These photos were taken about a month ago (they slipped my mind) near exit 12 of Jonggak Station, and they reveal that Pagoda seems to have a pretty clear ideas about its target audience.
The first ad, for 'one to one English conversation, direct English,' seems to have women in mind, and I can't help but think of it as an illustration for this article:
The attraction there is clearly for women to get close to, to have one on one communication with, and to have almost direct contact with the male foreign teacher. The program aimed at men, on the other hand, takes a slightly different approach:
The idea is to take the intensive program and, moving beyond healthy competition, to be better than the (male) native speaker, to beat him, to be stronger than him.
All in all, they're a rather succinct summary of popular attitudes towards foreign (native-speaking) teachers.
If you haven't seen it, this post at the Marmot's Hole about Korean pop culture invading Nagaland (a state in India) is fascinating.
A weeks ago I wrote about the Shouting Korea campaign, but didn't get around to posting these photos:
The bottom one might make a great new header...
Speaking of the campaign, when you watch the TV ads, they make much clearer who's behind the campaign.
Look carefully, and you might just see the Hyundai logo. The first Shouting Korea ad, a teaser video, can be found here:
One hopes that Motley Crue was compensated by Hyundai, considering how similar the 'drum-drum SHOUT!' part sounds like Shout at the Devil. I have to admit though, I'd rather listen to 80s hair metal than Kim Yuna and Big Bang:
It just gets worse, though. Last time I showed this poster, which describe how to do the 'shouting dance:'
Hmmm... manufactured cutesy banal pop music organized by a conglomerate in the name of nationalism. I think if Bill Hicks had lived to see this he would have declared himself to be in hell.
Back to the shouting campaign and the place of foreigners in it:
After watching the Netherlands defeat Brazil Friday night, I noticed something about the Shouting Korea ad on TV, which I found here.
The proud taeguk warriors fighting spirit has been stopped, but...
...we should not stop shouting.
Soccer is a festival. (Enjoy the world cup at Hyundai Fan Park with the people of the world)
Let's go to Hyundai Fan Park!
Hmmm, with that mention of taeguk 'warriors' and 'fighting spirit,' perhaps that quote about 75% of Koreans believing that “the survival of the fittest is a major principle of contemporary world” was way off. Hold on a minute though - who did I see the Koreans cheering with?
I know I've seen the girl in the bottom right corner before...
There she is at bottom left. Odd though, I thought the idea was to drown these people out, not cheer with them. What I didn't realize, which a friend pointed out, was that these 'let's cheer with the people of the world (whom we formerly cast as our, y'know, enemies)' ads only appeared after Korea was knocked out of the world cup. Cute. Now that you're no longer a threat, let's cheer together (unless you were cheering for us, and then we already liked you:)
At any rate, now that the taeguk warriors have been sent home (happily with no officiating scandals or bomb threats to embassies) Korean fans can shout along with the people of the world at Hyundai Fan Park. For more information about about Hyundai Fan Parks, let's look at their site:
Hyundai will be offering soccer fans around the world the opportunity to enjoy the World Cup in a fun and safe environment by providing venues and large screens in 32 cities from 19 countries across the 31 days of the event. Giant screens will relay all the action from South Africa, while group cheering boosts the festive mood.
Well, actually, that's from their British site. If you follow the link from there (or dig around FIFA's site), you'll find this page, which lists all of Hyundai's fan parks, including Seoul's, in Olympic Park. Now, clearly, if this is genuine, this call to cheer with the world's people, and not just a slogan to keep people coming out to Hyundai's turf for "distributing plastic balloons, pompoms and other items... as well as their leaflets and advertising goods" (the source of much of the garbage left over after matches), then I imagine Hyundai has done a lot to advertise the location of this fan park to foreigners in Seoul. Right?
[Sound of crickets]
I found no newspaper articles (well, one brief mention of the park's existence) and only one semi-official looking tourism blog in English which mentioned the fan park - and that was so foreigners could cheer at a Korean game.
Golly, it's wonderful that Hyundai creates spaces for foreigners to cheer at games in 18 other countries, but it seems pretty clear that in Korea there is only one team to cheer for, and that Hyundai's shouting campaign was a hell of a lot more honest when the role of foreigners was to be drowned out by the patriotic danil minjok or to join Koreans in celebrating their nation[al team].
