By the way, Jo Yong-pil is 63 years old, and Hello is his 19th regular album. His musical achievements are enough to easily place him within top five of the most influential K-pop artists of all time. (And no, that should not be a spoiler.) There is a reason why Koreans refer to Jo as the "King of Singers" [가왕].
If you are curious, have a listen at Bounce.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
I heard there was a huge scandal regarding E-sports about 2-3 years ago. From what I've heard, the scale of the scandal was so big that it almost put an end to the E-Sports itself. Would you be willing to explain what exactly happened back then? How did the Koreans react to the scandal?
Avid gamer
It has been more than three years since the Korean wrote the post about the popularity of Starcraft in Korea. Incredibly, it is still one of the most frequently read posts of this blog. Consider this post to be a sequel: how illegal gambling and match-fixing nearly destroyed the world's first professional e-sports league in Korea.
First, a quick review on how Starcraft became a professional sport in Korea. Starcraft was released in 1998. For a game released at that time, Starcraft had an ambitious Internet-based multi-player gameplay. This was ambitious because, at the time, it was not clear who would be able to take advantage of this multi-player design. Remember that 15 years ago, only a small portion of the world's population had Internet, and most of those who did have Internet relied on dial-up connection through the phone lines, utterly inadequate for online gaming.
Korea, however, recognized the potential of the Internet early on, and began a massive public investment in installing a fiber-optic cable network throughout the country. The result was that, by the end of 20th century, Korea had a national broadband network that boasted the fastest Internet in the world by a wide margin. Using the unparalleled Internet infrastructure, Koreans begin playing Starcraft, the best Internet-based multi-player game available. The rest is history: Korea is the forefront of the worldwide e-sports, with televised video games and professional gamers with rock star-like status.
(The lesson: government is good, and it should be in the business of picking winners and losers. If Korean government did not take the initiative in the late 1990s to invest a fortune in installing fiber-optic cables, but waited instead for private companies to build their own, would Korea be a major player in the high-tech industry that it is today? Would Korea have created, seemingly out of thin air, professional e-sports leagues, an entire new multi-million dollar market that can only grow in importance in the age of the Internet? If you say yes, the Korean has some Ron Paul presidential memorabilia to sell to you.)
Starcraft began becoming professional around 2000. Independent Starcraft tournaments began sprouting up, and cable televisions in Korea would broadcast the matches. In fact, in many cases the cable TV stations were the ones hosting the tournaments, with a prize money funded by its sponsors in exchange for advertisement placements. Soon, a pattern emerged: Korea's Starcraft leagues and players operated somewhat like professional golf--a collection of different tournaments, with varying levels of competition, prize money, and prestige.
For the next several years, the popularity of professional Starcraft leagues would grow exponentially. Then came 2007.
(More after the jump.)
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
According to Statistics Korea, 81.3% of Korean office workers re-use the paper so that both sides would be printed. While this is a desirable practice overall as a matter of conservation, re-using the paper is sometimes known to cause public disclosure of sensitive information printed previously.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
I've recently been getting into Korean dramas and picked The Moon Embracing the Sun as my first. In an early episode, they try to find an eligible girl for the prince to marry. In one scene they have a line of young girls entering through the palace gates and stepping on this wooden or stone thing with their right foot as part of their entry pathway. If this is part of real traditional process, why do they do this? I was thinking it might be to test their grace, as girls who slip would be instantly eliminated?
A new Drama fan.
Enough with the depressing North Korea news. Here is an obligatory installment of AAK! where the Korean, bound, gagged and with a gun pointed to his head, is forced to answer a question about Korean dramas.
The drama in question is 해를 품은 달, and this is the scene that the questioner is referring to:
What are the women stepping on? It is actually the lid of a very large, cast-iron pot. In a traditional Korean kitchen, it is common to have a giant pot, about two feet wide or larger, in which the rice for the whole family is cooked. The women are stepping on the lid of such a pot.
This custom was not limited to the royal court, by the way. The pot lid also made an appearance in a wedding for the noblemen. The new bride would be carried from her old family to her husband's house in a carriage, and the carriage would stop inside of the walls of the house. The pot lid would be placed at the ground next to the carriage, such that the new bride would step on the lid first before stepping on the ground.
Why? There are two theories, and either or both may be true. The first is the theory that the questioner guessed--to test the grace and balance of the women who will eventually be the queen. The grace and balance are not just for the sake of physical appearance; it was believed that a graceful walk over the lid would lead to a smooth, peaceful marriage. In the drama Queen Myeongseong [명성황후], the princess-to-be is seen slipping from the lid, portending a rocky marriage. (Remember folks--this is just a drama. There is no record as to whether Queen Myeongseong actually slipped from the lid.)
The second theory is more directly connected to superstition. The lid, for obvious reasons, represents the kitchen and the spirit residing there. By stepping on the lid, the new bride is making an acquaintance with the spirit of the new kitchen, in which she will undoubtedly spend a great deal of time. (Don't shoot me for the sexism here. The Korean is just a messenger.) Considering the more widespread custom involving the noblemen, this is probably the truer purpose of stepping on the pot lid. In fact, in case of a wedding of a noble family, the bride uses two hands to lift up the pot lid three times before leaving her house, as a way of saying farewell to the old kitchen spirit.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Are things so dire in North Korea that war is the only way out?
