Brig. General Dai Yong Rhee, the deputy commander for all South Korean forces in Vietnam, was captured after failing to be evacuated from Saigon at the wars end in 1975 and was subsequently imprisoned by the North Vietnamese. He was released in 1980.
Sexual crimes against children under 13 has jumped 59 percent in recent years, going from 721 cases in 2004, 738 in 2005, 1,081 in 2007 and 1,220 last year. Requests for the personal information of sexual offenders have numbered just 48 between July last year to last month. This means the system allowing the disclosure of personal information of such criminals has proven an ineffective deterrent to such crimes.The article goes on to say that the information is available only at police stations (the procedure involves a written form) but that plans to put the information on the internet have been held up by human rights concerns. This confuses me, as information about sex criminals who have victimized children has been placed on the internet for years (with the first instance of this in 2000 crashing the Commission on Youth Protection's web site due to the sudden increase in traffic. At any rate, the article goes on to break down statistics from a report:
Homes of the victims or criminals are the most common sexual crime scenes. The number of sexual crimes against children conducted at homes was 37. Twenty-eight sexual crimes occurred on the street; 20 on staircases or elevators of apartments; 17 at public baths; 13 at playgrounds or public and amusement parks; and eight in cars. By crime type, the number of attempted and successful rapes was 14; sexual harassment 132; purchased sex three; and distribution of pornographic materials one.This article about how TV programs with adultery will affect children also gives us some statistics:
By age, those in their 40s accounted for the largest share (35 cases) of sexual offenders against children, followed by those in their 50s (31); 20s (27); 30s (26); 60s (14); 70s (eight); and 80s (one). Sexual crimes against children conducted by those aged over 50 accounted for 36.7 percent (54 cases). [Someone has a problem with math]
Most of the offenders committed their crimes nearby their residence. According to the material, 48 of the crimes happened within townships, villages or small districts where criminals reside and 63 occurred within a city, county or district where the criminals lived. Gyeonggi Province had 26 sexual offenders against children, followed by Seoul with 18; South Gyeongsang Province 15; South Jeolla Province 14; North Gyeongsang Province 11; and Gwangju 10.
According to the National Police Agency, the number of adolescent victims of sexual violence is on the rise, from 1,811 in 2006 and 2,136 in 2007 to 2,717 in 2008. Shin Gi-sook, the director of Sunflower Children's Center for children victims of sexual violence, said "It's alarming that due to the influence of TV, an increasing number of children think of sexual violence as mere play."The article seems to confuse crimes against youth with crime by youth. We're also told that
The influence on young minds can be substantial, claims Sung Young-shin, a psychology professor at Korea University. "You have a lot of repressed anger in your adolescent years, and TV dramas on immoral subjects could spur the latent indignation of these young people."I thought the culprit bandied about in the media was generally that it was the effect of watching online porn (apparently depictions of rape are not uncommon) combined with a lack of sex education that led to the rise in sex crimes among youth. Speaking of young victims of sexual violence, an article that caught my eye in the news the other day was about a 58 year old minister being arrested for raping a 9 year old girl. In Gwangju's Seo-gu at the end of last December Mr. A enticed 9 year old B, who was playing alone in an apartment's playground, back to his apartment, forced her to watch erotic videos, and raped her four times. Mr. A has in the past worked in the prison system as a pastor, so he may be familiar with the prison that he'll be sent to. Of course, that's assuming he goes to prison for this, which is not a given, considering how little rape - or paying children for sex - is punished in Korea.
Police are questioning a 32-year-old man identified as Jeong for running an online suicide blog and having allegedly raped a teenager who "hoped to commit suicide with him,'' according to the Seocho Police Station.Hopefully this fine example of humanity gets more than a slap on the wrist.
Jeong met an unidentified 17-year-old girl through his blog, which supports suicide. He asked her to commit suicide with him and met her last Friday.
However, he took her to a motel in Seoul and raped her instead. He later tried to kill her, but did not attempt suicide, the police said. It was revealed later that Jeong had allegedly raped another teenager a day before in the same manner.
