing the special economic zone in Rason. But North Korea now disavows Jang's attempts at reform; the military tribunal specifically noted in its judgment that Jang was "selling the nation" by establishing the special economic zone. With that pronouncement, North Korea banged shut another door when it could least afford to do so.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Asiana Crash and Culturalism, Again
The NTSB recently held a hearing regarding the crash-landing of Asiana Flight 214 at the San Francisco Airport earlier this year, in which a testifying expert said that Korean culture may have contributed to the crash. This, again, is giving rise to the discussion about the correlation between Korean culture and airline crashes. For example, as they did previously, CNN put out a vignette that wondered whether Korean culture caused the plane to crash.
Because of my previous post about the culturalism surrounding the discussion regarding Flight 214, many people think that I was arguing Korean culture had no role whatsoever in the crash of Flight 214. That idea is a misread of the post. The main point of the post was not that culture does not exist, or culture plays no role in airplane crashes. Although part of the reason why the post turned out to be well-read was because it argued against Malcolm Gladwell's claim that culture was the primary determinant of airplane crashes, the gravamen of the post was not even about Mr. Gladwell's argument. The main point of the post was to raise a question about how we talk about culture.
Did Korean culture actually play a factor in the Asiana crash? Perhaps. I am in no position to question the expert, seeing that I am not an expert in flight safety. (Most of us are not.) Nor do I begrudge the fact that the expert probed whether a national culture impacted airline safety. It is important to ensure that flights are safe, and it would be irresponsible for the person in charge of the investigation to not examine all potential factors for the crash. If a well-supported research, backed by solid evidence, states that culture plays a role in airline safety, wonderful. That knowledge will make our flights safer.
But again, the point was not about whether or not culture plays a role in airline safety. The point was about culturalism. That is to say: why does this curiosity about the correlation between culture and plane crashes arise selectively? Why is it that, in the 2009 Air France crash, there was no discussion at all about the role of French culture in plane crashes? Why was there no discussion about American culture when a Southwest flight crash-landed in New York, mere weeks after the Asiana crash? (Is there anyone who sincerely believes that, in the upcoming NTSB hearing about the Southwest flight crash, there will be an expert discussing the American culture's contribution to the crash?) If national culture is such an important concept that must be examined to promote airline safety, why does the discussion about cultural factors never happen when a European or an American plane crashes?
The honest answer to these questions must inevitably involve the concept of bias, for culturalism is a form of bias. I am not willing to equate culturalism and racism, because the two terms do not overlap completely. For example, culturalism is evident in the manner in which the rest of America discusses the Deep South, in a way that racism is not. But as I wrote previously, culturalism and racism are related, as they are two streams from the same source--the desire to reduce an identifiable group of people to some kind of indelible essence.
This is why Europeans and Americans get a pass from the culturalist desire. It is not that Europeans and Americans do not have a culture that impacts their behavior; they clearly do. It is that Europeans and Americans are always afforded the luxury of being treated as individuals who are not slaves to their cultures. The same luxury is rarely afforded to South Americans, Middle Easterners, Africans and Asians. This is why Robert Mugabe's dictatorship is discussed as if it is a result of Africa's cultural pathology, while Vladimir Putin's dictatorship does not invite the same discussion about European culture. This is why, in the minds of the public, the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster had to be related to the Japanese culture, while the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster provoked zero discussion about the British culture.
People who are beholden to culturalism often fancy themselves to be an intrepid seeker of truth, undeterred by political correctness in search of greater knowledge. But for those people, the opposite is true: the culturalist impulse, rather than illuminating the truth, distorts and obscures it. For a speaker with culturalist tendencies, the desire to find some connection between culture and events becomes so strong that he elides the true facts for the sake of good story. The listener with culturalist mindset accepts that faulty narrative without raising questions, even though the story has obvious, glaring holes.
In the previous post, I critiqued Malcolm Gladwell's "Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes" to illustrate this culturalistic distortion. To draw the line connecting Korean culture and Korean Air Line's spotty safety record in the late 1990s, Gladwell engaged in a series of legerdemain. Gladwell ascribes several of KAL crashes to pilot errors, when those flights were actually victimized by terrorist attacks. Gladwell discusses at length the crash of KAL Flight 801 in 1997, and the inefficiency of Korean language to convey urgent messages in an emergency situation--except the pilots of Flight 801 were speaking in English. Gladwell quotes the black box transcript to claim that the co-pilot did not speak up clearly enough about the bad weather condition, but the part of the transcript that Gladwell failed to quote shows that the co-pilot in fact spoke up clearly, and the pilot acknowledged the poor weather.
The overall story that Gladwell thusly constructed is something that strains credulity: that Korean pilots are willing to die and kill hundreds of their passengers for the sake of keeping manners. Exposing the shoddy groundwork upon which Gladwell built this story was not difficult--after all, a nobody like myself, an anonymous blogger with a full time job, could do it. But the ease of this task only serves to highlight the gullibility that culturalism fosters. It is shocking that so many people--millions of people who bought Outliers and made Gladwell the most influential non-fiction writer of the last decade--simply accepted Gladwell's extremely unlikely story without asking themselves, "Seriously? I'm supposed to believe this?"
Let me make this clear one more time, because too many people, perhaps following their culturalist impulse, chase this idea as if it is a shiny object. This discussion is not about whether or not culture impacts plane crashes. For all we know, Korean culture really may have contributed to the Asiana crash. But that changes nothing about the way in which we discuss culture and plane crashes. CNN will continue running stories about Korean culture whenever a Korean plane crashes, while never raising questions about American culture when an American plane crashes. That is the discrepancy that I want you to think about.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Because of my previous post about the culturalism surrounding the discussion regarding Flight 214, many people think that I was arguing Korean culture had no role whatsoever in the crash of Flight 214. That idea is a misread of the post. The main point of the post was not that culture does not exist, or culture plays no role in airplane crashes. Although part of the reason why the post turned out to be well-read was because it argued against Malcolm Gladwell's claim that culture was the primary determinant of airplane crashes, the gravamen of the post was not even about Mr. Gladwell's argument. The main point of the post was to raise a question about how we talk about culture.
Did Korean culture actually play a factor in the Asiana crash? Perhaps. I am in no position to question the expert, seeing that I am not an expert in flight safety. (Most of us are not.) Nor do I begrudge the fact that the expert probed whether a national culture impacted airline safety. It is important to ensure that flights are safe, and it would be irresponsible for the person in charge of the investigation to not examine all potential factors for the crash. If a well-supported research, backed by solid evidence, states that culture plays a role in airline safety, wonderful. That knowledge will make our flights safer.
But again, the point was not about whether or not culture plays a role in airline safety. The point was about culturalism. That is to say: why does this curiosity about the correlation between culture and plane crashes arise selectively? Why is it that, in the 2009 Air France crash, there was no discussion at all about the role of French culture in plane crashes? Why was there no discussion about American culture when a Southwest flight crash-landed in New York, mere weeks after the Asiana crash? (Is there anyone who sincerely believes that, in the upcoming NTSB hearing about the Southwest flight crash, there will be an expert discussing the American culture's contribution to the crash?) If national culture is such an important concept that must be examined to promote airline safety, why does the discussion about cultural factors never happen when a European or an American plane crashes?
The honest answer to these questions must inevitably involve the concept of bias, for culturalism is a form of bias. I am not willing to equate culturalism and racism, because the two terms do not overlap completely. For example, culturalism is evident in the manner in which the rest of America discusses the Deep South, in a way that racism is not. But as I wrote previously, culturalism and racism are related, as they are two streams from the same source--the desire to reduce an identifiable group of people to some kind of indelible essence.
This is why Europeans and Americans get a pass from the culturalist desire. It is not that Europeans and Americans do not have a culture that impacts their behavior; they clearly do. It is that Europeans and Americans are always afforded the luxury of being treated as individuals who are not slaves to their cultures. The same luxury is rarely afforded to South Americans, Middle Easterners, Africans and Asians. This is why Robert Mugabe's dictatorship is discussed as if it is a result of Africa's cultural pathology, while Vladimir Putin's dictatorship does not invite the same discussion about European culture. This is why, in the minds of the public, the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster had to be related to the Japanese culture, while the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster provoked zero discussion about the British culture.
People who are beholden to culturalism often fancy themselves to be an intrepid seeker of truth, undeterred by political correctness in search of greater knowledge. But for those people, the opposite is true: the culturalist impulse, rather than illuminating the truth, distorts and obscures it. For a speaker with culturalist tendencies, the desire to find some connection between culture and events becomes so strong that he elides the true facts for the sake of good story. The listener with culturalist mindset accepts that faulty narrative without raising questions, even though the story has obvious, glaring holes.
In the previous post, I critiqued Malcolm Gladwell's "Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes" to illustrate this culturalistic distortion. To draw the line connecting Korean culture and Korean Air Line's spotty safety record in the late 1990s, Gladwell engaged in a series of legerdemain. Gladwell ascribes several of KAL crashes to pilot errors, when those flights were actually victimized by terrorist attacks. Gladwell discusses at length the crash of KAL Flight 801 in 1997, and the inefficiency of Korean language to convey urgent messages in an emergency situation--except the pilots of Flight 801 were speaking in English. Gladwell quotes the black box transcript to claim that the co-pilot did not speak up clearly enough about the bad weather condition, but the part of the transcript that Gladwell failed to quote shows that the co-pilot in fact spoke up clearly, and the pilot acknowledged the poor weather.
The overall story that Gladwell thusly constructed is something that strains credulity: that Korean pilots are willing to die and kill hundreds of their passengers for the sake of keeping manners. Exposing the shoddy groundwork upon which Gladwell built this story was not difficult--after all, a nobody like myself, an anonymous blogger with a full time job, could do it. But the ease of this task only serves to highlight the gullibility that culturalism fosters. It is shocking that so many people--millions of people who bought Outliers and made Gladwell the most influential non-fiction writer of the last decade--simply accepted Gladwell's extremely unlikely story without asking themselves, "Seriously? I'm supposed to believe this?"
Let me make this clear one more time, because too many people, perhaps following their culturalist impulse, chase this idea as if it is a shiny object. This discussion is not about whether or not culture impacts plane crashes. For all we know, Korean culture really may have contributed to the Asiana crash. But that changes nothing about the way in which we discuss culture and plane crashes. CNN will continue running stories about Korean culture whenever a Korean plane crashes, while never raising questions about American culture when an American plane crashes. That is the discrepancy that I want you to think about.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
What Does My Korean Name Mean?
[Series Index]
Dear Korean,
My question concerns my Korean name. The story I have been told all my life is that I was found on a street corner by a policeman in Seoul and subsequently placed in an orphanage. I was given a name and a date of birth, one of which stuck with me (the birth date), while the other (the name) was abandoned faster than a politician’s promise when I was adopted by a military family from the United States. I was adopted during a time when the philosophy was to assimilate foreign children into their new culture as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. For most of my life, it never even occurred to me that my Korean name might mean anything other than “Jane Doe.”
Recently, I was told that my name means “fate” or “destiny,” but upon a Google search, I found other meanings. I am wondering if you would be willing to set the matter straight. The romanization I was given is: Park Sook-Myung.
Rebekah M.
Believe it or not, this is one of the most common types of question that the Korean would receive: Korean Americans, usually adoptees, asking about the meaning of their Korean name. Although the Korean previously dealt with this issue several times, it wouldn't hurt to go over this one more time and have a post that is more explicitly focused on the name meanings.
Here is the short answer to Rebekah: there is no way to know the meaning of your name unless we know the Chinese characters behind your name.
Let's first get a sense of Korean language generally. Remember this important point: (classical) Chinese is to Korean is Latin is to English. Just like many English words have a Latin origin, many Korean words have a Chinese origin. Those words are called Sino-Korean. As is the case with English, Korean words that are on the more sophisticated side tend to be Sino-Korean.
For example, the word "boxer" originates from Middle English; the word "pugilist," which means the same but is usually used in a higher-level discourse, originates from Latin. Similarly, for example, Koreans may use the pure Korean word 아기 ("baby") to refer to a young child, in an everyday conversation. But in legal documents, Koreans are more likely to use the Sino-Korean word 영아 ("infant"). Because 아기 is a pure Korean word, one cannot write this word using Chinese characters. But because 영아 is a Sino-Korean word, one can write this word using Chinese characters, like so: 嬰兒.
Importantly, most Korean names are Sino-Korean, which means they use Chinese characters. To be sure, some babies are given purely Korean names, such as 하늘 (Haneul, "sky") or 나래 (Narae, "wings"). But these names tend to be the minority: depending on the year, between 3 and 9 percent of the babies are given purely Korean names. In all other instances, Korean names are Sino-Korean words. This means that, for most Korean names, one cannot know their meaning unless one also knows the Chinese characters behind them. This becomes even truer because a single Korean syllable does not correspond one-on-one to a single Chinese character. Instead, it is very common for a dozen different Chinese characters to have the same sound in Korean.
