Incheon Foreigners' Cemetery

The Korea Times has published two articles by Robert Neff about the Incheon Foreigners' Cemetery (via the Marmot's Hole). Oddly enough, I just mentioned the fact that I'd found the mid-June 1970 Korea Times article (posted below) to a friend last night. It's by Harold Cook, who was, as he is described here, "a very prominent figure on the Seoul expat scene in the 1960s and early 1970s (and perhaps earlier), and a pillar of the local Royal Asiatic Society chapter." He wrote two books (that I know of), Pioneer American Businessman in Korea: The Life and Times of Walter David Townsend and Korea's 1884 Incident: Its Background and Ok-kyun's Dream, and edited another. As Robert notes in his article, the cemetery is to be moved for a second time in the future - it was already moved once from Manseok-dong (northeast of Incheon Station) to its present location in 1965.

Munhwa Ilbo: There's no such thing as a free lunch

On March 13, the Munhwa Ilbo painted a dark picture of the problems caused by Seoul's free lunch program:

Four months of free lunches ... with no budget native speaking teachers done away with
Leveled classes decreased... can't repair buildings... devastated places of education

"Classes where children are divided by level have been entirely reduced, and we are almost unable to use native speaking English teachers as well. The free lunch is a complete comedy, a comedy." (Seoul A Middle School Principal)

"Giving kids free food is also good, but but isn't it a problem if the building can't be repaired? It's like a spooky old house..." (Seoul B Middle School student)

The implementation of an expanded free lunch program pushed by the Democratic United Party and Seoul Education Superintendent Gwak No-hyeon last August is boomeranging and 'devastating places of education.'

In forming the budget for the expansion of free lunches to grades 5 and 6 and middle school grade 1 from this new semester, pressure was put on SMOE and other governing bodies [District offices?], and currently budgets needed by schools have been reduced or even cut entirely.

March 13, middle school A in Seoul's Yeongdeungpo-gu. The school's principal said,
"From first semester this year, with the enforcement of the total free lunch, the budget for things like building maintenance has been significantly reduced." "Since classrooms and the auditorium look so poor because the paint is worn out and flaking off, I requested that it be fixed, but a civilian inspection group refused, telling me "(Compared to other schools), this is luxurious." [Literally, 'at the level of a Yangban']

The principal said, "20% of the free lunch budget is shouldered by the district office, but the district office has also halted the supporting budget for facilities making the situation more difficult."

Students' classes have also taken quite a hit from the free lunch regulations. In the case of English, many schools have had support for the cost of native speaking instructors suspended, and in fact schools where the employment contract ended had instructors withdrawn at the end of February.

Classes where children are divided by level for Korean, English and math have also been greatly reduced. Amid this, some schools have not received proper support for their budget and cannot even think of investing in building maintenance or sports facilities. It's being understood that there are also countless schools which have postponed buying medicine or doing science experiments.

On that day at B Middle School in Seoul's Yangcheon-gu, a student named Park met inside the school complained that, "As a matter of fact, students have a lot of complaints about the school building being so spooky." "[They complain about] English classes too, but right now the school does not sponsor volunteer or club activities, and it's not like it used to be."

Miss Kim, a first year student at C Middle School in Seoul's Songpa-gu, said, "Shortly after the school year started, the science teacher made clear beforehand that, 'Due to the lack of budget the practical classes will not be good.'" "We did not even get the gear needed to win in the spring sports competition, so the desire to participate is declining."

While quite a few bloggers and foreign English teachers have linked the native speaking teacher cuts with the free lunch program, this is the first time I've seen a newspaper take that point of view (and in the title at that). It's not too hard to see that the article is taking potshots at the Democratic United Party, which leads one to wonder how much the article is exaggerating things. The answer may be 'Not very much,' at least going by this announcement in my school's 'monthly news' announcement:

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education has decided to reduce many events at school in order to focus on class instruction and building an upright character. Accordingly, this school will also stop holding activities such as those related to science, English, reunification, certification, and debate contests and will focus on improving students' studying ability and fostering a positive attitude toward school life. We will try to make our school a peaceful place free from violence.

I suppose if the budget is going to be diverted to something, a free lunch program is better than another Jaebeol construction contract, but it still seems to me to be quite a waste to apply 'welfare' policies to those who don't need them, especially when it's argued (in articles like this one) that many people who don't need them would take advantage of such programs. A point along this line was made at this Royal Asiatic Society lecture last week titled "Competition Dilemma: Has Korean Competition Reached Its limit?" Of the impressive number of statistics based on surveys that were presented, one stood out: when asked whether they would cheat to get ahead, less than half of poor people said yes - but the figure was over 80% for rich people, which might suggest that building "an upright character" might work against them. For those at the top (and who want to remain there), the prospect of cuts to public education by a 'progressive' government seemingly blinded by its desire to create 'equality' via a welfare state must be both a welcome - and amusing - one.

