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Higher education opportunity

Craig White, the man behind Daegu Pockets (among other side projects like the Korea Beat and Galbijim) sent me some information about an opportunity to get a TESOL certification. From the Facebook event page:

The only TESOL Certificate program developed and disseminated from internationally renown university professors consisting of both academic instruction and the latest practical advice for classroom teaching. This course differs from standard TESOL (CELTA-UK) courses due to its researched and clear focus on classroom tasks that incorporate tasks aimed at quicker L2 acquisition Asian EFL Journal (AEJ) TESOL trainers have received extensive training in academic and practical contexts as well as many years of classroom and curriculum development experience.

*It is one of the very few TESOL Certificates in the world where universities grant accreditation, should you go on to Master's level studies.
*The Certificate is backed by the world's leading EFL/ESL practitioners.
*The courses are taught by EFL/ESL practitioners who are very experienced, qualified, and published in academic journals.
*The cost is considerably cheaper than other certificate courses.
*Apply for Course credit. If you have a degree and teaching experience, you may apply for course credit.
*If you have never taught EFL and wish to enter this profession, we will guide you through the course step by step.
THE COURSE WILL BE: Oct. 24 (Sat) and Oct. 25 (Sun)

APPLICATION DEADLINE IS SEPT. 21.

The course takes 4 weeks to complete.

---1st weekend is the weekend seminar. 9am-5pm, 9am-5pm - at (Novotel VIP conference Room in DAEGU)
---2nd weekend send in your statement of classroom innovation, literature review and goals of innovation implementation via email to TESOL trainers
---3rd weekend send in action plan (lesson plan) of how to implement innovation and how you will evaluate it via email to TESOL trainers
---4th weekend send in details of class progression and interpretation of lesson plan success/failure via email to TESOL trainers
Upon completion you are given your TESOL certificate.
Another opportunity may be in November - click here for directions. You only have to travel to Daegu for one weekend (the first weekend of this program)

The cost? 690,000 won (about $564 USD) for the course. 110,000 won more gets you a hotel room at Novotel for Saturday night, and 2 lunch and 2 dinner vouchers at the Novotel Buffet.

Is it worth it? Since it's a 120-hour course, it'll be a positive asset towards working in a public school. Also, the education credits are supposed to transfer towards a Masters degree if you're so inclined.

If you're in the market for a TESOL certificate, one weekend's worth of seminar and working on your own is about as convenient as you can get. Learn everything you need to know at the Facebook event page.

Creative Commons License © Chris Backe - 2009

 

French kisses out?

It's one thing to cancel a festival - even a kimchi festival! - but it's not nearly as drastic-sounding as this move from France:

Hands get shaken; hands get kissed. And the light cheek-to-cheek peck, known as "la bise," is a social greeting, woven in at the very youngest age.

Some observes joke that before the French could ever give up such social graces, pigs would fly.

But then ... swine flu.

With official publicity campaigns about the H1N1 virus, to directives on avoiding practically any close encounter of the corporal kind, the country has been put on alert as the flu season gets under way.

In schools, teachers are telling their young charges to forgo the bise, and instead capture their displays of affection in heart-shaped greetings to slip into "bise boxes."

It is restraint that is easier to sell to young students than their older brothers and sisters.

Some things, however, are finding an accepting audience: masks -- which do a pretty good job of discouraging just about any sort of kissing.

OK, so we're changing an entire culture of class, decency, or simply something tradition in the name of a disease? France must have some serious problems in battling the swine flu, right?

More than a quarter-million cases of swine flu have been confirmed around the world, with more than 2,800 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.

Mainland France, though, has recorded just three deaths. But the government is not taking any chances.

A telephone bank set up by the health ministry is receiving thousands of calls daily from people across the country asking about symptoms -- and recommendations on physical contact.

One company issued a whole array of guidelines to combat the spread of H1N1 -- including urging its employees to nix the necktie because it is the least frequently washed article of clothing.

