Why would the average Korean know what the emigrant experience is like?
The kimchi and chopsticks thing tho. It’s one thing if they think I’m a tourist but it’s a whole nother level of dumb when I’ve already introduced myself.
Here is an odd story about a Buddhist statue believed to have been plundered from Korea by Japan, that thieves stole from a Japanese temple in 2012 and returned it to Korea:
This photo, taken on Jan. 26, 2017, shows the landscape of Buseok Temple in Seosan on South Korea’s western coast. The Daejeon District Court in Daejeon, ordered an ancient Buddhist statue, stolen from a Japanese temple in 2012, to be handed over to the temple.
A local court on Thursday ordered an ancient Buddhist statue, stolen from a Japanese temple in 2012, to be handed over to a temple in Seosan on South Korea’s west coast that has claimed ownership.
The Daejeon District Court ruled in favor of Buseok Temple, which filed a lawsuit against the Seoul government in April to take back the statue of the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, which was stolen by Korean thieves from Kannon Temple in Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture, in October 2012.
“Based on (Buseok Temple’s) statements during court hearings and onsite inspections, it is assumed that its ownership of the statue is sufficiently acknowledged,” the court said in its ruling. “Considering its historical, religious values, (the government) has the responsibility to return it to the plaintiff.”
The Japanese temple has demanded the return of the statue. But a South Korean court granted an injunction in February 2013 to suspend its return to Japan following a request by Buseok Temple. Temple officials claim the statue was illegally plundered by Japan. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder if this will become a new trend with Korean nationalists, trying to steal cultural items from Japan and bring them back to Korea?
Jeju's haenyeo are one step closer to making the #UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list after a recommendation from a subcommittee. #Jejupic.twitter.com/Pu4ekS66IU
If you ever thought there was a lot of Kims, Parks and Lees in Korea you would be right:
“If you throw a stone from a hill in Seoul, chances are fifty-fifty that it would hit a Kim, Lee or Park.” So goes a Korean joke showing how common the three surnames are.
A recent census has reaffirmed this _ one in every five Koreans living within the country has the family name of Kim, according to a recent population and housing survey by Statistics Korea.
The number of people with Kim as their surname totaled 10.69 million or 21.5 percent of the total population of 51.07 million.
Coming in second and third on the list of most common surnames are Lee or Yi (14.7 percent) and Park (8.4 percent).
Following the big-three were Choe or Choi (4.7 percent), Chung (4.3 percent), Kang (2.4 percent), Cho (2.1 percent), Yun or Yoon (2.1 percent), Chang (2.0 percent) and Lim or Im (1.7 percent). [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, which includes an interesting discussions about the origins of these three names.
Has anyone ever tried traditional Korean gamhongro before?:
Lee Ki-sook shows how soju is distilled in the traditional way as part of the process of making the herbal spirit gamhongro. [PARK SANG-MOON]During the Japanese colonial era, there was a crackdown on home brewing, followed by the influx of alcoholic beverages from the West. Traditional Korean liquors subsequently faded from popular use, but have recently been making a comeback.
There is, for instance, gamhongro, literally “sweet red dew,” which was considered one of the three best liquors of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). This drink has been passed down by Lee Ki-sook, the 60-year-old daughter of Lee Kyung-chan (1915-1993), who was known for his ability to brew moonbaeju, a drink made from wheat and millet that has been placed on the National Intangible Cultural Heritage list. In modern times, gamhongro has only ever been produced within Lee’s family.
In former times, Koreans enjoyed gamhongro so much that it even appears in a traditional folk tale, titled “Byeoljubu-jeon,” which is about a turtle luring a rabbit into the sea to use its liver in order to cure its ailing king. The rabbit takes the bait when the turtle tells it that there is a plentiful supply of gamhongro lying in wait beneath the sea.
Before passing away, Kyung-chan taught the art of brewing to his two sons. Ki-choon, the elder son, learned the recipe for moonbaeju while Ki-yang, the younger son, was taught how to make gamhongro.
