The Beige Report

pickle jar in deep space field

2005-11-20T18:36:00.000+08:00

half-empty one-gallon pickle jar floating in deep space against mat black background starlight dots and the milky way and fat green pickles with green light-green barnacled whale-skin skin dill pickles stacked in a crisscross pattern and the starlight bends through the rough manufactured glass and the murky swamp-green pickle soup like a distant green beacon across the sound

A Father for Her Child

2005-11-19T22:01:00.000+08:00

I stepped off the bus in front of city hall: a circular atrium fronted the building and the walls ran off at 45-degree angles like a triangle embedded in a tin can and covered with white granite.

I noticed her across the entry road to city hall. She was standing at the edge of the basketball court, pulling a little boy, her son off the backboard supports. He stumbled to the ground and she took his hand. "Come on," she said in Korean. "Come on."

She hoisted a blue and white toy truck with a handle, the kind with a plastic seat on top and four small wheels so kids can scoot themselves along. She rested it against her thigh. The arm supporting the truck strained, her elbow jutted above her shoulder at a sharp right angle. The truck banged against her thigh and the wheels rattled with each stride.

The boy's skin was milky white and his eyes were almost circular ovals. His forehead was large and curved in below his hairline, a widow's peak. He was mixed: Asian and Caucasian. The boy stumbled behind her. He strained to keep up, almost fell repeatedly. "You're in trouble," she told him. She stopped in front of a police car guarding the city hall, parked at the entrance.

The police officer stood behind the opened door. One arm rested on the top, one foot in the car. "Officer," she called. He saw her and straightened up: dropped his hands to his sides, placed his feet squarely on the ground, and turned to her. "This boy is very naughty," she said. "He does not listen to his mother. He needs to be punished. I would like you to arrest him and take him to jail."

She wore a short, heavily worn denim skirt with frayed fringes. Her smooth white thighs glowed obscenely underneath and she wore dirty white canvas sneakers with three-inch platforms. The once-new, glossy white plastic was scuffed with black streaks and motor grease. Her top was a tight white spandex blend and the outline of her bra lace and straps shown. As she bent over holding her son's hand, dragging him, her low cut top exposed her expansive cleavage. Her breasts were fake. They did not move when she bent over. They remained unnaturally firm, round, unsagging.

The police officer studied her and then her son. He looked down at the boy. "You've been bad, huh?" He studied the boy's blank expression. "Okay, come on, I'm going to have to take you in." He reached his hand out to the boy and gestured toward the car with his head. The mother squatted, sat on her heels to look in the boy’s eyes. I looked intently at her closed knees, strained to see up her skirt. "You go with the man and maybe you can come home later if you're good," she said to her son. He stared blankly back at her.

The policeman took his hand, helped him into the passenger seat, and gently closed the door behind the boy. The mom waved from outside. "Bye, bye." The boy swung his head around slowly, struggled to take in the objects swimming across his field of vision. He stopped at the police officer as he settled into the driver's seat, contemplated him. The boy’s empty expression never changed.

Out of the corner of her eye, the woman caught me staring. She stood up, left the police officer talking to the small boy inside the car, and took a step toward me. I looked away and continued walking. "Are you American?" she called at me in slightly accented American English. I glanced toward her and away. "Yes," I said without breaking stride. She took two more quick steps toward me. "Come here. I want to talk to you." She said. "Where are you going?" I was passed her and did not turn. I shouted back louder than intended: "Home!"

Happy Birthday Jerry!

2005-10-21T16:45:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was Jerry's birthday. He turned 60.

A niece bought him a coffee walnut cake (above). It reportedly cost $60US. It was worth every cent.

Jerry's other niece's husband, Chi, also celebrated his birthday yesterday. Above they are cutting the cake. I call this photo "Two Winning Smiles."

Judy, Jerry's wife, gave him a this solid gold rooster figurine (above) for his birthday. It's a traditional Chinese gift for 60-year-olds. It signifies long life. I'm guessing it cost a little more than the cake.

Here's to your long life Jerry!

Wulai, Ewh-la-la

2005-10-18T23:26:00.000+08:00

Jiyeoun and I took a day trip to Wulai (pronounced Ewh-lie) last weekend. We've been there twice before to visit a hot spring resort. The town is famous for them. But, this time we also spent some time looking around Wulai's main street.

The hot spring spa that brought us back to Wulai for the third time is high up on the side of a mountain overlooking the river. It's totally swank and unlike any place I have ever seen. The main, entry building is spectacular. It has a pink stucco facade, huge bay windows overlooking the valley below, high vaulted ceilings, and a wide winding oak staircase. But, what is most impressive about the place is the bathing area. The baths -- there are seven -- are scattered around an immaculate outdoor tropical garden populated with palm trees, flowering bushes, and plush lawns. The pools are covered by stained, wood gazebos capped with straw roofs and connected by inlaid brick and stone pathways. The only thing I've seen comparable is in travel brochures for five-star resorts in the Bahamas.

But, the best part is you can enjoy the whole calming, tropical atmosphere and the steaming, hot-spring pools in your birthday suit. The spa is separated by the sexes and hidden behind a high wood fence and dense vegetation. Visitors enter the bathing area through the locker rooms. They change out of their clothes, stow their valuables, and lockup. They are all assigned a bag containing two towels and a pair of bath slippers. When customers exit the locker room, they are confronted by a bay of showers. They are expected to wash up and then are free to wonder the outdoor bathing area naked as a jay bird.

Now, I am no exhibitionist, hedonistnist, or nudist. But, there is nothing as freeing as wondering around a jungle garden bare-assed and dangling. Very primal. My favorite thing to do is stew in the hottest pool until I'm cooked and jump into the ice-cold pool. Goose bumps run along my flesh and my skin turns as tough as leather. My heart speeds up and a cool breeze runs through my brain. I sit in the cold water as long as I can stand it, return to the hottest pool, and repeat the process. I can sit in the ice-cold water much longer than the hot. There's something deeply invigorating about the cold -- becoming one with a still block of ice. Nice. (Sorry, there are no pictures of the inside of the spa for obvious reasons.)

After the hot spring, we went to downtown Wulai -- the whole 300 yards of it (pictured above). Wulai was originally an small aboriginal village. The original name for the town, Kirofu-Ulai, comes from Atayal. Hence, Wulai is famous for is native food or, as Taiwanese call it, mountain food. Surprisingly, sitting in a steaming hot tub of water works up an appetite in a man. So we took full advantage of the opportunity the combination of our empty stomachs and Wulai's wonderful food provided.

We started our aboriginal, gastronomic tour at the wine and sweets shop. Apparently, the native Taiwanese people make damn good fruit wines. But, no one except me wanted to down a bottle of wine in the middle of main street before dinner. Instead, we sampled some fresh made rice cake balls. They didn't seem particularly "native" but I wasn't complaining. They tasted excellent. The sweets come in trays of 15-20. Customers could mix and match flavors including green tea, cinnamon, brown sugar, and sweet potato. The ladies in the picture below made the rice cakes to order and the four of us -- mostly Jerry -- polished off a full tray.

From the wine and sweet shop, we moved on to the grill stand (picture below). For 100 Taiwan Dollars ($3 US) customers could pick from a menu that included chicken, shrimp, sausage, breaded anchovys, fish balls, beef, tuna, pork, and mushroom skewers. The lady threw our selections on the grill and 4-5 minutes later we had steaming kebobs.

There was a table next to the stand with a wide assortment of sauces: green salsa, barbecue, spicy mustard, wasabi, garlic etc. (picture below). Customers were invited to slather their order in the sauce of their choice and chow down on the street. My favorite kebobs were the shrimp and mushroom. The shrimp were whole and unshelled with antennae and all. The lady dowsed them in black pepper before handing them over, steaming hot. They had the consistency I imagine roasted locus have coming off the grill: crunchy with a soft, juicy meat filling. The spice bit the sides of my mouth. The mushrooms were fresh, fat, and wet. Juices ran off the skewers when she handed them over. We slathered them in garlic sauce so strong we could taste it in our mouths when we woke up the next morning and gulped them down one fat mushroom head at a time.

Lastly, we went to a native restaurant. (The picture below is a picturesque version of the one we patronized.) The fair was very simple: steamed and flavored with garlic and salt. The vegetables sat outside the restaurant and dinners selected the greens they wanted steamed like people pick fish at a market. The cook threw it into a pot and slid it onto your table minutes later. The steamed vegetables did little for me. The all tasted similar after the heavy seasoning.

But, what was awesome was the steamed, rice-stuffed bamboo (foreground ground of picture below). The dish is made by chopping bamboo into cylinders. The bottom is closed and the top is open. The bamboo is filled with flavored (nuts and brown grain, maybe) rice and steamed. Dinners crack open the bamboo along the scored side and eat out the sticky rice. The bamboo membrane comes with it. Yummy!

From there, we dragged our blotted bellies and blissful smiles back to the car. Kings don't live this well.

Settled in to Our New Apartment

2005-09-27T17:42:00.000+08:00

So Jiyeoun and I have finally settled in to our new apartment. As I wrote in a previous post, Jiyeoun worked long and hard to find our place. We were very close to signing a contract for another apartment, but we pulled out after reading the contract. The terms were extremely disadvantageous for the renter. We contemplated living with the Lus for a little while. They offered to put us up and it seemed like a good opportunity to experience Taiwan with the natives. But, we eventually decided against that as well.

Then, two long weeks into the apartment search, Jiyeoun stumbled across the place we are in now. It’s a 10-minute walk from the Yongan Market MRT station, about a 45 minute commute to work. It takes Jiyeoun 30 minutes to get to school.

The apartment is a fully furnished, one-bedroom with a separate living room, kitchen and bath. The landlord, an engaged, professional woman, lived in the apartment before we moved in so the place is clean and the furniture is quality. We’ve got leather sofas, a matching cherry furniture set, a laundry machine, and a fully equipped kitchen. She left tones of useful knickknacks: an umbrella, cleaning supplies, hangers, matches, power strips, etc. The only things we had to buy were a coffee maker, iron, and corkscrew.

But, the best part is that there is a huge park a two-minute-walk away. The park has a fountain, wading pool, theater, gazebo, and ample open space. The central library is also located there. I have been told that foreigners can make a library card and check out books at any library in Taiwan as long as they bring their passport. I plan to put this claim to the test soon.

I’ve taken to running in the park in the evenings after work for exercise. I run around the park three times. I guess it’s about a mile and a half, maybe. I’m happy to be exercising after all these years.

Jiyeoun did a good job.

Danshi

2005-09-11T12:25:00.000+08:00

It’s been a busy week. I don’t know how other bloggers post daily and still have a life. I can’t do both at the same time. I’m sitting on pictures from our first week in Taiwan that I haven’t had time to post. Such is life, I guess.

The highlight of last week was easily Saturday our trip to Danshi on Saturday. Danshi is a small town between the mouth of the Danshi River and the sea. It’s the last stop going north on the red line out of Taipei. The trip takes about an 45-minutes on the metro from downtown Taipei.

Jiyeoun and arrived in the late afternoon. The sun was going down and things were cooling off. The first place we visited was Danshi’s main street.

It was packed with people, food stands, and assorted shops. My favorite store was the made-to-order soup shop pictured below.

Customers pick from beef, pork, or seafood based broths and specify what ingredients they want in the soup. In the foreground of the picture above there are shrimp balls and dumplings. In the background there are bean sprouts, noodles, egg rolls, and pork. They all can be added to your soup. We bought the pearl tea I wrote about in my last post on Danshi’s main street.

From there, we walked along the boardwalk. The sun was setting and we watched from the bank of the river as we drank our tea.

Like Main Street, the boardwalk was full of food stands and restaurants. But, it was also littered with fortunetellers, teahouses, and souvenir shops. My favorite was this karaoke. For 10 Taiwan dollars (30 cents US) you can select from a catalogue of thousands of songs and sing it in front of passersby on the boardwalk. When we walked by, a little girl of 7 or 8 was singing for about 30 people who had gathered to watch. You can see the back of her head in the foreground of the picture below.

From the boardwalk, Jiyeoun and I went to look for a place to have dinner. We ended up having some decent Japanese food: tempura, fish, sushi cones, rice, and soup. But, during the search, we came across this place.

For me it typifies the use of space in North East Asia. This is a soup restaurant. All the people in line are waiting for their orders. This picture does not show the crowd of people at the tables behind the counter sitting shoulder to shoulder eating their dinner. I’ve been in crowds like this in other places and it’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

After dinner, we took a ferry to the fisherman’s wharf about a mile up the Danshi on the edge of the sea. We arrived late so the seafood market was closed. There was little to look at, except for this beautiful footbridge, which connected the wharf to the mainland.

Jiyeoun and I did a quick lap around the market and returned to Danshi on the ferry. It was a wonderful night. The breeze was blowing in off the sea and the mainland was lit up like a Christmas tree. The ferry ride was too bumpy to take decent pictures though. So you’ll have to satisfy yourself with your own imagination.

Pearl Tea

2005-09-05T23:15:00.000+08:00

Jiyeoun and I finally had "pearl tea". The Lonely Planet guide book describes it as "sweetened tea with chewy black balls of tapioca at the bottom." It's served in a plastic cup with a tight seal and thick straw. The Chinese word for it is zhēnzhū nǎichá. Don't ask me to pronounce it. Jiyeoun ordered for me.

The tea cost 45 TWD ($1.40 USD) at a roadside stand in Danshui. (More on Danshui later.) The tea was good. It was not as sweet as I expected. It tasted like Earl Grey with milk and balls of nut jelly in it. It was surprisingly filling for tea. I'd rate it as better than average. I'm certainly going to try it again somewhere else. I'm sure there are dozens of variations. The streets are littered with pearl tea stands.

Update on International Aid for Hurricane Katrina

2005-09-03T09:51:00.000+08:00

The Washington Post ran a story, "Rice: U.S. Receiving Offers of Hurricane Aid From Around the Globe." In part, the piece says that "59 countries and organizations" have offered aid to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The list includes "poor countries such as El Salvador, Armenia, the Philippines and India" and "countries with which the United States has no relations or poor relations, such as Cuba and Venezuela." The article also quotes Rice as expressing her "heartfelt thanks" to all nations for demonstrating solidarity and saying, "Every offer is important.... We've turned down no offers."

I still think Bush's comment regarding international aid for Katrina's victims, which sent me off on a rant in my last post, was stupid. But, I am happy to see the confusion dispelled. The people around Bush are smarter than he is. Rice said what her boss should have: "Recently, we have seen the American people respond generously to help others around the globe during their times of distress, such as during the recent tsunami.... Today, we are seeing a similar urgent, warm and compassionate reaction from the international community in response to Katrina."
Thank you international community. We appreciate your support.

Superpower Arrogance?

2005-09-02T22:00:00.000+08:00

I agonized over what to call this post: super power pride, Bush's arrogance, who donates to the rich?, Bush's stubbornness, when is help bad?, take it when you can get it, or why the hell not? It's all inspired by the same question: why isn't the United States soliciting and receiving aid/donations from the international community to help along the Gulf Coast?

I read the following in the Taipei Times (which, based on my two weeks in Taiwan, is a mediocre paper at best):

Taiwan is always looking to make a good impression in the US. Fox News has noted that no country has offered to help after the hurricane we just had. Maybe offering help would be a good gesture on the part of Taiwan.

Mike McKenzie
Lebanon, Missouri

So, reading this, I had two thoughts:

1) "Well damn. The world is fully of ungrateful bastards. With all of the aid and international help the United States gives you'd think at least one country would pony up and lend us a hand. What's up with that? Is the U.S. that taken-for-granted or that hated?"

2) That's the first time I've ever read an astute comment from Fox News.

Then in the Herald International Tribune, which is decidedly not mediocre, I read:

Countries including France, Germany, Russia and even Venezuela have volunteered assistance, but Bush said: "I'm not expecting much from foreign nations because we haven't asked for it."

This prompted a stream of thoughts:

1) Fox News really is shit. They apparently ran a story claiming that no country has offered help without even checking the facts. All it would have taken was a few calls to the White House. It's really not surprising that they would broadcast the information without checking. The idea that no other country offered to help serves their political agenda. It gives the impression that the United States is an ignored, scorned nation alone in a world of ingrates that take our help when they can get it and turn their back on us when we need them. This image is especially useful when the United States is the lone objector to the Kyoto protocol or the international criminal court, for example. Because then Fox and other conservatives can say: "We'll what do you expect from those ungrateful bastards? They didn't help us in New Orleans and they certainly aren't going to support us now. They are selfish and unreasonable and we are not. So, of course we would disagree."

2) The Taipei Times is worse than I thought. I don't think I will subscribe.

3) Bush is truly arrogant and clueless. (And, this is were I was going with this diatribe the whole time.) Why the hell wouldn't you ask for help? In a disaster of this magnitude, what harm does it do if your worse enemy offers help as long as it's useful? Venezuela is even offering help. Venezuela, whose president Pat Robertson suggested the United States assassinate, is offering help! What the fuck is the logic of not soliciting/taking their help? Is Bush that arrogant that even when the country he presides over needs help, he won't ask for it or, even worse, won't take it? Who is so important, so powerful that they don't need help from even the poorest among us at times? And, if there ever was a time the United States needs help, this is it. People are dying by the thousands along the Gulf Coast. New Orleans is flooding and being rocked by explosions. 5 million people are without power. The Gulf is a toxic cesspool. Life in Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama won't be the same for months, years, or never. Then, why wouldn't you ask for help? Really, why?

I believe it's because Bush and many Americans are too proud. They have an image of the United States as the sole superpower, incredibly rich, implacable, head and shoulders above the rest of the world. To ask and certainly to take aid from other countries would disrupt this precious image. Better to let poor Americans suffer and die in the South than hurt our precious national pride.

The truth is the United States is richer and is better in many ways. (It's also worse in others.) But, we are not that much better or that much richer. Help is help. Take it where you can get it, especially when you need it most, Bush, you dumb fuck.

Talim Passes

2005-09-01T12:44:00.000+08:00

Radar Map of Taiwan at 12PM Local Time

The buzz of rain has been replaced by the howl of wind and even that is slowly quieting. We opened the doors and windows in the house to let the strong, warm wind sweep through the house. It's a nice feeling.

The view out our bedroom window this morning.

We slept through the worst of the rain last night and woke up to the rattle of windowpanes and the rustling of trees. The rain as completely subsided. The south-central area of Taiwan is still getting some precipitation. But, by this afternoon there should be nothing left of Kelim.

Precipitation Map of Taiwan at 12PM Local Time

Everyone is home. Jiyeoun prepared breakfast and Ceilo is cooking lunch. I've been reading the news online and doing laundry. It's a lazy, sleepy day. It's nice.

Students' First Day at Lih Jen

2005-08-31T21:58:00.000+08:00

I met my students for the first time on Tuesday. There are 32 of them so far. The number keeps changing. They seem decent. Their English ability varies widely. The best speaker can form complex questions in complete sentences, although she has a thick accent. The worst speaker does not know his English name and can not respond to simple yes/no questions. Teaching them is going to take some work. But, that's always the way.