Ties are easy, some say, because few have any idea why we wear them in the first place.

Amen to that - they look better hanging up in my closet than around my neck...


Creative Commons License © Chris Backe - 2009

The Wait


I have never read a lot of Stephen King, and his literary merits can be argued, but I would wholly recommend his 2000 book, "On Writing," part memoir, part practical writer's tool.

In it, Mr. King discusses the early days when he, a doe-eyed, totally naive teen, would get rejection letter after rejection letter after rejection letter for his story submissions. He hammered a nail into his bedroom wall and would stick those letters up to them. Eventually, he had to get a bigger nail because there were just so many. It inspired him, he says, to continue. And if an editor provided some real commentary on his piece, as opposed to just a simple form letter, even better.

I can relate. Although, when I was submitting stories back around 2000, 2001, and I got rejection letters, I usually got pissed that they had failed to see my obvious genius and threw them in the trash. The nerve!

Today, it's a little different. First of all, it's all e-mail, which can be good and bad. Good in that it is easier (and cheaper) to get more and more story pitches, queries and such out there. Bad in that it can be very easy for editors to ignore my pitch or simply forget about it amidst a swelling pile of spam.

The situation reminds me of when you call someone on their cell phone and they do not pick up. But, it's a cell phone, you think. It's in your pocket! You must know I'm calling you, so obviously you are screening your calls and don't want to talk to me. At least, that's how it feels in the heat of rejection.

It feels the same way when you pitch and pitch and pitch and you don't even get a "we're not interested." One national health magazine was very prompt in that regard, and I have the utmost respect for them for that. A regional magazine an associate had referred me to and had put in a good word for me on responded once, saying they were interested in hearing my pitches. I pitched and pitched and never heard from them again.

People can be busy, of course. Deadlines, life in general can certainly send someone you have never worked with before to the back seat. But if I am not being rude about it, I would hope you would return the favor. Or be rude. Give me the Internet equivalent of a middle finger. Give me something, preferably an assignment. And money. The whole thing can certainly demoralize the up-and-coming writer, especially when they see other writers, of greater or lesser-than writing acumen, that you have appeared alongside already also appearing in other magazines you pitched to but never got a response. Yes, the whole thing, whether it's being busy or being a jerk, can wear a person out and make them just want to work at the farm market all day. That wouldn't be so bad, now would it? The cheese is great.

—John Dunphy

Street Shots: the week in pictures.


We came across this mobile fritter factory on the main street in Hoi An. Not sure what the balls were but the ones in the wok are banana fritters. Sarah tried one and said she couldn't taste any banana. Just out of shot were some thin donuts with lots of sugar on them. They tasted kind of chewy and stale - the type of thing you might buy in packs of twenty at a cheapo supermarket.

Not so much street foodie as sea foodie. I ate these tamarind prawns in a sun lounger out on one of the beaches by Hoi An. All along the beach there were little huts that specialised in Vietnamese seafood, This wasn't great but the day before I had tamarind crab (no photo unforunately) at a different place which was out of this world (the crab, not the place.) The crabs' shell had been lifted off and right where the roe lived, was placed a mixture of tamarind, onion and chili. Delicious

A contender for the Hoi An heavyweight title? Chao Vit is a semilina like mixture of rice, chilli sauce, green onions, oil and duck. It's savory with a surprising kick to it, with decent pieces of barbecued duck thrown in here and there. My enjoyment of the meal was hampered however, by the constant overselling of the vendor next door (whom Sarah ordered from.) When we finished she tried to charge us double, and the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.



Mmm. Some sort of "sea fish" wrapped in banana leaf and grilled with lemongrass, tamarind, chili and soy sauce. Slightly underdone but still delicious. There's a bunch of outdoor eating places next to the river in Hoi An that do this kind of thing for the tourist crowd. The food is good and cheap, and we ended up eating there three nights in a row.



Finally, my first street food in Saigon turned out to be dud. I got these fried noodles with chicken and shrimp left at the Banh Than market - a supposed street food goldmine. They left me feeling queasy, and led to the first tangible case of food poisoning in the six months or so I've been writing this blog.