From July, convicted kidnappers will be obligated to wear an electronic anklet monitoring their whereabouts around the clock for up to a decade, the Ministry of Justice said Sunday. A bill forcing convicted kidnappers to wear the gadget was passed at the National Assembly Friday and the law will take effect in three months. [...] The monitoring program was first introduced last September for surveillance of convicted sex offenders, chronic repeat offenders.Moving away from crime, this article looks at the depressing conditions children of migrant workers find themselves in:
A report, which shows that the recidivism rate among convicted kidnappers was higher than other criminals, motivated the ministry to include them in the program. According to a survey of former convicts between 2002 and 2007, 9.2 percent of convicted kidnappers committed similar crimes again, higher than the averaged recidivism of 8.1 percent among those found guilty of the four major felonies ㅡ homicide, arson, rape, and burglary, showing an increase in the number of kidnappings in recent years ㅡ 140 cases in 2006, 125 in 2007 and 153 as of October in 2008.
The recidivism rate among those wearing the 24-hour-monitored gadget for the first six months stood at only 0.46 percent, down from an average of 5.2 percent before its introduction.
According to the Korea Immigration Service, some 17,000 undocumented children under age 16 reside in Korea as of March. The government has failed to provide them with access to medical care, however.The fact that "Forty percent of elementary schools refuse to take children of migrant workers," along with the staggeringly high number of children not going to school, and does not bode well for Korea's future. But then, I suppose it doesn't matter, since the aim is to deport them all anyway.
The Migrant Health Association in Korea, a private organization, has set up a network of hospitals to provide health services for migrant workers, but because such hospitals are limited in number and proximity, illegal foreign workers use nearby hospitals. [...]
Korean law allows undocumented children to attend school, but reality paints a different picture. A 12-year-old from a Philippine household was admitted to elementary school in Seoul after being rejected by three schools due to opposition from Korean parents. The school that eventually admitted him was also reluctant to do so at first, but he got help from Seongdong Migrant Center.
Shin Hye-yeong, in charge of education for children of migrant workers at the center, said, “Forty percent of elementary schools refuse to take children of migrant workers,” adding, “Given the difficulty in getting a primary education as guaranteed by law, it`s obvious they will face more difficulty in getting a secondary education.”
According to the Education, Science and Technology Ministry, 1,402 of 17,000 children of migrant workers attend school – 981 in elementary, 314 in middle, and 107 in high school. This means that most of the children are being left uneducated.
Half of Korean children and teenagers say they are unhappy, the results of a survey released yesterday said. The survey was conducted by a Yonsei University research center for social development and polled 5,000 students from the fourth to 11th grades nationwide from February to May this year. The results were compared to those from a United Nations Children’s Fund in 2006.On top of this, the Korea Herald has an article titled "Korea ranks 3rd in accident-related deaths."
The center said, “Korean society is well structured in health, education and safety, but the happiness level of children and teenagers is low.” The survey measured subjective happiness of students by asking them six questions on areas such as health, satisfaction with school life, and material happiness.
On subjective happiness, Korean students got 71.7 out of 100 points, the lowest among 20 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The figure was more than 40 points lower than that of leader Greece (114). The share of students who consider themselves “happy” was 55.4 percent, much lower than the OECD average of 84.8 percent.
Going to the subjective life satisfaction index with one being the lowest and five the highest, elementary school students got four points; middle school students 3.4, and high schoolers 3.1. For the index surveying scholastic achievement, education participation, and desire to study, Korea ranked second with 120 points among 24 OECD countries after Belgium (121 points).
South Korea reported that 8.7 out of every 100,000 children under 15 years old died annually at the end of 2005 due to traffic accidents, drowning, falls and other injuries, the report by the National Statistical Office said.Brian in Jeollanam-do has more on this here. It's interesting how much these rates have dropped since the early 1990s; this may be related to the drop in deaths from traffic accidents since that time. To be sure, traffic safety really needs to be reinforced, and the wearing of seat belts should be encouraged (or penalized for non-compliance, though there's little point if the penalties aren't going to be enforced). Does the murder rate not seem a little high? I was thinking, after reading this, that drowning, making up 20% of all accidental deaths, seemed very high. Then one of my students told me that a third grade boy in her school drowned over the holiday, and that students were leaving flowers on his desk (she didn't know him, but another of my students was friends with him). A quick search turned up the story here, that a 15 year-old boy from Banghwa-dong was found dead on the beach in Gangneung Monday morning. What a horrible Children's Day vacation that family must have had.
