``The [Bank of Korea] should have been more careful in selecting figures for the banknote models. Shin is not a good choice,'' said an official from the Korean National Council of Women. ``Shin Saimdang was a typical role model for women under the Confucian patriarchal system, not for modern women.''
*cough* Right, the modern woman doesn't raise children anymore, she fawns over expensive kimchi refrigerators and serves her male coworkers soju and samgyeopsal. The latest problem?
But the Gangneung Choi clan association, to which Shin's father belongs on his maternal side, on Sunday said the portrait on the banknote is quite different from her authentic portrait and it is asking the Bank of Korea to change it.
Choi Sun-kyu, the head of the association, said, "The authentic portrait shows a long face, but on the banknote her face is round."
Thanks to James Turnbull for the scoop. Well, since we're here let's look at fellow blogger Stafford's latest meme, the redesigned 50,000 note. Here's him, in what I'll call "Oh Man Stafford":
See what I did there? And there are some by ROK Drop and Roboseyo. Here's mine:
Some background on that unforgettable moment here.
4 comments:
Ah, this gives me some excuse to recycle old posts. Regarding dropped-pants man, 15 centimeters of fame.
I, too, noticed that the Shin Saimdang portrait seemed off (plus my own take on Stafford's meme).
Brian wrote:
Right, the modern woman doesn't raise children anymore, she ... serves her male coworkers soju and samgyeopsal.
I think that's their point. Women serving their male coworkers soju and samgyŏpsal is a residue of the neo-Confucian social hierarchy.
The women's groups think that is a bad thing for women, so honoring a woman who was the epitome of neo-Confucian virtue is a bad signal to send.
My WORD VERIFICATION this time is "bedychon," which would be like a village for going beddy-bye.
To be fair, it isn't so much that the modern women doesn't raise children, but that the idealized woman's figure was defined by being a mother, and nothing else. Shin Saimdang was a role model according to manuals for women's virtuous living that were written by men, ie Yollyojon, or Biographies of Chaste Women. It's particularly annoying because there are examples of good, Confucian women of the period who made great contributions to the arts, such as Ho Nansorun.
Nothing will ever beat World Cup ajossi on the W50,000 note. That's awesome.
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