Foreign instructor to MBC: "In two years I slept with 20 Korean women."

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1
Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over the scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 22: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 23: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 24: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 25: Don't Imagine
Part 26: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place
Part 27: Art From Outsider's Point of View
Part 28: U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges
Part 29: Internet real name system debated
Part 30: Dirty Korean women who have brought shame to the country?
Part 31: Foreign instructor: "In two years I slept with 20 Korean women."

I'm actually jumping ahead a bit, but the reason for this will be pretty obvious (and I'll put everything into the correct order in the list above later).

On January 30, 2005, My Daily published the following article:

Foreign instructor: "In two years I slept with 20 Korean women."


"In two years I slept with 20 Korean women" were the shocking words of a foreign instructor that came over the phone. Once again, the stir over the site which denigrated Korean women has delivered another shock. The problematic English language instruction and disordered private lives of unqualified foreign instructors is becoming a social problem. Unqualified foreign instructors such as drug addicts think of Korea as a paradise and easy mark. It's said this is because, for the sole reason of being able to speak English, they can be unqualified but will receive special treatment and can step up into a hagwon instructor position.

On the 30th, the MBC investigative current affairs program "Sisa Magazine 2580 - Korea is a paradise" was broadcast, and the realities of unqualified foreign instructors it shone a light on were shocking in and of themselves.

The show revealed that native speaking foreigners with no qualifications, such as drug addicts and those with faked academic backgrounds, illegally teach as hagwon instructors or private tutors, and earn large amounts of money for fraudulent English instruction, all for the sole reason of being able to speak English. Even worse, it exposed their immorality in that they considered married female students as possible sex partners.

Not only do unqualified foreign instructors who don't know how to spell harm the English education of their students with their fraudulent teaching, but their disordered personal lives with Korean women are creating a not inconsiderable social problem. For this reason, these teachers think of Korea as a 'paradise' and as an 'easy mark.' This is because, through illegal English classes, expensive fees, a place to live, and even plane tickets are taken care of.

What allows these unqualified instructors to teach illegal classes is the lax supervision and even the provision of fake diplomas by 'brokers,' and the condoning of this by hagwons who act as reliable sponsors.

The problem of unqualified English instructors, who recently set off the scandal over the denigration of Korean women by a foreign instructor site, is not an issue that is to be left alone any longer.

It's nice to see that the program focused on how foreign instructors' "disordered personal lives with Korean women are creating a not inconsiderable social problem." Who could imagine MBC doing such a thing? I haven't seen this show (it is available at MBC if you are a member of their site), but here are the responses of foreign teachers at Dave's ESL Cafe who saw the report:

Watched on channel 11 MBC the 16 minute news scoop tonight that aired at 9:46 pm. It started with footage and undercover 'investigations' on Hongdae, in the middle they were talking about some 'illegal, child molesting, law breaking' esl teachers, they interviewed some 'do-good' foreign teachers, one who announced 'it is my moral obligation to report any law breaking foreigner' or words to that effect, and the end of the report was wrapped up by more footage outside nightclubs.

-----

It wasn't as bad as i expected.

it did make some good points about illegal teachers and how they need to get the system cleaned up.

Couldn't help themselves showing these pictures of Hongdae though.

The poor ol Canadians got an absolute roasting, and made out to be some shocking teachers.

-----

How about the guy whose name appeared on the immigration application form. Pretty sure that was illegal(to show his name and DOB) and that job site(on the the program) is sure to be getting plenty of hits for a while. [...]

Also, according to their recruiter source the demand calls for 30,000 teachers a year, which they claim is an impossible number to acquire legally(qualified teachers). So, they HAVE to bring in illegals to reach the quota. [...]

Did anyone notice that according to the news source recruiters get a mil for male foreigners and 1.2-1.5 for females. [...]

-----

My husband and I watched the show...he translated the Korean part of it for me. After it was over he said that the show also pointed out the fact that Korean people place too much emphasis on English education.[...] I did notice "Canadian" mentioned quite often.[...] After that guy said he only had sex with one woman two times because she felt guilty because she was married.

My Daily would publish another article (more of an editorial, and more of what we see above) the next day, but I'll save that for later. What should be noted is that MBC was not the first broadcaster to report on the English Spectrum incident. I recently discovered that on January 17, 2005, KBS Morning Newstime (an 8am broadcast) reported on the incident in a reasonably balanced way, looking at the way the women were victimized, and interviewing them and the bar owner. KBS incensed the members of Anti-English Spectrum by not interviewing them and making them look a bit like the bad guys. The balance in the KBS report may be due to the lack of AES's involvement its making; they did submit material for both the MBC report and the later SBS program, and both portrayed foreign instructors in an extremely negative manner. I'll look more closely at it later, but here is the aforementioned KBS report (it only seems to work for me in IE).