For example, let's take the syllables "sook" (숙) and "myung" (명) from Rebehak's name. Here are just some of the Chinese characters that are pronounced as "sook" in Sino-Korean: 淑 (to be clear); 宿 (to sleep); 肅 (to be somber); 熟 (to be cooked); 叔 (uncle); 夙 (early); 琡 (jade); 菽 (bean). Similarly, here are the Chinese characters that are pronounced as "myung" in Sino-Korean: 明 (bright); 命 (life); 名 (name); 鳴 (to cry); 銘 (to engrave); 冥 (to be dark); 螟 (inchworm); 皿 (dish; vessel); 酩 (to be drunk).
(Note: the Chinese language does a much better job at distinguishing these characters because the Chinese language is tonal. Centuries ago, Korean language used to be tonal as well--which probably helped navigating the Sino-Korean words. But today, Korean language only has the tiniest vestiges of tones, most of which are unnoticed even by Koreans themselves.)
Because there are so many possibilities, it is nearly pointless to ask: "my Korean name is 'Sook-Myung.' What does 'Sook-Myung' mean?" Unless one actually knows the Chinese character behind "sook" and "myung", it is not possible to say what the name means exactly. It can mean anywhere between "clear and bright," "dark jade" and "drunk bean." Like Rebehak pointed out, "Sook-Myung" can mean "destiny," if one wrote the word with these Chinese characters: 宿命.
It is possible to make an educated guess. It is very unlikely for the name "Sook-Myung" to mean "destiny," if only because Koreans customarily do not use the characters 宿命 to name a child. There are certain sets of Chinese characters that Koreans commonly use for a name--which the Korean covered in this post. Based on the commonly used characters, one can somewhat narrow down the possibilities. If the Korean was forced to guess the Chinese characters behind "Sook-Myung," he would have guessed this: 淑明, i.e. "clean and bright" or "demure and wise." (These are the same characters used in Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul.)
But even this guess is inexact, because there are also multiple commonly used Chinese characters that share the same sound. For example, the common Chinese characters for the syllable "yoon" in a Korean name can be 潤 (rich), 允 (truth) or 胤 (first-born). So the bottom line remains the same: to know what a Korean name means, one has to know the Chinese characters used for that name.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Dear Korean,
My question concerns my Korean name. The story I have been told all my life is that I was found on a street corner by a policeman in Seoul and subsequently placed in an orphanage. I was given a name and a date of birth, one of which stuck with me (the birth date), while the other (the name) was abandoned faster than a politician’s promise when I was adopted by a military family from the United States. I was adopted during a time when the philosophy was to assimilate foreign children into their new culture as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. For most of my life, it never even occurred to me that my Korean name might mean anything other than “Jane Doe.”
Recently, I was told that my name means “fate” or “destiny,” but upon a Google search, I found other meanings. I am wondering if you would be willing to set the matter straight. The romanization I was given is: Park Sook-Myung.
Rebekah M.
Believe it or not, this is one of the most common types of question that the Korean would receive: Korean Americans, usually adoptees, asking about the meaning of their Korean name. Although the Korean previously dealt with this issue several times, it wouldn't hurt to go over this one more time and have a post that is more explicitly focused on the name meanings.
Here is the short answer to Rebekah: there is no way to know the meaning of your name unless we know the Chinese characters behind your name.
Let's first get a sense of Korean language generally. Remember this important point: (classical) Chinese is to Korean is Latin is to English. Just like many English words have a Latin origin, many Korean words have a Chinese origin. Those words are called Sino-Korean. As is the case with English, Korean words that are on the more sophisticated side tend to be Sino-Korean.
For example, the word "boxer" originates from Middle English; the word "pugilist," which means the same but is usually used in a higher-level discourse, originates from Latin. Similarly, for example, Koreans may use the pure Korean word 아기 ("baby") to refer to a young child, in an everyday conversation. But in legal documents, Koreans are more likely to use the Sino-Korean word 영아 ("infant"). Because 아기 is a pure Korean word, one cannot write this word using Chinese characters. But because 영아 is a Sino-Korean word, one can write this word using Chinese characters, like so: 嬰兒.
Importantly, most Korean names are Sino-Korean, which means they use Chinese characters. To be sure, some babies are given purely Korean names, such as 하늘 (Haneul, "sky") or 나래 (Narae, "wings"). But these names tend to be the minority: depending on the year, between 3 and 9 percent of the babies are given purely Korean names. In all other instances, Korean names are Sino-Korean words. This means that, for most Korean names, one cannot know their meaning unless one also knows the Chinese characters behind them. This becomes even truer because a single Korean syllable does not correspond one-on-one to a single Chinese character. Instead, it is very common for a dozen different Chinese characters to have the same sound in Korean.
For example, let's take the syllables "sook" (숙) and "myung" (명) from Rebehak's name. Here are just some of the Chinese characters that are pronounced as "sook" in Sino-Korean: 淑 (to be clear); 宿 (to sleep); 肅 (to be somber); 熟 (to be cooked); 叔 (uncle); 夙 (early); 琡 (jade); 菽 (bean). Similarly, here are the Chinese characters that are pronounced as "myung" in Sino-Korean: 明 (bright); 命 (life); 名 (name); 鳴 (to cry); 銘 (to engrave); 冥 (to be dark); 螟 (inchworm); 皿 (dish; vessel); 酩 (to be drunk).
(Note: the Chinese language does a much better job at distinguishing these characters because the Chinese language is tonal. Centuries ago, Korean language used to be tonal as well--which probably helped navigating the Sino-Korean words. But today, Korean language only has the tiniest vestiges of tones, most of which are unnoticed even by Koreans themselves.)
Because there are so many possibilities, it is nearly pointless to ask: "my Korean name is 'Sook-Myung.' What does 'Sook-Myung' mean?" Unless one actually knows the Chinese character behind "sook" and "myung", it is not possible to say what the name means exactly. It can mean anywhere between "clear and bright," "dark jade" and "drunk bean." Like Rebehak pointed out, "Sook-Myung" can mean "destiny," if one wrote the word with these Chinese characters: 宿命.
It is possible to make an educated guess. It is very unlikely for the name "Sook-Myung" to mean "destiny," if only because Koreans customarily do not use the characters 宿命 to name a child. There are certain sets of Chinese characters that Koreans commonly use for a name--which the Korean covered in this post. Based on the commonly used characters, one can somewhat narrow down the possibilities. If the Korean was forced to guess the Chinese characters behind "Sook-Myung," he would have guessed this: 淑明, i.e. "clean and bright" or "demure and wise." (These are the same characters used in Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul.)
But even this guess is inexact, because there are also multiple commonly used Chinese characters that share the same sound. For example, the common Chinese characters for the syllable "yoon" in a Korean name can be 潤 (rich), 允 (truth) or 胤 (first-born). So the bottom line remains the same: to know what a Korean name means, one has to know the Chinese characters used for that name.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
North Korea 2014 Calendar from NK News is Here
If blogs could be friends, Ask a Korean! would be hanging out with NK News all the time, watching KBO baseball and knocking back some Taedonggang beer (as seen in the Economist.) And when the holiday season rolls around, the two blogs would exchange gifts.
Unfortunately, blogs can't be friends. So you, the Ask a Korean! reader, can receive the gift from NK News instead! NK News unveiled a gorgeous 2014 North Korea calendar, showcasing a glimpse in the life in North Korea. And just for Ask a Korean! readers, NK News provided a special discount code: at the check out, enter the coupon code "askakorean" to receive $5 off.
The proceeds will support NK News, one of the best English language blogs about North Korea. With your help, the awesome features like Ask a North Korean can continue. Happy shopping!
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Unfortunately, blogs can't be friends. So you, the Ask a Korean! reader, can receive the gift from NK News instead! NK News unveiled a gorgeous 2014 North Korea calendar, showcasing a glimpse in the life in North Korea. And just for Ask a Korean! readers, NK News provided a special discount code: at the check out, enter the coupon code "askakorean" to receive $5 off.
The proceeds will support NK News, one of the best English language blogs about North Korea. With your help, the awesome features like Ask a North Korean can continue. Happy shopping!
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Who's Coming to SXSW 2014?
What is the future of international K-pop?
The early stages of K-pop's foray into the international arena was dominated by idol groups, backed by strategic, long-term corporate planning and funds. The dominance was such that the term "K-pop" mistakenly come to be equated to "idol pop," despite the fact that "K-pop" plainly stands for "Korean pop music." Ignorance of the deep history and the broad range of Korean pop music, and focusing only on the internationally visible part of it, caused many prognosticators to make their prediction only on the continued viability of idol groups outside of Korea.
Then Gangnam Style came along and changed everything. From the domestic perspective, Gangnam Style is not a major break from the history of Korean pop music. PSY was a known quantity in Korea for more than a decade; his music, though evolved over time, retained the same character throughout his career. But internationally, Gangnam Style broke new ground for K-pop. That a goofy song, almost entirely in Korean, sung by a chubby rapper doing a funny dance, would be one of the greatest worldwide pop culture phenomena, is the last thing that those who only focused on idol pop could have expected.
The lesson: the next phase of K-pop will not be the continuation of Korean pop music that is internationally visible today. Rather, it will be a sudden explosion of K-pop's as-yet unexplored potential--vibrant and dynamic within Korea, but not yet widely available outside of Korea. In short, it will be the international introduction to Korea's indie scene, with its highly sophisticated line-up of hip hop and modern rock standing ready to make their marks.
Which brings us to South by Southwest (SXSW) 2014. SXSW is a pop music conference held in Austin, Texas since 1987. Almost since its beginning, it has been a reliable gauge on the worldwide trend in pop music. More to the point--SXSW 2014 will bring more Korean indie musicians to America than any other occasion before. The lineup so far includes 13 Korean artists, including such luminaries as Crying Nut, Nell, Jambinai and Kiha & the Faces, as well as the up-and-coming bands like Glen Check and Idiotape. If you want to see the future of international K-pop, there is no better place to be.
Now, the question is...
Normally, the Korean would simply travel with the Korean Wife in blissful anonymity, and all will be well. But SXSW 2014, which happens March 11-16, unfortunately conflicts with the Korean Wife's own performance schedule. (Sadly, SXSW 2014 was not interested in opera and classical music.)
So: who's coming with me? The Korean will be honest: SXSW is a huge, week-long event with more than 30,000 attendees. Travel will not be cheap, and neither is the ticket. Right now, the "Music Badge" is $725--ultimately a deal considering the number of artists making an appearance, but a steep amount nonetheless. As of now, the Korean is not even certain that he can make this trip next year given the constraints of time and budget; but it will make his decision a lot easier if he knew he would meet some cool people along the way.
Consider this as a public gauging-of-interest. Who wants to come to Austin, attend SXSW 2014, witness the future of K-pop, and hang out with the writer of this humble blog? If you are interested, please do NOT leave a comment--instead, SEND AN EMAIL directly to the Korean, with a short introduction of yourself. If it looks like we will have a party going, the Korean will update further.
The website for SXSW 2014 is here. The preview for Korean talents appearing at SXSW 2014 can be found here at koreanindie.com. Let's make this happen.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
The early stages of K-pop's foray into the international arena was dominated by idol groups, backed by strategic, long-term corporate planning and funds. The dominance was such that the term "K-pop" mistakenly come to be equated to "idol pop," despite the fact that "K-pop" plainly stands for "Korean pop music." Ignorance of the deep history and the broad range of Korean pop music, and focusing only on the internationally visible part of it, caused many prognosticators to make their prediction only on the continued viability of idol groups outside of Korea.
Then Gangnam Style came along and changed everything. From the domestic perspective, Gangnam Style is not a major break from the history of Korean pop music. PSY was a known quantity in Korea for more than a decade; his music, though evolved over time, retained the same character throughout his career. But internationally, Gangnam Style broke new ground for K-pop. That a goofy song, almost entirely in Korean, sung by a chubby rapper doing a funny dance, would be one of the greatest worldwide pop culture phenomena, is the last thing that those who only focused on idol pop could have expected.
The lesson: the next phase of K-pop will not be the continuation of Korean pop music that is internationally visible today. Rather, it will be a sudden explosion of K-pop's as-yet unexplored potential--vibrant and dynamic within Korea, but not yet widely available outside of Korea. In short, it will be the international introduction to Korea's indie scene, with its highly sophisticated line-up of hip hop and modern rock standing ready to make their marks.
Which brings us to South by Southwest (SXSW) 2014. SXSW is a pop music conference held in Austin, Texas since 1987. Almost since its beginning, it has been a reliable gauge on the worldwide trend in pop music. More to the point--SXSW 2014 will bring more Korean indie musicians to America than any other occasion before. The lineup so far includes 13 Korean artists, including such luminaries as Crying Nut, Nell, Jambinai and Kiha & the Faces, as well as the up-and-coming bands like Glen Check and Idiotape. If you want to see the future of international K-pop, there is no better place to be.
Now, the question is...
Normally, the Korean would simply travel with the Korean Wife in blissful anonymity, and all will be well. But SXSW 2014, which happens March 11-16, unfortunately conflicts with the Korean Wife's own performance schedule. (Sadly, SXSW 2014 was not interested in opera and classical music.)