It is the third highest rate among the 25 member countries of the OECD following Mexico and the United States which reported 13.6 and 9.2 of death rates, respectively. The OECD average stood at 5.6, the report showed. Between 1991 and 1995, South Korea had topped the list in terms of children death rates with 25.6 out of every 100,000 losing lives due to accidents.
Traffic accidents accounted for 42.7 percent of the total deaths, followed by drowning with 20 percent. Falls made up 7.9 percent of deaths, while murder and suicides also took up 8.7 percent and 5.3 percent, the report showed.
According to a report by the National Statistical Office, the population of people aged between 9 and 24 is estimated to be 21.3 percent, or 10.38 million, of the total this year, down 1 percent from a year earlier.The drop in students has led to schools closing over the past few years, in the countryside and in Seoul.
The year-on-year decline in the nation's youth contrasts with an estimated 0.3 percent growth in the overall population, which is currently estimated to be around 48.74 million, the report showed. The ratio of the cited age group to the total population has been on a steady decline since peaking at 36.9 percent in 1978, the report noted.
According to a survey of 80,000 secondary students by the government's disease control center, the percentage of male middle school students who smoke rose to 11.3 percent in 2007 from 9.6 percent in 2005. The corresponding rate for female middle school students edged from 6.3 percent to 6.6 percent.There have been several articles about corporal punishment as well:
In particular, the smoking rates for male and female middle school first graders reached 6.5 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively. The smoking rates for male and female high school students totaled 24.3 percent and 11.3 percent, respectively, as of 2007. The nation's overall smoking rate stood at 21.9 percent last year, according to the health ministry.
Late last month, the Incheon District Court sentenced a female elementary school teacher who hit two of her second grade students more than 80 times in October last year for not having done their homework to eight months in prison suspended for two years. It was one of the harshest rulings handed down on a teacher involving corporal punishment. The teacher is appealing the sentence.Around this time was a well known case when a 17-year-old high school student in Gwangju hung himself after a teacher beat him on his feet 110 times 'along with another classmate for being "absent without notification" for two hours during self-study session.' The teacher was the daughter of the school principal, and I have no idea what, if any, punishment she received. In another case in Gwangju, a female teacher at a girls’ high school used corporal punishment on students after making them remove their skirts because they had received poor grades (article translated here).
According to court documents, the teacher hit a boy, identified as Kang, and a girl named Na for not having done their homework. When they had done it, she called them liars and caned them, which required them to undergo two to three weeks of medical treatment.
The Incheon Metropolitan Office of Education suspended the teachers' license for just three months. A group of activists and netizens are staging an online campaign, demanding stronger punitive measures and are moving to file petitions to the education office and the court.
In more affluent countries, schools usually hire janitors to do the cleaning but in Korea, students are assigned to those tasks. However, first and second graders are considered too young to do chores like distributing food at lunchtime and cleaning classrooms, so they ask their mothers to do it instead. It is not certain when the practice started, but it has been going on for decades.Okay, something a little more upbeat:
The way it happens is quite simple. Schools send a letter to parents soon after their child enrolls asking if they are “willing and able” to do chores on behalf of their children. Those who sign up are assigned to a team of two or three parents, usually the mothers, who have duties around two times a month.
On the surface, this may appear to be a voluntary act of goodwill, but the back story tells another tale. Most mothers worry that if they don’t help with the cleaning, the teacher might discriminate against their child. [...]
“My child’s teacher, with her arms folded, pointed to the corner of the room and asked me to clean it,” a mother wrote on a Web site (http://cafe.daum.net/momcry). “It made me mad and I wanted to know what the teacher thought of me.”