Life in Korea: subway and train lockers, whether blue, yellow, or white

A note to my wonderful veteran expat readers: 'Life in Korea' posts are aimed primarily at the newer expats among us. Think of these like the 'Idiot's Guide' books - an introduction for some, a review for others. If I missed something or you can clarify, comment away!

So you're at the subway station or train station and don't want to carry your backpack / heavy purse / manbag with you while you go exploring. Lockers are available in virtually every subway station, along with most train or bus stations, but some of the newer system are a little... funky.

Once upon a time, coin lockers (not pictured) ruled the day - in fact you can still see them in some of the older subway stations that haven't seen an update in awhile. These usually are as straightforward as those in the US: open door, put stuff in, insert appropriate number of coins, then turn and take out the key, locking the locker. Outside of the fact that they're the only ones that only take coins, a small red number should tell you how many 100-won coins to pump in.

The first generation of electronic lockers kept the same look, but added a DOS-looking screen and paying section in the middle:


This example (from just outside the Haeundae Beach tourist information center in Busan) is a bit smaller than most, but the locker sizes are representative - small and large. There is a slot for your 1,000 won bills and your various coins - just try not to pay for a large locker with small change.



At the top:
White button = 진행 = confirm (literally 'progress' according to Google Translate)
Yellow button = 복귀 = go back(literally 'return')
Red button = 취소 = cancel (literally 'cancel' or 'withdrawal')

Below the screen:
보관 = lock (literally 'archive')
찾음 = unlock (literally 'found')

To lock up your stuff:



  1. Push the red button below the screen (보관 = lock) to lock something up

  2. On the screen you'll see a two-digit number for every locker that's available

  3. Type in the two digit number, then hit the white button (진행 = confirm)

  4. Insert bill or coins

  5. The system may give you a success message or reset to its original screen. Either way you should be able to open the door, put stuff in locker, then turn and take out the key.
To unlock your stuff:



  1. Push the green button below the screen (찾음 = unlock)

  2. On the screen you'll see a two-digit locker for every locker that's currently locked / in use

  3. Type in the two digit number, then hit the white button (진행 = confirm)

  4. Insert / turn key, take out stuff, and smile.
Since this system is aging, don't be surprised to see it become replaced with the next generation of lockers.

The current generation found in more and more subway stations is a yellow set of lockers:


While there are adequate directions at the official Korea Tourism website, here are the basics:



To lock up your stuff:

  1. Hit #1 on the touch screen (물품 보관하기 - literally 'item to keep')
  2. Select an empty box (they're blue)
  3. Select how you want to pay (#1 on top is a T-money card, #2 is a credit / debit card)
  4. Register your card - the trickiest part. This card of yours will basically serve as your 'lock' and your 'key' - you'll need this card to both close AND OPEN the locker. If using a T-money card, hold the card on the pad until it beeps or moves to the next step. If using a credit / debit card, swipe the card. This card will also be your payment method.
  5. The locker door should open, allowing you to stash your stuff - BUT NOT THE CARD that serves as your key. If you're going swimming / mudding / drinking, put the card in your shoe or elsewhere on your person. Close the locker door to lock it
To unlock your stuff:


  1. Hit #5 on the touch screen (물품 찾기 - literally 'find item')
  2. Hit #1 - the retrieving button.
  3. Select the kind of card you originally registered as your 'key' - just like before, #1 is a T-money card and #2 is a credit / debit card)
  4. Touch the T-money card or swipe the credit / debit card (essentially, authenticating the card is the way to unlock the locker as opposed to turning a key)
  5. Select button #1 to retrieve your stuff.
  6. The locker door should open, allowing you to take your stuff out.

For a little twist on things - because you knew life in Korea wouldn't be THAT easy, right, it turns out that line 9 has their own system of lockers that are white:



The helpful sign above the electronic screen - again, all in Korean. Argh... Thankfully, the process is basically the same as the other electronic lockers. The trick is sometimes to struggle through it once so you'll get it the second time around.



