Buga Kingz - Siren / 부가킹즈 - 싸이렌

Here's a catchy-as-hell song from Buga Kingz, a hip-pop group with Bobby Kim, probably my favorite Korean singer inasmuch as I have a favorite Korean singer. There are a few other videos of this song floating around youtube, including this one, which has 74% more box. Here's another decent song with Bobby Kim, a collaboration with Dynamic Duo called "Insomnia." And here's a catchy Dynamic Duo collaboration with Paloalto. And here are a couple of live clips with Dynamic Duo, Bobby Kim, and Drunken Tiger. So that's how we do that.

Update: Hell, might as well post a couple songs by Leessang (리쌍) another good hip-pop group that often collaborates with Dynamic Duo, Bobby Kim, Tiger JK, T, and the usual suspects. Library of Soul remains the only CD I've purchased in Korea, except for that one of traditional music in Gyeongju. "내가 웃는게 아니야" is the best-known song off that album, but other good ones are "개리와기리" and "의정부."

McDonald's beef lkjafoj328uskdrfjekwlajv (can't even think of good headlines anymore for this shit).

So some people went to a McDonald's in Seoul to protest the restaurant's use of American beef. Because American beef is dangerous. And Korean beef is safe. So they shouldn't use American beef.



Haha, fail. There's a prominent box on the McDonald's Korea homepage addressing concerns about where the restaurants' beef comes from. The poster above, originally from here, says that the store uses Australian beef. Burger King has a little thing of its own on their site (it's a pop-up):



Lotteria has a pop-up of its own advertising domestic and Australian beef:



A few others:





Oh, please please please please please please please snuff the visa waiver program. And please please please please please please please have everyone here start bitching and moaning. And please please please please please please please have people make the connection and realize they don't get shit for free. And please please ple . . . wait, "make the connection?" Nevermind.

Just a bit outside.

One of my second grade students (US 8th grade) decorated his desk thusly:



Yes, I'm a good teacher and I corrected him. "Oh, 찍찍찍!" he said.

Perhaps the Korean Teachers' Union doesn't care for American beef, but I'm not sure.

Source.




Source.


Source.


From a couple days ago. Source.


Jesus Tapdancing Christ. Source.

So first we had that hate group the "Anti-English Spectrum" (ha!) run their mouths about foreigners in the Korea Times---and then show their true colors on their Korean-language homepage. Then the Korean Association of Foreign Language Academies trotted (trut?) out the usual stereotypes in that same paper. Now, another loony fringe organization has come out with wall-to-wall anti-beef coverage of the same hue and with the same single-minded determination. Oooh, wait, that's not a fringe organization, that's the 400,000-strong Korea Teachers and Educational Workers Union (KTU), and these photos are from their newspaper 교육희망, sitting on my desk today.

Sort of related, a few weeks ago I wrote an opinion piece for the Korea Times asking why people were spending so much time worrying about dying from Mad Cow Disease when the realities of being a pedestrian and a driver are so much more dangerous. That was just after two Suncheon high school students were killed on a field trip when the taxi driver driving their school bus lost control while coming down Hallasan. Anyway, I got into a bit of trouble at my school for that piece. A few of my coworkers read the English-language Korea Times, saw the article, and eventually translated it into Korean and passed it around. No serious damage, but it did make for an awkward couple of days. I'll give you three guesses as to why some coworkers were upset with the piece. No, it wasn't because I was exploiting the deaths of students to counter anti-American rallies. No, it wasn't because I was pointing out that Koreans are bad drivers. And no, it wasn't that I was making fun of a popular TV show. It was because I criticized the KTU, of which lots of my coworkers are members. I was a little harsh on them, and was probably off-base with some of my comments, especially since I don't have access to Korean-language media because of my limited Korean skills. But I don't think I was necessarily misinformed, and I was bothered that my colleagues focused on such a small part of my larger argument. In the piece I wrote:

The notoriously xenophobic and anti-American KTU has been given many opportunities to spout off against American beef imports.

and

While encouraging discussion among able students on topics like the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and beef imports being unhealthy [is fine], to coerce students to attend rallies and to brainwash them with ultra-nationalistic propaganda is irresponsible, to say the least.

A few of my coworkers were pretty upset, and one of them---the man who translated the article in Korean---printed out and gave me the union's "Founding Manifesto" and "Platform," both available online, to dissuade me that the organization is anti-American. Both are worth a read; here's a couple excerpts from the former, promulgated on 19 years ago yesterday, May 28th, 1989:

The KTU is the best classroom, wherein teachers themselves can be living examples of democracy, for students who must be raised as democratic citizens. Because we know that the democratization of society starts with the democratization of education, we 400,000 teachers will be unable to talk about democratization, unable to teach students democracy, unless we replace our antidemocratic educational system and change our reality, a reality that is destroying harmony and meaning in the lives of students and teachers. This is why we have organized the Teachers and Education Workers' Union, a concrete act of the democratization movement.

Meanwhile our dictatorial regime and its selfish educational profiteers, such as MoonGyoBu [the former Ministry of Education], DaeHanKyoReon [the former Korea Federation of Teachers' Association] etc. have distorted our intentions and trampled on us remorselessly. With their irrational behavior, they are on a wild rampage, intent on impeding the advance of history.

and

Comrades! Let's unite and fight for our students' smiling faces!

Comrades! Let's work together for the democratization of education, the democratization of society, and reunification under the banner of the KTU!

For Korean education! For democratic education! For humane education! For solidarity with the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union!

The pro-democratic stance---later edit: I mean that in the sense of positioning themselves opposite dictatorial regimes, not in the "democratic" we might know it today---of those two documents stand in stark contrast to how some of the union's activities have been portrayed in, say, the Chosun Ilbo, and while I'm not sophisticated enough to understand the ins and outs of the Korean media, the. In fact, as regards both the union and the anti-beef stuff, my coworkers dismissed any articles I presented from that paper, claiming that it, the Dong-A Ilbo, and the Joongang Ilbo were spreading lies. In fact, the big reason that my colleagues didn't accept the rest of my article, at least to my face, was that they thought it was built on a false premise influenced by the wrong papers: a he said (PD Diary) vs. she said (everyone else). Fair enough, and perhaps those papers have axes to grind, but it's not as if the union doesn't have an agenda, or hasn't been prone to bouts of anti-Americanism. And while I realize that protesting American beef isn't the same as protesting American culture, and that these rallies shouldn't be read as anti-American in spirit, I do question how appropriate it is for teachers to be so actively political. Everybody has their own cause, and I'll admit I wouldn't be so upset if, say, students and teachers protested human rights abuses in North Korea, or walked out of their class to protest a near-fatal beating handed down by a teacher, or protested something like the No Child Left Behind Act. But the things with which the union apparently takes issue go well beyond food safety, and encouraging students to participate either by coersion or by example seems unusual and over the students' heads, but these quote-unquote educational opportunities are apparently in line with the KTU's motto.

Anyway, you can find some Chosun Ilbo pieces on the union here and here, and it's easier to just say to click on all the "related articles" rather than linking to them myself. And, here are a few other cartoons I found on their site, without too much poking around:


Classy. Source.


Source.


Source.


Source. This has nothing to do with anything, but I found it amusing.

ATEK, KAFLA, FUBAR?

Something that will probably get more attention among foreign teachers here is the Association for Teachers in Korea (ATEK) and their attempts at rapprochement with the Korean Association of Foreign Language Academies (KAFLA). ATEK was started in March to, among other things,

represent [English teachers'] interests and to play a bridging role between Korean and non-Korean English teachers.

You may recall that last week I posted briefly on KAFLA and their quest to "block unqualified hagwon teachers." A Korea Times piece from May 19th says:

The Korea Association of Foreign Language Academies (KAFLA) complained that the government was ``recklessly’’ opening the door to foreigners without building any safeguard against unqualified teachers. The association has about 7,000 members.

``The government is under the illusion that an unlimited number of English teachers exists overseas,’’ said Seo Jung-sook, information director of the association. ``Inviting more foreign teachers will eventually degrade the average quality of instructors and drive up costs for us.’’

Native English speakers who have no teaching experience in their 20s receive the same salaries as Koreans who have taught English for more than 10 years, she said.

The association said the Korea Immigration Service (KIS) does not retain data on foreign nationals who have had work experience here. ``No hagwon owners want to work with unqualified foreigners. Most hagwon employers terminate contracts of unacceptable foreigners, those guilty of sexual harassment or taking drugs,'' general director Choi Chang-jin said.

``However, many of these `blacklisted' foreigners return and teach English at other hagwon. I have seen a foreigner, who was expelled on drug charges, return here within three days. This is because the government does not keep records on these foreigners,'' Choi said.

And continues

As for the incoming association for native English-speaking instructors, the owners said they will take all measures against them.

``I don’t think the association will truly represent foreign English teachers, so we don’t see any point in talking with it, even if it is established,'' Choi said. KAFLA said it will take all measures possible to prevent foreign teachers from forming the representative body.

To which I extended an invitation for that group to have sexual intercourse with itself. In the paper two days ago was a piece called "Foreign Teachers Seek Dialogue With Hagwon Owners." ATEK responded to KAFLA's saying they would not meet with ATEK, but then in a comment on the ATEK piece KAFLA told the KT:

Upon the suggestion, KAFLA indicated they could meet the leaders of the foreign teachers' group but that does not mean that they acknowledge ATEK as a representative body.

``We cannot acknowledge the body. Still, we can meet them on an individual basis to discuss some issues,’’ said its general director Choi Chang-jin.

Well, all the news isn't bad though. Anyway, on the latest Seoul Podcast, Zen Kimchi said I was falling into the trap of making this an us vs. them issue. I agree with that, and also with his suggestion that some Korean teachers are right to complain about the disparity in salaries between native speakers and Korean English teachers. However, I stand firm on two counts: (1) the original piece on KAFLA nine days ago was a one-sided hit piece, and (2) you can't go after quote-unquote unqualified foreign teachers without looking in the mirror and examining the quality of Korean English teachers as well. I could talk all day about whether Korean English teachers do the job better than foreigners---a lot of times they do---and whether the system is set up to let them be more successful while we are destined to fail---I see my classes only once or twice a month---and there's no sense in getting into it now.

I'll just reiterate that, whether it's a union or a national accreditation system, foreign teachers really need a stake in the system here. The only measuring stick is years experience and salary, and for all the bellyaching about unqualified-this and untrained-that, if there were a national ordering system that rewarded, say, camps, seminars, demonstrations, publications, and language skills---in addition to years on the job---I think you'd not only have achieved a very important dialogue between "us and them" but you'd also have found a really nice way to make native teachers more productive and more useful.

If you read my feed on google you'll see that I pressed "enter" too quickly and published an unfinished version of this. My bad.

Earthquake drills on Tuesday.

The air was filled with sirens today as schools ran earthquake-preparedness drills. The pictures here I stole off Naver, and you can't tell me this next one wasn't staged.



Of course my school had the drill, too, and I was told they originally had planned to lead the students outside, but because there wasn't enough time they just hid under their desks. I have to question the wisdom of that, but I suppose in a real earthquake there isn't much time to do much else besides hide and hope. Thinking back to how my school does fire drills, and how long it takes students to get outside, trying to herd them into the playground for an earthquake drill probably wouldn't have been much more successful. [Edit: Now that I look at other pictures, seems that pretty much everybody just hid under their desks rather than go outside.] Some 8.2 million people nationwide participated in the tests. That number does not include me and my colleagues, who stayed in the teachers' office because we're tough.

Googling around for information about the earthquake in China, I found one case of 900 middle school students buried in the rubble of their school, plus other stories I don't have the stomach for right now. The drills today were in response to worries about what would happen should a similar event happen in Korea. The Korea.net article I linked above says:

The [Chinese] students died while attending classes in poorly constructed buildings that were easily demolished. Some analysts, however, also attribute the deaths to poor disaster preparedness training for students.

Sorry to sound crass, but I don't know if today's exercise, which focused on crouching down under desks, is the best way to avoid being crushed by a school. Just seems very reactionary, and not a fully-formed plan. *cough* While I have no idea how likely a huge earthquake is in Korea, there's no question that we should be worried about poorly constructed buildings as well. My Thursday-Friday school is two years old, yet each classroom has cracks running down the walls, and the floors are uneven. Since folks weren't worried about earthquakes until two weeks ago, and since most buildings weren't built . . . two weeks ago, it stands to reason that more mind should be paid to the issue in the future.


From the Chosun Ilbo.


I'd still like them to spend some time teaching traffic safety, as my heart races each day when I watch people of all ages just walk out into the street. This is, after all, one of the most dangerous countries in the world for pedestrians. I'm not sure I can name it the most dangerous, because I'm sure conditions in non-OECD countries are worse, but that so many pedestrians are dying ought to be a cause for concern. Sorry to keep flogging my new hobby horse---not a euphamism, and doesn't conjure pleasant images even if it were---but I just don't understand why traffic safety isn't a bigger issue, rather than hypothetical threats like earthquakes and cows.

Jesus Fucking Christ, get an editor already.

I planned to go on the Seoul Podcast tomorrow night and dispute my unfairly-earned label as a "pissed off guy," but after a string of positive or neutral posts the past couple days, today's efforts have disrupted my trajectory. I brought up ambiguity in my last post with the Anti-English Spectrum, and here's an even better example from today's Korea Times.



No, the story's not about shoplifting and spitting, it's about crimes against children. You can browse through the "Shoddy Journalism" category for more examples, or you can just click on any English-language edition of a Korean paper. And no, just so we're clear, this stuff doesn't get me all in a rage to the point of being "pissed off." I haven't punched through any desks at work over a misplaced word, and I didn't start an online petition to have my name switched from "Brain" to "Brian." I hardly ever swear in real life, I take my vitamins every day, I brush my teeth before bed, and I'm an all-around nice guy. Just that stories about good-for-nothing English teachers and slutty girl bands usually get more attention than write-ups about Jangheung.

More of the same.

The Marmot's Hole dug this up, a cartoon some Korean blogger made of good-for-nothing foreign English teachers who get their drink on and their smoke on, and invariably go home with something to poke on (though the cartoonist didn't depict that).

Um, in a country where 73% of Korean men drink alcohol every day, and where 40% of adult males smoke cigarettes (an generously low estimate down from 72% in 1994). The World Health Organization estimated that a decade ago 43% of male physicians smoked, and yes I know the cartoon is probably refering to marijuana and yes I know ten years is a long time but I'm not going to let that stop me. I never got that angle of attack, and never understood the stereotype of foreign teachers teaching drunk or high. I'm sure it happens once in a blue moon, but not enough to warrant comment. They'd be better off getting us for not shaving, for dressing like slobs, and for smelling bad. Anyway, and I'm going to trot out my old stand-by, I'll bet if you counted all the foreigners busted over the years for drugs, for alcohol abuse, for violence, and for illegal teaching, they'd still total much less than the 800 men who raped a middle school girl held captive in Gwangju.

Tangentially related, it looks like that, regardless of the spin job done by the Korea Times earlier this month, the "Citizens' Association for Lawful English Education" lets its true colors show through on their Korean-language cafe. Known in a previous incarnation as the "Anti-English Spectrum Cafe," and oblivious to the existence of structural ambiguity in my language, Korea Beat has translated their "statement of purpose," and here's an excerpt:

We gather here to do two things for that journey.

Anger at the arrogant English Spectrum, alive and well as ever despite criticism for its debasement of Korean women, and the expulsion of illegal, low-quality English instructors.

The small but powerful country, the Republic of Korea!

We are Anti-English Spectrum, fighting for justice for a land whose heart is not yet shriveled up.

Our work holds meaning for our country and our society. We do it together!

This is the citizens’ movement for the expulsion of illegal foreign language teachers.

Yeah, for some reason the use of alcohol correlates to a person's visa status, and by having consensual sex rather than paying for it like everyone else we somehow invalidate our credentials. Anyway, their invitation to go fuck themselves still stands.

Edit: This comes a couple of hours after my original post---as my students are having an earthquake drill by hiding under their desks---but I just wanted to add that I liked Matt's comment on the Korea Beat post:

Let’s see, a group that wants to preserve the purity of the race by eliminating foreigners…I think we have a group like that back home. They’re called the KKK. What, exactly, makes these “patriots” any different from the KKK? I see two sides of the same coin.

I'm not equating online harassment with lynchings and cross-burnings, but remember that the organization admitted to stalking foreigners in that Korea Times piece, and remember the violent outburts that took place in 2005, and an analogy not that off-base.

Whoa, who knew there was a big ol' art park in Jangheung?

Update: Well, this is embarrassing. This is actually located in Gyeonggi-do, not Jeollanam-do. Good thing nobody reads my posts of local interest.




While looking for something else I came across mention of the Jangheung Art Park in Jangheung county that opened in 2006. No idea how I never noticed or heard of that before. Looks big and neat and worth a visit.








Sorry to load up on the play areas, since most of us aren't 50 pounds and can't participate, but they seem to photograph a little better than the artwork and other installations. But you can find tons more photos on Naver and holy shit is that a McDonald's in Jangheung? I dunno, maybe not.

Gwangju Democratization Movement in Gangjin.

I've often found that the best sources of English-language information, and perhaps the only sources of English-language information, for some tourist and historical sites are the placards set up by the local governments. I pointed that out when I transcribed the text from a few placards around Suncheon marking points of note of the Yosu-Sunchon Rebellion, because there's not too much else available in English. Likewise, a placard comes in handy when we want to learn a little about the Gwangju Democratization Movement as it spread out from Gwangju to neighboring towns and counties. Unfortunately, I've found pretty much nothing about what happened in 1980in these areas, and instead have to rely completely on a placard I came across last spring in Gangjin-eup.



I'm pretty sure this one is located in front of the Gangjin County Office, and I know there's at least one more placard in town, and perhaps their locations correspond to the points on the crude map. I remember seeing another placard beside the old bus terminal, and you can see it next to the new one in this photograph.

The English text on the picture I've included reads:

May 18 Kwangju Demonstration Movement.
The Demonstration Movement in Kangjin area has been ignited by demonstrators arrived in Kangjin from Kwangju City by eight buses on May 21, 1980.

As the demonstrators entered the Kangjin, the police forces voluntarily withdrew their forces avoiding physical clash. Citizens being already aware of the Kwangju massacre welcomed the student demonstrators and joined with them.

Having set up their headquarter at the Kangjin church, the students and citizens made an organized demonstration in several places such as County Hall and Bus Terminal. At night, they stayed at the church or the inns nearby and the sisters from the church offered foods to them.

On May 23, 1980, about 500 students from Kangjin Agricultural High School gathered together and joined in the demonstration screaming "Lift the Martial Law", "Recover the democracy", and "Free Kim Dae Jung". The demonstration reached its climax as the members from the Regional Young Man's Association and Young Man's Counsel add to the demonstration group. On May 23rd, there were two bullet wounded people and many other wounded ones from Haenam Wooseljae clash against the Martial Law Command and they were hospitalized and cared for in the provincial hospital, the current Kangjin clinic.

On May 24th, Civilian Force and students joined together and made their last demonstration as they approached to Jangheung area during which no wounded ones occurred.

Actress Oh Yeon-su in a bikini.

For some reason 37-year-old actress Oh Yeon-su (오연수) wears a bikini on TV for something. And for some reason that's in the news today. The video clip is here, and some news articles are here, here, and elsewhere. Jewelry's Suh In-young does not feel threatened.

NPR on Pittsburghese.

National Public Radio did a two-minute piece called "A Primer in Pittsburghese" a few days ago, with the tagline: "Some cities have accents, Pittsburgh has its own language." I wouldn't go that far, but the accent is quite distinctive. I always found it pretty annoying when I lived there, but having spent huge chunks of the past three years overseas I get nostalgic when I hear it. It's common in my family, and not so rare among young people, so I wouldn't say it's dying out.

The finest, and funniest, piece of Pittsburghese comes from a skit from a local ratio station WDVE:

Weekend anti-beef rallies lead to arrests.

Scroll down for updates.







Big rallies and demonstrations in Seoul over the weekend against American beef resulted in the arrest of 30 some people. The Chosun Ilbo has the story in English here, and you can find other photos and stories in Korean here.

My coteacher was there, along with several other teachers, and she took the redeye train back to Suncheon this morning. She told me I ought to attend one fo the rallies, to experience the atmosphere, but I politely declined. Hahaha, big mistake. I think next time I'd better just say that I don't understand English, or that I'm allergic to outside. Talking about current events is often less a discussion and more of a trial or a dissertation defense, with both sides discrediting the other's sources. Anything that I say coming from the Joongang Ilbo or Chosun Ilbo is immediately thrown out, and my objections to scare-mongering in the media are ignored because those objections are repeated in said papers. It's not that I don't admit there are legitimate reasons for protesting the President or the FTA, it's just that I believe a lot of this passion has stemmed from baseless rumors and intentional deception and that there are motives beyond just food safety (more on that in a later post, along with some context for this conversation, since I normally don't talk about politics with Koreans coworkers).