I spent the first day observing and aiding my Chinese partner, Sophia. It was deathly boring. The lessons were all in Chinese, so I understood little, and most of it was introduction, review, or clerical work. I introduced myself, stapled letters into the student's workbooks, and helped with classroom management. By the end of the day, there was little for me to do and I sat at Sophina's desk in the back of the room reading the newspaper. She didn't seem to mind. She's nice enough, if a little disorganized. I hear she doesn't have a lot of experience teaching. Whatever I did she liked it. She gave me a big bow at the gate as I left and told me she was very lucky to have such a good partner. I don't believe her.

Today, from what I gathered, Sophia had a lot of clerical work to do and little planned in the way of a lesson. Here English is spotty so I have to infer a lot. She asked me to "take care of the students" while she worked. This translated as teaching the students for three hours. The English teachers were told they weren't going to start teaching until Thursday, so I didn't have anything prepared. It's nothing new honestly. I used to go into class with nothing prepared in Korea on a regular basis. But, it did take a little more hustle because I didn't have the students broken in yet or wasting-time materials ready at hand. Nonetheless, the lesson was okay for what it was. It did the job: kept the students occupied and relatively quite.

I was officially supposed to start teaching tomorrow. But, that's not going to happen because of typhoon Talim. The earliest I'll have the kids is Friday and it may be as late as Monday. It's a shame, too. I spent a good part of last week preparing lesson plans and my classroom. The place looks okay. It was incredibly messy when I arrived. The teacher before me was in the room for several years and it showed. There were petrified melon slices, dead cockroaches, and layers of dust, dirt and trash. I might have gone too far the other way though. My room resembles a 1950s mental ward now, with its shiny beige tile floors, glossy bare walls, and vast dead space. I plan on putting the kids to work making decorations.

The view out of my room is nice. There's a cute courtyard with palm trees, a garden, and a basketball court. The greenery and tall buildings in the distance create a modern, tropical feel. I can see the world's tallest building, the Taipei 101 out my window, too, which heightens the whole effect. I didn't get a very good picture of it on Tuesday. The 101 was obscured by haze and pollution when I took the picture above. You can barely make out its outline between the first and second buildings from the right in the foreground. I'll wait for a sunny day and take a better picture.

Reitzes Survived Katrina

2005-08-31T21:22:00.000+08:00

I got the below message from my aunt. The distant New Orleans Reitzes -- descendents of my great-aunt on my mother's side -- survived hurricane Katrina, but likely lost everything. My thoughts and prayers are with them and all of Katrina's victims. Please donate if you haven't already.

-----Original Message-----
From: Linda [E-mail Address Omitted]
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 8:43 PM
To: Mikey Reitz; Lisa Reitz; Lexann Henderson-Jackson
Subject: Margaret and Richard

I thought I'd pass along what is up with the southern part of our family tree...

John got Margaret to Malcolm's house in Sugarland Texas. In true John style, he thought he'd wait to leave on Sunday- figuring everyone would have left New Orleans on Saturday. They left Sunday at 2pm and got to Malcolm's at 4am. Traffic was obviously awful. Margaret is pretty shook up- figuring she won't have anything to go back to. She's 88 now and in poor health so it's hard for her as you can imagine. She figures it will be several weeks before she can go back to New Orleans, I'm thinking it will be more like several months. Margaret, John, John's wife and child are all staying with Malcolm's family indefinitely.

Richard WAS going to go to a local church with a neighbor during the hurricane- but ended up staying at the neighbor's house. They are OK - the home is OK. He can't leave the area as the roads are impassable - he has no electricity.

Talim in Taipei

2005-08-31T20:29:00.000+08:00

I'm experiencing my first typhoon tonight. Talim is forecast to make landfall off the east coast of Taiwan early tomorrow morning. It's already rainy heavily and the wind is gusting. I'm safely inside, but the buzz of rain hitting the building is constantly in the background. Talim is a category 4 (out of 5) typhoon. At its worst, it is supposed to produce gusts up to 141 mph (184 kph). Everyone is off tomorrow. I don't go to school, Jiyeoun's classes are canceled, and Ceilo and Mrs. Lu don't work.

It's like a snow day in North America. Everyone sat around work prying for a "typhoon day", passing on the latest bit of news, and discussing what they'll do if school is cancelled. The announcement came in around 2 p.m. that public schools were closing at four and a few people cheered because they wouldn't have to teach their evening classes. Jiyeoun met me at work after her school orientation and we traveled home together on the metro. It was packed with school children and government workers trying to beat the storm home. The mood was festive and calm.

When I left this afternoon, my coworkers were debating whither we will get Friday off as well. Talim's eye is predicted to pass just north-east of Taipei by tomorrow morning and move off the western cost of Taiwan by the evening. But as with all typoons, no one really knows. I wouldn't mind a four-day weekend even if two of the days were spent indoors. It says in my contract typhoon days are paid. I'll take the money and donate it to the victims of hurricane Katrina. I hope you will too. Ironic, donating money gained from a typhoon to help victims of a hurricane. Such is life.

Apartment Search Continued

2005-08-28T23:35:00.000+08:00

We spent the whole day Saturday looking for an apartment. The plan was to look at a few places and then go to the apartment Jiyeoun had the contract for. I'm not exactly sure what happened. I think Jiyeoun realized that I would probably be disappointed with the apartment she chose after seeing my reaction to the first few places we saw on Saturday. I turned up my nose at a some places she thought were "okay." She told me that I might have lowered my expectations if I had been with her last week when she was searching for apartments. There are a ton of old, dirty, funky flats for rent in Taipei. Shit-holes really. So the search continued.

I found a place I liked. It was clean, perfectly located across the street from Jiyeoun's university and close to my school, in a busy district, close to shopping and good restaurants, sunny, and had a balcony and a common garden patio. The only drawbacks were that it was small, expensive for it's size, and lacked some of the furniture we wanted. It's my first choice by far. But, Jiyeoun's not sure. So we keep looking.

We took a break from the apartment search today for lunch. Mrs. Lu cooked us a gigantic, wonderful meal. It included fresh fish, porridge, fried greens, pork, shrimp ball soup, tofu, bitter melon, noodles in brown sauce, and marinated tofu with roots and carrots.

Mrs. Lu is a wonderful cook. She made the whole meal in under an hour, which I found amazing. Honestly, part of it was a stalling tactic. She told us as much.

The Lus are putting the hard sell on their offer for us to stay with them. We had a big talk about it this morning and they genuinely seem to want us to stay. I think they like the extra excitement of having more people in the house. And, to their credit, they understood our apprehensions even before we voiced them. Jiyeoun and I are going to have to think about it more.

Jiyeoun's the one who has to do the thinking, really. I've made up my mind. The Lus' place is very comfortable and they are really first-class people. Having them to help and show us around would add a lot to our experience in Taiwan. Plus, they seem to genuinely enjoy us being here and are laid back enough not to worry about the usual small daily annoyances that go with living with non-family-members. Jiyeoun's got some thinking ahead of her. But, she seems to be leaning toward staying.

Beef Noodle Soup

2005-08-27T23:08:00.000+08:00

Name: Beef Noodle Soup
Description: Thick wheat noodles in beef and pepper broth with beef chunks and greens. Pickled and sliced root as a side dish. Sweetened cold green tea.
Location: Guting district, Taipei City, Taiwan
Price: 102 TWD, 3.66 USD.
Taste/Price Ratio: Above average.

Taipei Day Seven

2005-08-27T13:20:00.000+08:00

So much as happened since the last post on Monday. It's impossible to recount it all here. I started work at Lih Jen, the private elementary school where I'll be teaching English. There's a large staff of 18 English teachers from all over the world: South Africa, England, Canada, America, the Philippines, and India. It's the most diverse working environment I've ever been in. Everyone seems friendly, the academic coordinator is good, and the school is fairly organized. Classes will start on Tuesday, August 30. I spent the week in orientation meetings, preparing my classroom, and planning lessons. It was all so new and exciting. The time went fast and it was enjoyable. I'll write more about the school later, when I take some pictures and meet the students. It might be pretty interesting for people who've never been to Taiwan. The school layout is very different than South Korea or North America.

Meantime, Jiyeoun's been very busy looking for an apartment. It's turned out to be much more difficult than we anticipated. The places we saw on Monday with Mr. Wu didn't fit our requirements. The first place he took us too was a six-story walk-up. There was no kitchen, a single room, and a bathroom that you shared with the occupents of the five other rooms on that floor. It was cheap, only 6,500 Tiwanese dollars or 200 USD a month. But, it was completely inappropriate. (Picture below)

The kind of place we're looking to rent -- a furnished one-bedroom with a bath and a private entrance -- is fairly unusual in Taiwan. Most people live with their families until they get married and then buy a house when they move out. Students rent or share rooms when they go to collage and then return home. So the majority of properties are either larger houses for sale or dormitory-style rooms with shared bathrooms and no kitchen for rent.

Jiyeoun has had a little luck. But, it's taken a lot of work on her part. Everything is in Chinese and she has to travel all over the city to see the places in Taipei's broiling hot weather. The best place she's found so far is on the outskirts of the city. It would be a 30-45 minute commute for us. I haven't seen it yet. But, she tells me it's in a slightly rundown neighborhood on the third floor of an older building. The interior is very clean, light, and furnished with everything we would need. The picture is below. It is very small by American standards: approximately 204 square feet or 56 square meters. But, it's okay by Korean or North East Asian standards. It costs 14,000 Taiwan Dollars or 345 USD.

Jiyeoun picked up the contract from the landlord last night. Of course it's all in Chinese. So, Mr. Lu and Cielo, his daughter, have been looking it over. They say the contract is unusually long and extremely detailed. It lists the individual pieces of furniture and the costs for replacing them. It also states we should clean and launder everything before we leave. Mr. Lu seemed to think the contract was a little strange. I thought it was good to have everything laid out so there were less questions and it appeared there were no unreasonable requirements. Although, there is a risk that the landlord will try to keep some of the our substantial, three-months deposit on the pretense that something in damaged even if we keep the place clean. That was Mr. Lu's concern. He pointed out that the contract states that we should replace anything thing that is warn or damaged. But, "worn" is obviously a gray area. Mr. Lu suggested we cross it out in the contract.

Our plan is to go to the place tonight so I can see it. If I like it, we'll talk about the contract. We're going to ask to change the vague language and disadvantageous arrangements. We'll move in if the landlord is amenable.

One Day in Taipei

2005-08-22T09:59:00.000+08:00

We've arrived in Taipei, if you couldn't tell from my last post and the picture above. My father-in-law's good friend, Mr. Wu, met us at the airport with his family: wife and youngest daughter. They were incredibly friendly and talked for the whole hour-long trip from the airport, sometimes all at once and usually two at a time. Jiyeoun commented later what a huge difference it made to have someone, even just acquaintances, meet us. It made the endeavor much less lonely. And, they seemed like such good contacts. Just in the drive back from the airport they offered to take us to a hot spring, teach me golf, go hiking, and invited us to live with them. They saw us to the hotel and Mrs. Wu fought with the clerk to get us an extra discount on top of the 10% discount Jiyeoun already got. Today Mr. Wu is going to meet us at 10:30 a.m. and take us around to look at apartments. He's already been doing research and talking to realtors. Amazing.

Jiyeoun is doing an amazing job herself. The place she found for us is called the Ferrary Hotel. The pictures above were taken from the window of your room. It's right down town, a 10 minute walk from the metro, clean, has in-room wireless Internet, and includes free breakfast all for about $50US. Mr. and Mrs. Wu were amazed at the deal. As their daughter said, "I didn't think you could get a place down town for less than $100 dollars and it's not small." I guess she expected a dumpy, hole-in-the-wall for the price we were paying. So, there it is, Jiyeoun did a better job than the locals thought they could. All thanks to her diligence and the Internet. I don't know how people moved to other countries before the Internet was invented. It must have been like shooting in the dark.

Obvious Foreigner Story

2005-08-21T23:47:00.000+08:00

I have the quintessential obvious foreigner story. (I know there are a lot of details to fill in between the weather post and arriving in Taipei. I'll get to that later. But, on to more interesting things first.) So, Jiyeoun and I have arrived in Taipei. We checked into our hotel at 8:30 p.m., local time. So we have a few hours to kill before going to bed, lest we be accused of being geezers. And, no one wants that. So, we headed off to Ximending, the Korean equivalent of Myoungdong, or the American equivalent of... well... there is no equivalent really. We didn't want to got shopping. So we wondered around looking for a place to drink. You know, inexpensive, time consuming, and easy: drinking. We wondered around Ximening, which is the cool shopping district the United States never had, looking for a place to drink. Amazingly, there is none, or nothing obvious at least. It seems Taiwanese keep their drinking and shopping strictly separate unlike the Koreans, who mix the two happily. So we're wondering around the shopping district, bobbing our heads left and right trying to take it all in, looking for a place to get our drink on, when this woman calls us from across the street. I don't know what she was saying. It was all in Mandrain. But, I assume it was something like: "Hey sucker. I'm looking for someone to screw and you look like the perfect target. Come over here and let me screw you. That's right, that's right, over here. SUCKER!" So us, being the new virgin suckers we were, decided that the evil woman's den is the only place we can have a beer. We walk in and look at the menu. Jiyeoun, with her decent Mandarin, considering she's only studied over the phone in Korea, says we want a beer. "Beer," the woman says in Mandarin -- even I can understand what she's saying at this point -- "Sure we have two kinds of beer: Corona and Taiwanese Beer." (Okay, don't ask me why the two choices are a cheap Mexican beer and a random, unnamed "Taiwanese beer." I mean first of all Corona's not good enough to be the representative for all foreign beers and second of all why is the domestic beer simply called Taiwanese beer? Presumably there's more than one domestic beer. Shouldn't they distinguish between the two? Maybe not since we're such obvious foreign suckers. I guess evil woman assumes that we wouldn't know the difference even if she told us. She's right. We don't know the difference now. But, if she told us the name of the beer, we'd eventually learn to tell the difference...) So we tell her: "Taiwanese beer please." She says, doesn't ask, "Large." This is what goes through my head: "What did she just say? How much. I think she said how much." I tell Jiyeoun in English, "She said how much." Evil woman says, "Large." Jiyeoun says, "She's saying large." Me: "Large?" Jiyeoun: "Yeah, large." Me: "Okay, so large." Jiyeoun, "Yeah, large please." Evil woman, "Two large?" Me: "Okay two large." Evil woman, "Two large." So we got two large beers. Oh my god. It turns out large was four-beers worth. It was 1,500 cc. Or, in American two half gallons of beer. A gallon of beer between the two of us and Jiyeoun doesn't drink beer. Who is going to drink a gallon of beer? Maybe a group of four guys starting a night on the town. But, not some milk-white American guy and his over-eager, Mandarin-speaking wife. Evil woman saw us coming and suckered us into buying a gallon of beer. The funny thing is that for all her chiselering the gallon of beer only cost us $15 USD, which was kind of funny to me. This woman went through all this trouble to extort an extra five bucks from us. I don't even understand how it's worth it on her end. She doesn't own the place. She just works there. But, she still took to time and effort to cheat us out of five measly dollars. It's strange. Is it for pride? Or, does she really need the money? It's got to be something else I don't yet understand...

Taipei Weather

2005-08-21T08:44:00.000+08:00

We leave for Taiwan today. I checked the weather in Taipei. It's supposed to rain there for the next five days. The humidity on average is 70%, the high never drops below 90, and the chance of rain is no lower than 80%. Here is a sampling of the detailed weather report:

8/21: Thunderstorms likely. High 89F. Chance of rain 90%.
8/22: Scattered thunderstorms in the morning, then mainly cloudy during the afternoon with thunderstorms likely. Chance of rain 80%.
8/23:Thunderstorms. Highs in the low 90s and lows in the upper 70s.
8/24:Scattered thunderstorms . Highs in the low 90s.
8/25: Scattered thunderstorms. Highs in the low 90s.

Yuck! I think I'm going to start missing the sun really quick.

Found Haiku 3

2005-08-19T23:03:00.000+08:00

From Broken Joe by Joe Blades:

Joe lives artist life.
Often misidentified,
he is so much less.

Republic of China Visa

2005-08-19T20:56:00.000+08:00

I got my visitor's visa for Taiwan from the Seoul R.O.C. Consulate today. I was really impressed with the speed and efficiency of the whole process. The U.S. State Department could learn some things from Taiwan. First, the process only took three days, from the day I applied for the visa to the day it was issued. Compare this to 10 days to 6 weeks for the United States. Second, I didn't have to wait more than two minutes for service. It can take 30 minutes to 2 hours to talk to someone at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. Third, the woman at the window was courteous and knowledgeable. She smiled and could answer all the questions we asked. The opposite is the case for the Seoul U.S. Embassy. There, the people are short, rude, rarely smile, and frequently have no understanding of the laws they are supposedly there to enforce.

Not many U.S. citizens know how poorly our State Department treats non-citizens. We rarely have to deal with the bloated bureaucracy, other than to get a passport, which is a relatively painless process. But, talk to anyone who has immigrated, visited the United States, or has a relative who has. They will tell you the process is a farce, as I told the consular generals at the Seoul Embassy frequently during the 10 months Jiyeoun and I were filing for her immigration visa.

Some American citizens might be included to think the State Department poor treatment isn't their problem. They'll never have to apply for an immigration or visitor's visa for the U.S., so they don't care. The problem is that the State Department's shitty treatment of foreign nationals comes back to hunt us. The receipt below is proof. It shows I paid a fee of 110,000 won, or $110 USD, for my Taiwanese visitor's visa. The fee for non-Americans is 40,000 won, or $40 USD. U.S. citizens have to pay nearly three times the regular fee. It's retribution for the ridiculous service and exaggerated fees Taiwanese have to endure when applying to visit the United States. So, not only is my tax money going to pay the wedges of the do-nothing bureaucrats at the State Department, but their crappy service is costing me money on top of it.

Some of the differences between the service are simply a result of the volume of people applying for U.S. visas. I was literally the only person in the Taiwanese consulate when I turned in my application. There are regularly lines of a hundred to two hundred people applying for visas at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. So the extra wait for an American visa is not entirely the State Department's fault. And, if you're being generous, you could also grant that the visa fees might need to be higher to pay for the technology necessary to transport, store, and process the large number of applications the U.S. State Department receives. Although, the lack of such technology and the fact that U.S. visa's typically cost three times those of other developed countries argue against such a generous assessment.

Regardless, there are other serious problems at State that have nothing to do with the volume of applications they receive. Like the difficulty of negotiating the maze of voice mail, email, and useless receptionists in order to talk to a live person with any authority. Or, the lack of State Department representatives capable of explaining their truly arcane regulations and their complete apathy when confronted with their incompetence once you do get through to them.

So, to sum up: U.S. State Department bad, R.O.C. Consulate Office good.

Korean Vietnamese Restaurant

2005-08-18T21:25:00.000+08:00

On Thursday, Jiyeoun, Mom, and I went to a Vietnamese restaurant in Hannam.

It was in a beautiful location next to a plush, green rice patty on the edge of an apartment complex.

The interior was finely detailed with burnished wood and bright paper and wood ceiling tiles.

We ordered Wolamsam. I don't know what it's called in Vietnamese or English. You're given a huge plate of vegetables, a crockpot full of water, a plate of thinly sliced raw beef, a bowl of hot water, and a stack of rice paper.