Creative Commons License

South Korea Trip- Miryang 밀양

Alright you can check out the video of my trip from Busan to Miryang in South Korea. The trip in total was 227 kms. I rode the #14 highway and #25 from Busan to Miryang. On the trip I checked out a museum, the freezing place, yeongnamnu, Pyochungsa temple and Maneosa. Each video is a one day trip. I start the day with no plan other than a final destination. By the end of the day I have compiled 2-4 hours of footage on two cameras. I then cut that footage into the five minute video you see here. The video features creative commons music by Men in Route- To a friend in his climb featured on http://www.jamendo.com That's how I feel some days....Some People! A crazy steep dirt road I got side tracked on!

Korean Sociological Image #18: Sexualizing Caucasian Women


Sexist Korean advertisment caucasian women(Source: Busan Metro, 02/09/09)

An image that simply begs commentary. But what is noteworthy about it exactly?

As you might expect, there is nothing in the Korean text to explain the presence of the women, nor their revealing clothing. The very first thing it reminded me of then, was the tendency to use women’s bodies to showcase vehicles, well satirized here by replacing the women in a similar photoshoot with men (the ensuing humor and absurdity demonstrating the strength of the gendered norm). But in this particular case, even the presence of the car rather than, say, a boat is a little strange, and besides which my general purpose with this series is to highlight interesting features of Korean society, albeit sometimes ones that are interesting not so much because they are unique but because they are exaggerated here. In that vein, it is the use of Caucasian rather than Korean women that is most of interest.

At first, it troubled me that this is but a single example: are Korean advertisers not allowed to use non-Korean models without overanalysis and – yes – perhaps implicit criticism from myself for doing so? No, of course not. But I was also reluctant to simply put the advertisement aside: with provisions made for the ambiguity of the term when applied to more ethnically heter0genous societies than Korea, I doubt that a similar advertisement with 3 so obviously “foreign” women would pass unnoticed in any other countries either. But still, how to approach it?

Serendipitously, earlier this week Lisa at Sociological Images provided an answer, indeed an overall rationale that will inform this series in the future also. Here it is, but adapted to this blog:

korean-boy-looking-up-caucasian-womens-skirtI often present a single example of a cultural pattern. If you’re a member or observer of the relevant culture, that single example might ring true.  That is, you might recognize it as one manifestation of something you see “out there” all the time.

But it’s still just one example and it’s not very convincing to someone who is skeptical that the cultural pattern exists, especially if it’s subtle.

But one advantage of being a niche blogger is that posts on one’s subject(s) are cumulative.  I can even put up single manifestations of a cultural pattern and, even if it’s not very convincing at the time, the other evidence on the blog (and the evidence yet to come) may sway even some skeptics.

It is in that spirit that I offer the opening advertisement.

The choice of the models ethnicity may be random, but I am going to suggest that it is not…

And yet there are so many examples of Caucasians in Korean advertisements on this blog to provide, and so many factors involved in the choices of them, that to simply provide dozens of links at this point would be to confuse rather than enlighten readers. Therefore, my purpose with this post is to provide a single definitive guide to the subject that people can refer back to in future, not least myself!

To begin then, consider the empirical evidence for the disproportionate numbers of Caucasian women in Korean advertisements. Surprisingly given their seeming ubiquity though (something I’ll return to), there have actually been very few English-language studies of East Asian advertisements that have incorporated race as a main factor of their inquiries, and I am aware of only 3 that have done so of Korean ones. Here they are in chronological order of publication, with very brief summaries of their findings and links to the posts where I discuss them in more detail:

• Hovland, R. et.al. “Gender Role Portrayals in American and Korean Advertisements”, (Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, December 2005; open access copy no longer available).