My coteacher told me about the arrests this morning and that she was very sad about it. She's a very lovely woman, and a bit of an activist if you couldn't tell. Anyway, seeing these photos reminds me of a post The Marmot's Hole had a few days ago titled "Anti-FTA Demonstrators: sheep in the US and wolves at home," based off two stories from the Chosun Ilbo. One of the articles says of a 2006 anti-FTA demonstration, according to Sonagi's translation:

In June 2006 a group opposed to the Korean-US FTA went to the US to hold a demonstration. They obtained permission from the police and peacefully picketed in a confined area.

One wonders why these people who, for one month, paralyzed traffic in the city center behind Gwanghwamun became gentle sheep in the US. It’s because of the awareness that public authorities enforce the law, gloves off, against transgressors on the spot. US law enforcement warned visiting Korean demonstrators through a posted warning, “Demonstrators who touch the police will be arrested immediately.” Although excessive use of police authority can be a problem in advanced countries, it is compensated for by the trust and respect for public authority.

* Update: Fox News has the story, and reports that 68 people were arrested over the weekend.

* Update 2: More pictures from the teachers' rally from the union's homepage.

What's that smell?

Junior Naver makes learning English fun.

Forbes ranks South Korea as hardest-working country.

Forbes.com reports that in South Korea

the average employee works 2,357 hours per year--that’s six-and-a-half hours for every single day of their life. According to a 2008 ranking by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, South Koreans work the longest hours per year, on average, out of every other OECD member.

It comes as no surprise for many of us to hear that Koreans put in long hours, whether at work or at school. Matter of fact I just caught myself skimming over the part in the article about the civil servant who sees his kids "10 or 15 minutes a week, and then just on the weekend" without much of a reaction because that's something we hear about frequently. At my private school my first year, classes didn't end until 10:50 p.m., and the lecture hall always had dozens of students in "detention" until 12:30 a.m. But I think many of us would dispute "hardest-working," at least according to how we define the term, because a lot of what falls under the umbrella is face time, whether at the office, asleep in the lounge, or hanging out with the boss after hours. The Forbes piece continues, after talking about other countries with less rigorous schedules:

As for the opposite extreme, South Korea, things are slowly moving toward the OECD norm after the Korean government introduced a five-day working week in 2004 for schools and companies with over 1,000 employees. But with the culture of hard work so deeply ingrained, change is slow. "A Korean's identity comes from his title at work," says Michael Breen, author of The Koreans, explaining that employees often refer to each other by titles such as "office manager Kim" or "accountant Park," even outside the workplace.

"This is an authoritarian corporate culture," he adds. "It's very bad form to leave the office before the boss does, so people will hang around doing nothing, and then when the boss leaves, they feel free to leave. ... Because of all of that, people don't have much of a life."

Productivity remains low, though, and a Korea Times piece from last year says, quoting from the International Labour Office, that South Korea's productivity remains at 68% of the US's. A Los Angeles Times article from last month has a lot of the same statistics of the Forbes piece, but presents the flip-side of the issue. An excerpt:

Many South Koreans see their lives as well short of wonderful. Workers put in the longest hours in any free-market economy. Students are pushed to study to exhaustion. And among the most advanced democracies, South Koreans remain among the stingiest when it comes to spending on leisure and fun.

The situation leaves South Koreans poised on the fringes of a collective burnout, a national state of stress and grumpiness that could complicate new President Lee Myung-bak's contention that they all should work harder to reboot a sluggish economy.

"South Koreans are not trained to enjoy cultural life and leisure," complained Yoon Chang-il, 47, a patent lawyer in Seoul who says his generation remains gripped by a fear of falling behind working peers and competitors. "Most people work late at night, both men and women, single and married, because there is a business culture of obsession and pressure. And when you go to the office on Saturdays, there are always people working."

Wikipedia points us to an article from the Christian Science Monitor from 2001, on the topic of creating the five-day work-week in South Korea. The article gives us this chart:



And this quotable paragraph:

But many observers expect it may take a while before South Korea's obsessive culture of work recedes from society. Even if the government regulates shorter work hours, they say, people may voluntarily abstain from earned vacations.

Wikipedia also points us to an article in the Asia Times that talks about death by overwork, although that piece deals mainly with Japan. In a 2007 release by Korea.net, a government-run page, two-thirds of Koreans considered themselves workaholics, with 38% saying they are required to work overnight or weekends, and 34% saying they voluntarily put in overtime in order to meet deadlines. The tricky question is, were respondants being truthful, or were they exaggerating because Korean culture has historically expected them to work hard, and were thus guilted into responding the way they did?

The CSM piece talks about how being so overworked is actually counterproductive and counterintuitive, and at least some people share those sentiments. There was a piece in the Korea Times a few weeks ago that talked about it, but I can't find it now, though I did come across this article talking about how some employers are starting to value creativity. It contains the same information we've just read in other articles, so I'll just excerpt a couple parts:

``Being busy is the biggest enemy to becoming creative,'' said Seoul-based career coach Kim Sul-nam, who teaches working men and women how to draw out their inner creativity. ``Korean society, as we know, is one of the fastest-moving in the world, so that's already not a great start.''

and

``You can't expect someone to come up with the most clever and unique ideas, when he or she is tired to death,'' said Kim, stressing that the best ideas come ``when your mind and body are relaxed.''

A team of Dutch psychologists found in 2006 that people struggling to make complex decisions did best when they were not concentrating on the situation at all, which demonstrates that working around the clock isn't the smartest way to go.

Blogger "Roboseyo" shares some of his thoughts on the topic here.

I'm sure this Forbes article will be used by Kimcheerleaders to champion whatever it is they need to champion about Korean culture, and after this article went online the scholars on Dave's did their requisite collective groan. I did too, a little, because I remember having to teach middle school students a chapter from this book with this reading (page 198):

My father says that Koreans are one of the hardest working peoples in the world. And I think it's true. I live in Dallas, and I have some friends from Korea in my neighborhood. Their parents work very hard. They usually start their work early in the morning and come back home late at night. And they do their best for their children to have a better education. They know what's important in life.
- Betty Smith from Dallas, Texas.

Wait for it . . . *groan*. The implication being that parents from other cultures don't know what's most important in life. We just read about the man who sees his kids 10 minutes a week. We saw an article in the KT twelve days ago reporting that 72% of men drink alcohol every day. We know how busy students are and how their parents use after-school academies as babysitting services. Yet there is still the deep conviction that Korean parents are somehow more loving, more caring. I wonder if the woman who said this is a parent:

Jung Yeon-hee, a chairwoman of the Seoul City Council who pushes ahead with the plan, said ``I have never seen students who die because of studying.''

Tactless, tasteless. Korea has the highest suicide rate in the OCED, and that Chosun Ilbo article tells us the leading cause of death of people in their 20s and 30s in Korea is suicide (motor vehicle accidents is the leading killer of that demographic back home). I can't find any statistics now, but from anecdotal evidence I can see that suicide among overworked, or overbullied, students in South Korea is not unusual. One such story was of two twin sisters in Changwon who threw themselves from the top of an apartment building last December after testing poorly.

Well, I'm getting off topic, and all those issues are something a more able writer could write a book, or five, about. A book nobody in Korea would take seriously because the writer's not Korean. But my point wasn't to make fun of Koreans, but to provide a little bit of context to what I'm sure will be the leading headline on all the Korean papers the next week or so. It's just weird that again, as with that New York Times piece on Korea's awesome Foreign Language High Schools, the writers at these huge media institutions are still writing "puff pieces," as the Metropolitician calls them, rather than spending thirty minutes googling around. Anyway, working hard is important, and at least Koreans seem to be in agreement about that, even if "what's most important in life" varies from person to person. Certainly prefer this to the slacker chic that is celebrated in the US.

But, whatever, I'd like to close with a few excerpts from a neat little book called Confucius Lives Next Door. It deals mostly with Japan, but I still find parts of it applicable. There's a whole lot I want to quote from this chapter---like this bit about "almost all Japanese schools, businesses, and agencies have more workers than a comparable company would have in the West"---but I'll keep it short. It starts by talking about the manipulation of the yen in the mid-80s, the consequential recession, the myth of "lifetime employment," and the social contract between employers and employees. I'll pick it up here, when it talks a little about "productivity" and how there statistics on productivity and diligence are limiting, and cannot be simply examined out of the context of their respective societies. From page 187-188:

A more significant explanation for the low rate of unemployment, even in recession, is that the Japanese have made a national calculation of comparative costs. They have decided that the social costs associated with large-scale unemployment would be greater than the costs required to keep people at work. "There are always costs involved in unemployment," the economist Takeuchi Hiroshi, the chief forecaster for the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan, explained to me once. "The only question is who bears the expense. In your country, it's usually the worker first, and then the government, and then the society as a whole because you have all those people on the street without a job. In Japan, the company is expected to bear the costs, because that's better for society as a whole."

This policy explains why Japan, despite its emergence as a global financial and industrial power, always rates fairly low on global comparisons of productivity. My economics text defines "productivity" as "the relative efficiency of economic activity---that is, the amount of products or services produced compared to the amount of goods and labor used to produce it." This means that a company or country that turns out a lot of product with few people working on any given job than you would see in another country. In purely industrial terms, low productivity is a Bad Thing; it increases direct costs. But for Japan, low productivity is the secret weapon. It's a key reason why the socieity remains civil, stable, and safe. Other countries have to spend far more money, time, and energy combating crime, drugs, and family decay than Japan spends. So economists may find, when measuring the direct costs of producing a new car, case of beer, microchip, or whatever, that Japan has low productivity. But Japan has also reduced the indirect costs that stem from the rigors of high-productivity societies.

"Gypsy Scholar" on Anti-Americanism.

Professor and blogger "Gypsy Scholar" has a neat little story up about anti-Americanism in Korea. Gangwon-do? Try Gangwon-DON'T! Hahahahahaha. *cough* Go read it here.


God I've had this saved on my computer since December and I'm thankful for a chance to finally use it.

You're doing it wrong.

Both of you. From an article in the Chosun Ilbo about Hwang Woo-suk's latest adventures:

Hwang, who is abroad, told the Chosun Ilbo by phone he promised BioArts not to give media interviews.

"But at this point, the difference in law and culture at bathing places is what is likely to be at fault."

Another piece on Michael White in the Korea Times. The lengthy article is worth a read, and contains much of what we've heard before on blogs (here too) and on the podcast interview, but here's an excerpt of the end:

Unlike America and Europe, where there is the Good Samaritan Law, which imposes no blame when a person dies while receiving emergency treatment from someone attempting to help, in Korea a person who helps can be held liable for the death. Hwang at the fire station said the law hinders people from trying to help a critically ill person ― such as Michael in this case ― as they fear punishment if the outcome proves fatal.

The sauna staff, who were not certified in any rescue related activity, only called an ambulance and waited for the emergency rescue team to arrive and begin basic resuscitation. ``We cannot blame the staff,'' Lee said.

Hwang said the staff were not trained in any emergency measures as the current law does not require them to be educated in CPR, unlike swimming pool staff. ``We are seeking ways to train staff, but unless we take away the legal burden, the effect could be questionable,'' he added.

``We all feel sorry about what happened to the boy. But at this point, the difference in law and culture at bathing places is what is likely to be at fault,'' an officer at the fire station said requesting anonymity.

*Sigh* I'm really not in the mood to deconstruct that or to, again, rehash the accounts Michael's mother has given and how they conflict with what the staff and medical personnel are saying now. I don't think I could do a cool-headed job. I also don't feel comfortable doing that because news updates have been coming almost daily and stories just aren't adding up well enough to make a post to end all posts. And, I don't want to talk too much about stories of other foreigners who died under suspicious circumstances and whose deaths were never investigated. You can find lengthy write-ups here, here, and here, to name just a few, and we can recall the case of the foreigner who died of a heart attack in Incheon Airport last October because the security guard wouldn't let EMTs enter through the exit.

I will add, though, that in addition to what's available on blogs and in the papers, a few Dave's posters have typed up a transcript of the Seoul Podcast interview and put it online here, and that they're currently getting it translated into Korean for distribution it's been translated into Korean and is posted on the same site, here.

But the topic of cultural differences is one pretty much any foreigner will hear during his or her time in Korea. Probably within, like, the first three seconds, and probably to used to justify when something doesn't go your way. Wasn't too long ago we heard about politicians who went to the States, fondled some statues, and blamed cultural differences. That may or may not be acceptable, but nevertheless that excuse was invoked. And if I weren't in school I'd have more free time to look around for other examples.

It works both ways, though, and I recall reading about this story for the first time last year. Wikipedia has a summary of "The Hattori Shooting," which happened in Baton Rouge on October 17, 1992. A 16-year-old Japanese exchange student Yoshihiro Hattori was walking up to a house for a costume party. Turns out it was the wrong house, and the homeowner shot him after the student rang the doorbell and then went around to the side of the house. The Wikipedia entry has a bit of the exchange between the D.A. and the defendant:

"You were safe and secure, weren't you?" Moreau asked Peairs during his appearance before the grand jury. "But you didn't call the police, did you?"
"No sir." Peairs said.
"Did you hear anyone trying to break in the front door?"
"No sir."
"Did you hear anyone trying to break in the carport door?"
"No sir."
"And you were standing right there at the door, weren't you - with a big gun?"
Peairs nodded.
"I know you're sorry you killed him. You are sorry, aren't you?"
"Yes sir."
"But you did kill him, didn't you?"
"Yes sir."

Rodney Peairs was acquitted after the jury deliberated for just over three hours, and had to pay damanges to Hattori's family.

Say what you will about the negative aspects of Japanese culture, the culture of guns and climate of violence that exists in the US is in stark contrast to Japan, and people there were rightfully shocked by this "difference in law and culture." A culture that permitted a man to not only own a weapon but use it with impunity. Likewise, foreigners here are shocked by the laziness, incompetence, and shiftiness of authorities over here, attitudes that differ, at least in our minds, with what we've come to expect from those responsible for our well-being.

The Hattori case garnered worldwide attention, and if people are interested in pursuing the Michael White story, and not letting it fall through the cracks like the cases of Bill Kapoun, Matthew Sellers, Jamie Penich, and the woman stabbed to death at her Suncheon school in 1998, they'd be wise to follow Stephannie White's advice and write to your hometown newspapers. As most of us know, what happens in Korea tends to stay in Korea, and is apparently of little interest to people in other countries. That may prove to be the case again, but as others have pointed out, we ought to make the effort to go global, rather than whining on English teacher blogs that nobody reads.

Okay, I know I really shouldn't be laughing at this.

Somehow this transpired last week at the Preakness.







From the Baltimore Sun, via Deadspin.

Remembering the 2003 Daegu Universiade (and those women).

A couple of weeks ago I was reading some old Marmot's Hole entries when I came across a story he was running third-hand from a newspaper article quoted by a now-defunct blog. Here is an excerpt, apparently from the other blog, that the Marmot quoted, and which I will quote in full:

At the men’s volleyball competition Wednesday between the United States and North Korea at the Universiade games in Daegu, the Americans were booed upon entering the court. They say it went on for quite some time, stopping only after the announcer asked for restraint.
Reports are that the crowd numbered around 4,000, and that many in attendance were part of the university student movement. When you consider how American athletes have not been given that kind of treatment in other Universiade competitions one can assume that the behavior was instigated by such students; but more importantly, it was an example of the confused state our society is in these days.
It’s not as if the Americans committed some terrible, insolent incident that would put the reception they got into context; and still, here in Korea, they get publicly heckled like that, and in front of the Northerners. According to one journalist present, some children waving American flags were made to cry when confronted by one adult, who asked, “Where do you think you are, carrying those things around like that?"

The article and the Marmot's entry was from 2003, when the Summer Universiade was held in Daegu. I couldn't find any reference to the incident in the media or in other blogs, but it's still an interesting anecdote considering the articles I'm about to quote. Given the nature of what I'm about to quote, and given the number of articles and sources I've combed through, I'm inclined to believe it apocryphal and unlikely to have slipped through the hypersensitive media of the day. But the reason the story stood out to me is because next Wednesday, May 31st, the International University Sports Federation will decide if Gwangju will host the 2013 Universiade, or if the games will go to Kazan, Russia, or Vigo, Spain. Also known as the World University Games, the Universiade will feature about 10,000 athletes from some 170 countries. Should Gwangju win this will be Korea's third time hosting. Daegu had it in 2003, and Muju, Jeollabuk-do, hosted the Winter Games in 1997. I couldn't find much information online about the Muju Universiade, aside from this interesting write-up from the FISU site, but there are plenty of articles out there on the Daegu Games. Most of the domestic articles come from the Joongang Ilbo. The Korea Times changed its url last year, thus losing all articles written previously. The Chosun Ilbo has a few, but the user-unfriendly Korea Herald forces you to pay for articles older than a couple weeks.



Probably the best-known story to come out of the Games revolved around the busload of North Korea cheerleaders who noticed a picture of Kim Jong-il out in the rain and went batshit crazy. From CNN.com, an excerpt:

For the most part, North Korea's cheering squad for the University Games in South Korea last month lived up to their reputation as "the army of beauties."
Singing and smiling, the women became the center of attention wherever they appeared.
But one incident, captured by South Korean media, has shocked many South Koreans.
It involved a busload of the North Korean cheerleaders who became extremely upset over, what some onlookers said, a very trivial matter.
The cause of the emotional distress was a banner with the picture of what North Koreans they call their "dear leader", North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, which was hung crooked and left out in the rain.
For those North Koreans, it was considered sacrilege.
"How could you place our general in such a place?" a cheerleader said. "He deserves only respect. We cannot stand for this."

The Chosun Ilbo has a little more of the story of these loons. An excerpt:

The group of 150 cheerleaders, here as part of the North Korean delegation to the Universiade games in Daegu, first saw the banners at about 1:40 p.m., as the women were returning from an archery competition.
One banner had a picture of Kim Jong Il shaking hands with former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung at one end and a picture of the reunification flag at the other. In between was a message welcoming the North Korean athletes.
The women, who were in six separate buses, demanded that the vehicles stop. According to one bus driver, some even stepped on his right foot while trying to apply the brake themselves.
Then about 30-40 of them ran the 300-500 meters back to where the banners were. Protesting, they pointed out apparent horrors such as that a seal was stamped on Kim Jong Il's image, that the banners were hanging too low, that they were beside a scarecrow and that they had been left to the mercy of the rain and wind.
Several of the women, helping each other, managed to climb up a two-meter tree and pull down the four banners. They rolled them up, making sure to keep the images still visible, and carried them reverently back to the bus, while weeping out loud. About 10 of them also wrested a camera away from a South Korean reporter who was on the scene.

The North Korean cheerleaders were apparently a big deal here in 2003 and also in 2002, when they first arrived for the Asian Games in Busan. More on them a little later.

Reading through the Joongang Ilbo's stories I was surprised at how much protesting was going on before and during the Games, and how amped up at least the Joongang Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo are making things out to be. That makesthat original post on the Marmot's Hole seem very out of place, if true at all. Given the climate of the time, less than a year two girls were killed by an American military vehicle, it's not that out of the question, especially since those anti-American protests continued for years. Many of the articles indicate an unhappiness with welcoming North Korea considering that country's human rights record. So while the crowd may not have booed the U.S. volleyball team, it apparently quieted considerably when the U.S. and Japan entered the World Cup Stadium, as the North Korean cheerleaders, predictably, refused to cheer. From a Japanese source:

Some 300 young North Korean cheer girls, who stole the show at last fall's Pusan Asian Games with their show of patriotic support, suddenly became quiet when the Japanese and US delegations came forward and resumed cheering immediately after they marched off.

Demonstrations against North Korea seemed destined to derail this display of Korean unity before it even started. An excerpt from an August 18, 2003 Chosun Ilbo article, "Pyongyang Indicates Boycotting Universiade":

North Korea, offended by anti-Pyongyang protests here, said Sunday that it would not send its athletes and cheerleaders to the Universiade Games in Daegu.
According to its state official broadcaster, a spokesman for North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland explained that because conservative groups in South Korea had insulted the Pyongyang regime at an anti-nuclear and anti-Kim Jong-il rally last week, Pyongyang could not send its athletes to "a dangerous South Korea, which did not guarantee the safety and dignity of a brother country."

An article titled "North Korean Athletes Again in the South" in a 2003 edition of the journal Korea Scope has a bit more of the statement:

Angry at some South Korean citizens’ burning of its flag and an image of its leader Kim Jong-il two days earlier, North Korea threatened on Aug. 17 to boycott the Universiade. The North’s move came in a statement issued by a spokesman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland. “There occurred in the heart of Seoul in broad daylight such extreme and reckless provocation as seriously hurting the dignity and the prestige of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and malignantly insulting it,” said the statement, adding: “This compelled us to take a resolute measure as regards the issue of our people’s visit to South Korea fraught with the danger of openly infringing upon the security and the dignity of fellow countrymen in the North, the issue of sending our players’ team and supporters’ group to the Daegu Universiade at present.”

