it’s in Korean.

http://video.nate.com/212091440

Cormac McCarthy

The most recent American writer we have read from is Cormac McCarthy. His writing career started out at an anonymous level, and stayed there for quite some time to the public, until he skyrocketed into recognition (which he long deserved according to literary circles). It is no common complement to compare a contemporary writer with literary legends such as Faulkner or Mark Twain, but McCarthy receives all these claims.

No Country for Old Men movie poster

McCarthy is probably most famous for his more recent work, No Country for Old Man which ended up being a major hit film also. He is most well noted for his stylistic usage of grammatical rules, most notably the lack of punctuation marks. It seems that even periods are considered to be a luxury to this man. The lack of punctuation creates McCarthy’s unique voice, a voice that moves around freely from a terse lonely cowboy, to a string of elaborations to depict the solemn beauty of the South Western American nature. As an inhabitant of the area,  McCarthy chooses SW America and Mexico as the setting for most of his stories (he has a rule that he does not write about places he hasn’t been to). Most likely, it is this familiarity with the setting he chooses, that allows him to recreate the setting with both surreal romance and cold vividness as he chooses. McCarthy is able to describe the same setting in two different circumstances so that they portray entirely opposing attitudes while both of them are perfectly plausible to the reader. This rare talent to perfectly imprint the images in his story is possibly the greatest strength McCarthy has as a writer. He knows exactly what he needs to say for the reader’s mind to be forever branded with the image of his settings. There may be some exaggerated romanticism in it, some fabrication of his own mind may be, but it doesn’t seem to bother him much, or at least it doesn’t bother me much at all.

Makes the desert look so attractive....

Another characteristic of McCarthy’s writing would be the dry description of the human characters and their interactions. His main characters have always been males. Of differing ages and backgrounds may be, but with certain common characteristics. They seem to embody the American spirit of “rugged individualism.” They are determined, resolute, self-believing individuals, even if they may not be what the rest of the world expects of them. The lack of romance in the story also aids to the development of these men. The dry, real, and even harsh diction is the main technique used to develop these characters. The description of human characters is far simpler compared to McCarthy’s description of the natural world, possibly accounting to his own enjoyment of solitude. Also, the extensive use of dialogue over prose in scenes concerning human characters seem to strictly follow the “show don’t tell” rule.

The situtation represents possibly the biggest tragedy in Korea. The simple fact, that despite the protection of freedom in this country, so many people are not free to do something everyone is expected to do: to meet their loved ones. The experience these kids had to go through are unimaginable. Students younger than me, on an exile from their home town by themselves, being hunted down, own life at risk, often wandering for years in countries like Malaysia or Indonesia, until they are lucky enough to be “shipped” to South Korea, where an entirely new level of problems begin. They are our closest neighbors, suffering directly because of us; however, the attention and compensation for the neighbors seem to be at a minimum. They are Koreans who are not accepted as Koreans. Although they are our “long lost brothers” we neglect them, look down upon them, take advantage of them, discriminate them. The Korean community in large has neither been a welcoming nor an optimal environment for the North Korean immigrants to take root in. If really, Korea’s biggest wish is reunification, then I think it is time we reconsider how we treat the brothers whom we so wish to be with again.

everyone except people can cross the dmz

'The Red Girl' scene from the movie "Schindler's List" has become an archetype of using red on a black/white background to give unfocused emphasis on the subject.

Intro

The world today is full of stereotypes and archetypes deeply embedded into our culture and society.  One of the most obsequious stereotypes around us is the use of color.  “Blue for boys, pink for girls” is only one of the many stereotypes we subconsciously hold today.  Because certain colors are universal in meaning, movies, TV shows, art, advertisements, comics all use certain colors that are stereotyped to convey a mood or message. But when stereotypes for color are addressed, some of them are not so direct.  Red could mean danger or passion, purple could mean homosexuality or royalty.  Depending on the context the color is used in, color can effectively reflect a meaning. 

Georgia O'Keefe succesfully uses the warm colors, especially red in this Red Canna to portray the women body part and the emotions of passion and sensuality.

 Prompt #2

Through this project, we had the opportunity to review multiple media sources and their usage of coloration to achieve their means. Coloration could be found widely in all types of media: movies, paintings, cartoons, dresses, and etc. As our research continued, we found out that coloration in general was too general of a theme, and narrowed our research to mainly include the usage of red and black and white contrast.