Using various 2000 editions of selected Korean and American women’s magazines, Hovland  et. al. found that 30% of Korean advertisements in them featured Caucasian female models, whereas only 1.9% of US advertisements showed Asian female models. Of particular note here, both Korean and US magazines for middle-aged women showed more Korean and Caucasian models than their counterparts for younger women respectively; see here for the details.

• Kim, Minjeong & Lennon, Sharron “Content Analysis of Diet Advertisements: A Cross-National Comparison of Korean and U.S. Women’s Magazines” (Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, October 2006; open access copy no longer available).

As discussed in the second half of this post, the advertisements in the various 2001 editions of selected Korean women’s magazines examined actually had more Caucasian women than Koreans: 52.3% vs. 47.7% respectively, compared to 84.9% Caucasian women in advertisements in U.S. magazines.

• Nam Kyoungtae, Lee, Guiohk & Hwang, Jang-Sun “Gender Role Stereotypes Depicted by Western and Korean Advertising Models in Korean Adolescent Girls’ Magazines“, Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, TBA, San Francisco, CA, May 23, 2007; downloadable here.

whisen-air-conditioner-advertisement-han-ye-seul-song-seung-hun( Source: Korea Times )

Of the total of 644 female models found in selected advertisements (one page or bigger and showing full adults) from selected Korean women’s magazines from 2002 and 2003, 57% were Korean and 43% were Western. Of 299 male models counted, 59.2% were Korean and 40.8% Western. And of particular interest, as I wrote here:

…Western women were more likely to be depicted in revealing clothes and or nude than Korean women, but at the same time they were also likely to be portrayed as independent, self-assured, and assertive than them too, and by no means just in a sexual sense. Again, this finding is true of Western and Korean men too…

To be fair, this at least in part echoes the the hypersexual state of Western advertising today. And rather than supporting the artificial dichotomy between chaste Koreans and oversexualized Caucasian (or Westerners) that at the heart of this post, the internal dynamics of the Korean magazine industry reveal that Korean women are active and willing consumers of the cultural and sexual norms that such advertisements literally embody, the incorporation of which into patriarchal Korea is not without friction. Not to imply that all positive changes in Korea are Western-derived of course, but regardless there are certainly a lot of advertisements with Caucasians out there.

lee min-ho cass jessica gomes( Source: Naver )

Or are there? I’d wager that many heads would have been nodding with that last statement, and, granted, some Korean clothing labels for instance – Beanpole and Hazzys come instantly to mind – do seem to use exclusively Caucasian models. But then appearances by Caucasians in Korean-made television commercials like the above, for instance, are actually the exception rather than the rule. And with the proviso that White privilege is very much alive in Korea (the existence of which I take for granted that readers agree on), and that this has strong influences on both Koreans’ preferred cosmetic surgery operations and their huge numbers, in hindsight I’d be hard pressed to think of any segment of the Korean advertising industry that used Caucasian models to the extent researchers found in women’s magazines. Unless of course, a great many of them were for lingerie that is.

As long-term readers will well know, it turns out that the reason for this is because before the restrictions against the use of foreign models in advertising was lifted in 1994, lingerie modeling in Korea was often done by pornographic actors. This gave it a negative image among Korean female models, the enduring strength of which was revealed recently by these ones who did model lingerie but nevertheless felt compelled to literally disguise themselves while doing so, and all quite ironic considering how willing many are willing to objectify their breasts otherwise (see here, the video here, and here for some notorious examples). Case closed then?

Yoon Eun-hye Vivien's Summer CollectionNot quite. Consider what I wrote a few months ago on the subject:

…lingerie advertisements are ubiquitous in Korea, and it’s a rare commute when I don’t have the slightly surreal experience of seeing ones featuring scantily clad Caucasians in one subway car, then seeing others with fully-clothed Koreans like [these] in another when I transfer (sometimes, you can even see both in the same car). Seriously, it’s no exaggeration to say that Koreans’ convoluted and often contradictory notions of sexuality and race literally stare me in the face everyday, and in a form that means that I’m particularly likely to sit up and take notice.

