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Korean Sociological Image #50: The Depths of the Red Ginseng Craze

Are commercials for this product really the same the world over? Put that to the test by quickly trying to guess what is being advertised above, before all is revealed at o:10.

For non-Korean speakers, the powder shown is a combination of ganghwa-yagssoog (강화약쑥), or “medicinally strengthening” mugwort, and hongsam-paoodeo (홍삼파우더), or red ginseng powder. And surely there is no greater testament to believing in its health benefits than by being prepared to use it in the most intimate of places?

Lest my bashful euphemism for VAGINAS detract from that point however, do recall that during the 2008 protests against US beef imports for instance, many Koreans genuinely believed baseless rumors that Mad Cow Disease could be caught via the gelatin used in sanitary napkins. So it makes perfect sense for aptly-named manufacturer Body Fit (바디피트) to capitalize on the belief that what’s inside sanitary napkins can have direct effects on the wearer’s health.

Indeed, red ginseng in particular is even rumored to be an aphrodisiac too.

Still, you could also argue that it actually smacks of desperation by ginseng producers. For – with apologies for the inadvertent pun – one of the first things the commercial reminded me of was the fact that:

…once a market is saturated, I learned at university in New Zealand, there is a inherent tendency for a company’s rate of profit to fall. But this can be offset by re-marketing and/or making new varieties of the original product, and accordingly my lecturer posited the plethora of varieties of Coca-Cola available in the U.S. as a reflection of the greater capitalistic development of its economy (read: saturation of its domestic market) compared to New Zealand’s, which then only had two. Indeed, advertising culture in New Zealand in the late-1990s, he suggested, was only akin to that of the US in the 1950s in its scale and intensity, no matter how brash and “American” New Zealanders regarded it.

( Source: unknown )

And the second was either a Metro or Focus newspaper cartoon I remember from 2005, a satire of the “well being” (웰빙) craze that showed that simply adding a sprinkle of green tea powder to a product seemed to give it health benefits in consumers’ minds, and for which they were prepared to pay a premium for. In particular, the last panel had me laughing out loud on a crowded subway car, for its ads for extremely expensive “Well Being Apartments” built with green tea concrete really hit the spot.

And which just goes to show that not all Korean consumers are gullible as the mad cow disease connection above suggests. And – seeing as we’re talking about vaginas after all – then the latest Western craze for “labiaplasties” for instance, sounds far far worse (see a NSFW video here too).

But hey, if a misguided belief in the health benefits of a product exists, then you can guarantee that companies will exploit it and/or encourage it. And so it seems very strange then, that actually neither sexual potency or health benefits are the stated logic of the commercial, which is rather that the combination of mugwort and red ginseng would eliminate odor. And which my wife assures me is a genuine concern for women, and not an invented concern as I first thought.

But still, would they really be the most appropriate substances for doing so? How about green tea powder, which – you guessed it – is also found in feminine hygiene products in Korea?

Let’s just say I have my doubts. Meanwhile, can anyone also think of any red ginseng (or green tea) products specifically aimed at men? Or, aphrodisiac-wise, is red ginseng actually only supposed to work on men anyway?

Update: Here’s a collection of amusing and/or bizarre “care down there” ads from around the world. Enjoy!

(For all posts in the Korean Sociological Images series, see here)

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Filed under: Body Image, East Asia, Korean Advertisements, Korean Economy, Korean Sociological Images Tagged: green tea, Han Ye-seul, 한예슬, 홍삼, red ginseng
  

 

rural rooftop solar energy collectors

My understanding is that the warmth of the building extends the growing season somewhat for these squashes.


Fukuoka, Japan

First, apologies for typos. Japanese keyboards are Very strange. Japan is very cool. In many ways it's like a richer, cleaner version of Korea. Which isn't to say that I don't love Korea.  Anyways, so I took the ferry from Busan to Fukuoka and then was a bit lost as to how to take a bus requiring exact change when I only had big bills. Thankfully, the ubiquitous drink vending machines take larger bills. I finally arrived at my hostel, got dinner and then did something very exciting--I went to sleep. In my defense I have a head cold and sleep is highly necessary.