Paul R.
Normally, the Korean only accepts questions via email and not through Twitter, Facebook or other channels. But this question, sent via Twitter, was just so spot-on that the Korean could not resist.
(If you have a problem with this, please refer to the AAK! Policies. It is my blog, and I will do whatever the hell I damn well please with it. Don't be surprised if you visit this blog tomorrow and suddenly run into a foot fetish porno site. You just never know.)
Let us elaborate the question just a little bit. As North Korea escalates the tension, there is a fear that Kim Jong-un is putting himself into a position from which he cannot exit without some kind of military action. The thought is: if Kim Jong-un threatens to use force, he can't not use force if he wishes to maintain any level of credibility.
Is this true? It may well be, but no one really knows. But here is the question we can actually answer: does this have to be true? For that question, the answer is a resounding no--because North Korea previously backed off after having taken even closer step toward the brink: it actually killed American soldiers at Panmunjeom.
(More after the jump.)
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC) is an industrial complex in Gaeseong, North Korea, which is developed jointly by the two Koreas: South Korea supplies the corporations and capital equipments, and North Korea supplies the workers and the land. Every day, hundreds of South Korean workers--usually middle- and senior-managers--enter and exit North Korea to oversee the operations at the GIC.
As a part of its attempt to raise the tension in the region, North Korea has forbidden South Korean managerial workers from entering North Korea for the last six days. (South Korean workers who were at the GIC, however, were allowed to return home.) Yesterday, North Korea announced that it will shut down the GIC and withdraw all of its workers. Shutting down the GIC is probably the highest level of threat that North Korea may issue, short of actually attacking South Korea. This is because since its founding in 2005, the GIC never closed--not in the face of, for example, the shelling of Yeonpyeong-do in which North Korea actually attacked South Korean territory and killed four people.
Here is a collection of all relevant charts regarding the GIC, created by South Korea's Ministry of Unification. GIC hosts 123 corporations, which manufactured $460 million's worth of products in 2012. It employs over 53,000 North Korean laborers. Last year, nearly 246 vehicles crossed the Armistice Line from South Korea to North Korea every day to deliver supplies to the GIC.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Anonymous demands that Kim Jong-un resign and install direct democracy in North Korea. At the same time, apparently in order to prove that they indeed hacked into North Korea's propaganda site, Anonymous released the information of the membership of that website--the email addresses, date of birth and other personal information of more than 9,000 members of the propaganda site.
Well, these self-proclaimed freedom fighters probably did not anticipate what would have followed. It was apparent from the email addresses that many of them were of South Korean origin. For example, more than 1,400 email addresses ended in hanmail.net, a large email servicer in South Korea. Out of the 9,000 email addresses, more than 2,000 appear to be of South Korean origin. Seizing upon this, the South Korean far-right wingers engaged in a campaign of Internet stalking to indiscriminately reveal actual names, addresses, occupations and phone numbers of the South Korean individuals who joined the North Korean propaganda site.
As of this moment, there is simply no guarantee that the email addresses that Anonymous revealed in fact belong to North Korean sympathizers. From the emails, the opposite is more likely to be the case, as many of the emails belong to South Korean news organizations. The email addresses even include South Korean National Assembly and the conservative New Frontier Party. There is also the concern that the email addresses were fake or misappropriated. Some of the emails, for example, belong to the email of the webmasters that are publicly on display on large-scale websites.
But such subtleties are completely lost on South Korean right-wingers, who consider North Korean sympathizers to be the absolute evil that must be destroyed at all costs, even if the cost include basic civil liberties for democracy. Already, several South Koreans received a flood of emails and phone calls, shouting obscenities and death threats. South Korea's Supreme Prosecutor's Office vowed to investigate the South Korean members of the site as well, turning this episode into a veritable witch hunt.
Partly because the tyranny of North Korea is so horrific, it is often lost on people that South Korea's own fascist tyranny in the recent past was not much better than North Korea's communist tyranny, and the traces of such fascism still exert strong influences in South Korea. So we might soon see the tragicomedic spectacle of more than 2,000 South Koreans lined up to be prosecuted for daring to browse through a North Korean website.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Am I the only Korean American that thinks some of this article is patently ridiculous? Yes, 'han' is uniquely a Korean word, and even we Koreans like to pretend that it's a uniquely Korean thing. And I see that the writer is trying to be somewhat balanced in his treatment of the issue. Still, I can't help but think that whenever 'han' or 'jeong' is brought up to explain how Koreans act, it's a gesture of "othering" us. We, like people of any culture, are not so strange from the rest of humanity that our actions have to be explained in terms of unique emotions that westerners can't possibly understand.
David H.
David H. is speaking of this article by Jay Kang, a Korean American writer who wrote a lengthy feature regarding the Oikos College mass shooting for the New York Times. Regardless of precisely one may feel about it, it is a good read. The Korean would recommend reading it.