Gyeonggi Provincial Council: The hits keep coming

As reported at the Marmot's Hole Monday, the Hankyoreh published an article about the Gyeonggi Provincial Council's proposal for US soldiers in Gyeonggi-do:

"Sex education for all US soldiers in Korea"

USFK accepts 'Gyeonggi Provincial Council's proposal'... At present only new recruits [receive] education

The Gyeonggi Provincial Council has urged the government to revise the unequal Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) to prevent harm caused by sex crimes committed by US soldiers, and proposed implementing education to improve sex awareness for US soldiers stationed in Gyeonggi-do. The US military will accept this proposal, and USFK's sex crime prevention program will soon be extended to all soldiers. The education to improve sex awareness is a program to teach the differences between and characteristics of men and women and prevent things like prostitution and sexual assault.

On the 8th it was announced that on the 6th, the Gyeonggi Provincial Council's women and family lifelong education committee had approved a 'proposition to revise the unequal Status of Forces Agreement.' The committee plans to pass the proposition on the 16th.

The Provincial Council's revision of the SOFA suggests to the government that the ROK be guaranteed the right to exercise primary jursidiction and be able to unconditionally arrest, detain, and transfer US soldiers suspected of crime.

Under the Status of Forces Agreement, US soldiers suspected of a crime who are not caught in the act must be indicted by the prosecution before they are transferred to Korean investigators. Last September, during the incident in Dongducheon where a U.S. 2nd Infantry Division soldier raped a Korean student (who was then 16), there was controversy over the fact that the US soldier who confessed to police had to be booked without detention and returned to his base according to SOFA regulations.

Gyeonggi Provincial Council Rep. Kim Yu-im, (Democratic United Party) the spokesperson who oversaw the proposal, gave as the reason for it, "Without a revision of the Status of Forces Agreement, which violates the Republic of Korea's jurisdiction over the investigation and judicial process, the eradication of crime by US soldiers and the safety of citizens cannot be guaranteed." Together with the Provincial Council they proposed to establish measures to protect victims such as implementing a help desk for sex crime incidents by US soldiers and placing a public servant to oversee it, setting up a shelter institution for victims, and running a sex education program for US troops stationed in Gyeonggi-do.

The Gyeonggi-do military cooperation office reported that, "We are discussing having a program for all US soldiers to improve sexual awareness and the realities of sexual violence with the US 2nd Infantry Division." "USFK is also sympathetic to the need for such education." Since 2006 there have been an average of 260 crimes per year by USFK members and out of 1463 US soldiers who have committed crimes in the last 6 years, only 2 have been imprisoned.

This article cribbed a great deal from a Gyeonggi Ilbo article on the same topic from March 5 titled "Eradicate USFK sex crimes," which opened with this:

The Gyeonggi Provincial Council is tabling a motion urging a revision of the unequal Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) to eradicate sex crimes by US soldiers against Gyeonggi area women.

It said they were planning to introduce it at a provisional session of the assembly which opened on the 6th. It also said that since 2006 there have been an average of 260 crimes per year by USFK members, and added that last year it increased to one crime per day, but (shockingly!) didn't provide any figure to support this.

For one thing, the idea that only 2 US soldiers have been imprisoned in the last 6 years is pretty ridiculous. As well, according to GI Korea, "All US service members routinely go through sexual assault and sexual harassment training to the point of it being repetitive if anything." A comment at his site by "2ID PAO" (2nd Infantry Division Public Affairs Officer, though I have no idea if the commenter actually holds such a position) stated that

There has been no agreement with Gyeonggi Province to teach sexual harassment and assault prevention training. Second Infantry Division Soldiers receive extensive training when they arrive in Korea and refresher training every quarter thereafter. In addition, Hankyoreh’s final claim that only two USFK Soldiers have been detained by the KNP in the last six years is a complete fabrication and not even remotely close to an accurate statement.

GI Korea posts USFK court martial and Korean court results every month, and the fact that only two GIs were prosecuted for sex crimes by Korean courts this year (in April and November) would suggest that the perceived need by the Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly for such sex education, along with setting up a help desk for USFK sex crime incidents and shelters for victims, is a bit overwrought (the phone at the help desk will be ringing off the hook!).

Keep in mind this is the same Gyeonggi-do Provincial Council that massively and unilaterally cut the budget for foreign teachers in the GEPIK program threatening to leave hundreds without pay, which is also the same council that passed a bill requiring drug tests for foreign instructors in hagwons and fines for hagwon owners who did not oversee this, even though that part of the bill technically had no legal basis. Is anyone really surprised that this Democratic United Party-controlled council now wants the other group in the province perceived to be white, American males to undergo training to boost their gender awareness?

I guess you can applaud their consistency.

Not that there's anything wrong with calling for a revision to SOFA - it is part of a long tradition. There may be changes to the SOFA coming, but then that was also reported by the Hankyoreh, so maybe a grain of salt is needed.

(Perhaps also worth noting is that a city in Gyeonggi-do has been the site of sex crime prevention training for foreign teachers.)

In the days before cows were mad...

Yes, the date at the top of that article is correct. Beef, along with cigarettes and directly distributed films became points of contention before, during and after the Olympics, with one result being the comic book I mentioned at the end of this post. It's kind of fascinating to realize just how long this issue has been around.

Some interesting reading

Over at his site, Gord Sellar has some interesting commentary on the use of not just black face in Korea, but the use of various 'faces' in the Korean media. Go read it.