Me feeling very sassy at my very first Japanese temple. Tocho-ji was unimpressive architecturally but it did boast the largest wooden seated Buddha in Japan which was pretty cool.

At the next temple, there was almost no one there (and I'm not sure of the name) but the bridge was lovely.
Did I mention that I felt very chic/Japanese in my outfit? It's not everyday that a girl can rock fishnets, chucks, and a nice black dress and fit in perfectly.
Don’t let that statue's head get cold!
Definitely don't let that dog turd sit there!

Enjoying the park on the way to the art museum.
And finally, my boxed lunch (and fabulous Japanese beer) that I bought for the train ride to Nagasaki. I'm not sure when I'll update next as internet is pretty expensive but we'll see.

Sayanora!

South Korea Adventure #13- Goseong 고성

I have done a lot of motorcycle trips in Korea and have done almost every possibe day trip from Busan. So when I when I was headed to Goseong I was not that excited. I knew there was dinosur museums there, but beyond that there didn't seem like much. Instead I was absolutely blown away. The ride was amazing. Maybe the best ride I have done so far. There were great winding roads along the ocean. The views were amazing. We spent most of the day in Sangjogam County Park. The dinosaur museum is there. It is also some of the most beautiful scenery I have experienced in Korea. It was a great day! 

la visite



Toby, please come and visit.
Ok.
Lovely.

I quit SMOKE ing today / Possibly

                                 
Rory in Makati, PI. At present, Rory is a non- smoker.  Rory also lives in the PI.  Rory is a mellow dude, originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

When I was 20 years old, a student a UC Berkeley in 1988, I attended this one class for a few weeks before dropping it.

The class was in the Rhetoric Dept. and it was a NON-FICTION writing class.  I didn't know what that meant
exactly.  I remember, at the time, I was a heavy reader of almost exclusively FICTION: novels, stories.  I'd only been a serious reader for 3 years, so I didn't know much about the various genres of literature. 

I remember, in this short-lived Rhetoric
 class, a Korean-American girl, a certifiable Kyopo, she read her essay about her summer job and the way people looked at her in the office, judging her as a Woman, as a Student, as an Asian.  It was a good essay, and I thought (I dropped the class, so it didn't matter)...

If  I ever wrote an essay for that class, a non-fiction essaY -- what would I write about?  I can't make stuff up, right?  It's gotta be real.  It can't be FICTION.  At that time, age 20 at the end of the 80's, all I wrote was FICTION.  All I read was FICTION.  I dropped the class and never thought of it again, until years later.  I thought of it again.

In 1996, 8 years after attending only 2 meetings of that Rhetoric class, I arrived in Taegu, SKorea to teach English. 

I started writing in high school, and it's something I often do, so it was natural that often in Taegu, I would find myself at my computer writing, usually at night with soju and cigarettes.  One night in Taegu, 1996, I decided to write a NON-FICTION essay best I could.  I was thinking about that Rhetoric class, actually -- trying to fully COMPREHEND the meaning of NON-FICTION, that is versus FICTION.  I could see the PROSE vs POETRY, but even they seem to blur with modern poets like Bukowski.  That was the impetus -- my search for TRUTH, more commonly known as DISTINCTION -- that's what drove me to write write SMOKE that night, and over subsequent nights spanning months of editing and revising, which IS, by far, the most time consuming portion of writing -- good writing at least, just ask Robert Frost.  Oh, you can't.  He's dead.  Frost would spend months on one line.  That's why he's THAT good!

The best writing ALWAYS has an impetus.  In addition, to seeking truth, I was also trying to quit smoking at the time.  I was 28 years young.  That was a long time ago.
 

Luckily, I still have that essay.  I just found it, on a CD that I had saved old writings onto, back in 2001.  

This essay is relevant NOW cuz I'm a professional writer now and I write exclusively NON-FICTION now.  That's not true entirely true.