Not that anyone should go thinking KBS is some paragon of balanced reporting, mind you. The eventual SBS report in 2005 was pretty horrific (it's mentioned here) and had a huge impact. And criticism of MBC's reporting predates the strike there by... a lot. While on the one hand, things are improving, and AES seems to have been neutered by the apparent 'retirement' of its former leader, perhaps the fact that MBC's most recent offering was made without any help from AES should raise eyebrows.

Workshop on U.S. military camptown prostitution in Korea

[Update: A summary of the workshop is here.]

I was asked to pass along information about this event:

The Women's Global Solidarity Action Network (WGSAN) [previously the House of Sharing International Outreach Team] will be hosting a free workshop under the title "U.S. Military Camptown Prostitution in Korea: 1945-Present". The workshop will be given by Professor Nah Young Lee.

The workshop will be this Saturday, June 9th from 2-5 at the Columban Mission Center. To get to the center, take line 4 to the Sungshin Women's University Entrance 성신여자대학교입구) stop. Go out exit 4 and a building with a traditional Korean roof (hanok) will be in front of you. Go into the building and up to the second floor. Please note the center is very close to exit 4, and not on the University's campus.

For more information email womens.global.solidarity@gmail.com or go to the facebook event page.

Dirty Korean women who have brought shame to the country?

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1
Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over the scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 22: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 23: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 24: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 25: Don't Imagine
Part 26: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place
Part 27: Art From Outsider's Point of View
Part 28: U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges
Part 29: Internet real name system debated
Part 30: Dirty Korean women who have brought shame to the country?

On January 24, 2005, Ilda, a feminist journal, published an article about the English Spectrum incident:

Dirty Korean women who have brought shame to the country?

In viewing the so-called 'English Spectrum' incident, we can witness once again how, when extreme nationalism and patriarchal views meet, they run counter to the issue of women's rights.

The incident began when controversy was caused by problematic writings such as how to molest children and comments denigrating Korean women which were posted in the 'Ask The Playboy' forum of the foreign job site 'English Spectrum.' The posted methods written in detail of how to Korean women bear comparison to well known things such as "Korean men's geisha tourism, how to deal with Japanese geisha." In it is still contained a patriarchal view objectifying women.

We need to clearly raise the issue and approach the problem of the foreign men posting comments demeaning women, and posting photos without consent, from a human rights perspective. However, it was after this when photos of foreign instructors having a party at a Hongdae club with Korean women were made public that this incident's fuse burned and truly flared up. Ironically, after the photos were made public, what started with foreign men denigrating Korean women changed to Korean men venting their anger at and demeaning the Korean women in the photos.

What the media and netizens surrounding this incident all gave the most attention to was the so-called 'promiscuous party' or 'lewd party' and the photos of the women who attended the sensationally overinflated party. As the photos were made public, what came under concentrated fire were the "Korean women" in the photos. The photos of women enjoying themselves at a party with foreign men spread like wildfire through cyberspace, where they were openly posted at porn sites and sites which collect indecent photos of women and entertainers, and people bragged about the explosive number of hits.

The photos were edited to read "Korea is the country where you can easily sleep with women," "Come to Korea. You can have whatever you want every night," "Korean fucking girls [in English]", and looking at what Korean men 'kindly' wrote, one can see in what direction the anger of the Korean men who 'enjoyed and shared' the photos went in. Seeing the replies of a good many men under the photos, the issue becomes clearer: "As for sluts, they do slutty things, and as for personal freedom, it's all good, but later when a Korean guy takes her home, he'll know by her massively stretched hole he's been tricked and she's a whore - don't marry her." "There are lots of garbage-like girls who hold hands with western bastards and give away their bodies while drunk." "If girls who do things like that with Yankees marry Korean men, poor Korean men." "Those women have disgraced Korea."

Korean men said, "I never dreamed it was so bad," but the scenes in the photos that had them frothing at the mouth in anger were not of Korean women hitting on foreigners, but just of them enjoying a party together. (As well, the owner of the club that hosted the party claimed that photos unrelated to the party were mixed in with ones that were.) Water poured on their bodies, dirty gestures while incredibly drunk, dancing while revealing their underwear and the contours of their bodies, listening to music, wearing tight clothes. These aspects of enjoying the party are [deemed] 'promiscuous' and 'decadent culture', but it doesn't help to push conservative standards on people. (If I might add, Korea's 'decadent pleasure' culture can be clearly witnessed at various places of prostitution.) Also, not only are the comments at the site from unclear sources, but there is no basis for condemning all foreign instructors.