The news of the potential boycott came four days before the Games were set to begin, but South Korea apologized two days later and the North withdrew its threat. North Korea boycotted the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games, and had, according to that Korea Scope article

rejected all of Seoul’s proposals for the North’s participation in international games hosted by South Korea such as the Seoul Asian Games in 1986, the Summer Olympic Games in 1988, the Busan East Asian Games in 1997 and the Kangwon Asian Winter Games in 1999, among other events. The North’s participation in the Busan Asian Games was the results of the South’s two-year efforts to persuade the North Koreans to take part in the games.

The blog Korean Unification Studies has a list of times where North and South have competed together under the same flag. The North's decision to participate in the Games cheered a lot of people up in Daegu. An official for the Taegu Summer Univeriade Organizing Committee was quoted in a Yonhap report saying:

"We had a depressed atmosphere here due to the subway arson attack but the decision by North Korea to dispatch a large delegation to the Taegu Summer Universiade and active promotion campaigns by the city council and administration officials have been heating up the atmosphere."

Right before the games security was tight. South Korean authorities were already on alert, distributing pamphlets on airport and seaport safety, and slightly restricting flights over Daegu, Gumi, and Yecheon during the games. The U.S. warned of possible attacks that would coincide with the anniversary of 9/11. In fact South Korea was warned of a possible terrorist attack during the games, according to Yonhap:

Security authorities were alerted against chemical weapons terrorist attack during the Taegu Universiade from an intelligence tip that the game sites were among possible targets by Islamic extremist groups, the Environment Ministry said Thursday [21 August]. Security surveillance has been intensified around North Korean team accommodation facilities, especially against suspicious substances.

Police have also bolstered their surveillance around game venues, restricting passage of dangerous material within 5 km of the venues. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) has received information from foreign sources that the Universiade is included in the list of possible attack targets, ministry officials said citing recently received document from the NIS.

But apparently the Games got off to a good start. From an understated Yonhap piece on the opening ceremony:

. . . [A]t 7.50 p.m. [local time], some 50 minutes after Ghana had led the procession of teams into the Taegu arena, hearts and voices were lifted skywards in unison with the sight of the blue and white Korean Peninsula flag fluttering in the Taegu night air. With flag bearers Choi Tae-woong and Kim Hye-yong leading the way, the young athletes must have been well aware they were representing not only the sporting hopes of the two Koreas, but also the dreams for peace, reconciliation and unification of a divided people.

The protests weren't confined to the August 15th Liberation Day holiday, but continued throughout the Univeriade. From an August 24th report:

North Korean reporters clashed Sunday [24 August] with a group of protesters demanding Pyongyang improve its human rights record in front of the Universiade Media Centre (UMC) in Taegu.

The reporters were returning to the UMC after covering North Korean athletes competing in the archery and diving events of the Taegu Summer Universiade when scores of ralliers raised placards saying, "Bring Down (North Korean leader) Kim Jong-il and Save North Korean Residents", witnesses said.

The North Korean reporters initially asked the demonstrators to get rid of the placards before moving inside the UMC.

Minutes later, however, several of the journalists re-emerged from the centre and struggled with the protesters to try to remove the placards, according to the witnesses.

Norbert Vollertsen, a German doctor noted for his efforts to bring humanitarian aid to the North, was pushed to the ground during the fracas, a witness said.

Shin Hye-sik, president of Internet newspaper "independent.co.kr" who took part in the rally, said, "Vollertsen, who was taking part in the rally with damaged feet, collapsed when a North Korean reporter hit him."

North Korea's KCNA has a slightly different take:

rowdyism was kicked up in Taegu where the 22nd universiade is under way. At least 100 members of the ultra right reactionary conservative organizations of South Korea including the South Korean netizen Solidarity for Democracy and the Youth Committee for Solidarity with Citizens for Freedom on 24 August staged such rowdyism as defiling the dignity and system of the DPRK and assaulting reporters from the North in front of the press centre in Taegu.

This rash act was kicked up again in South Korea in the wake of the frantic racket reported on the 15 August Liberation Day when the spirit of national reconciliation and unity and peaceful reunification for the implementation of the 15 June Joint Declaration is running high across Korea and the inter-Korean cooperation and exchange are brisk as evidenced by the joint march of the groups of the North and the South at an international sports function with the Korean Peninsula flag in the van[guard]. This is an open challenge to the will of the fellow countrymen for reunification.

Haha, interesting use of the passive voice in that first line. You can find a list of other statements made around that time here, and can get to other dates by playing with the numbers in the URL. There's a release available here, and I can't tell but looks like a different translation of the same one I just quoted. Its language is a bit more colorful. An excerpt:

This incident is through and through an intolerable criminal manoeuvre by heinous nation-sellers and human trash, who do not welcome the nation's reconciliation and unity, and is nothing but a desperate worthless rash act by those who are on the verge of death for being driven out in the great flow of the nation's history, which is moving towards the fatherland's reunification under the banner of the 15 June Joint Declaration.

Damn. It concludes with:

In this land, which is turning into a confrontation arena where personal security is seriously threatened because the Republic flags worn on the chests of our members and their clothes were torn by South Korean ultra-rightist groups and slogans calling on compatriots to topple their compatriots are shouted, it is very obvious that we cannot participate in the games without worries.

The South side should take due responsibility for this incident, immediately punish the leaders, apologize to us, and guarantee that such incidents will not recur.

We will watch the South-side authorities' attitude.

The South apparently did apologize, or "express regret" rather, and the North was placated long enough to not walk fly back home. Yonhap tells us:

North Korea's delegation to the 2003 Taegu Universiade said Wednesday [27 August] it will continue to take part in the sporting event despite the sporadic anti-Pyongyang rallies it said have seriously undermined inter-Korean relations.

In a press conference held at the Universiade Media Centre (UMC) here, Jon Guk-man, North Korea's chief delegate to the Taegu Universiade, said, "We have decided to continue to take part in the remainder of the Taegu Universiade because the South Korean authorities expressed regret, which clearly amounts to an apology, and pledged to prevent a recurrence (of the clash involving North Korean reporters and anti-Pyongyang ralliers in front of the UMC last Sunday).

"Our decision to continue to participate in the Taegu Universiade was made out of respect for the noble ideals of the ongoing sporting event and appreciate the brotherly love of most South Korean people and Taegu citizens," Jon said.

The North Korean official, however, warned right-wing forces in the South not to commit provocative acts that could hinder the progress towards national reconciliation and reunification.

Jon's remarks were in contrast to his statement the previous day in which he reiterated a threat to withdraw from the Taegu Universiade if South Korea fails to apologize for the recent incident and take measures to prevent future anti-Pyongyang rallies.

On August 28th an attempt to burn a North Korean flag in downtown Seoul was foiled by police. Said one of the participants:

“We were trying to protest against the North Korean journalists who committed acts of terror against South Korean citizens.”

Perhaps the aggressive tone towards the North and towards the South's toadyism in 2003 is a trait unique to the Joongang Ilbo, and to a lesser extent the Chosun Ilbo, or perhaps they were borne out of tense times between the two Koreas, but nevertheless I was surprised to read rather harsh words printed in that paper the week after the Games wrapped up. I'm not sure we would find such language in the papers today. Here is an excerpt of an editorial from "a former director-general of the South-North Dialogue Office at the Unification Ministry":

. . . [A]t the Daegu Universiade, North Koreans not only picked a quarrel about the behavior of South Korean citizens who exercised their freedom of expression within the lawful limits of the South Korean system, but they also showed a propensity to use violence themselves.
One of the “rules” which has been followed in the interactions between the two Koreas is “to follow the other’s guidance and order in the other’s region.” That means “when in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
Nevertheless, the Roh Moo-hyun administration, far from censuring the North Korean team who followed Pyeongyang’s law in Seoul, blamed and regulated its own citizens.
And the government, from Mr. Roh to the culture and tourism minister and the mayor of Daegu, was intent on “apologizing” to the North Koreans.
This country must be going really wrong. Doesn’t this government have a backbone? We note the fable that an anchovy does not marry an octopus, which has no spine.

A September 2, 2003 editorial titled "No place for politics in sports" criticizes the nationalism that enshrouded the games, making the assembly of 174 nations seem like a cross-border intramural tournament. An excerpt:

The 2003 Summer Universiade in Daegu, where young athletes from 174 countries around the world forged friendship and harmony, has ended. The event, supposedly a festival for world university students, was operated and reported as if the games were a celebration for the two Koreas only. That was not a mature or appropriate practice and we should learn a lesson from that.
The two Koreas marched together for the opening ceremony, following the precedents of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, the Busan Asian Games last year and the Aomori Winter Asian Games early this year. That heightened the expectation that the two Koreas would march together again and form a unified team for the Athens Olympic Games next year. It was encouraging that the two Koreas affirmed their reconciliation, cooperation, trust and friendship through sports. But outside the sports arena, the North threatened to boycott the games after some South Korean activists burned its flag. It is regrettable that politics overwhelmed the sports festival.
Moreover, the media and citizens focused their attention on the two Koreas, particularly the beautiful North Korean cheerleaders, instead of emphasizing the sports event itself, making the games look like a domestic festival. The two Koreas should reconsider their behavior in creating such an atmosphere, which was inappropriate for a world festival.

A blogger wrote pretty much the same thing regarding the coverage of the North Korean women in 2002 and 2003.

I remember when I was living in Seoul the Asian Games were held in Busan, and then the Universidad games in Taegu. I remember that for both these games, the biggest hits were the North Korean cheerleaders. They were extremely good looking girls that came cheering for their team, with DPRK and Korean unification flags. In fact, much more airtime and newstime was spent on them than the rest of the games. And not without reason: they were sweet cheery nice girls from North Korea. When they weren't performing their cheers ("Skill! Technique! Focus!") they were staying at a hotel off-limits to anyone else (many young guys would drive up there to meet them and get turned away).

North Korean cheerleaders in Busan (I think).

There is a lengthy piece on the North Korean cheerleaders here. It begins:

“They’re so beautiful!” cried Yang Hyeon-jeong, a 25-year-old volunteer at the Summer Universiade Daegu 2003, as a bus filled with North Korean cheerleaders prepared to depart.
Using a camera phone, Ms. Yang took a picture of two of the girls sitting on the bus. Then she held the phone up to the window so the cheerleaders could see their picture.
The North Koreans looked at the image with apparent amazement. They nudged a friend so she could see it too.
“Look how flawless their skin is!” cried Ms. Yang’s friend Lee Hae-shin, 21, also a volunteer.
The South Korean girls jumped up and down with joy, making the universal sign of love, putting their hands over their head and shouting, “Saranghaeyo” (“I love you”).

And continues:

That squad took the South by surprise. These were not the dark-skinned, malnourished-looking women often shown in TV news stories about North Koreans in Pyeongyang. Instead, plump, smiling, timid, fair-skinned girls walked into the public’s heart.
Before long, some of the cheerleaders had their own fan clubs in the South. One, Ri You-kyeong, still has a fan club at Daum, an online community.

There was also an interesting write-ups in the Washington Post and a smaller one in New York Times. From a September 9, 2003 Washington Post article:

Since the squad’s arrival here at the 22nd annual Universiade games, an 11-day sports competition that ended Aug. 31, the well-scripted women have become South Korea’s unlikely sweethearts—and a symbol of the South’s recent embrace of its old enemy. Even as North Korea squared off in a six-nation summit over its nuclear weapons program in Beijing last month, the cheerleaders, gushing with expressions of love for their dear leader, Kim Jong Il, were winning the admiration of millions here through poignant TV coverage and adoring newspaper headlines. Smitten South Koreans traveled hundreds of miles to offer roses and serenades to the Beauties from the North, as one headline called them.

The Joongang Ilbo piece I quoted a few paragraphs above concludes:

Not everyone in South Korea has been charmed by the cheerleaders.
“It was great, at first,” said Park Jin-suk, 25, a viola player for the Daegu Philharmonic Orchestra, which performed for the North Koreans during Saturday’s luncheon. But she added, “They were very different from us.”
How so? “They seemed to be trained,” Ms. Park said, with a tone of uncertainty. “The North Koreans’ movement seemed awkward and artificial, as if they’d been heavily trained.”
“They’re pretty, but their looks seem to be artificially made,” said Shin Gyu-beom, a 22-year-old police officer assigned to guard the squad. “They don’t seem to have any individual movement of their own.”
If the two Koreas reunify, Mr. Shin said firmly, he doesn’t want a North Korean girlfriend.

Getting a little ahead of ourselves, I came across a Japundit post from 2005 that says while these women are quite popular throughout Asia, some worry that impressionable young South Koreans may be mesmerized and influenced by these Northern Beauties (duh).

I'm not swept up in the love affair with North Korean women, and because of their hollow movements and vacant, lifeless smiles, I place such feelings of lust just a touch above necrophelia. Maybe that's an insensitive analogy, since some North Korean cheerleaders did end up in prison camps in 2006, reportedly for talking about what they saw while touring the South on three different occassions. While the media doesn't seem to know for sure why the twenty-one women were arrested, the Chosun Ilbo reports on some testimony from a defector:

Another defector explained the cheerleaders are picked among university students, propaganda squad members and music school students from good families. Before they were sent to South Korea, they had to sign a pledge bearing their 10 fingerprints that says if they are going to an enemy country -- Pyongyang’s epithet for the South -- they must fight as soldiers of leader Kim Jong-il and never talk about what they have seen or heard in South Korea once they return. They agree to accept punishment if they break the promise.

So bitterly ironic. Representing at one time the simplistic, beautiful utopia many South Koreans imagine to exist, and later falling victim to the country's harsh reality. I like how commenter "slim" summed things up on a One Free Korea post from 2006:

I was in Pusan in 2002 and the striking thing for me is how the Korean press and public were affixed on the women, while Western reporters focused on the cage.

Those who aren't locked up will be forming a single cheerleading team with South Korean cheerleaders for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but they won't be---in a strange choice of words---"unifying the dormitories." There are a couple other stories that didn't fit in anywhere else up there, such as this one on the disappearance of Nepalese runner Alisha Awal in the middle of the Games. According to Yonhap:

Police assume the 21-year-old athlete has contacted her boyfriend, Siraram Chaudary, who fled the athletes' village in similar circumstances during last year's Asian Games held in the southeastern port city of Pusan.

Also, looks like an Iranian Taekwondo athlete lost his medal to a South Korean guy over some bad officiating. And, another story that I can't fit anywhere else happened in Japan.

Tensions are rising across Japan before the scheduled docking of a controversial North Korean ferry (Monday) at the northern Japanese coastal city of Niigata. Steven Shayman in Tokyo reports that Japanese police have defused two bombs planted by suspected rightists near a North Korean-linked bank and a building of a pro-Pyongyang residents' group in the western Japanese city of Fukuoka.

More from the New York Times and the BBC.

And, while all this brouhaha was happening in South Korea, a group of 256 Jeju residents made a visit North bringing gifts of carrots and tangerines.

And this doesn't really fit the general trajectory of the post and with the Universiade, but on the topic of "North Korea's living exports" and North Korean women, I was reminded of the series cell phone commercials a few years back with Lee Hyori and North Korean dancer Cho Myong-ae. There is one commercial on youtube here. Googling around I see Cho also participated in a cross-country drama called "Sayuksin." There's an article here from the Korea Times, and I would make a joke about "all look same" but I don't think you'd find it funny, so I won't.

Epilogue: Matt pointed out in his comment something I'm frequently guilty of, the tendency to ramble on to no point and to forget what I was talking or writing about when I started. He suggested I put together a concluding paragraph to tie things together, and I'm a little embarrassed to say that the articles themselves were kinda the point. After I came across that Marmot's Hole post I started googling around to find other accounts of the story, but instead found many articles talking about palpable tension between the North and South. I found them interesting mostly because I had never paid attention to the Universiade before, and wouldn't have even heard of it at all if Gwangju weren't trying to host it and if stories about it didn't pop into my news feed. Now, I think there are several issues here that could be fleshed out into huge posts, if not chapters, by more able writers: the cheerleaders, for example, or why President Roh "apologized," why---or why not---it was necessary, expected, or typical. If I can think of a better conclusion I'll add it.

I suppose the point of this post, long-winded as it was, was to talk a little about what happened when the Universiade was last here, since I wonder how many people in the area even know what Universiade is. Personally I don't care too much about those Games, and I don't pay attention to college sports that aren't played on a gridiron on Saturday afternoon. Am I suggesting those conflicts will happen again? No, and I'm not trying to compare those demonstrations to, say, what I saw in Gwangju last weekend. I guess "그냥" is a bad answer to people who spent a long time scrolling through this, but I just thought the topic was kind of interesting.

Seoul Podcast with Michael White's mother.

If you haven't heard it yet, go and listen to Seoul Podcast's hour-long interview with Stephanie White, the mother of Michael White, the 14-year-old boy who died last week in a Gyeongsan sauna. Forget everything you've ever heard about the incompetence, laziness, callousness, and stupidity endemic among Korean police and medical workers, because this will throw all that out the window. I would summarize things a little bit and include some excerpts, but I think our computers would explode. Or, you'd put your fist through the monitor.

I don't want to editorialize too much here because it's such a recent and sensitive issue, but this is absolutely ridiculous, and Jesus Fucking Christ, can we get the word spread to as many as possible and reach a Korean audience as well? I know that too many of the expats in Korea with influence and Korean-language skills are too indifferent, too jaded, too lazy, too aloof, or too self-absorbed to do much beyond shake their head and mutter something about being a shame, but how about paying attention, for a change, to what is truly important in our "community."

Some stuff about Korean love motels, so pay attention.

I love love motels, and am really thankful that because Koreans love to travel so much, we can find motels all over the place. *cough* For those who don't know, love motels have that nickname because they are frequented by young couples who need to get out of the house for a bit and by adults looking for a little privacy, extramarital and otherwise. They charge a rate per night, and will charge about half that for a two-hour block (휴식). Hardly enough time to sleep, I know, but Koreans tend to be sleep-deprived. In an English conversation textbook I have at school, believe it or not, before the 2002 World Cup they were called "World Inns" to try to appeal to foreigners' Victorian sensibiities.

But, in all honesty, I do think they're wonderful and I always do my best to pick a good one when I'm out of town. Always exciting to open that door and see what you get, and that's not a euphamism for anything. The folks at the desk must feel the same way because they sometimes stick cameras in the rooms, so it's a good thing I'm a big black fuck ox I don't do anything too stupid.

Even as a kid hotels and motels were great because (a) it meant we were on vacation, and (b) it meant that we could probably go swimming in the pool, and (c) it meant that after swimming we could eat junk food and watch TV. And, you know, famous football man Carson Palmer could probably include my family among those "whose idea of a vacation is to go downtown and stay in a hotel." In Korea one of the big plusses of motels was that I could have a beer and smoke cigarettes while watching TV---because I never liked to smoke in my apartment---but ever since I quit smoking that's not so important anymore.

Motels are superior to tourist hotels for a number of reasons. First is price, as motels generally cost a fraction of what tourist hotels would. Suncheon, for example, has three tourist hotels. A standard room at the Suncheon Royal Tourist Hotel is 80,000 won, and the most expensive Royal Suite Room is 350,000 won per night. The Royal Tourist has, according to the website, a variety of amenities, including restaurants, a game room, and various clubs, though to its disadvantage it is located in a lackluster part of town and is surrounded by massage parlors, singing rooms, and coffee shops with tinted windows. The City Tourist Hotel is located in "Old Downtown," and though most of the websites referring to it are down, at last check the cheapest rate was 65,000 won per night. It looks pretty crappy from the outside, and wouldn't be among my first choices if I were just passing by. There is no information available for the third hotel, Yushimcheon Tourist Hotel, recently built a block north of Suncheon National University.

The rates aren't exorbitant, and are much less than you'd find if you were looking for something in a major Asian city through one of the big travel sites. However, a standard room in a motel will cost between 30,000 and 40,000 won, and provided you judge it by its cover and pick one that looks nice, is probably newer, cleaner, fancier, and better equipped. Compare the hotels above with, for example, Suncheon's Ivy Motel. The rooms cost between 35,000 and 60,000, and provided there is no wall of porn in the hallway, the Ivy Motel would be a place I'd feel comfortable putting up guests.


A look at the Ivy's "VIP Room."