Julius Caesar's Red Robes have become an archetype for royalty, wealth, power, and even leadership.

Using a black and white contrast to portray Jesus Christ has been an archetypical technique in exemplifying his sacrendness to the viewers.

     Another obstacle we ran into during our research was classifying the archetypes and the stereotypes. Because colors have always been an important aspect in human culture, there simply were too many examples and variations of similar motifs and usages. However, our continued interaction with more examples ultimately gave us a rough idea of what traits to look for in classifying these images. Prominence and history were the two biggest traits we considered in determining archetypes and stereotypes.

A scene from the movie "Sin City". The red in the black and white background again emphasizes sexuality, sensuality, and caution; however, its chronological positioning after the "Schindler's List" made it a stereotypical example.

     The next thing we noticed was the often unnoticed implications of colors in everyday media around us. Either advertently, or inadvertently by the producers, and often subconsciously taken by the audience, color portrayal in media was full of meanings. We also noticed that in this process, there may be possible bias or manipulation of information by the media by controlling the color representation of its information to its audience, a potentially scary concept.

Dutch artist M. C. Escher was another big user of black and white contrast to portray a symmetry between good and evil and other polarizing themes.

 Prompt #1

Reviewing our images for the project left us with only a vague outline as to which examples were original (archetypical) and which were copies (stereotypical). The blurred line seems to come from the fact that our theme is an extremely transcending one: color. Color is the primary source of sensory input to most humans and has had significance in human history ever since we have learned to utilize pigments. This means that the examples of using color come from an extremely wide variety of resources from an extremely wide time frame. We used our best discretion to determine which usages were more original, primarily by the time period they were produced and the relative chronological order. For example, when comparing the red robes of Caesar of Rome and Napoleon, Caesar was considered the archetype and Napoleon the Stereotype. Both figures hold approximately equal levels of prominence and importance in history, but Caesar precedes Napoleon by nearly two millennia.

Napoleon Bonaparte in his red robe after he has been crowned emperor by the Pope.

Most of our archetypical images are from a western artist, and created with the expectation that the majority of the viewers will be from a western background. However, our stereotypical examples are aimed at a larger, international audience or Korean audience in specific. Power Rangers’ focus on an international audience is evident in the mix of racial representation in the rangers, and the cartoons we used as examples have a definitively Korean audience.

The demographical representation of our example is very wide. As discussed above color has varying meanings to all sectors of human society, and thus its usage and representation is relatively evenly distributed. We can find examples from older males to younger females, and although due to our cultural proximity, most of our examples are from either American or Korean culture, it is not hard to notice the usage of colors prevalent around the world.

The usage of red to symbolize royalty in Pan's Labyrinth was one of the non-American and non-Korean examples in our project: it is Spanish.

     As we searched for the images, we were quite surprised at the use of color to portray other aspects, such as mood. Although we knew to some extent, it was a new enlightenment to find that the use of colors and their meanings could be seen basically everywhere around us. Also, after finding out the previously hidden meanings of colored objects, we could gain some more thought and could more easily understand the purpose of the objects. This research started as a group project for grade, but it ended up becoming the source of an interesting enlightenment.

Captain America, possibly one of the most heroic super heroes from Marvel Comics is thickly colored in blue.

The Words

Color
Archetype
Stereotype
Power~rangers
Patriotism
Different~meanings
Royalty
History
Caesar
Napoleon
Rods/Cones
Sensuality
Sexuality
Georgia~O’Keefe
Goth~Art
Leader
Patriotism
Schindler’s~List
Pan’s~Labyrinth
Ironman
Superman
Spiderman
Jesus
Bible
History
Black&White
Evil~vs~Solemn
Primary
Emphasis
Blood
Passion
Flamenco
Red
Blue
Marvel~Comics
Refer
Symbolize
Prominence
Contrast
Sin~City
Wealth
Red~Canna
Women’s~Body
Holiness
Purity
Sacredness
Wedding
Funeral
Dress
Joy
Sorrow
Captain~America

were included to make……..

(drum roll please)

Our colorful wordle word cloud.

Resources and Links

Power Point Slide that helped us for our presentation: archetypes__stereotypes1

The power point has all of the examples in this blog post; however, it only serves as a very basic outline to a presentation on this topic.