Ultimately, their anger is because of the immodest behaviour of "Korean men's property, Korean women." With the cry of "expel foreigners," or "I want to send foreign men on the street running," not only for a long time they could find no direction for their 'chivalry,' but you can clearly guess at the context of the anger circling around this incident. It's because the focus of the Korean women's enjoyment at the party was 'foreign men.' Under the nationalist perception of "I will never forgive seeing my women carrying on like that with foreign bastards," these women are denigrated as "whores" or "yanggongju" and condemned by patriarchal standards.

However, whether the Korean women in the photos are dating or having a good time with foreigners, all of this is their own person affair and is not something for Korea to be concerned with. If Korea is concerned with this, why has this claim/argument monopolized by Korean men not been pointed out before that they are already widely known as the 'ugly Korean' when they go abroad and enjoy 'sex tours' and massages from women?

If an issue is to be made of comments by foreigners denigrating Korean women, then those photos cannot be widely put into the "In Korea" category at so-called [online] "dirty picture collections" as they have been. How contradictory is it that on the one hand these photos are gathered and enjoyed to the utmost without any awareness at all of the issue of the human rights of the women in the photos, while on the other hand profanity-filled rants are spat out which actually denigrate women and nationalism is invoked by worrying about 'Korea?'

The issues raised surrounding this incident, such as publishing photos which violate privacy without consent, or examining the educational realities and mistaken sexual awareness of some foreign instructors, are clear. However the media, which distorted and sensationalized the incident as a 'promiscuous party' or 'lewd party,' and the netizens, who posted the photos here and there and habitually left comments denigrating the women as 'whores' and 'sluts' and violated the women's human rights, have no right to pass judgement on them.

It's nice to see a critical look at this incident, and a feminist one at that. Another lengthy analysis was published later, but it's nearly unreadable (it will get posted eventually, however). Some of what is said above also applies to the MBC report on the 'realities' of dating foreigners, which is just as offensive to Korean women as it is to foreigners.

A tasty xenophobic morsel

So MBC broadcast a 4 minute bit of 'news' trying to scare Korean women away from foreign (read: "western") men, full of mentions of pregnancy, AIDS, theft, and flight - all tasty ingredients in a xenophobe diet. The video is posted below, but do go check out the original post here (via the Marmot's Hole), which also has a nice video of an immigration officer in Daegu explaining the E-2 visa requirements.

The clip, titled "Shocking report on the realities of relationships with foreigners" was broadcast May 28 on MBC's '세상보기 시시각각' (Seeing the World Moment by Moment), a 10 to 15 minute current affairs show which airs daily at 9:40 pm weekdays and 8:25 pm weekends (more info is here, the episode can be downloaded if you're a member here).

Love the font: "Shocking report on the realities of RELATIONSHIPS WITH FOREIGNERS"
Squint hard enough and you can see Kurtz mouthing "The horror."

The video was at Youtube, but was removed - it can be seen and downloaded here.

Screenshots and clearer video clips without subtitles can be found here, at a blog by someone who sounds like he belongs at AES (at least circa 2005). These screenshots might look familiar:



The former is reminiscent of the SBS show from 2005 which portrayed foreign teachers as drug taking child molesters and included many shots of foreigners walking arm in arm with Korean women (which the English Spectrum series will get to before long), while the latter reminds me of the opening of Sexy Mong (screenshots of which are here). This photo is also a blast from the past:


This shot is taken from this 2007 MBC news report, which this SBS report at the time makes clear is the guy who 'threatened his ex-girlfriend with AIDS.' The title of the original Korean report (translated here) was "From molestation to AIDS threats - Shocking perversion of some English teachers; Beware the 'Ugly White Teacher.'" That article - made possible by AES - is partly responsible for the E-2 HIV tests. Good times.

It seems people are thinking of organizing a protest at this facebook page, which I do quite like for its photos of happy mixed race couples, which help to put a lie to the "Look - a white man! We must flee!" moral of the MBC piece. Doing something with those photos strikes me as a better way to respond than holding a protest. If anyone other than Koreans protested, it would only lead to the circling of the wagons and 'you don't understand Korean culture' and maybe a non-apology apology. (As mentioned at Busan Haps, the piece was outsourced, not surprising considering the strike that's been going on at MBC for months). Also worth reading is this comment at the Marmot's Hole. While sure to make English teachers bristle, he makes a good point that I'll take further - during the 1988 Olympics, you had instances of mobs of Koreans chasing American athletes down the street who had to be beaten back by MPs with billy clubs, Korean crowds cheering for the Soviet Union and against the U.S., leading to some very disgusted American visitors, and yet the Seoul Olympics are generally remembered as being very successful.

More to say on xenophobia, but I'll post a related article later. Needless to say, this MBC piece helps make it clear how relevant some of the English Spectrum incident material is...