The rooms in tourist hotels have been unimpressive. While they weren't terribly dirty, they were old and not very nice-looking. Moreover, in spite of the higher rates, they didn't offer anything a motel lacked, and in fact they had quite a bit less. For 65,000 won a night you can book a room in the shitty-looking City Tourist Hotel in Suncheon, or for the same amount or less you can get a motel room on Haeundae Beach in Busan. I stayed in the Noblesse, and for 60,000 won I got a computer---two actually---a TV that projected onto a drop-down screen, a refrigerator, water cooler, jacuzzi, free ramyeon, a big bed, and all kinds of bizarre lights. And, I was a block away from the best-known beach in the country. So motels are cheaper, generally cleaner and fancier, and have nicer stuff. And that's not even getting into the "theme motels" with quirky, swanky rooms that still cost much less than a tourist hotel, and with loads more character and charm than some generic place that deigns to have an Engrish-language site.




Inside a few different rooms at the Busan W, with rooms between 45,000 and 80,000 won per night. I cherrypicked this and others because it would be far too time-consuming to go through each one, but if you have a few extra minutes, you might poke around the websites I mention a few paragraphs down.

In fact, the nicer love motels I've visited in Korea have easily trumped any place I've stayed in the U.S., and you know I'm kind of tempted to rank them above the highest-ranked places I've visited in Asia. The thing about expensive places is that you reach a certain point where the amenities are not really necessary, and essentially paying for reputation rather than services rendered. I'm not sure how to word it properly, but what I mean is, if you're paying $400 a night, it is assumed you won't mind paying $4 for each bottle of water, or $3 for each bag of coffee, or having to tip porters and waiters. If you're in a nice motel, though, you're saving a ton of money by paying a much lower rate, and you're also free to enjoy the . . . free amenities, without feeling, or being made to feel, cheap or embarrassed.

People are often forced to book with tourist hotels because they are the usually the only ones with English-language websites, and are the only ones that will turn up in a google search. But those who can navigate Korean sites have many more options. There are a couple good love motel directories available online. The best one is Hotel 365 and is for Seoul and parts of Gyeonggi. You can search by name or by location (including by subway station), and you'll get pictures, prices, and maps for tons of hotels.

Motel Guide isn't as comprehensive, but is still an interesting resource. Yanolja.com, a dating website, is awesome and has a box on the right with all kinds of recommended "theme motels," and you can find loads of pictures and directions to each one. Also, you can browse a bunch of motels if you click the "모텔정보" tab on the top-left. At this one you can choose a Motorcycle Room with an actual motorcycle in there, or a Night Club room with a stripper pole.



For places outside of Seoul and Gyeonggi there doesn't seem to be any huge directories, although some of the sites I mentioned up there have a few listings for the other large cities. Granted, I haven't looked much outside of Gwangju or Jeollanam-do, though. I've seen a couple motels marked "good stay" and featuring a government logo, but visiting that website takes you to Visit Korea, a site that doesn't have a whole lot of information on things that aren't tourist hotels. Their page on Jeollanam-do hotels is here.

What you can do, though, is use Naver to give you an idea of what's in the area you'd like to visit. I should say first that, at least for Jeollanam-do, you'll pretty much never have to worry about finding a room, unless you're visiting a town during a big festival. I get hits from google searches for "Gurye motel" or "motel in Gokseong," or things like that, and while you're not likely to find many specifics online, I will just say that there are more than enough motels in these places. The town of Gangjin-eup (population 16,000) has, at last check, 13, and that's not including the dozen or so flop-houses that I don't even want to think about, and nor does it include the few motels and pensions scattered elsewhere throughout the county. Anyway, you can use Naver to see what's available. For example you can run a search on 강진읍모텔 or 강진모텔 and scroll down to the map and see where the motels are, what their phone numbers are, and what their webpages are, if applicable. Motels are most likely to be clustered around the bus station in smaller towns, but because they are also among the tallest buildings in these areas, you should have no problem finding others. For larger cities---Busan, for example---try searching for the neighborhood. 해운대구, for example, for the neighborhood that includes Haeundae Beach. Because it's a popular area your search will not only turn up tons of motels, but will turn up tons of motels with their own websites, so you can browse pics and prices ahead of time.

As far as Suncheon goes, Naver tells us there are 101 motels, though that's not including ones without "motel" in the name, and that number is for the entire city, not just the heavily-populated areas you're likely to be visiting. There are a few areas with high concentrations of motels, should you be in need. There are some around the Suncheon Station and around the Intercity Bus Terminal (not the Express Bus Terminal). There are about a dozen new, nice ones a block behind Home Plus. There are a few new ones across from E-Mart. And there are a few dozen in Geumdang, next to the bars, clubs, singing rooms, and other places typical of that kind of neighborhood. The popular foreigner bars are in this area, so should you need to spend the night you'll have no problem finding a room.

I'll get into Gwangju another time, but will just add that I prefer to head over to Sangmu, even though the clash between "rapidly expanding commercial and residential area" and "area built almost entirely upon the sex industry," is jarring. The motels are much newer and much cleaner than those in town, although you do have to do the "walk of shame" in the morning and trample over naked lady calling cards as you walk past the fifteen brothels, hundred motels, and brand-new high-rises (and the Outback, TGIFriday's, three movie theaters, and government buildings) on your way back to the subway station. It is too time-consuming to type out a guide for each city and county, but like I said, just play around with Naver. If you run a search on Yeosu, for example, you'll be able to find out the neighborhoods that have plenty of motels. You can even calculate taxi fares to and from these places.

Slightly related, one of my first introductions to Korea was a motel. I arrived at the airport and my recruiter picked me up---two hours late---and took me directly to school to begin the way so many horror stories begin. To continue that down that road, my boss said my apartment was not ready, and that I would have to stay in a motel. It was okay, though, the 테마모텔 in Yongin, down the street from the old Wal-Mart. Had neon palm trees. Also slightly related, but when I was in Gwangju a couple of weekends ago, I saw Ironman, and before the previews an advertisement came up for Amortel, in Hwasun county. From the website it looks incredibly nice, with five varieties of rooms ranging from 40,000 to 100,000 won. And yes, I think that is a goddamn telescope on the goddamn balcony of the VIP room.


On the balcony of the VIP Room, 100,000 won per night.


The Equalizer Room (hahaha), 40,000 won per night.

A

Thanks to the scholars on Dave's I think I've gotten to the bottom of why my students think saying "A" is funny. On the show "우리결혼했어요" some guy Crown J does that to indicate he's from Atlanta. Except, he's from Los Angeles. Crown J is the guy at the end of that new Jewelry video, the one who throws down the "A" gang sign. You can scroll to about 3:00 of this video to see him throw down the "A," and can skip to about 5:45 to see him do things "LA 스타일." There's another one of him and the oldest-looking 23-year-old here (1:40). I don't care how black tough you think are, you can't act all hard n shit if you're in an upscale hair salon with a girlfriend who wants you to get a couple's cut. There are some clips out there of him speaking English, including the one I just linked and this one (which comes complete with the requisite ridiculous rendering of my native language and culture), because he lived in the US for 12 years, and like every other Korean from California, he talks like he's auditioning for a Dr. Dre video. I'm sure there are lots more examples, but honestly I would like somebody else to do the legwork because I don't think I can watch much more of that show. It features two of the most annoying Asians that I can think of right now and they deserve each other. Crown J and Suh In-young are henceforth added to the Wall-of-Shame, which already includes:


Kim Hyo-jin.


Dr. George Huang


Nute Gunray.

SG Wannabe's "라라라."

This video cannot be explained.

Young guy smacks around old woman selling kimbap at a rally, caught on tape.

Looks like this (video) happened at an anti-beef rally in Seoul yesterday, which always seem to bring out the best in people. It's in the Korean news, here and here for example, and in the Joongang Ilbo English-language version today.

Update: Should that daum site close, it's now on youtube here.

So I guess they're going to start with everybody named "Kim"?

I already invited the Anti-English Spectrum club to go fuck itself, and I'll have to extend the same courtesy to the Korea Association of Foreign Language Academies. Where to begin with this latest gem from the KT?

``The government is under the illusion that an unlimited number of English teachers exists overseas,’’ said Seo Jung-sook, information director of the association. ``Inviting more foreign teachers will eventually degrade the average quality of instructors and drive up costs for us.’’

Native English speakers who have no teaching experience in their 20s receive the same salaries as Koreans who have taught English for more than 10 years, she said.

I have no idea why a Korean English teacher would earn less money than a native speaker. Unless you count the whole "suck at English" part, and "can't pronounce 'th,' 'v,' 'f,' 'z,' 'l,' and 'r.'" Not being able to produce a grammatical sentence to save one's life could be considered a big disadvantage, as could not being able to pronounce a huge fraction of a language's sounds.

Not worth getting into the article too much, but I found this amusing:

As for the proposed association for native English-speaking instructors, the owners said they will not hire teachers hired who belong to the union-like body.

``I don’t think the association will truly represent foreign English teachers, so we don’t see any point in talking with it, even if it is established,'' Choi said. KAFLA said it will take all measures possible to prevent foreign teachers from forming the representative body.

Really not sure why the Korea Times is allowing these one-sided hit pieces to go on. They have yet to acknowledge or run the rebuttal I wrote last week to the Anti-English Spectrum article.

Remembering.

Those paintings were on display at various places on Chungjang-no and in front of the Old Provincial Office on May 17th and 18th as part of a huge street festival commemorating the Gwangju Massacre. The one of the tank running over the Korean flag is called "Han," and the large mural of soldiers aiming at children is likely meant to depict Americans, given the soldiers' large noses and the painting's location next to these others. I have to question the sanity of those who constantly invoke this incident, as it's not used to preserve the memory of those two girls, but rather to encapsulate a victimization complex that is so vital to the national psyche. Obviously the intention is not to foster pathos or sympathy, but to provoke anger, anger so important to the current struggle against American beef. After all, if the artists were looking to depict sorrow, or to trigger feelings of helplessness and terror, and if the festival organizers were truly aiming toward that end, they could have chosen pieces that represented the Gwangju Massacre, the reason, like, the street festival was happening in the first place. There were a few others in the series, including two of a mother weeping over her daughter killed in 2002.

Granted, I've cherrypicked this display out of others on, for example, the tornado cyclone in Burma, but the paintings were prominently displayed and did occupy spots next to a series of much larger anti-FTA posters. Likewise, this was not at some county fair in Gangjin, or a get-together in some unremarkable corner of the country, these were on display at a massive rally hosted by "The 28th Memorial Commemorative Committee for the May 18 Democratic Uprising." A common refrain heard among Koreans is the need for self-determination by retaking their own country from overbearing foreign influences, and in this the FTA, the 2002 tank incident, and certain representations of the 1980 Massacre are united. While I don't understand much Korean, and may be wrong, I suspect this is how the American beef protests and the anti-American displays were introduced to commemoration of a domestic massacre. I suspect invoking "the spirit of the 1980 democratic movement" is how that all worked out.

I didn't really know what to expect from this particular rally, but went because it was on a weekend and because I know next to nothing about the Massacre. The program talked about events happening all day along Chungjang-no and in Democracy Square. I've attached a scan of the program, which I stole off this 518 International Solidarity Program post:



I did my best to cover the events of that day and evening, in the hopes of at least getting a few photos. I watched the parade, I went to the candlelight vigil, and I listened to an hour of speeches on Amerian beef. When they brought out the kindergarten children to sing songs about Mad Cow Disease, though, I left and went somewhere else. The candles were distributed during one of the speeches, and when they were lit the lights were dropped and they showed scenes from the Massacre intercut with a few shots of Lee Myung-bak. Playing over the pictures and videos of beatings and corpses was Wanger's "Ride of the Valkyries." After a few minutes of that the music switched to that "Pilsung Korea" song and the videos switched from the Massacre to Mad Cow Disease. Plenty of videos of Lee Myung-bak, Noh Moo-hyun, and George Bush, and plenty of clips of cows being dragged by the neck, cows in pens, and cows staggering around. That went on for several minutes, too, and the MC returned to make more speeches and to direct the audience to do the wave with their candles. Then, a little while later a group of children came out to sing and dance about Mad Cow Disease, and I left. I have no idea what transpired in the hour or so that remained---the program said there would be some songs and a torch parade---it was clear that as little mind was paid to the Massacre's victims as possible. Unless you consider juxtaposing a week of terror with Lee Myung-bak and diseased cows to be mindful.

Here are a few more pictures of the parade which made its way down Chungjang-no and terminated at the Old Provincial Hall. My apologies for the quality, I had to rely on my cellphone.


The truck full of soldiers led the parade and were on their way to Democracy Square to recreate a battle.



The drummers all had messages about the FTA printed on red cloth tied to their drums.








The back of the truck had several bags of water balloons, which people of all ages could throw at two angry American bulls on either side and at Lee Myung-bak as a bull on the back.



Mother and daughter bonding.


This guy was standing in front of me and I was pissed that he wouldn't move so the strap would expose the swastika. Finally heaven smiled down on me.



Like I said, I didn't know what to expect from the May 17th events, though I guess I hoped for a little more solemnity and a little bit more information on the Massacre itself. Had I checked the papers on May 17th, though, I probably wouldn't have been so surprised. From the Hankyoreh:

It is also expected that unions, students and farmers will hold a series of rallies against the resumption of U.S. beef imports, the cross-country waterway and mistreatment of irregular workers. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, one of the country’s two major umbrella labor groups, and Hanchongyeon, a umbrella organization for university student unions, will participate in a national convention designed to recapture the spirit of the Gwangju Uprising to be held in front of the former provincial office building on May 18 following rallies at Gwangju Station and Chosun University on the previous day. The two groups will issue a “May statement” to protest the importation of U.S. beef and the ROK-U.S. free trade agreement.

While I guess some would claim I unfairly portrayed the day's events by posting those few paintings up top, nobody could seriously argue that I've misrepresented the day's theme, which was to demonstrate against the FTA and American beef.



I planned to visit the May 18th National Cemetery for the first time on May 18th, and happened across the aptly-numbered city bus 518 which made lots of stops downtown and which would hit both the new cemetary and the old one. Unlike the event last night and the rallies last week, which drew lots of families and young people, respectively, this bus was full of old people, people who obviously were adults in 1980. While I was on the bus to the cemetery I started thinking about the previous night and about what exactly I was doing and why I was "expecting" a certain mood. I thought back to all the stuff surrounding the Namdaemun fire---anybody remember that?---and the articles on "dark tourism" that called the arson the emotional equivalent of 9/11 and likened tourism to the charred gate to seeing Auschwitz or visiting the Cambodian Killing Fields. Moreso than Namdaemun, the cemetery and all of the many other spots in Gwangju represent far better examples of "dark tourism," because the Massacre actually had human victims. And this sentence doesn't fit, but I recall the furor over a few pictures of Japanese tourists happily posing in front of the ruins of Namdaemun, while Korean tourists both on 5/18 and at other times find no fault with enjoying themselves in a graveyard, all of which really reminds us how hard lots of people were trying to create some emotional attachment to the fallen gate. Anyway, here's what the plaque in front of the cemetery says:

Here in the National Cemetery for the May 18th Democratic Uprising lie the meritorious persons who fought and sacrificed themselves during the Gwangju Uprising of 1980 and those laudable victims who died in the aftermath of the physical or mental injuries they sustained.
The bodies of the victims were carried in garbage trucks and carts and buried without official recognition in the Old May 18 Cemetery (the 3rd graveyard of the Municipal Cemetery).
With the completion of a 3-year consecration project (1994-1997), all bodies were movied and reburied together in this new cemetery. In accordance with the Act on the Honorable Treatment for Meritorious Persons of the May 18th Uprising, this cemetery, which had een managed by the Gwangju Municipal Administration, was promoted and renamed as the National Cemetery for the May 18th Democratic Uprising on July 27, 2002 by the Korean state.
This cemetery will function as an education center, promoting the conviction that injustice and dictatorships hould never return to this country, so that the spirit of May 18th may be engraved in the hearts of all people making this a sacred place for democracy forever.

There's some perspective for you. It's not my place to try and pretend to tell people what they should remember and how they ought to remember it, but I just found it strange to see how the memory of the massacre was being trumped by the imagined fears of Mad Cow Disease. While I understand---but disagree with---the symbolism attributed to beef and the FTA, and that it's becoming as much an issue of national survival as it is personal, I cannot consider further politicizing these 200-some deaths as anything but bad taste. Ironic that a quote-unquote democratic movement is being invoked to squash an open market. And as I wandered among the graves and rows of tombs filled with teenagers, it struck me that students today are imbibed with the same furor over beef that the young people buried here had for their causes. It's well beyond my means to examine the true motives of all those who faught, who were caught up in fighting, who witnessed the fighting, and were killed, but the irony of the scene was palpable. There can be no mistake that the fight against beef was being cast to resemble the fight against military rule, especially when we consider the video shown the night before and political cartoons like this.

I got there around 10:30, just as the President and other dignitaries were leaving. There were thousands of police in riot gear, thousands of other uniformed cops, and rows of bodyguards, all of whom thinned out after the motorcade left. The mood when I arrived was more solemn than the night before, likely because "more than 3,000 family members of the victims and social representatives were expected to attend," according to that Hankyoreh article. The next day the Chosun Ilbo put that figure at 2,500, and quoted President Lee as saying:

"I'm lowering my head to pray for the repose of the souls of those who fell during the 1980 movement for freedom and democracy 28 years ago today. The spirit of the 1980 democratic movement is a valuable asset in itself. But we must develop it as a spiritual pillar with which we can build a top-notch, advanced nation."

Other parts of the morning were not as solemn. In the first picture there is a woman in white weeping over the grave of, presumably, a child, as photographers gathered around her. The same scene was repeated anytime a woman, always in white, would sit beside a grave and weep.




In the second picture, this man crouches between two plots to take a photo of an old woman to my left. After I was in the park for a little while the crowd became younger. All day long students crowded around this tomb to pay their respects. In the photo below a group had just finished singing a song and were being directed and subsequently interviewed by a man in the foreground.



Other students had come to complete a homework assignment and bowed in front of each grave. Others were, I'm sure, just doing the same thing as me. But the groups that stood out were those under the literal and figurative banners. Lots of these university students brought their anti-FTA cards and t-shirts with them as they followed their guide around the park. Others, like in the last picture, marched under the banner of Che Guevara.




I'll finish this off by quoting from another plaque at the cemetery's entrance. Entitled "The Meaning of the May 18 Gwangju Democratic Uprising" the English part of the bilingual plaque reads (emphasis mine):

The May 18 Gwangju Democratic Uprising was a civil uprising against a military dictatorship conspiring to seize political power illegally, in which citizens demanded a true democracy in Korea. It was an eruption of the people's strong desire to declare themselves as masters of their own history and to defend their rights.
The May 18 Gwangju Democratic Uprising provided the momentum for other democratic movements in Korea and confirmed that the people, once awakend (sic), are the driving force in the development of a democratic society. The Uprising was a legitimate and just struggle against injustice and dictatorship.
In addition, the May 18 Gwangju Democratic Uprising played an important role in unveiling the immorality of the military regime of the Fifth Republic.
Furthermore, it was a decisive moment which eventually brought an end to the illegitimate political system and gave birth to a truly democratic government, when for the first time in its history a peaceful turnover of political power from the government party to an opposition party occurred in February 1998.
The Gwangju Democratic Uprising will be remembered as a people's struggle, which not only inherited the tradition of independence, democracy and reunification that had manifested itself in past historical struggles for human rights but also introduced a new indestructible determination for justice in the modern history of Korea.

Edit: I forgot to mention this, but anyone interested in reading some interesting perspectives on the Gwangju Uprising ought to browse through the posts in Gusts of Popular Feeling's Kwangju Uprising category. He hits on a number of issues I've been thinking about these past couple days, and I've found this post particularly interesting. Who knew that the Gwangju Massacre had its own cartoon mascot?

I normally lose patience with crazy people in their underwear after about twenty minutes.

But the Suncheon police displayed incredible restraint by indulging an adjosshi's drunken rants for a full ninety minutes. He was wearing nothing but underwear and a scowl. Korea Beat broke the story, as usual, and I have next year's Halloween costume. Comfortable, cheap, and topical: a triple threat. The story is also here, from the local paper, in Korean.

Jewelry continues their assault on English, early 90s fashion.

Not happy with just making it impossible for me to use the phrase "one more time" in class, the pop group Jewelry continues their assault on the English language with their latest single "모두 다 쉿." Christ, it's bad. Back when Jewelry reformed they got two new members, one of whom is a rapper and needs to be put down. She comes in at about 2:12 of that video, and I was gonna transcribe what she said, but I found the lyrics on Naver. They don't look right at all, but it's next to impossible to understand what her horse-face is saying. According to Naver she is saying:

shake ya! I get sexy ladies all over th floor.
walk it walk it walk it out sexy sexy sexy girl
walk that body baby now break it down.
I just want to touch me Let me talk to you.
bring it on.

Hahahaha, yeah girl, walk it. Then at about 3:20 a guy rolls up. He's wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates cap and then he throws down a gang sign. Nigga think he hard but he ain't shit.



