50 Most Influential K-Pop Artists: 30. Sinawi

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

[Series Index]


30.  Sinawi [시나위]

Also Romanized as:  Sinawe

Years of Activity:  1986-present (last album in 2006)

Members:

Current Members
Shin Dae-Cheol [신대철] - Guitar
Lee Gyeong-Han [이경한] - Bass
Lee Dong-Yeop [이동엽] - Drum
Kang Han [강한] - Vocal

Former Members
Kang Jong-Su [강종수] - Drum
Kim Min-Gi [김민기] - Drum [TK note: NOT the same Kim Min-Gi who is ranked 31 in this list]
Kim Jong-Hyu [김종휴] - Drum
Shin Dong-Hyeon [신동현] - Drum
Oh Gyeong-Hwan [오경환] - Drum
Kim Geyong-Won [김경원] - Bass
Kim Yeong-Jin [김영진] - Bass
Dalparan [달파란] - Bass
Park Yeong-Bae [박영배] - Bass
Seo Taiji [서태지] - Bass
An Joon-Seop [안준섭] - Bass
Moda - Bass
Kim Hyeong-Joon -[김형준] - Keyboard
Kim Bada [김바다] - Vocal
Kim Seong-Heon [김성헌] - Vocal
Kim Yong [김용] - Vocal
Kim Jong-Seo [김종서] - Vocal
Sohn Seong-Hoon [손성훈] - Vocal
Lee Byeong-Moon [이병문] - Vocal
Im Jae-Beom [임재범] - Vocal
Jeon Chang-Gyu [전창규] - Vocal

Discography:
Heavy Metal Sinawe (1986)
Down and Up (1987)
Freeman (1988)
Four (1990)
Sinawi 5 [시나위 5] (1995)
Blue Baby (1997)
Psychedelos (1998)
Sinawe Vol. 8 (2001)
Reason of Dead Bugs (2006)

Representative Song:  Turn Up the Radio [크게 라디오를 켜고] from Heavy Metal Sinawe

크게 라디오를 켜고
Turn Up the Radio

피곤이 몰아치는 기나긴 오후지나
Past the long long afternoon where the fatigue rushes in
집으로 달려가는 마음은 어떠한가
How is a heart that races homeward
지하철 기다리며 들리는 음악은
The music heard while waiting for the subway
지루한 하루건너 내일을 생각하네
Skips the boring day and thinks of tomorrow
대문을 활짝열고 노래를 불러보니
Opened up the front door and tried singing
어느새 피곤마저 사라져 버렸네
Before I knew it, even the fatigue vanished
크게 라디오를 켜고 함께 따라해요
Turn up the radio and let's all follow the song
크게 라디오를 켜고 함께 노래해요
Turn up the radio and let's all sing along

두눈을 감고서는 잠들려 했을때
When I tried to close my eyes and go to sleep
옆집서 들려오는 조그만 음악소리
The little sound of music coming from the house next door
소리를 듣고싶어 라디오 켜보니
Turned on the radio to hear the sound
뜨거운 리듬속에 마음을 빼았겼네
And I lost my heart in the heated rhythm
자리에 일어나서 노래를 불러보니
Got out of the bed and tried singing
어느새 시간마저 지나가 버렸네
Before I knew it, even the time passed by
크게 라디오를 켜고 함께 따라해요
Turn up the radio and let's all follow the song
크게 라디오를 켜고 함께 노래해요
Turn up the radio and let's all sing along

아침을 알려주는 자명종 소리마저
Even the sound of the alarm clock announcing the morning
쌓여진 졸음만은 어쩔수 없어라
Can do anything to the piled-up sleep
두손에 잡혀지는 라디오 켜보고
Turn on the radio that comes to my hand
하품과 기지개를 마음껏 해보세
And let's yawn and stretch all we want
방문을 활짝열고 노래를 불러보니
Opened up the room door and tried singing
어느새 졸음마저 사라져 버렸네
Before I knew it, even the sleep vanished
크게 라디오를 켜고 함께 따라해요
Turn up the radio and let's all follow the song
크게 라디오를 켜고 함께 노래해요
Turn up the radio and let's all sing along

Translation note:  Is there a more elegant translation for 어느새?

In 15 words or less:  Greatest heavy metal band in K-pop history.

Maybe they should be ranked higher because...  Is there any other band that has three former members who ended up being on this list?

Maybe they should be ranked lower because...  Was there ever a time when Sinawi even grazed the public consciousness with its music?

Why is this band important?
It goes without saying that Korean pop music was imported from outside of Korea at some point or another. But on some level, it is not terribly surprising that certain types of pop music succeeded in Korea better than others. Trot has a certain level of smiling melancholy that connects with the pathos of Korea's traditional music. Same with folk rock/ballad, with their maudlin calm. Even rap is vaguely reminiscent of pansori, in which a single performer stands on the stage and alternately narrates and sings.

In this sense, among pop music genre, heavy metal may have been (and may still be) the most foreign music to Korean ears. There is simply no precedent for screaming into the mic and ear-piercing tunes. And the men in leather pants, with their flowing long mane swinging on the stage!

Which makes the presence of Sinawi in Korea's pop music history all the more remarkable. I mean, just watch this video:

Can you imagine ANY Korean you know rocking out like that with that kind of hair, clothes and makeup?

Sinawi is remarkable because of its relentless pursuit of the rock orthodoxy. It utterly dedicated itself to rock and heavy metal, popularity be damned. Although Sinawi never got anywhere near the top of the charts, it quite literally opened up a new frontier in Korean pop music. The universal language of rock was alive in Korea, and Sinawi provided a meaningful starting point of heavier rock sound in Korean pop music.

Another remarkable thing about Sinawi is its current and former rosters read like "Who's Who of Korea's Rock Legends," many of whom unsurprisingly make this list. Dalparan is the stage name for Kang Gi-Yeong, the bassist and leader of Pipi Band. Kim Jong-Seo pursued a solo career after Sinawi and became a de facto face of Korean rock. And as described further below, former bassist Jeong Hyeon-Cheol got kind of famous also.

Interesting trivia 1:  Shin Dae-Chul, guitarist and the leader of Sinawi, is the son of Shin Joong-Hyeon, Korea's "godfather of rock."

Interesting trivia 2:  Kim Jong-Seo was slated to be Sinawi's original vocal. But only one week before Sinawi's debut concert, Kim disappeared. Kim reappeared one day before the concert, but the band had already fired him. Kim Jong-Seo would come back to rejoin the band for Sinawi's fourth album, which became much more pop-oriented under Kim's influence. Kim then had a falling out with Shin Dae-Chul, who wanted more orthodox rock. Sinawi disbanded and would go into a five-year hiatus until Shin could reorganize the band with entirely new members.

Interesting trivia 3:  Also joining for Sinawi's fourth album was a 17-year-old high school dropout bassist named Jeong Hyeon-Cheol -- who later would take on the stage name Seo Taiji. Seo recalls his days at Sinawi as the time when he really learned music. Officially, Seo was pushed into a solo career after Sinawi disbanded after the fourth album. Seo was closer to Kim Jong-Seo, and was not particularly inclined to stay with Shin's insistence at orthodox rock. According to an unconfirmed rumor, the final straw for Seo was when Shin told his bassist -- 13 years junior -- to go out and buy cigarettes for him. Seo, reportedly, took the money and never returned.

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

Confucianism and Korea - Part IV: Confucianism in Modern Korea

[Series Index]

So after three preceding parts, here we are now -- the most fun part of the series where we will look at Confucianism in contemporary Korean society and compare/contrast with what we know already. In fact, the Korean could have jumped straight to this post, but he opted to take a slower, more prodding route for exactly one reason -- to give context. And the reason for giving more context is because people who are unfamiliar with Korea overuse Confucianism to explain everything about Korean culture. Sometimes it works, sometimes it is misleading, and sometimes it is laughably ignorant.

An excellent example of such ignorance comes from back in 2008, regarding the earthquake in China. (Hopefully people still remember this.) In a Q&A with a New York Times reporter stationed in China, one of the questions was this:

Have there been any mentions of the earthquake as an example of the Chinese leadership’s ‘mandate of heaven’ being withdrawn?