Note: There is a follow-up post here: MBC to mixed race couples: Maybe you have a guilty conscience

Internet real name system debated

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1
Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over the scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 22: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 23: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 24: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 25: Don't Imagine
Part 26: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place
Part 27: Art From Outsider's Point of View
Part 28: U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges
Part 29: Internet real name system debated

On January 24, My Daily (who else?) reported on the evolving debate over a real name system for netizens, a topic which continues from the discussion in this article published five days earlier. It begins:

Netizens in heated debate over real name system controversy

As the mass distribution of such things as the Celebrity X-File is being seen as an opportunity to introduce a netizen real name system, debate for or against it among netizens is heating up.

As negative opinion has been formed due to things like the spread of the Celebrity X-File, the battle over writing at the foreign instructor denigration site, and some netizens' personal terror, in regard to those who have brought up the netizen real name system, controversy is growing, as those opposing it are saying, "This is just trying to reduce freedom of expression," while those who favor the adoption of the real name system say "You should be responsible for what you write."

It goes on to note that this was not just an internet discussion, with CBS radio "develop[ing] a platform to discuss the netizen real name system" earlier that day by interviewing a lawyer who said that "Because the internet is after all based on anonymity, a possible consequence is that faceless terror is possible and incorrect information can be blindly accepted." It goes on note pro and con opinions summarized above and then ends with quotes from experts saying "In truth, there are many difficulties in introducing a netizen real name system" and "More desirable than laws and systems would be for education regarding netizen etiquette when using the internet to be systematically carried out at school and at home."

As it turns out, there weren't as many problems as one might have thought in implementing this system, though it was done slowly. Here is a summary of the way in which the system was first suggested and implemented, written as Google was about to adopt the system for Youtube in 2009. After the dog poop girl incident in June of 2005, the debate was brought back to life, as noted in these posts from the time:

Internet Witchhunts and Conflict Resolution
Riding the wave of 'cyber terror' articles
'Real Names' in Korean Cyberspace
Portals and the Cyber Terror blame game

Google would later decide not to implement the system, apparently enraging a certain future Seoul mayoral candidate. At the end of last year, it was suggested that the real name system may be scrapped, but as far as I know little has been done in that regard.

U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1
Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over the scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 22: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 23: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 24: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 25: Don't Imagine
Part 26: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place
Part 27: Art From Outsider's Point of View
Part 28: U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges

On January 24, 2005, the Korea Herald published the following article:

U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges

The U.S. Embassy has warned of "potential threats" against Americans in the vicinity of a college area in western Seoul, advising them not to behave inappropriately there.

The warning was issued amid growing resentment from Koreans regarding demeaning comments made by foreigners about Korean women on an English-language Web site "English Spectrum." The site was designed to provide information for foreigners living in Korea.

"We have noted recently a strong reaction in the form of web postings threatening attacks in the vicinity of Hongik University and the Sinchon area against Americans and other foreigners who speak English," said an embassy internal message.

The embassy advised U.S. citizens to be aware that their public behavior might be interpreted as provocative by Koreans.

"All Americans and their families (especially young adults) are encouraged to exercise prudence and caution when visiting these neighborhoods," the message read.

United States Forces Korea soldiers are already not permitted to visit these areas, which were placed "off-limits" last year.

The warning came days after Koreans became aware of the "Ask the Playboy" forum which had comments referring to Korea's "easy women." The site also included topics like "how to sleep with Korean women." A group of Koreans were so angered that they formed groups such as "Anti-English Spectrum Cafe" on a portal site.

The Korean portal site Daum also started a petition-signing campaign to expel "low-quality foreign teachers," as part of recruiting a "(Counter) Yankee Strike Force." The English Web site responded by blocking the content of the site and posting a disclaimer on the main page, "As a result of negative newspaper reports depicting but a small percentage of user opinions, we at English Spectrum have decided to pull the offensive forum and are taking steps to reorganize how these forums are operated and monitored."

By Joo Sang-min

If we remember the way in which English teachers were equated with U.S. soldiers (as related in this post), and the way in which the women seen with foreign teachers were equated with yanggongju, or the prostitutes who served U.S. soldiers (as related in this post), this warning by the embassy - of the sort given when anti-American street protests are taking place - helps make the similarities between foreign teachers and U.S. soldiers in the eyes of the netizens (and media) staging or encouraging online protests that much clearer.