Working mothers are not completely exempt from cleaning duty. Some take a day off from work to do their time or they may ask their own mother or mother-in-law for help.
If that’s not feasible, and they can afford it, they hire someone to do the job for them, paying between 20,000 won ($15), to 30,000 won. Stationery stores in front of elementary schools often carry advertisements for people offering this kind of service.
But sending a hired hand creates other problems. Working mothers say they feel estranged from the teacher and the other mothers because, unlike the mothers who don’t work, they aren’t able to talk as often with their child’s teacher or socialize with the other mothers.
Kim Sang-gon, superintendent-elect of Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, said the education office will secure enough funds to phase in free lunches to all elementary school students in the province by the second semester of next year.This is a good start. I was amazed when my mother told me how many students at the small town elementary school she taught at would have gone without breakfast had the school not offered free breakfasts to those who needed them. The unseen poverty that exists in Canadian communities is quite a bit higher than many in those same communities realize.
He also will expand the range of recipients to some middle and high school students from low-income brackets and farming or fishing villages.
According to the plan proposed by Kim's transition team, the local education office will extend the meal service to 1.01 million students, all 880,000 elementary school students and 130,000 middle and high school students, making up 55 percent of students in the province.
This is the first time for a provincial office of education to serve free meals to all elementary school students. The service will first be extended to 150,000 elementary school students in rural areas from this September and all elementary students will be covered by the second semester of 2010.
"The provision of school meals is one of Kim's core ideas,'' an official of the transition team said. "The goal of this policy is to guarantee the basic livelihood of students so they can study despite their parents' low income.''
A safety program which aims to protect children aged 12 or under has helped prevent a series of crimes includ[ing] sexual assaults since it was set up less than a year ago, according the National Police Agency. The children safety keeper program, which was unveiled on April 14, 2008, intervened in 38 incidents as of the end of March this year, according to the police.Well, I'd certainly hope there would be background checks. This reminds me of what in Canada is known as the Block Parent Program.
The measures were conceived after two elementary schoolgirls - Lee Hye-jin, 11, and Woo Yae-seul, 8, - were kidnapped, sexually assaulted and strangled in Anyang, on the outskirts of Seoul, in December 2007. Three months later, the Supreme Court sentenced [the] killer to death.
Under the program, the police designate supermarkets, restaurants and stationery shops located near kindergartens, elementary schools and apartment complexes as “children safety keepers.”
Staff in these facilities sport yellow stickers and posted signs indicate that children in danger can seek assistance. The program aims to thwart school violence, kidnapping, sexual attacks and help children who are lost. The designated helpers dial 112 for help if they encounter children in distress.
The program, which has 24,417 participating shops, was modeled after Australia’s Safety House Program, established in 1979. Houses or businesses marked with the program’s yellow smiling logo allow children to easily recognize an approved safe place if they find themselves in danger.
However, the children safety keeper program here is not widely known. “I haven’t heard about it from any of my neighbors,” said Kim Su-jin, a mother of an elementary schoolgirl in Sangdo-dong, western Seoul.
The government will allocate 650 million won ($523,250) to the program this year for the first time. So far, local communities have had to foot its costs. But while government aid is welcome, the amount will barely cover the cost of producing signs and promotion, according to some insiders.
Kim Hee-chull, a lawmaker from the opposition Democratic Party, has proposed a revision to the law for “protecting and helping missing children” that could boost the program. The revision would give legal standing to businesses participating in the program and the National Police Agency and the Education Ministry will be in charge of monitoring and publicizing the system.
Background checks on those who apply to join the program will be mandatory under the proposed revision.
Gonggam, which provided the professor with legal support, stressed that the case would act as a major marking point in the legal history in Korea.I have to say, I'm becoming rather fond of Gonggam, who were also involved with the Heo case (stopping the deportation of an HIV-positive foreigner) and are involved with the Andrea Vandom case (opposing HIV testing for E-2 visa-holders).
"Though the court's official decision is yet to be made, it is epochal that the prosecution officially regarded such racially discriminative remarks as subjects of criminal punishment," said a Gonggam lawyer. "The case, in the very least, will arouse social awareness on the chronic practice of racism in Korean society and encourage people to speak up about their experiences."