Also, at the Huffington Post, John Eperjesi writes about "Korean Beat Attitudes: Rainhat Poet and Ko Un."

Yongin to hire more native speaking teachers

Or, at least, that's the idea one gets from reading this article, titled "To realize advancement of public education, Yongin will expand native speaking teachers by 3 times." That may not be entirely true, however.

According to the article, Yongin city is undertaking a number of measures for the 'realization of people-oriented educational welfare,' one of which is to invest 2.8 billion won on native speaking teachers to help cut private tuition fees by having them teach regular and after school classes. This will support the personnel costs and program operation costs of hiring 70 teachers, placing 18 in elementary schools, 36 in middle schools, and 16 in high schools.

It becomes clear that the title is misleading when we're told that 'This is an expansion by almost three times compared to [the number of NSETs hired] when the native speaking teacher support program began in 2006.' The article offers no statistics for the number of NSETs hired last year (or even last year's budget) to make any comparisons to more recent figures. (In fact, Seoul could have sold its cuts by making a similar announcement, if it was to compare the remaining teacher numbers to 2006 figures.) Still, it would seem Yongin is going against the trend we're seeing in Gyeonggi-do, Seoul, Gangwon-do, and Busan, in that, while they may not be hiring that many more teachers, they certainly don't seem to be cutting teachers.

One of the native speaking teachers working in Yongin is in fact the first foreigner to be made a homeroom teacher in Korea, as this Donga Ilbo article reveals (hat tip to I'm No Picasso). I'll have a translation of that article up in a few days.

'Pretty boys' in the days before boy bands and teen idols

The LA Times published an interesting interview with Hong Seok-cheon, Korea's first (and only) openly gay celebrity.

[O]n this Saturday afternoon, the slender 41-year-old with the signature shaved head is playing himself, an out-of-the-closet gay man talking about what it's like to be a pariah in a conservative society where 77% of Koreans in one poll said they believed "homosexuality should be rejected."

Hong is the featured guest on a cable TV show called the "Star Lecture Series," making history, he says, as the first gay man to discuss sex and sexual orientation on-air in South Korea.

What I think is fascinating is how much things have changed in Korea in the relatively short time since Hong came out. As I wrote in this post in 2006,

As this article [dead link] points out, in 1997 the first Queer Film and Video Festival at Yonsei University was shut down when the authorities cut the power (though it was allowed to proceed the next year), and in September of 2000, when comic actor Hong Seok-chon became South Korea's first openly gay celebrity, he was fired from his job as host of a popular children's show on MBC and fired from a radio show on KBS. Cut to 2006, when one of the highest grossing Korean films of all time - The King and Clown - was about a gay love triangle set in the Chosun dynasty, and where a film viewable by teens can show gay, transsexual and cross-dressing characters (even if it treats them in a very light way), and it becomes clear how much can change in ten years.

Since I wrote that five years ago, there have been many more movies and even TV dramas featuring gay characters (or even gay romance), though some changes are slower than others:

In fact, Hong said, one day he would like to walk down the aisle. But he sighed, conceding that gay marriage in South Korea is a distant dream.

"Not in my lifetime," he said.

It may well be that it won't occur in his lifetime in the future - but what of the past?

Educated Koreans often claim that homosexuality is unknown here, in spite of the passionate intensity of many adolescent friendships. But the attitude on this subject is ambivalent. One of the severest judgements made by the Confucian historians against the later kings of the Koryo dynasty was a condemnation of their indulgence in the ‘love of dragon and sunshine’. (That is the literal translation of the phrase, indicating two male concepts, but it really refers to the name of a classic Chinese royal favourite.) For centuries the gentleman’s ideal has restricted sex to marriage and procreation, but there are signs that in rural society paederasty was tolerated if not actually approved. Not long ago I was sitting in the tiring-room of one of my smaller churches, chatting with the churchwarden while the supper was being prepared. There was a lull in the conversation, and then he chuckled and said: ‘You know, I never realized paederasty was a sin till I read the Epistle to the Romans.’ After hearing the rest of his chatter I was left wondering to myself just what memories lay behind his chuckle.

He said that when he was a boy, only forty years ago [1920 or so], there were often ‘pretty boys’ in the village. They were especially the favourites of young widowers and sometimes of older and richer men. The boy would receive nice clothes and would be fairly conspicuous, but his position would involve no ostracism and would not impair his chances of marriage. Among the itinerant players, however – the dancers and acrobats and puppet show people – paederasty, male prostitution, and regular homosexual marriages, sometimes with transvestitism, were common and well known (just as formal tribatistic unions were common among palace women in the capital). Today, he said, things have changed. He suggested three reasons: the Japanese efforts to break the custom, the greater freedom of contact between men and women, and the fact that boys no longer wear their hair long like girls. Yet still the colloquial description of a good-looking boy is ‘pretty like a girl’ and implies no disparagement.