On that same CD, which luckily turned up in my mom's closet, I also found some of my old FICTION stories.  I may have originally penned them a decade ago, but it's the REVISION and the EDITING and FORMATTING that is the real time-consuming portion of the process.  I've recently been revamping TWO stories I wrote in Seoul in 2000/2001, and will they probably be blogged soon -- or maybe even published for real!  They're not even about Korea!   Both stories take place in Los Angeles and involved fictional characters  -- LA YOUTH.  We'll see how that pans out.

It's particularly relevant that I re-read and post this story entitled SMOKE after not seeing it for almost a decade.  Cuz after I finish this last cigarette, I'm quitting. 

After 25 years of being a smoker, it's time to move on.  We'll see how that pans out. 

HERE 'TIS 

S M O K E

Right now I want a cigarette so bad I'd murder a man just for a drag off his butt. Taking drugs, which includes smoking cigarettes, may be the only activity known to man where quitters really do prosper. Then again, maybe I'm wrong. 

I have been known to be wrong.

If I had a nicotine patch, or a stick of Nicarette brand gum right now, my incessant craving could be appeased by the languid chewing of that now available over-the-counter nicotine juice secreting gum. Or by osmosis. 

But science is limited when it comes to pleasure. That is to say, no mere stick of gum, or patch stuck to my epidermis, even one laced with a dose of nicotine, could equal the pleasure and satisfaction I get from smoking a cigarette. Two fundamental motivations present themselves in regards to smoking cigarettes: addiction and pure pleasure.

More to the point, does cigarette pleasure rest solely in the appeasement of one's addiction, or does there exist, an intrinsic pleasure inherent in filling one's lungs with burnt tobacco? 

On an individual, case by case basis, a strong case can be argued for either side of this controversial issue. For instance, let us examine a smoker's first cigarette of the day -- following morning's shower, he lights up while drinking a cup of coffee and reading the paper. Ask any smoker and he will insist that those seven a.m. puffs capture the essence of pleasure. Wholly unnecessary, unhealthy, yet oh so tasty and fulfilling, this act of foul yet sweet inhalation can be viewed in the same light as rich icing on a cake. And what is a cake without frosting, but mere sweet bread. Let the smoker eat his cake. 

No one can deny the pleasure of a devil's food chocolate cake except Richard Simmons. Smoking that first cigarette in the morning is no different. It feels good, tastes good. It helps keep you regular, and that coffee just wouldn't taste the same without a puff between sips. Such a petty event, but it's the little things in life that make living worthwhile. Yes indeed, there does exist, true pleasure in tobacco smoking.  

On the other hand, ask any smoker to recall his first puff. Most will tell you they coughed. Some vomited. No one can deny that smoking is an acquired taste. One definitely needs weaning. Smokers begin their habit not out of pleasure or addiction.   They usually begin out of experimentation, or imitation of a certain role model: be they parent, debonair actor or a cool looking upperclassman. Many start as a consequence of social stress, merely wanting to appear older or more acceptable. Before long, the person gets hooked. At the same time, somewhere along the line, either before or after they are addicted, young smokers are truly enjoying the act of smoking. 

So, is there a true element of pleasure and satisfaction to be found in an activity that yellows the teeth and blackens the lungs? 
 

A smoker with a daily habit waking up in the morning has gone a whole night, possibly 7 or 8 hours, without a single puff of a cigarette. One could say that even in sleep, addiction looms like a thief in the night, dormant and hidden by shadows yet waiting to strike like a match when their victim least expects it. That night's sleep IS equivalent to an entire work day or a 370 mile drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Couldn't it be simply that the reason a smoker's morning cigarette tastes so good is that his or her body is responding favorably to the end of a stretch of deprivation?  

It could very well be that this morning pleasure is derived from nothing more than the appeasement of addiction. And if that is the case, then smokers throughout the world have been fooled into paying homage to a false idol. 