Mind you, I may have misunderstood all of this. Perhaps the idea was, after the Korean team's ouster, for Koreans to cheer for foreign teams with the people of the world in a purely symbolic sense, in that those teams' fans would also be at other Hyundai Fan Parks worldwide watching the games at the same time. In that case, I can see why there would be no need to involve foreigners actually living in Korea in any of it.
[Update: I've added new material under the 2002 World Cup photo below.]
Looking around the FIFA website, I found the above photo of and an article about the fan fests around the world where people can gather at outdoor venues to watch the world cup games in front of giant screens:
More than 400,000 fans celebrated together at the 16 official FIFA Fan Fest™ venues yesterday, as the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ got underway.
The Opening Match between South Africa and Mexico was followed by 300,000 enthusiasts at the official FIFA Fan Fests in the host nation, while, between them, Rome, Paris, Berlin, Sydney, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro had 100,000 supporters.
Official public viewings events were first launched by FIFA in 2006 as part of the official programme under the name of “Fan Fests”. During June/July 2006, more than 18 million fans gathered at the 12 official events and transformed Germany into one of the greatest fan parties of all time.
Photos of gatherings in front of outdoor screens in Berlin and Frankfurt attest to this, and it was these gatherings that helped Germans feel that it was okay to be patriotic and be proud of their flag again. Similarly, a friend of mine told me that the outdoor cheering in Sydney saw different minorities - who would often be cheering their own teams - come together to cheer for the Australian team in its first world cup appearance in 32 years. The FIFA site adds that
Enabling fans to experience the ‘FIFA World Cup feeling’ in their own country was certainly FIFA’s aim when it unveiled Fan Fests in Rome, Paris, Berlin, Sydney, Mexico City and Rio - and the results have been spectacular. Within the first two weeks alone, more than three million fans had packed out the 16 domestic and international venues, with those outside South Africa accounting for 50 per cent of this mammoth turnout.
Germany, whose wholehearted embrace of the Fan Fest concept in 2006 provided the spur for this expansion, have again led the way, with a record 305,000 coming together in Berlin’s Olympic Square for their group decider against Ghana. Even elsewhere, where the fluctuating fortunes of Australia, France, Italy and Bafana Bafana might have been expected to deflate the atmosphere, festivities have continued unabated.
I find it interesting that this history of the fan fests goes back only to 2006, to the first official fan fests, and that no mention is made of their obvious inspiration:
I can't find it now, but in 2006 I read an interview where the mayor of one of the German cities hosting the world cup described the outdoor screens and said that "of course" the idea came from South Korea. Now it seems Hyundai is taking the initiative in colonizing not only street cheering in Korea, but around the world:
Hyundai Motor Company, one of the official top partners of the FIFA 2010 World Cup, has officially kicked off the Hyundai Fan Park, a street cheering event, with the opening match between South Africa and Mexico today in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Hyundai will be offering soccer fans around the world the opportunity to enjoy the World Cup in a fun and safe environment by providing venues and large screens in 32 cities from 19 countries across the 31 days of the event. Giant screens will relay all the action from South Africa, while group cheering boosts the festive mood.
Actually, further reading at FIFA's Hyundai site makes it clear I spoke to soon - it turns out the 'Fan Fests' FIFA describes on its website as taking place in South Africa are actually Hyundai Fan Parks - so that's what is seen at the top of this post.
At any rate, while such street cheering led to patriotic feeling in Korea, Australia, and Germany, that use of public space also influenced the organization of and specific spaces occupied by anti-American candlelight protests six months later. Of course, such dark sides of 'patriotic' mobilization may only be found in Korea, due to the history of occupying urban space during protests here, something which of course informed how the street cheering was allowed to occur in Korea in the first place (as compared to Japan, where despite the plethora of large outdoor screens in urban areas, street cheering did not take place).
One wonders if this film described by the Korea Herald will turn out to be interesting:
When the film adaptation of the popular internet comic “Moss” was announced last year, anticipation for the production was high from legions of loyal fans.
However, that initial excitement soon turned into disappointment when word got out that Kang Woo-suk -- director of such straight forward, mainstream fare as the Public Enemy franchise -- and his Cinema Service production company was taking on the project.[...]
Since “Moss” was noted for the layered storytelling and the cosmopolitan approach with which its author handled the subtext of social commentary, many had doubted the Kang would be able to do it justice.[...]
Anchored in a classic murder mystery, “Moss” tells the story of one man’s journey into the heart of darkness in a small town deep in the backwoods of the Korean countryside to uncover the truth behind his father’s death. It’s a story full of twists and turns seemingly inspired by American southern gothic literature.