Yes, that is indeed a lingerie advertisement on the right (source). And regardless of the actual reasons for a phenomenon, once we think we’ve found the reasons for it, those shape the filter through which we take in new data. Personally then, I originally thought the use of Caucasian lingerie models demonstrated that Korean women had Caucasian body ideals, which prompted me to write this post on the subject last April. Once the stigma attached to lingerie modeling came to light that June though, then that link I had made was no longer sustainable…but not the Caucasian body ideals themselves, which there’s still a wealth of other evidence for (and see this post again). In that vein, while 4 years ago Michael Hurt was also mistaken in his proffered reasons for the numbers of Caucasian women in lingerie advertisements, writing in his blog Scribblings of the Metropolitician

One thing that I also notice is that in underwear and other commercials that require people to be scantily-clad, only white people seem to be plastered up on walls in the near-buff. Now, it may be the sense that Korean folks – especially women – would be considered too reserved and above that sort of thing (what I call the “cult of Confucian domesticity”). Maybe that’s linked to the stereotyped expectation that white people always be running around all nasty and hanging out already, as is their “way.” Another possibility has to do with the reaction I hear from Korean people when I mention this, which is that white people just “look better” with less clothes, since Koreans have “short leg” syndrome and gams that look like “radishes.” The men are more “manly” and just look more “natural” with their shirts off. Hmm. The thoughts of the culturally colonialized? Perhaps I’m being too harsh? My hunch is that it’s all of the above. Take a look.

…not only did I heartily agree with his thoughts when I first read them, but I still agree with them, because they are not just based on the numbers of Caucasians in lingerie advertisements. In particular, of the following 2003 advertisement with Ahn Jung-hwan (안정환) he wrote:

A recent favorite, reflecting the relative position of Korean masculinity vis a vis whiteness, specifically white women. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the relatively greater financial power that has made Korean men an attractive partner – or at least potential plaything – of Eastern European and Russian women, and that many of them now enter the country under the E-6 “entertainment visa.” In any case, this is a fascinating statement on the changing status of “the white” in relation to Korean masculinity. No longer the inaccessible Playboy fantasy held by many men in a developing Korea that had been culturally (and partially symbolically sexually) dominated by the United States – now the tables are turned. The product being sold here is a cream to make/keep one’s skin “white.” Don’t even get me started.

And lest long-time observers of Korea feel that this particular advertisement has become somewhat iconic and overanalysed by the Korean blogosphere, it is but one of many examples.

essor-white-advertisement-ahn-jung-hwan( Source: Somang Cosmetics )

Before providing a context for those in the remainder of this post though, I should point out that I don’t think that lingerie advertisements by definition sexualize the models featured, and so I disagree with Michael Hurt’s seeing further evidence of the sexualization of Caucasian women in the ridiculous setting of this advertisement for instance, as regardless of the source of the advertisement and/or the ethnicity of the models, worldwide they can similarly have “folks sitting around in their skivvies [that] could just as well be on the veranda of a bistro in the south of France. Eating strawberries in a bathtub in lingerie, with a towel wrapped around one’s head.” Indeed, rare Korean lingerie advertisements with Korean models are no different, and when it comes to sexualizing lingerie – nay, almost any item of woman’s clothing – it often pays to be subtle. Consider this one with Shin Min-a (신민아) that came out this summer for instance: while it is significant because previously one never saw Korean celebrities wearing the lingerie at all when they endorsed it, and is probably a belated reaction to the fact that discreetly showing one’s lingerie off has actually been the fashion for years now, personally I see much more significance in the fact that it seems designed for a male gaze.

Shin Mina Vivian Bra Lingerie Advertisement( Source: Zziixx )

As you might vaguely recall, the advertisement that prompted this post wasn’t actually a lingerie advertisement. But having Caucasians in the vast majority of those – for whatever reasons – does at least feed into the false dichotomy of chaste Koreans and overly-sexualized Caucasians. And although it’s by no means the most blatant example of its kind, the choice of outfits in it still makes it very much Exhibit A in the argument for the existence of those stereotypes (as an aside, see this post for the issues raised when skimpy clothing is donned for a good cause, like women in bikinis washing only hybrid cars). Let’s now consider the other evidence.