And, I can't go without mentioning the commercial with Super Junior and Girls Generation for Sunkist's "스위티에이드" drink. Holy fucking shit, it was hard enough to get kids to not call things "cutey" and "sweety" before, but now it's game over. That commercial is now playing nonstop on Korean MTV. Sunkist is no stranger to commercials that make me want to move some furniture around. See here and here (that's Brian) and here, and see here for one filmed in Bundang, a few buildings away from my old hagwon. In unrelated news, when I uploaded that video of the rappers at the Gwangju anti-beef rally I wanted to add the label "Korean rap," but labels can only be one word, so I wrote "K-rap." *cough* Oh, and guess what, that file from Club Cyon has slowed my computer to a crawl, and I've had IE crash five times since downloading it a few hours ago.

Oh, this and that.

All this could have been avoided if I had just remembered my camera. Fortunately I left my camera on my desk, and didn't drop it somewhere between Suncheon and Gwangju as I originally thought. But that meant I had to rely on my cameraphone for pictures of the various events in Gwangju this weekend, and I'm having a hell of a time trying to transfer the photos from my phone to my computer. I've visited nearly a half-dozen LG stores, purchased a UB cable, downloaded two different programs, but no luck. The most recent program, "Mobile Sync II" from Club Cyon is now asking me for my phone's 비밀번호, which as far as I know doesn't exist. I didn't make one, anyway, but I bought my phone secondhand from a local LG store, and I'm going there tomorrow to see if they can help me out. I'm not leaving until they figure out the number, download and run that program, show me exactly how to get my photos, and actually take a few from the camera and put it on their computer. I figured it'd be as simple as plugging the phone into the computer, but no. Even a middle school girl can do it, right?

Anyway, I took a ton of photos with my phone at some of the memorial services commemorating the Gwangju Massacre. I was hoping to bang that lengthy write-up out tonight, but it wouldn't be very effective without pictures. It will be an interesting write-up, if I do say so myself, but without photos it would just be conjecture without proof or illustrations. Like the Korea Herald. I'm shooting for tomorrow night, then. All this could have been avoided had I just remembered my camera. It was in my hand yesterday morning when I put in the battery, but I guess my dumb ass was distracted by something else.

Speaking of distractions, I found out where you can go in Gwangju to see women in bikini-tops posing in windows in front of "singing rooms," and it's not where you'd really expect to find them. Even though I'm only 5'7" 140 *ding*, I still cut a nice figure and the women were calling me a "hero" as I walked by. At least I think that's what they said. I don't really think I should say where to find these singing rooms, because I don't want to turn that neighborhood into a tourist attraction. Even if I did want to do a little more research, it'd be impossible because Navering 유흥주점 will lead me to an age-restricted area. Actually, while running a google search on that neighborhood I didn't find any references to the sex industry---but then again my Korean sucks---but I did find a blog with a ton of neat old photos of Korea, culled from various sources (here, here, and here, with more if you browse through the page numbers at the bottom). Photos of some Jeollanam-do islands at the bottom of this page.

And on the topic of women who I find more attractive than I should probably admit, I spent a little time at the 2008 Gwangju F1 & Super Car Show on Saturday. I count it among the most surreal Korean experiences I've had. Like I said I didn't have my camera---I think I would have felt too creepy to even take pictures if I had brought it---but you can find a ton of photos via a Naver search, especially on the blogs. Both at the show and at the various 5/18 stuff I ended up in the background of a lot of photos. Sometimes I'd even turn to find somebody with a lens pointed at me. If I get some free time this week or next I'm going to have to play "Where's Waldo." But, doesn't look like there's too much online from yesterday. Anyway, the visit begged the question why hasn't Korea discovered strapless bras? why can't I get my wife and kids to come with me while I look at hot women?


Hahaha, there was a lot of that going on.


Okay, I took a couple of pictures, this one for example.

And because I'll probably never have an opportunity to use this again, you're getting this link now. Boryeong's Ajou Motor College, where you can go to school to learn how to be a racing girl. Actually, I found that link about a year ago, and from what I can tell that program is no longer offered. :( At the car show there was a section of stuff done by students at Chunnam Techno College, and though the school brochures had racing girls, it doesn't look like the school offers such a course. But they do offer programs in fields like E-Sports, Modelling, Car Audio, and Taekwondo, making these students about 89% more interesting than most college-age people I've endured.

Fuck you Anti-English Spectrum.

Yeah, really, fuck you. There's this in the Korea Times:

A Civic group said that its actions to expel illegal English teachers will help upgrade the image of legal foreign educators.

The group, named ``Citizens' Association for Lawful English Education,'' has some 16,000 members on its Web site (cafe.naver.com/englishspectrum).

That URL was a dead give away of what that group is all about. The cafe used to be called "Anti-English Spectrum," but I guess it dressed itself up as of late and replaced the old banner of a wet t-shirt contest with a new one of small children writing their ABCs. This cafe is as much an image upgrade as a kick in the face is a nose job, and I may have to eventually take the KT to task for this very one-sided profile on a domestic hate group. If you don't recall what "Spectrumgate" was about, refer to this Marmot's Hole post. Essentially some netizens became enraged about some posts on a former incarnation of "English Spectrum," including threads about how to seduce Korean women. There were also some threads featuring advertisements of, and pictures from, biracial clubs and wet t-shirt contests. That Marmot's Hole thread has tons of information, including translations of what was passed around the internet, what was said on Anti-English Spectrum, and even some interviews with two of the girls in the compromising photos (whose answers might surprise you). I'll just say that it's always terribly ironic when Korean men develop the sudden urge to protect their women.

Anyway, according to The Marmot's Hole, one of the internet reactions to all this was a "Counter-Yankee Strike Force":

The Korean portal site Daum has also started a petition signing campaign to expel “low-quality foreign teachers.” They’re looking for 10,000 signatures, and they’ve got about 3,931. The campaign is also recruiting a “[Counter-] Yankee Strike Force.” They say the use of violence is prohibited, but they’d like to get together and hold a protest demonstration. There targets are 1) the “Yankee bastards” who put up the instructions on how to molest female students, and their accomplices; 2) the “Yankee bastards” who threw the wild party in Hongik; 3) the club owner; 4) institute owners who hire ex-cons or under-qualified teachers; 5) as a “bonus,” drunk GIs who might be in the Shinchon area starting fights with local citizens. Membership is open to all Korean nationals (no kyopos allowed, apparently — perhaps the organizers read this) with “wholesome thoughts (more like worldview).” They’ll meet at 6:00 p.m. Saturday near the front gate of Hongik. Be there… or be square.

Violence was prohibited, hahaha, but the anger and aggression around that time became so great that the U.S. Embassy in Korea issued a warning on January 21, 2005:

Recently, inflammatory sexual content was posted to a website for English language teachers in Korea. That posting together with subsequent postings were taken by some to demean Korean women. We have noted recently, strong reaction in the form of web postings threatening attacks in the vicinity of Hongik University and the Sinchon area against Americans and other foreigners who speak English. All Americans and their families (especially young adults) are encouraged to exercise prudence and caution when visiting these neighborhoods. The Embassy advises that inappropriate social behavior in public may be seen as provocative by Korean nationals.

Like the anti-American protests of 2002 and 2003, this Spectrumgate garbage is something to remind us of just how ugly our neighbors can be when they put their minds to hate-mongering.

Memorial service held for Hyocheon HS students killed on their field trip.

Earlier this week Suncheon's Hyocheon High School held a memorial service for the two students killed in a bus accident while on their school trip to Jeju. A lot of questions about the accident remain, including why was a taxi driver behind the wheel of the bus? (Well, Jeju is a popular spot for trips this time of year, but still.) Running a Naver search will turn up plenty of photos and videos reporting on the accident, though I don't really have the stomach for them.



I did come across, though, this article and subsequent video of students destroying the floral arrangements after the service. The above photo comes from this article and seems to have some more information. Take a look at the video below and, if you can, tell me a little about what the articles say.

Car Show, Rose Festival, 5/18 commemoration events, and candlelight rallies.

Besides the 2008 Gwangju F1 & Super Car Show, there are some other things going on this weekend in Gwangju that might appeal to those visiting to commemorate the anniversary of the Gwangju Massacre. There will be a Rose Festival on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in the rose garden at Chosun National University. You can find a list of 5/18 commemoration events here, from the 518 International Solidarity Program. There are a ton of things scheduled for this coming weekend and next, at locations all over the city, and I haven't the time to get into them, so check the programs scanned and uploaded on that site.

Ah, and anybody in Suncheon next week may be in the mood to check out some candlelight rallies against the import of American beef. They will be held on the 17th, 21st, and 24th at 7 pm in front of Choeun Plaza in Yeonhyang-dong. Going to be totally awesome, I'm sure. *cough* Some Naver blogs are saying that roughly 300 or 400 people made it to the last rally in front of Suncheon National University. I expect about 65% of the crowd will be students, and I'm gonna guess that about 10% of them regularly wear a seatbelt and about 8% of them wash their hands after using the bathroom. 살고 싶다!

The suspicious death of 14-year-old Mike White.

Scroll down for updates.

Here's a story about a foreigner dying under suspicious circumstances that's been on Dave's the past few hours. Here is a message from his mother, copied and pasted from another site via Dave's:

Last Saturday, May 10th Mike, Corina, Maggie & I went to Royal Hawaii Sauna to relax. At 11:45 staff notified Corina & I that Mike needed to go to the hospital. I called his cell phone at 11:47 thinking he just needed stitches or something... it wouldnt be the first time ;-)

When he didn't answer, we threw on our clothes and rushed out to the parking lot to discover that Mike was already in the ambulance. There are ALOT of unanswered questions. The ambulance guy (1 of 2) was doing a crappy job of chest compressions. Apparently, the Sauna called Mike in as DOA & the ambulance was sent as transport only. After they arrived (LATE 11:40-11:45, they were called in at 11:02!!) they started CPR. This indicated that Mike was NOT absolutely NOT DOA

The really heartwrenching part for me, is that the staff didn't get me or Corina. We are both first reponder trained & we could have saved his life.

The autopsy showed he suffered damage to his throat, lungs & back of his mouth from extreme coughing & retching. Even if no one was in the room the sounds should have been echoing to alert staff/patrons that someone was in distress. The doctor who did the autopsy said there was a strong time frame when Mike could have been revived if folks had 1) responded to his distress 2) the staff didnt presume to know Mike's medical condidion without training 3) the ambulance had come earlier 4) THE STAFF HAD THOUGHT TO NOTIFY MIKE'S MOTHER!!!!

The manager of the Sauna keeps calling & wanting details about Mike's condition & autopsy. He knows he fucked up and he's scrambling to cover his ass. The cops hadn't even interviewed anyone from the Sauna so they're about pinkerton.

The police are already back peddling and saying they will "try" to find some answers to my questions. I think it would be better for everyone possible should be asking these questions to as many places & people as possible. The police say that I have to hire a lawyer to gather the information so they can process the case. So they are detectives who dont detect. Ah Korea sparkling~

It's been a long few days & I'm really needing to step back after riding with Mike to & back from Ulsan for the autopsy and then the police report. I'll add more information in the morning.

You can find another post on this here. This all seems to have taken place in Gyeongsan, Gyeongsanbuk-do, although none of the three sources have been specific. So far there are two vigils planned and there are Facebook groups set up to get organized and stay connected. One is at the US Embassy on Friday the 16th from 8:30 to 3:00 (more information here), and another one will be on Sunday from 12:30 to 4:00 in front of the sauna where he died (more information here). Here's an excerpt from the second group's description:

A silent gathering to show the Sauna that many people know of this and they are supporting Mike's mom in seeking answers as to why her healthy (autopsy certified) son was left to violently choke & retch untill unconsciousness then to call in the situation as a DOA.
Because this was called in as a DOA, the ambulance sent was for transport only & they waited 40 minutes before they came. The ambulance workers immediately saw the DOA was false & began CPR yet were not properly trained for this as they were only the DOA transport ambulance.
The Sauna also called ahead to the ER (DOA) so they were not prepared for intravension. The autopsy doctor said it was clear to him Mike could have been revived without question, even after 40 minutes there would have been only minimal brain damage (similar to a mild stroke).

I don't have much time this morning to look into it, although off-hand a few other cases of foreigners dying under suspicious circumstances come to mind. Bill Kapoun, for example, Matthew Sellers, and the University of Pittsburgh's Jamie Penich, who was found murdered in an Itaewon motel. Given the high number of foreigners who come to and through Korea, I'm not saying there is a rash of violence or negligence against them, especially since the vast majority are obviously not dying under suspicious circumstances. Moreover, I have no idea about how many Korean deaths go unsolved after little to no investigation. Just worth pointing out that the bit about having to hire a lawyer to finish processing the case is something we've heard before.

* Update 1: The story hit most of the blogs yesterday afternoon and appeared in the English-language Korean media yesterday evening. Not sure if it's in the Korean-language media. The Korea Times piece is here. A Marmot's Hole write-up is here.

Hey, you can't just press the buttons any old way you please.

I really can't stand when a Korean text will throw in random English words to dress it up and make it seem smart. Not only is it unabashedly elitist---especially since most readers will have no idea what the words actually mean in authentic English---and haughty, but the words are generally misspelled or totally out of place. Mild case in point with a little relevance to the old country, the February issue of the Chosun University News, still on stands in the Gwangju subway, talks about Penn State, the alma mater of my brother, father, two of my uncles, and, like, a quarter of people from Pittsburgh. The article is here, pages 32-33, in .pdf form, and here's an excerpt:

주립대학의 단과대학과 대학원의 거의 모두가 State Collage City에 있으나 의과대학(Penn. State University Medical College)은 펜실베이니아 주의 Capital city인 해리스버그의 인접 도시이면서 허쉬 초콜릿으로 유명한 허쉬에 있다. 이곳 허쉬병원 응급의학과에는 International emergency medicine의 fellowship 과정이 있고, 응급의 학 분야에서 세계적으로 유명한 Dr. Jholliman이 있어 방문 교환교수의 Supervisor로서 연구와 진료에 많은 배려를 하고 있다.

Now, I'll admit that I do often lobby for Koreans to just write the word in English rather than put it in Hangeul. Makes sense, and might eventually improve some of the atrocious pronunciation we've got around here. But in this article we've got spelling errors, factual errors, random punctuation, and arbitrary capitalization. Everything we've come to expect from every single scrap of English in this country. There is no State Collage, as you can probably guess, capital should't be capitalized (sorry), and the Dr. Jholliman refers to Dr. James Holliman. Nitpicking? Hardly. While this isn't the most face-slappingly stupid case of bad English we've probably seen even this week, there's no reason to ignore this one, and I don't think it can be stressed enough that the strange caveman symbols that take up half of a Korean keyboard actually have meaning to, like, hundreds of millions of people. Moreover, I know people throw "English" into words and songs to try to sound smart and cultured, but---and I have no fucking idea why this hasn't caught on yet and why nobody can be convinced of this---when you fuck it up, it makes you look even dumber than if there were no English at all. Sorry, rough day at the office.

Shake that ass.

I've got about a half-dozen good big posts in the can for the next week or two, but until then, here's something bizarre. For some reason I recently remembered that one of my favorite Korean songs is "엉덩이" by Banana Girl. It's catchy. I was looking around for it online when I found this video on Naver of her rehearsing the song at what looks like a nightclub. Looks like the only music video available for the song. You don't have to watch the whole thing because you'll get the gist of it after only a little while.



And if you were interested in seeing elementary school students do a 섹시댄스 routine to this song, whose refrain translates roughly to "shake your butt," you're in luck.

Folk Culture Festival at Nagan Folk Village.

Map, swiped from Naver.

Way behind schedule with this post, from the Nagan Folk Village (낙안읍성민속마을) on May 4th. The annual Folk Culture Festival was on for a couple of days, and that, plus being too under the weather to make it all the way to Namwon, made this as opportune time as any for my first visit.

Everybody who has ever been to Korea has done a blog entry on Nagan Folk Village, so I'll leave out a lot of the details and won't try to reinvent the wheel. Suffice it to say it's some 25 kilometers from downtown Suncheon, in one of the city's smaller villages Nagan-myeon (pop. 5,000), and is the considered the best-preserved folk village in the country. The town itself is surrounded by a wall (낙안읍성) that was built in the late 14th century to protect the town from Japanese pirates. Unlike the better-known folk village in Andong, this one isn't insanely boring, and was actually a very pleasant trip. It's one of Suncheon's representative tourist sites, and is part of the Suncheon City Bus Tour. You can also get there via city buses 63 and 68, or if you're in Beolgyo you can grab a bus bound for Nagan that leaves every half-hour.

The official site gives us a bit of an introduction with some Konglish and some unintentional humor:

Naganeupseong Folk Village harmonized with prominent mountain and beautiful river of Suncheon, is proud cultural heritage that shows naive citizen's characters symbolically, which is the only one in the world.

Okay, trying to be less of a smart ass I'll let someone else have their say, someone who apparently absolutely loves the village and who has three huge photo journals on it. An excerpt:

This place impressed me on several levels. Part museum, part artists' colony, and part time machine, this historic, inhabited fortress town is an ideal destination for those of us who adore travel but are easily bored by museums and standard touristy fare.

The Korean counterpart to Western Renaissance Fairs, folk villages are communities dedicated to preserving and perpetuating traditional customs and craftsmanship. The village at Nagan is exceptional in that it is housed inside a Chosun-era walled fortress, which in itself is a formidable historic landmark.

Anyway, within the walls are tons of thatched cottages, many of which now serve as minbak, restaurants, and private homes. A Naver search turns up 24 minbak in and around the walled village, and if you're interested in staying in a minbak you might want to poke around Namdo Minbak for some pictures and more information.

According to one source the village has 280 residents who own their own homes but who are responsible for maintenance and for keeping up appearances. (The official site says 229 as of December 31, 2004, and Suncheon says 279). Coincidentally, a story on the village turned up on my news feed below just now, and here's an excerpt:

Ahn Youn-soon, 46, a resident at this village which receives thousands of visitors daily, is unperturbed by the army of tourists who move about near her thatched cottage, a traditional residence.

“I’m used to living under the scrutiny of the tourists. I will carry out my household chores as usual whether there are tourists or not. I love to stay in this traditional residence; it is where I grew up.
“In the evenings, when all the tourists have gone, I laze in the garden listening to the birds chirping and enjoying the breeze. It is wonderful to be able to enjoy the beautiful scenery in a quiet way. It’s so peaceful and relaxing to be here,” said Ahn.

Ahn’s traditional house, like the others in the village, has two rooms and is surrounded by three other smaller thatched huts, which house the toilet, kitchen and storeroom respectively.

What makes Naganeupseong special compared to other traditional villages is that it’s not a tourist gimmick but a living village – families continue to live here. Some 230 people live in 100 thatched cottages here, and the government offers them a yearly allowance to maintain their cottages just as they are.

Besides the traditional houses, the village also has well-preserved Choson Dynasty government buildings, a market place, a village school, a bird-breeding farm and an old prison.

One source I mentioned earlier, Life in Korea, has an informative page on the village here, which borrows quite a bit from the pamphlet you get at the gate. You'll also find a lot of information and photos here from the Asian Historical Site, which has lots of information and photos on pretty much every sight worth seeing around here.

If you're waiting for another opportune time to visit, the Folk Village will host the annual Namdo Food Festival this October. Here are a few photos and a video:


Entering from the East Gate.





Here's a video of a volunteer from the crowd enjoying her time on camera. I only got a few seconds of it until, as you'd expect by this point, somebody decided to stand right in front of me.


The banner outside this exhibit says "Nackan Ehtnic Village Civer Bodily Sensation."


In case you didn't believe me.



A lot of this going on, as there was a photo contest.


Who's a good boy?




I was tempted to buy a piece of green celadon in the back as a gift, but I thought it'd be too tricky to try to mail it or carry it back to the States.


Took this picture near my apartment in December, but they fixed it before I had a chance to use it.

I also saw a woman wearing a shirt that said "Poodle Butts" but I didn't have the balls to try and sneak a picture.

Gangjin pottery more popular in the US than K-pop.

From the Gangjin Shinmun.

On May 9th the Smithsonian displayed some examples of celadon pottery from Gangjin county as part of the 22nd Annual Asian Arts and Crafts Festival. The Smithsonian exhibition and subsequent tour are to mark the one-year anniversary of the opening of the Smithsonian's Korea Gallery. You can find a Korean-language article with lots of pictures from yesterday's Gangjin Shinmun. Here's an excerpt from a write-up by the Korean Embassy in D.C.:

Gangjin celadon porcelain, a national treasure of Korea, is world famous for its transcendent beauty. During the Goryeo era in Korea, (918-1382 AD) approximately 80% of the celadon ceramic objects produced were made in royal kilns located in Gangjin City. Today, the ceramic artists of Gangjin continue to use centuries-old technique of firing vessels with glazes containing traces of iron ore to produce the unique greenish and grayish colors that, while remaining true to the ancient techniques, appeal to the aesthetic values and sensibilities of today’s ceramic enthusiasts. Gangjin City has held a number of successful Goryeo Celadon Exhibitions, including the main office of the Unesco in Paris, as well as a six-city tour of Japan in 2007.

