50 Most Influential K-Pop Artists: 37. Lee Sora

[Read more reviews from the Korean from the Library Mixer. To join, click here.]

[Series Index]

37.  Lee Sora [이소라]

Years of Activity:  1995-present

Discography:
Vol. 1 (1995)
Like in a Movie [영화에서처럼] (1996)
About Sorrow and Rage [슬픔과 분노에 관한] (1998)
Flower [꽃] (2000)
Sora's Diary (2002)
Eyelash Moon [눈썹달] (2004)
Winter, Lonely and Warm Songs [겨울, 외롭고 따뜻한 노래] (2008)

Representative Song:  The Wind Blows [바람이 분다] from Eyelash Moon

바람이 분다
The Wind Blows

바람이 분다
The wind blows
서러운 마음에 텅 빈 풍경이 불어온다
The empty scenary blows into the sorrowful heart
머리를 자르고 돌아오는 길에
On the way back from cutting hair
내내 글썽이던 눈물을 쏟는다
The welled tears drop

하늘이 젖는다
The sky wets
어두운 거리에 찬 빗방울이 떨어진다
In the dark streets, cold raindrops fall
무리를 지으며 따라오는 비는
The rain that chases me in a herd
내게서 먼 것 같아
Seems far away from me
이미 그친 것 같아
Seems already stopped

세상은 어제와 같고
The world is the same as yesterday
시간은 흐르고 있고
The time is still flowing
나만 혼자 이렇게 달라져 있다
And I alone changed like this
바람에 흩어져 버린 허무한 내 소원들은
My futile wishes scattered in the wind
애타게 사라져간다
Desperately disappear

바람이 분다
The wind blows
시린 한기 속에 지난 시간을 되돌린다
In the searing chill, turn back to the times past
여름 끝에 선 너의 뒷모습이
Your back, standing at the end of the summer
차가웠던 것 같아
Seemed so cold
다 알 것 같아
Seemed like I understand it all

내게는 소중했었던 잠 못 이루던 날들이
The sleepless days that were so precious to me
너에겐 지금과 다르지 않았다
To you, they were not different from now
사랑은 비극이어라
What tragedy is love
그대는 내가 아니다
You are not I
추억은 다르게 적힌다
Memories are written differently
나의 이별은 잘 가라는 인사도 없이 치러진다
My departure is held without a goodbye

세상은 어제와 같고
The world is the same as yesterday
시간은 흐르고 있고
The time is still flowing
나만 혼자 이렇게 달라져 있다
And I alone changed like this
내게는 천금같았던 추억이 담겨져 있던 머리 위로
Over the head holding memories worth a thousand gold to me
바람이 분다
The wind blows
눈물이 흐른다
The tear falls

Translation Note:  Not sure if the emotion carries over in English. Anyone have a better word for 시리다? "Searing" was a possibility because the sensation is similar, but "searing" is never associated with cold in English. 애타게 is also such a crucial word, but not sure if that was translated right.

In 15 Words or Less:  The most special voice in K-pop history.

Maybe she should be ranked higher because...  At one point, she was easily the most dominant female star for the stretch of 3 to 4 years.

Maybe she should be ranked lower because...  How much weight can we give to a vocalist, as opposed to a singer-songwriter? (See the discussion below.)

Why is this artist important?
We often obsess over shallow forms of creativity. We focus on quick, observable types of creativity and neglect to see the deep, intangible forms of creativity. In pop music, this tendency manifests itself in our worship of singer-songwriters. After all, anyone can sing. Heck, we sound pretty good when we sing in the shower. Composition, now that's creativity. A good singer is nice, but all she is doing is following the commands of the composer. There is no creativity there.

And sometimes, a transcendental talent shows up and slaps some sense into us. Lee Sora is not a singer-songwriter. She is only a singer, although the negative connotation of the word "only" should not apply at all. Her velvety, near androgynous voice that effortlessly rises and falls over several octaves is easily the most special voice in K-pop history. (In fact, the Korean is certain that had K-pop been as internationally as now and/or Lee sung in English during her heyday in the late 1990s, she would have been a world star at the level of, say, Bjork and Enya.) And few, if any, can replicate the emotions she has been able to convey with that voice.

Lee's best songs are always about deep, desperate emotions, held in unknown to anyone. The song The Wind Blows shows this very well. Woman cutting hair is always a significant event. She was holding back tears the whole time while getting her hair cut, and she silently cries on the way back, in an empty street. Express this wrong, and all you have is a cheesy, stupid melodrama. But express this right, and you are accessing one of the most powerful emotions in all of humanity.

This is the point at which we see the true genius of singing. Singing is not merely following the commands of the composer. At its best, singing breathes life into what was no more than a clay doll formed by the composer. Singing turns what was two-dimensional into what is three-, four-, five-dimensional. It requires the ability to envision the end result, the fifth dimension that people cannot even imagine, and using your talent to get to that dimension. When this does happen, it is like magic -- it just happens. But instead of applauding, people simply think it is not hard to raise a rabbit in a hat and pull it out in front of the crowd.

Lee Sora's influence is made even more meaningful by the fact that she shined in the K-pop desert populated by pretty corporate puppets. K-pop had two periods of nadir -- once during mid-1970s to early 1980s when the military dictatorship cracked down on "subversive" songs, and during late 1990s-early 2000s when the corporate groups almost choked out the scene. During the latter nadir when talentless pretty faces crowded the television screens, Lee Sora never lowered herself to vulgar sex appeal. Her voice alone gently reminded everyone in Korea what mattered in music.

Interesting trivia:  Right before Lee Sora made her debut, another woman named Lee Sora had already been a popular public personality for a few years -- as a supermodel/talk show host. Much confusion occurred in everyday parlance regarding "Singer Lee Sora" and "Model Lee Sora."

-EDIT 1/31/2011- After some deliberation, the translation of 시린 한기 is changed from "piercing cold" to "searing chill".

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

"We're not South Korea, we never will be! Why don't you love us for us?"

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
State of the Union 2011 - Night of Too Many Promises
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook

Ask a Korean! News: North Korean Riot in 1998

It has been a while since the Korean translated from Nambuk Story, a North Korean blog run by Mr. Joo Seong-Ha, a Kim Il-Sung University graduate who defected from North Korea. The Korean has been translating his incredible stories and invaluable insight partly because they are informative, and partly because of a sense of duty that the world needs to know what has happened in Korea, and what is happening now. This story  is long, but the world must know. Incredibly, although this happened more than 10 years ago, the story is only getting told now from a defector through Mr. Joo. Below is the translation.

*            *           *

My name is Lee Choon-Gu, 35 years old. I escaped from North Korea and defected into Republic of Korea, my dream world. I am from Hwanghaebuk-do Hwangju-gun.

At this point, I have largely forgotten the hunger and struggle I experienced in North Korea before I defected. But I can never forget the laborer's riot at Hwanghae Steel Refinery at August 1998, in Hwanghaebuk-do Songrim-si. North Korean regime's inhuman barbarism that quelled this riot will forever stain the pages of history.