Naver Web-Toon

Daum Web-Toon

Official Website for Pan’s Labyrinth

#1 In what ways would you need to change your routine in order to disconnect yourself from all media (i.e. no TV, no Internet, etc.) What problems would you encounter if you unplugged for one day? One week? One month?

#2 How many hours per week do you estimate you spend on Facebook or similar personal networking sites? What are the benefits and disadvantages of using these sites?

#3 To what extent are you aware of viral marketing, the use of “advertorials” (presenting advertisements as editorial content), or direct marketing on Facebook and other social networking sites?

#4 Personal response based on your individual viewing of “Growing Up Online”.

How would I disconnect myself?

Disconnecting from digital media has actually been happening in periodic intervals in my life. Although my usual everyday life is very deeply immersed and connected to the digital media, there always have been at least one occasion when my life had been cut from access to internet, television, and my cell phone for over 72 hours. They usually happened over my summer camp experiences for about 3 weeks. I did not actually feel much difficulty at the lack of access to the digital world. The only possible difficulty was that I was late on the latest news, especially on sports, as I am not particularly in the habit of reading news papers, not even the sports section. Although it did provide minor problems to me when I returned back home and had to catch up on the latest game results, transfers, and scandals, it wasn’t a very serious problem. During my disconnection, everybody in the community in the general was disconnected too, and when I returned it only took a few hours for me to catch up on a month’s worth of news anyways. I am pretty sure that if I were to be sure of my disconnection from internet/telecommunication media for an extended period of time, I will resort to other media (newspapers, news, etc.) to satiate my need for information and wouldn’t be much of a problem.

How many hours?

I would probably spend at least five hours a day on facebook and other internet website/communities. The biggest activity I do online is researching/interacting on a soccer  community. I review the results, highlights, and discuss the contents of the game with the people online. It’s not always serious, with a lot of jokes going around; however, I do gain some ‘benefits’ (my mother would object I think) from this involvement. My second priority on the internet these days is my commitment to facebook. My time on facebook varies significantly, depending on the events that happen on the day, but recently it has been on a steady rise on average. I’m not particularly into facebook and interacting with people through it; however, I do enjoy the convenience it provides in communicating with people. Being very used to the communities formed on the internet, I feel very comfortable at the cultural uniqueness of the facebook community, notably in the language we use and the content we talk about. It provides a certain level of intimacy and immediacy in communication, and also has become one of the standard ways in getting to know new people: adding friends on facebook. However, there is the problem of privacy. It is not very hard to find out, or at least guess (to quite a surprisingly high accuracy) about some people’s more private lives through facebook then some of us may enjoy.

Advertorial Marketing

I notice quite a few advertorials in the sites I use. Since the ones I use are all free for their service, I understand their need for monetary income and advertisements is sometimes the only real way to satiate this need. Sometimes, the intent are more subtle and I won’t notice until it has been pointed out; however, many times it is quite evident, and I do not pay much attention to it.

Personal Belief

All generation have been concerned by the next generation being so different from them. They are more corrupt, immoral, reckless, senseless, less intellectual, etc. etc. This gap has always existed, but humanity has yet to fail (arguable but, there’s still nearly 7 billion of us no?) The assertion that this gap is wider than ever before may or may not be true. There seems to be a belief that the Internet is going to be an all powerful media, entirely changing the lives of humans before and after. I would like to both agree and disagree. It is true that the extent and influence of the Internet is entirely different from what humans have ever experienced before. Literally the entire world has been connected in a matter of seconds. However, the simple fact that it is still humans behind the media has not changed. Many people have an instilled fear against the mechanization over what is supposed to be ‘human.’ For some reason publications on the internet are not to be trusted while any book we read can be trusted. We are afraid of people taking on a different persona on the net, different from what they “really” are in “real” life. The term “virtual” and “real” do not hold true anymore to me, whenever did any creator ever tell us we can only be of one character? There certainly may be rising concerns about the level of importance internet is beginning to have in youth’s lifes, but I believe it still may be a bit too early to really evaluate the effects of these changes. Our first internet generation have yet to grow up.