If appeasing one’s addiction is the ONLY true pleasure to be found in smoking, then cigarette smokers have made themselves targets of the tobacco industry's greedy ploy, imprisoning themselves within the claws of a harmful habit while others get rich. 

Smokers believe that the smoke they inhale daily is a friend; when in actuality, it is a deadly foe. Cigarette smokers are being played like pawns, who shoot themselves in the foot. Pawns are not really people. They are expendable, disposable toy soldiers who die in the name of King Tobacco. 

Who wins the argument, the pleasure side or the addiction side? It is uncertain, since each side can present a resonable defense. One can say with certainty only that the real winner is the tobacco industry and that the real loser is the smoker. 

It is said, "That which does not kill you will only make you stronger." Denying addiction hurts both physically and mentally, but the pain does not last forever. No pain, no gain. And this pain can set you free since addiction is a form of slavery. The pain will certainly not kill you; therefore, it can only make you stronger. And who does not want to be stronger? Cigarette smoking can kill you, and even if it doesn't, it can only make you weaker. Don't believe the hype.  Quit smoking cigarettes today. 

I did. It’s been 10 minutes.  I miss them already.  (I just added that last line)

Taegu S.Korea 1996

fingers crossed

I’ve been a bit distant lately.
I’m sorry.
Really, it’s me, it’s not you.
I’ve had my reasons, and hopefully you’ll understand.
See living in Portland all the pretty girls have film cameras and people look at you a bit funny when you run around with a digital camera snapping away at all the little things you do. 
Would you believe that sometimes I’m shy? 
Yes, Ruby can be a shy girl.
But …. I met some nice people in this town, and one of them happens to be my housemate John.
He was away for the first half of the month on tour in Europe with his very very talented band, Nurses



.... and now he's home.
He's letting me borrow something.


Isn't she pretty?
I'm going to get some roles developed today, and ... well ... I'm nervous.
If they work you can take a peak at my Portland world ... if not... 
you can take it up with Pickle.


Pickle is TUFF.

No Sex in the City: Demystifying Korea’s Low Birthrate

Last June, Eloquence’s managing editor Dann Gaymer emailed me with a story assignment to “look at why Korea has such a low birthrate.”  (“Korea has a low birthrate?”  I remember thinking.)  I had lived here only four months, and was just starting to discover some of the more complex aspects of Korean culture.  The message continued: “Social, biological, economical, choose your angle and run with it.”

A little (okay, a LOT of) research later, the piece took shape, and was published in the July issue alongside a photo of the “Carl the Plastic Baby” billboard by Toronto street artist Dan Bergeron (a.k.a. Fauxreel).

(View article below.)

.   

.

No Sex in the City

By Courtney Tait

Published in Eloquence Magazine, July 2010

………………………………………………………………………

Shoulder your way through a sweaty rush-hour mob on any subway ride in Seoul, and likely the last thing to cross your mind is concern for South Korea’s shrinking population. 

But the country’s total fertility rate—the number of children expected to be born per woman during her childbearing years—currently sits at 1.22.  It’s the 6th lowest in the world, according to the CIA World Factbook, just one slot ahead of Japan and two behind Lithuania.  (Highest rate goes to Africa’s Republic of Niger, at a whopping 7.68.) 

If more women don’t start having more babies soon, the government predicts South Korea’s population will begin to nosedive by 2018.  Combine that with a rapidly-aging society, and you’ve got what Health Minister Jeon Jae-Hee called in January “the most urgent issue the country is facing.”

So why the baby boycott?

If you’re a South Korean woman between the ages of 25 and 34, chances are high you’ve spent the bulk of your childhood with your head tilted over a notebook in the classrooms of public and private schools, edged your way through university, and now, wanting to put the sleep-deprived years of education to use, are pursuing a career. You might have a boyfriend or a husband, a nice guy who works in business and likes sharing a couple after-hours mekjus with his co-workers, and some nights as you drift to sleep you may dream of starting a family with him, having a little agi that you nurse and whisper stories to and carry in a sling as you stroll along the Cheongyecheon River or wander through Insadong on a Sunday afternoon. 