- Richard Rutt, Korean Works and Days, 1964

Richard Rutt was an Anglican priest who served in Korea from 1954 to 1974, and the above book compiles articles from the Korea Times he wrote about the village where he lived in the late 1950s. It's well worth reading, delving as it does into both the traditional ways of village life and into the ways in which modernity was changing them (It's available from the Royal Asiatic Society*). As Brother Anthony describes him,

Richard Rutt was the last of the line of scholar-missionaries that began with James Scarth Gale, Homer B. Hulbert, George Heber Jones and the Anglican bishop Mark Napier Trollope, the pioneers who laid the foundation of what is now known as Korean studies.

His description of how "[e]ducated Koreans often claim that homosexuality is unknown here" certainly sounds familiar, but the role of the 'pretty boys' in the village is certainly not something that is talked about often. The lives of "dancers and acrobats and puppet show people" were portrayed in The King and Clown, and are more familiar, however.

I couldn't read about "the fact that boys no longer wear their hair long like girls" without remembering Robert Neff (certainly at an RAS lecture but perhaps also in his book Korea through Western Eyes), telling a story about western sailors who invited what they thought were young Korean women on board to drink and received a shock when one of them stood up and urinated over the side. Looking at photos like these (of much younger boys, of course), one can see how they might have gotten confused...


*Korean Works and Days. Richard Rutt, RAS-KB, 1978, Softbound. 205 pp. ISBN 89-954424-6-8
Rural Korea in the 1950s from the perspective of a sensitive and inquisitive foreign village priest; a record of the seasons, the harvest, the customs of the people, and conversations with local Confucian scholars. $8 / KW10,000

Busan to cut native speaking teachers

Yesterday a Busan Ilbo article reported that Busan will follow Gyeonggi-do, Seoul (and to a lesser degree, Gangwon-do) in cutting the native speaking teacher budget.

"From next year, native speaking english assistant teachers working in Busan elementary, middle and high schools are expected to be significantly reduced. While the government decides whether to replace the CSAT with the national english proficiency test (NEAT) this December, the private education market is in a state of excitement. That children in the lowest income and second lowest income brackets will have no choice but to be deprived of their opportunity for native speaking English education as the number of native speaking English assistant teachers are cut is causing controversy."

According to Busan City and Busan Office of Education on the 5th, this year the Office of Education will see 5.1 billion won transferred from the city plus the Office of Education budget of 8.6 billion won which totals a 13.77 billion won budget invested in employing a total of 528 NSETs (293 in elementary, 171 in middle, and 58 in high schools). Last year a similar number (522) were hired, but the budget last year was 17.6 billion won, or almost 4 billion won more, so the Busan Office of Education is sweating over adjusting its hiring of native speakers.

The existing 7.6 billion won transferred from the city was cut by 2.5 billion won this year, which was not anticipated, because the office of education had also cut its budget. In particular, Busan City will cut 2.5 billion won more next year, and plans to cut its part of the NSET budget entirely by 2015. A Busan City official said, "The basic policy of the city is to cut budget support for personnel costs for all organizations."

Every year the money transferred from Busan City accounts for a good portion of the hiring budget for NSETs for Busan Office of Education, and is urgently needed. In this year's case, although the BOE had already promoted a plan to hire 528 teachers, the city unexpectedly cut the transfer payment.

Busan Office of Education is apparently embarrassed by these cuts and is going to have to adjust its recruitment for the second semester.

Because the city will again cut 2.5 billion won next year, there is no choice but to substantially reduce the number of NSETs. With the cut of 2.5 billion won, the Busan Office of Education will have to cut at least 55 teachers and perhaps even 75. As a result, the policy goal of having 100% placement of NSETs in all middle and elementary schools, which has been in place since 2009, can't help but be undone.

Parents have expressed concerns. One parent of children in grades 2 and 5 said that it was good that there was an NSET at her kids' school, because she could reduce the private education costs, but now those savings will disappear, and that for the sake of normalizing public education the NSET system should be kept. Another parent of children in high school grade 1 and middle school grade 2 said that if the NEAT replaces the CSAT, speaking and writing would be newly included, and that opportunities for native speaking education would be even more important. As well, having native speaking education at school would be a great help to families on a tight budget.

Busan university of education professor Woo Gil-ju said, "In terms of providing children in the lowest income and second lowest income brackets equal access to to native speakers, the role of the NSET is needed." "With no alternative or road map for replacing NSETs, it is not desirable to suddenly cut native speaking teachers."

Later in the day, the Busan Ilbo published an editorial saying that low-income children are bound to be marginalized by the cuts and parents frustrated by them, and called for the city to withdraw its sudden policy and provide opportunities to the poor.

Once again, as with GEPIK and SMOE, we're seeing a power outside of the office of education - in this case city hall rather than city council - cutting NSETs unexpectedly and deeply.

It came from beyond...

Insert your own caption...


(From here.)

Three decades of black face in Korea

[Update: I added a couple extra paragraphs and two photos, which are marked below. Also, as a commenter below reminded me, this video was linked to in the comments at Roboseyo a few days ago showing a recent performance on Star King ridiculing a Maori haka (or as it's called there, '마오리족 뽀뽀뽀' - click box 26/30 above the screen and scroll to near the end). They should be invited to New Zealand to perform in front of these fellows.]