So: who's coming with me? The Korean will be honest: SXSW is a huge, week-long event with more than 30,000 attendees. Travel will not be cheap, and neither is the ticket. Right now, the "Music Badge" is $725--ultimately a deal considering the number of artists making an appearance, but a steep amount nonetheless. As of now, the Korean is not even certain that he can make this trip next year given the constraints of time and budget; but it will make his decision a lot easier if he knew he would meet some cool people along the way.
Consider this as a public gauging-of-interest. Who wants to come to Austin, attend SXSW 2014, witness the future of K-pop, and hang out with the writer of this humble blog? If you are interested, please do NOT leave a comment--instead, SEND AN EMAIL directly to the Korean, with a short introduction of yourself. If it looks like we will have a party going, the Korean will update further.
The website for SXSW 2014 is here. The preview for Korean talents appearing at SXSW 2014 can be found here at koreanindie.com. Let's make this happen.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
TK's Favorite Figures in American History
Dear Korean,
This past week has included the anniversary of the assassination of JFK and also Lincoln's famous speech at Gettysburg. Both men are admired/respected and shaped our nation for the better. I wondered who in American history the Korean admired/respected (not necessarily political figures) and why.
A History Buff
Here is a light little post to work off the Thanksgiving turkey. :)
Because the Korean is an attorney, he spent his college and law school years admiring America's great jurists. After several phases involving John Marshall, William Douglas, Clarence Darrow and Earl Warren, he is now set on his favorite jurist of all time: Justice Robert H. Jackson.
Justice Jackson is widely regarded as the best writer of Supreme Court's history. By the Korean's estimation, the judge certain deserves the reputation. Justice Jackson's majority opinion in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943), may be the greatest Supreme Court opinion of all time, if one judged Supreme Court opinions simply by literary merit. In Barnette, Justice Jackson ruled that Jehovah's Witnesses need not participate in their school's flag salute. Justice Jackson's best line is still quoted often to this day: "If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein."
Justice Jackson was not simply a gifted writer. He was a fine jurist who understood both the power of the law and its limitations, which allowed him to exercise the Supreme Court's authority in the most effective manner: moving toward progressive ideals, employing conservative methods.
Honorable Mentions: In addition to the people named earlier, the Korean is also quite fond of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Thurgood Marshall, Malcolm X, Sandra Day O'Connor, and many others that he must be missing right now.
Got a question or comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Justice Jackson was not simply a gifted writer. He was a fine jurist who understood both the power of the law and its limitations, which allowed him to exercise the Supreme Court's authority in the most effective manner: moving toward progressive ideals, employing conservative methods.
Honorable Mentions: In addition to the people named earlier, the Korean is also quite fond of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Thurgood Marshall, Malcolm X, Sandra Day O'Connor, and many others that he must be missing right now.
Got a question or comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Happy Thanksgiving!
The Korean wishes happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it. This year, the Korean is thankful for being able to enjoy the perfect Southern California weather, healthy and happy family, lovely wife and great friends old and new, and a record-breaking year at AAK!
The Korean does not think he can write a better tribute for Thanksgiving than what he wrote in 2008. So here it is again:
Thanksgiving is truly the Korean's favorite holiday, although sadly it is increasingly becoming an inconvenient roadblock for American retailers to get the Christmas shopping season going early.
Thanksgiving is the most American of all holidays, save perhaps the Independence Day. It is the day for immigrants. The Pilgrim's dinner with the Native Americans symbolize our ideals as a nation of immigrants: newcomers and the natives, on the same table, sharing a meal.
Beauty of history lies in that the patterns in its fabric repeat endlessly. On the Thanksgiving Day of 1997 -- some 380 years after the Pilgrims -- the Korean Family arrived at the port of Los Angeles International Airport, full of anticipation for the Land of Opportunity. The Korean Family was greeted by natives, the distant family friends who have lived in the U.S. for decades as Korean Americans. And like a beautiful fugue, the pattern repeated once again; the natives helped the immigrants to get settled in, and begin their lives in the new world.
Thus, Thanksgiving Day is doubly special for the Korean Family. We never miss celebrating it. We are thankful for all the great things in our lives, but most of all, we are thankful to be in America. Like the Pilgrims who were grateful for their new lives and new opportunities, the Korean Family is grateful, each and every year, for our own new lives and opportunities.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
The Korean does not think he can write a better tribute for Thanksgiving than what he wrote in 2008. So here it is again:
Thanksgiving is truly the Korean's favorite holiday, although sadly it is increasingly becoming an inconvenient roadblock for American retailers to get the Christmas shopping season going early.
Thanksgiving is the most American of all holidays, save perhaps the Independence Day. It is the day for immigrants. The Pilgrim's dinner with the Native Americans symbolize our ideals as a nation of immigrants: newcomers and the natives, on the same table, sharing a meal.
Beauty of history lies in that the patterns in its fabric repeat endlessly. On the Thanksgiving Day of 1997 -- some 380 years after the Pilgrims -- the Korean Family arrived at the port of Los Angeles International Airport, full of anticipation for the Land of Opportunity. The Korean Family was greeted by natives, the distant family friends who have lived in the U.S. for decades as Korean Americans. And like a beautiful fugue, the pattern repeated once again; the natives helped the immigrants to get settled in, and begin their lives in the new world.
Thus, Thanksgiving Day is doubly special for the Korean Family. We never miss celebrating it. We are thankful for all the great things in our lives, but most of all, we are thankful to be in America. Like the Pilgrims who were grateful for their new lives and new opportunities, the Korean Family is grateful, each and every year, for our own new lives and opportunities.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Presidential Election and Spy Agency
Dear Korean,
With all the accusations about fixing the election last year, what is likely to happen politically?
Jen S.
Right now, Korean democracy is going through a kind of crisis of confidence. To be sure, it is not the type of severe crisis that Korean democracy has experienced before, such as the military rolling tanks into the heart of Seoul to claim power. Nonetheless, when the nation's spy agency intervenes in the nation's presidential election to favor one candidate over the other, it is a serious concern.
First, some background. It all started in December 11, 2012, mere eight days before Korea's presidential election. The ruling, conservative New Frontier Party, to which the outgoing president Lee Myeong-bak also belonged, fielded Park Geun-hye as the candidate. On the progressive side, the Democratic United Party's Moon Jae-in was gaining steam as the popular independent Ahn Cheol-su bowed out of the race and expressed support for Moon. Park and Moon were neck-and-neck in polls, although Park led slightly in most polls.
On the night of December 11, a team of Democratic United Party officials and the police rushed to an apartment in Seoul. Earlier, the DUP had received a tip from an insider: the National Intelligence Service, Korea's spy agency, was running a division of some 70 agents who was engaged in a systematic campaign on the Internet to put up comments on popular websites, expressing support for Park and disparaging Moon. The informant also tipped that one such agent was working out of the apartment, to which the DUP officials rushed to with the police.
The police and the officials actually managed to speak with the young woman who was living in the apartment. She denied that she was an NIS agent. The police and the DUP officials left the apartment when the woman agreed to cooperate with the investigation by turning over her computer to the National Elections Commission. However, when the NEC officials later visited the apartment with the DUP officials, the woman locked herself in and refused to come out. For the next 40 hours, DUP officials and journalists laid siege of the apartment until they could obtain a warrant from the court.
On December 13, the young woman--who in fact turned out to be an NIS agent--emerged out of her apartment and sued the DUP officials for defamation, claiming that she maintained neutrality in politics. She also turned over her laptops to the Seoul Metropolitan Police, which initially estimated that it would take at least one week for them to analyze the NIS agent's Internet activity.
(More of the jump.)
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
The third and final TV debate between the presidential candidates occurred on December 16. It was the general consensus that Park Geun-hye was not a strong debater. She delivered another lukewarm performance in the debate, which ended at 10 p.m. But Korea's electorate would not dwell much on Park's subpar debate performance, as its attention was quickly shifted to the police's announcement one hour after the end of the debate: Seoul Metropolitan Police Office announced its interim conclusion that, although the NIS agent utilized over 20 online IDs, there was no evidence that the agent put up any Internet comment related to the election.
This announcement was suspicious in several different manners. First, the timing was suspect, as the police initially claimed that it would take them at least a week to analyze the computers but announced the interim conclusion in three days. Further, it was highly unusual for the police to announce an interim conclusion in the middle of the night, as the SMPO did. Second, the police said they only analyzed the computers' HDD, without bothering to check the websites in which the NIS agent was alleged to have been active. Third, the police apparently did not consider at all the fact that the NIS agent locked herself in for 40 hours in her apartment, giving her ample time to clean out her computer and destroy evidence.
Finally, an online ID in Korea is not something that one can make willy-nilly. Virtually all large Korean websites require a person to enter one's Resident Registration Number [주민등록번호] to become a member. However, except in one case, the NIS agent used a fake number and fake RRN to create the multiple online IDs. Further, even though the police was aware the the NIS agent was essentially engaged in an identity theft to create numerous online IDs that do not belong to her name, the police never even ran a simple Internet search to find out if the NIS agent left any comment on the Internet.
The DUP and the progress-leaning media raised these concerns, and the police grudgingly returned to investigating further. Unfortunately for Moon Jae-in and the DUP, the time ran out. On December 19, Park Geun-hye was elected to be the newest president of the Republic of Korea, by the final tally of 51.6 percent to 48 percent. Although a looking back at past events is always a speculative exercise, at least one poll says that if the police truthfully announced the NIS's involvement, 8.3 percent of those who voted for Park Geun-hye would have switched sides--which would have changed the final tally to Moon Jae-in 52.3 percent, Park Geun-hye 47.3 percent.
Even after the presidential election was over, the investigation trudged along. By February 2013, the Supreme Prosecutor's Office--which, in Korea, has its own investigative authority--took over the investigation. After vigorous protests from the Democratic Party (which changed its name from Democratic United Party after the presidential election,) there was also a National Assembly investigation and hearing. Bit by bit, the facts began to emerge. The following is what is revealed:
The whistle blowers and investigators got their share as well:
What about the president Park Geun-hye, the chief beneficiary of the NIS's intervention to the election? Her response has been stonewalling, not only on the NIS issue, but also, it appears, on every issue in Korean politics. Incredibly, in the eight months that she has been president, Park has not held a single press conference with Korean media. (Even Lee Myeong-bak, a notoriously bad communicator, held four press conferences in the first eight months of his presidency.) Though Park has given six interviews with the foreign media from the United States, Russia, China, Indonesia and France, she has not given a single interview with Korean media. Whenever a major event takes place on this front, such as the National Assembly hearing, the president was on a well-timed summit trip abroad. In her first and only address before the National Assembly, the president said obliquely that she "regrets the conflict and struggle continue even though the election has been nearly a year ago," and urged the National Assembly to "wait, trusting the will of the government and the judgment of the judiciary."
Through other channels, Park has been adamant that her election was fair. In a private conference with the heads of the New Frontier Party and the Democratic Party, she angrily asked the DP representative: "Are you saying I was elected president because of some Internet comments?" In a meeting with Blue House chiefs, she also claimed that she "never received any help" from the NIS, although she also said she supported NIS reform.
What is likely to happen? Although the radical fringe of Korea's progressives are calling for Park's impeachment or resignation, mainstream progressives and the Democratic Party have no appetite for such dramatic measures. This makes for an oddly muted reaction. Sure, a National Assembly investigation and public statements in protests are nice, but are those all in a case in which the national spy agency threatened the very legitimacy of the democratic process in Korea?
Perhaps it is the sign of maturity on the part of Korea's democracy that the leader does not change at every turn, the gravity of the situation notwithstanding. It appears that the maximum that the Democratic Party would seek from the president is a recognition and apology over the tainted election. Otherwise, the Democratic Party would probably be content with using this issue to politically hobble the president, and parlay it into the upcoming local elections next year.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
With all the accusations about fixing the election last year, what is likely to happen politically?
Jen S.
Right now, Korean democracy is going through a kind of crisis of confidence. To be sure, it is not the type of severe crisis that Korean democracy has experienced before, such as the military rolling tanks into the heart of Seoul to claim power. Nonetheless, when the nation's spy agency intervenes in the nation's presidential election to favor one candidate over the other, it is a serious concern.
First, some background. It all started in December 11, 2012, mere eight days before Korea's presidential election. The ruling, conservative New Frontier Party, to which the outgoing president Lee Myeong-bak also belonged, fielded Park Geun-hye as the candidate. On the progressive side, the Democratic United Party's Moon Jae-in was gaining steam as the popular independent Ahn Cheol-su bowed out of the race and expressed support for Moon. Park and Moon were neck-and-neck in polls, although Park led slightly in most polls.
 |
| Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in (source) |
On the night of December 11, a team of Democratic United Party officials and the police rushed to an apartment in Seoul. Earlier, the DUP had received a tip from an insider: the National Intelligence Service, Korea's spy agency, was running a division of some 70 agents who was engaged in a systematic campaign on the Internet to put up comments on popular websites, expressing support for Park and disparaging Moon. The informant also tipped that one such agent was working out of the apartment, to which the DUP officials rushed to with the police.
