Ryu So-yeon (R) poses after winning the team event for pairs representing South Korea at the World Ladies Championship title at Mission Hills Haikou in Hainan, China, on March 15. At left is her teammate Park In-bee. (Yonhap)
A kiss between two schoolgirls that hit airwaves in the South Korean drama “Sunam Girls High School Detectives” is under investigation by the Korea Communications Standards Commission, Yonhap reported.
The commission opened a sub-committee Wednesday to discuss the JTBC series, which follows five high school students who solve mysteries around their school.
The drama showed two female students sharing an unprecedented onscreen kiss on its February 25 broadcast, and saw the students hugging on March 4.
The subcommittee said it received a civil complaint stating that the “explicit kiss scene between two female homosexuals” was unhealthy for young viewers for a program rated 15 years or older. [Korea Times]
This probably does not come as much of a surprise to most Korea watchers that Korean students are very stressed out in regards to their studies:
Korean kids are the most stressed about their studies in the world, a study reveals.
A whopping 50.3 percent of Korean kids are stressed about their studies, the highest proportion among 30 countries surveyed, according to an analysis by Kim Mi-sook of the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs.
Relatively high stress was also recorded in Spain (49.4 percent), Slovenia (48.9 percent), and Portugal (47.2 percent). The least stressed kids were in the Netherlands (16.8 percent), Hungary (18.4 percent), Slovakia (19.1 percent), Austria (20 percent), and France (20.8 percent).
Only 18.5 percent of kids in Korea said they are “very happy” at school. Korea comes fifth from the bottom after Estonia (9.2 percent), Italy (14.8 percent), Finland (15.3 percent), and Czech Republic (17.3 percent). [Chosun Ilbo]
Interesting analysis over at Popular Gusts in regards to the below Joong Ang Ilbo article which a Korean lawmaker is complaining about how Japanese textbooks depict the March 1st Korean independence movement back in 1919:
History textbooks in Korea and Japan are still riddled with inaccuracies in their descriptions of Korea’s March 1 Independence Movement 96 years ago, the catalysis of Korea’s fight against Japan’s colonial rule (1910-1945).
Rep. Han Sun-kyo, a lawmaker of the ruling Saenuri Party, told the JoongAng Ilbo on Thursday that he analyzed Korean and Japanese history textbooks he received from the Seoul-based think tank Northeast Asian History Foundation and Korea’s Ministry of Education and found the results troubling.
He said a “considerable number of Japanese history textbooks are distorting the facts or minimizing the significance of the March 1 Independence Movement.”
March 1, 1919, remains a touchstone of Korean nationalism as the day when activists declared Korea’s independence and triggered large-scale peaceful demonstrations against Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945).
One Japanese middle school history textbook published by Jiyusa says the March 1 independence movement in Seoul “initially was planned as a non-violent rally but gradually became a large-scale movement,” and that “the army was mobilized and because of a clash on both sides, there were many casualties.” (……)
Korea has been alarmed by Japanese right-wingers’ historical revisionism, which glosses over or denies wartime aggressions and trivializes the victims of its colonial rule over Korea. (……)
But Han added that Korean history textbooks also have inaccuracies, and there are many cases where they “describe the non-violent March 1 movement as violent” or do not mention key events or figures such as Yoo Gwan-soon’s martyrdom [Joong Ang Ilbo]
However, there is only one problem with the lawmakers complaints, the March 1st movement was violent. Popular Gusts provides the analysis:
The problem is, the textbooks describing the independence movement as being “violent” are being accurate. While some of the Japanese dispatches during the Samil Uprising reported in the New York Times described violence on the part of demonstrators, I didn’t realize just how violent the protests were until I read Frank Baldwin’s “Participatory Anti-Imperalism:The 1919 Independence Movement” (Journal of Korean Studies, Volume 1, 1979, pp. 123-162). One assumes this contains some of the material in his dissertation, “The March First Movement: Korean Challenge, Japanese Response” (Columbia University, 1969). In his article, he notes that between March 1 and April 10, 1919, there were “approximately 667 peaceful demonstrations” as compared with “approximately 460 violent incidents.” (…….)