In the past week or so there's been discussion about the use of black face on Korean television (again), with Eat Your Kimchi, Roboseyo (twice), the Unlikely Expat, Kushibo and Expat Hell discussing it. It's been reported in the Korean language media and in the Korea Times as well, which have focused especially on youtube videos which have been posted in response.

Other clips, however, are continuously being uploaded. Black men, women and even Caucasians have joined in the attack. Some expats living in Korea have also written about it recently on their blogs.

Ah, yes. When foreigners criticize something about Korea, they are 'attacking' it. Much as when the Donga Ilbo interviewed Anti-English Spectrum leader Lee Eun-ung about negative foreign media reports about his group and asked "Why are you receiving such attacks?"

I've done some searching and found references to black face in a play in 1978, where an actor or two made themselves up to look like two black convicts (one may be pictured in black face at that link, but it's a rather dark photo). Actors were most certainly made up to look black in a 1982 musical version of 'Roots' (based on Alex Haley's novel and the TV series), which featured African music and jazz. The article about it includes these photos:


[Edit begins]

In this February 1981 Joongang Ilbo article, titled "Fraudulent black makeup - hands were white," which collected readers' opinions of recent TV shows, there is a complaint that a KBS detective show with an episode titled 'Nigerian dream' was done with too little effort, because the actor only had black on his face on not on his hands, which were white. I think that may give some insight into what was expected of actors portraying black people (as above in Roots) - that in order to appear authentic, the actor had to be in (full!) black makeup.

This February 1985 Joongang Ilbo article describes the efforts two actors went to to attract people in Myeongdong to a performance of the South African play 'Woza Albert!' This included an actor in black face on the street handing out playbills and another dressed as a clown. The play is said to "deal with the problem of racism in South Africa" and also that it could be seen on Broadway. If I had to guess, I would imagine the actors performed in black face.

[Edit ends]

It doesn't seem to have been until 1986 that black face became associated with comedy. As stories by Yonhap and E Daily explain, on an August 25, 2010 MBC show, comedian Lee Bong-won explained the circumstances surrounding the creation of and sudden disappearance of the popular 'sikeomeonseu' performances he did with Jang Du-seok at that time.

Lee Bong-won

Lee Bong -won performed in blackface doing the "Sikeomeonseu' routine for more than a year in 1986 and 1987 on the KBS program "Show Video Jockey". He described the impact the program had, saying that when 'sikeomeonseu' was broadcast, it was so popular that children who couldn't paint their faces black instead found another way - and drove sales of coal briquettes up. This performance stopped at the end of 1987, he explained, because during the 1988 Olympics there would be people coming from Africa, and they decided then that "We don't want to denigrate black people" and "It would be better not to do it." [Note: Wikipedia says their performance went from 1987 to 1988.]

Lee doing the 'sikeomeonseu' skit in the 1980s.

This sketch was helped out by a Chuseok comedy song festival which showed the 'black eagles,' which was the first time he'd heard rap, and the gag was presented due to curiosity with 'music that was like talking.' Apparently, rap was used in the 'sikeomeonseu' performances.

As this (via the Marmot) explains, 'sikeomeonseu' comes from 시커멓다 ('black as coal,' 'jet black'). Nothing more is said, but I would guess '시커먼스' is a portmanteau of 시커멓다 and 퍼포먼스 ('performance' hangeulized) ('퍼포먼스' does show up in articles at that time). As this article notes, Lee would dance on stage in a rasta wig in black face and shout to the music, "시커먼스, 시커먼스. 망했다, 망했어" (the latter meaning 'ruined' or 'doomed').

[Edit]

Lee Bong-won and Jang Du-seok (from here)

Netizens who saw the show in 2010 discussing the history of 'sikeomeonseu' had various opinions: "'Sikeomeonseu' was really fun, but that it was discontinued due to the Olympics is too bad, and surprising." "Comedy in those days was really fun, and I want to see it again." "I hope to see the resurrection of authentic comedy." Elsewhere netizens said the program was where they heard rap music for the first time.

I was pointed to this 2010 interview by a commenter at Roboseyo who said, "Apparently, the Korean media companies knew enough to knock that shit off in 88." Interestingly enough, that very interview with Lee Bong-won in 2010 also included an appearance by this guest...


...who then danced together with Lee and others.


With the Olympics long over, I guess there's no need to worry now.

I don't know how popular black face was in the 1990s, but it really got attention again in 2003, as the KT explains:

Some even claim that the incident can be seen as a second round of the “Bubble Sisters controversy” which occurred back in 2003. Bubble Sisters, a Korean female band, made their debut by performing blackfaced. It drew controversy when the reason behind their makeup was known to be their lack of confidence in their appearance. People claimed it was racially discriminating to depict black people as “ugly and fat.”

Talk about missing the point completely. I'm not sure if it was Korean netizens saying that, but foreigners were most certainly appalled by the use of black face in and of itself, not to mention all of the other accessories (pajamas? curlers?). See the Metropolitician's post about them here (from which this photo was taken):

(From here)

They later stopped using black face (and have recorded several albums). It would seem that their first cd (see the cover art and booklet here) was re-issued without photos of them in black face.