When the original series first began its run two years ago online, the 80-part graphic novel became an Internet sensation -- captivating readers with its labyrinthine “whodunnit” plot which was accentuated by the richly detailed illustrations of the decaying village that gave it an ambiance of dread that millions of avid readers praised. [...]
Jung Jae-young, whose casting as the ominous village patriarch garnered just as much criticism from fans said, “My character from the original and the one in the film carry two completely different images.”
Here's how Jung Jae-young's character looks in the comic:
Here's how he looks in the movie:
The posters are from this article, which has a few more photos. Judging from the trailer at the film's website, it seems like there's lots of action. One wonders if Kang will be able to make an interesting film, especially since he wants to "overcome" the original. I Still chuckle at the memory of a film producer who was a former student telling me how she tried to dodge the question when Kang asked her for her opinion of Hanbando. The original comic Moss can be read here, and the film opens on July 15.
in their effort to rebuild Sungnyemun, which was originally erected in 1396, experts have discovered the original foundation stones, which date back to the early period of the Joseon Dynasty. [...]
From a comparison of Sungnyemun blueprints from the 15th and 17th centuries, experts discovered that the ground around the gate had risen roughly 1.4 meters (4.6 feet), obscuring the foundation stones.
This isn't the first time excavations around Namdaemun have been made public. The picture accompanying the Joongang Ilbo article, like the one below (from here) doesn't quite make clear how deep the excavation is.
...without being reminded of this one, from when Namdaemun's doors were opened for the first time in a long time in 2006:
One wonders how well that painting survived the fire. At the time of the opening in 2006, the city tried to sell it as the 'first time the doors had been opened in 99 years,' but subsequent inquiries proved that figure to be off by at least 50 years. Also worth noting from the photo above of the roofless base is that reconstruction seems to be going rather slowly.
Above is an 1872 ad for Dominion Day celebrations, taken from this book:
Last summer my father and I were in the local library and he saw several books piled near the door that were being given away, including this one and another partner book about Canadian styles, both published at Canada's centennial. Some of the things in the latter book include Canadian brands and a look at movies about mounties.
As much as Berton (who I've mentioned before here) notes the changes that took place during Canada's first 100 years, one wonders if the 43 years since the centennial have seen just as many changes (not that Canada would be alone in that).
A few weeks ago I posted unification posters done by some of my students. In the comments, Ben Wagner noted the similarities between this poster...
We are one minjok (race/ethnicity/nation).
...and this colonial era poster calling for 내선일체 (naisen ittai, or 'Japan and Korea as one body'), which I posted here:
Read from left - (on shirts) 내,선 [Japan, Korea] (at bottom) 협력일치 세계복자 [Feel free to offer a translation]
A search for 통일포스터 turns up posters that are even more similar (see here), such as these:
Two dream of winning as being one.
Running together towards that day.
North and South together in the 2010 World Cup!
Three-legged races seem to be popular in both Japan and Korea, but it should be noted that the Korean posters do not specifically feature three-legged races, only similar stances or poses.
Any Korean friends I've mentioned this to have either noted that there are pretty large differences between the situation of North and South Korea now and the situation of Korea and Japan over 65 years ago, or have been dumbfounded by the assertion there could be similarities. I was told by the co-worker who nicely translated the Hanja in the poster above that it was a 'foreigner's point of view.' Perhaps it is, but let's take a look:
By the time Japan instituted the naisen ittai, or 'Japan and Korea as one body' policy in the late 1930s, it was at war with China, and wanted Koreans to assimilate and become Japanese (but without any sort of benefits like political representation) and were forced to learn in Japanese at school and forced to take part in Shinto ceremonies. The policy went even further as the Pacific War began, and soon Korean newspapers disappeared, Koreans were (pretty much) forced to take Japanese names, were conscripted into the army, etc, etc.
While this is seen as being very different from what is perceived would happen with reunification (as a friend put it, Korea could never be a part of Japan), there are some who seem to disagree. Gi-Wook Shin's Ethnic Nationalism in Korea quotes from the 1998 book Korea and Its Futures, by Roy Richard Grinker, who says that unification "can be a euphemism for conquest, a gloss for winning the war... and [a belief] that north Korea must be totally absorbed into the south, its state destroyed, and its people assimilated." [Shin, p. 187] That possibility doesn't sound like much fun for North Koreans, and it seems the knee-jerk assumption in the South is that unification is something that both sides want, and that of course the northerners would want to be under the southern system (though younger generations of southerners increasingly want to postpone unification due to the cost). What might make it a little clearer might be asking the question, "Would southerners want to unify under the control of Kim Jong-il and become part of the North Korean system?" The answer there (except for a comparatively few deluded souls) is most certainly no, though it doesn't seem to occur to anyone that northerners might feel the same way about a South Korea-dominated unification. They - like southerners today in regard to the north and Koreans more than 65 years ago in regard to Japan - might not be too keen on having little choice but to be assimilated into an alien economic and belief system.