 But your job is important to you. 

You faced a lot of competition getting hired in the first place.  And even though you make 38% less money than a man (the largest gap in the developed world), and you have no guarantee of advancement no matter how long you stay with the company, you spent a lot of late nights studying to get there, and you want to hang on to your position. The government allows up to one year off after childbirth—with 60 days paid–but from what you’ve heard, most women don’t take it, as employers don’t look kindly to time off.  In fact, some women have reported losing their jobs following maternity leave, even though this is illegal.     

Career woes aside, you’re also wondering how you and your partner will afford the tyke.  Private school—which, like most of your peers, you believe is essential to a child’s future success—can tack on an extra 700,000 won to the monthly tab, not to mention groceries, taekwondo, and piano lessons. One child might be a possibility—if you’re able to keep your job and juggle raising it with working—but two or more?  It’s a stretch, despite the tax breaks the government offers to larger families.

On top of the financial burden, you’ve noticed your partner doesn’t like to pick up his socks.  Or wash the dishes.  Come to think of it, neither did your father.  Turns out working Korean wives spend an average of three hours and 20 minutes a day doing housework and family tasks, while husbands pitch in a mere 37 minutes.  In fact, according to a Korea Times article published in May of 2010, only 1.6 percent of husbands in double income homes say they help children with meals or getting dressed, though 81.5% want their wives to work.  (No wonder only six out of ten females surveyed said marriage was a “must.”)

Tackling the challenge of boosting South Korea’s birth rate, the health ministry has started flicking off the lights in their offices one evening per month, encouraging staff to go home early and “get dedicated to childbirth and upbringing.”

If only they’d add to the incentive a maternity-leave guarantee, job security, and a raise for the ladies.  For the guys, a memo, handwritten in hangul: folding laundry is the most effective form of foreplay.


Jeju for Chuseok

A group of us from Busan have are on Jeju Island for the Chuseok holiday. A 6,000₩ Busan airport limo ride and 50 minute $115 USD round-trip flight and I was on this beautiful island! Booked rooms at New Kungnam Hotel for $40 USD a night. Accommodations are bare, but it’s in a great location (Seogwipo) and all the taxi drivers recognize the name.

On the first night, I took the 600 limo bus from the airport (exit gate 1) for 5,000₩ straight to the hotel. The ride takes an hour and 20 minutes, and it’s the very last stop. Our group had a waygook style dinner (aka hamburgers) at Gecko’s Bar (11,000₩ taxi ride from the hotel).

The first day (today!) was great. Had breakfast, exited left from the hotel and walked to Jeongbang Waterfall. This waterfall falls straight into the ocean. The mist felt wonderful in the heat.

Next, we took a taxi to Oedolgae Rock (3,400₩). We had a snack in the middle of a punchbowl. We watched a family snorkel in the water and an old adjussi boulder. Spent a good amount of time just appreciating the ocean and rock formations.

Next, we took a taxi to Seonimgyo Bridge (2,200₩). There were fish jumping around in the water and some amusing Korean families to observe.

Then, we took a taxi to Jungmun Saekdal Beach (11,000₩). The waves were really strong, in comparison to the what I’ve experienced in Busan. We had so much fun just playing in the water and on the sand, even though signs say that the ocean is “closed” since the summer has ended.

We played taxi roulette, and they took us to the best samgyupsal restaurant in Jeju. We tried to have traditional Jeju food (boiled samgyupsal and Hallasan soju) but there was some sort of communication breakdown, and we had grilled pork and regular jeju soju instead. No problem, because the food was delicious.

We played a card drinking game on our friends’ hostel roof. We drank Hallasan soju at this point, which was good.

Jeju Island has been great so far, just wandering point to point. Maybe scooters tomorrow?

About 

Hi, I'm Stacy. I'm from Portland, Oregon, USA, and am currently living in Busan, South Korea. Check me out on: Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Lastfm, and Flickr.

 

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