This is freakin' hilarious. "Mandate of heaven" is a Confucian concept under which the ruler may proclaim his legitimacy, and natural disasters in the past were considered to be signs of the presence and departure of the mandate of heaven. While he is no expert on China, the Korean would daresay that few in modern China have thought about natural disasters in those terms in the last few decades. Accordingly, the Times reporter's response was a barely suppressed chuckle:

To tell you the truth, no one I’ve spoken to in the past week has mentioned the mandate of heaven. The survivors seem more concerned with getting by on a day-to-day basis and looking after the welfare of family and friends.

So in order to avoid this kind of situation, allow the Korean to give a couple of big caveats about how Confucianism operates in Korea.

1.  In modern Korea, Confucianism is a mode of thought, not a set of commands. Put differently, Korean people make Confucian-style thoughts, but that does not mean Korean people consciously try to follow Confucian laws. In fact, Koreans think without thinking about whether their thinking style is Confucian. It is very, very rare to find a Korean person who explicitly connects her code of conduct to Confucianism.

A similar example is America's libertarianism and Christianity. A lot of American libertarians expressly disavow Christianity. But they still generally subscribe to individualism, which is a Christianity-styled thought. This does not mean that all Christians are individualistic, nor does it mean that individualistic people think they are Christian. (In fact, often the opposite is true for both propositions.) But it does mean that major tenets of Christianity, if followed to their logical conclusion, lend themselves to individualism. (Yes, the Korean is aware that this is a broad example, but this is a broad discussion about a broad topic.)

This is how Confucianism works in Korean minds. Very few Koreans "obey" Confucianism. In fact, if you tried to justify something you did by quoting Confucius in modern Korea, you are more likely to be laughed at than seriously listened to. But Korean people's world view is often Confucian-styled, often themselves without realizing that it is Confucian-styled.

2.  In modern Korea, Confucianism is not the only mode of thought available. There is a tendency among non-Korean observers of Korea to attribute to Confucianism every mode of thought/action that appears remotely different from theirs. This is a big mistake. Influences of other major Eastern philosophies -- i.e. Buddhism and Taoism -- as well as Korea's traditional Shamanistic philosophy play a large role in guiding Korean minds. Christianity has been around Korea for 200 years also. In addition, much of Korean mode of thought is based on Hobbesian individualism, which is an outgrowth of Korea's recent historical experience of war and extreme deprivation. Do NOT try to explain everything about Korea with Confucianism. And please, no stupid questions like, "If Confucianism tells people to respect elders, why do I see so many Koreans not giving up seats to elders in a subway?"

Having said that, let's dive straight in. Here is a non-exhaustive list of how Confucianism operates in Korea today, after the jump.

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

Just a little housekeeping stuff:  askakorean.tumblr.com is NOT affiliated with this blog in any way.

Are You Thinking About Law School? Read This First.

It's that season of the year -- when many college graduates resign themselves to going to law school, and finalize their choices about which school to attend. And true to form, this is the time of the year when the Korean's actual email account starts swelling up with emails from all kinds of people -- younger alumni, distant relatives, friend of a friend of a friend -- who ask for law school advice. Over the years, the Korean distilled his advice down to three concise answers, and he will share them here for everyone who is potentially thinking about law school.

(What does this have to do with Korea? Nothing. It's the Korean's blog, and he will write about whatever the hell he damn well pleases. Quit whining.)

1.  The only reason to go to law school is to become an attorney.

Sounds really obvious, right? But here are the reasons not to go to law school: to become a politician; to become a businessperson; to become an activist; to become an environmentalist; to become a public policy person. And the absolute worst reason to go to law school: because you ran out of ideas.

The greatest lie sold by law schools to college graduates is this: law degree is a versatile degree. That is totally false. The only skill you learn after three years and over $200,000 worth of law school is being a lawyer. And regardless of what your dream was before you got into law school, the only way to pay off the $200,000 in student loan is ... being a lawyer! (Easier at a large law firm.)

To be sure, a desire to become an environmental lawyer (for example) is a good reason to go to law school. But even in that case, the Korean recommends spending a year or two being an environmentalist first, so that you can have a better sense of what to earn out of the law school experience. Again, law school does not teach you to be a politician, businessperson or activist. Spending those three years and $200,000 in politics, business or activism will make you a much better politician, businessperson or activist than spending them in a law school. Even at this stage when you are choosing law schools, it is not too late. Don't commit three precious years of your life earning a license you will not use.

2.  Go to a law school near a city you want to live for at least five years after graduation.

This is absolutely crucial advice that the Korean wishes someone had told him. The Korean decided on an East Coast law school, thinking that law school might be the last chance to live in some other part of the country, and he will be able to return his beloved, sunny California as soon as he graduated. BIG mistake. It has been four years since the Korean graduated from law school, and the move back to California does not appear to be in the cards for the foreseeable future. Instead, the Korean mutters curses of the damned East Coast weather 8 months out of the year.

Remember this point: easily 90 percent of law school graduates end up working in the large city near the law school. Important thing to note is this result is almost totally independent from the law school's rankings. Law is a local business. Except for the absolute top tier schools (no more than top 15, and more likely top 5,) law firms rarely hire outside of the region.

This point is worth reiterating: do NOT be fooled by the law school's rankings. Unless you are attending one of Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, NYU and Chicago, and maybe Michigan, Berkeley, U Penn, Virginia and Duke (and maaaaaaaybe Texas, Cornell, Northwestern, Georgetown and UCLA,) law school rankings do not matter. The Korean's former law firm in New York is a top-of-the-line place, and every year it hires a few people from lower ranked New York-area law schools like Seton Hall (ranked 61 in the most recent U.S. News & World Report), Brooklyn Law School (67) and Rutgers (84). In the three years that the Korean has been with the firm, he has never seen anyone getting hired from out-of-region (but undoubtedly excellent) law schools like Vanderbilt (16), USC (18) and Indiana (23).

Even if you end up at one of the top ranked law schools, don't think you can move to a place you want that easily. Life intervenes in the three years of law school. You develop friendships, and often dating relationships. Sometimes the dating relationship is such that if you moved away, you might end up losing someone dear. So you bite your tongue and deal with the shitty weather, desperately telling yourself that the loveless life in the sun is not nearly as good as a beloved life in the slushy, nasty snow... oh hi honey. Welcome home. What was I writing? Nothing. Just writing about how happy I am to be with you. Nothing about how I should have transferred to UCLA after my first year to hang out with aspiring Hollywood actresses in Beverly Hills. Nope, not at all.

3.  Once in law school, study hard.

Another advice that someone should have told the Korean. Hopefully this advice is more obvious now that the economy has gone to hell, but it is still worth telling. Obviously, your law school grades play a huge part in getting your first job after graduation. But even after that, your law school grades will follow you for a very long time. Don't relax in your second or third year just because you have a job already. You never know when you want to change jobs -- and a new employer will ask for your law school transcript for a good decade. You are in law school to study, and law schools usually have a lot of fun courses to offer. Don't slack off in your last year, and definitely don't start a blog that you can't quit in a few years even though you work 80 hours a week, just because you couldn't figure out what to do with your spare time in your third year of law school!

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

Ask a Korean! News: "America's National Suicide"

Hey, those are not the Korean's words, but Michael Bloomberg's. But this is an excellent -- and thoroughly depressing -- story about how America is stupidly turning away skilled immigrants to its own detriment. A sample:

[T]he United States, a country built by generations of ambitious, hardworking newcomers, no longer wants to attract skilled immigrants. “We educate the best and brightest from around the world, and then we tell our companies that they can’t hire them,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said, describing current immigration policy as “a form of national suicide.” “We ship them home, where they can take what they learned here and use it to create companies and products that compete with ours. The rest of the world is thanking us. They’re doing everything they can to attract those very people—and we’re doing our best to help them.”

...