In early August of 1998, I came to stay with my aunt at Songrim-si to get through the dire food shortage. Songrim-si is known for having one of the largest steel refineries in North Korea. My family came to rely on my aunt's because her little business of carrying around and selling things was doing ok at a place with a high density of laborers, nearly 100,000 employees of the steel mill. The three of us -- myself, wife and child -- abandoned the house at Hwangju-gun, got to help my aunt selling fish and eat what little food available. I was so thankful for my aunt and uncle then. My uncle was working at the automated line within the Hwanghae Steel Refinery.

At this time, the situation was the same everywhere in North Korea. Even in Songrim-si filled with laborers, the monthly food ration amounted to corn power worth a day or two. The laborers did not show up to work, severely dropping the factory's productivity. The factory officials visited my aunt's house several times to persuade my uncle, who could not report to work. The officers said a few words like "Let's try to overcome this difficulty and be loyal to the Dear Leader," but my uncle hardly cared.

I think it was around August 10, 1998. There were rumors all over Songrim-si that there is a public execution by a firing squad, executing eight Hwanghae Steel Refinery officers at the public stadium. Apparently the manager and the secretary of the steel mill began discussing how to feed the laborers, and the assistant managers participated. The conclusion was to sell pressed steel plates to China in exchange for corn.

The manager and the secretary of a steel mill are candidates for Labor Party Central Committee and members of the elite power structure. They were supposed to report something like this to the Central Party, but decided to handle within the steel mill. They knew that the higher-ups would not approve because the steel plates were for the military, etc. At the meeting, the secretary and the manager explained, "We are not being reactionaries; we are trying to produce steel by feeding the laborers and have them participate in production." At the same time, they pleaded the officers to keep it secret.

The steel mill's boat at Nampo seaport took the steel plates to China to be exchanged for corn. The steel mill's assistant manager and other officers were on the boat to negotiate with the Chinese. Of course, the laborers on the boat would not know the specifics of this transaction. They returned with a boat full of corn exchanged with the steel plates, and were about to moor the boat at Nampo.

Suddenly, young men in plainclothes jumped on the boat brandishing handguns, and showed their identification. The ID said Pyongyang Chief Security Bureau Inspection Division, the embedded enforcers who are known to operate through direct orders from the North Korean regime. They arrested everyone on the boat, tied them up and took them away somewhere in a car -- a rare thing to see in North Korea. Apparently, the arrest happened because someone snitched. All this I heard from the laborers from the boat, who were let go because they did not know anything. The streets were filled with indignant murmurs wondering who snitched. The murmurs also voiced the people's praise for the officers' brave decision for the laborers.

Next day at 9 a.m., the city public stadium was filled with laborers and residents with heavy hearts. With my uncle, I saw the eight people to be executed getting dragged out from a truck. Probably because of torture, they could not walk; the plainclothed young men of Pyongyang Chief Security Bureau Inspection Division dragged them to the stakes. Even as they were being tied to the stakes, my uncle who worked at the steel mill could not tell who was who. Although it was summer, everyone was wrapped in thick cotton winter clothes with their eyes covered.

Then the people from some kind of central tribunal read the sentencing statement for death penalty. It said for the treason that violated the Party's sovereign leadership and sold the republic's supplies to a foreign country, the assistant manager and head of sales who were arrested on the boat, and other related assistant managers and head of production -- eight officers -- are to be executed immediately. Suddenly the murmurs grew, expressing a sense of injustice. "Execution is too much; it's not like they were trying to feed themselves."

But some dozen shooters lined up in front of the prisoners with automatic rifles, and sprayed bullets on command. The shrieking sound of bullets lifted up and put down the small stadium, and the shot prisoners all squirted blood, slumping forward. Facing this enormous scene of murder, the people fell quiet. But after the storm passed, the outraged yell of the people began to burst out here and there, swaying the stadium. My uncle and I were also agitated, and joined voices to hurl curses of whose meaning we did not even know.

As if to represent them, a middle-aged woman jumped in front of the microphone that was used to read the sentencing statement. The people around me all pointed to her and said she used to be a nurse for the Great Leader (Kim Il-Sung). My uncle said the woman was a designated nurse for Kim Il-Sung at Bonghwa hospital at Pyongyang, who came back to her hometown Songrim-si to live a high life while earning the trust of the central party. I could feel my gaze sharpening as I heard my uncle, thinking that woman would spout some garbage to justify the execution. I could feel the other people also sending her a hateful glare. But the woman's voice reverberating from the mic was completely unexpected:

"How dare you execute in this barbaric manner? The steel mill officers tried to get the corn only to produce and please the Dear Leader. They should be punished if their method was wrong, but they did not deserve execution. The executed officers tried to feed the laborers to get them to work. They weren't trying to feed themselves. Killing them like this was barbaric ..."

Before she could finish, the plainclothed young men rushed in, dragged the woman away from the microphone. They kicked her with their boots, and put a gag in her mouth. Then they tied her up, dragged her to the stake where one of the prisoner just died. They kicked away the slumped body of the executed prisoner, and tied the woman on the stake. Then a middle-aged, plainclothed man -- not the judge who read the statement -- stepped up. He was directing the men from the Inspection Division. He said icily, "Anyone who disobeys our socialist sovereign system is executed immediately. Everyone behave accordingly." Before he even finished, three shooters fired nine shots at the woman.

As the woman, who was alive just earlier, fell into a pool of blood, the people were petrified as if their mouthes froze over. Shivering with terror, they could not even breathe loudly; not even a rustle could be heard in the stadium full of people. My uncle and I, shocked with fear, left the stadium and came home. Even at home, no one -- including my aunt and my wife, who were there also -- tried to say anything. It felt as if the moment we say anything, someone will rush in and bury bullets in us again.

The next day afternoon, the rumor began to spread in Songrim-si that the outraged steel mill laborers risked death, rushed the factory and began protesting. Several thousand laborers gathered to conduct a sitting protest at a road within the factory, chanting, "No more purges of officers" and "Officers who tried to feed us for the mill did nothing wrong." The Songrim-si people did not spare the words of encouragement: "The laborer class is truly a class of their own," "Laborers are fearless." A protest like this in North Korea could not even be dreamed of.

The protesters decided to occupy the factory sitting down, until a representative from the regime heard their demands. As they heard no word until dark, they continued to protest over the night. We fell asleep as we heard news about their protest.

I woke up as my wife was shaking me. As I was opening my eyes, I was startled by the eardrum-piercing noise. The dull roar of caterpillar rang the windows and shook the floor -- it had to be tanks. They must have been moving so closely together that I could not tell how many there were. I looked at the clock; it was nearly 4 a.m. My aunt and uncle, both awake, stared at the outside noise with bewilderment.

"Is there a war?" "I think so." My aunt and uncle spoke to each other. My wife and I looked at each other, widening our eyes with agreement. Korean War started in early morning also; the dark blue daybreak with the sounds of tank seemed like war.