You place the beef in the crockpot after the water comes to a boil. You dip the rice paper in the bowl of hot water, place it on your plate, and pile vegetables on top. There's everything you'd want: lettuce, cilantro, basal, bean sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, pineapple, tomatoes, shredded radish, and more. There are also three sauces: peanut, green pepper, and red pepper paste. You place the freshly cooked beef on the pile of vegetables and wrap it in rice paper. The wet rice paper is sticky and holds well. You're left with a Vietnamese spring roll of sorts. It's delicious.

Jiyeoun and Mom loved it so much it made them crazy, as you can clearly see from these pictures. Mom was a little crazier than Jiyeoun.

It's one in a long line of recent meals we devastated.

We were rewarded with a steaming cup of supper strong, sweet Vietnamese coffee.

It's a good thing I don't live in Vietnam. I'd be as fat as a hippo.

Jebudo Trip

2005-08-18T15:47:00.000+08:00

Last Friday we went to an island off the west cost called Jebudo. It's the
red spot in the inset on the map below.

The island is know for two things: the shallow water surrounding it and excellent fresh roasted seafood. We went there for the food. We picked a restaurant with a patio overlooking the beach. The weather was hazy and grey, so there wasn't much to look at.

But, the food was excellent. We sat around a grill inset in the table and everything cooked in front of us. We picked the cooked seafood directly from the grill, pulled it from it's shell, and popped it in our mouths. We had fresh shrimp, clams, muscles, and oysters. Yum!

It was hot and dangerous, though. We were sitting inches away from three giant, burning charcoal bricks in muggy August weather. I was sopped with sweat. But, of more concern were the tiny sparks that would pop off the shells, smack us in the hands and face and burn our skin. I was worried someone was going to loose an eye. We got cotton gloves to protect our hands. But, the shells were unbearably hot if you picked them up even with the gloves and they made my hands sweat. Grandma didn't seem to mind. She's wearing one of the gloves in the picture below.

I might have benefited from the gloves. Not to protect myself from the shells, but to drink soju with. I placed my shot glass too close to the grill and burnt my fingers and lips trying to drink. The glass was so hot.

We soldered on though, doing our duty, eating our fill. The shrimp were most popular. We ate three orders of the size in the picture above. Mom especially enjoyed them.

We ate like kings. Later, they brought us out some kalguksu, a thick soup with seafood and fat wheat noodles. My stomach was bursting, but the soju buzz I had going numbed the pain and I ate on. They gave us a small plastic bucket for the trash. We filled it half full of shells from the all the seafood we ate.

After lunch, we went down to the beach. This brings us to the second thing Jebudo is famous for: the shallow waters surrounding the island. The seabed runs away from the island at such a slight incline that the beach grows by half a mile at low tide.

The bridge running out to the island is set up from the seafloor on four foot concrete pillions. At low tide the sea barely visible on the horizon from the bridge. However, at high tide the bridge is totally submerged. There are gates at each end of the bride that close when the bridge becomes impassible. There is a sign outside the gate house that lists the latest island departure time. It was 7:45 p.m. on the day we went. Meaning, if we didn't leave the island before that time, we would be stuck there overnight until the tide went out and the bridge reemerged from the water. Trippy, huh?

You can get a sense for how shallow the seabed is in this picture. The ocean is just barely visible in the distance.

We walked around on the beach for a short time to speed digestion. It was just long enough to watch Cash, my in-law's newest dog, run around after Yeppie and sniff her butt. Cash is male and hasn't been fixed yet and Yeppie is female. It's funny to see, partly because Cash is half Yeppie's size and couldn't do anything if he got a chance and partly because Yeppie has no interest in him, seems to dislike him.

With that, we got in the car and I slept all the way home with images of butt sniffing dog's dancing in my soju-pickled brain.

RIP Relative Collective

2005-08-18T12:46:00.000+08:00

It's a sad day. Time to admit the obvious: The Relative collective blog has died. I created the blog back in December as a way for the Kerson-Ritz family to stay in touch. In theory it was a great plan, ripe with all the potential that the Internet brings. The blog would be an easy way for our far flung family to share, interact, communicate. We would build a warm loving community of Kersons and Ritzes. The first batch email and post reflect this soaring optimism.

Hello and welcome to A Relative Collective, the site Roman Polanski called, "Hommage a le maigre." Join now and, for a limited time, take advantage of special member benefits: stay in touch with other collectivites; share your deepest secrets and darkest thoughts; accrue street cred and positive karmic energy; and whiten your teeth with ARC's new improved fast-acting, scientifically tested fluoride emulsion salve. To join post your name and e-mail address in the comments section below and a Relative Collective representative will contact you with information on how to join. We'll see you online future collectivite!

But, this exuberance was quickly, definitively crushed. Over the subsequent months five people joined. My sister joined twice with different email accounts. One person asked for an invitation and never joined. Several people promised to join and never did. And, three people, including me, posted. The longest post, short of my blathering ramblings, was from my father:

I will be adding...astute commentary and in-depth psychological insights into the human condition." I know. I know I said this, and I know that I got your hopes up. They are coming. These things take time and profound insight, which does not come every day.

But you have to admit (well, you don't 'have to' really, but, and if you do, please admit it to yourself as I don't need to hear about it) that quote about love was good. And that certainly covers a big, or at least the best, part of 'the human condition'.

But other more profound things are eluding me right now.

I have added a few photographs that I like.

But I'm waiting for someone else to show up here. Although a few folks have signed up... nada, nothing, zip.

Perhaps people are not be saying anything because the two sides of the families don't know each other and so they are feeling shy. Consider this your formal introductions; Lex/Bill and Linda/Dallas and Mike/Terri (Isaac's aunt's & uncle & their spouses) and Robin/Ron and Joe/Dana (Lisa's cousins & spouses). Jack/Caroline (Isaac grandfather & his wife), Sam/Katah (Isaac's uncle & wife), Peter, Gabby, Sofia, Josh, (Isaac's cousins and Sam's children) and of course, as everyone knows, Jiyeoun is Isaac's lovely new wife and "Peach" is Justine's other name; which she some times uses with close family members. (If I have forgotten anyone I pre-offer my deepest apologies, I don't know who Isaac sent invitations out too.)

His post gives you a feeling for the blog's general tenor: desperate pleading for attention. I did my part by writing an overly detailed description of how to post images to the blog on the mistaken premise that photographs would generate more interest. It did not help.

After a few short posts by my cousin, a few pretty pictures my father took, and two of my long-winded treaties, the whole experiment fizzled.

I am going to move the highlights on to The Beige Report website -- a photoessay of our trip to Busan at Christmas and an overview of my reading habits circa January 2005 -- and postdate them to match the day they posted. Then, A Relative Collective will be no more.

The frequent failure/short life span of blogs is something that's not often discussed. I was looking around for my found Haiku bit the other day and discovered that easily half of the blogger.com sites are dead. Many of them consist of one post that says: "Hi! This is my first post to my new blog. I'm going to try this whole bloging thing out and see what happens. I don't know how often I'll post." Then, nothing. Curiously many of the one-post blogs were started in the late spring to mid summer of 2004. Guess that's when bloging rose to public consciousness, when news coverage was at it's height. That's when I started bloging.

Well, A Relative Collective, rest in peace. I will remember you with frustration, embarrassment, and depression.

Blogger.com Ban Lifted

2005-08-17T15:23:00.000+08:00

The ban on blogger.com in Korea has been lifted. I'm not going into the details here. They are sorted, others have done a much better job covering the issue, and I have happier things to write about. Suffice to say, South Korea has a long way to go before it is truly a free and open democratic society.

Found Haiku 2

2005-08-09T23:06:00.000+08:00

From Poignant Blurs by Sarah Beth:

Willy Nilly: Thoughts
that these imply; Turn over,
keep on asking why.

Found Haiku 1

2005-08-09T21:06:00.000+08:00

I am starting a new section called Found Haiku. It's like found sounds or found art only it's with words. Okay, so it's just a derivative of found poetry and the idea's not mine. My good friend Peter introduced me to the concept. He got most of his material from television commercials. His Haikus were beautiful, surreal commentaries on pop culture, consumerism, and modern life. Plus, they were funny.

I am going to take my found haikus from the Internet, mostly from blogs to begin with. There will be a few simple rules:

1. I must credit the original author.
2. I can remove words from the original copy.
3. I can not add words or change their order.

The first found haiku is from a site called Far Far Away by a woman who calls herself Flowerful. Just from those two facts you can tell she'd be a rich source for found haikus. Let's saver her name for a moment: Flowerful. Ah! That's truly beautiful. I recommend visiting her site. It's all pink and she talks about crying a lot. I confess to having a little crush on her. Her picture's so cute. Anyway, I digress. Here is the haiku I found at her site:

The golden weekends
are almost gone. Monday - I
don't want to meet you.

Click on the period at the end of the haiku to see where the lines originally came from.

Transitions: A Novel in Three Parts

2005-08-09T15:58:00.000+08:00

Below is a portion of Transitions: A Novel in Three Parts. This first part, And, We Were Moving The Whole Time, is a semi-fictional account of a 39-hour coast to coast road trip my sister and I took from Washington, DC to Los Angles after I graduated high school. The trip began with great optimism, but slowly deteriorated into self-doubt, lethargy, and depression. I was left to confront my inability to achieve my dreams.

Transitions: A Novel in Three Parts

Part I: And, We Were Moving The Whole Time

I have seen my father cry four times. The last time was when my sister and I left the last house our family shared.

He hugged us both tight, first my sister and then me. We must have exchanged some pleasantries, but I cannot remember what. I am sure I said I loved him. Then, Justine and I stepped into the car and closed the door, first her and then me, with a sold, definitive thump. My father stood watching, silently.

My mother was not there. She was already in Florida, outside Miami, working for Habitat for Humanity. My father had returned to Virginia to tie up loose ends: sell our house, close his business, complete the punch-out list on the Shuler’s place. Then he would return to Florida and start helping Habitat rebuild after hurricane Andrew. "One thousand homes in three years," that was their mantra.

Justine and I were heading for California, Colton, what is today part of the Inland Empire. It was the culmination of a year and a half of planning for me, my next move after high school. For Justine it was a quick choice. She had to pick a direction as our family scattered and she chose mine.

As I turned to back out of the driveway, I caught a glimpse of the front yard. The grass was brownish green and the limbs were bare. But, in early spring the plants would wake. The grass would untangle from its matted brown winter mess and resolve into upright green blades. The rows of azalea bushes, crisscrossed brown stalks in the winter, would grow fat. Wet buds would form on the tips and along their branches. Weeks after that the buds would sprout into rows of pink, yellow, and red flowers. The sky would be blue and supple baby maple leaves would dangle from the branches on the huge oak tree in the middle of the yard.

Our house looked upright and handsome. The reddish brown and gray slate walkway ran from the driveway to a matching set of wide slate steps and our front stoop. The tall glass window at the center of our trademark Kerson door — my father installed one on every house we owned — was covered with cloth folding blinders, which matched those covering our living room window. Ivy crawled over the red bricks and framed the glass block window that lit my father’s office.

When I looked back one last time before making the turn onto Spring Valley Drive and California, my father was standing at the head of the driveway, his hands hanging at his sides. His face was scrunched up in a recognizable expression. He was fighting tears. But, they ran down his face. Narrow shinning streaks. I threw a short, chopped wave. He waved back and I turned onto the street. Justine and I were silent.

We began by taking Spring Valley Drive to Cherokee Lane. Cherokee Lane to Edsall Road, then entering onto 395 South. This part of the trip was familiar. We traveled the route daily. We drove by the Crown station where I bought gas and we rose up the entrance ramp. The red and yellow roof of the neighborhood Denny’s hovered on the horizon between Ames and Motel 6.

My elementary school friend, Andy and I had sat in that Denny’s on one of his return visits to Northern Virginia. Likely, that Denny’s was where I first told Andy about my plans to move to California after high school.

I cannot exactly remember where or when the actual conversation occurred. The plan was a long time in coming. My father planted the seed. For as long as I can remember, he told me I should take a year off before college. He said I should get out, look around, try something different. I would be better prepared, more focused when I returned to school. Travel was an equivalent education to school. You learned different things, but you learned. That was the important thing. You learned.

He told me stories of his trip through the United States and Canada in ’69 after leaving the Navy. He hitchhiked from Florida to Maine to San Francisco. His favorite story was about traveling up the cost of Newfoundland. He was walking down the road along a bluff overlooking the Atlantic. I imagined a black winding road split by two bright yellow lines and buffeted by steep, wet green mountains and gray craggily cliffs, which lead down to the dull gray, flat, sand beach.

My father describes coming to a turn where the beach, the mountains, and the overcast sky were visible for miles. Off in the distance, maybe a mile ahead, sat a jumble of cars and people. The tide was out and the sea was not visible even from the high cliff. Only a long wet stretch of sand running out to where the ocean should be.

As my father walked down the road toward the beach below, he wondered what the people were doing. Men stood next to their open car doors, leaning on the frames talking to friends. Some women sat cross-legged on the trunks of the cars, looking out to the absent sea. Others sat in the passenger seats, apparently napping.
My father watched this aimless group for thirty to forty minutes as he walked.

Finally, when he was about three hundred yards away from the closest point the asphalt came to the shoreline, where a warn dirt track ran down to the beach, he heard someone yell, "It’s coming." He looked out to see a nearly imperceptible light gray foam shadow moving across the horizon. The crowd of loiterers jumped in their cars with a clatter of yelps and thumping car doors and they began racing toward the safty of the bluff. The tide ran in across the hard packed, level beach with alarming speed. But, distance was hard to judge and it was never clear how close the water came to the motorist.

Two or three minutes after the mad dash had begun, the column of cars roared up the dirt road and skidded onto the asphalt. They headed north, away from my father, without stopping. A few cars honked their horns and someone yelled out his lowered window. Soon after the last car had made it onto the road, a four-foot wave crashed against the bluff and rolled back out to sea. The gray foam crashing and buzzing.

Hearing stories like this growing up, I knew taking a year off after high school was not a problem. My mother never commented when listening to my father’s stories. But, when I raised the issue with her, she agreed with the idea in the abstract.

Going into the summer of my senior year of high school there was no more appealing idea than taking a year off. I was fed up with school. Tired of bitter teachers with no sense of perspective...

Click to download the complete version of And, We Were Moving The Whole Time. (The story is saved as a pdf file. You can download an Adobe Acrobat Reader here.)

This piece is the first part of an anticipated novel chronicling three important personal turning points. The second section will recount my move to South Korea after college graduation. The third and final piece will detail the disassembly of my life in Korea and my return to the United States.

Haikus

2005-08-03T22:04:00.000+08:00



		empty

Tomato and Toast

2005-08-03T09:51:00.000+08:00

We had tomato and toast for breakfast: white bread covered with cream cheese and topped with thick slices of tomato. The tomatoes were fresh from the market yesterday and the cream cheese was straight from the refrigerator, chilled. Look at the deep red tomatoes, blood red. We followed it with a cup of strong black coffee. Good way to start the day.

Through the Window

2005-08-02T22:26:00.000+08:00

Blurred images tear
the horizon: burning bush
crumbling wall of light

On the Gravel

2005-08-02T22:18:00.000+08:00

Sticky summer night
on finely textured gravel
she waited for more

No Relief

2005-08-02T22:16:00.000+08:00

No relief for Cash,
small dog humpin a pillow,
he hasn't been fixed.

YUM

2005-08-02T21:45:00.000+08:00

Yum: brown-green and round
asparagus, salt, butter
on fork and in mouth.

My Father's Bathroom Tiles

2005-08-02T21:42:00.000+08:00

My father's bathroom:
square tiles of corral green like
Key lime pie slices.

Backyard at Night

2005-08-02T21:37:00.000+08:00

Blue-black night sky haze;
in the backyard I wonder.
Look, this is always!

Easy's Coat

2005-08-02T21:33:00.000+08:00

Easy's coat: granite
gray and white water-washed stones
drying in the sun.

Big Bend, Texas

2005-08-02T21:29:00.000+08:00

Big Bend, Texas sky:
silent satellites gleam arcs
cross the Milky Way.

Society and Freedom after a Big Sushi Dinner

2005-08-02T21:00:00.000+08:00

They have these wonderful sushi bars in Korea. You sit at a lunch counter with everything build in: a little cubby hole for dishes and teacups, jars of wasabi and soy sauce, chopsticks and soup spoons, and a hot water fountain for making green tea. Dozens of plates of different sushi pass by on a conveyor belt in front of you. The plates are each color-coded: red is 1,500 won, blue is 2,000 won, green 2,500, and gold 3,000. You pull off the plates as they pass and the chef behind the counter makes another and places it on the conveyor. The dishes keep coming, revolving in front of you. Salmon rolls toped with onion and creamed horseradish, sweet smoked eel wrapped in seaweed paper, lobster salad on a rice ball covered with caviar. At the end of the meal, the waitress adds up the plates according to color and you pay for what you've eaten. The miso soup and green tea is free. Jiyeoun and I went tonight for dinner: yum.

Waiting Fiction

2005-02-05T15:03:00.000+08:00

Well, my long hard slog through the Ph.D. applications is done. Thank God. I mailed off the last bundle of documents to the University of Hawaii on January 28th. It felt good. But, in truth the hard part ended in early December. All at once, I had to collect letters of recommendations from professors, write a statement of purpose, gather transcripts, and fill out a mountain of forms full of pettily questions. UC Berkeley wanted me to calculate my undergraduate grade point average three different ways; the epitome of useless bureaucratic hoops! It's enough to turn you off to getting a Ph.D.

But, it's over. It's over. I just have to keep reminding myself that.

Now the waiting starts. The bulk of the decisions should arrive between mid-February and late March. Between now and then, I am going to finish up at the English language institute that I've been working at for the last four years. Jiyeoun and I are going to move out of our apartment. The place is provided as part of my current teaching contract. The new place is a small one-room loft that should serve as a 3-4 month layover on our way back to the States. I’m going to look for an equally temporary part-time job as well. I'm concentrating on studying Korean and finishing my thesis until we leave. But, I'll want to earn some walking-around-money as well.

Condensing everything into the short paragraph above makes my schedule look busier than it is. I have a lot of downtime now that I'm only taking Korean classes. So, with the extra time I've been reading the sorts of books I never had time for during the last two years of my Master's degree studies: fiction, fiction and more fiction.

Dark Tower Book VII

I just polished off the last book in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. I started at the beginning, reread the first four books in the series, and moved on to the last three. It was a month and a half long process. I read somewhere the series amounts to 3,500 pages. I had mixed feelings at the end. King started writing the series in 1976. It was to be his Lord of the Rings. He took 20 years to write the first 4 books, and then completed the last three in two years. The final book is a tome, 775 pages. The difference in time invested in the volumes shows. The first three books in the series are excellent: highly imaginative, polished, and compelling. The last three books are obviously rushed and forced. It’s not to say I didn’t enjoy them. The world King created in the Dark Tower series is magical and the characters are charismatic. But, I just kept thinking how much better the last books would be if King had shelved them for a few years and returned when he was fresh. He says he rushed the release because he felt he would never finish if he wasn’t quick. He’s the writer. I guess he knows best.