With the new rush of college acceptance fever raging around me recently, I was presented these two articles to reflect upon. Rather very relevant to what most of see and experience in our lives today as students in a highly competitive prep school. For the past few years, the hagwon industry has become one the largest and the most consistent industries in all of Korea. Regardless of the economic condition, both domestically and internationally, families never cut down on their budget for their children’s private education. Actually, I think it may even be a plausible theory that more money could have been spent on hagwons when the economy was hard, (“you must study more to survive in these harsh conditions!” kind of attitude, would be interesting if someone had statistical data on this). Nonetheless, hagwons had been more or less a widely Korean and domestic culture. However, with ‘globalization’ and more Korean students studying overseas, the hagwon industry is also experiencing a type of diaspora.

increasing numbers of elementary and middle school students study overseas

There has been a lot of skepticism towards many students in Korea being overly dependent on their private education systems to do succesfully overseas. However, with the expansion of the industry, it seems that soon these worries will be of little importance. It is true that there is still a lot of skepticism towards the long term effectiveness of these institutions for the students. They are criticized of making students into assignment/test taking machines, severely limiting and impairing the student’s creativity and character. Also, the vicious cycle of degrading public education, causing more investment in private education, leading to lack of respect and interest for public education, leading again to the downgrading of public education cannot be prevented or eliminated by the further expansion of the industry. One of the alarming facts may be that, although traditionally the hagwon industry has been more or less targeted towards students in high school or younger, that with the diaspora into the U.S., the main target has changed to college students. Why the worry? Korean students who study overseas have to become independent, more so than the students who would study near home. There is a reason that the freshmen year in college is also the year that in most countries one is given the rights and responsibilities as an adult citizen. As a fully capable member of the society, the person is expected to be self-sustaining, responsible, critical, and constructive to the society. One of the roles of colleges I believe, is to prepare the adjustment into these new responsibilities and duties to the new adults, first by increasing the distance from our prior support systems. However, the extension of the hagwon system into the level of college will prove to be a severe impediment to this process. Already, ‘hagwon styled’ high school students entering U.S. colleges (and even Korean colleges for that matter) being cricized for that lack of social awareness, critical thinking skills, creativity, social skills, communication abilities, etc. things that are rapidly becoming of increasing value in the 21st century. At least they could do learn these things, or start to learn them in college, but now that hagwons have extended their reach across the Pacific Ocean to universities, when will our youth ever learn of these values and ethics? This is not just an educational and economic problem, although some may feel that I am stretching the issue to far, I believe that the unimpeded growth of the private education industry in Korea has immense potential to do severe damage in the social and political structure of the country as well. The country so proud of the educational zeal for its students; it is a shame that this zeal is pushing our children in the way which so many of us know is the wrong direction.

a korean hagwon

The growing concern for their youth, however, does not seem to be an issue confined to Korea. Reports of cheating and immoral teens in America has apparently increased. Cheating has been a growing issue in SIS also, with the regulations becoming stricter by the year, and supposedly more students cheating. I say supposedly because I am frankly a bit skeptical towards the research. The concern for the ‘defilement of youth’ has been the concern for humanity, for as long as I know, ALL of its history. At the induction ceremony for the NHS for the year 2009-2009, our principal Mr. Corcoran quoted Socrates who accused the youth of his days of being irresponsible, corrupt, demoralizing, and violent. Cheating and immorality I do not believe has not increased by a significant portion; however, methods to catch them, and the general attitude towards cheating may have changed. Along with increased technology, the benefit has definitely been on the teachers’ side to catch cheaters. Students are more or less forced to the more classical methods of cheating. Why? when a case of cheating using high tech. is caught, a single case, then the teachers can just outlaw the usage of the device from future tests. Just compare the SAT testing sites and environment for the past ten years. There has been immense technological advancement during the past decade, but the materials used for the test remain more or less the same. However, being the enforcers of the rule, the teachers can use all the technology they want to catch cheaters, for example turnitin.com. Another thing is that as students get older and more frequently exposed to cheating and even other corruptions of society (primarily due to the infinite access of information through the internet), they become less conservative/secretive about it. They know a ton of other people cheat their way through life, including some of the most sucessful adults in the world, many do not feel that it is a serious crime to get a ‘little bit of extra help’ on a few school work. Who set the precedents for this environment? I don’t know, but I believe the internet was developed by the Pentagon and the men there…