The police and the officials actually managed to speak with the young woman who was living in the apartment. She denied that she was an NIS agent. The police and the DUP officials left the apartment when the woman agreed to cooperate with the investigation by turning over her computer to the National Elections Commission. However, when the NEC officials later visited the apartment with the DUP officials, the woman locked herself in and refused to come out. For the next 40 hours, DUP officials and journalists laid siege of the apartment until they could obtain a warrant from the court.
Video of the seiged apartment. Through the door, the young woman can be heard
claiming that she was not an NIS agent.
On December 13, the young woman--who in fact turned out to be an NIS agent--emerged out of her apartment and sued the DUP officials for defamation, claiming that she maintained neutrality in politics. She also turned over her laptops to the Seoul Metropolitan Police, which initially estimated that it would take at least one week for them to analyze the NIS agent's Internet activity.
(More of the jump.)
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
The third and final TV debate between the presidential candidates occurred on December 16. It was the general consensus that Park Geun-hye was not a strong debater. She delivered another lukewarm performance in the debate, which ended at 10 p.m. But Korea's electorate would not dwell much on Park's subpar debate performance, as its attention was quickly shifted to the police's announcement one hour after the end of the debate: Seoul Metropolitan Police Office announced its interim conclusion that, although the NIS agent utilized over 20 online IDs, there was no evidence that the agent put up any Internet comment related to the election.
This announcement was suspicious in several different manners. First, the timing was suspect, as the police initially claimed that it would take them at least a week to analyze the computers but announced the interim conclusion in three days. Further, it was highly unusual for the police to announce an interim conclusion in the middle of the night, as the SMPO did. Second, the police said they only analyzed the computers' HDD, without bothering to check the websites in which the NIS agent was alleged to have been active. Third, the police apparently did not consider at all the fact that the NIS agent locked herself in for 40 hours in her apartment, giving her ample time to clean out her computer and destroy evidence.
Finally, an online ID in Korea is not something that one can make willy-nilly. Virtually all large Korean websites require a person to enter one's Resident Registration Number [주민등록번호] to become a member. However, except in one case, the NIS agent used a fake number and fake RRN to create the multiple online IDs. Further, even though the police was aware the the NIS agent was essentially engaged in an identity theft to create numerous online IDs that do not belong to her name, the police never even ran a simple Internet search to find out if the NIS agent left any comment on the Internet.
The DUP and the progress-leaning media raised these concerns, and the police grudgingly returned to investigating further. Unfortunately for Moon Jae-in and the DUP, the time ran out. On December 19, Park Geun-hye was elected to be the newest president of the Republic of Korea, by the final tally of 51.6 percent to 48 percent. Although a looking back at past events is always a speculative exercise, at least one poll says that if the police truthfully announced the NIS's involvement, 8.3 percent of those who voted for Park Geun-hye would have switched sides--which would have changed the final tally to Moon Jae-in 52.3 percent, Park Geun-hye 47.3 percent.
* * *
Even after the presidential election was over, the investigation trudged along. By February 2013, the Supreme Prosecutor's Office--which, in Korea, has its own investigative authority--took over the investigation. After vigorous protests from the Democratic Party (which changed its name from Democratic United Party after the presidential election,) there was also a National Assembly investigation and hearing. Bit by bit, the facts began to emerge. The following is what is revealed:
- The young woman NIS agent, who initially locked herself in, did in fact actively comment, as well as "up-voted" and "down-voted," in a way that supported Park Geun-hye and undermined Moon Jae-in.
- The NIS in fact ran a division, under the name of Psychological Warfare, of approximately 70 agents whose sole duty was to operate on the Internet and influence the elections. The NIS has run the division since 2009.
- The division received orders directly from the head of the NIS, with detailed instructions on what to post. The division, in turn, provided daily reports to the head of the NIS. The NIS justified this activity as "Anti-North Korea Psychological Warfare," a strange and disturbing claim since the division only operated within South Korean websites. In his instructions, the head of the NIS repeatedly equated the progressives with North Korean fifth column.
- The division had four teams, each of which had an assignment: Team 1 oversaw the entire operation; Team 2 worked the large websites; Team 3, the mid-sized web communities, and Team 5, Twitter. (There was no Team 4.) The website and web communities teams posted between 1200 to 1600 pieces of writing on the Internet per month. The Twitter team posted over 55,000 tweets and retweets regarding the election. -EDIT 11/20/2013- According to the Supreme Prosecutor's Office's latest finding, the NIS agents posted more than 1.2 million tweets and retweets regarding Korean politics, of which approximately 500,000 related to the presidential election.
- -EDIT 11/21/2013- The NIS fed conservative-leaning stories to approximately 30 conservative-leaning websites. Once the websites published the stories, the NIS agents spread the stories through other large websites or Twitter.
- The NIS also recruited civilians, and paid them to also engage in the same activities on the Internet.
- NIS may not be the only government body that systematically involved itself in the election. At least two other governmental arms are being investigated for running similar teams working on the Internet to influence elections: ROK Army's Cyber Command, and the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs.
- While locking herself in the room, the first NIS agent who was outed deleted 187 files from her laptop, and reported to the NIS that she did so. The deleted files included the .txt file that listed numerous online IDs, their passwords, and links leading to materials praising the outgoing president.
- Once the police investigation began, the NIS systematically deleted the hundreds of online IDs it used, and the thousands of posts its agents wrote. Although the police could not recover the deleted IDs and posts, the Supreme Prosecutor's Office restored them.
- The local Suseo police office, which was investigating the claim, originally requested Seoul Metropolitan Police Office's Digital Evidence Analysis Team to search for 78 keywords associated with the laptops received from the first NIS agent who locked herself in the house. The SMPO, however, reduced the number of keywords to four, and three days later announced that it found no evidence of election involvement.
- The SMPO was composing the initial draft of its interim conclusion before it received any evidence from the Suseo police.
- Even with the limited investigation, the SMPO Digital Evidence Analysis Team in fact found a huge amount of evidence showing that the NIS agent was engaged in elections tempering. The closed circuit TV recording of the Digital Team, dated December 16, 2012, shows the police analysts discussing they "found a gold mine" and "this can't go out to the media; the NIS will be in trouble if it does. They could not have known we would find this."
- The head of the SMPO directly intervened, ordering the Digital Team not to send its findings to the local police office. When the Suseo police office protested, the SMPO sent only a part of the evidence. Before the SMPO sent its findings to the local police office, it made the 11 p.m. announcement.
- The SMPO also ordered the Suseo police to have the NIS agent personally attend the laptop analysis as the Suseo police examined the laptop. The SMPO backed off only after the Suseo police strongly protested.
- The NIS issued a press release attacking the DUP based on SMPO's interim conclusion at 11:11 p.m. The Supreme Prosecutor's Office noted that 11 minutes was hardly enough time to receive SMPO's interim conclusion and compose a press release, and raised the possibility that the SMPO leaked its interim conclusion to the NIS before making it public.
- The head of the SMPO also directly called the head of the investigation team in the Suseo police office, pressuring her not to raid the NIS agent's apartment. Previously, the head of the SMPO denied that he ever spoke with the head of investigations.
- As a part of the investigation, the Supreme Prosecutor's Office raided the Seoul Metropolitan Police Office. (If that sounds crazy to you, don't worry--it sounded crazy to Korean people also.) The SPO found that several SMPO ranking officers destroyed evidence of wrongdoing by deleting their official computer's HDD.
The whistle blowers and investigators got their share as well:
- The initial whistle blowers who tipped off the DUP were two NIS agents. Upon finding out the leakers, the NIS fired both agents.
- Gwon Eun-hee, the head of the local Suseo police office who was handling the front-line investigation, constantly clashed with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Office that sought to cover up the NIS involvement. She was taken off the investigation team, moved to a different police office, and was later censured by the Seoul Metropolitan Police for interviewing with the media without permission.
- The investigation was able to move forward because the Supreme Prosecutor's Office overrode the police and exercised its own investigative authority. As the SPO's investigation heated up, the leading conservative newspaper Chosun Ilbo published a hit piece of SPO's head Chae Dong-uk, claiming that he had a child from an extramarital affair. Based on the claim, the Minister of Justice ordered an audit on Chae. Rather than suffer the indignity, Chae resigned.
- The SPO's investigation team moved aggressively, arresting former NIS agents and raiding their homes for evidence. The head of the investigation team, Yoon Seok-yeol, was sacked after the former NIS agents were arrested, apparently because Yoon disobeyed the orders from his superiors and moved forward with the arrests.
What about the president Park Geun-hye, the chief beneficiary of the NIS's intervention to the election? Her response has been stonewalling, not only on the NIS issue, but also, it appears, on every issue in Korean politics. Incredibly, in the eight months that she has been president, Park has not held a single press conference with Korean media. (Even Lee Myeong-bak, a notoriously bad communicator, held four press conferences in the first eight months of his presidency.) Though Park has given six interviews with the foreign media from the United States, Russia, China, Indonesia and France, she has not given a single interview with Korean media. Whenever a major event takes place on this front, such as the National Assembly hearing, the president was on a well-timed summit trip abroad. In her first and only address before the National Assembly, the president said obliquely that she "regrets the conflict and struggle continue even though the election has been nearly a year ago," and urged the National Assembly to "wait, trusting the will of the government and the judgment of the judiciary."
Through other channels, Park has been adamant that her election was fair. In a private conference with the heads of the New Frontier Party and the Democratic Party, she angrily asked the DP representative: "Are you saying I was elected president because of some Internet comments?" In a meeting with Blue House chiefs, she also claimed that she "never received any help" from the NIS, although she also said she supported NIS reform.
What is likely to happen? Although the radical fringe of Korea's progressives are calling for Park's impeachment or resignation, mainstream progressives and the Democratic Party have no appetite for such dramatic measures. This makes for an oddly muted reaction. Sure, a National Assembly investigation and public statements in protests are nice, but are those all in a case in which the national spy agency threatened the very legitimacy of the democratic process in Korea?
Perhaps it is the sign of maturity on the part of Korea's democracy that the leader does not change at every turn, the gravity of the situation notwithstanding. It appears that the maximum that the Democratic Party would seek from the president is a recognition and apology over the tainted election. Otherwise, the Democratic Party would probably be content with using this issue to politically hobble the president, and parlay it into the upcoming local elections next year.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Age of Consent in Korea
Dear Korean,
I noticed that the official age of consent in South Korea is thirteen, and wondered why the age was so low. Is this just a remnant of a Korea that used to be a third-world country, or is there another reason? I was puzzled because I thought that generally, Koreans tended to be socially conservative, especially in terms of sexual relations.
Kathleen K.
I noticed that the official age of consent in South Korea is thirteen, and wondered why the age was so low. Is this just a remnant of a Korea that used to be a third-world country, or is there another reason? I was puzzled because I thought that generally, Koreans tended to be socially conservative, especially in terms of sexual relations.
Kathleen K.
There is actually a very simply explanation. Why is the age of consent 13 in Korea? Because that is the age of consent in Japan.
Korea's age of consent has almost nothing to do with Korean culture, and has everything to do with the legal history of Korea. Korea first implemented a modern legal code in 1895, borrowing much from the Japanese code. This code, however, was short-lived, as Imperial Japan annexed Korea in 1910 and imposed its own laws.
Korea would become independent in 1945, and proceeded to eliminate Imperial Japan's vestiges in many areas. But in many other areas, Koreans saw fit to keep the imports from Imperial Japan. In Korea's legal system, Koreans abolished the oppressive laws that allowed the Imperial Japanese government to exploit its colony. However, Koreans left alone many areas of law that did not directly implicate the colonial rule--for example, enforcement of contracts.
Over the next several decades, Koreans would gradually update and change the laws that they inherited from the colonial era to fit the changing times and circumstances.. Yet vestiges from the colonial law remain, for the simple reason that there are far too many of them to completely address and Korean people did not feel any particular urgency to change them.
Age of consent is one such item. Having a higher age of consent may add some value, but not much, as there are plenty of laws in the book to punish virtually all types of sex crimes. Because Korea remains a sexually conservative society (although significantly less so in recent years,) higher age of consent is not particularly necessary to prevent, say, 15-year-olds from having sex with each other. (In fact, this tends to create huge injustice in the U.S., where in some states an 18-year-old having sex with a 16-year-old may be placed on the sex offender registry.)
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Over the next several decades, Koreans would gradually update and change the laws that they inherited from the colonial era to fit the changing times and circumstances.. Yet vestiges from the colonial law remain, for the simple reason that there are far too many of them to completely address and Korean people did not feel any particular urgency to change them.
Age of consent is one such item. Having a higher age of consent may add some value, but not much, as there are plenty of laws in the book to punish virtually all types of sex crimes. Because Korea remains a sexually conservative society (although significantly less so in recent years,) higher age of consent is not particularly necessary to prevent, say, 15-year-olds from having sex with each other. (In fact, this tends to create huge injustice in the U.S., where in some states an 18-year-old having sex with a 16-year-old may be placed on the sex offender registry.)
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Gender Ratio in Korea
Dear Korean,
China currently has an abnormal ratio between men and women of marriageable age. I've heard that is also true for Korea and a few other Asian countries. Has it become necessary for men to seek alternative methods of finding a bride, such as mail-order bride situations?