While there has been much debate about how to secure the southern border against illegal immigration, the deterioration of the system for attracting and retaining skilled immigrants has received scant notice, though the consequences for the U.S. economy are far more significant. Since much manufacturing and back-office work has been sent overseas, what the United States has left is its brains and still-unmatched ability to design and market the next big thing. In a country where economic success depends largely on innovation, it is worth noting that foreign-born researchers account for a quarter of all patents earned by American companies, and that nearly half the Ph.D. scientists and engineers working in the U.S. were born abroad. Furthermore, between 1995 and 2005 more than a quarter of the technology companies launched in the United States had a key founder who was foreign-born; in Silicon Valley that number was more than half. At General Electric, 64 percent of researchers weren’t born in America; at Qualcomm, the figure is close to 72 percent.

...

Not surprisingly, many young would-be immigrants are turning their backs on the U.S. Vivek Wadhwa, a Duke University professor, and AnnaLee Saxenian, from the University of California, Berkeley, interviewed more than 1,000 foreign students at American universities in 2008. The results were alarming. Only 6 percent of the Indians and 10 percent of the Chinese said they planned to remain in the U.S. Three quarters of those surveyed said they feared they could not obtain a visa.

America’s ‘National Suicide’ [Newsweek]

Please, read the whole thing.

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

Koran Burning, and the Cowardly Shield of Individualism

The news that Koran burners have blood on their hands is getting surprisingly little publicity in the U.S. To those who are not aware, Pastors Wayne Sapp and Terry Jones in Florida burned a Koran in a church on March 20. On April 1, several hundred protesters surrounded the UN headquarters in Afghanistan, and the protest turned deadly. At least 30 people were killed, including seven UN staffers.

To the extent there was any reaction in America, the reaction was no more than some tut-tuts and hand-wringing accompanied with some mutterings about First Amendment rights. In fact, some people took to task that Gen. Petraeus dared to offer condolences to the people who died in the violent episode. Particularly interesting is this post by W.W., an America-based correspondent for the Economist:

General David Petraeus and Mark Sedwill, NATO's senior civilian representative in Afghanistan, issued a joint statement condemning the Florida zealot's zealotry and offering "condolences to the families of all those injured and killed in violence which occurred in the wake of the burning of the Holy Qur'an", omitting to note the agency and responsibility of the zealots actually responsible for the deadly mob violence, almost as if zealots in Florida are expected to control themselves while zealots in Afghanistan are not.

...

But the military occupation of Afghanistan, which is (let's face it) the basis of most anti-American sentiment in Afghanistan, is not Terry Jones' responsibility any more than it is mine, and neither is the behaviour of zealots enraged by his idiotic pyrotechnics. The mob can't pass the buck to Terry Jones any more than Terry Jones can pass the buck to Khalid Sheik Mohammed. The buck stops in each zealous breast. It's imprudent to issue official statements that suggest otherwise—that suggest responsibility rests with those who try to incite and not with those who choose to be incited.

The Wall Street Journal concludes its piece on Mr Petraeus' unwelcome new travails with a quotation from a rioting zealot in Kandahar:

"We cannot see the difference between that man in Florida and the American soldiers here," said Karimullah, a 25-year-old religious student who, like many Afghans, goes by one name and took part in Sunday's Kandahar protests. "They are killing our people here while in the U.S. they burn the Holy Quran. America just wants to humiliate the Muslim world."

Like Terry Jones, Mr Karimullah is just full of it. He can see the difference between the American soldiers in Afghanistan and Terry Jones, if he tries. For example, Terry Jones is not part of the military occupation of Mr Karimullah's country. And the innocent civilians Afghan rioters have wantonly killed aren't American soldiers or Terry Jones.

Zealotry and Responsibility [The Economist] (emphasis added)

The Korean thought this was interesting because it clearly shows something about America that drives this American crazy:  the stunning lack of self-awareness at the collective level, and the willingness to hide behind the ignorant and cowardly shield of individualism at every opportunity.

More after the jump.

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

Because of the popularity of the translated North Korea-related articles by Mr. Joo Seong-Ha, the Korean made a separate index listing all such articles. Future translated articles will be added to the index also.

Korean Modern Literatures in Translation blog has an excellent list for those who want to get a start in reading Korean literature.

Is It Safe to be in Korea? Japanese Radiation Terror Edition

Dear Korean,

We are planning to travel in June to Korea. I was wondering if the current reactor problems are causing issues in Korea.

KoreaMom to 3

The official story is that while there is more radiation in the air than usual, it is not at the level to cause any health effects. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology set up an automated monitor of radiation over Korea, which has been showing normal numbers.

But people are understandably freaking out a little, especially because it rained over Korea a few days ago. A number of schools closed, and a lot of outdoor sporting events, including pro baseball games, were cancelled. The traffic jam was worse than usual because many people drove their cars to work instead of taking the subway.

It is not as if the Korean is a nuclear scientist, so he cannot say if the radiation level in Korea is truly unsafe. The bungling response by the Japanese utility company that operates the nuclear power plant is none too comforting either. But the Korean is more inclined to trust the official reports that the radiation level is safe. He would just be prudent and avoid the rain, and maybe avoid seafood. By the next month, this whole thing will probably blow over.

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

Ask a Korean! News: We're No. 13! We're No. 13!

It is hardly secret that Korea spends a ton of money in English education. So is that money doing anything? According to the newest data, it seems to be working. The latest report by Education First, a Britain-based language education company, Korea is 13th in the world in terms of English proficiency among the countries that do not use English as the first language, and third in Asia following Malaysia and Hong Kong. Unsurprisingly, the top of the chart is dominated by European countries. Given that Korea has been in dire poverty until the 1980s and Korean language is really far apart from English compared to most European languages, this is a solid showing.

There are a few surprises in the list when it comes to Korea. Korea's English proficiency is only slightly behind Hong Kong, and significantly better than India -- two former British colonies. Korea's English proficiency is also better than Mexico, a country that is right next to as well as has significant economic ties with the U.S. Korea's English proficiency is also ahead of several wealthy European countries like France, Portugal, Italy and Spain. And considering Korea's English push went up into another gear at around late 1990s, the Korean would expect more improvement in the future.

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

Ask a Korean! News: Interview with Shin Kyung-Sook

The novel Please Look After Mom is poised to break out in the American market. The novel is in its third print, after selling out 103,000 copies to the bookstores through the first two prints already. Dong-A Ilbo interviewed the author Shin Kyung-Sook. Translation is below.

*                     *                     *

On April 5, the English version of Please Look After Mom was officially released in the United States. Novelist Shin Kyung-Sook could hardly conceal her excitement, saying: "It almost has been 30 years since I debuted at age 22, but it feels like I am just starting out." Shin, met at the Consulate of Korea in New York, said: "I am gradually feeling that there is an increasing number of Americans who have read Korean literature, since Korea Literature Translation Institute has been consistently introducing Korean literature to America."

Q:  Please Look After Mom is popular in America. Why do you think that is?
A:  I think maybe there was a contact with the zeitgeist of the modern civilization, which lives on while forgetting the existence of mothers. The emotion toward mother seems to be the same in U.S. and in Korea. It doesn't matter whether the mom was found or not found in my book, because moms are in all of our hearts.

Q:  Today was the official release of the translated version. How do you feel?
A:  It feels like a deja vu. Feels like I am repeating what happened in Korea. The responses by the readers or the media are similar to Korea's as well. I heard that translated works take up less than 3 percent of American publishing market, so I am happy that my book is being well-received.

Q:  How was the responses by American readers that you met?
A:  I met a lot of them in book readings. One person talked about regretting not having reconciled with the mother that she had a fallout, and another person talked about being able to look back on how he acted toward his mother.

Q:  There must be a flavor of language and writing particular to Shin Kyung-Sook. Do you think the translated version kept the flavor well?
A:  The publisher worked on it for more than a year, and the initial translation was great. If there are still things that did not get digested in the process, that is really because of the huge difference in language. There might be some things that changed, but both the translator and I worked hard to translate it as closely as possible.