The article goes on to talk with an official from Gangjin who, as is the habit of Gangjin officials, invoked "thousand year legacy of this mysteriously beautiful ceramic art form" to describe the pottery, which reminds me of an uncharacteristically witty comment from my former co-teacher: "Why do they call it mysterious? We know how to make it."

The Smithsonian exhibit marked the start of a 65-day US tour of these pieces which will include stops in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles. They are currently on display at the Embassy's KORUS House through May 16th. The KORUS House is, in case you weren't paying attention, "a hub for new Korean-American intellectual network" according to Korea.net. The latter half of the article would go on to contradict the idea of an intellectual network, though. An excerpt:

Pointing out that Japan's territorial claim to Dokdo reiterates the anti-human nature of its colonialist past, [Minister of the ROK Government Information Agency Kim Chang-ho] said it imposes a fundamental challenge to the universal values based on humanism.

Well, looks like this 6-city, 65-day tour will mean that Gangjin's pottery will get more exposure and sell more tickets than all those Korean pop singers who tried, and failed, to crossover (*cough* *cough* *cough* *cough*). I must admit, there are few things I find more boring than pottery. Incidentally, why are all my hits today coming from people searching for Wonder Girls pictures? Eww. Go read my KT article instead.

Suncheon to get 33% more donuts.

Suncheon's third Dunkin Donuts will open on Thursday. Nothing on the official website yet, but the signs are up all over the neighborhood, and according to a job ad it will be located on a 4-way intersection near Buyeong Apartment's building number 3 (부영아파트3차사거리), a couple blocks from both Palma and Geumdang Middle Schools. There's another job ad here which says the store is looking for six female students and will pay between 3,000 and 3,500 won per hour. Dunkin Donuts is insanely popular with Koreans, so I'm sure this location will do fine, but I know that if they put it next to the foreigner ghetto in Jorye-dong they'd make a killing.

* Update: Here it is a day before the Grand Open. *cough* In case you've never seen a Dunkin Donuts before. The shoe repairman across the street was acting kind of weird and kept trying to look at my camera as I tried to line up each shot.

New-fangled "measuring tape" introduced to South Korea.

Love the caption on this photo, courtesy of today's Joongang Ilbo.

Gwangju brings out the children for its candlelight rally.

In relation to my last post, I found myself in downtown Gwangju on Saturday night and found a little candlelight rally against American beef. The Korea Times told us that about 60% of people at the rallies in Seoul were students, and that number was about the same in Gwangju, if not higher. It was held on Chungjangno, a street that has some type of festival or event every weekend, and a street that is bordered on one side by "hagwon street" and on another side by the huge pedestrian shopping/drinking area, so it's no surprise that the rally attracted the demographics it did. It was also a family affair, with lots of parents with their small children. One newspaper article said about 8,000 people were there. Most of my photos from last night sucked, but compared to the ones out there on Naver (here and here and here, for example), they don't look so bad anymore. Here's a few of mine:









I also grabbed a few videos which might be of interest to those who understand Korean. I don't, but in some ways it doesn't really matter as the visuals are enough. The first one is of a rap group whose song's refrain goes "All my ladies, if you want it just shake that ass."



I'm not going to embed these next two, but they're of high school students who got up on stage to testify. You can find them here and here. Again, I don't understand much of what they're saying, but I do know the issue of beef in schools is big among my students, many of whom feel they'll be forced to eat American beef if it floods the market. That, in my opinion, is something worth protesting, though students and teachers ought to consider that Korean and Australian beef will still exist, and will be available for schools to purchase if they choose. As you can imagine I am not happy with people attributing incorrect dangers to American beef, and as I see it that hysteria has thus far trumped any economic concerns or protests. After all the signs say "I want to live!" not "I want the members of my community to earn a fair price for their cattle in this newly competitive market!" I think I'm going to use "살고 싶다!" ironically from here on out, sort of like how others use "Korea, Sparkling!" whenever something decidedly unsparkling happens.

And finally, here's one of a little kid being fed lines. The beginning is cut off a little, sorry:



As a foreigner in Korea, my opinions are pretty much worthless in the grand scheme of things. My opinions are generally dismissed by Koreans and Korean-Americans anyway, and that's not even when I take a grossly unpopular position. I brought up the issue of these protests at my last teachers' workshop. Among the highlights was when I brought up the thing about

94 percent of Koreans have genes that make them more susceptible than Americans or Britons to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), which is the human variant of mad cow disease, and this physical trait makes Koreans two to three times more likely than Americans or Britons to contract the disease

my colleagues believed it because a scientist said it. I always come heavy whenever I know we'll be talking about contentious issues, so I showed them the Korean-language Joongang-Ilbo article on the scientist who was pissed that the Mad Cow Disease nonsense was being exaggerated and that his ideas were being used for political ends. The teachers immediately dismissed the article because it was from the Joongang Ilbo, "the government's newspaper."

Anyway, they're having another couple rallies next weekend, too, if anybody's interested in going and taking pictures that don't completely suck. I'm sure the kids will be out in force again, and while that's not an exclusively Korean practice, it's a common and annoying one nonetheless. And again, my point remains that if you're a student who's going to invoke "살고 싶다!" it'd be more practical and more urgent to shout that at your bus drivers and all those who share your roads.

Korea Times: "Rallies Have Little to Do With Food Safety."

On Thursday evening I modified my long post about the interesting connections between these rallies against American beef, rallies in which so many students are participating, and the relative indifference toward traffic safety, especially after seven Suncheon students have died in the past twelve months on field trips, and shortened it into something usable for the paper. The Korea Times ran it on their website today. I'm curious if those online articles ever appear in the print edition. Anyway, I find the irony in these "살고 싶다!"-invoking protests ridiculously obvious, but I'm still trying to find a way to articulate it clearer. And, ladies, you're in luck, I've had a haircut since that photo!

* Update: Well, the article is still on the site, under "Today's Column," but for some reason I can't get a link to the site to work right now, so I've copied and pasted it below. There is a mistake: in the 8th paragraph it says "While encouraging discussion . . ." and just kind of stops, though it should say something like "While encouraging discussion . . . can be a good idea, to coerce . . ." That was a mistake on my end, not theirs.

Korean newspapers have all been running stories about the candlelit vigils in Seoul, held in protest of American beef imports. Many, including this one, have run articles about students who attend them.

Some teachers have been encouraging students to attend the rallies, and according to a May 8 Korea Times article, the Korea Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU) objected to the government telling teachers to ask their students to refrain from attending the vigils, at least while the safety of American beef is still under question.

The media have stories about the scaremongering going on over the imagined dangers of American beef. Some articles have refuted the baseless, unscientific claims, while other outlets have promoted them.

The MBC television program ``PD Notebook,'' for example, claimed that 94 percent of Koreans possess a gene that makes them more susceptible than Americans or the British to contracting mad cow disease.

The notoriously xenophobic and anti-American KTU has been given many opportunities to spout off against American beef imports.

However, plenty of English-language editions of Korean papers have run articles critical of this trend of anti-American hate-mongering, drawing parallels to the ugly behavior on display after two middle school girls were killed by an American military vehicle in 2002.

The Korea Times reported that 60 percent of those attending the candlelit vigils were middle school and high school students.

While encouraging discussion among able students on topics like the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and beef imports being unhealthy, to coerce students to attend rallies and to brainwash them with ultra-nationalistic propaganda is irresponsible, to say the least.

Perhaps some teachers harbor delusions about the role students play in Korea's protest culture, and perhaps others find the beef issue a convenient outlet for anti-American anger, and wish to pass that tension on to their students.

Most likely, many believe they are fostering civic pride in their students by asking them to take part in something their young minds do not fully understand.

Encouraging students to skip school to attend these candlelight vigils and rallies is not only inappropriate and outside the bounds of a teacher-student relationship, but it detracts attention from more pressing issues students are facing.

Namely, they are far more likely to be killed on field trips or while walking home from school than by contracting mad cow disease, which as of yet has claimed no Korean or Korean-American lives.

Last year five students from Maesan Middle School, located in my city of Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, were killed on their school field trip to Mt. Jiri when their bus plummeted down a steep hill.

The bus driver was trying to pass others in his caravan while going up a hill, and the excess speed made him lose control on the other side.

A follow-up newspaper article a few days after the accident said the grieving families asked authorities to take the proper steps to prevent such a senseless tragedy from happening again.

But nearly a year later another bus accident befell Suncheon. On May 7, two students from Hyocheon High School were killed when their bus lost control on Mt. Halla, Jeju Island, the highest mountain in South Korea. The bus driver was also killed and forty others were injured.

South Korean drivers consistently rank among the world's worst and most dangerous to pedestrians. Drivers and passengers routinely go without seatbelts and car seats, and habitually ignore traffic rules and regulations.

The country ranks at the top of pedestrian deaths among OCED nations, and was ranked 4th, at last count, for deaths of pedestrians aged 14 and under.

Ironically, the intense protests of 2002 also involved lots of students, but the aim of the rallies was not to mourn their lives or to call for better traffic safety, but rather to further an anti-American agenda.

Likewise, though some are spreading misinformation about the threat of mad cow disease, the issue at the heart of these rallies isn't food safety, but rather a convenient opportunity to target what is perceived as an American economic threat.

Very unhealthy behavior for military and political allies, as the United States and South Korea are, especially when the latter is angling for special treatment via the Visa Waiver Program.

It is encouraging to read that the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education will invite experts to speak to teachers about how mad cow disease works, and perhaps they will take the time to properly educate their students.

It is naive, sadly, to hope that citizens will forgo the knee-jerk reaction to absorb irresponsible journalism and will instead seek to educate themselves about what's really at stake here.

Rather than imitating ignorant teachers, as a teacher myself I wish my students and my colleagues would take more initiative with regard to traffic safety.

It's one that's hit Suncheon twice in 12 months, and one that proves far deadlier to teenagers than the imagined danger of mad cow disease.

I would feel much better if students were not mindlessly imitating the xenophobic behavior of their seniors, but were instead taking the initiative to fight a problem with real consequences and real victims.

Touch me pains.

Spent most of this fine spring day in Hampyeong county for the Hampyeong World Butterfly and Insect Expo. On the one side of the grounds are several long greenhouses where they have tons of different crops growing: pumpkins, apples, tobacco, cucumbers, you name it. Because there are some flowers and some vegetables, guests are tempted to touch the plants. The folks at the Expo were one step ahead of you, and they put these signs every few meters:



If only you were a girl and my name were pains. Around the corner from where I took the above picture I ran into this:



Hahahaha, keep in mind this was along the path in a series of greenhouses with thousands of people at any given moment. Yeah, I know when your kids gotta go he's gotta go, and whatareyougonnado, but I still found it weird.

Public urination notwithstanding, it was a pleasant festival. The most striking thing, in my opinion, was to see an otherwise unremarkable town of 10,646 people swell to one that rivals the population of the largest cities in the province. According to the official website, the Expo expects to attract 2 million visitors over nearly seven weeks.

The crowds were massive and the site had a theme park feel to it, and I'll admit that by the end of the day I was getting tired of being pushed, poked, run over by strollers, and being greeted with 외국인이다! But, I guess if I can steal some thunder from a World Butterfly Exposition, I have something going for me. *cough* There wasn't much English, and except for the exhibition about the restoration of Hampyeong's stream, all the signs, including the ones identifying bugs and plants, were in Korean and Latin. The top attraction was of course the big hall with butterflies, but . . . meh, just go for the experience. You know, your average zoo back home will have more insects and more variety of bugs than this exposition, but whatever, it was still neat. I think what might have thrown me was that I had read some promotional material from the county earlier and was expecting some . . . I dunno, some Mecca of bugs and butterflies. Here's a bit of what Hampyeong county sent the Gwangju News back in October.

[The Expo] is expected to serve as a detonator in advancing the regional development and enhancing the brand value by firming up the status of Hampyeong as the center of the world's insect industry and a Mecca of the four-season ecological tourism.

and

It is also enhancing its value as a thesaurus of an ecological system where goldenbats, which have been designated and managed as the world's No. 1 rare animal that is near extinction; black-headed storks, a natural monument; and storks inhabit collectively.

The butterfly festival, which was introduced for the first time in 1999 with butterflies that inhabit only in clean place as material, is heralding the name of Hampyeong to all over the country, firming up its position as one of the nation's best festivals.

It has created such high competitive tourist resorts and festivals as Korea Orchid Festival, a flower scilla festival and experience of mud flats, turning itself into an advanced district of ecological tourism.

A series of environment-friendly programs, including the butterfly festival, has upgraded the region's image and helped environment-friendly agricultural products producing in the region gain high value added.

and

Now, insect reminds us of Hampyeong. Accordingly, Hampyeong has been pushing ahead with all butterfly and insect-related events, including insect industry related to microorganism, insect-applied materials and natural enemies, insect academic research and insect-related companies.

Through such events, Hampyeong is expected to attract more than 2 million domestic and foreign tourists and enjoy a sharp rise in tourism income.

Lee Seok-hyeong, magistrate of Hampyeong-gun who is also chairman of the Expo Organizing Committee, said, "Hampyeong World Butterfly & Insect Expo is pursuing globalization of the region's brand that utilizes environment-friendly image representing butterfly. As it is the world's first environment-friendly Expo that uses insects as material, it is expected to greatly contribute to activating regional economy and developing the butterfly and insect industry. I will do my best for making preparations for the Expo."

So that clears that up. Well, regardless, everybody had a good time and every festival committee in the country wishes its charge would be so successful. Other attractions include a small amusement park, lots of really nice flower beds and gardens, a high-wire act, several sound stages, lots of stuff for kids to see and touch, some nice photographs and crafts from China, the usual traditional Korean games and handicrafts, and a couple of halls devoted to regional attractions and upcoming expositions in Korea. Plus, it was nice to not have to look very hard for a bathroom or a vendor. Oh, and one of those halls has that saddle-lookin exercise/masturbation machine.

I also did two things for the first time in my life. Well, three if you count going to Hampyeong. I ate Dippin Dots, and I tried "Doctor Fish." Dippin Dots are theoretically interesting, but I didn't care for the taste. Doctor Fish is ingenious, and I have no idea why you don't find those things everywhere.

I'll add another word about "Touch me pains." We all know that Koreans are generally nosy and that those signs aren't redundant, but I remember dealing with the same kind of dumbassery back home. I worked for the Pittsburgh Zoo's horticulture department one summer, helping to plant trees and groom animal displays, and it was really common to have people pick flowers and trample the plants. My boss was right when he'd rhetorically ask/bitch "What do they think they're going to do with a flower? It's gonna die in a day anyway." As a matter of fact, I'd say trespassing is a much bigger nuisance back home, but I'm just basing that on my own recollections. I always chuckled when we had to plant various thorny bushes and trees around certain areas as an indirect way to tell people to stay away. Probably the most amusing, but idiotic, things people would do at the zoo was they would walk through the "Asian Forest" and try to break off a branch of bamboo with their hands. Anyone who has ever seen bamboo knows why this is a ridiculous thing to do. Incidentally, every now and then I'd hear about people who would get bamboo from somewhere and plant it in their yard. Bad idea, as bamboo is very invasive and fast-growing, and the stuff you plant over here will wind up waaaaaaaaaaaay over there in a very short time.

2008 Gwangju F1 & Super Car Show: May 9 ~ May 18

A lot of folks are heading to Gwangju next weekend for the anniversary of the beginning of the 1980 Gwangju Massacre, and the 2008 Gwangju F1 & Super Car Show might be of interest to some. It is going on at the Kim Dae Jung Convention Center, which has its own brand new subway station now. Seems like a nice event, but I've heard car shows are lame here. I mean, you're trying to take a picture of the latest Oldsmobile but all these girls get in the way.

UBLove's bad idea.

An email from UBLove sent to its members:

Hello UBmember, from the UBLove Team.

We are searching now for any native English speaking males who met native Korean female members for friends, pen pals, dates or marriage.
We are going to be hosting a show on Korean cable, channel TVN about UBLove members and would like to conduct an interview.
For your trouble we will give a generous monetary amount to cover your date expenses.

Every month this event will interview and feature different international couples globally.
We hope that you participate and have a chance to let others know about your experiences.
Also why not receive money for your dating expenses.

This months theme concept is Native English speaking males who have met Native Korean females in Korea.
We are looking for a couple who are in Korea.
If you came to Korea for business, work, travel, study, etc. all are welcome to participate.
Please contact us if you are in Korea or plan on being in Korea,
5/15/08 ~5/20/08.
Also please make sure that you can meet your Korean female friend as well.

Also if you are selected for this event, you will be featured and interviewed with your Korean female friend on Korean cable TV.
The channel is TVN and the name of the show is VJ Magazine Run!
You will need to visit the studio on 6/3/08 for your TV recording.

The TV show VJ Magazine Run is targeted at viewers below 30 and the theme of the show will be called Meeting a Foreigner Friend.
It will showcase different ways to meet Foreign friends and one of them is through online sites.
They will interview you and youll become a famous TV personality instantly.

Those that are interested in participating in the TV show, please write us a brief e-mail introducing yourself and your story.
Also please include the dates that youll be in Korea.
You can e-mail us your entry story through the UBLove site at Q&A or send us an e-mail at support@ublove.com

The event prize will be $200 cash for your dating expenses.

We look forward to many members participating in this event.
Thanks for your support, UBLove Team.

Yes, I have been a member of that site for a while. I used to chat a lot my first year, and it was a good way to practice some rudimentary Korean grammar. Also met a couple of interesting people. However, nowadays my inbox over there does nothing but collect spam. Plus everyone on that site is either in Seoul, Gyeonggi, or eastern Europe, and certainly not in Jeollanam-do. Also weird that I've bumped into two coworkers on that site, including one looking for a casual dating partner even though she has a steady Canadian boyfriend, hahaha. I don't how it is for other provinces, but those representing "Ch'ollanam-to" on the site aren't necessarily unattractive . . . they're just in at the level that would make them ideal candidates to dance in the background of a trot concert.

Anyway, I titled this "bad idea" because foreign men and Korean women are not well-received, to say the least, by the Korean (and Korean-American) media and public, in spite of the nominal approval of international couples and the increasing frequency with which they occur. Some examples here and and here and here and here and here and here.


Cartoon about womanizing English teacher, via Mongdori.

But things are changing, as we can see when we contrast today with this 1998 New York Times article:

A Korean woman who holds hands with a Western man risks being occasionally harangued, called a ''whore,'' or even slapped or spat upon. This is becoming less common, but even so, part of the reason Mr. Dressler's girlfriend bought a car was so that they can get around Seoul without risking public ire.

The sensitivities have become more visible in part because South Korea has the American troops and in part because thousands of other young Westerners have come here, often working as English teachers. Most of them are young, single and male, unfamiliar with South Korean customs and thrilled to be surrounded by what they perceive as throngs of gorgeous and eligible young women.

As a homogeneous country with a deep and prickly sense of nationalism, developed during centuries of invasions by neighbors, Korea is often suspicious of foreign intentions -- a suspicion that historically has usually been justified. Thus while there are exceptions, for many Koreans the idea of interracial dating seems an affront to Korean patriotism and to ''pure'' blood lines. The antagonisms are particularly deep when the American is black, as many of the soldiers are.

''A Korean woman must never date or marry a foreign guy,'' said Kim Hee Sup, a 34-year-old male office worker. ''All Koreans should try to maintain racial purity.''

Oooo . . . bad example. Anyway, this is only tangentially related, and I'll get blasted as being overly negative for posting it, but I couldn't resist invoking this exchange between North and South Korean military men a couple years ago:

Last Wednesday, major-generals from North and South Korea were chatting before a second day of tough talks on border security. The North's Major-General Kim Yong-chul noted that farmers must be hard at work. Indeed, replied South Korea's Major-General Han Min-gu. But since the rural population is falling, many are marrying women from Mongolia, the Philippines, Vietnam and elsewhere.

That did not go down well. According to the Seoul daily Chosun Ilbo, Kim grimaced and snapped that "our nation has always considered its pure lineage to be of great importance."

Far from challenging him, Han replied that this is "but a drop of ink in the Han River."

Kim was unmollified: "Not even one drop of ink must be allowed to fall into the Han river."

Hmm, curious you don't have many Korean-American groups protesting those attitudes found in their motherland.

Any bloggers interested in writing for the Gwangju News? Of course you are!

Last post of the night, I promise. As you might now I usually put something together each month for the Gwangju News, a monthly magazine for the Gwangju/Jeollanam-do area. The editor has expressed some interest in getting "stuff with more meat" and in attracting more pieces from local bloggers. Getting some stuff of local interest that go beyond temple write-ups, restaurant reviews, promotional material, and stuff about Scotland. Those types of articles serve a purpose, and can often be really fun to read, but because of the internet, it's tough for a monthly magazine to be particularly newsworthy. And because participation in collaborative efforts is low among foreigners around here, it's tough for a monthly magazine to stay fresh. The dozen or so Korea blogs I read manage to put out several really good, interesting, and informative posts a week, and we're hoping to replicate that in the magazine, albeit at a slower pace.