Black face has been used on TV or elsewhere since then. In 2005 this photo of Eric from Shinhwa appeared on the internet of him supposedly dressed up as the main character of Undercover Brother.


In December 2006, an incident occurred on the program 'In a room salon with hot foreign women' (also known as Minyeodeului suda) when two women - one of them black - were singing the song 'Oppa' on stage while a panel of Korean men hooted along. As the song was ending, one of the men, singer Cheon Myeong-hun, put on a rasta wig and started jumping to the music and shouting.




He was in fact shouting "시커먼스, 시커먼스. 망했다, 망했어" - just like in Lee Bong-won's 'sikeomeonseu' routine.


What happened next, no one could have predicted. Korean netizens reacted negatively to what he did, particularly because he was doing it in front of a black woman, which they thought was racist. Oranckay, whose blog is no longer with us, said at the time something along the lines of that it was the most hopeful thing he'd seen in regard to racism in Korea. The incident was covered at the Marmot's Hole and Metropolitician.

[Edit]
Less than a year later, in September 2007, the two sikeomeonseu actors reunited on Gag Concert's Chuseok special and performed with Kikeosseumyeon, a Gag Concert feature they influenced which was a part of the show from late 2007 to early 2008 (I don't know if that influence extended to black face, however).


2007 also brought us what might be the strangest use of black face (or body, in this case) I've seen: Topless Raelians painted black to promote clitoraid to help African women who have suffered female circumcision (photos from here and here).



This 2009 article about a model getting into trouble in the US for black face would suggest that there is some awareness of how offensive the practice is considered to be.

In May 2010, Muhandojeon (Unlimited Challenge) comedians HaHa and No Hong-cheol decided to cheer viewers up after being 7 weeks off the air due to the Cheonan sinking and an MBC strike by - what else? - dressing up as African natives. (More photos are here).


Two months later saw another use of black face on TV:


In November 2011 this photo was posted on Twitter as part of a teaser for a cosmetics ad with the title "aren't we pretty?"


In December 2011, Saturday Night Live Korea featured women in black face performing as dream girls.


Which brings us up to the present incident. On January 21, the Lunar New Year special of MBC’s ' Quiz that Changes the World' featured comedians Lee Gyeong-sil and Kim Ji-seon in black face wearing basketball jerseys and singing, trying (and failing) to keep straight faces.


It might have passed unnoticed had MBC not uploaded the video to their Youtube account, which led to some rather angry comments and video responses. The video has since been removed, but if you'd like to see it, email the person I got it from at Slomo1919 at gmail dot com (there was no file extension on the one I downloaded, but it's likely an MP4 file - I just dragged it into my media player).

As allkpop posted,

Some netizens commented, "They weren’t ridiculing African Americans; they were simply parodying the Korean cartoon character from 'Dooly'."

The production team also released an official apology on their homepage, stating,

"On the Lunar New Year special broadcast on January 21st, the cast parodied a cartoon character during the ‘Family Karoke’ segment of the show. However, there were viewers from abroad who felt uncomfortable while watching the show, so we would like to offer our sincere apology.

A Korean cartoon character was being parodied, so while viewers within Korea knew that the parody was of the cartoon character, international viewers were not offered a sufficient explanation – causing a misunderstanding. This is something that occurred because we did not think carefully at the time about the fact that many international viewers also have gained a high interest in the show with the spread of the Hallyu wave. In the future, we will think through the selection of the material, no matter how small it is, so that we will not cause any discomfort to our viewers.

So it's all a misunderstanding. They were supposed to be dressed as Maikol, (Micheal), a character from Dooly based on Michael Jackson. What could be wrong with that?


Now, it could be argued that this is typical of depictions of foreigners in Korea which highlight certain racial characteristics:

Look at the size of that thumb. (From here)

Needless to say, both images below, of black face and the cartoon character with gigantic lips, are rather representative of American historical depictions of black face and black cartoon characters or caricatures.

"'Cane' I be your valentine?" Good lord. (from here).
(Though it could be worse.)

Korean commenters on Eat You Kimchi's original post, however, have twisted themselves into contorted shapes saying that foreigners simply don't understand, it's just a parody, Maikol is actually Korean, because he speaks Korean, you know, and is not black. One commenter pointed out that he has been portrayed in 'real life' as a Korean before:


Another commenter, however, pointed out other depictions of him such as this one on Gag Concert:


As it turns out, on this show from 2010, it was also Maikol who was either supposed to be portrayed, or who was referred to:

"Original Maikol'

Two of the other photos at that link show one of the actresses from the most recent incident, who had previously done herself up in black face to portray Maikol. The commenter also adds that "So if you look at this point of view, all of them have black paint - to the level where you can misunderstand for a black person[.]"

Silly me. How could anyone have mistaken Maikol for a black person?

(From the video clip here.)

And why is it that Maikol looks so similar to these people, who one assumes are supposed to be Africans (despite the fact they all speak Korean)? (From this Dooly clip, via the Unlikely Expat.)