The Oikos Shooting occurred on April 2, 2012. The shooter was One L. Goh, a Korean immigrant. In the article discussing the shooting, Kang advances two major points. First is that, for a mass shooting that left behind seven dead people, the shooting at Oikos did not receive much attention, and was quickly forgotten--likely because the college was an obscure, technical school, and those who died were immigrants and racial minorities. After examining the lives of the victims who died in the shooting, Kang presents this points in a powerful manner:
It rakes at your guts, to watch your tragedies turn invisible. You know why it’s happening, but admitting it to yourself — that it has to do in some indivisible way with the value of immigrants’ lives — is something you’d rather not confront. The victims of the Oikos massacre came from Korean, Indian, Tibetan, Nigerian, Filipino and Guyanese backgrounds. They attended a low-cost, for-profit, poorly rated Korean-community nursing school in a completely featureless building set along the edge of a completely unremarkable part of Oakland. They were not held up as beacons for the possibilities of immigration, nor were they the faces of urban decay and the need for government assistance and intervention. They did not exist within any politicized realm. One Goh came from the same forgotten stock. And because the Oikos shooting occurred in a community that bore almost no resemblance to the rest of the country, the magnitude of the tragedy was contained almost entirely within the same small immigrant circles, many of whom fear that any talk about such terrible things will bring shame directly on them.
The Korean cannot help but admire Kang's writing prowess on display in this paragraph. "To watch your tragedies turn invisible." That is a fantastic phrase that very succinctly captures the lot of racial minorities in America.
The second point that Kang advances may be more controversial--and this is the point to which the questioner David objects. Kang notes that the Oikos shooting was the second mass-shooting involving a Korean American perpetrator since the Virginia Tech shooting with Cho Seung-hui. Kang attempts to find a Korean cultural trait that might connect the two shooters, and in the process speaks with Winston Chung, a child psychiatrist in the Bay Area:
Chung’s interest in One Goh and Seung-Hui Cho comes from a lifelong, personal investigation into han and hwabyung, two Korean cultural concepts that have no equivalent in the English language. By Western standards, the two words are remarkably similar. Both describe a state of hopeless, crippling sadness combined with anger at an unjust world. And both suggest entrapment by suppressed emotions. Both words have been a part of the Korean lexicon for as long as anyone can remember, their roots in the country’s history of occupation, war and poverty.
To the degree equal to which the Korean admired the earlier quoted paragraph, he cringes at this paragraph. One should be automatically suspicious when there is a claim that certain words or concepts are "untranslatable" or "have no equivalent." Also, in a previous post, I wrote that it makes little sense to talk about certain types of super special Korean emotion such as jeong.
To be sure, Kang does not go so far as to blame some type of Korean essence as the culprit for a proliferation of Korean American mass shooters. (In fact, there is no such proliferation.) In this sense, the Korean would disagree with David H.'s assessment, even as I understand where he is coming from. Yes, I would agree that maybe the concepts like han and hwabyung were better left unintroduced, or at least not characterized something unique to Koreans that Anglophones cannot understand. But Kang is not exactly latching onto this concept to make a broad indictment about Koreans. (Kang's interview with the NPR on this point makes his intentions clearer.)
On that point, this paragraph was both revealing and puzzling to the Korean:
Two Korean-American men, five years apart, walked into their former places of education and executed innocent students. This, by definition, is a coincidence, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a single Korean-American who feels that way. I have no idea whether these killings came out of han or hwabyung or some other shared heritage, but it’s clear that the search for an explanation is far more threatening to the Korean-American community than whatever the actual answer might be.
This paragraph is revealing because it makes clear that Kang is not exactly blaming han or whatever cultural characteristic that is supposed to be unique to Koreans. Kang just wants to find some logic, any logic that might connect the two shooters, because as a Korean American man, he feels that connection may explain something about himself as well. Kang knows that it is a tenuous logic to latch onto han or hwabyung, so he refrains from completely buying into those concepts. But a tenuous logic might have to do when there is no other real logic.
But on a personal level, the paragraph was at the same time hugely puzzling. The Korean furrowed his brow at this sentence in particular: "This, by definition, is a coincidence, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a single Korean-American who feels that way." Hard-pressed? I am a Korean American, and it never occurred to me that the connection between Virginia Tech shooting and Oikos shooting was anything other than coincidental. I know I am not alone in this. I am inclined to think that David H. might feel the same way. I certainly did not have the same kind of conversation that Kang and his Korean American friend had with my own Korean American friends.
So this was the puzzling part. Kang does not actually think that the connection between the two shootings is not coincidental. (Please excuse the double negative.) Then why does Kang, and a lot of Korean Americans that he knows, feel that it was not coincidental? And why does the Korean, and a lot of Korean Americans that he knows, do not feel the same? What sets these two camps of Korean Americans apart?
This is even more puzzling because, even as Kang talks about how he instantly understood the term "typical Korean father," he says his own father does not fit into that concept. I, on the other hand, would describe the Korean Father as a "typical Korean father"--yet I do not feel the compulsion to somehow connect the two shootings through some nebulous Korean essence. One might expect that Kang and I would have the opposite attitudes: Kang with nonchalance recognition of coincidence, and the Korean with brooding search for some kind of Korea-related explanation. Yet somewhere there is a twist along the way, and we stand on the opposite shores of where we are expected to be. So what, exactly, is it that separates Jay Kang and the Korean?
Ever since the flare-up with Wesley Yang, I am sensing that there is an important fault line within the Korean American community that is only instinctively recognized. I feel that this is another manifestation of that fault line. How deep and how far that line runs is the question that requires more thought.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
When it comes to North Korean news, the Korean has one simple rule: listen carefully to people who have actual access to the facts at the ground level in North Korea. One of the few people who do have such access is Mr. Joo Seong-ha, reporter for Dong-A Ilbo.