Pile-O-Books

I’m moving on to a big pile of books I bought online. Auntie Linda bought Jiyeoun and I a $100 gift certificate at YesAsia.com, an English-language web-based bookstore out of Hong Kong with free shipping to Korea. It was a wedding/Christmas present. (Thanks Linda!) So I went crazy. Searched through the website for hours and just bought anything that struck my fancy. The stack is a mix of titles I’ve wanted to read for a while and books from the bargain bin. I started on Dan Brown’s Angles and Demons last night. I see why there's such a buzz about this book. It reads like a script for a Hollywood movie: headlong rushing plot with high-tech gadgets, exotic locations, and a romantic subplot readers can see coming before the female love interest even takes stage — all covered with a squeaky sheen of pseudo-science and quasi-religion. It's just the type of book I was looking for...

Isaac.

How To Post Pictures

2005-01-23T21:10:00.000+08:00

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are happy, healthy, and productive. The site is slowly taking form. It’s nice to see. Gabriela, Jiyeoun, Justine, Mark, Peter, and Linda have all joined. Jason, Mark’s brother, just sent me an e-mail saying he wanted to participate. So he should join any day now. And, most importantly, Mark Peter, and Gabriela have posted even. It’s a good start.

I have a feeling that some of the technical aspects of the site — posting in general and posting pictures in specific — are discouraging people from participating. I know Justine was hours away from put up a photo essay of her recent trip to Peru, but then didn’t/couldn’t do it. So, I’m going to quickly outline how to post pictures to the site below. Hopefully this will clarify some of the questions you might have. If you’re looking for answers to other questions click here. One of the drawbacks of Blogger.com, the service we’re using, is that posting pictures is involved. One of the benefits, is that its online help section is thorough and concise.

Downloading Hello:

1.You need a special program. It’s called Hello. You can download it here. It is free, doesn’t contain ad-ware, and they wont send you spam when you register your e-mail address.

2.Click on the “Download” link on the left hand side of the screen.

3.The link will take you to this page. Create a username and password and enter your e-mail address. Then hit the submit button.

4.The page below will appear.

5. Then a download dialogue box will appear. Press the “Open” button. The program will download and run automatically. Follow the directions that appear online.

6.The program should open automatically after installing. But, if it does not go to Start > All Programs > Hello > Hello to open the program.

7.When the program opens, you should see a tab on the left hand side of the screen that says “BloggerBot”. Hit this tab. You may be asked to enter your blogger ID and password.

Sending Pictures:

1.To start sending pictures hit the “Send Pictures” button at the top left side of the screen. A “Locate pictures using…” dialogue box will appear. Press the “Use explorer button.”

2.Another dialogue box titled, “Send Picture” will open. Locate the picture or pictures you would like to send. Select them and press the “Open” button at the bottom right hand side of the box. (You can open more than one picture at once.)

3.Another dialogue box titled, “Select the friends to send pictures to” will open. The “BloggerBot” tab should already be highlighted. Hit the “Send” button at the lower right hand corner of the dialogue box.

4.Another screen will open. The picture you selected will be at the left side. A message box will be at the left. At the bottom of the message box will be a smaller box with the title, “Enter a caption for your photo here.” Enter a caption for your photo and press the “Publish” button at the lower right hand corner.

5.A message, “Uploading image (this may take a few minutes”, will appear. When the image is uploaded the relative collective site, with the image you just uploaded will appear in a separate window. And, you’re done!

6.If you want to add more text to the picture, you can go to the blogger dashboard and editing the post.

I hope this helped. If you have any further questions, blogger.com has an excellent help section. The section on posting pictures is here. And, of course you can send me an e-mail and I’ll do my best to help.

I hope this encourages more people to post. I’m really looking forward to Justine’s Peru pictures!

Best, Isaac.

Busan Christmas Photo Essay

2005-01-06T19:31:00.000+08:00

Hello Everyone. Well, even though I've gotten lots of encouraging responses, people have been pretty slow in joining and posting to the site. So, I thought I'd push things along by putting up the first extended entry. It's a photo essay about the trip Jiyeoun and I took to Pusan during Christmas. Sit back and enjoy and then post something of your own. Post damn it!

So Pusan is on the southern tip of the Korean peninsula. It's South Korea's second largest city and biggest port. It's a 45-minute flight from Seoul.

The trip was meant to be lowkey. We reserved a swank hotel room in a 5-star hotel right on the beach and planned on laying in bed, getting drunk at the bar, and walking on the beach. It was more of an end of the semester celebration and a change of atmosphere than a Christmas celebration. Christmas is a modest holiday here. It's more significant for the accompanying days off work than for the things like exchanging gifts and meeting family that Americans know it for.

We flew down early Christmas morning and were in the hotel by 9:30 a.m. Here's Ji in front of a Christmas tree in the hotel lobby. This is about as Christmassy as it got. The boxes of presents are empty and there are no name tags on them incase you're wondering.

Here's me in front of a traditional Korean Christmas painting. The waves symbolize God's wrath and the sun represents God's furry when he smote Cain for killing Able... I'm kidding. There's no such thing as a traditional Korean Christmas. Christianity didn't come to Korea until the 14th century... But the Lilly pads do represent Het-ban, the traditional confectionery King Wang-gun ordained all Korean children eat on Liberation Day in celebration of his victory over the Japanese army in 1349... No I'm kidding again... Ha...

Here's Ji in our room. Those two picture windows overlook the ocean. They offered some spectacular views. More on that later.

Here's Haeundae beach on Christmas day. It was beautiful and sunny, but a little bit nippy. It was much warmer and less polluted than Seoul, so we were happy. Haeundae literally means turtle mating beach. For thousands of years hundreds of turtles have returned to this beach to mate and lay eggs each June... Ha! I'm joking again. No matter how many times I do that it never gets old... Ah...

Jiyeoun looks happy enjoying the sun, sea, and sand. Beatific smile.

We came across this sight on the way back to our hotel. These aging Church mothers were playing Christmas tunes – Rudolph the Red Nose Rain Dear and Frosty the Snowman – on Korean versions of a pan flute. It was surreal and cute. I guess you should expect that when you go to the beach for Christmas.

This net full of balloons was behind the stage the Christian grandmothers were performing on. They were waiting to be released later in the day - the balloons that is, not the Christian grandmothers.

I took a long nap.

Then we headed to happy hour. It ran from 6-8 p.m and was included in the price of the room. They weren't stingy with the alcohol either. Here's me enjoying my current drink of choice, rum and coke. Notice the huge smile. And, I'm not even on the beach.

Here's the view from our room at night. Gorgeous.

The next morning Jiyeoun and I went to the Pusan aquarium. It's right on the beach and is one of the best aquariums I've ever been too. Not that I'm an aquarium connoisseur.

Jiyeoun and a penguin. (Jiyeoun is wearing glasses so she can see the animals better.)

Scary lobster

Scary jellyfish

Scary tiger fish

Scary tiger fish from the side

Not so scary blow fish

Arrrgh it's a shark look out! These half-ass aquariums letting the sharks just swim about waiting for unexpected otters to gobble up. Really, you'd expect more for 10-dollars a head.

Look Jiyeoun, I found a fish! Look! You're not looking...

This is the view from our hotel room the next morning.

We got up early and went to the Chagall exhibit at the Pusan Metropolitan Art Museum. It was huge. There were approximately 100 of his paintings along with a photo history of his life. I was really impressed. But, we couldn't take pictures inside the exhibit. So you're going to have to be satisfied with this poster.

But, we were allowed to take pictures in the rest of the museum. This was part of a crazy instillation art exhibit. Jiyeoun had a blast... Settle down Jiyeoun. You're going to get us kicked out with your rambunctiousness.

Whoo, shinny exhibit.

Look out Jiyeoun there's some kind of crazy pink, stuffed saw-ax falling from the sky! I don't know Officer. She was just standing there. I was taking a picture of her and all the sudden this pink fabric saw-ax thing just came crashing from the sky. I mean, isn't there someone we can sue. There has to be a law against this. What kind of godless country is this that they don't have laws against pink fabric tools...

Here's my attempt at art outside the Pusan art museum. It's a metaphor of man's existence: a child caught in a maze, running back and forth, always ascending to the heavens but never knowing it because he's trapped in a world of gray tile and cement. The pain! I'm selling prints for $500 a piece. E-mail me if you want one.

Well that's it. The rest is just more of the same. More drinking. We ate some sushi and bought some books. Walked along the beach. Slept a lot. Went to the sauna. There were too many naked old men and it was too wet to take pictures. I know you're disappointed.

Hope this has encouraged you to post. See how much fun it is?

Best wishes, Isaac.

Successful Seoul Public Transportation Overhaul

2004-07-01T21:03:00.000+08:00

New Big Blue Seoul Bus

Man the Seoul Metropolitan Public Transportation Authority has their stuff together, unlike other government bureaus. Today, June 1st, was the first day the changes in Seoul’s public transportation system took effect. It has been completely revamped. The bus routes, numbers, signs, fairs, website, payment system, even the bus colors changed. It was a huge undertaking the public had been following for weeks.

Considering the extent of the changes, I seriously doubted it would go smoothly. I expected a nightmare during my morning commute. But, amazingly, it went off without a hitch. The success is all due to the Seoul Public Transit Authority’s superb foresight, planning, and service. The new bus stop signs with maps of all the routs and little temporary placards noting the old bus numbers were all up by this morning. There were helpers at metro stations and busy bus stops with flyers explaining the changes and summarizing new routes. Each bus had a temporary sticker on the side with the old bus number. But, most considerate of all, everyone rode for free today. The electronic readers were turned off and the coin deposit slots taped over.

But, that’s just the beginning. The JoongAng Daily had an article about the changes and the Seoul Bus Management and the Seoul Metropolitan Subway Corporation websites provided extensive information. The improvements are impressive. They may make the Seoul system the most advanced in the world. It was already fairly advanced. The Seoul Transportation System, in cooperation with local banks, has already created traffic cards. Electronic scanners at subway stations and on buses read the cards. They store a tally of the fairs and it is automatically deduct from your bank account at the end of each month.

Now, using the same traffic card system in combination with Global Positioning Satellite technology, the Transit Authority to is charging cardholders by the distance they travel rather than the number of transfers they make. Under pre-GPS system cardholders that traveled 10 kilometers and transferred 4 times could pay up to 5,200 won depending on the combination of buses and trains. But, today journeys up to 10 kilometers, which involve less than 4 transfers, cost 800 won. Then travelers pay 100 won for each additional 5 kilometers they travel over 10 kilometers. It’s simpler and cheaper.

But, the coolest thing is the GPS system allows users to travelers to see bus route maps, track the location of buses, and view arrival times on the Internet, PDAs, or web-enabled cell phones. The system also enables disputers to adjust bus departure times so buses arrive more consistently.

The only drawback, as I see, are the T-Money cards. They became available today and will replace the current traffic cards in 2008. According to the JoongAng Daily story, there are 1,500 and 2,500 won versions of T-cards. The 1,500 won cards come in minimum 10,000 won denominations and can only be used for public transportation. The 2,500 won cards can also be used at convenience stores and in taxies. However, the more expensive T-Money cards are still no were near as versatile as the current traffic cards. My traffic card is also an international Visa and a debit card. I don’t need any other cards. I can travel from my house to Inchoen airport to the United States and back again without using another card.

However, even with the T-Money cards, the current Seoul public transportation system has to be one of — if not the — best in the world. I’ve used the San Francisco, Washington D.C., Mexico City, New York, Miami, and Seattle systems and Seoul kicks their asses! Thank you Seoul Metropolitan Public Transportation Authority. Keep up the good work.

Close-up

2004-07-01T16:50:00.000+08:00

You see the details when you are close up. You appreciate the little things.

Blurry

2004-07-01T16:34:00.001+08:00

In what rulebook does it say pictures have to be in focus? Blurry is beautiful.

Shops

2004-06-30T21:47:00.000+08:00

Art

2004-06-30T17:27:00.000+08:00

Angry Letter to the Korea Times

2004-06-29T15:29:00.000+08:00

Arrrggghhh!

I sent the following letter to the Korea Times to protest their ridiculous article, "Korea Blocks 40 Web Sites to Bar Spread of Victim's Video." I doubt they will respond. But, they should at least know that someone notices their ineptitude.

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Isaac Kerson. I am a 4-year resident of Seoul, Korea and an occasional Korea Times reader. I am writing to correct Kim Tae-gyu's article, "Korea Blocks 40 Web Sites to Bar Spread of Victim's Video," in the June 28 edition of the Korea Times. It was poorly researched, misleading, and inaccurate.

The Ministry of Information and Communication has not blocked 40 web sites. It has blocked whole domains, such those provided by blogspot.com, blogger.com, blogs.com and typepad.com. These domains host thousands of websites, which include those of South Korean citizens, not simply the nebulous "foreign-based sites" your article repeatedly mentions. Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of the sites the MIC blocked are completely unrelated to Kim Sun-il or even South Korea.

It is clear from your report that you unthinkingly took one-sided, misleading information from the Ministry of Information and Communication and reprinted it. You never bothered to check the facts or do additional research. A quick search of the Internet or competitors' stories would have told you the MIC information was a distortion. This is extremely lazy reporting.

In your negligence, you have relegated your paper to a second-rate outlet for government propaganda. How can I take your future reports seriously when I know your reporters don't check their facts and unthinkingly reprint what the government feeds them? But, more importantly, you did yourself a disservice. You missed an important, compelling story about South Korean government censorship, infringements on freedom of speech, and constitutional violations.

If you do not do something to rectify the glaring inaccuracies in your article, it will lead me to conclude that your blunders were not simply the result of lazy reporting — which is bad enough — but rather your mistakes were part of the Korea Times larger, more dangerous practice of willfully using distorted information and misleading the public in the service of the government. I would certainly never read a newspaper that I though engaged in such practices. But, more importantly, such a newspaper will not survive in today's free and open media climate.

You make the choice. For your sake I hope it is the right one.

Sincerely,
Isaac Kerson.

South Korea: Back to Dictatorial Censorship

2004-06-28T18:44:00.000+08:00

It’s official. The South Korean government and Internet providers are actively censoring its people. The Korea Times reported on June 27, “40 foreign-based Web sites, which contain the video footage showing the beheading of a South Korean hostage in Iraq…. in fear of causing extreme anguish to already-horrified Koreans.” However, this report is willfully misleading.

The Korean Times article suggests the Ministry of Information censorship operation is limited, careful, and considered. But, it is indiscriminate, sloppy, and knee-jerk. The government has blocked access to whole domains, including blog host sites such as Blog*Spot and Typepad. Blog*Spot alone boasts 1.3 million members. The overwhelming majority of sites have nothing to do with the Kim video much less South Korea. They include Jerusalem Wanderings, a record of a Jewish resident of Jerusalem’s thoughts, Andy Kaufman Returns, a running gag about Kaufman’s resection, and Piggy Lov3, about a 13-year-old girl who likes “toking on the phone, listenin to music and sleeping.” Meanwhile, the idiots in charge of this nonsensical fascist operation are too stupid to block mirror sites and anonyms browsers such as Unipeak, which allow users to access Kim’s exaction video from South Korea.

But the ultimately pathetic thing is the government, which is so up in arms over Kim Sun-il, took no precautions to block access to other widely available beheading videos, such as Nick Berg’s. In fact, the Berg execution video was widely downloaded and circulated in South Korea. This behavior indicates a widespread racism in South Korea. Large portions of the Korean public are unperturbed by watching murderers decapitate citizens of other nations. However, when the victim is South Korean, the public is enraged and the government takes precautions against causing its citizens “extreme anguish.” I don’t know which is worse the public’s racist hypocrisy or the government's active enabling and encouragement of these racist ideas.

It leads me to wonder if there isn’t some validity to one of the conspiracy theories floating around the Korean blogger community: the Roh Administration is not as concerned about damage to South Korean psyches as it is about damage to itself when the public hears Kim’s last words: “President Roh Moo-hyun! … This [the troop deployment] is a mistake. Please, Korean people support me … I want to live. I go to Korea.”

Truly pathetic…

Below is an eloquent letter from Kevin Kim, AKA Big Hominid, a fellow blogger in South Korea and links to other blogs with further news on the recent censorship by the South Korean government, South Korean Internet providers, and the Ministry of Information.

Fellow blogger,

I am sending this message to the bloggers on my blogroll (and a few other folks) in the hopes that some of you will print this, or at least find it interesting enough for comment. I'm not usually the type to distribute such messages, but I felt this was important enough to risk disturbing you.

As some of you may already know, a wing of the South Korean government, the Ministry of Information and Culture (MIC), is currently clamping down on a variety of blogging service providers and other websites. The government is attempting to control access to video of the recent Kim Sun-il beheading, ostensibly because the video will have a destabilizing influence. (I haven't seen the video.)

Many Western expat bloggers in Korea are in an uproar; others, myself included, are largely unsurprised: South Korea has not come far out of the shadow of its military dictatorship past. My own response to this censorship is not so much anger as amusement, because the situation represents an intellectual challenge as well as a chance to fight for freedom of expression. Perhaps even to fight for freedom, period.

South Korea is a rapidly evolving country, but in many ways it remains the Hermit Kingdom. Like a turtle retreating into its shell, the people are on occasion unable to deal with the harsh realities of the world around them. This country is, for example, in massive denial about the atrocities perpetrated in North Korea, and, as with many Americans, is in denial about the realities of Islamic terrorism, whose roots extend chronologically backward far beyond the lifetime of the Bush Administration. This cultural tendency toward denial (and overreaction) at least partially explains the Korean government's move to censor so many sites.

The fact that the current administration, led by President Noh Mu-hyon, is supposedly "liberal"-leaning makes this censorship more ironic. It also fuels propagandistic conservative arguments that liberals are, at heart, closet totalitarians. I find this to be a specious caricature of the liberal position (I consider myself neither liberal nor conservative), but to the extent that Koreans are concerned about what image they project to the world, it is legitimate for them to worry over whether they are currently playing into stereotype: South Korea is going to be associated with other violators of human rights, such as China.

Of the many hypocrisies associated with the decision to censor, the central one is that no strong governmental measures were taken to suppress the distribution of the previous beheading videos (Nick Berg et al.). This, too, fuels the suspicion that Koreans are selfish or, to use their own proverbial image, "a frog in a well"-- radically blinkered in perspective, collectively unable to empathize with the sufferings of non-Koreans, but overly sensitive to their own suffering.

I am writing this letter not primarily to criticize all Koreans (I'm ethnically half-Korean, and an American citizen), nor to express a generalized condemnation of Korean culture. As is true anywhere else, this culture has its merits and demerits, and overall, I'm enjoying my time here. No, my purpose is more specific: to cause the South Korean government as much embarrassment as possible, and perhaps to motivate Korean citizens to engage in some much-needed introspection.

To this end, I need the blogosphere's help, and this letter needs wide distribution (you may receive other letters from different bloggers, so be prepared!). I hope you'll see fit to publish this letter on your site, and/or to distribute it to concerned parties: censorship in a supposedly democratic society simply cannot stand. The best and quickest way to persuade the South Korean government to back down from its current position is to make it lose face in the eyes of the world. This can only happen through a determined (and civilized!) campaign to expose the government's hypocrisy and to cause Korean citizens to rethink their own narrow-mindedness.