Bones in the nose are a not uncommon way of depicting Africans in Korea. For example, here is an entry from an early 1990s English dictionary, one of many compiled and posted by the Metropolitician:


One cartoon which took me awhile to find was this one (via Joi Ito), published by the Hankyoreh in the aftermath of Roh Moo-hyun's impeachment in March 2004, which looks at the reaction of foreign bloggers to the impeachment:


Comments by white or Chinese bloggers about how it's a right wing coup d'état, impeachment with no reason, only the citizens will be hurt, and calling conservatives 'idiots' are juxtaposed with an ignorant African savage who has no idea what's going on. This from the 'progressive' Hankyoreh. No, tell us how you really feel.

There's more to tease from the most recent incident, however. Note below the song 'Maikol' is singing.

"Sintoburi"

The Korea Times explains it by saying "The title of the song means products grown within one’s own land are the best." The song became popular in early 1993, and its lyrics, by Bae Il-ho, can be found here. The song begins by asking 'Who are you, who am I? In the land where we were born, sintoburi' and then names different places around the country, and describes 'show window mannequins dancing with foreign products.' After naming several Korean food products (rice, barley, beans, red beans, gochujang, doenjang, kimchi, ggakdugi), he asks why one would look for other people's things, and says, 'Don't forget, you and I are Korean,' answering the question asked in the first line.

But as for what 'sintoburi' means, a comic distributed by Nonghyup (hat tip to seouldout) to elementary school students in 1990 explained to children how buying foreign goods would destroy Korea's farms, leaving the country vulnerable to rapacious foreigners who could charge whatever they wanted, and send food which was rotten by the time it arrived. The solution was to monitor your parents when they went to the market and stop them from buying foreign goods. In the midst of this comes a discription of sintoburi, in which, according to the hanja, sin = body, to = soil, bul = not, i = 2. So, body and soil are one (as illustrated by an episode from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms), so you should buy only Korean goods. While it might seem simply a patriotic song, when seen in the context of how it was sold to children in the comic book, it doesn't seem so innocuous - especially when sung by someone in black face.

But wait. The comic actually gets better, and has a scene which is rather topical:

[First day back after summer vacation]
The teacher is coming!
Huh?
Hold on a second… during vacation did a student transfer from Africa?

You! What black people’s country did you come from?
I’m Republic of Korea Saebom Elementary School 5th grade 1st class Park Daljae!
Well then why are you sitting there with a black face?
I ended up looking like this after spending all vacation by the sea.
I thought he was sitting there because maybe a black African had transferred.
Hahahaha~

Perhaps a better answer as to why he had a black face would have been "I became a comedian on TV over the summer." It's all a bit silly, really. I mean, if he was African he would have had a bone in his nose or would be carrying a spear, right? But this is one example of what the kids were reading at schools (again, the images of the 1990s English dictionary posted by the Metropolitician give further examples of how ideas about race were shaped). But even the elementary school English books used up until a year ago depicted black characters in much the same way we've seen above:


What I presume to have been a foreign English teacher with some time on his or her hands has compiled a number of images and videos of Peter (who appeared in the grade 5 and 6 textbooks) at a blog called Black Peter, where he re-imagines many of the books' characters in rather dark ways, such as in this post, which offers commentary on this video:



If you were wondering what part Peter gets to play in the musical he does with his classmates, well, have a look here.

Considering the defensive response (or outright denial) of many (apparently Korean) commenters at Eat Your Kimchi's post, and comments like, "'Sikeomeonseu' was really fun, but that it was discontinued due to the Olympics is too bad, and surprising," it would appear that a good many people just don't get it. But I imagine that each one of these incidents prompts a little more understanding (or if not that, then a pragmatic desire by media companies not to offend). While those images above from the textbook discontinued a year ago were offensive, the national textbooks for grade 5 and 6 last year were greatly improved:

(Foreigners still can't use chopsticks. Baby steps.)

Here is the depiction of the black character in this year's textbook:


So things are improving. And that may have something to do with the fact that there have been increasing numbers of foreigners - some of them black - working in the public school system over the last 5 years. Still, I have my doubts whether this incident will put an end to the use of black face for laughs on Korean television.

'Defenseless' exposure

On February 20, Chungcheong Today also published an editorial (much like Yonhap) about the recent arrests of foreign instructors for selling pot.

For how long will we entrust English education to marijuana [smoking] instructors?

[Thinking we] can forget the marijuana problem with native speaking English instructors, it happens [again]. Regardless of their ability, by smoking marijuana and teaching, they have lost sight of the basics as educators. Every time this becomes an issue there are cries that the method of hiring native speaking English instructors should be reformed, but when has this happened? The fact that the English education of our children can't help but be entrusted to them is regrettable.

Police arrested five people including a native speaking English instructor for illegally distributing marijuana grown in Canada and Korea, and booked without detention 31 people including an American professor who teaches at a university in Seoul for buying marijuana. They've been charged with distributing 436 grams of marijuana in well known hagwons in the Cheonan area since last July. It was found that they bought marijuana from Canada or Korea and personally smoked it or distributed it in the area.

Among the arrested native speaking instructors was one who had regrettably already been punished for the same crime; one can see just how lax the instructor recruitment process is. Judging by their selling of smuggled marijuana on a large scale, they considered themselves to be drug dealers, not educators. It makes one angry to think of these unfit people openly getting up in front of our youth and educating them. Native speaking instructors mostly teach kindergarten, elementary, middle or high school students.