Q:  Will you write something about your stay in America?
A:  I am collecting a lot of raw material from my experience as a visitor here. [TK: Shin is a visiting scholar at Columbia University.] I listened to a lot of stories by a lot of people. I think over time, the experience and thoughts from here will be reflected into my works.

Q:  Will you write a work with an eye toward publishing abroad?
A:  I can only do my best in my mother tongue. I don't think I can write to the tastes of foreign readers. There have been persistent efforts to introduce Korean literature abroad in the last decade, and the results are starting to show. Before, there was not enough material to conduct a class, but now there are many short stories available in English. I taught a class at Columbia with the translated version of my work Strawberry Field, and I was happy to see that the students were able to fully understand the work and ask questions.

“엄마에 대한 감정은 韓-美 똑같은 것 같아” [Dong-A Ilbo]

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

This is exciting. Hank Conger, the first Korean American to be a first-round draft pick in 2006, hit his first major league home run for Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Apparently Conger's grandfather named him "Hank" after Hank Aaron.

What is All This About "Blood Money"?

Dear Korean,

I heard that in Korea, victims of crime are bribed with "blood money" instead of having their cases heard by the court. How can Korea let this injustice to continue? Why is Korea such a backward country with no sense of justice?

MuQ

For this question, the Korean is stealing the feature from Ask a Filipino! by setting up a question from "MuQ", i.e. "Made-up Questioner." (It's pronounced like "muck," rhymes with "luck.") The reason why the Korean does is twofold: one, because people who like to talk about "blood money" in Korea are so ignorant that they won't even ask a question about this, and; two, because the Korean is fucking sick and tired of this stupid misinformation, and wants to set the record straight once and for all.

Let us start with a hypothetical. Suppose person A punched person B and caused injury. The police comes and arrests A. What happens next is pretty significantly different depending on whether you are in the U.S. or in Korea.

In the U.S., there are two separate avenues through which A is punished -- A can be charged by the district attorney (a prosecutor), go through the criminal justice process in the court, and either go to jail or pay a fine to the government. Separately, B can sue A in the civil court for battery, and get compensation from A. Importantly, what B decides to do in the civil court, theoretically, does not affect what the district attorney does to A in the criminal court.

In Korea, the two processes interact closely. Almost immediately after arrest and police investigation, the police asks B if he wants to settle the case. If B accepts the settlement and gets paid settlement money, the prosecutor (for the most part) does not pursue criminal charges against A. This settlement money is what is often decried as "blood money," particularly among expats in Korea.

More after the jump.

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

Excellent news -- Please Look After Mom, a Korean novel by Shin Kyung-Sook translated into English, is receiving glowing reviews. The latest one is from the New York Times, which spent not one but two articles praising the book. It was also included in Oprah's book club. Perhaps this could be the start of Korean literature making meaningful inroads with English-language readers.

Assorted April Fool's Day Stuff

Best April Fool's Day joke that the Korean saw today:

How did the Korean knew it was a joke? Because Korean guy lost the game :)

Here is another interesting bit of news about April Fool's Day in Korea. As technology advances, prank phone calls to police and fire stations decreased from 475 in 2004 to 47 this year. Instead, the jokes apparently migrated to Twitter and Facebook.

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

Ask a Korean! -- New Subscription Plan

Dear readers,

Many of you mayㅁ have heard that theㅏ New York Timesㄴ online is movingㅇ to a subscription-based system, which inspiredㅜ the Korean. Although ㅈAAK! has been attracting thousandsㅓ of visitors a day, the Koreanㄹ resisted putting upㅈ advertisements -- mostly becauseㅗ he did not want to deal withㅋ the obnoxious "DATE A KOREAN GIRL NOW" ads. But whyㅡ not a subscription system? Why not indeed. The Korean worked hard at building up this blog. Heck, these posts do not write themselves. It is about damn time that the Korean is paid out from the fruit of his labor.

Fear not, readers -- it will not be expensive. Starting from April 1, 2011, this blog will be moved to www.askakorean.net. There, you will have three choices for subscription:

Ask a Korean! Basic - Just $2.99 per month to read up to 10 posts a month at AAK!
Ask a Korean! Premium - $3.99 per month to read up to 20 posts a month at AAK!
Ask a Korean! Ultimate - $9.99 per month to read unlimited number of posts at AAK!

Also, the questions will cost you also -- again, it's cheap. Just 99 cents per question. Make sure to send in your credit card information along with your question in order to ensure a reply. AAK! will accept Paypal and all major credit cards. See you on the new site!

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


-EDIT- If this wasn't obvious, this post is an April Fool's Day joke. Please do NOT include your credit card information in the question. :)

50 Most Influential K-Pop Artists: 31. Kim Min-Gi

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

[Series Index]

31.  Kim Min-Gi [김민기]

Years of Activity:  1971-present (last original album in 1987)

Discography:
Kim Min-Gi [김민기] (1971)
Factory Lights: Musical Original Soundtrack [공장의 불빛 OST] (1978)
Gaettong'i: Musical Original Soundtrack [개똥이 OST] (1987)
Daddy's Face is Pretty: Musical Original Soundtrack [아빠얼굴 예쁘네요 OST] (1987)
Kim Min-Gi 1 [김민기 1] (1993)
Kim Min-Gi 2 [김민기 2] (1993)
Kim Min-Gi 3 [김민기 3] (1993)
Kim Min-Gi 4 [김민기 4] (1993)
Kim Min-Gi, with Symphony Orchestra of Russia (2003)
Factory Lights (2004)

Representative Song: Morning Dew [아침이슬] from Kim Min-Gi

아침이슬
Morning Dew

긴밤 지새우고 풀잎마다 맺힌 진주보다 더 고운 아침이슬처럼
Like morning dew, prettier than pearls, hanging on every blade of grass
내 맘에 설움이 알알이 맺힐때
When sorrow hangs in my heart, drop by drop
아침동산에 올라 작은 미소를 배운다
I hike the morning hill and learn a little smile

태양은 묘지위에 붉게 떠오르고
The red sun rises over the graves
한낮에 찌는 더위는 나의 시련일지라
And the sweltering heat of the day is my trial
나 이제 가노라 저 거친 광야에
I shall now go, into that barren desert
서러움 모두 버리고 나 이제 가노라
Casting off all the sorrow, I shall now go.

A little bit about the video...  the Youtube video is showing the public funeral of Lee Han-Yeol, a democratization activist who was killed by being shot by a tear gas canister in the head in 1987. Lee was a 22 years old student at Yonsei University. His death served as a spark for the June Struggle, which dealt the fatal blow to the military dictatorship in South Korea.

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

In 15 words or less:  Korea's Bob Dylan.

Maybe he should have been ranked higher because...  His songs were the spirit of Korea's democratization movement. Korea is now a democracy.

Maybe he should have been ranked lower because...  Through no fault of his own, his music was totally cut off from the mainstream of K-pop.

Why is this artist important?

The world is fascinated by North Korea and its terroristic dictatorship. But it ought to focus more on South Korea, which had no less of a dictatorship at the end of Korean War. There have been many dictatorships in the past, and there will surely be more in the future. But there are not many that transitioned from a dictatorship to a thriving democracy, and there is only one that did so in just 40 years. And Kim Min-Gi wrote the defining hymn of that unprecedented change.

Kim Min-Gi's discography says it all. Kim began his music career as a member of an amateur band at the prestigious Seoul National University in 1969. His talent became obvious to those around him, who urged him to make an album. In 1971, Kim Min-Gi would record his only regular solo album in just one day. The musical value of this album is significant, as it added a layer of sophistication to the "folk rock" of Korea. On top of the simple guitar sound that was the only staple of the folk rock of the time, Kim's album added elements of jazz and classical music.

But of course, the real story is the album's social value. Within a year of its release, the authoritarian Park Chung-Hee regime banned the album. The entire available stock of the album was recalled and incinerated. Kim could not release albums or appear on television or radio anymore, and had to rely on his musical soul mate Yang Hee-Eun to sing his songs instead. A few years later, Kim's song Morning Dew was specifically banned, and even covering the song was not allowed.