Long time readers of this blog are familiar with Mr. Joo. He was born and raised in North Korea, and graduated from Kim Il-Sung
University. In other words, he was on track to be an elite officer of
the North Korean regime. Instead, he escaped from North Korea into
China, and eventually made his way into South Korea, to work as a
reporter. Because of his unique background, he is able to access the facts of North Korea like few others can. For example, in 2009 when American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were captured in North Korea, Mr. Joo was able to speak directly with the North Korean border patrol who captured them.
From Mr. Joo, here is another good one. Recently, South Korea was rocked by a massive cyber attack, for which North Korea was suspected to be responsible. Mr. Joo spoke with one of the North Korean hackers to get a sense of North Korea's cyber attack capabilities. Below is the translation.
* * *
Conversation with North Korean Cyber Warrior
To write, or not to write.
I agonized long and hard about writing this article. It could be a violation of the National Security Act. Some may look at me askance. And do I really need to write something like this in this type of environment? But in the end, I decided to write this.
To confess--I know the two of the so-called "North Korean cyber warriors." Because of personal security issues, even the question of "know" versus "knew" is sensitive. At any rate, the person with whom I have had conversations for the last several months is not a former cyber warrior; he is currently one.
Recently, all kinds of myths about North Korean hackers are permeating South Korea: "The Mirim University in North Korea raises a thousand selected cyber agents every year"; "North Korea has 30,000 cyber soldiers"; "North Korea's hacking ability is commensurate to that of the CIA."
I asked one of the cyber warriors about Mirim University. He said: "That place is for soldiers who did not open a book for nearly a decade. The teachers for that school can't wait to transfer out to a different school." According to him, there are around 50 students who learn "a little bit" of computer skills before they graduate. In short, the idea that Mirim University is a training camp for cyber warriors is a massive exaggeration. Come to think of it, the original name for Mirim University is the University of Military Command Automation.
Then I asked which places teach computer skills. The answer was Geumseong Middle Schools 1 and 2, which are magnet schools. The schools apparently teach approximately 500 hours of Internet-related lessons for six years. But no one in the faculty of Geumseong has sophisticated hacking ability.
I asked if Geumseong Middle Schools 1 and 2 were the best; the answer was no. Those who excel from those schools advance to Kim Il-Sung University, or Kim Chaek University of Technology. But he said that the top destination for the North Koreans who learned computer skills is India. Since mid-2000s, North Korea sends around 10 computer engineers to study abroad in India; these are the best of the best. The very first team that was sent to India stayed there, for software development. Later, some of them were transferred to China.
I asked if there were several thousand North Korean cyber warriors in China. He said that there are around 10 teams that each has less five members; they somewhat know each other. But he added that they receive almost no assistance from the North Korean regime, because the "old men" (the decision makers) did not grasp the concept. I heard this a few years ago. Even though the young Kim Jong-Un's leadership began to grasp the concept, it is an unwarranted exaggeration to say that there are several thousands of North Korean hackers in China.
I did not ask about their missions, because that is the confidential information on which their lives depend. Other than that, there was nothing I could not ask, and no answer I did not receive. The cyber warriors who live outside of North Korea have not a shred of loyalty for the Labor Party. I regret that I cannot disclose the full transcript.
I used to live in Pyongyang. I know Mirim University and Geumseong Middle School. Therefore, I trust the people I spoke with about a hundred times more than the people who chatter without never having been to Pyongyang. Of course, this is not to say that we should ignore North Korea's capabilities for cyber terrorism. It only takes a few dozen truly great hackers to deal a significant amount of damage. But that is about as much as North Korea can do.
To conclude: I know there is someone from Pyongyang who visited my personal blog on North Korea every day, because he leaves the traces of browsing around the different pages. I am sure he will see this article as well. I would love to speak with him too.
There are people who are Korean but were born in America and don't really have any fellow Koreans around them. Later, they would be introduced to "Korean world" in high school and college, beginning watching Korean dramas, trying to become fluent in Korean, trying out Korean fashion, logging on to Soompi.com forums to get the latest news on Korean celebrities, etc.
Why is it that even completely American Korean-Americans get one whiff of Korean culture and then are obsessed with it like there is no tomorrow?
A Confused Friend
Why is Korean pop culture so attractive to Korean Americans? Why is it that, despite having spent most or all of their lives growing up in America, they gravitate so strongly to pop culture generated out of Korea, which can often be significantly different from the American pop culture in which Korean Americans grew up?
Why do Korean Americans stream to the Madison Square Garden to see SHINee?
(source)
Short answer: there is nothing quite like seeing yourself in an idealized form.
Believe it or not, a very similar question was raised a few years ago, albeit in a different area and with someone who may appear very different from K-pop idols: in the NBA, with Omri Casspi. The Sacramento Kings drafted Casspi, a small forward, with their 23rd overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft, making Casspi the first Israeli first-rounder in NBA history. Casspi had a decent rookie season with the Kings, averaging 10.3 points per game.