While ethnic nationalism could certainly be used to bridge (glaring) differences between north and south when unification comes, the similarity between posters drawn by school children in the south and symbols found in Japanese propaganda* might suggest that a form of ethnic nationalism that touts the oneness of southerners and northerners could be seen by those on the losing end as just as chauvinistic as Japanese attempts at assimilation. If Japan's naisen ittai policy and North Korean plans for reunification are looked upon negatively, why shouldn't unification under South Korean dominance? It's doubtful such dominance would be uniquely beneficial. Considering the problems North Korean refugees have in adapting here, and the discrimination they face (especially lately), these fairy tale renderings of the unity and benevolence of those who share Korean blood might be useful in the short term, but in the long term a disconnect between rhetoric and reality seems likely.
In a related story, a story in the Korea Herald a month ago reveals that naturalized foreigners are taking Korean surnames, most of them preferring common ones such as Kim, Lee and Park.
From January 2009 until last month, 91 foreigners were permitted to change their surname to a Korean one in North Chungcheong Province, according to the Cheongju District Court yesterday. Of them, 81 were women, most of whom were immigrant wives, said court officials.[...]
Chinese-turned-Koreans generally kept their original names, only changing the pronunciation to Korean style. Former Vietnamese or Filipinos, mostly immigrant wives, often chose an existing Korean name which sounds most similar to their original name, said court officials.[...]
The number of foreigners applying to register their new Korean surname rose from 63 in 2008 to 156 last year.
It's interesting that this is being reported on so favorably, especially considering how bitterly Koreans remember being forced to change their names during the last 5 years of colonial rule. It should be noted that the migrants changing their names to Korean ones are sometimes doing so for reasons other than convenience:
Aura Aurel Abache, a Filipino who was naturalized as a Korean after marrying a Korean man in 1999, never expected her name to be a problem in living as a Korean. The housewife in Gokseong, South Jeolla Province, soon found that her Filipino name was too long, difficult, and her children were even made fun of by other kids at school for their mother's name.
This suggests that some people are changing their names for reasons that are not as cheerful as the first article might suggest. While this is by no means the same as Japan's deliberate policy to force Koreans to change their names (and is occurring in much smaller numbers), it still stands that some of these people are only changing their names to Korean ones because they feel forced to. You'd think this would set off alarm bells here, but then again, considering how little thought is put into the colonial period by the media (and I imagine, school textbooks) other than Korea = good, Japan = bad, I don't think it's that surprising that it doesn't.
* (not that its alone in that, as B.R. Myers has pointed out)
There have been several drug smuggling stories and arrest stories this month, some involving English teachers. The most recent was on June 24, when YTN reported on it in an article titled "53 including singer and composer caught for pot smoking."
In a massive bust, police have caught over 50 people involved in distributing and smoking marijuana, including singers, composers, and English teachers.
Among four people who were arrested was a 30 year old Mr. Lee, an LA gang member who smuggled and sold pot for 2 years, while among 49 who were booked without detention was a beatbox singer also named Lee. Lee the gang member had been smuggling and selling in Seoul area clubs since April 2008. Police are attempting to find the whereabouts of 7 others who fled abroad.
How many English teachers were arrested? Who knows. The Kukmin Ilbo and My Daily make no mention of teachers in their reports, but you can always count on YTN and Yonhap for this.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Narcotics Division has applied for arrest warrants for two men, including 41 year old Mr. Park, for growing marijuana in the basement of a downtown shopping district. Police have also booked without detention 18 people including 29-year-old Mr. Choi for buying from these two to sell or smoke.
Mr. Park and co. are accused of growing 52 plants in a market building basement in Seongnam over the last 5 months, selling 370 grams at area clubs and making 8.000.000 won. They installed special lighting and ventilation to grow and dry marijuana over a short period of time. As always, police are sure more people purchased from these men, and are expanding their investigation.