South Korea's dictatorship correctly assessed the danger of Kim's gifted songwriting. On top of his elegantly simple tunes, Kim Min-Gi added lyrical poems that were at once hauntingly beautiful and deadly sharp. Morning Dew is the prime example of his ability to metaphorically urge a struggle against oppression. The morning dew is the tears collecting on every blade of grass, every person. When morning dews collect, "I" must go into the barren desert like a messianic hero, toward the glory of the sun that rises over the graves of the fallen.

Another beautiful example of Kim Min-Gi's lyric-writing ability is the song A Little Pond. The pond used to have two beautiful goldfish, who fought each other. One of them died, and as the body of the dead fish rotted away, so did the pond water, and nothing could live in the pond anymore -- a beautiful allegory to the injustice of the divided Koreas. Here is the song, covered by Yang Hee-Eun. (A Little Pond, a movie about the Nogeun-ri Massacre, was named after the song.)

South Korea's authoritarian regime succeeded in some respects -- Kim Min-Gi was driven out of the larger pop culture, and was relegated to composing musicals that were barely played in some colleges. For stretches of time, Kim totally gave up on music and turned to farming for years. But in a more important way, the authoritarian regime failed utterly. The few surviving copies of Kim Min-Gi's first album were secretly copied and distributed like a badge of honor among the democratization activists. The democratization activists would first sing Morning Dew quietly among themselves, and then loudly during their protests. Over time, Morning Dew would be the de facto anthem of the pro-democracy protesters. A song about a fragile natural phenomenon became a roaring call for freedom sung by thousands and thousands of people, beaten down by police clubs and covered in tear gas. South Korea would fully democratize, and Kim Min-Gi's albums were finally unbanned in 1993.

The ultimate testament to the power of the song is the fact that North Korea banned this song also. Because North Korea saw the democratization protesters as its allies (both because the protesters were generally leftist and because enemy of the enemy was a friend,) initially North Korea used Morning Dew as a part of the propaganda. But as the song spread, there was no mistaking the message of Morning Dew -- the song became wildly popular in North Korea, sung by the people who wished to rebel against the regime in their hearts. Finally, North Korea banned the song in 1998.

Interesting trivia:  Kim Min-Gi continued his rebellion by writing musicals with heavily social messages. His musical Factory Lights, describing the fate of the union members at a factory, was also banned. In 1994 Kim directed a musical Line One, which was originally a German musical adjusted to take on a Korean narrative, again describing the downtrodden people in the ghettos of Seoul. It became the most successful musical in Korean history, running for 13 years in the same theater.

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

Walls with Barbed Wire?

Dear Korean,

What's with all the barbed wire in Seoul? I hear nothing but positive comments on the safety and low crime rate in Korea, so I wonder why are the fences and walls surrounding apartments, 'villas' and homes are topped with barbed wire?

S. Eron

Probably the most accurate answer is -- why not? While Korea does have relatively low crime rate and good public safety, it is far from being totally free from crime. Petty thieves scaling the wall is not unheard of, so it is not a bad idea to have barbed wire on your wall.

(Source)

If one really strained to give a "cultural" answer, one plausible theory would be that not long ago, Korea was under military dictatorship, which often implanted militaristic culture to Korea's everyday life. That probably allowed Koreans to tune out the presence of barbed wire and consider it to be a normal part of the scenery. But this is just a theory that the Korean made up just now -- take it for what it is.

One related note is -- in Seoul, there are many legitimate and highly important places that could be a potential military target. Aside from the obvious ones like the presidential residence, there are a number of safe houses used by Korea's intelligence agencies that hold important people. (For example, Hwang Jang-Yeop, the creator of North Korea's juche philosophy who defected to South Korea, lived in such a safe house until he passed away recently.) Also, there are legitimate concerns that North Korea would attempt to infiltrate Seoul and kill the president and/or commit terrorism, as it happened in 1968. So a lot of places in Seoul are areas of legitimate military interest, which might be protected with barbed wire.

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

Ask a Korean! News: Rumors Begin to Spread in Japan

Well, it would be strange if a society was totally immune to crazy rumors in the wake of a disaster in a historical scale. According to Asahi Shimbun (via Dong-A Ilbo,) around northeastern Japan rumors such as "there is a group of foreigner thieves," "there are more rape cases," etc. are spreading.

The zainichi community -- Korean-Japanese people who are mostly the holdovers from the colonial era -- is apparently getting somewhat nervous, as they clearly remember the Kanto massacre. In the aftermath of a massive earthquake in 1923, false rumors spread that Koreans were poisoning the well in a plot to kill Japanese. Vigilante mob violence broke out, which killed numerous Koreans living in Japan -- estimates run as high as 6600 Koreans dead. According to the Dong-A Ilbo article, some parts of the Japanese Internet are starting to blame Korean-Japanese or Chinese-Japanese communities for the perceived lawlessness.

The world is admiring Japan for its calm and orderly response to this unimaginable disaster. Let us hope that Japan can keep it up.

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

AAK! PSA: Documentary about Comfort Women -- Free Screening This Saturday

There is a free screening of an award-winning documentary about Comfort Women this Saturday in Seoul. Here is a press release:

From: The House of Sharing - International Outreach Team

What: FREE Documentary screening of “63 Years On”, the story of ‘Comfort women’ – the film is in
multiple languages with English subtitles. There will be a speaker and group discussion after the film.

Date: Saturday, March 26th, 2011

Where: Dongguk University, 90th Anniversary Commemorative Munhwa Gwan (Cultural Center), Deok Am Seminar Room, 1st Floor (How to get there: Dongguk University Station (Line 3), Exit 6. Go up the escalator and follow the road until you see Lee Hae Lang Fine Arts Theater. It’s the building on the back side of the theater)

Info: www.houseofsharing.org

Following contact information NOT for print copy (only for interview or questions for print purposes):
Contact: Shannon Heit
Tel: 010.4534.1553
E-mail: shannon.heit@gmail.com

Time: 3:00pm – 5:00pm

Email: info@houseofsharing.org

“63 YEARS ON”


‘Comfort women’ tell their story in a documentary film

The documentary film, ‘63 Years On’ will be shown at a free screening at Dongguk University, 90th Anniversary Commemorative Munhwa Gwan (Culture Center) on March 26th, 2011. This is an opportunity for both the Korean and International communities to further engage with the ‘Comfort women’ issue and to support the continuing fight for justice. A brief Question & Answer session will take place after the film, an opportunity to ask questions and share thoughts on the film.

In this film, award-winning Korean director Kim Dong Won presents the harrowing experiences of 5 international survivors of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery during WWII. The very personal telling of their experiences is supported by excellent research and archival footage to create a powerfully honest, determined, and often heartbreaking documentary. While this gripping film may evoke great sadness and anger, the bravery displayed will truly inspire all who see it.

The House of Sharing’s International Outreach Team works to raise awareness of the issue of Japanese military sexual slavery and to support the survivors in their on-going struggle for historical reconciliation and justice. The team is composed of both foreign and local volunteers who lead English tours at the House of Sharing and works to highlight the continuing crimes against humanity in the form of sexual violence during war that women and children across the world continue to experience.

This screening provides a window to an episode of Asian and International history which has been willfully ignored by so many for more than 63 years. You are invited to join the House of Sharing and show your support to the survivors who continue the fight for justice.

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

Another grandmother who was exploited as a Comfort Woman passed away today. Just this year, there were six such passings. Now there are only 73 registered former Comfort Women still alive.

Ask a Korean! News: The Korean Saw This Move Before...

The Korean previously wrote that what goes on in Korea sometimes presages American politics and social phenomena. But this is just astounding:

Clashes at state capitols over organized labor have become commonplace this year, with protesters throughout the country objecting to proposed limits on collective bargaining and cuts in benefits. Maine’s governor, Paul LePage, has opened a new — and unlikely — front in the battle between some lawmakers and unions: a 36-foot-wide mural in the state’s Department of Labor building in Augusta.

The three-year-old mural has 11 panels showing scenes of Maine workers, including colonial-era shoemaking apprentices, lumberjacks, a “Rosie the Riveter” in a shipyard and a 1986 paper mill strike. Taken together, his administration deems these scenes too one-sided in favor of unions.