We can debate all we want about "root causes" with regard to Islamic terrorism, Muslim rage, and all the rest, but for me, it's much more constructive to proceed empirically and with an eye to the future. Like it or not, what we see today is that Korea is inextricably linked with Iraq issues, and with issues of Islamic fundamentalism. Koreans, however, may need some persuading that this is in fact the case-- that we all need to stand together as allies against a common enemy.

If you are interested in giving the South Korean Ministry of Information and Culture a piece of your mind (or if you're a reporter who would like to contact them for further information), please email the MIC at:

webmaster@mic.go.kr

Thank you,

Kevin Kim
bighominid@gmail.com
http://bighominid.blogspot.com
(Blogspot is currently blocked in Korea, along with other providers; please go to Unipeak.com and type my URL into the search window to view my blog.)

For more information on the Ministry of Information's Nonsence follow these links:

http://marmot.blogs.com/korea
http://jeffinkorea.blogs.com
http://aboutjoel.com
http://oranckay.net/blog
http://kimcheegi.blogs.com
http://gopkorea.blogs.com/flyingyangban
http://rathbonepress.tblog.com
http://blog.woojay.net
http://bighominid.blogspot.com
http://jeffinkorea.blogs.com

My Grandmother is Fat

2004-06-28T15:24:00.001+08:00

My Grandmother is Fat

One day I’m going to write a book titled, “My Grandmother is Fat and Other Stories From My Years in the Insane Asylum.” The picture above will be the front cover and the book will open with a story about its designer.

His name is Tae-in. He was among the first group of intensive preschool students I taught. He was a freak. There were several other freakish kids in that class. But he was the king. One day we were studying adjectives. We read a story about a girl and her family. “My mom is helpful,” said the girl. “My dad is strong,” she said. “My brother is smart.” “My grandmother is kind.”

We talked about the story a bit and brainstormed other descriptive words. The kids weren’t into it. They came up with nice, pretty, beautiful, and good.

I gave them blank papers. I told them to write a short sentence about one of their relatives and draw a picture of them. I wrote on the board, “My _____ is ______,” and wrote a long list of family names. I passed out the crayons and pencils. They went at it.

Five of the eight kids asked me how to spell kind. They begin diligently writing M-Y-G-R-A-N-D-M-O-T-H-E-R-I-S-K-I-N-D. They drew their grandmothers in puffy white dresses decorated with flowers and hearts. The women wore red bows in their hair, had full red lips, and were cooking.

Tae-in looked at the white sheet for a minute. He let out a dull, stabbing “Ha!” and asked, “How do you spell fat?” I wrote it on the board. “My grandmother is fat!” he shouted. I chuckled. “Really?” I asked. “Yeah!” he said.

He finished writing the sentence and looked up at me. “Good. Now draw a picture,” I told him. He looked back down at the paper and though. I continued around the table checking papers.

Tae-in showed me his picture. A rotund woman in a blue soccer uniform stood in front of a soccer goal with her arms outstretched. A soccer ball floated in midair to her right. She smiled widely and stared ahead. Here eyes were large perfect circles and totally empty white. She wore a gold medal on a red ribbon around her neck.

“Your Grandmother plays soccer?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Tae-in said.
“Fat people usually don’t play sports,” I said. “That’s why they are fat… And, if they do play, they usually aren’t good enough to win medals.”
“Ha!” Tae-in spat. “She is goalkeeper.”
“Good job.” I told him. “It’s a great picture.” I continued around the table.
Next time around, Tae-in pushed the picture up in the air toward me. “Here you are teacher,” he said.
“I can have it?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Thanks Tae-in,” I said happily.

Tae-in is the boy acting like a monkey in front.

Next I’ll tell the story of the time Byeung-yoon — the boy frowning on my right side in the picture above — stabbed Tae-in in the back of the neck with a pencil.

Into the 21st Century

2004-06-28T00:00:00.000+08:00

Old School Sony Mavica MVC-FD73

Well Jiyeoun and I finally did it today. After much discussion we decided to move into the 21st century and get a digital camera with image quality measured in megapixals and weight measured in ounces.

We’ve been using a first generation Sony Mavica MVC-FD73. It is a mammoth, sturdy beast: measuring 13.8 cm x 6.2 cm x 10.5 and weighing in at just over a pound. It has a 2.5” 24-color LCD screen and writes directly to 3.5” floppy disks. Its images are .35 megapixals and 13-20 fit on a disk. You can hear the thing writing each time it takes a picture. You press the button, there is a second pause, the screen goes black, you hear its little disk drive writing away for a few seconds, and then you are ready to go.

It was great on vacations. You didn’t need any cables, special programs, or a computer with Windows XP. You just needed a 3.5” disk drive and off the pics went in e-mails to everyone. You could send dozens of images and never risk filling someone’s inbox. Although over the last few years, 3.5 disk drives have begun to disappear and lugging the Mavica around by its huge blue strap became embarrassing. People would look at me and wonder if I was taking pictures or on a dialysis machine.

Nikon Cool Pix 3200

We replaced the Mavica with a Nikon Coolpix 3200. It weighs 4.9 oz — less than the Mavica’s battery — and measures 88 x 65 x 38mm — smaller than the 3.5” floppies that the Sony took. Yet, it has 3.2 megapixal resolution, nearly 10 times the old camera, and Windows XP automatically recognizes the Nikon when you plug it into the computer. You can even set XP to download the images automatically. But, it does not make a cool whirring sound when it takes pictures, it doesn’t write images to disk, and it doesn’t look like a heart dialysis machine.

Right now there are 48 Sony Mavica MVC-FD73s on sale on E-bay. They range from $10-$150 USD. One guy is selling his for spare parts. But, I’m hanging on to mine for a while. In a few years, people will be nostalgic for clunky digital cameras that made crunchy noises when they wrote to disk and the Mav’ ‘ill be kitsch. Then I’ll sell it for millions.

Wife Beater

2004-06-20T22:15:00.000+08:00

Photo By Chris Duggan

Awhile back, I mentioned “the old Japanese guy who recommended I beat my wife if she does not drink with me” in a post about my Love Motel speech. I said there would be “more on the old Japanese guy another time.” Well, another time has come.

There were a few old Japanese guys in my Korean class last semester. The one I’m referring to is wearing a yellow tie in the picture above. He seemed like a decent enough guy. He made a lot of jokes in class about being an alcoholic: What do you do when you’re sad? Drink. What’s the best way to cure a cold? Drink. What’s your hobby? Drinking. What did you do this weekend? Drink. Etc… But, that is par for the course among guys in Korea. Another time, when he was asked where a younger classmate could meet women, he suggested hanging out around the Kangnam metro station at 6PM when offices closed. There were a lot of very beautiful 20-something women, he informed us laughing with glee. This made me wonder a little. I knew his wife and family were in Japan.

The class went out for dinner and drinks one night. I ended up at one end of the table with Wife Beater and the Korean-American kid whose Korean speech was about drinking and going to massage parlors. In hindsight, I should have been obvious something was going to happen. But, they kept it together for a while. We talked about the Korean drinks we liked; made some small talk about finding the Korean-American guy a girlfriend; and then Wife Beater started asking about my wife. That was okay for a while, too. Where did you meet? What does she do? How old is she? Where did you get married? Did your family come? Will you stay in Korea? Does she want to go to the United States? The usual. But, then he asked if she and I drank together.

“We drink together sometimes,” I said. “But, she doesn’t like to drink much. So it doesn’t happen that often.”

“You have to hit her and make her drink,” He said.

I thought he was joking. “Hit her?” I laughed.

“Sure.” He smiled. “When she doesn’t want to drink hit her.” He moved his hand back and forth and made a slapping sound: “Tish, Tish!” He tilted his head back and laughed loudly. “Next time you suggest drinking together she’ll like it.” He lowered his head, took the soju shot-glass between his hands like he was praying, and raised his wide eyes up. “Yes, husband. Thank you,” he said in a mock woman’s voice and bowed. He turned his head left and drank the rest of his soju in the deferential Korean style. He turned, looked at me, and laughed loudly as if he’d just heard a wonderful joke.

I showed him and toothy grimace and let out a single fake chuckle. I turned to the Japanese graduate student to my right and asked how his studies were going.

When I told Jiyeoun about the incident, she stopped me after I said the guy recommended beating her. “Was he joking?” she asked.

“I don’t think so. He made slapping gestures and everything. It didn’t seem like a joke. He was smiling and laughing about it. He told me my wife would like drinking with me next time.”

“I hate hearing that. Don’t tell me any more. It’s making me angry,” she said. “So, what did you do when he said that?”

“I didn’t do anything. I just stopped talking. I changed the subject. I started talking to the other guy sitting next to me.”

“You didn’t say anything to him?”

“What should I have said? What do you say to something like that? I’m not going to fight with the guy in Korean at our class dinner. I doubt a guy like that is going to listen even if I said something. He’s in his mid-50s. He didn’t get like that overnight. I’m sure he knew I didn’t like what he was saying. I changed the subject and didn’t talk with him again.”

“If I was there I would have fought with him. I would have yelled at him. I would kill him,” Jiyeoun said gleefully.

This got me thinking. What is my obligation in that situation? Should I have said something? What should I have said? Would it make a difference? Would it have made the situation worse? By not saying anything, am I condoning his type of behavior? I’m certainly not doing anything to address it. But, maybe simply changing the subject and talking to someone else was enough.

But, you’ll notice my arm is around the guy in the above picture. (I’m the one in the blue shirt with the buzz cut.) The photo was taken after the incident in question. I chose to stand next to him. He put his arm around my shoulder and I reciprocated. Honestly, in my preoccupation with looking good for the camera, I totally forgot about the Wife Beating.

In writing this, I’ve come to realize saying something would have been the right thing . But, it was easier to let it slide, talk to someone else, and pretend it somehow addressed the situation. In the future, I hope to be more courageous. Meanwhile, this is my belated, slightly cowardly, wholly inadequate remedy.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
Face to Face: The Face of Woman's Rights
Amnesty International: Campaign to Stop Violence Against Women
Ministry of Gender Equality (Korea)
National Domestic Violence Hotline (USA)
Women Matter (USA)

Screen Quota Material

2004-06-19T21:43:00.000+08:00

Political Economy of the Korean Screen Quota

Nationalist Discourse and Cultural Imperialism: The Problematic Rhetoric Surrounding the Korean Screen Quota System

Fortuitous Wind Down

2004-06-19T15:17:00.000+08:00

Finals are winding down. I completed a U.N. simulation on Tuesday, finished my final paper for Modern Korean History and Culture on Wednesday, and took an exam in Media and International Relations on Thursday. My last paper for Introduction to Feminist Theory is due Wednesday. It’s going to be a low-key kind of thing continuing with the Korean screen quota theme.

I posted the Political Economy of the Korean Screen Quota below. It was my final paper for Modern Korean History and Culture. Some version of it will probably end up as part of the introduction to my thesis. The timing is fortuitous. The screen quota issue has returned to the front pages of Korean newspapers after a year out of the spotlight following comments by Culture and Tourism Minister Lee Chang-dong that it was time for the quotas to be reduced. This prompted a flurry of coverage and commentaries in South Korea’s major dailies: Chosun, JoongAng Daily, Korea Times, Ohmynews.

Quota of Frustration From Oct. 21, 2003 Chosun Ilbo by Shin Kyong-mu

"Outside Cheong Wa Dae, movie industry people rally against President Roh's plan to loosen the screen quota, holding signs that say 'Strongly Against Loosening the Screen Quota' and chanting 'Roh, watch your back.' Off to the side are three staunch supporters of both Roh and the protection of the movie industry: the celebrities Myeong Gye-nam and Moon Seong-geun and Culture Minister Lee Chang-dong. The protesters say, 'What, you're not coming with us?' The three mutter, 'This is driving me crazy.'"

You can read my analysis of the screen quota system from 1982-2002 and its effect on the Korean share of the domestic movie market. I looked at the actors involved in the screen quota conflict, divided them into pro and anti screen quota factions, reviewed their positions, and then explained thier effects on the decline and rise of the Korean share of domestic movie market. I find market share was directly related to changes in the aggregate power of each faction. The paper is a hoot. Enjoy.

Portrait in Black

2004-06-17T21:02:00.000+08:00

My student, Cindy Cho, drew a picture of me and my family the other day. This is me. It's a good likeness. I rarely wear hats but, if I did, I would most certainly wear one like this bowler. It looks pretty good on me in this picture. I'm a little worried, though. It appears elephantiasis is developing in my left foot. I better get that looked at. Cindy also drew a picture of Jiyeoun saying she loved me. The pictures aren't quite to scale however. Jiyeoun's got a good 6 inches on me according to Cindy's picture. We'll have to discuss proportion in the next class.

Portrait of Isaac, by Cindy Cho
Graphite on paper (2004)

Political Economy of the Korean Screen Quota

2004-06-17T20:37:00.000+08:00

Introduction

The Political Economy of the Korean Screen Quota System: The Actors, Their Interests, and Their Effects on the Korean Share of the Domestic Movie Market, 1983-2003

The fluctuations in the Korean share of the domestic movie market over the last 20 years are directly related to the interplay of the concerned parties. In the late 80s the Korean movie industry was politically weak relative to the U.S. Commerce department and the Motion Picture Association. This allowed American interests to push open the Korean movie market and capture huge market shares. However, in the mid-90s the Korean movie industry gained strength with the entrance of Korean conglomerates and the creation of the Screen Watchers Group. Since then, the Korean local market share has steadily risen.

History of the Screen Quota System

List of Actors

Pro and Anti Screen Quota Faction Members

The major anti-screen quota parties are the U.S. Commerce Department, the Motion Picture Association (MPA), the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), the Korean National Theater Owners Association (NTOA) and the Korea Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT). The pro-screen quota parties include the Coalition for Cultural Diversity in Moving Images (CDMI), Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MOCT), and Korean conglomerate branches engaged in the movie industry. Korean Presidential Administrations and the National Assembly have been fluid actors, alternately siding with the anti and pro screen quota factions.

The U.S. Commerce Department has made movie industry trade liberalization a central concern in its negotiations with Korea at least since the 80s. The U.S. Commerce Department repeatedly cited Article 301 of the Commerce Treaty between the United States and Korea as justification for opening Korea’s movie market to American companies. They were a central reason the Korean government passed the six-revised film law, which abolished the 2:1 Korean to American film ratio system and the USD $5 million annual import quota, in July 1987. In 2003, the U.S. Commerce Department made screen quota reduction below 20% a prerequisite to concluding a Bilateral Investment Treaty between the United States and Korea. Wendy Cutler, the assistant U.S. trade representative for North Asian affairs stated, “We would not conclude a bilateral investment treaty without adequately addressing the screen quota issue…. We’d never ask for the elimination of the screen quota. We are looking for Seoul to reduce the quota to an acceptable level.”

The MPA is the international branch of the Motion Picture Association of America. It was formed in 1945 as the Motion Picture Export Association of America and renamed in 1994. Since its inception, it has “cultivated ongoing support and political power from the US government.” The first president of the MPA, Eric Johnston, and his successor Jack Valenti “relentlessly lobbied the U.S. government (Department of State, Senate, House of Representatives and the President) to try and subside and/or annihilate the film trade barriers in Korea.” The MPA has primarily argued that trade liberalization would benefit all parties. In a March 26, 1999 meeting with then president Kim Dae Jung, Valenti predicted lowering the quota to “a reasonable and commercially acceptable limit” would encourage foreign financiers to invest “several hundred of millions of dollars” into “new state-of-the-art multiplex theaters in Korea.” He claimed, “A central marketplace truth is that neither parliaments, nor presidents can command their citizens to watch movies they do not choose to see.” Valenti cited the Korean film “Swiri” and claimed, “films that entertain and attract customers don’t need artificial crutches to win audiences.” More recently Jeffrey Hardee, regional vice president for the MPA said, “We are not trying to kill off the local industry. We just don’t think that quotas are an effective tool… [The quota does] local producers more harm than good… You have to hold local films longer than economically justified… Cinemas are essentially losing money. You’re not giving them flexibility.”

The KFTC’s predecessor, the Fair Trade Division, was established in 1976 “under the Price Policy Bureau of the now-defunct Economic Planning Board (EPB).” In 1981, the KFTC was formally established under the Office of Minister. In 1994, the organization “won independence from the EPB with the revision of the Government Organization Act” and in 1996 the Ministry’s “Chairman was elevated to ministerial level from vice-ministerial level”. The Ministry’s basic organization has changed little since then. The KFTC’s self described mission is “developing competition policy and enforcing competition laws. Its goals are to “promote competition in the market and to enhance consumer welfare.”

“The KFTC enforces the ‘Monopoly Regulation And Fair Trade Act’, under which cartels, M&As and abuse of dominance in the Korean markets are major targets of law enforcement. It also handles consumer protection policy and relevant laws. Active competition advocacy and regulatory reforms in the public sector are also major concerns for the KFTC.”

The KFTC has argued that the screen quota serves the interests of the Korean film industry at the detriment of the overall economy. Kang Chul-kyu, head of the Fair Trade Commission argues, “Domestic film’s market share has gone up more than 50 percent… The screen quota needs to be relaxed to encourage competition in [the] film industry….”

The predecessor to MOFAT, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was established in1948. From the beginning it took charge of “diplomacy, external economic policy, overseas Korean nationals, international situation analysis and overseas promotional affairs.” The ministry underwent its only significant reformation in 1998. The “Ministry of Foreign Affairs was reorganized as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade with the incorporation of the newly established Office of the Minister for Trade, so as to comprehensively establish and conduct foreign policies on trade, trade negotiations and foreign economic affairs.” This change did little to alter the Ministry’s responsibilities. It simply clarified longstanding practice.

The MOFAT has said the advantages of reducing the screen quota far outweigh the disadvantages. Kwon Tae-shin, deputy minister for international affairs at MOFAT stated: “South Korea’s exports to United States amount to $33 billion a year, but American films account for $200 million in the local film market. Being swayed by some self-centered people in the film industry is not desirable at all. A failure to sign a bilateral investment treaty will damage our export industries… Local films represent more than 45 percent of the movie market, and the film promotion fund has raised over 100 billion won [USD $82.4 million]. Thus, Korea’s film market is ready to be opened.”

The NTOA is composed of independent theater owners. In the early 80s, before foreign direct distribution was allowed, theater owners were among the most powerful interests in the Korean film industry. Theater owners controlled the movie distribution process through regional cartels. Movies always opened in Seoul “and then the studio [sold] the rights to the movie theaters in the various regional divisions.” Because there were “no simultaneous nationwide film releases… it [was] difficult to get an accurate count of box office receipts outside of Seoul.” Therefore, local “studios simply [sold] the rights to the film at a fixed price to theaters in each regional division, regardless of the commercial success of the film.” This gave the regional theater cartels tremendous power to set prices and make profit. If a film was “rejected by the people in charge of the regional cartels, it usually [ended] up in storage and [was] never released.”

Independent theater owners begin to loose their hold on the local film industry when foreign direct distribution was allowed in 1987. “Hollywood-related direct distribution companies, such as United International Pictures … were known to engage in illegal practices such as ‘block booking’ (selling several films to cinemas as a package deal, typically including a hit film and several less popular movies.)” Theater owners were forced to go along with the practice and pay large sums of money for movie rights because of the popularity of Hollywood films. “The Hollywood block busters that were supplied by these distributors would be the top box-office draws of local cinemas.” This practice severely weakened the power of independent theater owners.