Indoor grow ops - not just for gyopo English teachers anymore. An SBS news report has more information, including video, and is the source of these screen shots (the building in question was in Bundang):
On June 15 the Gyeongin Ilbo reported on cases which involved foreign teachers. Of course, looking at the title, you'd imagine most of those arrested were teachers:
27 people including Native speaking teachers caught smuggling new drugs
Marijuana cake and other new drugs are spreading rapidly through Korea, and this influx is centered around native speaking teachers and American soldiers, alarmed authorities have revealed. Incheon police have revealed that the have caught 27 people, including foreign professors and native speaking teachers, smuggling new drugs like Kratom [I'd never heard of this before], JWH-018 [which has been mentioned here], and snacks containing marijuana. Of these 27, four have been arrested.
Two foreign university professors, including Canadian K (42), who teaches English literature, received smuggling charges for using international mail to smuggle Kratom from January to March. 24 year old Canadian 'S' was among 6 native speaking teachers arrested for bringing pot cookies and other snacks containing marijuana from January to May of this year.
11 Japanese, including 43 year old 'S' [likely not related to Canadian 'S', but who knows?] were arrested in a joint crackdown by prosecutors and customs for using international mail to smuggle new drugs like TFMPP, JWH-018, salvia divinorum.
Meanwhile, the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office uncovered a domestic methamphetamine smuggling ring with ties to a Mexican drug organization and caught six men. Three men were arrested and two men were booked without detention.
It would appear 8 of the 27 caught were foreign teachers, so why weren't the 11 Japanese arrested for meth (more numerous and a more dangerous drug) featured more prominently in the headline? Yes, that's a rhetorical question.
NoCut News steps up to bat to tie three different cases in Jeju together and paint a picture of foreign teacher pot smugglers as a threat to Korean society in a story from June 21:
In Jeju as well, case after case of foreign teachers smuggling pot
Among cases of smuggling and spreading marijuana through international mail, in Jeju as well there has been case after case centered on foreign teachers. A 24 year-old American (J) working as an English teacher in Jeju City was arrested on June 17 for secretly bringing in 388 grams of pot. He as well as other foreign teachers frequently used international express mail to have it sent from California, and received marijuana in the form of a cake, as well as other new forms of drugs.
Also, on June 10, another 24 year old American teacher (K) was arrested for having 44 pot seeds which he ordered from England sent to him through international mail, a case that was shocking because he was a native speaking teacher in an elementary school. [What if he was out walking and injecting himself with marijuana and he tripped over a local teacher passed out on the ground and accidentally jabbed the needle into a passing student!?]
Before this, on May 31, a 47 year old Canadian was arrested after ordering almost 11 grams of marijuana over the internet (from the Netherlands) which was sent through international mail and intercepted at Incheon Airport.
Thus, in the last three weeks there have been three cases of foreign teachers smuggling marijuana that have taken place in Jeju. Fortunately, the drugs have been discovered by customs at Incheon, but nationwide the spread of marijuana is linked to increased smuggling. Furthermore, most smuggling cases have involved foreign teachers, indicating it is becoming a serious social problem.
These cases were previously reported in the Jeju Ilbo on May 31, June 10, and June 21, respectively. They don't have much to add, other than that the 388 gram marijuana cake 'J' received was sent by his mother. The May 31 article about the 47 year old Canadian who had 11 grams mailed to him is similar to the NoCut news article in that neither of them make any mention of him being an English teacher, and yet NoCut news is able to talk about three cases in as many weeks of English teachers on Jeju smuggling marijuana. I also love the first sentence: "Among cases of smuggling and spreading marijuana through international mail, in Jeju as well there has been case after case centered on foreign teachers." NoCut News doesn't feel the need to describe any previous cases, since everyone already knows about the foreign teacher drug smuggling 'problem.' Note also that the sentence "He as well as other foreign teachers frequently used international express mail to have it sent from California, and received marijuana in the form of a cake, as well as other new forms of drugs" conflates more than one case while describing "J".
I have smuggling stats provided by customs for the past few years, but don't have the time to sift through them at the moment. Needless to say, while foreign teachers may have been over-represented in recent years, by no stretch of the imagination do you find that "most smuggling cases have involved foreign teachers."
Monday, June 28, 2010
I rather enjoyed this quote:
"Shin Jung-hyun said in a recent interview, “There is no real music on Korea’s pop music scene these days. There is only greed.”
Read the rest in Extra! Korea's post about the ballooning plagiarism scandal in Korea's music industry.