First, there were the recent plans to set up a nudist beach on Jeju island specifically in order to attract foreign tourists, especially Caucasians/Westerners. Apparently, this was because many were already regularly stripping off on Jeju beaches despite local sensibilities, but in the absence of anything to support those claims, and considering that Korean reporters regularly simply make stuff up and/or impose their own opinions on a report while attributing them to others (see here and #1 here respectively for recent examples), then when I heard of the idea I was much more inclined to believe that Jeju government officials came up with it completely independently. And why? Probably based on the conflation of nudity at beaches with sex said Brian in Jeollanam-do, “implying that the point of the former is to stimulate one’s appetite for the latter,” and which in turn points to “a pretty base assessment of the tastes of foreigners and foreign tourists.”

To be fair, in many senses exaggerated notions of foreigners sexuality are merely a method by which particularly older Koreans deal with and account for the uncomfortable reality of Koreans’ own sexuality, and so as Michael Hurt points out here, public displays of affection by young Koreans are often rationalized by certain Koreans by claiming that the couples involved are Japanese. No, really. But for a more tangible “other,” you need the Occident of course, which is why Korean public opinion holds Western celebrities to such different standards to Korean ones.

Lady Gaga Seoul( Source: Naver )

So while it is okay for Korean women to dress up as Paris Hilton in order to promote the Korean airing of her reality show for instance, and she regularly appears on Korean television, endorses Korean products, and literally her every word about Korea is literally lapped up (no matter how inane), on the other hand Korean female’s celebrities careers have been ruined simply for having sex with their boyfriends, or even merely being accused of making a Hiltonesque sex tape. True, Korea’s well-known cultural cringe is very much involved when the attention of Western celebrities – any celebrity – is sought, but the same principles still apply for both less notorious Western stars and Korean celebrities’ less extreme deviations from sexual norms. Hence like Paris Hilton, Lady Gaga above was recently fawned over on her recent visit to Seoul, and yet seemingly every other week: Korean groups are banned from the airwaves for even the most innocuous of lyrics (see #2 here, and the more recent case here); female groups struggle to present female sexuality as something other than dressing and acting like schoolgirls; and international models are criticized for appearing nude in photoshoots (yes, I can admit my mistakes). And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

But you get the idea. Next then, there is confirmation from the grass roots: Brian provides ample evidence that foreign women in bikinis are heavily targeted by Korean newspaper photographers for instance, and I must also mention that a great many Caucasian female friends have mentioned being groped and otherwise sexually harassed by Korean men to me. Of course, that is merely anecdotal evidence, and not having my blogger’s hat on at the time (I do take it off occasionally), I didn’t think to ask how that compared to experiences in their home countries. Now that I am in that frame of mind though, I’d be grateful if readers could fill me in with their own experiences, and by all means if you haven’t ever faced either problem too, as responders can be somewhat self-selecting sometimes.

But of course Korean women are also frequently photographed at beaches and/or and sexually harassed, and indeed because of that there was a short-lived experiment with women-only subway cars in Seoul a few years ago (but groping is on the rise again). Despite that, there are still good reasons to suppose that Caucasians might be targeted more:  in addition to the stereotypes perpetuated by Western media itself of course, there is the ethnic make-up of prostitutes here.

Korean Prostitution StatisticsIn itself, the Korean prostitution industry is so big, so intimately tied to Korea’s economic development, and with such a pervasive impact on the current low position of women here, it really requires a separate blog devoted to it. Finding a short introduction to point readers towards was a bit of a challenge then, but surprisingly the Wikipedia article on the subject is a good start. Once you’ve read that, I recommend following it up with Matt’s plethora of articles on the subject at his blog Gusts of Popular Feeling by clicking here (if that doesn’t work, simply copy and paste “prostitution site:http://populargusts.blogspot.com/” into Google), and with apologies for not mentioning them myself, other bloggers by all means feel free to promote your own posts on the subject in the comments section. My concern here though, is specifically the fact that it is primarily Russian, presumably Caucasian, women that are trafficked to work in the industry, for which I offer the following links, in roughly chronological order (source right: Korea Discussion Forums):

Humantrafficking.org, which has a basic introduction to the subject and links to archived articles.

Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery, with a similar archive.

Michael Hurt’s October 2006 post on the subject, with many links itself.

• A May 2007 article from the JoongAng Daily.

• Robert Koehler’s January 2008 post at The Marmot’s Hole on the fact that a US Congressional Research Service report on human trafficking labeled Korea a major destination for sex tourism.

• GI Korea’s post at ROK Drop a week later on Korea being taken off that list.

• An editorial in The Hankyoreh in February of this year on the fact that it is the victims of human trafficking that are often persecuted for engaging in prostitution, despite being tricked and/or forced into it.

• Finally, a post by Robert Koehler in April on the busting of a brothel in Gangnam, which had several Russian prostitues.

Korean Charisma Man( Source: Gusts of Popular Feeling )

Last but not least, no post on the title topic would be complete without the related subject of the Korean media’s portrayal of Western, Caucasian male teachers as sexual predators, for which I recommend this post by Matt and the links I provide at #1 in this post for getting a grip on. Apologies in advance to Matt in case I’ve covered any of the same material that he does, who also looks at the portrayal of Caucasian women as sex objects in that post.

In closing, again please feel free to link to and/or discuss any related subjects and posts that you think should be included here (my aim is to make the post as inclusive as possible), and I’d be especially grateful for readers passing on any of their own practical experiences with the issues raised in it. And apologies to everyone for the delays to writing this post and responding to comments and emails, as on Wednesday the wifi on my laptop completely stopped working…only to miraculously turn back on the instant the repair guy walked through my front door on Friday!

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

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Posted in Korean Advertisements, Korean Commercials, Korean Sexuality, Korean Sociological Images, Korean Women's Body Images Tagged: Ahn Jung-hwan, Caucasians, 백인, 속옷, 신민아, 안정환, Korean Lingerie, Lingerie, Prostitution, Prostitution in Korea, Shin Min-a
  

 

Street Fighter: Cao Lau vs Com Ga



Hoi An, in central Vietnam, is a place where you can very easily drop some serious coin. The streets are lined with hundreds of tailor shops, and the lure of tailor-made cloths can stitch up even the most rigourously observed budget. Whilst there I went a little overboard and got a three piece suit, two shirts and a fantastic imitation Baracuta Harrington jacket.

One thing that doesn't cost the world however, is street food. And in Hoi An, two of Vietnam's most famous street dishes wage a nightly battle for supremacy.

It's a classic match up of noodles vs rice. In the red (street) corner, Cao Lau comes out punching with a heady dish of noodles, beansprouts, croutons and pork slices, while in the blue corner, Com Ga (translation: chicken rice) plays the long game with its simple yet arresting combination of flavours.



From where this commentator was sitting, it was a one-sided match from the outset. Although Cao Lau made a decent show of keeping its fists up, I found little to excite. The noodles were tired and worn out, the broth tasted brackish and the meat was of that "don't look at it while you eat it" quality. All in all a pretty common routine, and one that Yunnan runs rings around.





In Com Ga however, I got the impression I was around some serious talent. The rice had been cooked in coconut milk, chicken stock and turmeric, giving it a light, delicious savory-ness that could survive all by itself if needs be. As for the chicken, it had been roughly shredded and was of top rate quality - neither bone nor gristle in sight. The plate was topped off by a generous forest of green leaves, one of which tasted incredibly like coriander but looked intiguingly unlike it.The combined effect was a studied, gentle form that took a bunch of simple flavours and ran with them all the way to the moon.

And for me that's the true mark of a champ



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