But, the filial blow came 1993 with the formation of the Screen Watcher’s Group, the forerunner of the CDMI. Until then, the independent movie owners were virtually ignoring the screen time regulations outlined in the screen quota in order to show high-grossing Hollywood films. The Screen Watcher’s Group began to force the Korean authorities and independent owners to follow the law. This created serious market distortions, such as in the summer of 2001, when there were only 7 Korean movies for 216 screens in Seoul. In 1995, after the number of screens in Korean shrunk for the 5th year, the NTOA filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court asking it to repeal the screen quota system on the grounds that it “infringed on their constitutional guarantee to pursue economic happiness.” The organization argued the screen quota system was unconstitutional because it inhibited the theater owners’ free choice and their right to pursue their economic interest. They believed the screen quota placed an undue burden on theater owners by forcing them to subsidize Korean movies. They blamed the system for the dramatic drop in the number of independently owned theaters over the previous decade. However, the Court ruled the “The constitution guarantees the right to pursue happiness, however, this does not guarantee unlimited pursuit of economic interest irrespective of the interest of the community.” The Court’s decision denied the NTOA’s last chance for regaining power. The number of independently owned movie theaters in Korea has continued to decline unabatedly since then.

The most public member of the pro-screen quota group is the MCT. It is a relatively new bureau, which assumed its present form and responsibilities in 1998. Previously some of “its duties were handled by the Public Information Office and the culture division of the Ministry of Education, which were … established in 1948.” Then in “1961, the Ministry of Transportation set up a tourism department that carried out similar duties to the tourism division of the ministry.” At the same time the “Ministry of Information was established, and it took the parts of art and cultural affairs from the Ministry of Education.” Then in “1968, the Ministry of Information was replaced by the Ministry of Culture and Information.” It took charge of Korea’s “cultural property and management of the museums from the Ministry of Education.” The Ministry of Culture was set up in 1990 and “printing, broadcasting and other mass media-related affairs were transferred to the Ministry of Information.” In 1993, “the Ministry of Sports and Youth, and the Ministry of Culture were integrated into the Ministry of Culture and Sports.” And in 1998, “the Ministry of Culture and Sports was replaced by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.” The new bureau “began handling affairs relating to the print and broadcast media, which had been the responsibility of the former Ministry of Information.” Until the responsibility for mass media was returned to the newly created MCT, previous ministries were primarily concerned with film censorship. However, after a landmark Constitutional Court ruling on October 4, 1996 that concluded film censorship violates constitutional law and National Assembly revisions to the Film Promotion Codes on March 17, 1997, the MCT took up screen quota protection.

With the appointment of the Chang-dong Lee as the new minister of the MCT in early 2003, screen quota protection became the Ministry’s central concern. Lee was the former president of the executive committee of CDMI, an interest group that represents the Korean film industry. He was “inaugurated as Minister of Culture and Tourism with the help of the strong support from the Korean cultural milieu as well as the Korean film society.” He stated, “I have no plans to make any change to the screen-quota system” and argued “The screen quota is not just an issue for the film industry; it is vital to the future of our visual media industry as a whole. If we lower our guard on film, the rest of the market is lost.” He doubts that the Bilateral Investment Treaty will bring significant benefits to the Korean economy. “We will not get [USD] $4 billion in new investment be concluding a bilateral treaty… an although there would be some benefits, the nation’s cultural sovereign cannot be given up for any gain.” He claims the culture sector is closely related to Korea’s national identity and points out, “Even the World Trade Organization’s Doha Agenda on the service sector excludes culture from its negotiations.”

The CDMI was created in 1993 as a “watchdog for the Korean movie industry” to “effectively enforce the screen quota system.” The president of the group, Gi-na Yu, prior to the formation of the CDMI the screen quota system “existed in name only with many theaters ignoring it and opting to pay the inconsequential fines instead.” She claims: “Things began to change after the establishment in 1993 of the coalition, then called Screen Quota Watchers, and through their lobbying efforts, the screen quota policy began to be enforced. The guarantee of a certain number of screenings made domestic companies willing to invest more at the production level and raised the overall quality of Korean films”

Samsung’s partial investment in “Marriage Story” in 1992 began widespread corporate involvement in film production. Both Samsung and Daewoo opened production studios and distribution companies in the mid-90s. Their large distribution networks enabled them to successfully compete with the foreign direct distribution companies. Daewoo pulled out of the movie business in 1998. However, Samsung’s subsidiary, CJ Entertainment and Cinema Service, which Samsung later bought, “challenged the oligopoly of the five [American] direct distribution firms.” By the time “Swiri” was released, “the stranglehold of [American] direct distribution firms… was broken.” By 2003, CJ Entertainment and Cinema Service captured 40.8% of the local market and distributed six of the top ten most-attended movies in Seoul.

The political establishment apparently took little notice of the screen quota issue prior to the late-90s. There are no reports of politicians making public comments regarding the system in English-language papers until 1998, when then presidential hopeful Kim Dae Jung included maintenance of the screen quota in his campaign platform. As president, Kim promised to maintain the screen quota system until the share of domestic movies reached 40%. However, he did not abolish the system when the time came. A majority of the national assembly signed a petition to maintain the screen quota in 1998 and the body passed a resolution to maintain the mandatory screening period for domestic films in 1999. Roh Moo-hyun campaigned on a pledge that he would maintain the current quota system. In general, the political establishment is in favor of the current screen quota system. “Their interest is to keep the quota in order to maintain the close relations with actors and actresses, who play a critical role in drawing public votes during the election campaigns.”

History of Actors

The Actors’ Effects on the Local Market Share

Comparisons between the actions of the parties concerned with the screen quota dispute and fluctuations in the domestic share of the local market show the actors had a direct effect on market share. The shift in aggregate power from the anti to the pro-screen quota faction caused the local market share to drop and rise over the last 20 years. The two most important changes regarding the screen quota in the last 20 years come in 1986 and 1993.

At the beginning of the 80s, the anti-screen quota faction was far stronger than its rival. The United States Commerce Department had been active in Korea since its formation in 1948 and had a long history of successfully negotiated trade agreements with the Republic of Korea. Its most important tool was Article 301 of the Commerce Treaty, which restricted market protection.

The MPA, likewise, had a long history in Korea dating back to the 1950s. It had been lobbying the American Government to open closed markets such as Korea’s for decades. The MOFAT’s predecessor, the MOF, had a longstanding relationship with the U.S. Commerce department. Its stated mission was to coordinate “external economic policy.” The FTC was formed in 1981 as a department under the control of the Economic Planning Board. Its purpose was to “promote fair competition and trade.”

The NTOA, which later became staunchly anti-screen quota, was less opposed to the system in the early 80s. It was the most powerful domestic group in the Korean movie industry and had benefited under the screen quota. The regulations were not being fully enforced during this period, so it had some leeway to pursue its own interest. However, the screen quota system blocked movie owners from obtaining highly profitable Hollywood movies. But most importantly, because the national movie theater owners’ cartels were organized in regional, rather than a national, cartels they were not organized enough politically to be a powerful force.

The pro-screen quota faction, on the other hand, was far weaker. Its two most important members, the CDMI and the entertainment branches of the conglomerates, did not exist. The only permanent member of the faction, the MOCT, existed as Ministry of Information and its main concern regarding movies was censorship rather than cultural protection. The non-aliened actors, the politicians, presumably held weak views on movie industry barriers and cultural protections. There are no reports of politicians making public comments regarding the system in English-language sources prior to 1998. Judging by their decisions to reduce the screen quota 146 days in 1985 and to allow foreign direct distribution in 1987, they valued free trade or bilateral relations over the interest of the Korean movie industry.

In 1997, the Korean government passed the sixth revised film law. This marked a watershed in the domestic movie industry. Previously, Korean law allowed only Korean distributors to supply foreign movies to the domestic market; stipulated theater owners show 2 Korean movies for every foreign movie; and set a 5 million dollar ceiling on annual foreign movie imports. The sixth revised film law abolished the ratio system and import ceiling. But, most importantly it allowed American distributions companies to negotiate directly with Korean theater owners. The number of imported films rose drastically. In 1985 there were 30 imported films. In 1989, four years later, there were 264 imported films in Korea. The number peaked at 384 imported films in 1994.

The Korean share of the domestic market, which was already shrinking due to poor Korean movie quality, lack of capital, and inadequate distribution systems , declined drastically. It went from 33% in 1986 to 20.2% in 1980 and bottomed out at 15.9% in 1993.

The entrance of the foreign distributors broke the strength of the independent theater owners’ cartels. The owners were highly dependent on Hollywood distributors because of the popularity and profitability of American movies. They were forced into disadvantageous deals such as “block booking,” or buying a package of movies that included several less popular movies and one hit movie. The independent movie theater owners were at such a disadvantage by the late 90s that they were going out of business. In 1991, there were 762 screens in Korea. By 1995, there were only 577. This is a drop of 185 screens.

The drop in Korean market share of the domestic market began to reverse in 1993. The formation of the Screen Watchers Group marked the shift of power from the anti-screen quota to the pro-screen quota system faction. The relative positions of the majority of the anti-faction, U.S. Commerce Department, the MPA, the KFTC, and MOFAT, remained largely the same. The KFTC gained independence from the Economic Planning Board, but nothing else changed. However, the Screen Watchers Group immediately affected the local market share. Prior to that time, the screen quota laws were not being enforced. Theater owners regularly ignored Korean movies in favor of higher grossing American movies.

But, with the screen quota being enforced, the Korean share rose nearly 5% from 15.9% to 20.5%. This reversed a decade-long decline in local market share in the domestic movie market. The next major boost came in 1995 with the establishment of Cinema Service and then CJ Entertainment. Encouraged by the gains made since the screen quota begin being enforcement and the protections the system provided, the conglomerates sunk money, technology, and talent into the Korean movie industry. CJ Entertainment started building its own distribution network with the creation of the CGV multiplex theater chain. This guaranteed outlets for its productions and reduced distribution costs. CJ Entertainment and Cinema Service’s aggressive market strategies broke the foreign distribution monopolies that controlled the local market since it was opened in 1986.

In tandem with these developments, the Constitutional Court ruled that film censorship violates constitutional law. This forced the MOCT’s predecessor, the MOC, to shift from censorship to cultural protection. Buy the time the current MOCT was formed in 1998, the organization was fully devoted to its new mission. This included protection and promotion of the screen quota. The MOCT has been a leading public defender of the system over the last 5 years, especially with the appointment of its new minister, Chang-dong Lee, a Korean movie industry insider, in 2002.

Politicians have joined the pro-screen quota faction in recent years as well. As mentioned above, they have realized that actors and actresses draw votes during election campaigns. Therefore they have supported the screen quota. Presidents, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun campaigned on a pledge that they would maintain the current quota system. A majority of the national assembly signed a petition to maintain the screen quota in 1998 and the body passed resolution to maintain the mandatory screening period for domestic films in 1999.

This shift of power from the anti to pro-screen quota faction has caused the local share of the Korean market to rise from 20.9% in 1995 to 39.7% in 1999. In 2001, the Korean share of the domestic movie peaked at 50.1%; its highest in over two decades.

Local Versus Imported Films

Local Market Share

Overview: Film Origin and Market Share

Summary

The above description illustrates that the fluctuations of the Korean market share in the domestic market are dependent on the interests of the predominate groups. From 1983 to 1993, the anti-screen quota faction was stronger and the Korean market share fell to 15.9%. However, as the pro-screen quota faction gained power in the period 1993 to 2002, the Korean market share rose to a peak of 50.1%.

Works Cited:

Kim Young-hoon, “Outlook: Screen Quotas Make Little Sense,” JoongAng Daily (Seoul), 23 June 2003.

Coalition for Cultural Diversity in Moving Images, “Overview of the Screen Quota System in Korea”; [on-line] available from http://www.screenquota.org/epage/Board/view.asp?BoardID=4&Idx=81; Internet; accessed 5 May 2004

Byung-il Choi, “When Culture Meets Trade: Screen Quota in Korea,” Global Economic Review Vol 31, No. 4 (Seoul, Korea: Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, 2003), 78.

Kim Byong-Jae, “Currents: The Unmaking of the Korean Movie,” Koreana Vol.6 No.4 (Seoul: Korean Foundation, 1992)

“U.S. Aide Says Korea Not Ready for Free Trade,” JoongAng Daily (Seoul), 22 October 2003

Wikipedia: Free Encyclopedia, s.v. “Motion Picture Association” [on-line] available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Association; Internet; accessed 13 June 2004

Brian Yecies, “Re: Regarding your Screen Quota Research,” (summary of current research regarding Korean Screen Quota System in e-mail response to inquiry, 5 May 2004).

“Valenti Discussed Renaissance of Korean Film Industry with Korean President,” (Los Angeles: Motion Picture Association of America, 1999) [online] available at http://www.mpaa.org/jack/; Internet; accessed 5 May 2004

Don Kirk, “South Korea’s Filmmakers Roll Into Action to Protect Foreign-Movie Quota,” International Herald Tribune (Paris), 11 December 1998

Korea Fair Trade Commission, “About the KFTC: History,” (Seoul: KFTC, 2004) [online] available at http://ftc.go.kr/eng/; accessed 10 June 2004.

Korea Fair Trade Commission, “About the KFTC: Organization and Mission,” (Seoul: KFTC, 2004) [online] available at http://ftc.go.kr/eng/; accessed 10 June 2004.

“Fair Trade Boss Pushes Relaxed Movie Quota System,” JoongAng Daily (Seoul), 31 October 2003

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, “About the Ministry: History,” (Seoul: MOFAT, 2004) [online] available at http://www.mofat.go.kr/en/about/e_about_ora_history.mof; accessed 12 June, 2003.

“Officials Clash Over ‘Infant Industry’ Help for Films,” JoongAng Daily (Seoul), 13 June 2003

Joon Soh, “Screen Quota Is About More Than Money,” Korea Times (Seoul) 19 June, 2003.

Korean Film Commission, Number of Screens 1991-2002 Korea Cinema Yearbook 2003 (Seoul, Korea: Korean Film Commission, 2003), 162.

Global Film Exhibition and Distribution, “Korean Exhibition Environment,” in CJ Entertainment December 2003 Press Release (Seoul: CJ Entertainment, 2003), 6.

MCT, “About the Ministry of Culture and Tourism: History,” (Seoul: Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 2004) [online] available from http://www.mct.go.kr/english/M_about/history.html; Internet; accessed 13 June 2004

Lee Yeon-Ho, “Mapping the Korean Film Industry,” trans. Im Hyun-Ock, Cinemaya N. 37, winter 1997.

CDMI, “Newsletter – KCCD, Korean Coalition for Cultural Diversity,” (Seoul: CDMI, 2003) [online] available from http://www.screenquota.org/epage/upload/Newsletter%202003.4.doc; Internet; accessed 13 June 2004.

Park Sung-soo, “Viewpoint: Whose Interests are being served?” JoongAng Daily (Seoul), 8 June 2003; “Officials Clash,” JoongAng Daily

CDMI, “About CDMI: Who We Are,” (Seoul: CDMI, 2003) [online] available from http://www.screenquota.org/epage/about/about_01.asp; Internet; accessed 13 June 2004.

Korean Film Council, “2003 Box-office Wrap-up” (Seoul: Korean Film Commission, 2004) [online] available at http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/news/news_view.asp?kor_news_num=24&page=3&p_part=1
&p_item=&tmp_cnt=24; accessed 10 May 2004

CDMI, “Screen Quota and the Korean Film Industry,” (Seoul, CDMI) [on-line] available from http://www.screenquota.org/epage/Board/view.asp?BoardID=4&Idx=119; Internet; accessed 1 May 2004

Korean Film Commission, “Trends of Korean Film Production and Importation 1993-2002” Korea Cinema Yearbook 2003 (Seoul, Korea: Korean Film Commission, 2003), 318.

Still Swinging

2004-06-09T21:51:00.000+08:00

I’m still in the middle of midterms. Just finished my Korean exam and a paper for my Media and International Relations class tonight. I posted the paper below. It’s a deconstruction of the nationalist rhetoric surrounding the Korean Screen Quota System. It’s heady stuff not for the faint of heart. But, it’s an interesting insight of the monotony that is my life. Enjoy!

Nationalist Discourse and Cultural Imperialism: The Problematic Rhetoric Surrounding the Korean Screen Quota System

2004-06-09T21:27:00.000+08:00

Problematic Rhetoric

The cultural arguments for the Korean screen quota fall into three closely related categories: protection of national identity, defense of traditional cultural roots, and guards against cultural domination. The concepts underlying these terms are highly ambiguous and riddled with flaws. Depending when and how these cultural arguments are invoked they can be highly problematic. Analysis of the movies made under the screen quota system clearly illustrates these contradictions.

The leading public defenders of Korea’s screen quota system are the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT), the Coalition for Cultural Diversity in Moving Images (CDMI), and Korean intellectuals. The Minister of the MCT, Chang-dong Lee has primarily used claims of cultural domination and cultural sovereignty to defend the screen quota system. He stated, “American movies are like dinosaurs in the jungle” and argued “The screen quota is not just an issue for the film industry; it is vital to the future of our visual media industry as a whole. If we lower our guard on film, the rest of the market is lost.” He claims the culture sector is closely related to Korea’s national identity and points out, “Even the World Trade Organization’s Doha Agenda on the service sector excludes culture from its negotiations.”

The CDMI invokes national identity and cultural domination arguments in its fervent defense of the screen quota. The president of the group, Gi-na Yu, describes movies with a sort of sacred nationalism: “A film is not a chair or an ink bottle or a floppy disk that we just use and then throw away… We see it, and it stays strongly with us in our minds… It’s something very spiritual and psychological.” She explicitly describes the screen quota as a defense against domination: “The BIT tries to put us on the same competitive plane with the U.S. and that isn’t possible…. The economic power in the relationship will eventually go to the stronger and richer nation. To think of it otherwise is naive… Are we going to keep going toward a world where a minority of people rule everything? Or will we try to make a world that is more evenly distributed, where differences are accepted, and a variety of films, though they may not all be good, exist and have the opportunity to be seen?”

Intellectual elites, newspaper columnists and university professors, comprise the last vocal contingent of screen quota defenders. As a group, they have used all three arguments, national identity, traditional roots, and cultural domination, in their defense of the screen quota. Joseph Chung, opinion writer for the JoongAng Daily, states, “When we succumb to pressure from the United States to halve the requirements for local cinemas … it does not mean just reducing the days. When the distribution is halved, film production will also be reduced by half. When this vicious cycle continues … Hollywood films will be triumphant.” He sees a corrupting element in Hollywood films. “The actors Gary Cooper or John Wayne, often playing cowboys, were screen idols when I was young. I thought white men who hunted Indians were symbols of justice, and that the Indians who worked to protect their land and existence were evil-doers.” He quotes Costa-Gavras and Jacques Chirac in saying, “Our mind is not for sale, and culture is not for negotiation… Culture should not surrender to trade.” An unsigned editorial in The Hankyoreh argues, “Films are profound art forms produced by a cultural industry that strives to promote appreciation of a country’s traditional and contemporary identity.”