Anyway, from what I understand, I'm the only one active in this area since "A Year in Mokpo" closed up shop last week. Lots of other blogs in Jeollanam-do, but not many about Jeollanam-do. However, not living in the area doesn't disqualify you from writing good stuff about it. And, as always, we're looking for interesting, intelligent pieces, too, from anyone willing to write them. I know I've talked to a few people interested in writing for the magazine, and would encourage you to go for it. Plus, your parents will be really happy to see your name in the paper.

I've sent emails to some of you, and will send a few more a little later. If anyone is interested in writing something, or in learning a little more about the magazine, you can leave a comment here, send me an email at deutsch.brian at gmail.com, or contact the editor at gwangjunews at gmail.com. The issues from the last year or so are available online, in .pdf form, here, the most recent one being released yesterday. The magazine is put out by the Gwangju International Center, which puts on a ton of talks, trips, and festivals for and by the foreign community. Oh, and the word count is about 600-700 words for one page and 1,000 words for two pages, so a very doable length. The deadline for each month is the 15th, so if you have anything you think'd be great for June, try to let us know soon. Thanks.

Immigration foils shocking plot by American child molestors' intending to infiltrate Korean schools and ravage kimchildren!

From today's Chosun Ilbo, which couldn't pass up an opportunity to take something completely unrelated to Korea and use it against foreign English teachers:

South Korea has banned the entry of 21 Americans convicted of sexually abusing children under 14.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security forwarded to the Ministry of Justice a list of 21 American child sex offenders known to travel frequently to Asian countries. The ministry immediately decided to permanently blacklist the offenders from entering Korea.

The U.S. has begun providing a list of child sex offenders to Asian nations such as Thailand in order to crack down on Americans traveling abroad for sex tourism. South Korea is among the nations receiving the list.

A ministry official said American sex offenders could commit sex crimes against children while teaching English at private institutes in Korea, so the moment the list was received all the offenders were banned.

Fuck you, as if there was any threat whatsoever of these individuals entering Korea, working at a school, and harming children. I guess the only way they'd get in would be if school directors and immigration were asleep at the switch and would fail to properly evaluate job applicants and their backgrounds . . . wait, nevermind, that wouldn't happen. *cough* Actually, that South Korea were on such a list says more about its notoriety as a hub of sex tourism and human trafficking than it does about its dangerous foreigners. And I've made no secret how pissed I get whenever foreigners get slandered like this in the media, considering the shit Korean teachers pulled in 2007. Whatever. Roboseyo has a longer write-up about all this, because garbage articles like this appeared in not one but four of Korea's papers today.

New "Seoul, My Story" commercial.

First heard about this commercial from Dave's a few days ago. I couldn't find a copy of it on any of the tourism sites, so I took it off the TV with my camera. Really, really, really sorry about the quality.



I'm not going to complain too much about her English, as some of the Dave's posters did, even though I have trouble understanding what she's talking about. I mean, it'd be cool if Seoul or Korea would put together an ad campaign that isn't totally ridiculous and irrelevant, but in their defense they have won some awards for their ad campaigns (can't find a link now) and their audience does extend beyond English-speaking English teachers. Hell, tourists are more likely to come to Seoul from Asia than from an English-speaking nation, so the issues of English proficiency or Western expectations aren't as important. What I do find bizarre is how prominently Lotte World features in the ad. I think it will give viewers the impression that Seoul has a Disney World, since Lotte World is basically an uncompromising Disney knock-off. It would be crass of me to write that many Chinese visitors come to Seoul for reasons other than amusement parks, so I won't write that.

Chosun Ilbo: "South Coast Economic Zone to Rival Seoul"

About a week or two ago I put in a news feed on my blog for Jeollanam-do and some of its cities. It's down below the links on the right side. Normally nothing good or recent turns up, but I came across this today. An excerpt:

The government will start building a mega economic zone on the south coast later this year by grouping Mokpo in South Jeolla Province, Busan and other southern cities. Tentatively named the Sun Belt economic zone, it will have as big a population and economic power as the Seoul metropolitan area. The government will subdivide the area into three zones: Busan, Mokpo and southern central zone, which clusters together six cities and counties in South Jeolla Province and South Gyeongsang Province. The economic zone will house industrial complexes and research and development parks.

The "related article" found on the above page points here, to a January article that talks about the government's plan to divide Korea into seven different zones. The "Jeolla zone," also the name of a strip joint in San Diego I think, would

link the Saemangeum project with tourist, leisure and corporate cities on the southwestern coast, such as Gwangyang and Yeosu.

Quite a few development projects underway in the area. The Muan International Airport opened last November and should be fully operational this summer. The airport is but one part of the "Namak New City" initiative, which is developing the village of Namak---actually the capital of Jeollanam-do---into a real city that will eventually have a population of 150,000 by 2019. In Haenam county there's a "Tourism and Leisure City" being built, which will have a waterfront park, casinos, hotels, a convention center, and an F-1 racing track. There is another F-1 track going up in Yeongam. There is, of course, the Gwangyang Free Economic Zone and the 2012 World Expo coming to nearby Yeosu and bringing with it all kinds of development. Four Jeollanam-do towns became the first Korean representatives in the Cittaslow movement back in February, and for some reason Naju---fucking NAJU---was named an "Innovative City" last November. Goheung's Naro Space Center is Korea's first, Hampyeong is hosting the world's first butterfly and insect exposition, and Gwangju is currently vying for the right to host the 2013 Universiade. Also some stuff happening around the Mokpo-Yeongam border, but I don't follow what goes on over there. And they have nude photo contests in Shinan.


I can't handle all this innovation.

Um, what?

Old news from two weeks ago, but made it to Dave's today. Some Asian-American students, under the banner of the "March 1st Solidarity" group, were protesting stuff about the US on the University of Washington-Seattle campus. On April 24th. *slaps forehead* An excerpt from the school paper:

M1S claims the United States Forces Korea (USFK) is responsible for several offenses against South Korea, including suppressing movements for South Korean democracy and independence, stealing land from South Korean farmers and fueling the sex trade in Asia. Additionally, the group asserts the USFK has its weapons pointed at other Asian countries, besides North Korea, and is supplying aid in the occupation of Iraq.

Christine Tran, a speaker at the protest, attempted to contextualize the protest within the history of economic ties between South Korea and the United States.

“South Korea has been titled as an Asian Tiger, a model minority nation that has broke[n] out of its rebellious third-world origin,” she said. “South Korea receives economic stability and aid from the U.S., but this came at a price.”

Additionally, Tran claimed the United States’ policy in Korea is based upon racism.

“This Asian Tiger was kept on a short leash, and in return for aid it was obligated to support the U.S. and its white supremacist politics,” Tran said.

Here's Danny Choi. Twenty bucks says this proud Asian man pronounces his last name to rhyme with boy.

You can catch some of their demonstration on Youtube here and here, but nobody cares. Hahahahaha, 60 views. The same paper carried an op-ed rebuttal on April 30th to that and other on-campus protests. Clearly, Asian-Americans are not the good minorities. *cough* Her words, not mine. I typed up a little response to the protest, but billybrobby summed it up nicely on Dave's:

The picture is of Christine Tran. Judging from the last name, she's probably vietnamese. And I guess "Christine" is a proud, ancient Asian name.

Danny Choi, on the other hand, should be a little more knowledgable about his home country.

But it's nice when the probably japanese Michelle Tanaka can write an article about Korean Danny Choi and Vietnamese Christine Tran that illustrates what an intolerant country America is.

Christine Tran should come to Korea, where as a southeast asian, she will be showered with the respect and opportunities that she could never have in America.

Heh. This article in today's Chosun Ilbo couldn't be timelier. And here's one from November. An excerpt:

These days, Vietnam is being rocked by sad stories of their women who are living in pain and suffering in Korea. In Daejeon in July, a 19-year-old Vietnamese bride died after being beaten so severely by her husband that 18 of her ribs were broken. Some Vietnamese women come to Korea duped into marrying Korean men, who divorced their wives on paper only, simply to get another woman to bear them a child. After they have the child, the Vietnamese women are divorced. Incidents like these have been carried in Vietnamese media, leading to mounting calls to reconsider diplomatic ties with Korea.

Yes, Vietnamese women won't run away. Especially if they're wearing Uggs, like Christine.

No hummingbirds in Jeollanam-do :(

Just like Koreans believe some stupid stuff about foreigners---I've heard "foreigners don't like coffee" and "foreigners don't like to travel" this year---some foreigners have their own pieces of misinformation about Koreans. For example, there's the belief that all black taxis are luxury cabs and will charge you an arm and a leg. There's also the belief held by many that walking into a 다방 will ultimately get you laid. I myself am no exception to dumbassery, as my readers know, because I believed for, like, a year-and-a-half that Jeollanam-do was home to these tiny, awesome hummingbirds (벌새, "bee bird"). Not really my fault, because I read about them on the internet *cough*, but sorry to say I am guilty of telling other people about them. I mean, I saw them many times, and I even captured one on film, but the video is far too out of focus for even Youtube standards. Here's a poor photo I took of one at a temple in Gangjin last year:



See? Awesome! However, I learned a few days ago that there are no hummingbirds in Korea. I first came across that kind of talk among the comments to this photo of a "hummingbird," and went over to Wikipedia to learn that the smallest hummingbirds are much larger than the things I've seen around here. (Plus, hummingbirds have beaks, strangely enough). Turns out they're actually hummingbird moths (꼬리박각시?), and Wikipedia has a write-up and some decent photos here. Also some pictures and information on related moths from "What's That Bug" here and here, the latter one mentioning the faux-hummingbird in Korea. Lots of photos on Flickr, and another mention of mistaken hummingbird-sightings in Korea here, from the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory.


Stolen from Flickr.


Stolen from Wikipedia.

Though insects are foul creatures, and nobody can argue with that, I must admit that these hummingbird moths are really awesome. They're a little bigger than a big bumblebee and are pretty common, at least down here. I'll bet they'll be in attendance at the Hampyeong World Butterfly and Insect Expo, going on through June 1st, because they seem attracted to the same flowers as butterflies. To close, here's a half-decent video of one taken in Korea:

Any updates on last year's bus accident?

A look at the overturned bus on Jeju, from today's Dong-A Ilbo.

As we learned yesterday, two students from Suncheon's Hyocheon High School were killed in a bus accident while on a field trip to Jeju. They were killed when the driver failed to turn quick enough, and police, according to a Joongang Ilbo article, "suspect that it was a result of the driver taking the curve too quickly." The accident happened a day before Parent's Day, an unhappy coincidence.

And anybody who has been paying attention for the past year knows that this latest accident comes roughly a year after five students from Maesan Middle School were killed in a bus accident on Jirisan on May 25, 2007. That time, the bus driver was trying to pass other buses in his caravan of four up the hill, and evidentally lost control coming down the other side. There is suspicion that a brake malfunction caused the accident, although obviously unsafe speeds would contribute to that. Jirisan is the highest mountain on peninsular South Korea---second-highest in the country, behind Jeju's Hallasan---and is, as you'd expect, particularly treacherous. From a Joongang Ilbo article at the time:

The accident site, 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from Seongsamjae, South Jeolla, a rest stop for motorists on the mountain, is at a 70-degree grade and is known as a dangerous area for driving.

As I wrote in my previous entry, if I were a parent I'd be very apprehensive about letting my children participate in field trips, especially if they were headed for Jirisan, Jeju, or other mountainous areas. No way I'd let my kid get on a bus that's travelling up or down one of the highest peaks in the country.

Flipping through the internet's papers this morning I came across an article from last May, in what appears to be the last English-language media mention of the Jirisan bus accident. The Joongang Ilbo article concludes:

The bereaved families, gathering at the funerals at Suncheon Medical Center, also urged relevant authorities to take measures to prevent such a tragic accident from happening again.

That article is from May 28th, and I haven't come across any English-language updates since. I'm curious if anyone with Korean-language skills could tell me what has transpired since. Naver will turn up videos and pictures of the accident and its aftermath, and here are a few photos, tough to look at, from a memorial service, from 데일리안:





Both Korean- and English-language sources are juxtaposing these two accidents, as they happened a year apart and happened to the same town. I've also noticed a few other interesting juxtapositions that I find striking given recent events. As you've read, there is a lot of scare-mongering going on in the media and in the public consciousness about the risks associated with American beef. The media has been using the fear of Mad Cow Disease---one program said 94% of Koreans are genetically more likely to contract it than Americans or British---as a tool to protest the impending import of American beef, a component of the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement. There have been candlelight vigils in Seoul, and even students have been encouraged to get involved. Gusts of Popular Feeling did a little write-up about that, as did Korea Beat. An excerpt from their translation of a Joongang Ilbo article, reminding us that young people are stupid:

13-year old middle school student Go, who came to the vigil after finishing an exam at school, said, “on the fan site for Dongbangshingi I saw a message saying let’s gather in Yeouido. I’m here because of Dongbangshingi.”

Many came because of what they read on the internet. 21-year old Myongji University student Kim Seon-ah said, “I received a message that said let’s stop mad cow disease, there is a candlelight vigil. So I came.”

Students’ distrust of repeated government messages that the beef is safe remains high. 17-year old high school student Jo pointed out, “we don’t believe everything that gets written on the internet. But if there is a danger then stopping this from the beginning is the right thing to do.” Lee Jae-myeong, a 19-year old freshman at Gyeonggi University, retorted, “there is a lot of wrong information on the internet, like saying that mad cow disease can spread through the air, so I don’t understand, but the government hasn’t released any detailed information so I don’t think a hasty agreement is ok.”

And, one more from the Joongang Ilbo, via The Marmot's Hole:

Getting up on stage, the student said, “Has the United States taken everything from us? It seems North Korea’s Kim Jong-il is greater. Wouldn’t it be better to stand up to the United States like North Korea?” He also said, “‘Doing it our own way.’ Doesn’t that sound nice?”

These bullshit media reports have been addressed and pretty-well debunked by bloggers and even some of the English-language papers (here and here). Also interesting is that these vigils have been compared, by papers and by bloggers, to those that sprang up in 2002, after two students were accidentally killed by American military vehicles. The Chosun Ilbo wrote, for example, on the interest in food safety that has materialized out of thin air recently:

A government official said the situation is baffling because the movement is beginning to take on an anti-American hue, just like the 2002 death of two schoolgirls under the wheels of a U.S. armored vehicle led to an anti-American wave swept the entire country.

The Korea Times had pretty much the same thing a day later:

Thousands of protesters launched a candlelight vigil in downtown Seoul Friday evening to call on the government to revoke the beef deal. The protest is reminiscent of a candlelight vigil to mourn two Korean middle school girls killed in an accident by a U.S. armored vehicle in 2002. There are concerns that the beef issue might see a return of the anti-American sentiment as seen in the death case.

Thing is, the same sort of panic didn't accompany the discovery of bird flu on the peninsula. My students and coworkers, following that inflammatory "expose" last week, all told me they were afraid of dying from Mad Cow Disease and even some students said they weren't safe living down here. I'm not sure what that meant, but I think there is a greater risk of contracting bird flu than Mad Cow Disease . . . hell, bird flu was found only a few towns over. Seems food safety is only a worthwhile issue when it can be used as a weapon of xenophobia.

Same goes with traffic safety and the deaths of those two school girls in 2002. Everyone knows Koreans are shitty drivers, and I don't even have to give you a link for that. Few use seatbelts, few look where they're going, and few seem to acknowledge the pedestrians sharing the road. Well, if you need links you don't live in Korea refer to the following articles. South Korea leads the OCED in motor vehicle accidents by a wide margin. Wait, that article is from 2005 . . . here's one from 2007. And I still shake my head at some of these gems from a 2006 Joongang Ilbo article on Koreans' resistance to car seats:

Jeong Yoo-mi used to hold her infant son in her arms in the back seat on family trips. Now that he is 3, Ms. Jeong, 33, a middle school teacher in Seoul, buckles him up next to her in the back.
“I heard it is good to use a car seat and actually I do have one, but I don’t use it because he behaves well in the car. My friends also don’t use one because it is difficult to set up and the car seat takes a lot of space,” she said.

and

“We don’t have to do what foreigners do in their countries. We have our own way to take care of babies,” another posting at the agency’s Web site said.

The article mentions that 12% of Koreans use car seats for their children, compared to 90% of Swedes. Yet for years Koreans were up in arms after two middle school girls were struck and killed by an American military vehicle in 2002. I would make light of this hypocrisy a little more were the protests not so extensive, so violent, so ugly, and so recent. Certainly a nasty reminder of what our neighbors are capable of when they put their mind to hate-mongering.

The issue of traffic safety leads to another juxtaposition, this one accidental and done by the Metropolitician. A few days ago he posted an entry he originally wrote back in December, 2006, on the topic of seatbelts, child safety, and that 2002 incident. Much of the entry is quotable, but here's an excerpt:

What makes this ironic and unfortunate for the Korean peninsula is the fact that children are getting run over daily here, and nothing is being done to change the circumstances that lead to the high number of children being killed here. That road remains as is, unchanged, for all the many who yelled Miseon and Hyosun's names and were apparently shocked at their deaths.

What is sickening to me – an American, yes, but a man who started out his experience in the Korean countryside teaching in a middle school for two years – is that the nation wasn't protesting or even apparently angry (aside from people from the local community near where the two girls died) when the two girls actually died; it was only when the politicized trial and its outcome was an apparent insult to the nation that it became an issue.

Given the complete disinterest we've seen among Koreans toward both food safety and traffic safety, unless they conveniently play into an anti-American agenda, it's not too crass to say that my students ought to be more frightened of dying on field trips than of dying from American beef. The last line of the Joongang Ilbo article on the Jirisan bus accident is painful to read a year later:

The bereaved families . . . also urged relevant authorities to take measures to prevent such a tragic accident from happening again.

I'm genuinely ignorant of what happened in the eleven months between then and now. Did they determine a cause? Was the driver found guilty of anything? Did the parents receive any compensation? Were there any protests or any demonstrations held? I have no idea and would like to know. I do know that students should get their heads out of their asses and get the hell away from these anti-beef vigils, and that these puppetmaster teachers need to get their hands out of their students asses and pull them the hell away from these anti-beef vigils. And that's not me writing as a hypersensitive American who hates to see his country dragged through the mud by an ally. There is no need to imagine a threat from overseas when students are dying right here right now from institutionalized ignorance. In the past 12 months, seven teenagers from Suncheon have died on field trips. Zero have died from Mad Cow Disease. Can people please stop lighting candles in the name of public safety when there is such blatant disregard for it in so many other areas? Can parents and teacherse stop herding students to anti-American rallies when these young people really ought to be holding vigils for their friends and peers dying now?

(ROK Drop wrote a good post on Mad Cow Disease today, but I didn't have occassion to link to it. The Metropolitician had a good one earlier this week, too.)

* Update 1: Got an article on this topic in the Korea Times today.

2 Suncheon high school students killed on field trip.

From Naver, more here.

Sad news today as two students from Suncheon's Hyocheon High School were killed in a bus accident while on their field trip in Jeju. The driver was also killed. The report from Yonhap, in Korean, is here and says that forty others are injured. This comes roughly a year after five students from Suncheon's Maesan Middle School were killed during a field trip to Jirisan.

* Update 1: Korea Beat has their translation of a Chosun Ilbo article here. An excerpt:

The bus, travelling downhill over the center of the road, strayed into the foliage zone 5 meters off the road and flipped over onto the driver’s seat side.

Police believe that the bus, going downhill towards Jeju City, came too close to the curb on the right-hand side and swerved back, flipping over onto the left-hand side.

A student said, “the accident happened after we had hiked up Hallasan and were heading back to Jeju City for lunch. Most of the students who had hiked were sleeping, and since it wasn’t a long trip most of them weren’t wearing their seatbelts and a lot of my friends were hurt.”

* Update 2: The Joongang Ilbo has the story. I switched my headline from three students to two, which is the number being reported today.

When the accident befell Maesan last year, people at my school weren't too worked up about it. My coteacher remarked that it happened every year. Perhaps with so many traffic accidents and suicides people are desensitized to students' deaths a little more than back home. After two deadly bus accidents on two field trips in two consecutive years for Suncheon schools, I think if I were a parent I'd be against letting my student attend a school field trip. Especially one to a mountain, when clearly little regard to safety is paid. Both accidents, after all, occurred on South Korea's two highest peaks and were both due to driver error. Not a problem confined to school field trips, though, as few wear seat belts here and few are cautious drivers. My students made the trip to Jeju's Hallasan a few weeks ago, but I would hope my schools would reconsider making the trip next time around, or at least avoid taking unwieldy buses.