Based upon this initiative case, the Korean society should make further efforts to clear its system of deeply rooted racial practices, he also said.
Hussein also filed a petition to the National Human Rights Commission last month, demanding that Park and the related police officials address their racially discriminative attitudes.
North Korea has closed ten restaurants in Southeast Asia because waitresses working there got too involved with customers, a Hong Kong-based magazine said yesterday.If this is true, I really hope none of them came back pregnant, as North Korea's 'free abortions for possible race-traitors' program has to be one of the worst examples of socialized health care out there.
Yazhou Zhoukan said North Korean waitresses were heavily chastised from their country’s leadership for flirting with South Korean and Japanese customers. Certain waitresses even got romantically involved with tourists or overseas representatives.
Over the past few months, the North has closed 10 restaurants specializing in North Korean cuisine in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. The establishments sold traditional North Korean food such as Pyongyang cold noodles to earn dollars for the communist country.
The magazine said North Korean authorities recalled and punished the waitresses in question for “tarnishing” their country’s image. Since certain waitresses worked illegally after their visas expired and immigration crackdowns in the three Southeast Asian countries grew tougher, the North decided to close the restaurants temporarily.
Korea is moving to scrap its policy of banning foreigners with HIV/AIDS. The plan emerged in the face of protest from foreigners and legal experts against what they call discriminatory measures. They claim such policies infringe on human rights and have little effect on protecting Koreans from the contagious disease.Why would Korea want to leave such distinguished company? But wait:
Under the immigration law, authorities can ban the entry of foreign nationals who test positive for HIV/AIDS, and then deport them. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon suggested that Korea abolish the policy. [...]
A court concluded last December that the immigration office should cancel the deportation order against a foreigner who tested positive for HIV, saying it was in the interest of Koreans to detect and treat HIV/AIDS rather than deport the victims. [...]
According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 13 countries that ban the entry of foreign AIDS patients: the United Arab Emirates, Brunei, Egypt, Iraq, Korea, Malaysia, Oman, Singapore, Sudan, Yemen, Tunisia, the Turks and Caicos Islands and Qatar.
"The relevant ministries have yet to reach a conclusion on the issue," said Park Il-hoon, deputy director of the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs. "However, we will continue to restrict AIDS patients in the entertainment business. Immigration officials will make necessary changes to the regulations."I love that euphemism: 'entertainers.' Not 'camptown sex workers,' but 'entertainers' (cue the Jam's 'That's Entertainment'). On the other hand, considering the sordidness Jang Ja-yeon's suicide uncovered, perhaps it's an apt term. At any rate, the deputy director of the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs seems to be passing the responsibility to immigration:
Meanwhile, the Korea Immigration Service (KIS) said it has yet to decide whether to revise visa regulations requiring foreigners applying for certain types of visa to take AIDS tests.So again, the E-6 'entertainers' visa is not changing, E-9 (industrial workers) are not immigration's responsibility (so it's up to the Labor Ministry), and as for E-2 visa holders, referring to the petition with the Constitutional Court against HIV and drug tests,
It is mandatory for foreigners seeking E-2 (foreign language instructors), E-6 (entertainers, artists, athletes and models) and E-9 (non-professional employees) to submit HIV-negative confirmation statements.
"There will be no changes for E-6 visa applicants. We do not deal with non-professional workers as the Labor Ministry is responsible for AIDS tests on E-9 visa applicants," Ahn Kyu-seok, the KIS spokesman told the Korea Times.
"However, if the Constitutional Court rules that making foreign instructors submit documents on HIV tests is unconstitutional, we may have to scrap the requirement," Ahn added.Don't sound so enthusiastic. Wait - you may have to scrap the requirement? Eh, nothing to get worked up over until I see the interview in Korean. Of course, while some might wonder how teaching English transmits HIV and why immigration may only change it if forced to (according to Kang Shin-who), perhaps this official has seen this gem from Anti-English Spectrum:
The KEC division in Muju County, North Jeolla, has taken an unconventional approach to the problem. Water deer, which represent the largest population of wildlife roadkill in Korea with 1,557 of the 2,286 recorded deaths last year, tend to run away at the sound or scent of tigers.Here are the roadkill statistics for the past decade:
So KEC officials, in cooperation with Daejeon Zoo, recorded the sound of angry tigers roaring and have installed speakers along the Tongyeong-Daejeon Expressway in the Mount Deokyu area to alert the deer. As odd as it might sound, the KEC also went so far as to collect tiger droppings from the zoo to scatter in the area.