A spokeswoman said Mr. LePage, a Republican, ordered the mural removed after several business officials complained about it and after the governor received an anonymous fax saying it was reminiscent of “communist North Korea where they use these murals to brainwash the masses."

Mural of Maine’s Workers Becomes Political Target [New York Times] (emphasis the Korean's).

Wow, really? For those of you who don't know, one of the favorite tools that the dictators in South Korea used to suppress Korea's labor movement (which was intimately linked to Korea's democratization movement) was to constantly associate labor unions with North Korea and communism. Many labor activists of South Korea -- which includes a member of the Korean's extended family -- went to jail for the trumped up charges of espionage and aiding North Korea.

The world sure is an ironic place.

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

The Korean was cited in the Economist. (Look under "What we're reading".) Cool!

Ask a Korean! News: North Korean Special Forces

Here is a translation of an interesting/terrifying news story about North Korean Special Forces.

Mr. Im Cheon-Yong (45) was a captain of North Korean Special Forces. He is relatively short -- not quite 170 cm [TK: 5' 7"] -- but had unusually large fists, reminiscent of a cartoon character. The fact that this reporter met an officer of North Korean military's special combat unit became even more real after he explained, "I practiced punching several thousand times a day." His handshake was firm and heavy.

Mr. Im spent 16 years at the assassination brigade of the "Storm Corps," headquartered in Deokcheon, Pyeong'annam-do. Each corps of North Korean military contains a special combat brigade, but Storm Corps is not a brigade under another corps. It is a special combat corps, comprised of elite members of the special forces.

Speaking of the size of North Korea's special forces, Mr. Im said, "each corps has one brigade, sometimes two. Each brigade has about 6000 to 8000 men, but the numbers vary," and said, "it's hard to be precise, but it is a sizable number." He added, "Other than Storm Corps, there are other special combat troops such as 4.25 Training Camp, 8.15 Training Camp, 108 Training Camp."

The training for special combat as told by Mr. Im was harsh as expected, and some parts beyond imagination. The training begins on 5 a.m. The fundamental of the training is to turn the entire body into steely firmness, and the basic part is training the fist.

Mr. Im said, "You would wrap a tree trunk with ropes, and keep punching it. You throw 5000 punches day and night -- do that for a month, the inside of your fist swells up until you can barely curl your fingers." He added, "Then you open a tin can and set it up on a stand. You keep punching the sharp part. When your hand turns into mush with blood and pus, you start punching a pile of salt. Repeat it, and your hands become like a stone." Mr. Im explained, "You punch the salt so that the salt would prevent the hand from rotting away with the blood." According to Mr. Im, with the hand trained like this "you can easily break 20 sheets of cement blocks, and you can kill a person with three punches." His hands would naturally make a fist throughout the interview. This reporter had to respectfully ask that he unclench his fist during the interview.

The way to train shoulder and arm muscles was also unique. Mr. Im said, "You would take off your top, line up, put your hands on the shoulder of the person in front of you and put your head down. And then a car would drive on top of the outstretched arms." He explained, "The car goes fast enough not to break your arms, but if you don't concentrate your shoulder would be destroyed."

In a martial art called "Gyeok-sul," the special forces train by sparring each other. Mr. Im said, "Kim Il-Sung used to say he wanted a warrior who can defeat a hundred, but honestly that's not possible. But we get trained enough to fight ten men without guns."

In the winter, according to Mr. Im, the special forces are thrown into the sea around 4 km [TK: 2.5 miles] away. Mr. Im said, "The ocean temperature is about negative 30-40 degrees in North Korea in the middle of winter," and said "The salt water feels like blades; the capillaries all over your body burst out, and some people just die there." He added, "It used to be just throwing daggers at the target, shooting guns and punching, but nowadays we receive a lot of training on driving tanks and armored vehicles as well."

According to Mr. Im, the winter training begins on December 1 to mid-April, and the summer training goes from late July to late September. The remainder is spent preparing for the training. October and November are particularly busy, as the troops procure firewood and food to stave over the winter.

Mr. Im said North Korean regime focused on the special combat brigades, providing them food and continuing the training even during the March of Struggles in the mid- to late 1990s. But he explains that recently, "The food situation is terrible, such that even special combat brigades get no more than porridge."

Each company of the Storm Corps is assigned to a major city in South Korea as a terrorism target. The target for Mr. Im's company was Chungju, Chungcheongbuk-do. As Mr. Im belonged to the assassination brigade, his mission was to assassinate the mayor of Chungju. The other members of the company had such missions as overtaking the broadcasting stations, gassing major locations and demolishing buildings. According to Mr. Im, a special combat company is divided into a regular patrolling brigade and assassination brigade. Patrolling brigade takes relatively light missions like building demolition or reconnaissance, while the assassination brigade takes on missions of higher difficulty such as kidnap/assassination of important persons or releasing toxic gas.

Mr. Im said, "But assassination was not tasked to just me -- there would be double, triple layers in case of failure. For major personnel, there are at least three squads." He said, "For example, if the mayor is a conservative while the deputy mayor is a leftist, the mission would be to assassinate only the mayor so that the politics would favor North Korea." According to Mr. Im, "Until 1990s, the targets were military personnel like Jeong Ho-Yong (former Minister of Defense) or Park Hee-Do (former chief of the army)," and said, "until early 2000s, there were a lot of major officers of the [TK: conservative] Grand National Party on the target list. Especially Lee Hoi-Chang (head of the Jayou Party) was a must-kill target."

One would enter the special combat corps around ages 16 and 17. After basic training, unlike regular soldiers who begin as a private, special combat corps skip four ranks to begin as second lieutenants. Assassination brigade would skip five ranks to begin as first lieutenants. Only those from the favored caste could enlist; Mr. Im said he could join because he belonged to the "impoverished peasant" class.

Mr. Im declined to explain why he defected, saying "my family and friends remaining in North Korea would suffer." Mr. Im got rid of his home phone as he continued to receive threatening phone calls since he defected. Mr. Im said, "The phone calls would go something like, 'Are you still doing well?'" and added, "I don't particularly care, since I receive police protection."

As to the possibility of an attack by North Korean special forces, Mr. Im said, "During the Kim Dae-Jung and Roh Moo-Hyun administration, North Korea had no reason to threaten with special forces since it managed the relationship well and got money out of it," and said, "But now that South Korean government's stance is hawkish and not rattled by the attacks on Cheonan and Yeonpyeong-do, they have to be preparing."

Mr. Im pointed underground tunnels as a major route for special forces' infiltration, and worried that "It will be a significant problem for South Korea's security." He said, "There are a lot of tunnels especially around Cheolwon, and they are hard to find because the exits are usually deep in the mountains," and said, "It takes about 48 hours to come from North Korea to the South, then you would walk or take a bicycle to the point where you can use the public transportation. Then you would head to the city. There is no good way to stop this, so even as we speak there is a significant number of special forces infiltrated into South Korea."

“北 특수부대원들 지금도 땅굴로 남한 침투” [Dong-A Ilbo]

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

50 Most Influential K-Pop Artists: 32. Patti Kim

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

[Series Index]

32.  Patti Kim [패티김]

Years of Activity:  1958-present

Discography:
(Patti Kim did issue albums prior to 1969, but the information online only traces back to 1969.)

Stereo Highlight Vol. 3: The White House [스테레오 하이라이트 Vol. 3: 하얀집] (1969)
Patti Kim Stereo Vol. 5 [패티金 스테레오 Vol. 5] (1970)
Patti Kim '70 (1970)
Patti Kim '71 (1971)
'74 Bronze Medalist in the Third Tokyo World Music Festival ['74 제3회 동경 가요제 세계대회 동상 수상] (1974)
Wind [바람] (1974)
Patti Kim Greatest Hit Album Vol. 5 (1975)
Stereo Lifetime Vol. 1 [스테레오 일대작 제1집] (1976)
Patti Kim Sings Love [사랑을 노래하는 패티김] (1978)
Unforgettable by Patti Kim [패티김의 못잊어] (1978)
Homecoming Grand Concert [귀국 대공연] (1978)
Love that Left Autumn Behind [가을을 남기고 간 사랑] (1983)
Patti Kim '84 (1984)
Light and Shadow [빛과 그림자] (1985)
Hit Song 1 [힛송 1] (1986)
Patti Kim (1990)
Patti Kim (1991)
Life is a Small Boat [인생은 작은 배] (1994)
Love is the Flower of Life [사랑은 생명의 꽃] (1997)
Patti Kim (1999)
The One & Only (2008)
Friendship [우정] (2009)
Patti Kim Golden Best (2009)

Representative Song:  Love that Left Autumn Behind, from Love that Left Autumn Behind.