"What do we do? Go find out what happened. We might have to make a run." My uncle and I hurriedly put on our pants as my aunt nagged. Once outside, we began running after the tanks that already passed by. Other people were running in front of and behind us. They were running toward the mill. The steel mill was about a mile and half from our house. We kept hearing the tanks in the mill's direction. The streets were filled with people running toward the mill. As we were running, I asked my uncle -- aren't the tanks going to the protesters? My uncle glanced at me and dismissed the notion right away, saying "What would tanks do there?"

Suddenly, the people stopped running, frozen where they were standing to hear the blasting guns. Hundreds of blasts were mixed with shrieking screams. It was like a dream, as if those screams were piercing my heart. After about ten minutes, the sound of guns and the laboring sound of the tanks stopped, only the sound as if the stationary tanks were starting up again. Then the chaotic sound of crying, inside the mill. The people rushed into the mill, and then stopped, shocked at the scene before them.

The asphalt-paved road inside the steel mill had a river of viscous, dark dead blood. In the middle of every person who cried together, dozens of horrendously squashed dead bodies were strewn about, next to messy piles of severed arms and legs. The rising stink of blood was retching. Hundreds of soldiers were haughtily aiming their guns at a group of men, who appeared to be the protesters. All the bodies looked like they were run over by the tanks or shot.

Soon, the people surrounded the bodies of their family and began wailing. As if there was no protest to begin with, there was only a sea of tears. The people could hear from what the protesters said: a dozen tanks and hundreds of soldiers on trucks came before the sitting protesters. The laborers were ordered to scatter, but they did not budge. Then, following a signal, the protesters fell with the loud sounds of gunfire, and the tanks rolled into the protesting ranks. Dozens of sitting laborers in the front were suddenly swallowed up into the tank's tracks. The frightened protesters screamed and scattered.

The next day, bulletins from Social Security Bureau (currently People's Security Bureau) appeared on the streets. They said the leaders of the protest who threatened the socialist system and caused a disloyal incitement would be judged in the name of the people. It was like a state of martial law, as the young soldiers with guns prowled the alleyways.

Two days later, there was another public execution of three laborers, who were supposedly the leaders of the riot, with a middle school teacher and a young woman. The crime of the middle school teacher and the young woman was to steal a radio from a Korean-Japanese who returned to North Korea from Japan. They were unlucky -- during the state of martial law, they were caught by the security bureau agents who were looking for any excuse to execute someone.

My wife was sitting in the front of the public execution, and she said among the prisoners, her eyes were drawn to the frail-looking young woman. After their crimes and the judgment of execution by firing squad were read, the two plainclothes from the Chief Security Bureau approached the woman. They struck her jaw to dislocate it, and put in her mouth a small spring held in their hand. The small, round spring stretched up, pushing out her mouth. She writhed in pain. Then she was shot several times, dying at the stake. My wife was in shock. Trembling, she could not sleep for several days.

No one in Songrim-si dared to even breathe loudly for the entire August. This is the event that is known to have been suppressed by Pyongyang's Chief Security Bureau.

직접 목격한 북한 노동자 폭동, 탱크로 밀어버린 현장은 [Nambuk Story]

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

Did You Ever Have This Conversation?

Just a wee bit of background. About a month ago, the Korean's friends visited from New York. The Korean's friends wanted to have dinner together with another one of their friends. (He is not Korean. Let's call him "V".) That other friend brought a friend, who was a Korean. (Let's call her "M".) The Korean drove and picked up everyone. As we were chatting in the car, an interesting thing happened. Here is the actual conversation, as verbatim as the Korean can remember.

V:   Are you going home [=Korea] for the holidays?
M:  No. I'll probably go back in February. My friends will actually be available because I'm trying to go at Chinese New Year.
V:   I didn't know Koreans celebrated Chinese New Year. Do Korean people call it "Chinese New Year"?
M:  No.
V:   What do they call it then?
M:  Um... Korean New Year (laugh).
V:   Really?
M:  Yeah.
[Silence for about five seconds.]
TK:   Actually, it's called seol or gujeong in Korea.

Now, the conversation itself is trivial. But the point that the Korean wants to make is not. Imagine what would happen if the Korean was not there. V would think Koreans call Lunar New Year a "Korean New Year," because he heard it from a Korean from Korea.

Again, V thinking that is not such a terrible thing, because who really cares what Koreans call Lunar New Year? But the Korean's point is about the manner in which V acquired that knowledge. If V and M were touching on a more serious topic, V would be badly misled.

Did M not know Lunar New Year in Korea is called seol or gujeong? No way -- everyone in Korea knows that. Why did she give the wrong answer then? Who knows? Maybe she didn't feel like saying the word and then hear V mangle the pronunciation as he repeated the word. Maybe she didn't feel like explaining the historical background or etymology of gujeong (which is actually pretty involved and can be fascinating.)

Two points from this:

1. You cannot fully trust the information you glean from a casual conversation. People are often wrong, and often do not care they are wrong. Heck, even the Korean himself is looser with research and facts in a casual conversation. A lot of people also like to emphasize something like "I heard this from college-educated Korean ..." to validate what they heard about Korea. That does not matter either -- both V and M are attorneys with graduate degrees. Didn't matter one bit.

2.  More often than not, a member of a culture is not all that knowledgeable in that culture. In fact, this is a form of culturalism also -- turning a person into a representative of the person's culture, and making judgments on that culture (and by extension other people of that culture) based on what that person says or does. This is definitely true with how non-Koreans interact with Korean Americans, but also true with respect to interacting with Koreans in Korea.

Give this some thought. Is anything you think you know based on a casual conversation like this? Then it is time to reexamine that knowledge, and get a second opinion. You know whom to ask.

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

Ask a Korean! News: Testing Makes You Smarter

Suck it, haters:

Taking a test is not just a passive mechanism for assessing how much people know, according to new research. It actually helps people learn, and it works better than a number of other studying techniques.

...

One of those methods — repeatedly studying the material — is familiar to legions of students who cram before exams. The other — having students draw detailed diagrams documenting what they are learning — is prized by many teachers because it forces students to make connections among facts.

These other methods not only are popular, the researchers reported; they also seem to give students the illusion that they know material better than they do.

...

Dr. Kornell said that “even though in the short term it may seem like a waste of time,” retrieval practice appears to “make things stick in a way that may not be used in the classroom.

“It’s going to last for the rest of their schooling, and potentially for the rest of their lives.”

To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test [New York Times]

Long live rote memorization, long live testing!

The Korean emphasized the portion above because of its striking resonance with a point made in Waiting for Superman: Although American students are close to the bottom among industrialized countries in PISA test exams, they led the whole world in the self-assessment of their exam performance. In other words, American students did not really know anything, but thought they knew everything. This is what happens when education focuses too much on self-esteem and too little on actually learning something.

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

Tiger Mothers are Superior. Here is Why.