“Although it’s difficult to provide statistics on the effect of the speakers, we have noticed a difference,” Jung Hong-joon of the KEC’s PR department said.
Since 2005, the KEC has been installing fencing along highway wildlife crossings. The KEC reports the number of animal fatalities, which had increased drastically since 2004, began to decrease last year because of this measure.
As for the drug tests, the aide said they were aware of the drug arrest data in my report but stressed that since the E-2 was a "short-term visa, so there is an underlying worry" - I take that to mean they are aware the arrests are low but that they are still concerned. They added however once the E-2 visa program is "settled firmly" they will "decrease requirements" for the E-2 visa.As for the missing 22,000 teachers, I sent Wagner the immigration statistics I found (mentioned in this post) and he asked immigration about them, who confirmed that Choi’s office had used the wrong statistics. They weren’t happy being told they'd let "22,000" E-2 visa holders slip through their hands, and quickly contacted Choi’s office to let them know they’d made a mistake.
I pressed for stats for the statements "At the same time, however, the crime rate among native English teachers is getting higher,” and "Furthermore, there are native English speakers who have committed crimes in Korea and expelled from Korea for those crimes, yet these native English speakers are being rehired as English teacher in Korea a few years after their expulsion from the country."As to why they seem so eager to take "preliminary protective measure[s]" against a group with a low drug arrest rate and low overall crime rate, this quote may help provide an answer:
Sadly, they don't have them. The aide mentioned some police reports of crimes they had received in regards to first statement, but just of crimes, not of an increase. For the second quote I was told they'd seen a newspaper story (no I'm not kidding). He didn't remember the title or where they saw it.
I mentioned that such unqualified statements are dangerous because they tend to panic people.
We told him my stats from the paper, and he said they were aware of them. He didn't disagree with the stats. I asked why there was so much concern and regulations over a non-citizen group with an incredibly low crime rate. He said it's a "preliminary protective measure".
Choi Young-hee, a Democratic Party lawmaker, said a bill is being prepared to include crimes committed by foreign teachers while in Korea when they seek employment.This was written by Lee Eun-ung, the head of anti-English Spectrum, (otherwise known as the citizens’ movement to expel illegal foreign language teachers), back in February of this year, more than three months before these bills were announced to the public.
requested that the E-1 visa [procedures] include criminal background check reports. Requested that a reporting system be established that will allow the mandatory reporting by hagwons to Offices of Education whenever sex crimes by foreigner teachers occur.These photos accompanied Lee's visit.
Korea, to some Americans, is a land of gooks. Every one knows vaguely, but no one specifically, what a gook is. Perhaps a gook is any one other than a North American, but he is, more especially, an Oriental: a native of any of the South Pacific islands, a Filipino, a Japanese, a Chinaman, or a Korean. He is one whose turn of mind is not Western or American. He is one whose culture is so different that the average American cannot understand him. Gook is sometimes used to belittle; but it is also used to express familiarity and even fondness, as "Hello, Joe!" is used by the American in greeting the Filipino, or the Filipino the American.While, according to the wikipedia entry on 'gook', a Los Angeles Times article from August 1950 was titled "Soldiers revive "gook" as name for Korea reds," Philip Deane, in his book Captive in Korea, writes after arriving in Korea in July, 1950, that "No American seems to call the Koreans, friend or foe, anything but Gooks." In Korea, this dates back to before the war, however:
Korea is a land of gooks ; the Korean is a gook. He is incomprehensible because his thought processes are different, his philosophy not of the earth but of the air. He belongs to another world. But just when we think that we can never understand the Korean, the light of comprehension shows in his dark eyes and in his ready smile and laughter, and we call him gook with foolish tenderness. Almost unwittingly we find ourselves so fond of him that we want to shelter him from all harm.