Video of the day

As noted at the Marmot's Hole earlier this week, Yang Rui, a well-known Chinese TV host on state-sponsored CCTV posted a scathing attack on foreigners on his blog which mentioned Japan, Korea and the West, though ChinaSMACK notes that it wasn't so popular. This seems to be a part of a xenophobic 'gust' which was influenced in part by the video described here. At any rate, here's the (probably NSFW) Taiwanese take on Yang Rui's rant:



There was a case in China six years ago which might sound rather similar to the English Spectrum incident in Korea, and drew similar responses:

Chinabounder, an anonymous British expat and self-confessed wastrel in his early 30s, likes to boast on his weblog of his sexual conquests of Chinese women, including some of his students. This has so outraged Shanghai's web citizens that they have resolved to track him down and "kick the foreign trash out of China".

In racy language suggesting a Terry-Thomas-like rogue cutting a dash in the seedy bars of Shanghai, Chinabounder describes seducing a different girl every night of the week.

The postings are also critical of Chinese male sexual prowess and contain occasional snipes at Chairman Mao Tse-tung's womanising and the frustrations of Chinese housewives.

The collection of juvenile if provocative musings on sexual mores in contemporary China may even be a hoax cooked up by artists to gauge the reaction in China to such unsavoury comments from a foreigner.

Access to his "Sex and Shanghai" blog - which attracted millions of readers - is currently denied as the author hides from a wave of contempt. Cyber-vigilantes, furious at his claimed seductions of married women and teenagers, have threatened him with a beating if they track him down and some comments are couched in dangerously xenophobic language.

[...]Zhang Jiehai, a professor of psychology at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, describes the blogger as a "piece of garbage" and "an immoral foreigner". "Netizens and compatriots, if you are a Chinese man with guts and if you respect Chinese women, please join this 'internet hunt for the immoral foreigner'," he wrote. Other postings have called for Chinabounder's head and described his girlfriends as "national scum".

Jeremy Goldkorn, the publisher of the influential Danwei website, believes that most people have been measured in their response.

"A lot of the comments about Chinabounder have been fairly moderate - people saying how Chinese men are far worse than Chinabounder, for example, or pointing out that there was no question of rape or anything like that," he said. And there have even been imitators. An overseas-born ethnic Chinese woman has set up a site, ABC Chick in Shanghai, describes herself as Chinabounderess and defends Chinabounder. She then goes on to describe her own flirtations in Shanghai.

Some more descriptions are here, and in 2008 the writer outed himself in order to promote a book he wrote describing why China would never be great, which I'm sure helped make him even more popular in China. The number of visitors to the online campaign against him - 17,000 - is the same number AES would eventually draw, but goes to show that, comparatively, not that many people were interested, considering the number of internet users in China.

Art From Outsider's Point of View

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1
Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over the scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 22: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 23: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 24: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 25: Don't Imagine
Part 26: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place
Part 27: Art From Outsider's Point of View

I just discovered the following Korea Times article from January 21, 2005 about a Korean artist's reaction to English Spectrum (prior to the incident), which can be found in this blog post:

Art From Outsider's Point of View

By Park Chung-a
Staff Reporter

It is the era of globalization. Cultural exchanges are growing in popularity and the number of foreigners coming into the country and Koreans going abroad is on the rise, making the words "hybrid'' and "multi-cultural'' very familiar to Korean society.

Lee Joo-young, known as Jooyoung Lee abroad, is a young artist who seeks to shed light on this hybrid, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual community that is becoming an important part of Korea through the visualization of snippets of text extracted from Internet blogs in the form of stencil artwork.

"I became interested in hybrid culture as I studied visual arts in the United Kingdom for five years,'' Lee said. "I came back to Korea after having lived as foreigner in another nation and I began to wonder how foreigners here thought and felt about living in Korean society. I wanted to project myself through the thoughts and words of 'outsiders.'''

According to Lee, "outsiders'' are not only foreigners but also include Koreans or Korean-Americans who feel alienated from Korean society when their individual hopes or viewpoints are criticized or frustrated because of prejudices and narrow-minded norms dictating Korean society.

English Spectrum, an Internet message board for English teachers in Korea, which has been shut down temporarily because of sexist comments against Korean women, triggered Lee's enthusiasm for exploring the thoughts and feelings of these outsiders.

"I discovered the Web site in April through a foreigner. Everything I wanted was in the site,'' she said. "Because it was designed for the active exchange of opinions and information, I could see how foreigners in Korea felt while living here.''

"Although the comments were sometimes very superficial, many of them just venting their anger toward Koreans, I thought they were deserving of attention.''

Since then, she has been collecting snippets of text and words that represented universal thoughts and feelings of outsiders from personal Internet blogs run by foreigners living in Korea or Korean-Americans. She wanted to reveal what was happening in the domestic multi-cultural community through her work.

One of her works says, "You are always hurry hurry hurry. Where are you hurrying to?'' which she believes shows the hand-to-mouth aspect of Korean society. Added to the text is "They are hurrying to love'', which she made up by herself. In addition to using the texts in their original form, she also adds some words that express her reaction or perspective.