Seeing that humans had chosen hunting as one of their first methods of living, far before settlement, it seems natural that we as a species have all developed a kind of  a warrior tradition. There has yet to be a human society/civilization/group without any kind of military power, and as much as we prefer peace even now, warriors have never failed to be given recognition and praise.

even before we could talk, we held weapons

from the movie "Batman Begins"

you can even play super soccer when you master your 'chi'

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another link nature and warrior tradition  evident in Eastern culture is the different ‘forms.’  In Eastern martial arts, the different forms of fighting are imitations or derived from different animals. There is a direct link, as eash form takes the natural offense/defense/characters of the different animals into the fighting styles. For example, the ‘turtle form’ would be heavily focused on the defensive aspects, where as the ‘tiger form’ would be much more offensive.

Despite the vast variety of cultures, the warrior tradition has taken a similar path of development, an interesting commonality we may often overlook. Is it a testament to the general nature of human character and the development of society? It seems like, it just may be so.

Introduction
China is definitely one of the most important centers of change in the world today. The rapid change has definitely brought positive effects to China’s economy and its status in the global community, both greatly welcomed by the Chinese government. The development hasn’t only been giving light to China though; its shadows become darker as the light grows. Especially for the young Chinese who have experienced both the old, socialistic China and the current new, capitalist China are facing difficult choices and situations in life. What they’ve learned before and what they see now are not the same. The great return of Chinese from overseas is only making the situation worse. These Chinese, confused about their identity and ethical values, are brewing into a social class that is conflicted and troubled, at the same time being the driving force of the new China’s economic success.

1. Why do you think Miranda Hong describes her generation of Chinese as “confused”?

Due to the rapid industrialization and modernization, China is experiencing lots of conflicting ideals. In the past few decades, Chinas has undergone some drastic social changes. The current driving engines of China, those men and women in their late teens to 30s were born right after the Cultural Revolution. Even after the revolution, the leftist ideas were still strongly prominent in the China around them and probably in their parents’ minds. However, with the adoption of capitalism into China, things started to change rapidly. For example, the young Chinese remember the rations they received in their youth. Now, having adopted capitalism, China does not have rations, the amount of food you eat is determined by the amount of money you can afford. Also, the older generation still remember and hold on to the Maoism ideals of “serving the community/country”, where as the general trend of the youth is to “get rich” and “have a good life (enjoy).” The youth in China are confused because of the discrepancy between what they experienced and learned in their youth, and what they learn from the changing society as they grow older. Adding on to this confusion is the large input from the Chinese who had gone overseas. Having grown up in liberal countries, these people are completely different from the more traditional Chinese ideals and accelerate the rate of change. These young entrepreneurs from overseas often find themselves at a loss to their identity and ethics. Where do they truly belong? The working environment (especially in terms of too tight ties and relations between the business and the political world) conflicts with their ethical values. Another conflict probably came with the incident of the Tianemen Square. This student movement towards democratization in 1989 ended in a violent bloodshed after the Chinese government used military forces to put off the people. It is still a taboo to speak about it in China, but remains vivid in the minds of many, some choose to uphold the values of the movement, while others try to put away the memory and flee from it. The rapidly changing China has definitely brought it immense economic growth and success; however, the trade off may be big. The upcoming Chinese wonder about their identity, about the differences from what they learned as children, and what they learn now, and the conflicting social events that still remain vivid in both their hearts and minds.

2. In what ways do you think Ben Wu, the entrepreneur launching the Internet café, is representative of the “new” China?

Ben Wu is representative of the “new” China in a several ways. First, he took an active part in creating a private business. The switch to capitalism has been rather recent in China, and there are still some restrictions to launching a private business. However, private businesses have been springing up in China like bamboo shoots and Ben Wu is one of them. Also his oversea experience is also quite representative. It is representative of the way that China wishes to change, towards the more democratic and free world, as Ben Wu experienced overseas. Over the last decade or so, the number of returning Chinese from overseas has been increasing greatly, accelerating China’s rate of globalization. The business project of Internet café, is also quite representative of the “new” China. China wishes to be globally recognized, and become globalized itself, and there is no doubt that the internet is the most important and effective medium in this world of globalization. Also, it was evident from the video clips that foreign investment played a large role in the creation of the Internet café. In order to step up to the global community, China has been trying hard to attract foreign buyers and investors into China, and Ben Wu successfully represents such trends. Another aspect that Ben Wu represents may be the religious aspect. Ben Wu confesses that he has become a Christian. Still a communist country, active preaching and missionary work to other personnel in China are illegal, but the practice of Christianity and other religions have been reportedly increasing. The causes for the increase may be numerous, but there is a definite trend of more Chinese becoming more religious.