I really wanted to let this one pass until later, because I was in the middle of researching for and writing a big series on education in Korea, which would nicely lead into Korean American educational philosophy. But alas, the world does not turn the way I want. Professor Chua’s story about “Chinese” mothers did not blow over -- it blew up instead. Even in the news cycle that included the most important political assassination/assassination attempt in the last decade, Prof. Chua’s “extreme parenting” story continues to reverberate. In fact, it has a strong likelihood of becoming the defining story concerning education and Asian Americans of 2011, although the year is still very young at this point. That makes this topic simply irresistible -- so here it is.

But first, let us go through some caveats. First of all, we must be fair to Prof. Chua. If you still do not know, the original Wall Street Journal article is an excerpt from Prof. Chua’s memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. It is a memoir, not a parenting manual. Prof. Chua did not select the Journal article’s salacious title, “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior.” In fact, it was not even an excerpt in a normal sense -- the article is a selection of the most sensational pieces of the book, scissored and stitched together to depict the most incendiary picture of Prof. Chua’s parenting, while the rest of the book actually discusses Prof. Chua’s movement away from such parenting.

Second, I am not trying to discuss exactly what Prof. Chua did with her daughters. Too many people were so outraged and distracted by Prof. Chua’s precise tactics (e.g. calling her child “garbage”) that they failed to see the point that Prof. Chua was making. I actually want to discuss what the Wall Street Journal headline provocatively suggested -- that is, are Chinese mothers superior?

(For the record, I found exactly nothing wrong in Prof. Chua’s methodology. It is hard to be outraged at calling a child “garbage” when I had several mop handles broken into my legs by the time I was 16, when I emigrated from Korea. The reaction of my wife was equally nonchalant: “I used to be thrown out of the house in a T-shirt in the middle of the winter if I didn’t practice violin. It didn’t scar me. People need to get over themselves.” But you don’t have to agree with us to buy into the rest of the post. Please read on.)

But let’s get our terminology straight first, because the term “Chinese mother” is misleading. In fact, Prof. Chua recognizes that she is using the term “Chinese mother” loosely. “Chinese mother” is not about the Chinese ethnicity; it is about a certain mindset present across all different races. But term is still misleading, if only because Americans, to their credit, are very concerned with remaining neutral with different races. So instead of “Chinese mother,” let’s use the other term that Prof. Chua uses -- the “Tiger Mother.”

Again, Tiger Mother can be from any country. Tiger Mothers are found in China, but also in Korea, Japan, Europe, Caribbean Islands and Africa. Most importantly, by all accounts Tiger Mothers used to be abundant in the U.S.

But here, I must give an apology for all non-Asian Tiger Moms, because I will use Asian Americans as my primary example throughout this post. The reason for this is twofold. One, I know Asian Americans well. I would love to discuss African Americans from the West Indies -- whose success is well-chronicled -- but unfortunately, I do not know enough to discuss. Two, Asian American parents tend to be homogeneous when it comes to parenting -- virtually all of them are Tiger Moms. This makes for a neat natural experiment. There are plenty of white American Tiger Moms, but it is difficult to isolate their population and examine their Tiger Cubs.

What are the characteristics of Tiger Mother? Koreans share an apocryphal myth about how mother Tigers push their cub down the cliff, electing to raise only the ones that climb back up. This is a good way of thinking about Tiger Parenting. Under a Tiger Mother, the Tiger Cub will go through what appears to be hellish, almost always against his own desire. Tiger Parenting demands excellence -- almost exclusively academic excellence, punctuated by high-brow hobby such as classical music -- from Tiger Cubs.

The precise extent to which Tiger Moms define excellence is worth mentioning. To Tiger Moms, the word “excellence” means its purest definition, not the watered-down “mark of excellence” given out for simply showing up. Excellence means perfection, or as close to it as humanly possible. Excellence means all A’s. Excellence means top awards, first place.

It must be noted that this demand for excellence is not out of some sadistic desire, but out of a staunch belief that excellence CAN be achieved. Prof. Chua described it well in her book: “Chinese parents demand perfect grades because they believe that their child can get them. If their child doesn't get them, the Chinese parent assumes it's because the child didn't work hard enough.”

Because excellence is constantly within reach, failure to achieve excellence always reduced to a single reason: laziness. And laziness is the greatest sin for Tiger Mothers. Prof. Chua explains: “That's why the solution to substandard performance is always to excoriate, punish and shame the child. The Chinese parent believes that their child will be strong enough to take the shaming and to improve from it.” Many people are aghast at this, because they lack the imagination to think that parents who love their children would act this way. But for Tiger Moms, not treating your child this way is a sign that they do not love their children. It means that they quit believing in their children, as there is no more potential to mine. This last point is very important. All the toughness of Tiger Moms is backstopped by love and nothing else. All the pain inflicted is not designed to kill. They are designed to strengthen.

Having said all this, let us ask the million dollar question. Are Tiger Moms superior?

Of course they are. And I will show you why, after the jump.

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

Ask a Korean! News: Picture from 1992 LA Riot

Los Angeles Times recently ran a story about the new and improved LAPD. But what attracted the Korean's eyes was this photo accompanying the article.

These are Korean men who were trying to defend Koreatown during the 1992 LA riot. The article said:

Among the most durable and dispiriting images of that era, however, were those of Korean merchants taking to their rooftops in the opening hours of the riots, arming themselves because they were convinced that they were alone, that the LAPD would not be there for them. They were right.

Fortunately, progress has been made:

After an evening at the station, I turned to head out. As I left, the desk officer was patiently counseling three Korean men. Dressed in suits, one of them with a notepad, they had come in with a concern. The officer spoke with them, resolved their question and shook hands all around before they turned to leave. The entire exchange was conducted in Korean.

Not Your 1992 LAPD [Los Angeles Times]

The LA riots predated the Korean, so he really does not know too much about it outside of a couple of documentaries and some news articles. Personal accounts and recommendations for books, etc. are welcome.

-EDIT 8/10/2011- The Korean noticed that this post gets linked out on various message boards every time there is a riot somewhere -- at this time, with respect to the London riot. The link is usually accompanies a statement like how Korean Americans were able to protect themselves with guns during the 1992 LA riot. The Korean will remind you that having guns did not prevent Korean Americans from suffering the heaviest damage as a group in the course of the riot. The Korean's own view of proper gun control is here. The Korean's more detailed view on guns and riot is here.

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

Ask a Korean! News: Assorted North Korean News

There are a lot of news about North Korea recently that suggest the country is rotting to its core. Consider:

- There are reports that in order to allay the hunger from not receiving enough food, North Korean soldiers are eating salt as a snack. (Yes, salt. You read that correctly.) North Korea is collecting food for the military directly from civilian, which has happened only twice in the last 20 years.

- There is a massive crackdown on the widespread use of hallucinogenic drugs, led by none other than the heir apparent Kim Jong-Un. There have been crackdowns on drugs in the past, but this time involves the Security Bureau and the military -- which suggests that North Korean regime considers the drug problem to be a regime-stability issue.

Is North Korea coming to the brink? The Korean actually is not sure. His guess is that North Korea probably was in an equally bad shape during the massive famine in the 1990s, except there is more information available this time thanks to a large number of defectors, the Internet and cell phones. But of course, more information in itself could lead to regime destabilization. No matter how it turns out, we sure are living in interesting times.