Ever since Omri Casspi hit the scene, I've had two general conversations with people I know: The first is with Jewish family and friends, few of whom follow pro basketball very closely. They've heard about this Israeli kid playing for some team in California. This is the greatest thing ever! Have you met him?! When is he coming to my city? What's the best way to invite him to Shabbos Dinner? Is he observant?
The second conversation occurs with non-Jewish friends, each of whom appreciates that Casspi carries great symbolic importance for Jewish folks. But, in the politest way possible, they want to better understand why the fervor over Casspi in the Jewish community is such a phenomenon. After all, there have been Jewish ball players before and, fifty years ago, they had a major presence in the league. Today, current Laker Jordan Farmar is a rotation player for the reigning NBA champs. There are a number of Jewish NBA owners and the league's front offices are filled with Jews. So--and we mean this in the least offensive way possible--why are NBA arenas packed by ecstatic Jewish fans every time the Kings show up?
Arnovitz's answer to the second question is extremely insightful: Casspi was popular among Jewish Americans because Casspi touched upon an important aspect of American Jewish psyche. To paraphrase Arnovitz's point, Jewish Americans adored Casspi because he came from Israel, a special place for the Jewish diaspora worldwide. This "specialness" is not necessarily a result of Judaism as a religion. Rather, Israel is special because it is the place in which idealized Jewish manhood can be realized.
In America, Europe and elsewhere, Jews faced antisemitism, one of whose many forms is a stereotype about being physically weak (while being smart and conniving.) As an ethnic minority, Jews could never completely defeat such stereotype. But not so in Israel, the Jewish State. Indeed, Maccabi Tel Aviv (Casspi's former pro team) was a product of the "Muscular Judaism" ideology, which sought to prove that Jews had the physical strength to overcome the oppressions of the 1930s. From here, the Korean will have Mr. Arnovitz explain:
One of the funnier snippets of Philip Roth's "Portnoy's Complaint" is American Jew Alexander Portnoy's arriving in Israel toward the end of the novel, in absolute awe of the virile Israelis: "And that's the phrase that does me in as we touch down upon Eretz Yisroel [the land of Israel]: to watch the men. I love those men! I want to grow up to be one of those men!"
There's a little bit of Alexander Portnoy in the American Jewish men who can't wait to watch this Israeli man fly around the court, shoot 3s, harass ball-handlers and run the break. Yes, some of that fascination is a simple expression of nationalism, but Casspi personifies something deeper for American Jews. The fact that he's not a slight, cerebral point guard but a rangy, explosive -- sometimes even careless -- young swingman makes him all the more appealing.
The central insight from this need not be confined to Jewish Americans, nor does it have to be confined to basketball and masculinity. It is about being able to see, in real life, our idealized selves--the ability to picture ourselves to be more beautiful, more powerful, more talented, more everything.
Korean Americans may not face the exact same type of discrimination that Jewish Americans face. (And certainly not the type that Jewish folks generally faced in the early 20th century!) But Korean Americans, living in America, nonetheless face marginalization. It would be easier to use negative stereotypes against Asians in the American media as the prime example of what causes such marginalization. However, the Korean thinks that the bigger driver of marginalizing Korean Americans (or Asian Americans for that matter) in the American media is the near total absence of Asian faces. For an unformed identity that desires to take form, even a negative portrayal is a step up from no portrayal at all. Thankfully, many pioneering Asian Americans (Margaret Cho, Daniel Dae Kim, Grace Park, John Cho, etc.) have somewhat eased that deficiency. But still, it only takes a little bit of watching American television and movies to make one realize that Asian faces are not really relevant in American pop culture.
Korean pop culture--which is now easily available in the United States thanks to the Internet and other technology--rushes in to fill that void of relevance felt by Korean Americans. Just like a Jewish American can visualize the idealized Jewish man through Omri Casspi, a Korean American can visualize the idealized Korean men and women through Korean pop idols, actors and actresses, performing in an ecosystem in which they are the main characters, not a token sidekick. Seeing those beautiful people performing great feats of talent represents a total validation of Korean American's ethnic identity. As the questioner described, only "one whiff" is quite enough, because the desire to see the greater form of self is just that strong.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
In 2009, there were 21,547 PC Bangs [Internet cafes] in Korea, which were the major contributor for Korea to become the world leader in professional online gaming. But in 2010, the number declined to 19,014, and in 2011 the number further declined to 15,817--according to this Dong-A Ilbo article.
Oversupply, faster wi-fi and competing entertainment venues such as coffee shops (whose number and quality vastly improved in the last five years) are blamed for PC Bangs' decline. The article notes that online game companies such as Riot Games, Blizzard and Nexon are working together with PC Bangs to help their survival, so that they may continue to serve as an outlet for their games.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
As an attorney, it did not escape the Korean's notice that today, the Supreme Court heard the oral argument for Hollingsworth v. Perry--a case that may well become the most important Supreme Court case in 60 years.
Personally, I am split right in the middle. I am so conflicted on this issue that I am abstaining; I am resigned to letting things happen. I know this is not satisfactory to either side of the debate. But the decision to abstain is not a lazy forfeit. Rather, it is a result of having undergone continuous reading and reflection, and arriving at a question that is too difficult to resolve by any knowledge that I have. I am able to articulate and deliver the best versions of the arguments from either side. But while I can appreciate the strengths from each argument, I am not completely convinced by either.