Impending import of US beef drives a man in Hampyeong to suicide.

Well, no it didn't, but that angle apparently makes for better copy. From yesterday's Hankyoreh:

Frustrated by a fall in prices of hanwoo, or South Korea’s local breed of cattle, and a surge in feed costs, a 41-year-old farmer in Hampyeong, South Jeollla (sic) Province, committed suicide by drinking herbicide. It was the second suicide committed by a livestock farmer following the South Korean government’s decision to fully reopen its market to U.S. beef last month.

The 41-year-old farmer, who is only identified by his surname Lee and lives in the town of Wolbong-ri, Nasan-myeon, Hampyeong County, was found dead in his home after drinking herbicide at approximately 4:40 a.m. on May 5. Immediately before his suicide, Lee allegedly attempted to kill his 36-year-old wife, who is from the Philippines, and his three children by beating them with a farm-machine implement. The four members of his family were sleeping at the time.

According to local police, Lee’s wife and an 8-year-old daughter suffered minor head injuries. Lee’s 7-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter were hospitalized at Hampyeong Seongshim Hospital after being seriously wounded.

Damn, the FTA really drove him over the edge. Oh, wait, nevermind:

Local residents said that, Lee, who started raising cattle some 10 years ago, had been aggrieved over the loss of all 18 of his cattle since August last year, when the spread of brucellosis forced him to slaughter 14 of the 18 and sell the remaining four.

According to the Yonhap report the other suicide was in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do. Can't say I approve of how the family-bludgeoning angle was glossed over in favor of the anti-American one. No word yet on how many suicides can be tied to the bird-flu cases in Hampyeong and the Jeollas, and no word yet on how they will be spun to reflect poorly on South Korea's ally.

Only tangentially related, but worth mentioning that, according to a Joongang Ilbo article from a couple of years ago, 37.6% of marriages in Hampyeong in 2004 were international.

(HT to The Marmot's Hole.)

Ooooo, that's bad.

Old news, but Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou was on the Colbert Report a couple of weeks ago talking shit in the midst of this year's TIME 100 online ballotbox-stuffing campaign (which was eventually won by some Japanese guy). Apparently he likes to practice English now. You can catch the video here while it lasts (scroll to about 2:27). Jay, trust me, subtitles are much funnier.

(I had to do my homework on this one and find the name of a popular Taiwanese pop star. Do me a favor and google "Taiwanese male pop star" and see the first entry. Ironic.)

A catchy way to practice your Sino-Korean numbers.

These commercials for "O'yu" yogurt drink have been on TV the past couple of days. At first I wanted to stab my television in the face to make the noise stop---you'll feel that way, too, because the song just keeps on going and goingandgoingandgoing---but they've grown on me.





Reminiscent of this intentionally bizarre Korean commercial.

I drive a Dodge Stratus!

One of the bigger stories the past few days in the Korean blogosphere has been the "blog juice" post on London Korean Links. That post researched the stats for 20 of the top Korea blogs *cough*, but started an interesting series of comments regarding the blogging scene over here. Lame stuff to all but, like, eight people, but whatever. I originally posted the gist of these comments on the LKL entry, but it doesn't look like the moderator approved, so I'll just share them here.

Both James and King Baeksu mentioned how they felt The Marmot's Hole had slipped over the years. I'm in no position to judge him or his blog, which trumps me and mine in pretty much every way imaginable, but I will write that it is no longer the place for information anymore. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, because it shows some very healthy diversification in the blogosphere. But to backtrack a little, I do think The Marmot's Hole has shown improvement over the past few months. I recall the infrequent updates over there and the absolutely horrid guest bloggers that made me almost (almost) stop visiting altogether. The drop-off between Robert's posts and "The Marmot's Hole, Weekend Edition" was remarkable. James is right, though, in his point about that blog being behind the curve with news nowadays . . . nobody has time to sift through all the news sites and put together tons of updates a day, but to miss out on big news stories is something inexcusable if you've got, like, five gueest bloggers, which The Marmot's Hole does. The problem is there is little overlap, or at least there wasn't until guest blogger Sonagi started picking up the slack, which meant that when Mr. Koehler didn't write the news, nobody wrote the news.

And as James says, there seems to be a lack of quality control, something I mentioned way back in regard to the guest bloggers, and which we also find with the bickering in the comments section. An example of the former presented itself just now when a generally sensible and informative poster put up this post on the giant wave in Boryeong that killed nine people today:

This is being reported on CNN… Can’t find details, not even an exact location…

anybody know anything? Hand of the Lord or another anti-Korean plot…?

Anyway, RIP for the victims, tentatively said to be fishermen and their children

Not only did the guy do no basic research at all---which would have revealed scores of news articles and would have at least provided the framework for an informative post on what will be a huge news story---but he goes and makes a crass, insensitive line like "Hand of the Lord or another anti-Korean plot…?" After nine people died on fucking Children's Day weekend. Half-assed work like that doesn't belong on the premier Korea blog, and I wouldn't even accept something like that from a middle school kid who typed it on his Blackberry on the way to school.

Anyway, it still gets me ticked off when I recall that the Marmot’s Hole (and all the other big blogs) completely ignored the Bill Kapoun story for two or three days . . . the Marmot was busy or out of town, as I recall it, but none of his guest writers wrote anything about it, all while his page filled up with fluff and garbage stories, and while his lawyer friend let his little fued spill out onto three different blogs. Really put all the “foreign community” talk into perspective when everyone was too busy fighting among themselves to spread the word about one of their own. Well, looks like Bill's family eventually received enough money through donations to cover expenses, so I guess that’s . . . as fortunate as can be in that situation, but that blog had 30 times my readership at the time, and a lot more good could have been done, yet in spite of my email and my mentions on the open theads, nobody over there picked up the story. Really reinforced, too, that lowly English teachers, who nobody gives a damn about anyway, are unfortunately put on the frontlines of battles here because bigger names—with requisitve influence and Korean-language skill—don’t do any heavy lifting. But, hey, who gets tired of reading about banking discrimination? Makes good copy, right?

Something I’ve been pleased to see over the past few months, though, is the increased visibility of newer, very entertaining and informative Korea-related blogs. They still don’t have the readership, though, of the big ones but that could change. Still kills me, though, that the “big boys” are considered Big Hominid, (probably the most annoying and annoyingly-designed blog out there), The Party Pooper (who does a couple entries a month), Oranckay (who hasn’t updated in two years), Ruminations in Korea (doesn’t update), Iceberg (rarely updates), Occidentalism (let the inmates run the asylum), Budaechigae (rarely updates), and Cathartidae (who doesn’t even have a blog anymore). It always used to bug me to see link lists that refer to the same eight or ten people, but now I'm honestly glad to have some fresh faces and to read folks that aren't participating in some grand circle-jerk. Roboseyo, Amanda Takes Off, A Year in Mokpo, and The Joshing Gnome (among others) are some examples of newer, quality blogs that few people ever hear about, and that evidentally don't turn up on many blogrolls.

Something also pleasing is the trend away from just combing the newspapers and being smarmy. I think the Marmot, Korea Beat, and Mongdori do good work in putting Korean-language stuff into English. But what is also important is pulling issues together, something Gusts of Popular Feeling, The Grand Narrative, and Gord Sellar (among others) do quite well.

So, that's basically what I wrote on LKL, save for a few minor changes. I'm sure I'll invite a lot of criticism by going after some of the hallowed old guard. Mark, from Korea Pop Wars, a blog ranked number 19 on LKL's list (but who would actually be ranked behind me were I included on the list, ㅋㅋㅋ) wrote:

[I]n reading Philip's column and looking at the Juice List made me realize who little good information is available about Korea through blogs (in English, anyhow). I think things were much better two years ago than today.

And he concludes by reiterating, after mentioning a few of today's bloggers:

But I feel confident returning to my original point -- if you want to understand Korean news, current affairs and the country in general, I think things are not as good today as they were a couple of years ago (at least from a blogging perspective). Maybe more sources are around now, but none of them compare to the top three of the past.

He bases his point mainly on the contention that scholars like Oranckay and Hanjungui Karuchim are no longer active. He seems like a nice guy, so we'll just agree to disagree, although I still maintain that the scene is much more healthier when we don't fight with more people involved and with more people doing more legwork to find more information and write more stories. I don't think anyone could really argue that today's bloggers aren't adding any new information to the knowledge pool, or certainly adding any less than in years gone by. First of all, spend three seconds on Gusts of Popular Feeling, on The Grand Narrative, or on A Year in Mokpo, and there goes the premise right out the window. (Wait, don't spend three seconds, spend three hours because those blogs are worth it.) Moreover, I think one would have to admit that, as James pointed out in one of his replies, adding commentary and synthesis to stories is a necessary value-adding step in the business nowadays. It's not enough to throw together a couple of links and call it a day even though I do that three times a week, because people can easily find out information for themselves. Creating context is what's important nowadays, putting things together, and I can think of about ten folks who do that really well today.

And I also believe people, whether as readers or writers, are less interested in the pursuit of objective information (whatever that may mean), but are rather interested in impressions. If I may plagiarize myself a bit, here is me complaining about the disinterest in collaborative efforts like Galbijim and Waygook.org among the foreign community down here, though I do make the case that it's the same deal with blogs and bloggers. The "they" refers to foreigners in the quote-unquote foreign community:

While they share knowledge they, don't, however, pool it. Ownership of ideas is very important, which explains the popularity of blogging, and which is why people refer to the Galbijim Suncheon page not as the Suncheon page but rather Brian's Suncheon page. And, as I see it, foreigners don’t value facts as much as they value impressions. That is, a Galbijim article might lay out population figures, might list restaurants and bars, might give directions to parks and movie theaters. But foreigners aren’t interested in what or where things are, but rather how things are, and opinions are invariably bound to their owners. While I have been bemoaning the lack of interest in Galbijim or Waygook.org (message board for Jeollanam-do teachers), I haven’t been paying enough attention to blogger or facebook, where hundreds of foreigners in South Jeolla are participating). The problem for Galbijim, then, is that its content is written by only a handful of faithful contributors, and the Jeolla content is generally written entirely by me. The nature of an encyclopedia means that I can give you all the facts you’ll need, but I can’t (explicitly) give you my impression. When an encyclopedia entry is written by a single person, there’s no reason to hold it in higher regard than a blog entry, and when an encyclopedia entry is written by a single person, there’s no reason to think it any different than a blog entry.

That is, any quote-unquote information I give you, whether on this site or through Galbijim or a message board, will never be taken purely as fact anyway, so what's the point of pretending otherwise? Anyway, I don't have letters after my name so what makes me think I can pretend to any authority in the first place? I think if I did have any influence around here we would have seen a reduction in the number of "What's Suncheon like?" and "Any foreigner bars in Gwangju?" posts on Dave's ESL Cafe, but *sigh* we all know how little good "facts" can do.

Well, it's getting late. In any event, keep up the good work, those of you doing it, and please please please continue to keep your sites free of animated .gifs!

Death toll rises to 9 in Boryeong.

Sad story on this holiday weekend. The latest reports say that nine people were killed when a giant wave hit the coast of Boryeong city, Chungcheongnam-do this (Sunday) afternoon. An excerpt from the updated AFP article:

Nine people including two children were killed Sunday when high waves slammed into a breakwater on South Korea's west coast, sweeping anglers and others into the sea, coastguard officials said.

Another 14 people were taken to hospital where five of them were still being treated, said Lee Won-Il, a coastguard official, adding that two of the five are in a critical condition.

Lee said the death toll was updated after another body was found and no one is still believed to be missing.

A nine-year-old boy and his father, and a five-year-old boy and his uncle, were among the dead, Lee told AFP.

The reports refer to the large number of visitors to the beach today because Monday May 5th is Children's Day in South Korea, a national holiday, and many were taking advantage of the three-day weekend. Refer to my earlier post, directly below this one, for a few other links and for a look at some of the details that were out a few hours ago.

Boryeong is a city of 107,000 perhaps best known for the popular Mud Festival that takes place there every summer.

8 killed, 14 still missing after giant wave hits Boryeong.

* Update 1: 9 reported dead, zero still missing.

Original post:

Sad story this holiday as at least eight people have been killed by a giant wave near Boryeong city, Chungcheongnam-do. Many outlets have the story, including the BBC and Yahoo. An excerpt from the AFP report:

The accident happened during a long holiday weekend in South Korea, and visitors to the area were among the casualties.

"The sea water receded like an ebb tide before two-metre-high (6.6-foot) waves rushed to the breakwater and rocks to sweep the anglers and tourists into the water," Yonhap news agency quoted one witness as saying.

The cause of the high waves was not immediately known. The meteorological office said the weather was not particularly bad at the time.

"The wind might have been a bit strong, as we warned earlier. But there were no reasons for us to issue special warnings against tidal waves today," Bong Ji-A, of the local weather office in Daejeon, told AFP.

"It's a bit strange. So we've sent investigators to the area to look into this case."

Witness Lee Sang-Whan estimated the height of the waves at four to five metres.

There are some inconsistancies between reports, and CNN is reporting via the AP, for example, that there were seven killed, and the English-language version of South Korea's Yonhap is carrying the same figure. Yonhap's Korean-language article, however, is reporting 8 dead. No Cut News, and many other Korean-language sources, is reporting that 14 people are still missing. The AP said 15, but that the number could turn out to be lower (obviously).

The Daecheon mentioned in the BBC article is part of Boryeong, having been incorporated in 1995, and may also refer to Daecheon Beach. Boryeong is best known to many foreigners for hosting the Boryeong Mud Festival each summer.

asfjkjio2382rwe9aisdi (Regional Festivals)

Spring is a fine season to live in Jeollanam-do and attend festivals. Some of the big ones include the Damyang Bamboo Festival, the Jindo Sea Parting Festival, the Boseong Green Tea Festival, the Naju Pear Blossom Festival, the Yeongchuisan Azalea Festival, the Yeongam Wangin Cultural Festival, and scores of other small local ones that either are not advertised very well or are extremely boring. Suncheon has a few of the former, including this weekend's Nagan Folk Culture Festival and tonight's Dongcheon Lantern Festival (순천동천유등축제), pictured poorly above. Most of the ones I just mentioned took place in April or are taking place this weekend . . . so, um, I hope you heard about them. About the only big one that you still have a chance to catch is the Hampyeong World Butterfly & Insect Expo, now through June 1st. I think I may make an appearance next weekend. The best time to visit the Expo may be May 24th, though, because that's when the Miss Korea Gwangju/Jeonnam contest will be held.

Oh, dude, wait, there's also the 2008 Gwangju E-Sports Convention coming up on June 14th.

Korean rapper busted on drug charges.

Rapper Steve Kim of the shitty group "Uptown" was busted yesterday for doing drugs, according to the Korea Times. The rapper is no stranger to the wrong side of the law, having faced drug charges before and having been arrested in 2004 for suspicion of murder after a Vietnamese-American man was found gunned down in Kim's backyard.

Korea Times: "Arrest Warrant Rejected for Chinese Protestor."

Well, that didn't take long. From last night's Korea Times:

A court rejected the application Friday for an arrest warrant for a Chinese student who was accused of assaulting a Korean man.

The decision was made one day after police detained him for kicking and hitting a 49-year-old Korean protester with a Chinese national flag, and hurling concrete tiles in a clash between Chinese students and anti-Chinese protestors during the Olympic torch relay in Seoul last Sunday.

The court said it decided against issuing the arrest warrant, as he was repentant over his misdeeds. In addition, his chances of fleeing the country or destroying evidence were slim as he lives in a campus dormitory.

Staggering . . . both his actions and the reaction. Concrete tiles? It wasn't but a few days ago that the Korea promised firm action against the violent and ugly behavior of Chinese protestors at the Olympic Torch Rally in Seoul, and threatened tougher visa rules for Chinese students. The Prime Minister said, according to the Vice Culture Minister and as quoted in April 30th's Chosun Ilbo:

Our national pride has been hurt considerably by the incident, so legal and diplomatic measures to restore national pride will have to follow.

(Hahaha . . . Minister of Vice Culture.) Doesn't look like the issue is being pushed, though. ROK Drop rightly alludes to the hypocracy between this response and the one that comes when Americans soldiers behave violently. And you may recall the December 2006 story of nine foreigners in Busan who were detained for putting on a performance that poked fun at Korean culture, but who were ostensibly busted for violating the terms of their visa. You'd think this guy could at least be held for that. *sigh*

On the topic of demonstrations, thousands attended a candlelight vigil held in Seoul last night in protest of the import of American beef to South Korea. There's another one scheduled for tonight. Gordsellar has two interesting write-ups on the issue here and here. Local media has been drawing parallels between these beef protests and the widespread anti-American ugliness that crecendoed in 2002 and 2003, and as an American and a foreigner in Korea, I hope things don't go in that direction again. I'm also very pleased that these beef protests are quieter and less poop-dependent than the one they had in Gwangju last year:

Stupid insensitive Nike doesn't understand Korean culture and doesn't like its statues fondled by Korean politicians.

Seems some Gyeonggi-do council members horrified some Nike employees in Portland by fondling some statues and "behaving like immature teenagers." The politicians claim it was a cultural misunderstanding. From yesterday's Korea Times:

Regional council members' angered an international sports goods maker through making sexually explicit gestures during their visit to its headquarters abroad. The politicians quickly tried to explain themselves, claiming ``difference of culture'' as an excuse, but businessmen in the United States called for an apology and prohibited the council members from visiting them again.

According to the Chosun Ilbo, the incident began when seven members of Gyeonggi provincial council visited the headquarters of the world's largest sports utilities maker Nike in Portland, USA, early March as part of their efforts to forge ties between Korea and the US. While there, two council members reportedly touched the breasts and private parts of a female statue. Witnesses said they even tried to put their hands in the statue's crotch while giggling. This left many of the workers there feeling horrified.

Later on, the witnesses complained to the company that the politicians' behavior was terribly embarrassing. ``Half of them were behaving like immature teenagers'' one reportedly said.

The headquarters' spokesman told the council team that the company felt deeply uncomfortable after hearing about what happened and that they will ``not welcome any further visits from the council.''

I don't think I have anything else to add.

2008 declared Korea-Japan Tourism Exchange Year.

I was going to post about the scaremongering going on about Mad Cow Disease in the media, as reported in today's Chosun Ilbo here and here, but The Marmot's Hole beat me to it. For my readers who don't go over that way much, here's a little excerpt from the CI:

The impending resumption of imports of U.S. beef has spawned a proliferation of rumors on the Internet about the perils of mad cow disease, amplifying confusion and fears among consumers. This was not helped by the airing of an edition of “PD Diary”, the famous MBC current affairs program, on Tuesday, which claimed that 94 percent of Koreans have genes that make them more susceptible than Americans or Britons to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), which is the human variant of mad cow disease, and this physical trait makes Koreans two to three times more likely than Americans or Britons to contract the disease.

And one more:

Even madly unscientific rumors like, “Jelly, cookies, a broiled dish of sliced rice pasta and pizza will cause mad cow disease,” or, “Cosmetic products, sanitary napkins, and diapers are also risky because parts of cattle are used in production,” exhorting consumers to hoard such items before the imports, are spreading on the Internet.

(Update: The Korea Times has two similar stories here and here.)

Not unlike the unscientific facts in circulation in Korea about how sleeping with a fan on will kill you, or how wearing miniskirts will ruin your girl parts. My 3rd-grade students (US 9th grade) were really interested to talk about Mad Cow Disease this morning, a completely surprising impulse probably explained by that documentary. We had a good conversation about it, though they kept coming back to their fear of dying from American beef. But they're good kids. For all our sakes I can only hope this crazy-talk doesn't lead to a rise in anti-Americanism as the first Chosun Ilbo article suggests.

Anyway since I have to stick to my quota also in the Chosun Ilbo today is a story about Korea and Japan declaring 2008 a "Tourism Exchange Year." The number of Japanese tourists to Korea has been decreasing, while the number of visitors from other nations---such as Taiwan and Thailand---has been increasing.

One can only hope this branded year goes better than 2005's Korea-Japan Friendship Year, which produced this image of Korean Parliament Members not being too friendly:

Elementary school students in Daegu imitate porn.

A group of elementary school students in Daegu were caught imitating scenes from pornographic internet sites and television programs, raising concerns about the ready availability of these materials and the lack of sex education programs in schools. (Update: The Marmot has a write-up with details here and tonight's Korea Times has the story here.)

In response, South Korea is expected to tighten restrictions on the issuance of E-2 visas. Misbehaving teachers came to the fore again a few days ago, when six non-E2 teachers were busted for drug offenses, to which a police official said:

"Most of them smoked marijuana in their home countries, and they also made by hand glass pipes to smoke marijuana here in Korea… As there’s a concern that they may have a bad influence on the students they teach, it’s necessary to strengthen screenings into prior drug-use records when E-2 visas are given out.”