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

Very, very interesting article that chronicles the history of Korean American grocers in New York. A sample:

In the small space on 79th and York, the Kims sold fruit, vegetables, candy, cigarettes, “anything you could squeeze in,” Ron recalls. To compete with the Upper East Side’s other retail options, they sold their goods 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Seo Jun and Sunhee covered almost the entire 168-hour week.

...

But more recently, these stores have been vanishing. The Korean Produce Association reports that it has 2,500 members in the New York–New Jersey area, down from 3,000 a few decades ago. Pyong Gap Min, a professor of sociology at Queens College and author of Ethnic Solidarity for Economic Survival: Korean Greengrocers in New York City, puts the number in the greater New York City area much lower, at fewer than 1,500. The drop has been even more pronounced in neighborhoods like Harlem and Flatbush, where Korean-owned groceries, fish stores, and produce stands once flourished.

What happened? There are two stories behind the Korean greengrocers’ disappearance. One involves a changing New York economy over the last 20 years. The other, a particularly Korean saga, is a story of how immigration can work in America—a testament to how far these new Americans have come in a single generation.

Where Did the Korean Greengrocers Go? [City Journal]

Thanks to Edward K. for the article.

50 Most Influential K-Pop Artists: 38. Yoo Jae-Ha

[Read more reviews from the Korean from the Library Mixer. To join, click here.]

[Series Index]

38.  Yoo Jae-Ha [유재하]

Years of Activity: 1987

Discography:
Because I Love [사랑하기 때문에] (1987)

Representative Song:  You in My Arms [그대 내 품에] from Because I Love

그대 내 품에
You in My Arms

별 헤는 밤이면 들려오는 그대의 음성
Your voice heard in star-counting nights
하얗게 부서지는 꽃가루 되어 그대 꽃 위에 앉고 싶어라
To be a crackling white pollen, sitting on your flower
밤하늘 보면서 느껴보는 그대의 숨결
Your breath I try feeling, watching the night sky
두둥실 떠가는 쪽배를 타고 그대 호수에 머물고 싶어라
To ride a fleeting boat, staying in your lake
만일 그대 내 곁을 떠난다면
Should you ever leave my side
끝까지 따르리 저 끝까지 따르리
I will follow to the end, to the end of ends
내 사랑 그대 내 품에 안겨 눈을 감아요
My love you stay in my arms and close your eyes
그대 내 품에 안겨 사랑의 꿈 나눠요
You stay in my arms and share the dream of love

술잔에 비치는 어여쁜 그대의 미소
Your beautiful smile reflected on the glass
사르르 달콤한 와인이 되어 그대 입술에 닿고 싶어라
To be a smooth sweet wine, touching your lips
내 취한 두 눈엔 너무 많은 그대의 모습
Your face, too many for my drunk eyes
살며시 피어나는 아지랑이 되어 그대 곁에서 맴돌고 싶어라
To be a quiet spring haze, circling around your side
만일 그대 내 곁을 떠난다면
Should you ever leave my side
끝까지 따르리 저 끝까지 따르리
I will follow to the end, to the end of ends
내 사랑 그대 내 품에 안겨 눈을 감아요
My love you stay in my arms and close your eyes
그대 내 품에 안겨 사랑의 꿈 나눠요
You stay in my arms and share the dream of love

어둠이 찾아들어 마음 가득 기댈 곳이 필요할 때
When the darkness falls and your full heart needs a place to lean
그대 내 품에 안겨 눈을 감아요
You stay in my arms and close your eyes
그대 내 품에 안겨 사랑의 꿈 나눠요
You stay in my arms and share the dream of love

Translation Note:  This is the most beautiful lyrics in this series so far, and it translates surprisingly well.

In 15 Words or Less:  K-Pop's Mozart.

Maybe he should have been ranked higher because...  First K-pop artist to have a music festival named after him. First K-pop artist to receive a tribute album. Legions of important K-pop artists who worship his music.

Maybe he should have been ranked lower because...  Exactly one album.

Why is this artist important?
Yoo Jae-Ha only had one album released in 1987. On November 1, 1987, less than three months after his album was released, he was tragically killed in a car accident, at age 25. So how influential could he be? The Korean will give three names: Cho Yong-Pil, Kim Hyeon-Sik, Lee Mun-Se. What do they have in common? All three of them are titans of Korean pop music (and ranked on this list somewhere) and ... all three received songs from Yoo Jae-Ha, before Yoo branched out into his solo career.

Yoo Jae-Ha was arguably the first K-pop artist who had been classically trained. He majored in composition at Hanyang University, and could play piano, violin, cello and guitar. His one and only album has an iconic status among the more serious people who enjoy K-pop, as it was the first album in which the musician did everything for the album. And the Korean says everything, he means everything -- write lyrics, compose, play four instruments, master and finish the songs. Yoo's classically inspired, counterpuntal composition elevated Korea's music to another level, serving as a model for the later times. Let's see any of the inane K-pop artists of today could do that.

While Yoo's own life may have been short, he left a massive, lasting impression. Only two years after his death, his family and colleagues established a foundation that held a yearly pop music competition that awarded scholarship to singer-songwriters. Yoo Jae-Ha Music Festival still goes on today; its past winners include influential K-pop artists like Yoo Hee-Yeol [유희열] and Cho Gyu-Chan [조규찬].

In 1997, Yoo Jae-Ha was the first recipient of a tribute album in K-pop history, made for the ten year anniversary of his passing. The luminaries of K-pop such as Shin Hae-Cheol [신해철], Lee Sora [이소라] and Lee Jeok [이적] (again, all of them to be ranked in this list) gladly joined to pay tribute to Yoo. The title song of the album, composed collectively in his memory, says: 이제 그대의 작은 나무/우리에게 큰 그늘을 드리우죠/이 노래 드릴게요/이제 다시 돌아온 그대 위해 [Now your small tree/ gives us a huge shade/ we give this song to you/ who came back to us now].

If you want to talk about influence, no further words are necessary.

Interesting trivia:  Kim Hyeon-Sik [김현식], another titan of K-pop and a close friend of Yoo, would die exactly three years later on November 1, 1990 from liver cirrhosis.

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

According to a survey by Mastercard, the most favored out-of-country travel destination for Koreans was Japan: 36 percent of Koreans who were planning a travel abroad in the next six months wanted to visit Japan. Australia was next at 28 percent, then the U.S. at 22 percent.

The reverse was true also -- 31 percent of Japanese who were planning a travel abroad in the next six months wanted to visit Korea, the highest among any country.

한국인이 가장 선호하는 해외 여행지는? [Dong-A Ilbo]

America lost a hero. Major Dick Winters passed away on Jan. 2 at age 92. He was a legendary World War II leader of the Easy Company, a paratrooper company that landed on Normandy, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, rescued people from the Dachau concentration camp and took Hitler's mountain retreat in Austria, the Eagle's Nest.