Steph
Traditionally, and until not too long ago, Koreans favored having a male child. But it has been at least 25 years or so since Korean culture explicitly favored boys over girls. (In fact, there currently is a strong counter-trend favoring daughters over sons, resulting in such terms as 딸바보 [parent who dotes on the daughter to the point of being foolish].) Accordingly, the sex ratio of Korean children at birth is quite normal.
In the state of nature, it is expected that around 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. Korea's newborn sex ratio is more or less in line with that figure, if slightly favoring boys. For the last five years, the number hovered between 105.7 and 106.9 (that is, 105.7 boys to 100 girls.)* The same holds true for Koreans in marriageable age: the sex ratio for Koreans between the ages of 20 and 39 is 104.7.
But one thing to always remember about Korea is: it is a larger country than you think, and there are always pockets within the country that defies the prevailing trend. While Korea overall has a normal sex ratio among people within marriageable age, there is a strong split between cities and rural areas. In cities, the sex ratio for those between 20 and 39 years old is 102.3; in rural areas, the sex ratio for same age group is 119.6. The more rural the area is, the wider the discrepancy in sex ratio. In the most sparsely populated parts of Korea (i.e. the myeon [면] level towns), the sex ratio for those between 20 and 39 years old is 174.5(!).
(For perspective, however, note that cities in Korea hold more than six times the population than the rural areas.)
This split occurs mostly because men are more "stuck" to the town of their birth. As Korea industrialized, virtually every Korean who was able to do so left his or her hometown for a larger city in search of jobs and opportunity. In this great urbanization migration, those who were least able to leave were the firstborn sons, who were expected to tend the family farm and take care of their elderly, immobile parents.
These desperate men do tend to resort to mail-order bride-type situations, usually involving women from Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Uzbekistan, etc. (For a glimpse of how the recruiting process works for these international brides, please refer to this post.) Today, nearly 40 percent of all marriages in Korea's rural areas involves "imported" brides. Tragically, all the attendant issues that one might expect from such practice--discrimination, domestic violence, brides running away, etc.--are very much present in these cases.
*Unless otherwise indicated, all statistical information is from Korean Statistical Information Service.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
China currently has an abnormal ratio between men and women of marriageable age. I've heard that is also true for Korea and a few other Asian countries. Has it become necessary for men to seek alternative methods of finding a bride, such as mail-order bride situations?
Steph
Traditionally, and until not too long ago, Koreans favored having a male child. But it has been at least 25 years or so since Korean culture explicitly favored boys over girls. (In fact, there currently is a strong counter-trend favoring daughters over sons, resulting in such terms as 딸바보 [parent who dotes on the daughter to the point of being foolish].) Accordingly, the sex ratio of Korean children at birth is quite normal.
In the state of nature, it is expected that around 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. Korea's newborn sex ratio is more or less in line with that figure, if slightly favoring boys. For the last five years, the number hovered between 105.7 and 106.9 (that is, 105.7 boys to 100 girls.)* The same holds true for Koreans in marriageable age: the sex ratio for Koreans between the ages of 20 and 39 is 104.7.
But one thing to always remember about Korea is: it is a larger country than you think, and there are always pockets within the country that defies the prevailing trend. While Korea overall has a normal sex ratio among people within marriageable age, there is a strong split between cities and rural areas. In cities, the sex ratio for those between 20 and 39 years old is 102.3; in rural areas, the sex ratio for same age group is 119.6. The more rural the area is, the wider the discrepancy in sex ratio. In the most sparsely populated parts of Korea (i.e. the myeon [면] level towns), the sex ratio for those between 20 and 39 years old is 174.5(!).
(For perspective, however, note that cities in Korea hold more than six times the population than the rural areas.)
This split occurs mostly because men are more "stuck" to the town of their birth. As Korea industrialized, virtually every Korean who was able to do so left his or her hometown for a larger city in search of jobs and opportunity. In this great urbanization migration, those who were least able to leave were the firstborn sons, who were expected to tend the family farm and take care of their elderly, immobile parents.
These desperate men do tend to resort to mail-order bride-type situations, usually involving women from Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Uzbekistan, etc. (For a glimpse of how the recruiting process works for these international brides, please refer to this post.) Today, nearly 40 percent of all marriages in Korea's rural areas involves "imported" brides. Tragically, all the attendant issues that one might expect from such practice--discrimination, domestic violence, brides running away, etc.--are very much present in these cases.
*Unless otherwise indicated, all statistical information is from Korean Statistical Information Service.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Name Change in Korea
[Series Index]
Dear Korean,
Here's yet another question for you about Korean names. At the end of last semester I was giving speaking tests to our middle school students, and was taking roll based on the name list given at the beginning of the year. However, several of my students had changed their names in those few months. Not changed their English names, I mean their parents changed their Korean names. Why do they do this? Why at such a late age? How common is it?
Brian
Name change in Korea is not particularly common, but it is hardly unheard of either. The number of name changes greatly increased after 2005, after the Supreme Court significantly relaxed the "good cause" required for a name change. As a result, until 2005, the court granted name change in around 80 percent of the cases. After 2005, the court granted name change in around 90 percent of the cases or higher. This leniency led to a greater number of Koreans wanting to change their names. In 2009, there were approximately 170,000 petitions for name change filed with the Supreme Court. (To contextualize the number, consider that Korea's population is approximately 50 million.) In contrast, there were only 46,000 petitions for name change in 2002.
Koreans legally change their names for all kinds of reasons, although most of the reasons are some variations of "I don't like the name." There are those who did not appreciate their parents' sense of humor and desired to change their name to avoid ridicule. Many simply thought their name was too old-fashioned or corny. Some wanted to change their names after a serial killer was revealed to have the same name as they.
There are also reasons that are somewhat specific to Korea. Many petitioners filed the paperwork as a matter of technicality: they did not want to change the names that they use every day, but add or change the Chinese characters in their Sino-Korean name. (To understand the Chinese characters involved in creating a Korean name, please refer to this post.) This is usually tied to seongmyeonghak [성명학], a traditional study of the relation between one's name and one's fortune. Like getting advice from a palm reader, Koreans would sometimes visit a place called jakmyeongso [작명소, "name-maker"], receive an assessment of their names, and change their names if they deem necessary.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Dear Korean,
Here's yet another question for you about Korean names. At the end of last semester I was giving speaking tests to our middle school students, and was taking roll based on the name list given at the beginning of the year. However, several of my students had changed their names in those few months. Not changed their English names, I mean their parents changed their Korean names. Why do they do this? Why at such a late age? How common is it?
Brian
Name change in Korea is not particularly common, but it is hardly unheard of either. The number of name changes greatly increased after 2005, after the Supreme Court significantly relaxed the "good cause" required for a name change. As a result, until 2005, the court granted name change in around 80 percent of the cases. After 2005, the court granted name change in around 90 percent of the cases or higher. This leniency led to a greater number of Koreans wanting to change their names. In 2009, there were approximately 170,000 petitions for name change filed with the Supreme Court. (To contextualize the number, consider that Korea's population is approximately 50 million.) In contrast, there were only 46,000 petitions for name change in 2002.
Koreans legally change their names for all kinds of reasons, although most of the reasons are some variations of "I don't like the name." There are those who did not appreciate their parents' sense of humor and desired to change their name to avoid ridicule. Many simply thought their name was too old-fashioned or corny. Some wanted to change their names after a serial killer was revealed to have the same name as they.
There are also reasons that are somewhat specific to Korea. Many petitioners filed the paperwork as a matter of technicality: they did not want to change the names that they use every day, but add or change the Chinese characters in their Sino-Korean name. (To understand the Chinese characters involved in creating a Korean name, please refer to this post.) This is usually tied to seongmyeonghak [성명학], a traditional study of the relation between one's name and one's fortune. Like getting advice from a palm reader, Koreans would sometimes visit a place called jakmyeongso [작명소, "name-maker"], receive an assessment of their names, and change their names if they deem necessary.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
50 Most Influential K-pop Artists: 12. Rain
[Series Index]
12. Rain [비]
Years of Activity: 1998-present (last regular album in 2008, last single in 2011)
Discography:
Bad Man [나쁜 남자] (2002)
Rain2 (2003)
It's Raining (2004)
Rain's World (2006)
Rainism (2008)
Representative Song: How to Escape the Sun [태양을 피하는 방법] from Rain2
태양을 피하는 방법
How to Escape the Sun
울고있는 나의 모습 바보 같은 나의 모습
My crying self, my foolish self
환하게 비추는 태양이 싫어 태양이 싫어
I hate the sun, the sun that illuminates it brightly
누군가 날 알아보며 왜 우냐고 물어보면
When someone recognizes me and asks me why I cry
대답을 해줄 수 없는게 너무 싫었어
I hated that I could not answer
태양을 피하고 싶어서 아무리 달려봐도
No matter how much I run to escape the sun
태양은 계속 내 위에 있고
The sun stays on top of me
너를 너무 잊고 싶어서 아무리 애를 써도
No matter how much I try to forget you
아무리 애를 써도 넌 내 안에 있어
No matter how much I try, you are inside me
아직도 너의 그 미소 나를 만졌던 그 두 손 그리워하는게 너무 싫어서 너무 싫어서
Because I hate, I hate still longing for your smile, those two hands that touched me
많은 사람들속에서 웃고 애길 나누면서 잊어보려 했지만 또 다시 눈물이 흘렀어
I tried to forget, laughing and talking among people, but a tear fell again
태양을 피하고 싶어서 아무리 달려봐도
No matter how much I run to escape the sun
태양은 계속 내 위에 있고
The sun stays on top of me
너를 너무 잊고 싶어서 아무리 애를 써도
No matter how much I try to forget you
아무리 애를 써도 넌 내 안에 있어
No matter how much I try, you are inside me
모두 다 내가 잊은줄 알아
Everyone thinks I forgot everything
하지만 난 미칠것 같아
But I think I'm going crazy
너무 잊고 싶은데
I really want to forget
지우고 싶은데 그게 안돼
I want to erase; but I cannot
태양을 피하고 싶어서 아무리 달려봐도
No matter how much I run to escape the sun
태양은 계속 내 위에 있고
The sun stays on top of me
너를 너무 잊고 싶어서 아무리 애를 써도
No matter how much I try to forget you
아무리 애를 써도 넌 내 안에 있어
No matter how much I try, you are inside me
(rap)
너무 깊이 박혀 뺄 수 없는 가시같이
Like a thorn that is stuck too deeply to be pulled
너무 깊히 다쳐 나을 수 없는 상처같이
Like a wound that is too deeply injured to be cured
너라는 사람 도무지 지워지질 않지
You simply cannot be erased
헤어져도 같이 살아가는 것같지
Even as we are apart, it is as if we are living together
눈물로 너를 다 흘려서 지워 버릴수만 있다면야
If I could drain you out and erase you with tears
끝없이 울어 내 눈물 강을 이뤄 흐를 정도로
I will cry endlessly to have a flowing river of my tears
많이 울어서라도 너를 잊고 제대로 살고 싶어
I will cry that much to forget to you, and live my life
12. Rain [비]
Years of Activity: 1998-present (last regular album in 2008, last single in 2011)
Discography:
Bad Man [나쁜 남자] (2002)
Rain2 (2003)
It's Raining (2004)
Rain's World (2006)
Rainism (2008)
Representative Song: How to Escape the Sun [태양을 피하는 방법] from Rain2
태양을 피하는 방법
How to Escape the Sun
울고있는 나의 모습 바보 같은 나의 모습
My crying self, my foolish self
환하게 비추는 태양이 싫어 태양이 싫어
I hate the sun, the sun that illuminates it brightly
누군가 날 알아보며 왜 우냐고 물어보면
When someone recognizes me and asks me why I cry
대답을 해줄 수 없는게 너무 싫었어
I hated that I could not answer
태양을 피하고 싶어서 아무리 달려봐도
No matter how much I run to escape the sun
태양은 계속 내 위에 있고
The sun stays on top of me
너를 너무 잊고 싶어서 아무리 애를 써도
No matter how much I try to forget you
아무리 애를 써도 넌 내 안에 있어
No matter how much I try, you are inside me
아직도 너의 그 미소 나를 만졌던 그 두 손 그리워하는게 너무 싫어서 너무 싫어서
Because I hate, I hate still longing for your smile, those two hands that touched me
많은 사람들속에서 웃고 애길 나누면서 잊어보려 했지만 또 다시 눈물이 흘렀어
I tried to forget, laughing and talking among people, but a tear fell again
태양을 피하고 싶어서 아무리 달려봐도
No matter how much I run to escape the sun
태양은 계속 내 위에 있고
The sun stays on top of me
너를 너무 잊고 싶어서 아무리 애를 써도
No matter how much I try to forget you
아무리 애를 써도 넌 내 안에 있어
No matter how much I try, you are inside me
모두 다 내가 잊은줄 알아
Everyone thinks I forgot everything
하지만 난 미칠것 같아
But I think I'm going crazy
너무 잊고 싶은데
I really want to forget
지우고 싶은데 그게 안돼
I want to erase; but I cannot
태양을 피하고 싶어서 아무리 달려봐도
No matter how much I run to escape the sun
태양은 계속 내 위에 있고
The sun stays on top of me
너를 너무 잊고 싶어서 아무리 애를 써도
No matter how much I try to forget you
아무리 애를 써도 넌 내 안에 있어
No matter how much I try, you are inside me
(rap)
너무 깊이 박혀 뺄 수 없는 가시같이
Like a thorn that is stuck too deeply to be pulled
너무 깊히 다쳐 나을 수 없는 상처같이
Like a wound that is too deeply injured to be cured
너라는 사람 도무지 지워지질 않지
You simply cannot be erased
헤어져도 같이 살아가는 것같지
Even as we are apart, it is as if we are living together
눈물로 너를 다 흘려서 지워 버릴수만 있다면야
If I could drain you out and erase you with tears
끝없이 울어 내 눈물 강을 이뤄 흐를 정도로
I will cry endlessly to have a flowing river of my tears
많이 울어서라도 너를 잊고 제대로 살고 싶어
I will cry that much to forget to you, and live my life
Translation notes: The juvenile lyrics is not the result of poor translation; this is one of the dumbest lyrics that the Korean ever had to translate.