Other texts include "Anything for the right price,'' "We should send all foreign guys away'' and "I rove you'', which is phonetically written based on many Koreans' pronunciation of "I love you'', who often confuse "l'' with "r'' when pronouncing them. Through phonetics, she wanted to focus on the trial and error that we face in the process of learning foreign language and accepting foreign culture.

"Being spread all over the Internet, those raw words could mean nothing and be considered as trash. However, by representing them through stencil work, I wanted to make viewers reconsider the feelings of outsiders and understand people of different cultures and nationalities,'' Lee said.

The stencil work is done on paper as well as on walls and T-shirts. By overlapping sentences and blurring the spray paint, Lee pursues a reverberation effect, symbolizing the cyberspace in which clusters of words, voices and opinions abound. She uses the term "anarchi-stencil'' for describing her work as it is based on free expression without any restriction.

In March, Her stencil art will be demonstrated in a group exhibition with foreign artists in Buia Gallery in New York. Lee plans to hold an exhibition in Seoul in September. She also plans to open a stencil shop later this year or next year in order to give the general public a chance to express their opinions and feelings on T-shirts through stencils.

"Instead of just holding exhibitions as an artist, I would like to contribute to increasing people's interest in art, making people get used to freely expressing their feelings and thoughts through their own works. I am currently thinking about teaching a stencil work to a group of youth,'' she said.

In addition, she has been working on quasi-documentary project based on a collection of interviews with foreigners in Korea. So far, she has interviewed ten foreigners.

"I would like to make those interviews into one complete video work and show them in the Hongdae area, Itaewon or Yongsan, where multicultural communities abound. When I am done with the project, one socialist is to make a book from it. However, the project has been stalled at the moment due to a lack of funds.'' But she is determined to continue it despite difficulties.

"While I was studying in England, one of my English friends asked another English friend who was living with students of various nationalities what it was like to live with foreigners. The response was `What could be so different? They are people just like us!''' she said. "That answer made me think about how many people were prejudiced against people of different nationalities without trying to realize that they are just humans. I hope people will realize this through my work. Seeing my work, I I hope people will become more open to others and learn to respect the co-existence of diverse opinions and thoughts.''

Lee is a prominent artist who currently lives in Chang-dong art studio, run by government-funded National Museum of Contemporary Art, which is only granted to artists with brisk activities and high-quality performances. Since starting her career as a professional artist in 2001, she has held numerous exhibitions both in Korea and abroad, including Tokyo and London. In April, she developed a project under the title Radio Hue, a radio style sound work that made a multifaceted portrayal of the Seoul art environment of 2004 through interviews and reports with the people working within it, such as artists, gallerists, museum workers and writers.

So there you go. It's certainly a more productive and thoughtful reaction to some of the nonsense produced at English Spectrum than has been generally reported.

'Foreign instructor' takes third place

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women 
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1
Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over the scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 22: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 23: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 24: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 25: Don't Imagine
Part 26: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place

On January 24, 2005, Media Today reported on the top 5 search terms at Daum for the week of January 11 to 17. Titled '"It looks just like a person..." Human Fish in first place,' it presents this list and the following description of the background behind the third most popular search term:

3rd place: Foreign instructor.

Third place is occupied by 'foreign instructor.'

Reports about foreign instructors living in Korea who posted writing which denigrated Korean women and held a secret party drew attention.

Along with this, a recently spread 'how to sexually harass students' [post] also caused outrage.

In the process, an internet media site with claims to 'healthy conservatism' exhibited reporting behavior which included publishing, like a 'pictorial project,' photos of American men and Korean women which hinted at or seemed like sex acts and a picture of a woman with her underwear exposed, while under the pretext of 'criticism' and 'accusation' sensationally kept reporting on the netizens who hurled colorful insults and criticism at the Korean women, and included even the element of human rights violations.

Needless to say, that 'foreign instructor' was in third place that week at Daum would suggest that the debacle had caught the attention of a lot of people. As for the summary, on the one hand, it's hard not to think "so much for the headlines saying 'It wasn't a secret party'" (and it certainly wasn't English teachers who spread that post), but on the other hand, that summary really does criticize the internet media who were involved, and while I'm not sure which one had "claims to 'healthy conservatism,'" I can only imagine it's Dalian (or perhaps My Daily) which is being criticized.

Don't Imagine

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1
Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over the scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 22: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 23: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 24: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 25: Don't Imagine

On January 20, 2005, the Seoul Sinmun published the following column:

[Lee Jin's Sex & City] Don't imagine

Not long ago, while cleaning up computer files, Minsu found a photo of his girlfriend kissing another man. Surprised, he immediately wanted to hear the entire story from his girlfriend of how the photo was taken, but he resolved to quietly bring up the subject when the opportunity arose. So a few days ago, when his girlfriend returned from language training, he recalled that he had used her computer to organize photos taken on a digital camera.