His WWII heroics was chronicled in the HBO series Band of Brothers, which is the Korean's favorite TV show of all time. He had such a man-crush on Major Winters that when Damian Lewis -- the actor who played Winters -- showed up in a new NBC show (which was really crappy,) the Korean followed the show just for the purpose of watching Major Winters. Alas.

Interesting New York Times article about Korea's relatively smooth sailing over the current financial crisis:

When the global financial crisis struck more than two years ago, customers disappeared from the Dongdaemun market, a cramped maze of clothing and fabric shops in the shadow of a medieval city gate. But in contrast to the economic conditions in the United States and Europe, business quickly rebounded here and in the rest of this vibrant, technology-driven nation, a resilience that many South Koreans attribute to their bitter experience of having survived an even worse downturn, the currency crisis of 1997.

“This time didn’t feel so much like a real crisis,” Kim Soon-nam, 70, said as she surveyed customers from her small stall, which is filled with running pants and brightly colored dress shirts. “It was hard back then, but that hardship made me stronger.”

...

South Korea’s ability to endure such hardships and bounce back points to another lesson: the need for a sense of shared national purpose and willingness to sacrifice. South Koreans rallied to help their nation, spending less, saving more and learning to be more competitive.

“Nobody was buying back then, so I slept less, worked harder,” said Ms. Kim, the stall owner in the Dongdaemun market. “And I saved and saved and saved.”

Lessons Learned, South Korea Makes Quick Economic Recovery [New York Times]

Are Chinese Mothers Superior?

There is a lot of buzz about the provocatively-titled Wall Street Journal article, "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior," written by Professor Amy Chua of Yale Law School. But despite the outrage expressed in the ever-growing comment section of the article, what the Korean found interesting is this: in a poll accompanying the article asking the readers to choose between "permissive Western" versus "demanding Eastern," nearly 60 percent of the readers chose "demanding Eastern." Of course the question in the poll is not a fair question. But it was still interesting to see where the majority was when the push came to shove, even after Prof. Chua made the "Eastern" method of parenting style harsh and borderline cruel.

If you are wondering what the Korean thought about that article, this post and this post should give you a hint. Just a few more fleeting thoughts after scanning the comment section of the article...

- Why do people assume that Asian children, raised in the mold of Asian-style parenting, are never ever happy? Have they ever been Asian children? Where do they get off telling children what to feel? And why do they stupidly insist that children should be happy at all moments, all the time?

- Why do people always bring up "lawyer at a big law firm" as a job that they do not want because people must be miserable? The Korean is a big law firm lawyer, and he can tell you -- the grapes are sweet, delicious, and only just a tiny bit sour (mostly when he has to work on a weekend.)

- The Korean will leave you with the words of Dr. Jim Yong Kim, president of Dartmouth College:

I said, "Dad, I'm so excited about my studies at Brown. I think I'm going to major in philosophy." So my father slowly turned the car and put it off to the side of the road, he looked back at me and said: "Hey, when you finish your residency, you can study anything you want." He said: "Look, you are a Chinaman" -- that's how he used to talk -- "You're a Chinaman. And you are not going to make it in this world if you study philosophy. If you think this country owes you anything, you're crazy. You have to get a skill." I ended up doing Ph.D. in anthropology on top of doing my medical degree. But that advice I think was very important, and I find myself giving that advice to students today. You know, it's great to have all these great ideals. But when you go to Haiti, when you go to Africa, they don't ask you, "How much do you feel for my people? How much have you studied?" They say, "Have you brought anything?"

-EDIT 1/11/11- The Korean Wife's response after reading the article: "All I know is that if Mrs Chua was a mom of one of my students, I would love her. :)" Classical musicians are merciless.

-EDIT 1/12/11- Commenter Hasani brought up an excellent point:

[O]ne of the things about "Asian-style" parenting that I think is overlooked quite often by others is that it is an extraordinary tool for upward mobility from poorer backgrounds. Often people talk about how they're just as successful as someone else even though they didn't have as strict parents, but usually these people come from upper middle-class homes and had access to resources many of their Asian counter-parts didn't possess. The importance of a good job is multiplied a hundred-fold when you're familiar with what it is to be poor.

-EDIT 1/13/11- The Korean really wanted to not spend too much energy on this, but it appears that this will be the defining Asian American story of 2011. New York Times now has several stories dealing with this issue. Well then. The Korean's fuller and more formal response is coming soon.

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

Gun Control in Korea

Dear Korean,

I came across this passage on Wikipedia and it startled me: "In South Korea, it is a capital offense for anyone not related to military to own or distribute firearms" Is this true?

Clinging to my guns and religion

Dear CtMGaR,

No, it is not true. (As the Korean said repeatedly, please don't trust Wikipedia when it comes to discussions about finer points of Korean life.) But owning or distributing firearms in Korea is definitely against the law. Consequently, there is virtually no guns available to civilians, except for hunting rifles. (We will get to that in a bit.)

This question jumped the line in light of the terrorist shooting in Arizona. The Korean wants to make a clear point here: it is eminently possible to eradicate guns from a society -- even in a society where nearly every single adult men are familiar with guns (during their military service.) And eliminating guns from a society is easier than eliminating crazy people.

Here is how gun regulations work in Korea. Guns are regulated along with all weaponry, which are in three categories: guns, knives and explosives. Guns include all firearms and air- and gas-powered rifles. Knives with blades longer than 15 cm (about six inches!) are also regulated. Separately, pepper sprays, tasers and crossbows are also regulated. Importantly, even the mock weapon that have no capacity of hurting anyone is regulated the same way. (Sometimes, this provision actually prompts complaints from Korean movie directors about the red tapes through which they must wade in order to film war movies.)

First, the manufacturing. No one who has been convicted of a crime and received a jail sentence (including suspended sentence) can enter into manufacturing of any weaponry. People who want to import, export or sell weapons have to receive a permit from the local police office. Again, you cannot sell weapons if you are a convicted criminal who received jail sentence.

Second, possession. Everyone requires a permit from the police office to own a gun. The following types of people cannot legally own a gun:

- People under age 20, except for a training athlete with a permit.
- People with impaired mental capacity, including those who have been convicted of drug addiction.
- People who committed crime and received a jail sentence (including suspended sentence.)

All other people may own a gun with a permit from the police office, renewable every five years. The permit is essentially a license, and one has to take classes on gun safety in order to receive a permit. If you own a gun without a permit, the maximum penalty is 2 years in prison. If you lost your legally owned gun, you must report to the police immediately. If a person happened to find a gun on the street, she is required by law to report it to the police within 24 hours of discovery.

In practice, only hunters own guns in Korea. (And hunters are not many in Korea.) By regulation, hunters cannot keep their guns all the time -- they must keep their guns at the police station during off-season. Handguns are pretty much nonexistent among civilians.