In 15 words or less: Pioneer of K-pop manhood
Maybe he should be ranked higher because... Is there anyone in K-pop who has gone farther internationally than Rain?
Maybe he should be ranked lower because... Is he anything more than a pretty face? Did he achieve anything musically?
Why is this artist important?
Why is Rain important? Part of the answer is quite obvious. Before PSY burst onto the scene, Rain was the forerunner of the international expansion of K-pop. When he was not earning a spot in Time magazine's most 100 influential people in the world, Rain filmed a movie that may as well be a feature-length tribute to his ripped abs (i.e. Ninja Assassin.) His repeated appearance on the Colbert Report also made him a cult favorite, penetrating American culture like no other K-pop artist before him did.
But all of the foregoing pales compared to Rain's most significant achievement: he was the blueprint of K-pop manhood. Before Rain, K-pop's international outreach was mostly consisted of female artists, whose appeal did not require them to overcome any pre-existing stereotypes. (If anything, the prevailing stereotypes played in their favor.) In contrast, it took male K-pop artists a longer time to concoct the perfect blend of K-pop and masculinity.
In the end, Rain was the winning formula, the ideal mixture of boyish face, winsome smile, chiseled body, sensitive singing and sensual dancing. In this sense, even after Gangnam Style, Rain remains much more influential than PSY. Since Rain, every internationally-oriented male K-pop star aspired to be some version of Rain; PSY cannot say the same. Considering that those K-pop stars, collectively, are in the process of adjusting the international standard of what constitutes manliness, we may not have seen the full reverberation of Rain's global influence.
But all of the foregoing pales compared to Rain's most significant achievement: he was the blueprint of K-pop manhood. Before Rain, K-pop's international outreach was mostly consisted of female artists, whose appeal did not require them to overcome any pre-existing stereotypes. (If anything, the prevailing stereotypes played in their favor.) In contrast, it took male K-pop artists a longer time to concoct the perfect blend of K-pop and masculinity.
In the end, Rain was the winning formula, the ideal mixture of boyish face, winsome smile, chiseled body, sensitive singing and sensual dancing. In this sense, even after Gangnam Style, Rain remains much more influential than PSY. Since Rain, every internationally-oriented male K-pop star aspired to be some version of Rain; PSY cannot say the same. Considering that those K-pop stars, collectively, are in the process of adjusting the international standard of what constitutes manliness, we may not have seen the full reverberation of Rain's global influence.
Interesting trivia: Rain finished his military duty on July 10, 2013. During his service, he violated the military code of conduct by meeting with his girlfriend, the top actress Kim Tae-hee, during an official trip outside of the base. As a punishment, Rain was censured for seven days.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Excreting the Dregs
Dear Korean,
Recently, I realized I know more Asian women who are married to white guys than Asian women married to Asian men. Why is that? And why does it bother me so much? (Disclaimer: I do not live in Flushing, Palisades Park, Annandale, Koreatown NY or LA, etc, where Koreans are the majority.) I am already happily married, and I know that whom one decides to fall in love with is none of my business regardless of race, sex, etc. Nonetheless, I am bothered by this trend, not on a personal level but more on a macro level. Don't know why it bothers me but it does.
Pete
Allow the Korean to open with a poem:
Pete's question is common among Asian American men. It is hardly a secret that there is a massive gender disparity in interracial marriages involving Asian Americans. 5.2% of Chinese American men are married white women; 14.5% of Chinese American women are married to white men. 7.9% of Filipino men are married to white women; 27% of Filipino women are married to white men. 18.8% of Japanese American men are married to white women; 38.1% of Japanese American women are married to white men. 5.2% of Korean American men are married to white women; 24.4% of Korean American women are married to white men.
To this reality, Pete's reaction is common among Asian American men: we are vaguely bothered, even as we recognize that it is none of our business who falls in love with whom. What is going on?
(More after the jump)
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
This trend bothers Asian American men because it is a real-life manifestation of the racism that they face in the United States. The stereotypes against Asian American men are commonly known--small, short, scrawny, nerdy, awkward. Those stereotypes uniformly point towards a single direction: emasculation. This emasculation is a specific breed of racism that Asian American men face. Racism, broadly, makes members of racial minority less of a person; emasculation, specifically, makes Asian American men less of a man.
What makes this worse is that Asian American women often internalize these emasculating stereotypes about Asian American men. This is not to give any validation to the crude charge that Asian American women fall over themselves for white guys. (In fact, Asian American women smartly recognize it when they are being blatantly objectified based on their race.) Rather, this is to say Asian American women--as does everyone the United States--subconsciously internalize the white-normative aesthetics of our society. It is not really that being white in America is particularly beautiful; it is that being white is the default, and all other races are measured by how far it deviates from the default. No one says "oxygen is my favorite air," because that would be silly. Oxygen is just normal; so is being white in America. Even as Asian American women would quickly get away from gross forms of yellow fever, they subconsciously gravitate toward whiteness simply because it feels normal.
Observing this trend as an Asian American man is frustrating, even though one may be happily married and have a strong conviction that whom people fall in love with is their own business. The frustration is difficult to articulate, because that's the defining characteristic of the phenomenon that we are seeing: the unspoken, invisible standard that devalues us. Subconscious motivation generates real results in real life. Yet when we try to capture it, it slips through the gap between intuition and language like water through our fingers. Only through critical examination that looks far below the surface can the invisible be made visible: that, even as Asian American women are making the adult decisions of selecting whom they date and marry, the process of such selection is not free from the subconscious racism that debases Asian American men.
Asian American men, however, should be ready to also critically examine the way in which we respond to this insidious racism against us. It is an eternal pattern of human history for the oppressed to turn around and create their own version of petty tyranny in the spheres within their control. Unable to precisely identify the invisible force that frustrates us, we lash out in a way that only exposes our own invisible force that we ourselves hold over others. Too often, the reaction by young, frustrated Asian American men degenerates into the pathetic cries of "They took our women!" or "Our own kind betrays us!" By doing so, we repay the debasement we experience by debasing others.
Hence, the Korean began this post with the poem by Bak No-hae. Bak is a famed labor activist and poet, who exposed the brutality of Korea's labor conditions of the 1980s in raw, powerful language. Although his poems were banned and he was sentenced to death for establishing a socialist organization, his first anthology The Dawn of Labor [노동의 새벽] reportedly reached the hands of more than a million readers. (Bak's sentence was reduced to life in prison, and was pardoned in 1998 after seven years of prison.)
In one of his most famous poems, Bak takes the needle of criticism toward himself, and reflects on how he became a petty tyrant over his wife even as he was organizing the union to fight for the laborer's wife. The line, "As the struggle deepens, in my actions / I excrete their dregs", hammers the point home. Rather than broadly fighting oppression in every form, our tendency is to perpetuate a smaller version of it, as if to compensate for our misery by inflicting more misery on those lower in the chain. Rather than cleaning up the oppression, we secrete our own and spread it to those around us.
What is an Asian American man to do? We must still be aware of racism, visible and invisible. We must be able to precisely identify and combat it, and prevent our reaction from constructing a smaller ecosystem in which we likewise lord over others. All the while being ready to recognize the superstructural understanding that holds our society together--that there is such a thing as an adult decision made pursuant to free will.
Doing all of this at the same time is not easy. But the recognition that the world is a complex place, and the ability to allocate our thoughts toward multiple moving parts at the same time, are essential parts of attaining maturity. This is the world we live in, and this is the only way to make sense of it.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Recently, I realized I know more Asian women who are married to white guys than Asian women married to Asian men. Why is that? And why does it bother me so much? (Disclaimer: I do not live in Flushing, Palisades Park, Annandale, Koreatown NY or LA, etc, where Koreans are the majority.) I am already happily married, and I know that whom one decides to fall in love with is none of my business regardless of race, sex, etc. Nonetheless, I am bothered by this trend, not on a personal level but more on a macro level. Don't know why it bothers me but it does.
Pete
Allow the Korean to open with a poem:
이불을 꿰매면서 (박노해)
Sewing the Blanket (by Bak No-hae)
이불홑청을 꿰매면서
As I sew the blanket cover
속옷 빨래를 하면서
As I launder the underwear
나는 부끄러움의 가슴을 친다
I beat my chest in shame
똑같이 공장에서 돌아와 자정이 넘도록
We both return from the factory; until past midnight
설거지에 방청소에 고추장단지 뚜껑까지
마무리하는 아내에게
To the wife who washed dishes, cleaned the room
and checked the lid of the gochujang pot
나는 그저 밥달라 물달라 옷달라 시켰었다
I simply ordered, give me food, water and clothes
동료들과 노조일을 하고부터
Ever since I began the labor union with colleagues
거만하고 전제적인 기업주의 짓거리가
The deeds of the arrogant, imperialistic capitalist have been,
대접받는 남편의 이름으로
In the name of the esteemed husband,
아내에게 자행되고 있음을 아프게 직시한다
Perpetrated to the wife; this, I painfully face.
명령하는 남자, 순종하는 여자라고
Men order, women obey
세상이 가르쳐 준 대로
So the world taught me
아내를 야금야금 갉아먹으면서
As I ate away the wife
나는 성실한 모범근로자였다
I was a diligent, model worker
노조를 만들면서
As I establish the union
저들의 칭찬과 모범표창이
Their praise and awards were
고양이 꼬리에 매단 방울소리임을,
Just the sounds of bells on the cat's tail
근로자를 가족처럼 사랑하는 보살핌이
Their talk of loving the workers like their family was
허울 좋은 솜사탕임을 똑똑히 깨달았다
Just a puffed-up cotton candy; this, I clearly realized.
편리한 이론과 절대적 권위와 상식으로 포장된
몸서리쳐지는 이윤추구처럼
Like the shuddering pursuit of profit,
wrapped in a convenient theory, absolute authority and common sense,
나 역시 아내를 착취하고
I, too, exploit the wife, and
가정의 독재자가 되었다
Became the tyrant of the home
투쟁이 깊어 갈수록 실천 속에서
As the struggle deepens, in my actions
나는 저들의 찌꺼기를 배설해 낸다
I excrete their dregs
노동자는 이윤 낳는 기계가 아닌 것처럼
That, as the laborers are not the machine that lays profit
아내는 나의 몸종이 아니고
The wife is not a servant of mine;
평등하게 사랑하는 친구이며 부부라는 것을
That she is a friend, a spouse, who loves equally
우리의 모든 관계는 신뢰와 존중과
민주주의에 바탕해야 한다는 것을
That all of our relationship must be
based on trust, respect and democracy
잔업 끝내고 돌아올 아내를 기다리며
Waiting for the wife, who will return after finishing overtime
이불홑청을 꿰매면서
Sewing the blanket cover
아픈 각성의 바늘을 찌른다
I prick the painful needle of realization
* * *
Pete's question is common among Asian American men. It is hardly a secret that there is a massive gender disparity in interracial marriages involving Asian Americans. 5.2% of Chinese American men are married white women; 14.5% of Chinese American women are married to white men. 7.9% of Filipino men are married to white women; 27% of Filipino women are married to white men. 18.8% of Japanese American men are married to white women; 38.1% of Japanese American women are married to white men. 5.2% of Korean American men are married to white women; 24.4% of Korean American women are married to white men.
To this reality, Pete's reaction is common among Asian American men: we are vaguely bothered, even as we recognize that it is none of our business who falls in love with whom. What is going on?
(More after the jump)
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
This trend bothers Asian American men because it is a real-life manifestation of the racism that they face in the United States. The stereotypes against Asian American men are commonly known--small, short, scrawny, nerdy, awkward. Those stereotypes uniformly point towards a single direction: emasculation. This emasculation is a specific breed of racism that Asian American men face. Racism, broadly, makes members of racial minority less of a person; emasculation, specifically, makes Asian American men less of a man.
