Search Results for: hanbok

It is okay to bash Japan, but not okay to bash China because they will actually harshly retaliate is basically what the experts are warning:

 South Koreans avidly took part in boycotting Japanese brands when bilateral tensions escalated in the past years, given the history of the two countries. This time, the antagonism is directed at another neighbor in Northeast Asia: China.

While the situation may appear negligible and based merely on online skirmishes over the origin of cultural elements such as the pickled side dish kimchi or hanbok, a recent survey shows that the level of anti-China sentiment in Korea is notable. At this time when certain presidential candidates may be looking to take advantage of this sentiment to shore up support, experts warn of potential dangers, given how crucial bilateral relations between the countries are. (…..)

Andrew Yeo, SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korean Studies and a senior fellow at the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, said, “It is always tempting to drum up nationalism and anti-foreign sentiment during election season, which can create unintended consequences of permanently damaging bilateral relations between Korea and China.”

China remains Korea’s No. 1 trading partner. The Moon Jae-in administration has also largely relied on Beijing for progress in relations with Pyongyang, given the North’s close alliance with China. 

“Whoever wins the election will need to maintain ties to Beijing given the significance of economic ties between Korea and China,” Yeo said via email.

“There may be greater pressure to decouple from China and join U.S.-led coalitions if the anti-China sentiment is sustained for a prolonged period, which neither China would take kindly. However, given the size and influence of China’s economy in East Asia, Korea will need to sustain a sizeable degree of trade and investment with Beijing,” he said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is an interesting issue that I doubt the Moon administration would do anything to change:

Growing anti-China sentiment is leading some to call for taking away the right of foreign permanent residents to vote here. 

The move is intended to target Chinese residents, as they make up the majority of eligible immigrant voters in Korea. Recent disputes have pitted the people of the two countries against each other over various cultural issues, including recent claims coming from China that some elements of Korean culture, including kimchi, hanbok and samgyetang, originated there.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the article says there are 121,806 foreign residents in Korea and 80% of them are Chinese.

Here is an article about a Korean-American adoptee who recently had the opportunity to return to South Korea:

Then, last year, I embarked on a two-week trip to South Korea primarily to attend the International Korean Adoptee Association (IKAA) gathering, held every three years. During this time, more than 550 Korean adoptees from all over the world convened at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul to attend workshops and social events.

For many Korean adoptees (or KADs, as we often refer to ourselves), myself included, it was our first time returning to Korea since we were adopted as infants or children. I was careful not to make the assumption that Korea would immediately feel like home—after all, I had no active memories of the country, and I knew having unrealistic expectations would set myself up for disappointment. I wondered if it was indeed possible to become attached to a place that, for me, held so much history, yet so little familiarity.

What I found, in the end, was the bittersweet grief that comes with being reunited with your birth country. I discovered that it was possible to swell with immeasurable pride at the beautiful, resilient country I was born into, and in the next moment be filled with agony that I was denied the chance to be raised among my culture, my language.

Quartz

You can read more at the link.

The poster does seem to suggest the model is taking her hanbok off which considering all the sexual harassment cases going on in America, it is probably not a good way to promote your city:

Seoul City has dropped promotional posters after they drew criticism for sexually objectifying women.

The posters were going to be exhibited in New York City’s Times Square and SoHo, among other areas, including 150 bus stations, from Dec. 18 to Jan 14.

“I thought she was undressing,” said Alex Costilhes, an engineer graduate who lives in New York.“The tagline doesn’t help either. The tagline, with the woman pulling on her dress, gives it a sexual connotation. It could be fixed easily with her just not tugging on that ribbon.”

New York resident Paula Martinez said it had not crossed her mind at first that it was a sexualized image. But “the directorial choice to have the model pulling on the ribbon is kind of weird,” she said. “I can definitely see how it might play into the Western fetishization of East Asian women.Like, that being used to draw white men to come to Korea for tourism. I feel like it’s not that overt, though.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Is the below nonsense really the focus now of America’s colleges?  If so, no wonder college graduates today are having such a hard time finding a job.  When I was in college I spent too much time working and studying to get one of the dreaded STEM degrees to have time to worry about “safe spaces’ and “trigger warnings”:

Just as the social turmoil of the 1960s generated new vocabulary — turn-on, sit-in, sexism — this latest wave of activism and upheaval is adding to our lexicon, with terms such as safe space, trigger warning, microaggression and cultural appropriation, which we explore here. We asked student leaders and activists from local universities to define these terms for us and to elaborate based on their own thoughts and experiences.

Many students believe these concepts foster inclusion, increase sensitivity and set up parameters in which difficult conversations can occur and marginalized voices can be heard. But critics, both on campus and off, call the concepts limiting, unrealistic, even un-American. They argue that creating safe spaces and using trigger warnings, for example, serve only to stifle free speech, coddle students and ignore both history and the reality found off campus.  [Washington Post]

You have to read the whole thing because did you know that it is “cultural appropriation” and disrespectful to get for example braids or wear a headscarf if you are not from that culture?  So all the foreigners that come to Korea and get pictures taken in hanboks I guess are disrespectful to Koreans according to today’s American college students?

It makes me wonder if all this nonsense is going to eventually trickle into Korean universities as well?

Image via KBS World Radio. 

What strikes out at me in regards to President Park’s visit to Iran is that she is wearing a veil.  What made this jump out at me was that I remembered that she did not wear a veil when she visited Saudi Arabia last year:

President Park Geun-hye (left) meets with Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the king of Saudi Arabia, during a bilateral summit. They discuss ways to strengthen bilateral relations across a range of sectors. [Korea.net]

She is not only wearing a veil, but one that is covering not only her hair, but her entire neck.  According to this Korea Times article President Park was trying to show respect for Iranian customs and culture.  How about the Iranian government show respect to her and understand she is a head of state of one of the world’s great country’s and should not be subjugated to Iranian customs.  If Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ever visits South Korea does anyone think we will see them dressed up in a hanbok in respect to Korean culture?

President Park Geun-hye (R) talks with actress Ha Ji-won wearing a “hanbok,” the traditional Korean dress, during a fashion show at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Oct. 21, 2015. (Yonhap)

A group of child cheerleaders in the traditional Korean costume “hanbok” performs at a basketball game in Busan on Jan. 1, 2015. (Yonhap)