If a gun-related incident does happen in Korea, it is pretty much limited to the weapons procured from the military one way or the other. For example in 2005, a private who was not adjusting well to the military life threw a grenade and fired his rifle into his barracks, killing eight and injuring two. (He was arrested and sentenced to death.) -EDIT 1/11/11- As commenter Adeel pointed out, the worst gun-related murder in Korea happened in 1982, when a renegade police officer stole two rifles and seven grenades from a nearby military base. He went on an all-nighter rampage over four rural villages, killing 56(!) people before blowing himself up with a grenade. He was able to do this by first killing the telephone operators for the village, cutting off communications with the outside world. (Goes to show how far back Korea was -- in 1982, rural villages still had switchboard operators.)

The example to closest to the Arizona shooting that the Korean could think of -- in a sense that a civilian attacked a public official with a legally obtained ranged weapon -- is an incident in 2007, when a person shot with a crossbow a judge who ruled against him. The judge only suffered minor injuries, and no one else was hurt.

Obviously, getting America's gun regulation to Korea's level would be a difficult task, because Korea's history has no element like America's historical relationship with guns. But know this: when gun advocates say something like "Psychopaths will find a way to kill with or without guns", they are blatantly lying. Despite filled with people with famously fiery temper, Korea has never suffered a mass murder like the ones happened in Columbine or Virginia Tech, in which civilians were able to kill scores of people with legally obtained guns. In fact, on occasions when Koreans manage to get their hands on guns, they plainly show that Korea's low, low crime rate is not because Koreans are angels. So what is easier to believe -- that Korea is completely devoid of nut cases, or Korea is completely devoid of guns?

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

The Korean offers his sincere condolences to the families and friends of everyone who was killed in the Arizona shooting. For everyone who is injured -- including Congresswoman Giffords -- the Korean offers his prayers for swift and miraculously full recovery.

Relevant to the purpose of this blog, the surgeon for Congresswoman Giffords was Dr. Peter Rhee, a Korean American trauma surgeon who served in the navy for 24 years. Los Angeles Times ran a brief profile of him:

Rhee, 49, chief of trauma at University Medical Center in Tucson, said his work in the Navy tending to injured soldiers and Marines and teaching the next generation of battlefield medical personnel unquestionably played a role in his ability to treat Giffords and direct care for the 10 other victims who began arriving in his unit Saturday morning.

...

Rhee said he handled "hundreds and hundreds" of battlefield injuries in two war deployments beginning in 2001. He was one of the first battlefield surgeons to be deployed to Camp Rhino, the first U.S. land base in Afghanistan, located in the remote desert about 100 miles southwest of Kandahar. In 2005, he served in Iraq.

"This doesn't compare," he said of his university hospital environs. "This is not really a mass casualty. I have all the gear and people I could possibly want. This is luxury for me. This trauma center, this is about as good as it gets."

Giffords' surgeon trained on the battlefield [Los Angeles Times]

The Korean watched Good Hair last night, and it was one of the most fascinating things the Korean has ever watched. Especially when the weave was being discussed, the Korean literally had a nonstop "wow," "wow," "wow," "wow," "wow" for a good five minutes. The Korean highly recommends everyone to watch.

And it tangentially has to do with Koreans too. Did you know that Korean Americans play a huge part in black hair business? The Korean vaguely knew, but did not know the extent. Korean Americans have a surprisingly big role in shaping African American fashion. For example, did you know that Aretha Franklin's hat for Barack Obama's inauguration was designed by a Korean dude?

(Source)

Confucianism and Korea - Part II: What is Confucianism?

[Series Index]

Part I of this series is essentially a big series of caveats, but the Korean cannot put enough caveats in a topic as big and sophisticated as Confucianism. So here are some more.

Really Big Caveats

First of all, the Korean's Chinese skill is very rudimentary. So pretty much all of his knowledge about Confucianism came through reading the Chinese texts with Korean annotations. Translating one language to another is hard enough; translating something that had been translated once already is fraught with danger. The Korean tried to include as many original quotes in Chinese as possible to make clear what he is talking about, and he welcomes any correction or amplification on any point. Since this series is about Korea, crucial concepts and the name of important books will be written out in Korean pronunciations of Chinese scripts. (For example, 大學 is Daehak, not Daxue. 仁 is In, not Ren.)

Second, the Korean will make a lot of comparisons between Confucianism and Christianity in this series. This is done because among English speakers, Christianity is the only philosophical system whose scale is comparable to Confucianism -- they both have had many internal controversies and highly convoluted relationship with history for a very long time. Really, nothing else comes close. But the Korean would strongly caution not to mistake the crutches for the legs. The similarities between Confucianism and Christianity stop at the point when we discuss the actual philosophy instead of the way people interact with the philosophy. (And even prior to that point they are not exactly the same.)

It is particularly important not to over-connect Confucian concepts with Christian concepts just because they sound similar. For example 天 is often translated to be "heaven," which sounds awfully like the Christian god. But the two concepts are very, very different. The Korean will try his best to give the broad construction of Confucianism. Confucian concepts have to be understood within that context, not in any other context.

With those caveats, let us jump right ahead.

What are the Central Tenets of Confucianism?

If Confucianism must be reduced to a single sentence at the risk of gross generalization, it is this: one must achieve 仁 (in) through constant study and rituals.

What is in? Some scholars translated in as "authoritative conduct." The Korean's preferred translation would be "virtue". When a person achieves in, he becomes a 君子 (goonja) - an "exemplary person." From the way goonja is described in Confucian tomes, he sounds like a demigod of some sort. For example, a person suggests to Confucius that the mourning the death of parents should be shortened to one year, because the requisite three years is too long. This seems to make perfect sense, because the mourning that Confucius required was not simply feeling sad. Confucian mourning involved building a shack next to the parents' grave, eat nothing but the wild plants around the area, wear clothes made of hemp (not warm and extremely scratchy,) tend the grave and wail before the grave every day. For THREE years. Why would anyone do this?

The Master replies:

夫君子之居喪, 食旨不甘, 聞樂不樂, 居處不安, 故不爲也.

When a goonja is in mourning,

he eats food but cannot taste,

hears music but cannot enjoy,

inhabits his house but cannot get comfortable

-- that is why he does not do so [shorten the mourning to a year]

[論語 17.21]

In other words, goonja is this incredible person who mourns for three years not because he thinks it is the right thing to do, but because he has no other choice -- because he is set in the way of in, one of whose component is filial piety.

But goonja is not a demigod like a Catholic saint or a Buddha who achieved nirvana. In fact, goonja is almost the exact opposite of those two concepts, which involve some level of detachment from the material world. In contrast, goonja is the most worldly person possible because with in, goonja knows how the world works. (In other words, he knows 天道 - the "heavenly way.") While achieving in and becoming a goonja take a huge amount of work, the world comes naturally to a person who achieved the goonja status.

More after the jump.

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

According to Statistics Korea, the official bean counters of Korean government, South Korea's economy is 37.4 times bigger than North Korea's economy. The entire North Korean economy was only a little bit larger than the economy of South Korea's sixth largest city (Gwangju).

남북한 경제력 격차 37배 벌어져 [Dong-A Ilbo]

50 Most Influential K-Pop Artists: 39. Lee Mun-Se

[Read more reviews from the Korean from the Library Mixer. To join, click here.]