Eventually, he called his girlfriend and asked about the picture. She had an embarrassed look on her face as she was sorry, and she admitted that, while carried away by the atmosphere, she had kissed another man at a new years party in the U.S. She explained that it was nothing more than a spontaneous, one-second kiss. It was a meaningless photo, but she added that she tried to delete if first as he might misunderstand her if he saw it.

When he first saw the photo, he imagined all kinds of things about his girlfriend when she did language training in the U.S., wondering "Did she cheat on me with another guy?" "If they kissed, couldn't they also have had sex?" His heart hurt by this, he shook with a sense of betrayal. However Minsu, with his cautious character, decided to first trust her. He knew he couldn't conclude from only a photo of a simple kiss that she had cheated on him. As well, he certainly wasn't at the scene and so could not accurately judge the situation. So he reserved judgement and believed her words.

A misunderstanding over a photo took place recently on the Internet, much like Minsu's photo. With a number of party photos being spread on the internet, the subjects of the photos are receiving a great mental shock. The photos are of some women and foreign men hanging out together, and were taken at a party hosted by a foreign English instructor job site which had received attacks because it had denigrated Korean women. At this level there was no problem, but photos of a woman wearing a wet t-shirt and dancing were problematic and coverage expanded saying "Korean women and foreign men had a group orgy party."

At first, some foreign instructors were condemned and criticized, but after the party photos were spread the Korean women were being attacked instead. With their photos floating around the internet, the women in the photos are not able to hold back their frustration. Even worse, their personal details have become known even to outsiders.

Because they were seen dancing with foreigners, they are suffering personal attacks and being treated like sinners by thousands of netizens. It was nothing more than a normal party. The photo of the women wearing a wet t-shirt through which her breasts could be seen of course came out because it was provocative and sensational, but there will certainly be different interpretations depending on the angle it's taken from or the mind of the person looking at it. Looking at this incident, the phrase "I only see what I know" keeps coming to mind.

While the women in the photos were condemned (especially in the internet media), there were a number of articles like this one which showed sympathy for them or criticized Korean men. In fact, the next day the Donga Ilbo would publish an article titled "Ugly Korean men... embarrassed to death"... stir over 'In-depth 60 Minutes'" in which it looked at the embarrassed reaction to an episode of ‘In-depth 60 Minutes’ which looked at the behavior overseas of Korean men. Not all of the reaction was embarrassed, of course; one netizen, who I think we can assume is male, said that Korean men were behaving just like men around the world, that the way it was reported was unacceptable, and that "The program should be deleted for its injury to citizens' pride." To shore up their position, netizens like this said that not too long ago, foreign instructors had written on a site... Clearly, for such people, when it comes to Koreans and foreigners, the victimization can only go one way.

"They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1
Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over the scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 22: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 23: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 24: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2

Yesterday I posted the first part of a January 20, 2005 article by Ohmynews. Here is the second part, which consists of interviews with the parties involved in the English Spectrum incident:

"They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps"

[...]
Interviews with the parties involved follow. The interviews were conducted via personal visits or over the phone.

▲ During the interview on the 17th, one of the victimized women explained that her

psychological distress began with this controversy and [displayed] her suffering.

Women: "We were harassed with threatening emails and are receiving psychiatric treatment"

Woman A: "There was a so-called party and by 1 or 2am there was a quiet atmosphere. For a minute or two it was directed that the mood liven up for a minute or two and at that time foreigners took my photo. However the calm atmosphere quickly returned. From the very start it wasn't something like a secret lewd party. It's because the situation was strangely changed by some internet media's sensationalized reports. When the remarks denigrating Korean women were first reported it centered around the problem of some low level foreigners.

However, the photos were circulated at the Anti English Spectrum cafe, and when they were spread to portal sites via articles written without confirming the facts by Dalian and My Daily, it degenerated into a problem with the women [in the photos] and M Bar. My Daily didn't confirm the facts and we complained and the reporter answered, "Telling the truth now won't make it true." I wanted an article explaining things put out and said, "The photos do not show the entire party," and even more sensational articles were put out. Dalian even said to us who complained, 'What good will such a thing do now?'" "They are people without even basic common sense for running media.

In short, since this incident, it's impossible to live a normal life. I am even misunderstood by my family, relatives, and friends. I am harassed by threatening emails and am also a person receiving psychiatric treatment. I just wish the truth of the matter would be properly revealed. My heart/mind wounded by this incident will not be easily healed, but I hope people will recognize the entire truth now.