3. To what extent are the struggles of the rapper, Wang Xiaolei, unique as a Chinese artist?

Like many hip hop artists around the world, Wang Xiaolei did not have an abundant childhood. However, atypical of hip hop artists in Korea, he does not really have experience with American culture. The majority of hip hop artists I Korea have some kind of a background in America; however, Xiaolei has only interacted with American (especially African American) culture indirectly through internet and music. Nonetheless, Wang Xiolei says that it was easy for him to identify with the suffering of the African Americans. The common ground probably comes from the socio-economic status of the two groups. Many African American hip hop artists are from the lower end of the soci-economic status like Wang Xiaolei, anywhere in the world, the suffering because you are poor and weak is the same. However he is still uniquely Chinese in that he has a great pride in his Chinese origins. His lyrics are often based on Chinese myths and cultural aspects, the types of things he experienced in China when he was young, or the things he experiences in China right now as a youth. His accessories are all in Chinese characters, atypical of what you would find in Korean artists, whose accessories tend to be in English. However, other than the Chinese cultural aspects directing his musical color into a slightly different path, Wang Xiaolei does not seem to differ greatly from other hip hop artists and youths over the world. He faces monetary problems, due to the small market and the small chance of success, living off daily by being a DJ at a club. He has girl issues, from a coming from a rash decision over the internet. Wang Xiaolei does have unique characteristics that can only be found in China; however, in the rapidly globalizing world of today, he shares the same concerns and life of many others.

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Here is my assignment

Consider the idea of change - how did the Ibo people change in reaction to the forces above? In what ways were changes positive or negative?

Consider the major contact points and change agents that impact the Korean-American diaspora. What are they? To what extent do they create change?

• Your example #1
• Your example #2
• Your example #3

Why is the title of the novel Things Fall Apart? Where does the title originate from? (see post below on “The Second Coming”). How is the title relevant to the idea of diaspora?

Not a very easy topic. Starting from the first two questions… there seems to be no definitive answer for these questions, primarily because the Ibo people reacted in differing sometimes, subjective ways to the changes they experienced. Upon remembering back to the book, I believe the readers are in fact only introduced to two european characters in the entire book. More often, the conflict is between the Ibo people themselves, those who have converted to the european side, and those who have not. To the majority (or so it seems from the narrative) of the Ibo who still try to maintain their traditional ways of life, the change is both blasphemous and disasterous. The society’s rules, hierarchies, religion, life style, and everything they have ever dreamed of is ripped away and disregarded. Taking away the physical settings of a people is one thing, but messing with their philosphical, emotional, and religious system is something on a entirely higher level. There isn’t really a way of restoration. Cities survive war and destruction. Beijing, the capital of China has survived numerous raids and conquering by a number of different cultures. The walls were brought down and the houses burnt. However, Beijing still stands as the capital of China. The city, the physical aspects of a people’s lives can be rebuilt. However, of the numerous cultures that dominated and were defeated in Beijing, only one prevails to this day. The other cultures have vanished, or survive barely, far from notice of the public.

What the Ibo people faced was similar, it was the destruction of their mental stability and home. Most were driven to fear and some to rage. Strangely enough; however, even though the mental aspect is so important, many succumb to the reality of its destruction when they realize that it is on the way. A prominent exception may be the Jews. They never gave up on their religion, philosophy, and the dream of going back to their mental home: the rebuilding of Zion. Although there are numerous other factors, I believe the strong zeal and belief of the Jews in their own culture and self-identity during the diaspora was key to their return into Israel (with much controversy yes, but that shouldn’t be discussed in this post).