Therefore, on this issue, I do not plan to advocate for either side. Instead, given the importance of this issue, I would simply urge everyone, to please, read the best versions of both arguments, and think for yourself. Politics in the Internet age has become a series of information
balkanization, in which each side refuses to step out of the echo
chamber of information that never presents the best version of the
opposing argument. Step out of that echo chamber and face your opponent's best shot.
On this point, the Korean must note that people who are likely to read this blog--young and diverse--are not particularly likely to encounter a very high quality argument opposing gay marriage. If you are inclined toward supporting gay marriage (as I imagine most readers of this blog would be,) you owe to yourself to read What is Marriage? by Sherif Girgis et al. It is a thoughtful, reasoned argument in favor of keeping marriage heterosexual. Like I said, it did not totally convince me, just like the best arguments I have read in favor of homosexual marriage did not totally convince me. But I was enriched by having examined the best case against gay marriage, and I am sure you will be, too.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
I'm seriously thinking of moving to Seoul. Do you have an idea of what the budget listing would be for about a 15 week stay in Seoul, a detailed tally of expenses? Are there any other unexpected expenses expats/non-citizens are known to incur?
Ashley
Here is the problem: the Korean never visits Korea as a foreign tourist. He always has a free place to stay in various parts of Korea, because he has numerous relatives and friends who would be positively offended if he did not spend a few days at their places. Half the time, his meals are free also. Plus, he would not purchase any large items (such as furniture,) or order any consistent service (like the Internet or cable television.) So while the Korean is aware of how much things cost generally in Seoul, he cannot confidently say exactly how much living in Seoul for, say, more than a month will cost.
So let's hear from mid- to long-term residents of Korea. Can you describe your budget, with as much detail as possible? One thing to keep in mind is that many expats in Korea are English teachers who usually receive free housing--which is usually the biggest part of the living expense equation. For this exercise, it would be great to hear about the list of items that generate a constant stream of expenses, such as rent, utilities, etc. Future visitors to Korea will thank you.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
This is interesting. Yonhap News is reporting that China is cracking down on North Korean restaurants operating in China. There are several hundred North Korean restaurants in China, which serve as a valuable revenue generator for the North Korean regime. In an unprecedented move, the Chinese government are coming down hard on whether the restaurant workers have the appropriate visas, whether health regulations are being met, whether the restaurant is properly licensed to sell their wares (which include souvenirs from North Korea, etc.) As these regulations were loosely enforced previously, most North Korean restaurants are expected to pay a fine, or in some cases shut down.
The Korean is always hesitant to jump to any conclusion when it comes to North Korea, but this is an encouraging sign.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Thank you for the birthday wishes, everyone. The Korean feels loved.
(If you are wondering, yes, I had seaweed soup. And a cake.)
Discography:
Picture Painted After Parting [이별 뒤에 그린 그림] (1992)
Kim Geon-mo 2 [김건모 2] (1993)
The Wrong Encounter [잘못된 만남] (1995)
Exchange Kg. M4 (1996)
Myself (1997)
Growing (1999)
#007 Another Days... (2001)
Hestory (2003)
Kimgunmo 9 (2004)
Be Like... (2005)
Scarecrow [허수아비] (2007)
Soul Groove (2008)
Everything's Gonna Be Alright (2009)
Autobiography & Best [自敍傳 & Best] (2011)
Representative Song: 잘못된 만남 [The Wrong Encounter] from 잘못된 만남 (1995)
잘못된 만남
The Wrong Encounter
난 너를 믿었던 만큼 난 내 친구도 믿었었기에
Because I trusted my friend as much as I trusted you
난 아무런 부담없이 널 내 친구에게 소개시켜줬고
I introduced you to my friend without thinking twice about it
그런 만남이 있은후부터 우리는 자주 함께 만나며
After that encounter we simply got together a lot
즐거운 시간을 보내며 함께 어울렸던 것뿐인데
Having a good time and hanging out together
그런 만남이 어디부터 잘못됐는지
But at what point did such encounters turn wrong?
난 알 수 없는 예감에 조금씩 빠져들고 있을 때쯤
As I was slowly stepping into mysterious apprehension
넌 나보다 내 친구에게 관심을 더 보이며
You were paying more attention to my friend than me and
날 조금씩 멀리하던
Slowly distancing me
그 어느날 너와 내가 심하게 다툰 그 날 이후로
Then on that day when you and I got into a big fight
너와 내 친구는 연락도 없고 날 피하는 것같아
You and my friend stopped calling and began avoiding me
그제서야 난 느낀거야 모든 것이 잘못돼 있는 걸
Then I finally realized that everything went wrong
너와 내 친구는 어느새 다정한 연인이 돼있었지.