가을을 남기고 떠난 사랑
Love that Left Autumn Behind

가을을 남기고 떠난 사랑
Love that left autumn behind
겨울은 아직 멀리 있는데
But the winter is far away yet
사랑 할수록 깊어가는 슬픔의 눈물은
The tears of sorrow that deepens as I love
향기로운 꿈이었나
Were they a fragrant dream
당신의 눈물이 생각날때
When I recall your tears
기억에 남아있는 꿈들이
The dreams remaining in my memory,
눈을 감으면 수많은 별이 되어
When I close my eyes, will turn into countless stars
어두운 밤 하늘에 흘러가리
And flow in the dark night sky


아 그대 곁에 잠들고 싶어라
Oh how I wish to sleep by your side
날개를 접은 철새처럼
Like a migratory bird with folded wings
눈물로 쓰여진 그 편지는
The letter written with tears
눈물로 다시 지우렵니다
I will erase again with tears
내 가슴에 봄은 멀리 있지만
Though to my heart, spring is far away
내 사랑 꽃이 되고 싶어라
How my love wishes to be a flower

아 그대 곁에 잠들고 싶어라
Oh how I wish to sleep by your side
날개를 접은 철새처럼
Like a migratory bird with folded wings
눈물로 쓰여진 그 편지는
The letter written with tears
눈물로 다시 지우렵니다
I will erase again with tears
내 가슴에 봄은 멀리 있지만
Though to my heart, spring is far away
내 사랑 꽃이 되고 싶어라
How my love wishes to be a flower

Translation Note:  The words "migratory bird" loses all poetic meaning in English and turns into a clunker that weighs down the romance of the song.

In 15 Words or Less:  Korea's first pop star.

Maybe she should have been ranked higher because...  Patti Kim debuted in 1958. Just think about how old your parents were in 1958. And she is still going strong to this day as a septuagenarian.

Maybe she should have been ranked lower because...  Did she do a single musically special thing that lived beyond the prime of her career?

Why is this artist special?
For people who like to indulge in imagining a post-apocalyptic world, Korea in the 1950s was a close approximation. Korea began the 20th century as an extremely poor and backward country, followed by 36 years of brutal and exploitative imperial rule. After a short-lived run after the liberation, it would enter into a civil war that was as much a total war as any other war in modern history.

When the Korean looks at Patti Kim's career, a single number arrests his sight and does not let go: 1958. Only five years after the war that leveled everything and killed or wounded around four million people. Four million lives. Can you even imagine that? Just for a frame of reference, right now Japan is (rightly) receiving an outpouring of international support after its horrific earthquake, which had a toll of around 25,000 dead/wounded/missing people. In the wake of an utter, total destruction, how does it make sense to hope?

More pertinently, how does it make sense to hope that one would make a career as a singer? Remember, "pop stars" did not exist in Korea in the 1950s. Heck, "pop culture" did not exist in Korea. There were some popular singers, but their status was roughly equal to clowns at a traveling carnival in modern day America -- entertainers, yes, but not rich and not respected. Few Koreans of the 1940s grew up dreaming to be a star. Most probably did not know what that meant. Which makes Patti Kim's artistic career all the more remarkable.

Born as Kim Hye-Ja, Kim began her career as a singer for the U.S. military stationed in Korea. She took the stage name of "Patti" for Patti Page, one of the hottest names in American pop music scene at the time. In fact, they bear a fleeting resemblance to each other:

(Source) (Source)

Kim continued her career by becoming an exclusive singer for the club at what is now the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul. Since then, Patti Kim's career was nothing but pioneering and trailblazing. She was the first Korean pop singer to be invited by NHK broadcasting studio of Japan for a concert. She was also the first Korean pop singer to hold a concert at the Carnegie Hall. She appeared on Tonight Show by Johnny Carson. And she continues to chug along, still holding concerts at 72-year-young. Although she did not really break any grounds as a musician -- someone else composed nearly all of her songs -- her stage presence is reported to be legendary.

Given the strength of Korea's pop culture worldwide, it is amazing to think that its roots trace back to a USO show or a dark nightclub of a hotel. But that is so, and Patti Kim was in the middle of it.

Interesting trivia 1:  Patti Kim's song Parting [이별] is rumored to be one of Kim Jong-Il's favorite songs.

Interesting trivia 2:  This turned up in the Korean's research and he couldn't not share.

Look at that scandalous cleavage!! In Korea of 1960s!! (Source)

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

The Korean previously wrote about ethnic niche businesses -- for example, apparently Koreans are prevalent in the donut stores around Dallas/Ft. Worth area. An interesting New York Times article discusses the same idea in New York:

For generations, sociologists have been studying the way immigrant groups gravitate to such pursuits and professions. In New York lately, Filipinos and West Indians dominate nursing. South Koreans have a lock on fruit stands, delis and nail salons, while Afghans have established themselves as the city’s fried-chicken and coffee-cart kings. In the past, ethnic niches have been so distinctive that speaking of a Jewish social worker or an Irish cop seemed a redundancy. In the late 1970s, a Greek luncheonette that seemed to serve mostly “cheezborger, cheezborger” became a running skit on “Saturday Night Live.”

In a Deadly Bus Crash, an American Tale [New York Times]

Holy cow, YB. Shades of Jo Yong-Pil in this performance. (Start at 1:50 mark.)

A Retrospective on Identity: State of a Gyopo at Age 30

Thirty is probably the age that causes the most trepidation among Koreans. Thirty means much more than the pressures for a job and marriage from your parents. It is an occasion for a deep reflection about your life. It is not a coincidence that one of the most iconic Korean pop songs is titled "Around Thirty." For Koreans around thirty, Kim Gwang-Seok's soft voice, singing "Another day drifted away/Like exhaled smoke," rings truer than ever.

Confucius said that thirty is the age at which he established himself. By saying this, Confucius is not simply saying that you should move out of the basement of your parents' home by the time you are 30. He means that by 30, you should have a good idea of who you are. You should establish yourself, your identity.

Today, I turn 30 years old. Also, I have lived in America for 13 and a half years. Given that I spent the first few years of my life in Korea without much awareness, I would say the time I spent in Korea and the time I spent in America are approximately equal. All this makes a great time for me to reflect on how I came to establish my own identity as a Korean American.

More after the jump.

Just look at the way Lee Sora owns the crowd in this video with her voice:

This is music, boys and girls.

The "Untranslatable Word" Trope

First of all, the Korean's thoughts and prayers for everyone in Japan today. Please be safe.

In reaction to Japan's earthquake, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times wrote a blog post about Japan's national character that will assist the recovery from this disaster. The Korean generally agreed with the overall point made by Kristof, but he found this passage a bit annoying:

But the Japanese people themselves were truly noble in their perseverance and stoicism and orderliness. There’s a common Japanese word, “gaman,” that doesn’t really have an English equivalent, but is something like “toughing it out.” And that’s what the people of Kobe did, with a courage, unity and common purpose that left me awed.

Sympathy for Japan, and Admiration [New York Times]

What annoyed the Korean was the "untranslatable word" trope -- about how "gaman" doesn't really have an English equivalent.  Um, actually there is an English equivalent of "gaman" -- any Japanese-English dictionary can tell you the equivalent. "Gaman" means "patience" or "perseverance." And hey, "perseverance" sounds awfully like "toughing it out."