When Ki-yang died in 2000, gamhongro almost disappeared from the world forever, but feeling the dire need to pass on her father’s legacy, Ki-sook started making gamhongro based on what she had seen her father do. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
A former Washington Post journalist has released a new book that details his experiences living and working in South Korea:
In his new memoir, Ahrens, a former Washington Post journalist, tells of the three years he spent in Seoul working for Hyundai and his rough adjustment adapting to a culture that is, in many ways, the polar opposite of how we live in America.
When Ahrens’ wife, who worked for the Foreign Service, received a posting in Seoul, Ahrens was hired by Hyundai to head up their global p.r. effort. But almost two decades in a Washington, DC, newsroom hadn’t prepared him for his new home.
For one thing, Korea’s culture of personal improvement would make a Kardashian blush, as plastic surgery is far more pervasive than in the US. This obsession with appearance is known there as “lookism.”
“South Korean women use on average three times as many daily skin-care products as Western women,” Ahrens writes, noting that plastic surgery is so common, it’s regarded as a major economic engine.
“There is a medical-tourism booth in Incheon International Airport. Korea has the highest number of plastic surgeons per capita and the world’s highest rate of cosmetic surgery. Buses and subway ads all over Seoul show highly graphic, often gruesome before-and-after photos.” [New York Post]
You can read more at the link, but the article describes many things most readers here would probably not be surprised by such as Koreans drink a lot of soju.
Should South Korean society be more accepting of obesity? That is what some advocates are saying:
Alina Shamsutdinova, a 22-year-old Kazakhstani student in Seoul, says she doesn’t want others to pity her because of the body shaming she went through during her years in South Korea. “I want to show people ‘I am who I am, and I think I’m beautiful,’” she says. (Photo credit: Alina Shamsutdinova)
Alina Shamsutdinova thinks she can’t dress up to her potential in South Korea. The 23-year-old Kazakhstani arrived in Seoul in 2011, as an international student, in hopes to learn about the country of her ethnic origin. Born to third-generation ethnic Koreans in Kazakhstan, she grew up thinking she was beautiful, feeling confident and comfortable in her skin.
Yet things started to change when she realized some people in Korea didn’t see her the way she saw herself. “Among the things I heard was ‘It’s okay to be ugly, but being fat is unforgivable,’” she said in an interview with The Korea Herald.
“Another was ‘You’re really lucky that you have a pretty face. Otherwise you would never be able to have a boyfriend.’”
While she has always considered herself a confident person, Shamsutdinova said a part of her struggled with her self-image during her stay in Korea. She was often told by Koreans that she should lose weight. Most local clothing stores didn’t have any items available in her size. [Korea Herald]
It is amazing how over the past two decades coffee has become such a staple of Korean culture. It is good to see that the convenience stores are now also offering quality brewed coffee considering how expensive most of the coffee shops are:
Koreans love their coffee – but they’re loving it in different ways.
The market was once dominated by franchise coffee shops like Starbucks and the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, but more people are heading to convenience stores, especially since they started selling quality coffee at low prices.
Local convenience stores such as CU, GS25 and 7-Eleven are aggressively expanding their offerings of brewed coffee. Korean adults consumed an average of 341 cups of coffee in 2014, up 14.4 percent from the previous year, according to Statistics Korea. To put that into perspective, the average Korean consumed seven bowls of rice a week, 11.8 portions of kimchi – and 12.8 cups of coffee. Coffee has arguably become more important than kimchi.
Industry insiders believe that the coffee market was worth about 6 trillion won ($5.06 billion) last year and that it has been growing 10 percent per year. Convenience stores’ coffee sales accounted for about 40 billion won last year, but that is expected to grow to 100 billion won this year. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
![Lee Ki-sook shows how soju is distilled in the traditional way as part of the process of making the herbal spirit gamhongro. [PARK SANG-MOON]](https://i0.wp.com/pds.joins.com/jmnet/koreajoongangdaily/_data/photo/2016/09/13171951.jpg?resize=610%2C391)