Well on the otherside of the hand, the Ibo people who welcomed the european change probably found it welcoming. Now at this point, we should notice something. Those who were the first and the most zealous about the european ways of life were the slaves and the women. This is actually a very common trend. Even in Korea, when Christianity was first introduced, women believers were a main force in its distribution. Why? because change causes a disruption in the social hierarchy system. That means, that change would benefit those who were traditionally at the lower ends of the system. We see that those most furious about the inflow of european influences include the egwegwus (is that how you spell them?) the ‘gods’ of the village, the most revered, and most powerful men. The change caused by european influence was in fact, a distorted version of a revolution for those in the lower class. I don’t know if they intended it, but europeans were quite geniuses to try convert the religion of the region they were going to colonize. The process was undoubtedly going to cause internal conflict, which would cause chaos and weakening of the region, with only a handful of men and a few more bibles, before the millitary forces went in and ‘cleaned up’ the rest.

Anyways, back to the questions. Although not extreme as the examples discussed above, diaspora and its effects can still be found, even around me. For god’s sake, I may even be considered an example of Korean Diaspora. As a Korean-American (although some may now wish to take the Korean part away), strictly speaking, I am not a part of the Korean culture, as percieved by the majority of the Korean public. It is a well known story that Korean Americans are quite strongly discriminated in public in Korea. Although on a private level, fewer individuals show animosity towards background of my kind, on a public level, the animosity towards Korean-Americans is very high. As a result, despite the recent movements towards a more embracing society, the regulations on Korean-Americans has only become stronger, even legally.

Two more unique groups are also a part of the Korean Diaspora. The first to be discussed are the Korean-Japanese population. Due to the geographical and relative cultural proximity, immigration to Japan to escape (ironic enough) Japanese persecution during the colonization period was common. The 2nd and 3rd generation of those immigrants are now posing an obstacle to both Korean and Japanese cultures. Having grown up in Japan, these youths are culturally Japanese; however, they not recognized as ‘full citizens’ of Japan. Sadly enough, without the cultural ties into Korea, Korean-Japanese have an extremely hard time adjusting to Korean culture. This issue was recently widely published to the media as a famous ex-Judo player, current professional fighter Choo Sung-hoon came onto a popular Korean tv show and described his exclusion from both countries because he was a Korean-Japanese. The Korean sentiment towards these people are much more sympathetic, partly due to the amount of discrimination they have to experience in Japan. Nonetheless, the systematic structure and cultural aspect strongly emphasizing personal ties for success, has downplayed on a successful integration of the Korean-Japanese into Korea also. Yet again, despite such disadvantages, the public’s acceptance towards Korean-Japanese has greatly increased due to Choo, and a much more bright future probably can be expected (on the other hand… Steven Yoo for Korean-Americans… sigh….)

The last of the three examples of Korean diaspora I want to talk about is a very unique one, and one I am actually not sure if it can be classified under Korean diaspora, but I will talk about it anyways.  It is about the immigrants into Korea. Immigration into Korea was probably started as a major trend after the economical boost in the 60s and the 70s. Due to the lack of women in the farming regions, women from over sea countries like the Phillipines or Vietnam were actively brought in (this process is still widely active in rural areas). Also, more recently, due to lack of labor force (and Korean youth complain about the difficulty in getting a job…. hmmmm?) foreign workers have been brought in. Another source was the marriage between American soldiers in Korea with Korean women. The wives/husbands of course had to settle into the Korea, and the foreign workers too sometimes chose to bring in their family and/or settle in Korea by themselves at least. Though discrimination to these 1st generation ‘immigrants’ into Korea is a large problem, the discrimination and social problems rising from the 2nd/3rd generation immigrants may still yet pose a larger problem. Although they do not constitute a large part of the entire population, these Koreans of ‘non-yellow’ skin have taken a definitive presence in the country. However, it has also become definitive that these children are subjective to extreme amount of verbal, mental, and physical bullying. Many of these children have Mongolian or south east asian parents, which many Koreans, conciously or subconciously consider inferior to themselves. Difference in physical features, lack of mastery over the Korean language, and foreign sounding names are sources that reveal the different heredity of these children (and the parents) and the cause of the discrimination. With the emergence of star singer, In soon yi, the public’s view on the immigrants are slowly starting to change. However, reports of abuse against foreigners, and their children are much too frequently heard to be of any comfort. Sad to note, I can even easily identify people who would refuse (or at least be extremely uncomfortable) non-Koreans as being a part of the Korean society amongst my friends, and even in my family.

Diaspora. It usually not a very well known world, but there are many examples of diaspora even around us. Unfortunate I had to give only some of the worse case examples, but that’s reality, some parts of this world are much too darker than we’d like them.