What makes this worse is that Asian American women often internalize these emasculating stereotypes about Asian American men. This is not to give any validation to the crude charge that Asian American women fall over themselves for white guys. (In fact, Asian American women smartly recognize it when they are being blatantly objectified based on their race.) Rather, this is to say Asian American women--as does everyone the United States--subconsciously internalize the white-normative aesthetics of our society. It is not really that being white in America is particularly beautiful; it is that being white is the default, and all other races are measured by how far it deviates from the default. No one says "oxygen is my favorite air," because that would be silly. Oxygen is just normal; so is being white in America. Even as Asian American women would quickly get away from gross forms of yellow fever, they subconsciously gravitate toward whiteness simply because it feels normal.
Observing this trend as an Asian American man is frustrating, even though one may be happily married and have a strong conviction that whom people fall in love with is their own business. The frustration is difficult to articulate, because that's the defining characteristic of the phenomenon that we are seeing: the unspoken, invisible standard that devalues us. Subconscious motivation generates real results in real life. Yet when we try to capture it, it slips through the gap between intuition and language like water through our fingers. Only through critical examination that looks far below the surface can the invisible be made visible: that, even as Asian American women are making the adult decisions of selecting whom they date and marry, the process of such selection is not free from the subconscious racism that debases Asian American men.
Asian American men, however, should be ready to also critically examine the way in which we respond to this insidious racism against us. It is an eternal pattern of human history for the oppressed to turn around and create their own version of petty tyranny in the spheres within their control. Unable to precisely identify the invisible force that frustrates us, we lash out in a way that only exposes our own invisible force that we ourselves hold over others. Too often, the reaction by young, frustrated Asian American men degenerates into the pathetic cries of "They took our women!" or "Our own kind betrays us!" By doing so, we repay the debasement we experience by debasing others.
Hence, the Korean began this post with the poem by Bak No-hae. Bak is a famed labor activist and poet, who exposed the brutality of Korea's labor conditions of the 1980s in raw, powerful language. Although his poems were banned and he was sentenced to death for establishing a socialist organization, his first anthology The Dawn of Labor [노동의 새벽] reportedly reached the hands of more than a million readers. (Bak's sentence was reduced to life in prison, and was pardoned in 1998 after seven years of prison.)
In one of his most famous poems, Bak takes the needle of criticism toward himself, and reflects on how he became a petty tyrant over his wife even as he was organizing the union to fight for the laborer's wife. The line, "As the struggle deepens, in my actions / I excrete their dregs", hammers the point home. Rather than broadly fighting oppression in every form, our tendency is to perpetuate a smaller version of it, as if to compensate for our misery by inflicting more misery on those lower in the chain. Rather than cleaning up the oppression, we secrete our own and spread it to those around us.
What is an Asian American man to do? We must still be aware of racism, visible and invisible. We must be able to precisely identify and combat it, and prevent our reaction from constructing a smaller ecosystem in which we likewise lord over others. All the while being ready to recognize the superstructural understanding that holds our society together--that there is such a thing as an adult decision made pursuant to free will.
Doing all of this at the same time is not easy. But the recognition that the world is a complex place, and the ability to allocate our thoughts toward multiple moving parts at the same time, are essential parts of attaining maturity. This is the world we live in, and this is the only way to make sense of it.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Korea's Problem is Modernity
I recently finished reading Daniel Tudor's Korea: the Impossible Country. (My review of the book is available at Reading Korea.) My reaction was mostly positive: it was an excellent overview of contemporary Korea, providing a clear-eyed look at achievements and flaws of today's Korean society. As I wrote in my review, the book is highly recommended.
This, however, does not mean that I agree with the book entirely. I felt that in his book, Tudor relied a bit too often on Confucianism as a crutch, to provide explanations about Korean society that are too just-so. Tudor correctly identifies the full slate of the issues that contemporary Korea has, including high suicide rate, low satisfaction with life, low birthrate, excessive emphasis on education, grueling jobs with very long hours, etc. Tudor also correctly identifies that ultimately, competition--which drove Korea achieving prosperity and freedom at a rate unprecedented in human history--is what causes these social ills in Korea.
Where Tudor and I part company is the reason for such competition. Often, Tudor points to Confucianism as the motivating factor for the excessive competition in today's Korean society. For example, Tudor begins the chapter about competition in Korea with following: "Because Confucianism places a special value on success through education and stable family, Koreans focus on the minimal standard of living at which they will be comparable to others."* Although Tudor then goes into the exposition of how Korea's desperate poverty shaped Korea's national culture (a point with which I am inclined to agree,) starting the chapter with a reference to Confucianism colors the subsequent discussion the chapter.
(*Because I am working off of a translated version of the book, this quote may not be exactly the same as Tudor wrote it. You can blame Mr. Tudor, who sent me a translated version rather than the English original.)
If Tudor's point is that Confucianism contributes to the problems that today's Korean society has, I wonder how Tudor may respond to the following historical tidbit. Pre-modern Korea--through Goryeo and Joseon Dynasties--enjoyed extremely long periods of peace and stability. For nearly a thousand years prior to early 20th century, Korea experienced only one major war that meaningfully threatened its survival. At all other times, Korea had a strong, unitary central government that was able to implement its vision for improving Korean society. Needless to say, such vision was informed by Confucianism.
And by Joseon Dynasty, such effort was wildly successful. One can argue that Korea has reached the pinnacle of an agricultural society by that point. Organized by village units with centuries of farming experience, Koreans have perfected the delicate balance of producing the most amount of harvest without overtaxing the soil. Koreans also diversified their crop, allowing the soil to heal and providing more variety to their table. (Recall that traditional Korean cuisine features more than 1,000 types of edible plants.) The village unit also made effective use of the labor, setting precise schedules of who works when, for what task.**
(**From 김건태, "19세기 집약적 농법의 확산과 작물의 다각화", 역사비평 2012년 겨울호 [Kim Geon-tae, Intensive Agronomy, Diversification of Crops in the 19th Century])
The result was a society that produced everything it needed without too much effort. Thanks to efficient farming, Koreans always had plenty to eat. Indeed, the amount of food that Koreans traditionally consumed nearly defies belief. A diary from the 17th century describes that Koreans ate 7 hob [홉] of rice per meal, or approximately 420 grams. This is around triple of the amount of rice Koreans eat per meal today. Yet Koreans never had to work very hard to eat. Studies show that Koreans did not work all that much except in periods such as planting and harvesting rice, because labor was distributed efficiently. Contrary to the stereotype of hard-working Asians, foreign travelers' account of Korea invariably describe Koreans as "lazy." In truth, Koreans were not lazy. They simply produced everything they needed without spending all that much time.
(More after the jump.)
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
It is important not to idealize the past, as traditional Korea was hardly the perfect society. It was a monarchy with a class system. It was also a male-dominated society. Further, Korea did not always enjoy abundance of life's necessities--after all, Korea definitely experienced bad harvests and lean times during Joseon Dynasty's six-century-long history.
But it is hard to deny that traditional Korea has certain charms that modern Korea lacks. There was no constant competition or striving that stressed people out--simply people efficiently doing what they had to do to produce more than what they needed, and enjoying their lives in the free time. And these traditional Koreans kept much more closely to Confucianism than today's Koreans do. If Confucianism contributes to the excessive competition that today's Koreans experience, why didn't it cause Koreans of the Joseon Dynasty to compete more, work long hours, etc.? And if Confucianism did not cause that, what did?
Korea's problems do not arise Confucianism; they arise from modernity. Modernity--whose essential ingredients are industrialization and market economy--demands incessant competition. In the traditional economy, the one and only goal is sustenance. Traditional Koreans did not have large, interconnected markets to which they would sell any excess food, nor would there be anyone to buy such excess. Once they produced enough to eat, there is little incentive to produce any further.
There is something very attractive about this model. After all, with all the technology we have, why do we work so much? By all indications, there is absolutely no reason for anyone in the advanced economy to work more than 15 hours a week to produce everything we need in life. The experience of traditional Korea shows that even a pre-industrial society can achieve this goal, as long as the society defines down the level of "need." So why do we bother with modernity's stress-inducing demands?
Korea's history provides the answer: if your country does not move toward modernity, modernity will come to your country in the most horrific form possible. To the people who reject modernity, modernity will be imposed. In the late 19th century, modernity first knocked Korea's doors in the form of French and American warships demanding Korea to open its ports. Modernity then busted down the doors with Imperial Japan, which soon enslaved the entire country in the following decades.
The essence of modernity is to turn humans into resources. Market economy and industrialization, operating together, dehumanize, commodify and objectify humans. And no one bears the brunt of such dehumanization quite like the conquered subjects of an empire, who are deemed less of a human in the eyes of the conqueror. Thus, Imperial Japan freely utilized Korea's "human resource"--hideous words, if you think about it--in the most inhumane manner. The empire conscripted millions of Koreans to die in forced labor, hundreds of thousands of Korean women (who were doubly commodified as conquered subjects and receptacles for men's sex) to serve as sex slaves to its soldiers, and thousands to serve as laboratory rats in live human experimentation.
This searing experience left Koreans with an unforgettable lesson: modernize, or literally, die. It is no surprise, therefore, that Koreans singularly focused on modernizing at quickly as possible. This focus was particularly evident in the personal philosophy of Park Chung-hee, under whose dictatorship Korea took the first steps toward joining the first world. (Indeed, "homeland's modernization" [조국의 근대화] is one of Park's favorite phrases in his numerous speeches.) But because Korea was so far behind in the race toward modernity, it was not enough for Korea to simply participate in the race. To catch the countries that were ahead in the race of modernity, Korea had to find a way to break the game.
In the bestseller Moneyball, Michael Lewis describes how Oakland A's, a team that is perennially strapped for cash and resources, manage to compete and beat the far-better-endowed teams by distilling the game of baseball into its very essence--that is, not getting your batters out. To that end, Oakland A's stripped its team of baseball's traditional and aesthetics preference, and focused only on not getting its batters out. Other MLB teams would idolize the batters who were physical specimen capable of hitting the baseball. Oakland A's would focus on batters who may not look athletic and appear to be pedestrian in traditional metrics, but were capable of drawing walks--not as aesthetically pleasing as a base hit, but same result at the end.
One can argue that Korea also made up for its disadvantage by distilling modernity into its very essence: commodification. In its furious race toward modernity, Korea arguably managed to commodify its people better than any other country in the world. It helped that Koreans had already experienced modernity's terrible commodification at the hands of Imperial Japan, and were broken by Korean War into poverty and desperation. To be sure, Korea's commodification did not necessarily mean endless hours of sweatshop labor, although sweatshops were a crucial component in the early stages of Korea's economic development. Korea invested massively in public education and raised a huge corps of highly able people. Through the combination of nationalistic exhortation and authoritarian rule, Korea squeezed maximum amount of quality labor out of them. The result is as we see today: Korea at the forefront of modernity, the fastest country to have done so in human history.
But such ruthless commodification of humans left numerous scars in Korean society, because unlike that of baseball, the essence of modernity is toxic. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that every social problem in Korea is ultimately reducible to commodification. Korean people kill themselves at a record rate because, in a society that replaced the traditional family-based relationship with modern employer-employee relationship, the unemployable no longer has any further reason to exist. Koreans double down on education precisely to avoid this fate and make themselves employable. Korean women undergo plastic surgery at a record rate because they are commodified based on their looks in both the job market and the marriage market. Koreans are both too busy to invest in themselves, and too concerned that their children will have to run in the same, tiresome hamster wheel; so they forgo having children, or have no more than one. Above all, in this inhuman modern society, Koreans are stressed out and unhappy.
Focusing on the true cause of Korea's social ills illuminates the true lessons to be learned from Korea's experience. The first lesson is that focusing on Korea's unique history and cultural tradition does not help finding the solution for Korea's issues. If Korea's tradition is the cause for Korea's social ills, one would observe the same ills afflicting Korea throughout its history. This is simply not the case. In fact, much of Korea's tradition would counsel against the afflictions of modernity. Confucian education, for example, is about building a certain moral character, rather than learning specific skills to become an employable cog in the modern economy. The educational fervor in Korea has gone past the level of diligence, and is now in the territory of constant exhaustion. Having Korea's education focus again on character-building, rather than picking up an ever-increasing number of skills, would moderate this desperation that ruining Korea's children today.
The second lesson is the extension of the first. Korea's problem is not Korean culture; Korea's problem is modernity itself. Thus, Korea's problem is not limited to Korea, but is universal, and afflicts every contemporary industrialized, capitalistic society. Broad survey of modernized countries reveals that echoes of Korea's problems exist all over the world, albeit in different degrees. Korea is frequently cited for having high suicide rates, but sociological studies make it abundantly clear that every single industrialized country in the history of the world experienced a huge spike in suicide rate in the process of industrializing, and later the country industrialized, the higher the spike. Korea's high rate of plastic surgery receives international focus, but Brazil, another up-and-coming industrialized nation, is also making headlines for huge numbers of plastic surgery. Although Korea's fervor for education is often considered as excessive, in the United States, the doubling down on education set off a nuclear arms race of diploma inflation of the kind seen in Korea.