In this rhetoric, national identity, tradition, and cultural are invoked, but rarely analyzed. National identity and tradition are prima facie good, while cultural domination is prima facie bad. However, upon closer inspection these terms are not as clear-cut or value-laded as implied. Each concept involves a complex, often paradoxical process. In the drive to create a national identity, minority voices are excised or suppressed in order to fashion a coherent whole. The notion of national tradition freezes in a point a dynamic past and idealizes it as a symbol of the nation’s present identity. Cultural domination suggests that an outside force threatens the nation’s sovereignty. This, in turn, implies that the threatened national government represents the autonomous interests of its diverse citizenry. All of the assumptions underlying the above arguments are dubious in theory and in practice. Studies illustrate the processes that the screen quota is designed to protect against are still happening. Only the actors are Korean, not foreign.

In the screen quota discussion, national identity is posited as a coherent entity under threat from cultural imperialism. According to this nationalistic argument the sense of a cohesive national identity is fractured by the imposition of foreign ideas or values. Benedict Anderson’s definition of the nation as “an imagined political community” is useful in understanding the problems in the national identity argument. Anderson explains the nation “is imagined because members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their community.” This does not suggest that modern nations are somehow false. He points out imagined communities lead to very real killing and dying for the nation. Nor, he says, does his argument imply that there are “true” national communities. He says, “Communities are not to be distinguished by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined.”

Anderson argues that the rise of national media over the previous two centuries is what made mass construction of national identity possible. The style of imagining the nation is a mass-mediated process. Anderson cites the example of reading the daily newspaper. “This ceremony is incessantly repeated at daily or half-daily intervals throughout the calendar. What more vivid figure for the secular, historically-clocked, imagined community can be envisioned?”

The value of Anderson’s concept of imagined communities in the discussion of national identity is that “we can now recognize that cultural identities are not rooted in deep quasi-natural attachment to a homeland, but rather complex cultural constructions.” But more strikingly, seen in this light “National identities are, paradoxically, the cultural outcome of the very same process — expanding capitalism, Western rationality, the breakdown of ‘tradition’, the ‘mediatisation’ of cultural experience — that are said, in other discourses, to constitute cultural imperialism itself!” Meaning the process of national identity building is the same as foreign domination.

This is clear when looking at the top-ten Korean movies produced under the screen quota system. Rather then sticking to a supposed “national Korean style” the major conglomerates that produce Korean movies simply adopt “Hollywood style” in an attempt to create blockbusters. Sunji Oh reports the top-5 grossing Korean films for previous years have adopted a largely homogeneous style that closely follows Hollywood conventions. Oh conducted a content analysis of 46 recent films and compared genera, theme, character, and narrative choices in Korean movies to “classical Hollywood styles” outlined by leading film studies scholars. Oh defines Hollywood movies as “a cinema of westerns, gangster films, musicals, melodramas, and thrillers” and claims the “basic formal concern in Hollywood is story telling…. The film should be comprehensible and unambiguous and possess a fundamental emotional appeal tending toward harmony and stability.” She contrasts this with “third world films” in which “the long take, cross-cutting, panning shot, silence in films, and a different concept of the ‘hero’” are the norm. Oh tracked seven genera types: action, comedy, historical film, romance, sex, social consciousness, and war. She further assessed whether the films included the following issues: North/South divisions, Korean social and political situations, Korean social problems, and Confucianism. She noted if the narration was comprehensible and unobtrusive. And, she checked if the main characters in the films were clearly described.

Oh concluded, “Most [recent] box-office hit films … are after all faithful to Hollywood filmic conventions. Well-narrated feature films in the action, comedy, and romance genre are dominant. No more than twenty percent of the films concerned the lives of Koreas.” She attributes this trend to the entrance of major conglomerates, Samsung, Dawoo, and Cheil Jedang, in the film market in direct competition with Hollywood films. “Competing with Hollywood blockbusters, Korean filmmakers tend to imitate the Hollywood entertainment formula. Instead of films oriented by national themes and styles, commercial films mimicked the Hollywood style hits at the box office.”

Oh’s study shows the only thing that distinguishes the process of “Korean national identity building” and “foreign domination” in the screen quota debate is the nationality of the actors. If the agent of capitalism, rationality, modernization, and mediation is a member of the national imagined community, then it is termed cultural sovereignty. If the actors are outside the community, then it is termed cultural domination. It is their nationality not their actions, which are of central concern. This is a tenuous argument, however. It assumes that the domestic agents will act in the best interest of the national community. In the case of top-ten movies produced under the screen quota system this is clearly not the case. Korean conglomerates are producing Hollywood style films rather than Korean themed films.

There are similar problems in the conceptualization of tradition in the discourse surrounding the screen quota debate. The major reason for this is that most so-called traditional practices are quite modern inventions, which often borrow elements from other societies, and therefore bears little relation to the customs of primitive tribal cultures. Eric Habsbawm explains these “invented traditions” are a set of practices normally governed by overtly or tacitly accepted rules and of a ritual or symbolic nature, which seek to inculcate values and norms of behavior by repetition, which automatically implies continuity with the past. In fact, where possible, they normally attempt to establish continuity with a suitable historic past.

He cites a long list of deliberately constructed inventions of the nation-state: the deliberate choice of the Gothic style in the nineteenth-century reconstruction of the parliament; the use of a form of Flemish in Belgium schools, which is different than that spoken by Flanders of pervious generations; the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College Cambridge, which is the emblem of traditional English Christmas and broadcast across the world, but only dates back to 1918.

The significance of these invented traditions is not so much that they are constructed. It is more that they are meant to create a sense of stability and connection between the present and a fixed past that does not exist. The concept of a fix past denies history’s fluidity and diversity. In this case, “It is not as though cultural imperialism threatens the continuity of cultural patterns in modern societies.” This continuity never existed. “Rather [cultural imperialism] poses a threat to our collective imaginings of a culturally definitive past.” It offers competing views of history.

Korean historical dramas are an example of movies produced under the screen quota system that impose fixed meaning on a fluid past. Jinsoo An’s study of Korean historical dramas documents how the genre redefines Korean tradition by projecting modern conceptions backward onto past tradition. In her words, historical drama “stresses the similarity of the other in the past” and “foregrounds the similarity by figuring the past as an extension of ourselves in the present.”

An looks at six contemporary Korean historical films, Changhibin, Yonsan’gun, Pokkŏm Yosan, Simnyŏn Sedo, Mangbusŏk, Chŏngil Chŏngaenggua Yŏgŏl Minbi, and Taewon’gun. She determines, “The court drama films are about how protagonists manage, negotiate, and circumscribe the oppressive burden of tradition/history.” But, she suggests that the central characters are uniformly portrayed as victims of history. “On numerous occasions, past events of catastrophic proportions ignite and determine the actions of protagonists…. They are ultimately seen, without exception, in profound resignation, regret, guilt, and sorrow.” The Korean historic drama therefore creates a meta-narrative: Korea as an innocent victim of historical forces beyond its control. This modern concept shapes the interpretation of the country’s past and present as well as the shared national identity and history.

Again, another argument evoked by defenders of the screen quota — that foreign films threaten to corrupt indigenous traditions — rings hollow upon further analysis. It seems the issue is not so much that domestic tradition is being reconstructed. An’s study shows that domestic movie producers are actively involved in redefining Korea’s history and tradition. Rather, the issue seems to be who is doing the reconstructing — members of the nation-state or foreign interests.

This leads to perhaps the most problematic of the disputes regarding the screen quota: cultural hegemony versus national sovereignty. The debate here boils down to a discussion of cultural autonomy. “The principal of cultural autonomy holds, roughly, that a culture has the right to ‘self-legislation’ and freedom from heteronomous control. Domination here is the exercise of such heteronomy: manipulation of control of the culture from the outside.” The problem comes in determining at which level to define autonomy: nationally, individually, or culturally. Autonomy at the national level is fairly easy to define: the sovereignty of the nation-state or the right to “self-legislation and freedom from external interference within a bounded political-geographical domain.” Individual autonomy is likewise a fairly uncomplicated concept. An autonomous person is someone who is free to pursue his or her self-chosen goals without manipulation or interference from others.

However, the concept of cultural autonomy is highly problematic. A basic precondition of autonomy is an agent, an actor with self-interests. The actors at the individual and national level are clear. But, there is no actor in culture. The nation-state or citizen can behave as a stand in, but nether is a full representative of culture. Recognizing this, it then becomes difficult to speak of cultural autonomy in any coherent way. Individuals and the state often conflict over what is in the best interest of the general culture. In cases of disagreement, how is national severity to be defined? If it is assigned to the state-level then it ignores the individual agents. If it is defined at the individual-level, it ignores the national interests. It becomes impossible to talk of a cohesive national severity. Instead, there are only diverse interests that conflict and converge with domestic and international concerns.

This dynamic is at play in the portrayal of Korean women on screen. Korean movies have projected a narrow image of women. The predominate roles for females in Korean cinema have been as mothers and lovers. Alternative female images have been submerged in favorite of feminine images that uphold the Confucian system. This imagery does not treat each individual as a sovereign subject with separate self-interests. Instead, the predominate imagery in Korean movies tends to favor interest of a minority of older men over the interests of youths and women.

Hyangjin Lee documents one prominent female stereotype, the dutiful lover, and the message it sends by comparing three movie adaptations of the Korean folktale, Ch’unhangjŏn: Shin Sangok’s Sŏng Chu’unhang, Park T’ae-wŏn’s The Tale of Sŏng Chu’unhang, and Han Sanghun’s Sŏng Chu’unhang. Lee explains the Ch’unhangjŏn folktale “features gender and class as the central subjects…. Therefore, the varied portraits of Ch’unhang can provide us with useful clues about the self-perceptions held by Koreans.” Looking at how the three versions of Ch’unhangjŏn “tailor specific aspects of the narrative according to aesthetic standards and pragmatic needs of their times… exposes underlying ideological contradictions in the established morals on sexuality and the institution of marriage” in the portrayal of Korean national identity.

After careful discussion of the three moves in question, Lee concludes, “According to Ch’unhyang’s images in these films, what defines male-female relations in South Korea is still rooted in traditional Confucian ethics, which succor differential treatments of men and women.” She finds the roles of women in these three films highly restrictive. Although Lee allows, “minor variations exist” in each film, she believes that Korean cinema “takes a positive stance toward the traditional womanhood epitomized by Ch’unhyang”. She ends by saying, “What emerges from my film analysis is the time-honored importance of the Confucian family values in Korean cultural identity, which overrides the shifting ideologies of the state…. Traditional family values still exercise crucial influence on how Koreans perceive themselves in the contemporary period…. The basic perception of woman’s place in the society and their role in contemporary Korean culture has been shaped largely by the patriarchal social order and the family centered moral codes.” According to Lee’s account, the role of woman in Korean cinema is very limited. Although she allows that there is some diversity, she sees it as minimal. The predominate image is of women as mother or lover inside the narrow confines of a patriarchal Confucian structure.

The cultural argument for the screen quota is that the system protects against the redefinition of national tradition and culture by a dominant group of minority interests at the expense of sovereignty. However, the process that the system is purportedly defending against is still occurring. The three studies of Korean movies cited above illustrate that Korean popular movies made under the screen quota system adopt a largely homogeneous style, project modern concerns backward onto past tradition, and construct a narrow national identity. The screen quota does not protect Korean national identity from redefinition. It does not shield Korean traditions from change. And, it does not protect the society from minority cultural domination. This renders the cultural arguments for the screen quota mute.

The screen quota does assure domestic, rather than foreign, agents control the process. It equates big business interest with national interest and carefully protects these concerns. This begs a question outside the purview of this paper. Is protecting the economic interests of a few Korean business institutions a worthwhile goal? What are the costs and benefits and do they justify the screen quota system? Answers to these questions might justify the continuing the screen quota system. The cultural arguments do not.

Works Cited:
1. “Officials Clash Over ‘Infant Industry’ Help For Films,” JoongAng Daily (Seoul), 13 June 2003
2. “The Screen Quota Is About More Than Money,” Korea Times (Seoul), 19 June 2003
3. “Film Quotas Manipulate Culture,” JoogAng Daily (Seoul) 15 June 2003
4. “The ‘Screen Quota’ System Cannot Be Abandoned,” The Hankyoreh (Seoul), 10 June 2003
5. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins ad Spread of Nationalism, (London: Verso, 1983).
6. John Tomlinson, Cultural Imperialism, (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991)
7. Sungji Oh, “Korean Cinema and Hollywood” in Cine Korea Forum, 1997 [paper online]; available from http://www.cinekorea.com/forum/paper01.html; Internet; accessed 29 April 2004.
8. Eric Hobsawm “Introduction: Inventing Traditions,” in The Invention of Tradition, ed. Eric Hobsawm and Terence Ranger (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 1.
9. Jinsoo An, “Cinematic Projection of the Past: Korean Historical Drama,” Korean Studies Forum Volume 1 (Seoul: Yonsei University Press, 2002), 227.
10. Hyangjin Lee, Contemporary Korean Cinema: Identity, Culture, and Politics (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000)

Finals in Full Swing, Baby

2004-06-08T22:32:00.000+08:00

Finals are in full swing. I’ve got a load of papers to write, exams to study for, and presentations to prepare. I’m afraid posts are going to be few and far between for the next week or two. But, here are two more stories on Korean for you to enjoy. The first is advice for anyone planning a trip to South Korea. The second is about my trip to Taiwan last winter. I wrote them in preparation for the writing part of my Korean final exam tomorrow. Wish me luck and enjoy. As always, if you can’t speak Korean, you can go to Babel Fish and have my writing translated into English. But be forewarned, when I say, “translate,” I mean in the loosest possible definition of the term. It’s more like randomly throwing words at the page. But, it has an interesting Burroughsequ quality too it.

3.
한국은 재미있는 것이 많고 돈이 있으면 살기 편합니다. 서울에는 사계절이 있습니다. 겨울에 너무 춥고 눈이 때때로 옵니다. 봄은 쌀쌀하고 바람이 자주 붑니다. 여름에는 습하고 너무 따듯합니다. 가을에 비가 많이 옵니다.

한국에는 맛있는 음식이 많지만 매운 음식을 잘 먹을 수 없으면 아마 한식을 별로 안 좋아할 것 같습니다. 저는 한식을 너무 좋아해서 매일 먹습니다. 제가 좋아하는 한식은 닭갈비와 냉면입니다. 날씨가 더울 때 냉면을 먹고 날씨가 추울 때 닭갈비를 먹습니다. 한식을 매일 먹으면 건강합니다.

한국에 오기 전에 특별하게 사야 할 것 은 없습니다. 한국에서 다 살 수 있고 가끔 한국이 다른 나라보다 물가가 쌉니다. 한국에 오자마자 교통카드를 사세요. 한국교통은 너무 나빠서 차가 있으면 불편합니다. 그렇지만 지하철이나 버스를 사용하면 편하고 빨리 갈 수 있습니다. 그리고 교통카드를 있으면 대중교통을 사용하기가 더 편합니다.

1.
올해에 우리아내와 제가 대만에 갔습니다. 요즈음에 우리아내가 대만에 대해서 관심이 많습니다. 우리아내가 대만드라마를 보고 중국어를 배우고 있습니다. 그래서 우리아내가 대만여행을 다 준비했습니다. 우리는 2박 3일 동안 좋은 타이베이 에있는 호텔에 묵었습니다. 너무 재미있는 여행이었습니다. 아침마다 호텔에 있는 큰 부폐에서 아침을 먹고 구경하러 갔습니다. 우리는 박물관, 동물원, 공원에 갔습니다.

대만음식이 별로 안 맛있습니다. 처음 대만에 도작할 때 대만음식이 맛있을 거라고 생각했습니다. 그렇지만 대만음식은 기름기 많기 때문에 하루 후에는 그것을 안 좋아했습니다. 소화가 안 됐고 음식을 먹은 후에는 기분이 안 좋았습니다. 한식을 먹고 싶었습니다.

대만의 장점은 밤놀이입니다. 우리는 대만에서 밤에 온천과 시장에 갔습니다. 시장에는
여러 가지가 있었습니다. 옷과 구두와 화장품과 음식을 살 수 있습니다. 먹어 본적 없는 음식이 많이 봤지만 배가 아프기 때문에 먹을 수 없었습니다. 대만에 다시 가면 소화제를
가지고 갈 겁니다.

Yooboo Choebap. Yummmm!

2004-06-06T11:29:00.006+08:00

Yesterday's Lunchbox

This is the lunch box Jiyeoun made for me yesterday before she went to Chinese class. There is fried kimchee (김치) at the top left, sausages (소시지) with ketchup and mustard on the top right, and yooboo choebap (유부초밥) at the bottom. It was delicious. Thanks Jiyeoun!

Alternate Images

2004-06-05T13:53:00.000+08:00

Bloodthirsty Murderers or Altruistic Do-gooders?

On June 3, I posted “One Woman’s Deep Ambivalence.” In part, I described a conversation with a fellow Korean student about the U.S. Military presence in South Korea. During our talk, she said something to the effect of “I do think the United States sends the worst soldiers to Korea — the most stupid and violent ones.” This got me thinking.

U.S. Soldiers in Korea get a bum wrap. Their public image in South Korea is overwhelmingly negative. The media focuses on GI crime and public drunkenness. The few alternative portrayals in Korea are provided by U.S. Military press releases that are sometimes rerun in Korean newspapers. These are equally shallow and generally derided by Koreans as obvious propaganda. Neither is a holistic look.

I am not an apologist for the American Military. On a general level, I have a vague spiritual/moral problem, which I cannot fully express, with a global nation-state system predicated on military power and a general suspicion of the people who perpetuate it. Specifically, I’ve found the politics of military personally in Korea, on the whole, deeply flawed historically and factually.

I believe GIs in Korea enjoy extraordinary extralegal and legal protection as well as special material privileges denied to the general population. And, to a large extent this is the source of the Korean public’s resentment. I also think there is some truth in the image of drunken GIs rampaging through the streets of Seoul. I’ve seen it myself on several occasions and find it distasteful. Likely, I would find it even more offensive if I had a native/nationalist tie to South Korea.

However, I think it is important to present an alternative view of U.S. soldiers as a counterbalance to the overwhelming negative imagery. My hope, however unlikely, is that younger Koreans would read this account and develop a more rounded view of military personnel. Not because I feel a nationalistic/patriotic connection with American GIs, but because I feel a human bond and don’t like them being reduced to inhuman characters.

To that end, I submit three pieces: Iraq War Takes an Uneven Toll at Home, Recruiting in a Time of War (Part I), Recruiting in a Time of War (Part II). My hope is that readers would take the time to listen to these programs in full. But, if you do not have the time or interest, here is a brief summary:

Iraq War Takes an Uneven Toll at Home:
This piece discusses a report by sociologist Robert Cushing for the Austin American-Statesman, which shows that “soldiers and Marines from rural areas are dying at twice the rate of troops from cities and suburbs.” In the report, Robert Cushing outlines the apparent causes for this “statistical anomaly”: lack of rural job opportunities, high degree of patriotism, and desire for adventure and a new life. The piece ends with a discussion with Diane and Gerald Petty, the parents of Pfc. Jerrick Petty, who was killed in Mosul, Iraq. In the interview Gerald Petty says, “If we’ve got higher numbers [of deaths in rural areas], that just means that we have more people here that are more concerned about everyone else. Whether we like it or not, we support him and we are proud of him. That they’re carrying the country basically. That they are selfless in their endeavor to keep the American Way.”