Of course, there are cases in which word-to-word translation is not possible. For example, a word like 온돌 -- Korea's floor heating system -- does not have a single equivalent word in English. Also, there are cases in which the word itself could be translated, the precise emotion evoked by a word is difficult to translate. (See this post for example -- the word "white" loses all poetic meaning when translated from Korean to English.)

But in general, there is no word that is truly untranslatable. Instead, the "there is no equivalent word in English" is a crutch, overused whenever writers need a cheap and facile way of describing another culture. Through this trope, the writer tries to give off this impression: "Oh, those mysterious Japanese people! (In Kristof's case.) They have this concept that we cannot truly understand. All we could do is to guess at it, as if trying to divine if there will be rain by looking at the clouds."

The Korean likes Kristof's reporting a lot, but this is just lazy writing. What is wrong with simply saying that the Japanese people have perseverance? By setting up the story with the "untranslatable word" crutch, Kristof put Japanese people beyond the understanding of ordinary American people, only reachable through Kristof's own description of the Japanese people. This is not a good way of trying to bridge the gap between cultures.

Kristof's point is that there is much to admire about Japanese people's persevering spirit. The Korean agrees. But by setting up the Japanese perseverance as something alien to us, Kristof abdicates his stated goal. When the Japanese are portrayed as these inscrutable beings whose mindset we cannot completely understand, there is no point in admiring the mindset because we can never have that mindset anyway.

And it is not as if Americans have not had disasters which they overcame by way of their perseverance. Kristof could have chosen any number of challenges that faced America -- the Great Depression, Civil Rights Movement, World War II, September 11 -- and reminded Americans of their own strength and at the same time identify themselves with the Japanese also. But instead of fostering connection, the "untranslatable word" trope fosters separation.

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

This BBC survey is very interesting -- it asked people from different country whether a given country's influence in the world was positive or negative. The most interesting part for the Korean? 68% of Koreans believed that Japan has a positive influence in the world, while only 39% of the Japanese believed that their country has a positive influence in the world. (At p. 10.)

50 Most Influential K-Pop Artists: 33. Kim Jong-Seo

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

[Series Index]

33.  Kim Jong-Seo [김종서]

Years of Activity:  1986-present

Discography:
As vocal of Sinawi
Down and Up (1986)

Solo Albums
Rethona (1992)
PETSDN2 (1993)
Kim Jong Seo (1994)
Thermal Island (1995)
Kim Jong Seo V (1996)
Seeds (1998)
The Seven Kim Jong Seo (1999)
Odyssey (2001)
No. 9 (2005)

As vocal of REI
High (2010)


Representative Song:  You Without a Reply [대답없는 너] from Rethona

대답없는 너
You Without a Reply

힘없이 멈춰진 하얀 손
White hand stopped listless
싸늘히 식어가는 눈빛
Gaze turning cold
작은 그 무엇도 해줄 수가 없었던 나
I who could not do any little thing
비라도 내리길 바랬지
I wished for a rain
며칠이 갔는지 몰랐어
Did not know how many days passed
그저 숨쉬는 게 허무한 듯 느껴질 뿐
Simply felt breathing was futile

이제 난 누구의 가슴에 안겨서
Now in whose arms will I be held
아픔을 얘기해야 하는가
And speak of pain
너무 힘들다고 말하고 싶지만
Want to say this is too hard but
들어줄 너는 없는데
There is no more you who would listen

비라도 내리길 바랬지
I wished for a rain
며칠이 갔는지 몰랐어
Did not know how many days passed
그저 숨쉬는 게 허무한 듯 느껴질 뿐
Simply felt breathing was futile

이제 난 누구의 가슴에 안겨서
Now in whose arms will I be held
아픔을 얘기해야 하는가
And speak of pain
너무 힘들다고 말하고 싶지만
Want to say this is too hard but
들어줄 너는 없는데
There is no more you who would listen

Translation Note:  A persistent difficulty translating Korean from English is that Korean language does not hesitate to modify pronouns with a dependent clause, while English is somehow adverse to doing that. The result is always awkward.

In 15 Words or Less:  The last hero of Korean rock before the dark ages.

Maybe he should have been ranked higher because...  Rock is a significant genre, and he should be recognized for carrying it through.

Maybe he should have been ranked lower because...  What has he done that is musically significant in the last decade?

Why is this artist important?
Once upon a time, not too far back in the past, "rock" was more than pop music based on electric guitar, bass and drums. It was about long hair, tight leather pants and wide vocal range. It was about urgent screaming of desperation. In other words, once upon a time, Kim Jong-Seo was rock music, personified.

In the late 1980s, rock was the most popular music in Korea, not the vacuous music featuring pretty puppets. The legends of Korean rock owned TV shows and screaming fan girls. And at the center of it was Kim Jong-Seo. Kim's musical talent is undeniable, as he had just the right mix of sensitivity and overriding manliness that his genre of music required. But Kim Jong-Seo's ascension owes to more than that. With his wiry build, long-flowing mane and uncanny fashion sense (Kim has said he frequently left Korea to buy $10,000 worth of clothes per trip) -- Kim Jong-Seo just looked like a goddamn rocker.

When approached critically, Kim Jong-Seo's music is not necessary more special than other rockers like, say, Lee Seung-Cheol or Deli Spice. But when it comes to influence, there is something to be said about being the first person associated with the word "rock." And Kim stood tall as the guardian of rock music as the pop music world around him slowly crumbled. For a long time, he was the only visible reminder of what was, what could have been.

Interesting Trivia:  Kim Jong-Seo married early to a Japanese woman who was studying Korean in Korea. She was Kim's fan, an unlikely event because at the time Kim was not yet a star, but a musician playing at bars and clubs. He hid the fact that he was married to a Japanese woman from the public for more than a decade.

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

What to Make of Korean Wave?

Dear Korean,

What do you make of the 'Korean wave', is it just an easily replicable fad or are Koreans becoming a key player in Southeast Asian pop culture?

Joonki

Dear Joonki,

When many a K-pop group fills up stadium after stadium across Asia with their concerts, it is pretty hard to say that Korea is not a key player in Asian (not just Southeast Asian) pop culture:

Many of the readers of this blog come here because Korea's pop culture, so not much elaboration would be necessary about "Korean Wave". But of all the achievements of modern Korea, its rise as a soft power nation is the greatest surprise to a lay observer. One might have reasonably expected Korea to make better and better products until those products become world-class, but this? This is not just a function of having a lot of money. There are plenty of wealthy countries in the world which do not leave a particularly strong mark in the regional and world culture. Germany is far wealthier than Korea, but one does not hear all that much about German cultural products as far as pop culture is concerned. (That is, unless one counts the subtle yet undoubtedly powerful cultural influence generated by beautifully performing machines.) The same is true for, say, Canada or Spain, although they are about as wealthy as Korea.

What does the Korean make of Korean Wave? There are many factors responsible for Korean Wave's success. Here are some preliminary ideas of what some of those factors might be (that may well turn out to be really wrong):

- Korea is wealthy. Like the Korean pointed out above, this is not a sufficient condition. But it is pretty clearly a necessary condition. Only wealthy people have the time and money to nurture a pop culture. As a result, Korean dramas and Korean movies rarely lack production value. More specifically, having major production companies with the resource to commit to a longer-term strategy and delayed return on investment has been critical for Korean Wave's success.

- The competition in Korean pop culture market is cutthroat. Entertainment market in Korea is not very big. There is enough for a spectacular winner, but not enough for a second place who can get by. This is conducive to creating a type of "success formula" that can be widely shared within the industry. This means that Korean pop culture consistently maintains a level of excellence.

- As Asia became wealthier overall, the pop culture market in Asia grew enough such that there is an international demand of good pop culture products. This goes hand in hand with the fact that ...

- Korea's pop culture filled the need that was left unfulfilled by other major pop cultures, most notably from U.S. or Europe. Asian people want pretty Asian faces to whom they can relate. Similarly, Asian people want Asian-style narrative arcs, focusing more on the relationship between people instead of what happens next. (This is obviously a gross over-generalization, but bear with the Korean here.)

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