[Series Index]

39.  Lee Mun-Se (also spelled Lee Moon-Sae) [이문세]

Years of Activity: 1986-present

Discography:

Regular Albums
I am a Happy Man [나는 행복한 사람] (1983)
The Best (1984)
Lee Moon-Sae 3 [이문세 3] (1985)
Lee Moon-Sae 4 [이문세 4] (1987)
Lee Moon-Sae 5 [이문세 5] (1988)
Lee Moon-Sae 6 [이문세 6] (1989)
Lee Moon-Sae VIi [이문세 VIi] (1991)
Lee Moon Sae (1993)
95 Stage with Composer Lee Younghun (1995)
Flower Dance [花舞] (1996)
Sometimes (1998)
Whew = Man and Tree and Respite [休 = 사람과 나무와 쉼] (1999)
Chapter 13 (2001)
Red Undies [빨간 내복] (2002)

Special Albums
Lee Moon-Sae [이문세] (1982)
Lee Moon-Sae's Muttering - Spring Summer Fall and Winter [이문세의 넋두리 - 봄 여름 가을 그리고 겨울] (1986)
Lee Moon Sea (1988)
Golden Live 86-92 [골든 라이브 86-92] (1992)
Love Triangle (with Park Sang-Won and Noh Yeong-Sim) [삼각관계] (1995)
The Insolent Women Original Soundtrack [발칙한 여자들 OST] (2006)
2009 Red Dusk Original Soundtrack [2009 붉은 노을 OST] (2009)

Compilation Albums
Best - Golden 15 (1987)
Golden Memories [추억 골든] (1989)
Golden Best 14 (1990)
Old and New (2002)
Memories (2004)

Representative Song:  The Farewell Story [이별이야기], sung with Go Eun-Hee [고은희], from Lee Moon-Sae 4

이별이야기
The Farewell Story

이렇게 우린 헤어져야 하는걸
Like this, we must depart
서로가 말을 못하고
Although we cannot say a thing
마지막 찻잔속에
In the last cup of tea
서로의 향기가 되어
We wish to become each other's scent
진한 추억을 남기고파
And leave strong memories

우리는 서로 눈물 흘리지마요
Let us not shed any tear
서로가 말은 같아도
Although our words may be the same
후회는 않을거야
We will not regret.
하지만 그대 모습은
But the sight of you
나의 마음을 아프게해
Makes my heart hurt

그대 내게 말로는 못하고 탁자위에 물로 쓰신 마지막 그 한마디
That last word that you could not say but write with water on the table
서러워 이렇게 눈물만
So sorrowful, only the tears like this
그대여 이젠 안녕
My dear, now farewell

우리는 서로 눈물 흘리지마요
Let us not shed any tear
서로가 말은 같아도
Although our words may be the same
후회는 않을거야
We will not regret.
하지만 그대 모습은
But the sight of you
나의 마음을 아프게해
Makes my heart hurt

그대 내게 말로는 못하고 탁자위에 물로 쓰신 마지막 그한마디
That last word that you could not say but write with water on the table
서러워 이렇게 눈물만
So sorrowful, only the tears like this
그대여 이젠 안녕
My dear, now farewell

Translation Note:  Does anyone have a better word for 서러워?

In 15 Words or Less:  Pioneer of "ballad", hugely influential radio personality.


Maybe he should have been ranked higher because...  Being the fountainhead for the "ballad" movement is a huge influence.

Maybe he should have been ranked lower because...  Has he ever been a superstar on the level of Girls' Generation, Yoo Seung-Jun or Lee Seung-Cheol?

Why is this artist important?
One possible definition of a "classic" could be "where all the cliches come from." For a person without a sense of history, the 1970 novel Love Story could be a cliche-filled drollness -- blue blooded boy falls in love with a working class girl who dies from leukemia. But when one realizes that Love Story is the fountainhead of all cliches, it is elevated to the canon through which all modern variations can be understood.

By that definition, Lee Mun-Se is a classic K-pop. In the brief history of K-pop, the Korean wrote that there is no way to determine for certain who made the "folk rock" crossed over to "ballad". But if one had to guess, Lee Mun-Se would be an excellent guess. And among his many hit songs, "The Farewell Story" is the most classic archetype -- a man-woman duet singing sensitive lyrics set to melodious soft rock that progresses up through an emotional climax and down. It is nor surprising that The Farewell Story is one of the most frequently covered songs in K-pop, including a sign language version. Through well-made albums that touched upon the sensitivity that resonates well with Koreans, Lee Mun-Se played a significant role in turning Korea's pop music aficionados away from American/British pop songs to the homegrown version.

But that is not the only influence of Lee Mun-Se worth noting. Lee served as a DJ for a radio program On a Starry Night [별이 빛나는 밤에] from 1985 through 1996. (The program itself started in 1969 and still continues to this day.) This series previously covered the influence of Yoon Do-Hyeon's Love Letter that shaped the K-pop scene. It is fair to say that Love Letter is the television version of On a Starry Night. Generations of Koreans grew up listening to music on On a Starry Night, playing quality live music every night along with entertaining talks. And as the DJ for over a decade, Lee Mun-Se's voice literally raised a generation of Korean adolescents -- earning him a nickname "Minister of Nightly Education."

Interesting Trivia:  Like Lee Seung-Cheol who was ranked just below, a number of Lee Mun-Se's "special" or "best" albums have nothing to do with the artist himself. The relatively primitive intellectual property landscape of Korea in the 1980s meant that record companies could buy the rights of a song, repackage the song and sell it multiple times in whatever manner the record company saw fit. This practice would survive until 1990s, when a certain, highly influential K-pop artist singlehandedly killed it. (Guess who? Hint: He will be highly ranked on this list.)

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

Here is a problem that may haunt Korea soon:

Despite facing an imminent labor shortage as its population ages, Japan has done little to open itself up to immigration. In fact, as Ms. Fransiska and many others have discovered, the government is doing the opposite, actively encouraging both foreign workers and foreign graduates of its universities and professional schools to return home while protecting tiny interest groups — in the case of Ms. Fransiska, a local nursing association afraid that an influx of foreign nurses would lower industry salaries.

In 2009, the number of registered foreigners here fell for the first time since the government started to track annual records almost a half-century ago, shrinking 1.4 percent from a year earlier to 2.19 million people — or just 1.71 percent of Japan’s overall population of 127.5 million.

Experts say increased immigration provides one obvious remedy to Japan’s two decades of lethargic economic growth. But instead of accepting young workers, however — and along with them, fresh ideas — Tokyo seems to have resigned itself to a demographic crisis that threatens to stunt the country’s economic growth, hamper efforts to deal with its chronic budget deficits and bankrupt its social security system.

Japan Keeps a High Wall for Foreign Labor [New York Times]

Americans (or at least majority of Americans who make policies) are wise to continue welcoming immigrants. Korea is trying to follow suit with their newly amended Citizenship Act, but it still has a long, long way to go.