Recruiting in a Time of War (Parts I and II):
This two-part programs follows Sgt. 1st Class Jimmy Bowie, an Army recruiter in Huntsville, Texas. In talking to him, the piece explores his tactics in recruiting solders and motivations behind his recruits’ decisions to join. The motivations are very much the same as those cited by sociologist Robert Cushing: lack of rural job opportunities, high degree of patriotism, and desire for adventure and a new life. The most compelling part of program is the discussion between a mother and her son over his decision to join the Army. “She’s got to understand that there is nothing here for me,” he says. “I know. I just don’t want him to die,” she responds, audibly fighting back tears.

The current and future soldiers’ humanity comes across strikingly in all three programs. The image is of human cogs caught in a machine far greater than them. It is also important to note that none of this was part of the hyperbole surrounding Memorial Day in the States. All three pieces were broadcast well before May 31.

Eleven Things Koreans Say When They See A White Person on the Street

2004-06-03T18:29:00.000+08:00

1. Nothing [In Korean]
2. “Look a foreigner.” [In Korea]
3. “American!” [In Korea]
4. “Hello!” [In English]
5. “How are you?” [In English]
6. Stare / Strange look [In Korean]
7. “I need to study English.” [In Korean]
8. “Studying English is hard.” [In Korean]
9. “Handsome” / “Pretty” [In English]
10. “Foreigners are weird.” [In Korean]
11. “Shut up.” [In Korean]

Foreigners are weird

A Survey of Korean Sentiment

2004-06-03T07:24:00.000+08:00

The potential reduction, redeployment, and movement of U.S. troops in South Korea is major news here. Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Daily, and Ohmynews all ran front-page stories on the issue yesterday. The coverage is fascinating. It reveals a lot about Korea’s ambivalence regarding the U.S. Military, U.S. power, and America’s image.

The Chosun Ilbo has been vehement in its criticism of the United States. In a May 27 commentary the newspaper claimed the U.S. Military showed “arrogance in the U.S. attitude toward the Korea-U.S. alliance.” Commentator, Kim Dae-joong railed against the United States in a May 25 piece. He opened by saying: “There is one thing I just can’t understand. Why does Korea keep its relationship with the United States in this way and for what? First of all, obviously it is neither because we like the United States nor because the United States had been generous to us. Once people live in the United States and the more they learn about the country, there is a tendency in which those people begin to despise the arrogance and the lopsided ways of the powerful nation. There are many times when those experiences develop into anti-American sentiments. Eventually those feelings create impotence and fear against the power of the United States, which leads to concerns and a gloomy view of Korea’s future.” Later he went on to say, “Korea is far from taking advantage of its alliance with the United States.”

The JoongAng Daily has been a little more balanced in its commentary. On June 1, it ran an article by former Ambassador to the United States, Kim Kyung-won. He opened by criticizing U.S. 8th Army, Lieutenant General Charles Campbell for publicly speculating that Republic of Korea troops may be jointly involved in future peacekeeping missions in Northeast Asia. The primary problem with this speculation as Kim sees it is that Campbell did not consult with the South Korean government before making the statement. Kim goes on to claim, “The problem is that the United States and South Korea do not trust each other” and urge the South Korean government to work out its problems with the United States. “The important thing is that we should not make the mistake of losing the trust of our existing allies when we try to choose another ally out of strategic necessity. Throwing away something old before we get something new is not a matter of a choice between progressivism and conservatism, but between wisdom and stupidity,” he concludes. In a May 28 editorial, the paper directly criticized the South Korean government for not doing more to assume the responsibility for self-defense: “As it is now clear that the force reduction will be on a grand scale, our government needs to do more than pay lip service. How does it intend to come up with the money, and cope with the negative economic and social effects that could follow such a large force reduction are very important issues? The government needs a plan.” The piece suggested part of the plan would be to “readjust our combined command structure, currently led by the United States.”

The Ohmynews article was predictably liberal, but surprisingly well balance considering Ohmynews’ general reportage. The May 24 article titled, “Less Military Means More Peace,” argued that the U.S.’s troop reduction was an opportunity to reduce tensions on the peninsula and warned South Korea against military buildup in an attempt to fill the resulting “security vacuum”. In the author’s opinion South Korea was already capable of defending itself against North Korean aggression. He writes:

“The ‘security vacuum’ argument doesn’t make much sense. Without the strengthened military presence in and around Korea, the U.S.-Korea alliance is seen to have already secured an ‘excessive’ level of deterrence against North Korea.

Excluding the U.S., South Korea has injected three to four times more money than North Korea to buildup its military capability over the last 20 years. Today, South Korea’s military budget is almost same as North Korea’s GDP. If South Korea is losing its ability to fight with North Korea despite all the money it is poured in, the South Korean government is either lying to its citizens or plagued with inefficiency.

North Korea is indeed a great military threat to South Korea. Even though it is not able to win a war against South Korea, any military conflict between the two Koreas will claim a lot of lives and result in widespread damage. This means that preventing a war, at any cost, is a top priority.”

One Woman's Deep Ambivalence

2004-06-02T23:10:00.000+08:00

The cross-section of newspaper coverage outlined in “A Survey of Korean Sentiment” seems pretty representative of general Korean attitudes. Naturally the public holds a diverse range of opinions regarding the issue. But what is more interesting to me is that the same person often expresses these contradictory, apparently mutually exclusive views. For me this gets at what is at once fascinating and intensely frustrating about South Korean attitudes toward the United States. They are extremely ambivalent. A story to illustrate my point:

The other day my Media and International Relations class took a school-sponsored trip to talk to U.S. Ambassador to Korea, Thomas Hubbard. It was a complete waste of time. The guy’s diplomatic concerns had him so tied in knots it distorted everything he said. I asked him at one point if the story in that morning’s JoongAng Daily that the United States requested the South Korean government keep the U.S. troop movement secret was true. And, if it was, why did the American Government make the request? He simply said it was not true and explained that there were mitigating circumstances that he did not want to go into. He offered no explanation why the Chosun Ilbo, the JoongAng Daily, and an unnamed source in the Roh administration were claiming otherwise.

At another point, he was asked if the U.S. decision to re-deploy troops from South Korea to Iraq was a tacit acknowledgement that the war in Iraq was going badly. He totally dodged the question and went into a longwinded talk about how the United States had consulted with South Korea before the move.

Later, another student asked what the U.S. Government was doing to address the rising anti-American sentiment in among South Koreas. Hubbard quipped, “This is it,” indicating the talk we were attending with Korean and foreign students from Yonsei University’s Graduate School of International Studies. This got me thinking. The talk was a perfect example of why anti-American sentiment is so strong in South Korea. Most of the Americans Koreans see are bureaucrats like Hubbard or drunk GIs. This talk was an grand misdirection of time and resources. Hubbard is a top-ranking diplomat. He couldn’t really have a serious conversation with the Korean students in attendance. He is bound to contradict official U.S. policy lines in doing so. The Korean students knew that and basically stopped listening. But, more importantly it once again reinforced their stereotypical notions of American arrogance, uncaring, and cluelessness. The Korean students in the audience knew they were not going to get any honest answers. We were all just going through the motions: tossing Hubbard softballs and him lamely hitting them back to us.

If the U.S. Government really wanted to deal with anti-American sentiment in Korea, the best way to do it would be to find some halfway-intelligent GIs and train them to talk to South Koreas. Because of their position, they could talk to the public more openly. But, most importantly they would pose real, human faces against some of the ridiculous stereotypes floating around about Americans in general and enlisted specifically. Sending the U.S. Ambassador out to do this kind of work is a lost cause and a huge waste of resources.

My thoughts were partially confirmed when I got back on the bus to return to school. I overheard the Korean student in the seat across from me espousing a vague conspiracy theory regarding the U.S. troop redeployment to Iraq. It went something like this: “I’m sure the U.S. is just doing it to pressure Korea into dispatching the troops to Iraq quicker. I mean there are plenty of other places they could have found 3,000 soldiers. How come they didn’t take any troops from Japan? Why are they just taking them from Korea?”

When she fell silent, I asked her why she didn’t ask the Ambassador those questions. She said basically what I suspected: “You saw how he was answering the questions. He wouldn’t answer me.” I agreed. She asked me if I thought the troop redeployment was meant to pressure Korea into dispatching troops to Iraq quicker. I told her I didn’t know. But, I tended to doubt it. I had read the move was more likely the start of the U.S. Military’s global repositioning to effectively fight terrorism. I recounted a story to her about a Colonel that attended Yonsei Graduate School of International Studies last year. He was involved in the Status of Forces talks between South Korea and the United States and repeatedly claimed that the U.S. Military would flatly state it did not need to be in on the peninsula whenever it did not get what it wanted from the South Korean Government. Japan was the first priority; Korea was the second. I never knew how much of this was a negotiating ploy, but I thought there was some truth to the statement.

The women’s reaction was really interesting. She immediately became contemplative. First, she asked me if I thought the U.S. Military hated Koreans. I told her I never got that sense from my Colonel friend or any other enlisted. Honestly, I did not think they gave average Koreans a lot of thought. The Colonel seemed more focused on the Korean Government than its people. Next, she told me that she thought younger Koreas were “brainwashed” into focusing on the U.S. Military’s atrocities. She mentioned campus exhibitions depicting gruesome crimes committed by GIs and stories of crimes her senior classmates told her. She claimed she liked Americans and had many American friends. Then in the next breath she said, “I do think the United States sends the worst soldiers to Korea — the most stupid and violent ones.” And, again she switched. “Do you think Korean people have a reason to be angry at the U.S. Military?” she asked. “Yes,” I said. “In some cases they have done very little or nothing to solders who have committed crimes against Koreans.” The bus stopped, our conversation ended, and we all got off.

So there it is in a nutshell. Conflict, ambivalence, hate, love all mixed into one. Personally, I think all the American troops should go to Japan and South Korea should defend itself. Korea has gotten a free ride for too long. It’s time the country took care of itself. Not having the U.S. to blame will force the society to look inward for a change and do some useful soul searching. I suspect that after 5 to 10 years, South Koreas will start to talk about the mythical “good old days” when the American troops were here — a time that never existed.

The Fish Speaks

2004-06-02T15:27:00.000+08:00

I ran my speech through Babel Fish for those of you who don’t speak Korean. I did not change anything in order to simulate what speaking the language is like. It’s a pretty close approximation actually. My favorite phrase is, “To the elevator punishment well! there was a poster which two people whom it takes off are hugging with each other and the sand arrestation was being besieged with the mirror.” Enjoy!

My first Korean travel

From the elementary school the Korean friends to be many and it listened to the Korean music to see the Korean drama to eat the Korean food from their house. Consequently the chance which will listen to the Korean language was many. And my Korean friends talked regarding Korea frequently. I continuously regarding Korea was had an interest and. My wife I when now good season being good in Korea, thought Haess Uss sup am the D after innumerable difficulties. I will be the student that time and the hour will be many and when being young from, travel it wanted going to Korea. It prepared a like that thin travel in Korea eagerly. From the student was not the money. It was like that and winter vacation time it did a side job. Me it had reserved the air ticket to renew the passport to buy the book against Korea. The fact that it has reserved the hotel and it finished. It entrusted the hotel reservation which wraps in the secret intention wife. The after compared to the question the above did not do. It was like that and to Ich'on year degree I came initially to Korea. The friend of the secret intention wife and the wife came out to the airport. It met the delay Sea and in Korea is the thing truth was good. Us spoke from the car plentifully. When we arrive to the hotel, the delay Sea talked wait in from only me. Finally come in into me, it did. That hotel me saw from the United States and with all hotel it was different quite. To the parking lot the tent was a wife and it held and. Also the cold night videos were many in the lobby. To the elevator punishment well! there was a poster which two people whom it takes off are hugging with each other and the sand arrestation was being besieged with the mirror. The delay Sea did here the love wool theyl as this. I this hotel was good very. To the refrigerator that place to be neat because there was a beverage possibility always and the possibility also the video seeing it was. From time to time I thought that the people that place do to be inconvenient. Them are unkind in those hotel staffs and it comes in and it goes out it was busy. It sent greeting everyday morning in the staffs but I to do always being to that place the side. What it sees but because that place is cheap it was good.

Korean Homework

2004-05-31T22:36:00.000+08:00

Lovin' the Loveage

I had to deliver a 5-minute speech in front of my Korean language class last week. The subject was wide-open. I wrote the below about the “love motel” I stayed in during my first trip to Korea. Jiyeoun was not happy when I asked her to proofread it. She does not like me calling the place a “love motel.” It’s just a motel to her. Plus, she has heard the story dozens of times. It has been four years and I am still talking about it. Nonetheless, the speech got a big laugh in class. Although the old Japanese guy who recommended I beat my wife if she does not drink with me was laughing the hardest. Maybe that should tell me something. (More on the old Japanese guy another time.)

If the below text looks like gibberish, you do not have the Korean language pack for Windows XP. Go here to download it.

제 첫번 한국여행

초등학교부터 한국친구들이 많고 그들의 집에서 한국음식을 먹었고 한국드라마를 봤고 한국음악을 들었습니다. 따라서 한국어를 들을 기회가 많았습니다. 그리고 제 한국친구들이 자주 한국에 대해서 말했었습니다. 저는 계속 한국에 대해서 관심을 갖게 되었습니다. 나의 아내를 만난 후에 저는 지금이 한국에 가기 좋은 때라고 생각했었습디다. 그 당시에 저는 학생 이어서 시간이 많았고 어릴 때부터 한국에 여행을 가고 싶었습니다.

그래서 한국에 가는 여행을 열심히 준비했었습니다. 학생이라서 돈이 없었습니다. 그래서 겨울방학 때 아르바이트를 했습니다. 저는 한국에 대한 책을 샀고 여권을 갱신했고 비행기 표를 예약했습니다. 여관을 예약하는 것을 빼고는 다했습니다. 저의 아내에게 싼 여관예약을 부탁했습니다. 그 이후 더 이상의 질문은 하지 않았습니다.

그래서 이천 년도에 저는 처음 한국에 왔습니다. 저의아내와 아내의 친구가 공항에 나왔습니다. 지연씨를 만나고 한국에 있다는 것이 정말 좋았습니다.우리는 차에서 이야기를 많이 했습니다.

우리가 여관에 도착했을 때 지연씨는 저에게 밖에서 기다리라고 말했습니다. 나중에 저에게 들어오라고 했습니다. 그 여관은 제가 미국에서 보아온 여관과는 아주 달랐습니다. 주차장에는 천막이 처 있었고 안은 어두웠습니다. 또한 야한 비디오들이 로비에 많았습니다. 엘리베이터에는 벌거벗은 두 사람이 서로 껴안고 있는 포스터가 있었고 사방이 거울로 둘러싸여 있었습니다. 지연씨는 여기가 러브모텔 이라고 했습니다.

저는 이 여관이 매우 좋았습니다. 왜냐하면 그곳은 깨끗했고 냉장고에는 음료수가 항상 있었고 비디오도 볼 수 있었습니다. 때때로 저는 사람들이 그곳을 불편해 한다고 생각했습니다. 그들은 그 여관 직원들에게 불친절 했고 들어오고 나가기에 바빴습니다. 그러나 저는 항상 그곳에 있는 것이 편했고 직원들에게 매일 아침인사를 했습니다. 그러나 무엇보다도 그곳이 쌌기 때문에 좋았습니다.

Slipper versus Sandal

2004-05-25T23:50:00.000+08:00

Self-portrait in gray

In Korea, people distinguish a slipper and a sandal based on how it attaches to your foot. A slipper is secured the foot by a strap running over (or between) the toes or instep. Sandals fasten to the ankle. I was told slippers slip on your feet hence the name.

Before coming to Korea, I had never distinguished slippers and sandals in this way. To me, slippers are light, low-cut shoes worn in the house. Sandals are worn outdoors. How they fasten to the foot is inconsequential.

This seemingly meaningless distinction comes into play when you ask a Korean-educated English speaker, “Are you going to wear your sandals outside?” They might respond, “No, I’m going to wear my slippers.” He or she will have looked at the shoes in question, recognized they do not fasten at the ankle, and made a logical correction. For me this simply creates cognitive dissonance: “If you are wearing them outside, they are sandals.”

Still abnormal life

This distinction is so prevalent in Korea; I started to wonder if all fifth grade public school teachers throughout the country required their students to memorize the same dialogue on the false distinction between slippers and sandals in some shoddy standardized English textbook. The reaction among Koreas to the slipper/sandal mix-up was rote and uniform: “No, that’s not a sandal it’s a slipper.” “No that’s not a slipper, it’s a sandal.”

Only later, I wondered if the fastidious textbook designers had it right. There was a distinction between sandals and slippers based on how they fastened to the foot. I was just never taught it during my shoddy American public school education.

So I looked in the dictionary. Bartleby.com’s dictionary defines a slipper as “A low shoe that can be slipped on and off easily and usually worn indoors.” It contains the following definition for sandal:

1.A shoe consisting of a sole fastened to the foot by thongs or straps.
2.A low-cut shoe fastened to the foot by an ankle strap.
3.A rubber overshoe cut very low and covering little more than the sole of the shoe.
4.A strap or band for fastening a low shoe or slipper on the foot.

Okay, maybe there is something to this slipper/sandal distinction. Although, it’s highly ambiguous. The slipper definition says nothing about how the shoe fastens to the foot. But, slipping on and off probably precludes an ankle strap. However, the definition does say slippers are usually worn in the house. The first definition of sandals says nothing about how the shoe fastens to the foot. Presumably, it could consist of one strap over the instep and still qualify under the first definition of sandal. However, the second definition clearly states a sandal must fasten to the ankle. Let’s keep looking.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines slipper as “a light low-cut shoe that is easily slipped on the foot.” Again, nothing about how the slipper fits on the foot, although presumably not with an ankle strap if it can be slipped on. It does not mention where it is usually worn. Merriam-Webster contains the following four definitions for sandal:

1.A shoe consisting of a sole strapped to the foot
2.A low-cut shoe that fastens by an ankle strap
3.A strap to hold on a slipper or low shoe
4.A rubber overshoe cut very low

Again with the ankle strap.

Finally, Encyclopedia Britannica does not contain an entry for slipper. However, it defines a sandal as “a type of footwear consisting of a sole secured to the foot by straps over the instep, toes, or ankle.” Interesting. According to this definition sandals can fasten at any of three places on the foot. They do not necessarily have to fasten at the ankle.

Okay, so there is not definitive answer. I guess we’ll have to consult an etymologist. Is there a lesson here?

Slipper as post-modern angst

2004-05-21T23:38:00.000+08:00

Monk-looking fellow

A Start

2004-05-21T22:33:00.000+08:00

An opening? Something clever and memorable. It’s got to set a tone, encapsulate my character in 200 words or less. Or maybe it just has to be a start. Like any other. Nothing dramatic, interesting, or endearing. It is a beginning by definition: the first. No need to put a form to it. It will take one naturally.

The opening chapter of my favorite translation of the Tao Te Ching, the one by Stephen Mitchell, reads:

The Tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

In part, the second chapter reads:

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

So, there it is. A start.