On that day I was taken to the hospital, the G.I. who drove the ambulance raved at the “damned gooks” and tried to scare them by swerving as close to them as he could without actually hitting them. “Gook” was the term of contempt used by nearly all G.I.’s. I protested tagainst the attitude and actions of the ambulance driver, pointing out that after all this was their country and we were merely temporary visitors. But he declared that all “gooks” were stupid fools who never watched where they were going. I am sad to say that this was the most common attitude that I observed among G.I.’s. This feeling came from the fact that for years under the Japanese, Koreans had been accustomed to look for traffic coming from the opposite direction, because with drive controls placed on the right side in cars, Japanese cars drove on the left side of the road. Americans had changed the traffic rules, but the habits of years could not be so quickly changed by the Korean people. Many Koreans were killed by American cars, and too often this was when they became frightened and confused by the contemptuous yells and swerving of cars by the American drivers, like my ambulance driver.I do wonder if racially derogatory words like jokballi in Korean (a derogatory name for Japanese) carry the same weight as they do in English, considering the whole 'homogenous race' situation. Would most other people be shocked by someone using such a word as we are here by the use of the word 'gook'?
They will especially be enriched if they dig around burial mounds with spades and make off with the family jewels. Speaking of which, he seemed to be especially enamoured with a certain aspect of Korea:But Korea is more than a land of gooks: it is a land of insuperable beauty. Over one who has an irrepressible urge to see the ends of the earth, Korea casts a spell: Korea gives a warm welcome to the man who follows the sea up the long rivers, often yellow, past bald or wooded hills or mountains, into the safe anchorages. Korea is as grand in natural scenery as Switzerland, with its Everwhite Mountains in the far north, its Diamond Mountains fringing the eastern seaboard, and its numberless cascades and overhanging rocks all endowed with life by the Korean.
Korea is a land of the old and the new : its burial mounds and chambers make every one who sees them want to grab a spade and start to dig. The tombs yield antique vases, jade, and other rare jewels. [...]
Korea is the strongest link between the East and the West. It is worth knowing. If the American is as keen in his desire to know Korea as the Korean is to know America, the West will come to understand the East and the East the West, and, because of such knowledge, each will be enriched.
The Korean woman is the earthly reflection of heavenly feminine beauty. Her lustrous black hair is simply parted in the middle and neatly tucked up in back. Her complexion is that of the wax cherry: the translucent skin is the color of ancient ivory; the cheeks are almost crimson. Unlike the highly cosmeticized Japanese woman, the Korean woman has a natural color which would be debased through the use of artificial appliances. The Korean woman, when referred to as belonging to the yellow race, tartly replies to the American, "Am I not as white as you?" And it must be admitted that the contrasting black hair and ivory skin create an effect of whiteness not found in most Americans. The cheekbones are slightly elevated and the eyes slightly almond-shaped, but not to the extent found in either Chinese or Japanese women. The face is well molded. There is little of the suggestion of the full moon found in the face of the Chinese, and the forehead is not so broad as in the Japanese face. The teeth are extremely well formed, not large like those of the Chinese woman or protuberant like those of the Japanese woman. Although the eyes are almost black, they are not coquettish like those of the Chinese woman or brazen like those of the Japanese woman. The general expression of the face is that of quiet dignity.Nicely worded, but some of that is certainly a distant relative of the old 'Ask The Playboy' forum on English Spectrum. Still, he seems reasonably fond of Korean men:
The Korean woman, like all Asiatics, is small, but she is much better proportioned than other Asiatics. Unlike the Japanese, in whom the torso is normal in size, the hips larger than normal, and the rest of the body diminutive, the contours of the Korean woman are superbly regular. Her body is almost rigidly erect, largely because of the burdens she has borne on her head. Unlike the breasts of the Japanese woman, those of the Korean woman are well developed and sometimes even bulging. But, with a kind of winding-sheet, she binds her breasts, outward and downward, to her body. And the Korean woman, although very modest, has no squeamishness or childishly sensual attitude toward the various parts of her body. They were created with her soul and are to be treated with dignity, not laughed at by people with a sudden awareness that the human body has members. By way of example, a young American officer said to a barmaid in Seoul in his broken Japanese, Anata wa, chichi ga arimasen ka? ("But haven't you any breasts?") The barmaid, a very pretty young woman, said, "Yes." With complete aplomb, she reached into her tunic, opened her red flannel undershirt, unwound her winding-sheet, and produced a white-gold orb, which she held in the palm of her hand and said, "See!" Even amid American guffaws she retained her native impassibility. Only complete chastity such as most Korean women possess can produce such perfect self-composure.