There is worry over whether even youth have been affected. One cannot rule out the possibility that native speaking instructors could spread marijuana or drugs to youth. With the English education craze, the demand for native speaking English instructors is increasing. And with this, under-qualified people are sometimes teaching. That private hagwons, which should be choosy about hiring native speaking English instructors, carelessly carry out verification procedures is also something to be concerned about. If that's not the case, how could this happen again? Moreover, the fact that youth who are vulnerable to temptation [could be] defenselessly exposed to drugs is deplorable.

No matter how good English education is, native speaking instructors who smoke and distribute drugs cannot be entrusted with our children. There is a need to strengthen verification of native speaking instructors when hiring them. At the moment, tests can only verify whether drugs have been used within the last two weeks. This is why habitual users cannot be filtered out. More scientific and precise drug testing methods should be introduced. It's appropriate that punishment for hagwons which illegally hire under-qualified people be greatly strengthened.

This editorial rehashes a lot of what was written in Yonhap's editorial, in particular the 'foreign teachers will spread drugs to our children' canard. If they were to say that teachers caught doing drugs demonstrate a lack of commitment to their job, or worried about the quality of their teaching due to drug use, these would at least be realistic concerns in comparison to the idea of people who've paid 70,000 won for a gram of weed sharing it with their students.

I enjoyed the phrase describing children as possibly being "defenselessly exposed to drugs (마약류에 무방비로 노출돼 있다)." '무방비 (defenseless)' has come up in the past more than once:

The Joongang Ilbo published two articles right before the 1988 Olympics describing certain worries about the foreign visitors to the Olympics:

September 8 1988:
Our country is indeed a zone defenseless before AIDS

September 10,1988:
The highs and lows of a festive atmosphere welcoming the Olympics -' defenseless' before AIDS

Hankyoreh, September 2, 1988:
The 'defenseless before AIDS' Olympics

As you might have guessed, those were all the titles of those articles. There were more than a few other articles which took used that word in reference to foreign visitors and AIDS at that time.

Later, on July 10, 1997, the Kukmin Ilbo reported that Rep. Kim Han-gil - who was truly ahead of his time - had said, "Elementary school students are defenseless before things like AIDS" in reference to untested foreign English teachers.

Connecting foreign teachers with AIDS would have to wait almost ten years until the Breaknews article "Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS," which re-opened this topic on September 18, 2006. In an interview with a member of the movement to expel illegal foreign teachers (almost certainly AES's leader), he stated that "[Korean] women are being defenselessly exposed to AIDS" by untested foreign English teachers.

In The Cleanest Race, B.R. Myers describes how North Korean propagandists adapted Japanese wartime propaganda to its own ends:

Where the colonial power had touted Japanese virtue as a protective talisman, the Koreans now believed that their virtue had made them as vulnerable as children to an evil world. What by international standards had been an enviably placid history was now remembered as a long litany of suffering and humiliation at foreign hands.

Oh, but he was talking about North Korea, wasn't he? I'll leave it to the reader to decide if the above description does not also apply to South Korea.

Bits and pieces

Happy leap year day!

Feel like playing soccer inside Deoksugung Palace's Seokjojeon? Apparently in the late 1960s you could (sort of):

At Seokjojeon, for example, an indoor football field was installed in a second floor corridor, according to an article in the June 4, 1968, issue of the JoongAng Ilbo.

That article, titled 'Trouble over Deoksu Palace's beauty being marred by indoor soccer field,' can be found here.

A civilian operated indoor soccer field installed on the second floor passageway connecting Deoksu Palace's Seokjojeon hall and the art gallery is compromising the elegance of the old palace.

So, it wasn't quite inside Seokjojeon, then. The article says a Mr. Jeong had been given permission since April to operate the indoor field (charging 120-180 won per hour) in order to prevent those in attendance from engaging in loose public morals in the area. (Hat tip to Hamel.)


Jon Dunbar has a good article about vintage Korean rock music here.

Nowadays, vinyl albums of bands from that era cost a pretty penny, with original vinyl from Shin Jung-hyeon rarely available for less than 100,000 won, but back in 1995 when Hasegawa Yohei first visited Korea, he claims the same records were available for as low as 500 won. [...]

I've mentioned Hasegawa before. Things have changed since 1995, however:

"Every record store owner would tell me the same thing: Japanese record collectors had long since bought up all the really good records."

On the same topic, I found this video on youtube, by Kim Chu-ja which was obviously made before the great pot crackdown of December 1975:



The song also appears in different (and better) form on the great album 'Jang Hyun and the Men,' which you might be able to find here.


One of the features I really like at ROK Drop is 'Faces in Korea,' in which GI Korea looks at foreigners who visited Korea in the past. Some good examples are Hank Aaron, Robert Kennedy, and Muhammad Ali. His recent review of the film Champion, which I looked at here years ago, also links to an interesting article about how the fight with Kim Deuk-gu changed Ray Mancini.

Also worth noting at ROK Drop are the recent changes to SOFA, and this link to an article from 2003 - fun times.