(Aside: The trend of globalization, which is just another name for worldwide modernization, takes this worldwide commodification of humans to a new low. FoxConn laborers in China kill themselves in droves, while hundreds of workers in Pakistian die in a fire that supposedly passed the fire inspection, all in the process of manufacturing goods for wealthy, first world consumers. But even the first world consumers are no longer safe: as the international competition improves, the ruthless efficiency-seeking machine siphons the wealth that previously sustained the first world's middle class to the new capitalists of the rest of the world. In the modernized world, mediocrity has nowhere to hide.)
That Korea's problems are universal to modern nations leads to a disconcerting realization: solving these problems would require a complete redirection of human civilization from the path that it has taken for the last 250 years. It is not clear if this is even possible; it is equally unclear if this is desirable. For all of its problems, modernity also has enormous benefits in the form of unprecedented wealth (albeit distributed unevenly), advanced medical science and greater knowledge about the world around us. Even in the limited context of Korea, this inquiry retains the same character: for all of their complaints about today's Korea, would Koreans really want to go back to the way things were, three centuries ago? Are Korea's problems--stress, low birthrate, suicide--just something that Korea must learn to deal with, in exchange for the dividends of modernity? Can any one society refuse the tide of modernity today without getting swallowed up by other societies, which would continue to march toward superior economy and military?
These are important questions. They are also exceedingly difficult, and their scope is far greater than a single national culture or tradition. As such, in discussing Korea's problems, it is a mistake to focus solely on Korea's tradition or Korea's culture. Korea's problem is modernity, and Korea's problem is the world's problem. Fixing it requires not some tinkering of Korean culture, but a redirection of the human civilization.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
This, however, does not mean that I agree with the book entirely. I felt that in his book, Tudor relied a bit too often on Confucianism as a crutch, to provide explanations about Korean society that are too just-so. Tudor correctly identifies the full slate of the issues that contemporary Korea has, including high suicide rate, low satisfaction with life, low birthrate, excessive emphasis on education, grueling jobs with very long hours, etc. Tudor also correctly identifies that ultimately, competition--which drove Korea achieving prosperity and freedom at a rate unprecedented in human history--is what causes these social ills in Korea.
 |
| Gangnam is not just for Gangnam Style--it is also the Mecca of plastic surgery in Korea. It is not a coincidence that glassy skyscrapers, symbols of Korea's prosperity, house so many plastic surgery clinics. (source) |
Where Tudor and I part company is the reason for such competition. Often, Tudor points to Confucianism as the motivating factor for the excessive competition in today's Korean society. For example, Tudor begins the chapter about competition in Korea with following: "Because Confucianism places a special value on success through education and stable family, Koreans focus on the minimal standard of living at which they will be comparable to others."* Although Tudor then goes into the exposition of how Korea's desperate poverty shaped Korea's national culture (a point with which I am inclined to agree,) starting the chapter with a reference to Confucianism colors the subsequent discussion the chapter.
(*Because I am working off of a translated version of the book, this quote may not be exactly the same as Tudor wrote it. You can blame Mr. Tudor, who sent me a translated version rather than the English original.)
If Tudor's point is that Confucianism contributes to the problems that today's Korean society has, I wonder how Tudor may respond to the following historical tidbit. Pre-modern Korea--through Goryeo and Joseon Dynasties--enjoyed extremely long periods of peace and stability. For nearly a thousand years prior to early 20th century, Korea experienced only one major war that meaningfully threatened its survival. At all other times, Korea had a strong, unitary central government that was able to implement its vision for improving Korean society. Needless to say, such vision was informed by Confucianism.
And by Joseon Dynasty, such effort was wildly successful. One can argue that Korea has reached the pinnacle of an agricultural society by that point. Organized by village units with centuries of farming experience, Koreans have perfected the delicate balance of producing the most amount of harvest without overtaxing the soil. Koreans also diversified their crop, allowing the soil to heal and providing more variety to their table. (Recall that traditional Korean cuisine features more than 1,000 types of edible plants.) The village unit also made effective use of the labor, setting precise schedules of who works when, for what task.**
(**From 김건태, "19세기 집약적 농법의 확산과 작물의 다각화", 역사비평 2012년 겨울호 [Kim Geon-tae, Intensive Agronomy, Diversification of Crops in the 19th Century])
The result was a society that produced everything it needed without too much effort. Thanks to efficient farming, Koreans always had plenty to eat. Indeed, the amount of food that Koreans traditionally consumed nearly defies belief. A diary from the 17th century describes that Koreans ate 7 hob [홉] of rice per meal, or approximately 420 grams. This is around triple of the amount of rice Koreans eat per meal today. Yet Koreans never had to work very hard to eat. Studies show that Koreans did not work all that much except in periods such as planting and harvesting rice, because labor was distributed efficiently. Contrary to the stereotype of hard-working Asians, foreign travelers' account of Korea invariably describe Koreans as "lazy." In truth, Koreans were not lazy. They simply produced everything they needed without spending all that much time.
(More after the jump.)
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
It is important not to idealize the past, as traditional Korea was hardly the perfect society. It was a monarchy with a class system. It was also a male-dominated society. Further, Korea did not always enjoy abundance of life's necessities--after all, Korea definitely experienced bad harvests and lean times during Joseon Dynasty's six-century-long history.
But it is hard to deny that traditional Korea has certain charms that modern Korea lacks. There was no constant competition or striving that stressed people out--simply people efficiently doing what they had to do to produce more than what they needed, and enjoying their lives in the free time. And these traditional Koreans kept much more closely to Confucianism than today's Koreans do. If Confucianism contributes to the excessive competition that today's Koreans experience, why didn't it cause Koreans of the Joseon Dynasty to compete more, work long hours, etc.? And if Confucianism did not cause that, what did?
Korea's problems do not arise Confucianism; they arise from modernity. Modernity--whose essential ingredients are industrialization and market economy--demands incessant competition. In the traditional economy, the one and only goal is sustenance. Traditional Koreans did not have large, interconnected markets to which they would sell any excess food, nor would there be anyone to buy such excess. Once they produced enough to eat, there is little incentive to produce any further.
 |
| A Korean table at a jumak [restaurant and pub], circa 1890. Note the size of the bowls for rice and soup. (source) |
There is something very attractive about this model. After all, with all the technology we have, why do we work so much? By all indications, there is absolutely no reason for anyone in the advanced economy to work more than 15 hours a week to produce everything we need in life. The experience of traditional Korea shows that even a pre-industrial society can achieve this goal, as long as the society defines down the level of "need." So why do we bother with modernity's stress-inducing demands?
Korea's history provides the answer: if your country does not move toward modernity, modernity will come to your country in the most horrific form possible. To the people who reject modernity, modernity will be imposed. In the late 19th century, modernity first knocked Korea's doors in the form of French and American warships demanding Korea to open its ports. Modernity then busted down the doors with Imperial Japan, which soon enslaved the entire country in the following decades.
The essence of modernity is to turn humans into resources. Market economy and industrialization, operating together, dehumanize, commodify and objectify humans. And no one bears the brunt of such dehumanization quite like the conquered subjects of an empire, who are deemed less of a human in the eyes of the conqueror. Thus, Imperial Japan freely utilized Korea's "human resource"--hideous words, if you think about it--in the most inhumane manner. The empire conscripted millions of Koreans to die in forced labor, hundreds of thousands of Korean women (who were doubly commodified as conquered subjects and receptacles for men's sex) to serve as sex slaves to its soldiers, and thousands to serve as laboratory rats in live human experimentation.
This searing experience left Koreans with an unforgettable lesson: modernize, or literally, die. It is no surprise, therefore, that Koreans singularly focused on modernizing at quickly as possible. This focus was particularly evident in the personal philosophy of Park Chung-hee, under whose dictatorship Korea took the first steps toward joining the first world. (Indeed, "homeland's modernization" [조국의 근대화] is one of Park's favorite phrases in his numerous speeches.) But because Korea was so far behind in the race toward modernity, it was not enough for Korea to simply participate in the race. To catch the countries that were ahead in the race of modernity, Korea had to find a way to break the game.
 |
| (source) |
In the bestseller Moneyball, Michael Lewis describes how Oakland A's, a team that is perennially strapped for cash and resources, manage to compete and beat the far-better-endowed teams by distilling the game of baseball into its very essence--that is, not getting your batters out. To that end, Oakland A's stripped its team of baseball's traditional and aesthetics preference, and focused only on not getting its batters out. Other MLB teams would idolize the batters who were physical specimen capable of hitting the baseball. Oakland A's would focus on batters who may not look athletic and appear to be pedestrian in traditional metrics, but were capable of drawing walks--not as aesthetically pleasing as a base hit, but same result at the end.
One can argue that Korea also made up for its disadvantage by distilling modernity into its very essence: commodification. In its furious race toward modernity, Korea arguably managed to commodify its people better than any other country in the world. It helped that Koreans had already experienced modernity's terrible commodification at the hands of Imperial Japan, and were broken by Korean War into poverty and desperation. To be sure, Korea's commodification did not necessarily mean endless hours of sweatshop labor, although sweatshops were a crucial component in the early stages of Korea's economic development. Korea invested massively in public education and raised a huge corps of highly able people. Through the combination of nationalistic exhortation and authoritarian rule, Korea squeezed maximum amount of quality labor out of them. The result is as we see today: Korea at the forefront of modernity, the fastest country to have done so in human history.
But such ruthless commodification of humans left numerous scars in Korean society, because unlike that of baseball, the essence of modernity is toxic. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that every social problem in Korea is ultimately reducible to commodification. Korean people kill themselves at a record rate because, in a society that replaced the traditional family-based relationship with modern employer-employee relationship, the unemployable no longer has any further reason to exist. Koreans double down on education precisely to avoid this fate and make themselves employable. Korean women undergo plastic surgery at a record rate because they are commodified based on their looks in both the job market and the marriage market. Koreans are both too busy to invest in themselves, and too concerned that their children will have to run in the same, tiresome hamster wheel; so they forgo having children, or have no more than one. Above all, in this inhuman modern society, Koreans are stressed out and unhappy.
Focusing on the true cause of Korea's social ills illuminates the true lessons to be learned from Korea's experience. The first lesson is that focusing on Korea's unique history and cultural tradition does not help finding the solution for Korea's issues. If Korea's tradition is the cause for Korea's social ills, one would observe the same ills afflicting Korea throughout its history. This is simply not the case. In fact, much of Korea's tradition would counsel against the afflictions of modernity. Confucian education, for example, is about building a certain moral character, rather than learning specific skills to become an employable cog in the modern economy. The educational fervor in Korea has gone past the level of diligence, and is now in the territory of constant exhaustion. Having Korea's education focus again on character-building, rather than picking up an ever-increasing number of skills, would moderate this desperation that ruining Korea's children today.
The second lesson is the extension of the first. Korea's problem is not Korean culture; Korea's problem is modernity itself. Thus, Korea's problem is not limited to Korea, but is universal, and afflicts every contemporary industrialized, capitalistic society. Broad survey of modernized countries reveals that echoes of Korea's problems exist all over the world, albeit in different degrees. Korea is frequently cited for having high suicide rates, but sociological studies make it abundantly clear that every single industrialized country in the history of the world experienced a huge spike in suicide rate in the process of industrializing, and later the country industrialized, the higher the spike. Korea's high rate of plastic surgery receives international focus, but Brazil, another up-and-coming industrialized nation, is also making headlines for huge numbers of plastic surgery. Although Korea's fervor for education is often considered as excessive, in the United States, the doubling down on education set off a nuclear arms race of diploma inflation of the kind seen in Korea.
(Aside: The trend of globalization, which is just another name for worldwide modernization, takes this worldwide commodification of humans to a new low. FoxConn laborers in China kill themselves in droves, while hundreds of workers in Pakistian die in a fire that supposedly passed the fire inspection, all in the process of manufacturing goods for wealthy, first world consumers. But even the first world consumers are no longer safe: as the international competition improves, the ruthless efficiency-seeking machine siphons the wealth that previously sustained the first world's middle class to the new capitalists of the rest of the world. In the modernized world, mediocrity has nowhere to hide.)
That Korea's problems are universal to modern nations leads to a disconcerting realization: solving these problems would require a complete redirection of human civilization from the path that it has taken for the last 250 years. It is not clear if this is even possible; it is equally unclear if this is desirable. For all of its problems, modernity also has enormous benefits in the form of unprecedented wealth (albeit distributed unevenly), advanced medical science and greater knowledge about the world around us. Even in the limited context of Korea, this inquiry retains the same character: for all of their complaints about today's Korea, would Koreans really want to go back to the way things were, three centuries ago? Are Korea's problems--stress, low birthrate, suicide--just something that Korea must learn to deal with, in exchange for the dividends of modernity? Can any one society refuse the tide of modernity today without getting swallowed up by other societies, which would continue to march toward superior economy and military?
These are important questions. They are also exceedingly difficult, and their scope is far greater than a single national culture or tradition. As such, in discussing Korea's problems, it is a mistake to focus solely on Korea's tradition or Korea's culture. Korea's problem is modernity, and Korea's problem is the world's problem. Fixing it requires not some tinkering of Korean culture, but a redirection of the human civilization.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)