Woman B: "I also have suffered due to the spread of photos taken of me and my friends. At the time there was no particular expectation in regard to the party. That day was just like an ordinary day and I just met/found my friends. If it had been the kind of atmosphere where foreigners could hit on me I would of course have left, but the atmosphere there was nothing of the sort. The problem photos were just shot casually by the foreigners as keepsakes.

Woman C: "The netizens made me shut down my cyworld homepage. Profanity and comments maligning me as a "problematic person connected with M Bar and English Spectrum" were left on my cyworld homepage, and in the end I had no choice but to close it down. Even more, it was not just the people involved, it was also the homepages linked to theirs which had similar comments left and those homepages were forced to close as well."

"There was never any such atmosphere"

▲The interior of M Bar, where the controversial party was held.

M Bar owner: "English Spectrum only carried a banner ad [for the bar]. I don't know the people running [that site]. There were ads for other businesses besides ours at the site. Two parties were held (at the end of November and in mid-December [2004]). Just like on normal days, on the days of the parties as well there were lots of Korean men there. If you think it was a secret lewd party, why was it openly announced a few days prior to it being held?

The Anti English Spectrum Cafe originated with anger towards some thoughtless foreigners, and I sympathize with that purpose. However, they wrongly shifted to attacking women who had nothing to do with it. This is not to protect foreigners who write disparaging words. Who those foreigners are, I don't know. The netizens disclosed our personal information. It's defamation, a violation of the right to our own images, and a violation of our human rights.

With no connection to their original purpose of criticizing low quality foreigners whatsoever, they branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps. The netizens committed cyber terror cloaked in collective madness. However, they don't seem to realize how serious a crime their own behavior was. My Daily and Dalian's sensationalized articles amplified the impact [of the incident]. They released the name of the bar and a rough map to it uncensored.

Initially, the photos were also released without a mosaic. They reported without confirming the facts and included netizens' negative comments and sensationalized photos. When these articles were posted on portal sites, the impact [of the incident] grew significantly.

We've finished reviewing the laws. We don't want to respond immediately. The reason for reviewing a legal response is to elicit self reflection from the Anti English Spectrum cafe operator and resolve the incident as soon as possible. How the situation is in the future will determine whether we take a legal response.

Experiencing this has suddenly caused many feelings. While I think that some thoughtless foreigners should absolutely be punished, not all foreigners should be rejected. As well, some internet media which publish articles which do not confirm facts should have their responsibility made clear. Finally, if we do not guard against the netizen's reckless collective madness, more victims may continue to appear in the future.

[The position of My Daily and Dailian]

The women who claim that they suffered due to this incident have pointed to some internet media and an internet cafe as being the epicenter of the spread of the photos, and these people have shown an attitude of partially admitting their fault. However, they claimed they were not responsible. Their arguments follow.

[I'm skipping the three paragraphs about My daily and Dalian, as they're summarized in part 1.]

The Anti English Spectrum Cafe manager said, "The purpose of our group is not to be 'anti M Bar' but 'anti-English Spectrum.' That they became victims through the photos being leaked was contrary to our intentions. Other sites also published many of the related photos, but only our bulletin board did not find it appropriate to make this [the women] into an issue. I did not make a connection with M Bar on the bulletin board first, and it would hard to [find] a connection with M Bar.

I sent an email to them but I never received a reply and there's no reason to meet them. If they are suffering from mental anguish, they can distinguish right from wrong in the future. As well, I resolved the misunderstanding over the two photos I personally uploaded in an email sent to the involved parties. When I moved the the photos from the English Spectrum site, over 2000 people had already seen them. Netizens have commented on our cafe's legal liabilty and found various ways ways to deal with it.

In conclusion, our cafe is perfectly legal. Even if there is a problem with pictures or writing that other netizens post at our cafe, it's not my responsibility. At 8pm on January 18, we will have an offline meeting in Hongdae, and management has already been decided. We plan to discuss concrete plans for the future.

They weren't the only ones who thought their cafe was perfectly legal. One wonders if the women involved ever thought to go after AES through Naver. While the alleged responses of the media outlets ("Telling the truth now won't make it true," and "What good will such a thing do now?") are mind boggling (if, well, not surprising), the response of the AES founder makes it difficult to see him as anything but an asshole: "If they are suffering from mental anguish, they can distinguish right from wrong in the future." That fits in nicely alongside "If she was raped, well, in the future she should dress more modestly." Still, the message is clear enough: Korean women are to have nothing to do with foreign men. Or as that pamphleteer put it in the late 1940s, "beware that you will be insulted right in front of [the] public." It wouldn't be long, however, before AES would start backing away from such statements and moving towards the 'let's improve English education for the sake of the children' line.