You and my friend had already turned into lovers
있을 수 없는 일이라며 난 울었어
I cried, thinking how this could be
내 사랑과 우정을 모두 버려야 했기에
Because I had to lose both my love and friendship
또다른 내 친구는 내 어깰 두드리며
Another friend of mine tapped on my shoulder
잊어버리라 했지만 잊지 못할것 같아
And told me to forget it all; but I don't think I can
너를 사랑했던 것만큼 내 친구도 믿었었기에
Because I trusted my friend as much as I loved you
난 자연스럽게 너와 함께 어울렸던 것뿐인데
I simply hung out naturally together with you but
어디부터 우리의 믿음이 깨지기 시작했는지
Since when did our trust begin to crack
난 알지 못한채 어색함을 느끼면서
I did not know; I kept feeling awkward
그렇게 함께 만나 온 시간이 길어지면 질수록
And the longer the time we spent hanging out like that
넌 내게서 조금씩 멀어지는 것을 느끼며 난 예감을 했었지
I felt you were slowly drifting away from me, and then I sensed it
넌 나보다 내 친구에게 관심이 더 있었다는 걸
You were more interested in my friend than me
그 어느날 너와 내가 심하게 다툰 그 날 이후로
Then on that day when you and I got into a big fight
너와 내 친구는 연락도 없고 날 피하는 것같아
You and my friend stopped calling and began avoiding me
그제서야 난 느낀거야 모든 것이 잘못돼 있는 걸
Then I finally realized that everything went wrong
너와 내 친구는 어느새 다정한 연인이 돼있었지.
You and my friend had already turned into lovers
있을 수 없는 일이라며 난 울었어
I cried, thinking how this could be
내 사랑과 우정을 모두 버려야 했기에
Because I had to lose both my love and friendship
또다른 내 친구는 내 어깰 두드리며
Another friend of mine tapped on my shoulder
잊어버리라 했지만 잊지 못할것 같아
And told me to forget it all; but I don't think I can
In 15 words or less: Korea's king of pop, the "National Singer".
Maybe he should be ranked higher because... In the entire history of K-pop, his popularity is matched or exceeded by probably no more than three or four other artists.
Maybe he should be ranked lower because... At the end of the day, what exactly did he achieve musically?
Why is this artist important?
Take any K-pop musician at his/her peak. Then imagine asking Korean people at the time how they feel about that musician. What would be the response? In most cases, a certain group of Korean people would love that artist, and other groups will not. Jo Seong-mo, for example, enjoyed a level of popularity that is matched by few others in Korean pop music history. Yet at the end of the day, his popularity was propelled mainly by women in their teens through 30s. Few in the history of K-pop transcend that level. Korean women who are older than mid-20s could care less about Girls' Generation. Even PSY, he of a billion Youtube hits, has his detractors in Korea.
For those shining few who rise above that bar and become beloved by the entire nation, Korean pop culture bestows a moniker: 국민가수, the "National Singer." Depending on whom you ask, there are only three to five "National Singers" in the history of K-pop. But no matter whom you ask, the name Kim Geon-mo will come up as the representative "National Singer".
To be sure, one can nitpick on Kim Geon-mo until the cows come home. He never was much of a singer; this lack of talent was painfully exposed in the first episode of the reality show I am Singer, in which Kim suffered the disgrace of becoming the first singer to be dropped from the show. He did not compose his greatest hits, and he never created music or lyrics of any depth. (The lyrics of The Wrong Encounter, Kim's greatest hit, is positively cringe-worthy in its juvenility.) In fact, the moment he began composing his own songs was the moment when his career began sliding downward. At the end of the day, he was not much more than a dancing entertainer, who scored high on likability.
Make that "scored astronomically on likability," actually. Measured strictly by popularity, Kim Geon-mo's three-year peak from 1993 to 1996 was probably greater than any three-year peak of any K-pop artist in history, save maybe two (whom we will discuss later in this series.) Kim's perceived lack of natural talent ended up becoming a plus for his likability, as the narrative of his career became that of an underdog--who was not particularly handsome nor musically talented--that nonetheless succeeded against all odds. In the mid 1990s, Kim Geon-mo ruled the K-pop world like virtually no one else did, because absolutely everyone loved him. Even Seo Taiji, who is on the short list of K-pop's Greatest of All Time, avoided releasing any album when Kim Geon-mo released an album.
Although Kim himself did not possess any particular musical talent, his popularity itself would become his musical legacy. Because of Kim Geon-mo, various dance music genres--reggae, electro-pop, sanitized hiphop--would graduate from the state of being imported music to become Korea's own. Kim Geon-mo was the moment in which dance music would become K-pop's mainstream.
Interesting trivia: In college, Kim Geon-mo majored in traditional Korean music.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
I'm guessing I'm the bajillionist person to ask this, but just in case... I saw this news article today, and find it very very hard to believe that the voice-over is accurate in translation. (Although very hilarious- snow coffee and yummy birds for the americans!) Also hard to believe someone would just write a news article without even asking someone who spoke Korean if it was true, but... well, maybe not that hard to believe, unfortunately. Could you please let us know what the woman is actually saying?
Sylvia B.
Many, many readers sent questions today asking essentially the same question, which nearly caused the Korean to create a brand-new the-Korean's-head-sized hole on his wall as a result of repeated banging.
For the readers who are seeing this piece for the first time on this blog, here is the video in question:
And here is the original video, without the voiceover:
The Korean will tell you two things about this set of videos:
1. The original video, indeed, is a real propaganda video from North Korea.
2. The voiceover, however, is a joke.
How can the Korean be so sure about these two things? Because it only took very simple steps to verify them. The Korean could figure out that the original video was a real propaganda video, because when he typed into Youtube's search bar the video's title in Korean--갈수록 암담해지는 자본주의 사회 현실, which was right there at the beginning of video--the video popped up, showing that it was originally posted by Uriminzokkiri [우리 민족끼리], the official Youtube channel of the North Korean propaganda machine. If you are curious, here is their official website, Twitter account and Flickr account.