The tale of “peaceful Samil demonstrations” serves the cause of depicting Koreans as a peaceful people beset upon by marauding outsiders; that is to say, victims with no responsibility for their actions. [Popular Gusts]
You can read much more act the link in regards to much of the South Korean myth making in regards to the March 1st Independence Movement. I always appreciate well documented historical analysis like this that cuts through the historical revisionism so prevalent in Korea today.
Shown is a signboard at a bus stop in New York on March 15, 2015, to promote the bilateral alliance between South Korea and the United States. It has two photos of South Korean President Park Geun-hye recently visiting U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert at a hospital in Seoul after the envoy was injured in an attack by a knife-wielding, anti-U.S. activist. (Yonhap)
I think a lot of this growing trend has to do with the debt many of these people ran up to escape North Korea and then having a difficult time integrating into the hyper-competitive South Korean society:
A North Korean defector from North Hamgyong Province was given a prison sentence after getting caught smuggling drugs into South Korea from China last year.
The 38-year-old had looked in vain for a job and was desperate for money when she was approached by another defector who tempted her with the chance of some quick cash.
The defector told police she needed money to feed herself and felt rejected by South Korean society.
More defectors end up in prison here every year. In 2011 there were 51 defectors behind bars here, but that had risen to 97 in the first half of last year. Crimes range from drug possession, fraud and embezzlement to assault and murder.
A police officer said, “Defectors tend to be vulnerable to crime because they are often poor and face discrimination.” [Chosun Ilbo]
It sounds like China is trying to develop an alternative to the western led International Monetary Fund (IMF) and is trying to rope South Korea into being part of it:
A policy coordination meeting among members of the ruling party, the administration and the Blue House was held Sunday at the prime minister’s residence in Seoul. Thaad and AIIB were expected to be discussed.[NEWSIS]Seoul is caught up in a messy diplomatic tangle with the United States and China as it deliberates sensitive issues that can alienate one ally or the other.
Korea is especially conflicted over the issues of whether to deploy a Washington-led Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) missile defense system in Korea, which Beijing is opposed to, or to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which Washington doesn’t like.
Both issues are on front burners as high-ranking officials from Washington and Beijing will be in Seoul this week.
Liu Jianchao, Chinese assistant minister of foreign affairs, kicked off a four-day visit Sunday, according to the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, his first trip to Seoul since he took the post in 2013. Liu heads to Tokyo afterwards.
Daniel Russel, U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, visits on Monday for two days. Russel is expected to check on Ambassador Mark Lippert, who is recovering from a knife attack by a radical nationalist in Seoul earlier this month. His visit is expected to be an opportunity to emphasize the Korea-U.S. bilateral alliance.
Both envoys will meet with Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Lee Kyung-soo and Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
This is going to be a growing phenomenon as the Chinese middle class expands and can afford to travel outside the country. Considering how many in China treat their own country just imagine how the herds of tourists would treat other countries?:
Japanese were traditionally the largest contingent, followed by Taiwanese and Korean visitors. But the majority of the new wave of Chinese tourists seem more interested — for now at least — in lounging on the beach.
“We are not seeing a growth rate to match the number of visitors,” said Singeo. “Tourists are up 34 percent so technically we should see economic benefits at the rate of 30 percent or more, but that’s not the case.”
On the streets of Koror, some accused Chinese people of being noisy and disrespectful towards the environment.
“They wreck corals and throw their rubbish in the sea,” chided Norman, a taxi driver.
In another recent example, a Chinese tour operator named “Yellow Skin Tour” caused outrage in Palau with leaflets including photos of grinning Chinese tourists holding up turtles they had removed from the water -– in one case by its flippers.
Residents have also accused Chinese tourists of being responsible for the deaths of some jellyfish at the natural wonder “Jellyfish Lake”.
Visitors are encouraged to marvel at the harmless creatures by floating on the surface, but some locals complain that many Chinese lack swimming skills and thrash around, disturbing the wildlife.
The Palau government is exploring ways to try to stem the tide of Chinese tourists to the western Pacific Ocean archipelago and this week said the number of charter flights from China would be halved next month.
President Tommy Remengesau said the move was not intended to discriminate against any nationality but was to prevent tourism from becoming too reliant on one market. [AFP]