The dress of the Korean woman is like the Korean woman: both have a simple elegance. Until she is sixty-five, when she begins to wear a little cap, she wears no headdress except occasionally a scarf over her perfumed hair. Her outer garment, worn seldom, is a long cloak with sleeves. Her upper garment, of silk or cotton, is much like a man's vest, of the same cut and length, the two sides being ordinarily tied together at the throat with a bow. The skirt, bell-shaped, wide and shirred, reaches the ankles. A thin cincture is often placed about the waist. Sometimes the upper garment violently contrasts with the lower garment, one being yellow and the other red. Often one is an offshade of the other, the upper garment being white-gold in color, for example, and the skirt being green-gold. On the tiny feet, flexible rubber shoes are worn, not unlike the overshoes of the American woman which cover only the soles of the shoes. The hose, the length of which only husbands know, are of white cotton. When she walks her halting but nervous gait, a series of miniature skips, her feet are like two sable snails alternately peeping out of albino shells and hastily withdrawing themselves. Her whole body is like an ancient beeswax candle on a Buddhist altar, yellowing but upright and regal.
The Korean woman has little of the sprightly humor of the Chinese woman. Her reason for being is to make the men of her family happy, and no man can say that the reason is not a good one. Occasionally she joins a conversation with men and sometimes she even titters embarrassedly, but usually she is not animated. She can, however, like the Korean man, rouse herself to resolute activity and become an obstinate partisan, especially in politics. She is a blend of humility and pride ; she is like amber ashes suddenly emitting a spirited flame.
The 'keisang' way of life sounds like it hasn't changed much in the last 60 years. I've only read the first two chapters of the book - the rest of the book can be read here.The blend of Ainu, Mongol, Manchu, and Malay in the Korean man, as in the Korean woman, has produced a handsome human animal. He is quite tall and broad-shouldered and lithe. But his face is not placid like that of the Korean woman. It usually bears an expression of puzzlement, which is often mistaken for incomprehensibleness. Given equal opportunities, however, the Korean is at least as intelligent as other Asiatics or as Europeans or Americans. The Korean man is, however, an enigma. He is splendid company convivially, for he can be gay and humorous; but he can be aroused easily to a bull-like fury that will admit no limits to his arena. He can be the most gentle of men but the dirtiest of fighters.
He can knock down a petty pickpocket the man he loathes most and kick him in the face and ribs and vitals. He can be the most devoted of husbands and yet be loyal to a number of concubines. The Korean man has range that makes him a dastardly enemy and a devoted friend. With the back of his hand he will beat off a leprous urchin, walking about in the snow clad only in a gunny sack falling to pieces, but he will give his last gobbet of gelatinous rice to a friend, though he hunger himself. [...]A formal meal in a Korean restaurant or hotel is frequently attended by men only. On the left of each man a keisang, or Korean entertainment girl, sits. In addition to belonging to her union, the keisang must be a graduate of the keisang school, in which she is taught to serve, to sing and dance, to arrange flowers, and to make herself generally attractive to men, which she succeeds abundantly in doing. The keisang will eat and drink only what is given to her by the man she serves. She sits and lolls, and places dishes, pours, and lights the cigarettes and picks the teeth of the man she serves, and nibbles and laughs when encouraged to do so. Intermittently she leaves and returns with a lute and sings a song or dances. Life in Korea is a man's life and a happy life.