These days signs encouraging street cheering for Korean World Cup games have appeared in subway stations in Seoul. Here is the entrance to City Hall station:
The billboards (lit up from behind) at Dangsan Station are easier to photograph and make clearer what the "Shouting Korea" campaign is all about:
From here there are only 7 stops to Seoul Plaza where you can passionately shout with the Taeguk Warriors.
With passionate red shouting that will stop up the ears of the world, shout louder than the sound of a subway.
Essentially, the idea is to drown out the rest of the world. On page 15 of Gi-Wook Shin's essay "The Paradox of Korean Globalization" (available here as a pdf), he notes that
Eighty-one percent of the respondents agree that “the world is an arena of competition among nations”, and 75 percent subscribe to a claim that “the survival of the fittest is a major principle of contemporary world.”
Interesting that there are no Asians included in "the world." Also interesting is this quote from a comment here:
"[Marcus] Noland explains that in 2002 the Pew Survey on Global Attitudes took a public opinion poll. The survey interviewed more than 40,000 people in 46 countries from around the world on a variety of issues. Within this survey, one of the questions asked was whether the respondents agreed with the statement that “Our people are not perfect, but our culture is superior to others.” Of the 46 countries polled, France, which is known for its reputation of cultural chauvinism, had only 40 percent of its interviewees agree with the statement. In Russia and the United States, 60 percent of the people polled responded affirmatively, and both of these countries maintain a strong degree of nationalism. The Japanese responded with an even higher rate, with 75 percent of the populace seeing itself as better.
“However, according to Noland, the highest percentage of people who viewed their culture as superior to others around the world, with an overwhelming 90 percent of its population believing this to be so, was South Korea. Noland goes on to explain that “Paradoxically, while an astonishing share of Koreans apparently feel culturally superior to the rest of the world, they also apparently lack confidence in that culture’s resilience—five out of six Koreans think that it should be protected from foreign influence”
That survey would seem to be here, but I can find no exact statistics, like the ones found at this blog regarding the 2002 survey:
It's not surprising Korea's ranking would be so high in 2002, the year the World Cup was held in Korea (and Japan), but in 2007 86% still agreed that their culture was superior, coming in third among countries polled after India and Indonesia (see statistics near the end of this pdf).
a panoramic painting of a procession of exultant tourists during 1989's Pyongyang World Festival of Youth and Students. In whatever direction they happen to be looking, their faces are partly obscured by a sinister shadow. A fat Caucasian woman wears a low-cut blouse, while a few African women appear in halter tops; in Pyongyang today, such clothing is considered indecent. Here and there, unsavory-looking men sport long sideburns and denim, more signs of Western decadence.
These sourpuss-faced foreigners may not all be under sinister shadows like the ones in the North Korean painting, but this American, his face shaded by the ridiculous hat, with facial hair and a tattoo, is a little on the unsavory side, considering what tattoos are associated with in Korea (and the unpopularity of facial hair).
Myers continues:
The only well-groomed and attractive person in view, and the only one whose face is evenly lit, is the Korean guide -- an innocent young girl, naturally -- who leads the way in traditional dress.
Are there any innocent young girls leading the way in traditional (World Cup) dress below?
Kim Yuna's unbiquity continues in the series of billboards at Dangsan station:
[Park] Ji-sung oppa! I[/we]'ll meet you at Seoul Plaza!
Has she ever met Park Ji-sung? At any rate, the wording above helps to convey a feeling of "we're all one big family," or as Gi-Wook Shin put it, "Ninety-three percent of respondents 'strongly agree' or 'agree' that 'Our nation has a single bloodline.'"
Moving along, Yuna also adds her face to a billboard demonstrating the "shouting dance."
Dance together with Yuna at Seoul Plaza now!
It seems all this national pride doesn't translate so well into civic pride, however, considering the hundreds of tons of garbage that has been left on the streets (and beaches) after games.
Funny thing, though. If we're trying to stop up the ears of the world, why so many articles about foreigners taking part in street cheering?
There are a few more here, here, here and here, or just go here to find many more (though that also turns up ridiculous articles like this (yes, foreigners also play in fountains when its hot)).
I find it hard to see such photos ('Foreigners love Korea!') without thinking of this painting from the 1984 book "The People's Great Leader" (from here) titled "All the peoples of the world praising Kim Il Sung."
Do these "Foreigners love Korea!" articles and photos not serve the same purpose?
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