(WARNING. If you are reading this from South Korea, do not click on any of those links. In all likelihood, you would not even be able to access it due to South Korea's own version of the not-so-Great Firewall. But visiting those sites may be a violation of South Korea's National Security Act. Just this past November, a South Korean man was prosecuted and found guilty of violating the NSA for re-tweeting the tweets from Uriminzokkiri. This is not a joke. Seriously, don't do it.)
Second, how could the Korean figure out that the voiceover was a joke? Because he went through the arduous process of . . . wait for it . . . watching the two videos in succession and noticing that the "translation" did not match up to the original.
Just in case you missed it, here are the two very simple things that the Korean did to fact-check: (1) Enter the (obviously presented) title into the Youtube search bar; (2) actually watch the two videos and compare the soundtrack. The entire process took no more than 15 minutes, and it would have taken less if the videos were shorter.
Now, let's look at the media articles that covered these videos. Surely, these luminous media organizations must have employed the most basic fact check methods that only took 15 minutes for a hobbyist blogger to implement, right? Nope--the coverage of this video reads like the greatest hits of journalistic malpractice.
(More after the jump.)
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
We may be nearing the critical tipping point, on which China finally realizes that shielding North Korea is not in its national interest. We already know that the Chinese public is no fan of North Korea, but now, several prominent Chinese academics have condemned North Korea's nuclear program.
Among the academics, the latest volley came from historian Tao Duanfang, who claimed: "If North Korea provides the cause for war by breaking the Armistice Treaty, China has no obligation to interfere in that war." Jia Qingguo, assistant dean of the Beijing University Graduate School of International Relations, said: "China's attitude toward North Korea is entirely up to how North Korea acts . . . As to North Korea's nuclear program, China has always followed the principles of denuclearization, peace and stability, and resolution through dialog. If North Korea does not act properly as to the nuclear issue, China has no choice but to follow the decisions of the international community."
Even better, the criticisms of North Korea are trickling from the very bedrock of China-North Korea alliance: the People's Liberation Army of China. Admiral Yin Zhuo, who is attending the National People's Congress in Beijing, said: "We [China] do not have a military alliance with North Korea. The North Korea-China relationship is not the same as the U.S.-South Korea-China relationship. China has no military stationed in North Korea, nor does China direct North Korea's army. It is false to claim that China must not sit tight and not interfere with the North Korean issue, just because China and North Korea are geographically close." General Mao Xinyu, grandson of Mao Zedong (!), also said: "the Chinese people wish for denuclearized North Korea."
It is important not to over-emphasize these instances. After all, these are only words at this point. But they may be signs of things to come.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
I'm supposed to go on a trip to South Korea next June with my boyfriend but due to the recent events, I'm quite concerned about the situation. I know this is a bit self-centered but I could use some advice or suggestions. I read the 2009 post and I wondered if you still believe South Korea is a safe place to stay for a couple of days ?
The situation did not change since the Korean wrote the post about North Korean threat in 2009: the only scenario in which visiting Korea would be dangerous is in the case of a full-scale war. And if a full-scale war happens, it is an absolute certainty that North Korea will be annihilated and the Kim dynasty will end. Thus, a full-scale war is extremely unlikely to happen, and that low likelihood does not change regardless of what North Korea says. Because South Koreans--the people who would be the most directly impacted by another Korean War--realize this, their response has mostly a yawn. In the past weekend, even as North Korea blustered about a nuclear war, South Koreans enjoyed the warm weather outdoors. A hawkish, conservative Korean newspaper ran an op-ed chiding South Koreans for doing so, and was met with a round of boos in Korea's Internet.
In fact, South Korean government is so not worried about the North Korean threat that it currently has no plans to withdraw more than 700 South Koreans working in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in North Korea. Think about that for a little: the threat of a war is so insignificant that South Korea is leaving hundreds of South Korean civilians in the middle of North Korea. So why should you, a foreign visitor, worry about visiting Seoul for a few days? The worst that North Korea could realistically do is to cause a naval skirmish, or attack the small and sparsely-populated outlying islands in the Yellow Sea. In either scenario, an international tourist is far removed from the action. In terms of percentages, it would be much more rational to worry about death in Korea by a lightning strike than by a North Korean attack.
If you wish to be extra careful (or make your parents worry less,) you
can register yourself with the American embassy in Seoul, which has an
evacuation plan ready for all American civilians of which it is aware in
case of an emergency. But again, unless there is a full-scale war (which would be impossible to miss,) feel free to visit Korea, and don't worry so much.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
This jump is likely the result of China's stricter enforcement against smuggling across the China-North Korea border. China began cracking down on smuggling as an unofficial sanction against North Korea's nuclear test, which severely restricted the flow of goods from China to North Korea, particularly rice. This is a hopeful sign that China may participate more fully in the new round of sanctions approved by the United Nations Security Council. In the course of issuing the new round of sanctions, South Koreans diplomats say they have detected a new sense of resolve from the Chinese representatives.
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
The Korean is a Korean American living in Washington D.C. / Northern Virginia. He lived in Seoul until he was 16, then moved to Los Angeles area. The Korean refers to himself in the third person because he thinks it sounds cool.
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