Los Angeles Times on Korea's cyber-bullies, Vera Hohleiter brouhaha.

The Los Angeles Times' John Glionna has written about South Korea's cyber-bullies, and opens with a look at last summer's scandal about a panelist on the show "Beauties' Chat" (미녀들의 수다):

When German-born fashion journalist Vera Hohleiter poked fun in print at the smell of kimchi and the short skirts of South Korean women, the cyber response was swift and nasty.

Incensed Seoul Internet users flooded her blog with insults, calling her a racist and a Nazi, and demanded that she leave their country immediately.

"For weeks, I went everywhere by taxi," said Hohleiter, 30, whose perceived transgressions were contained in a 2008 book, "Sleepless in Seoul," her memoir about a foreign woman hopelessly in love with a young Korean man. "I just didn't want to be confronted with this growing public anger."

The Korea Herald talked with her in October, in an article that brought up a few of the controversial parts of her book:

"Korean girls are obsessed with keeping up popular trends by wearing mini-skirts. But when they walk up stairways in subway stations they make every possible effort to hide their exposed bodies. I don't understand why they even wear mini-skirts";

"As a well-mannered and well-educated European, I put a great deal of effort to appreciate the social customs of Korea, but everyday I encounter something that prevents me from doing so";

"Koreans have a bad taste for gossiping about foreigners. When they spot them in a public place such as in the subway, they delve into a very detailed criticism of their appearance and do it in a loud voice."

The Korea Times broke the story in English, saying the source was a Korean student living in Germany. If Korean students' proficiency in German is anything at all like their proficiency in English, it's not surprising there was trouble.

On Thursday night, the blogger who identified herself as “a Korean student studying in Germany” posted a piece on a popular Korean Internet web forum. She said she bought a book, titled “Sleepless Night in Seoul” written by Hohleiter and gave it to a German friend as a gift.

Not long after, her German friend came back to ask her: “Is everything written in the book true?”

Realizing something went wrong, the Korean student read the book. “I am convinced that she wrote the book with a clear intention of dissing Korea,” she was quoted as saying by JoongAng Ilbo on Saturday.

My post in August got some comments from German readers, and German readers who read her book. From Martin:

When I bought it, I thought it would be the usual crap that we normally get from books about Korea but it was a decent read and the picture she draws of Korea is VERY positive. The few negative aspects she points out do not stand out at all, though I'm not surprised that some random Korean netizen picks up on them and the Korea Time publishes a story based on that person's opinion/interpretation. Unreal.

Having said that, I'm not out to defend Ms. Hohleiter. I think it's highly hypocritical to categorize all German guys in Korea as "losers back home", who apparently just have to step off the plane at Incheon to get hundreds of girls just because they're "tall". Especially so, when noone in Germany has ever heard of you and you sure as hell would have never been on a TV show.

From Mark:

Well folks. It's all just so much hype again. I've read her blog and what she says about the accusations levied against her by Koreans. Her reaction is utter disbelief and sadness at being misrepresented by the Korean press and Korean netizens. But don't we all know about the Korean press and Korean netizens by now?! Do I need to spell it out? NEVER EVER believe anything a Korean journalist says or what Korean netizens say! (BTW a Korean netizen called her a slut and told her to leave Korea or else...). As far as I can glean from Amazon book reviews her book is fairly positive about Korea, but also mentions the negative points all of us here know and talk about on a daily basis. The problem lies mainly with the Koreans: they simply can't take any sort of criticism as they've been brainwashed to be hypernationalist and are literally proverbial frogs in the well. And they lack a sense of humour of the tongue-in-cheek kind.

Anyway, here's her blog for those who speak German:

http://blog.brigitte.de/korea

From Gitte:

I'm German, I've read her blog, I've read the first part of the book, and I have to say, it is not what you would call high literature. It is written very simply, and it's all about her following this boy to Korea, without much thought and preparation. Now, from what I gather, people who have high standards of literature generally think the book is shallow, childish, unreflected and other things. Those who might have lower standards think it's okay. There's probably a bit of ambivalence in the way she wrote the book.

That being said, the problem is that she really did say in the book that she doesn't like Korea all that much -- which is clearly NOT what she said in the shows. This is where the Korean public feels betrayed. That's where the trouble originated, not in the mere fact that she said some not so nice things about Korea.

From Silberdrache:

I'm German, I've been working in Seoul as IT-specialist some months, I've visited south Korea several times, I'm engaged with a Korean woman, I've lived together with average and high class Korean families. So I'd say I already gained some insight concerning the south Korean society. I read Vera Hohleiter's book and was really disappointed. The ONLY positive things she can tell about south Korea is: It's interesting, never getting boring, and it offers chances to foreigners they'll never get elsewhere (like taking part in a TV show...).

From Natalie:

I also didn't find a huge difference between what she said on TV and what she wrote in her book. She was never one of the misuda girls who seemed to be over-excited about living in Korea. She was always rather critical.

And from Super-O:

Few people seem to consider the purpose of this book. It is NOT a Lonely Planet replacement. It is NOT the definitive guide to Korean culture and history. It does NOT make a claim to be balanced and objective.

Quite the contrary, it is very clear from the book's cover and blurb that here we have a blog-style, very subjective description of one person's initial experience with a new culture, a diary rather than an encyclopedia. The book works only in this style. Had Vera written "but today of course I know better", the book might have been twice as thick.

The book is also entertainment. What is more entertaining: a description of the correct procedure to use chopsticks, or anectodes of personal chopstick mistfortunes (Vera apparently had no problems with eating tools, unlike myself)? So, there is no reason at all to expect a postive, or even fair review of Korea. Yet people keep complaining that after 3 years in the country, she should know better. Of course she does, but the book is about her first year!