Gusts Of Popular Feeling

Sweet Dream

2009-11-23T03:38:00.000+09:00

A year ago the Korea Times reported on the oldest existing Korean film:

The Korean Film Archive (KOFA) on Tuesday screened the oldest surviving Korean film, "Cheongchun's Sipjaro,'' which was made in 1934. A film archive official said the film, directed by An Jong-hwa, was discovered in Korea. However, the owner of the film declined to be identified.[...]

According to KOFA, there were seven domestic films produced between 1910 and 1920, and 61 films from 1920 to 1930. However, the KOFA does not have copies of the films made between 1910 and 1930. Between 1930 and 1940, there were 73 films produced, but only copies of five films have been acquired by the KOFA. [...]

"Cheongchun's Sipjaro,'' a black-and-white silent film, was first screened at the Joseon Theater, Seoul in September 1934. The film is a melodrama about lives of the poor.[...]

Before "Cheongchun's Sipjaro'' was discovered, the oldest Korean film that KOFA preserved was 1936's "Mimong'' (Sweet Dream). "Mimong'' was directed and edited by Yang Ju-nam in 1936. The China Film Archive donated the film to the KOFA in 2005. Almost the entire reel of the film was preserved.

Late last year a second DVD box set titled 'The Past Unearthed' was released, and included three films from the 1930s, including the aforementioned Mimong, which had been restored. The first box set included films from the 1940s, two of which I looked at here and here [Two more have been released since then, here and here]. This time I'll look at Mimong.

Mimong is the story of how modernity is corrupting women, or at least that's one interpretation. The wife in the story has no interest in tending to her husband or raising their daughter, spending too much time on herself.

She goes off to the store, meets her daughter (above) in the street, and tells her she will buy her some clothes. The visit to the store (and the entire movie) highlight different aspects of modernity, such as mannequins:

A shifty guy steals her wallet, 'finds' it for her, and asks her out for a drink.

As they drink beer at a restaurant/cafe, her husband also drinks it at home. Upon her return there, her husband gets angry at her and sends her on her way.

There she shacks up with her new, rich beau and engages in scandalous behavior - like smoking in bed.

Then the shifty fellow uses a telephone to plan the robbery of a hotel customer.

Meanwhile, the woman's daughter is at at school, learning about traffic safety, though she may not be paying enough attention.

The woman enjoys things like modern dance recitals and getting her hair done at a hair salon.

Then she finds out her new beau is not the rich man he said he was, and snitches to the police about his thieving. She decides to rush off to Busan, taking a taxi to Seoul Station.

On the way, she passes Namdaemun.

She arrives too late, seeing the train leave, and orders the taxi driver to race it to the next station (Namyeong or Yongsan, I imagine).

In an odd coincidence, the taxi, in such a hurry, runs over a little girl - the woman's daughter.

Looking at the bridge in the background, and the angle at which the street passes under it, the route the taxi takes can be seen below.

The daughter turns out to be okay, but I'm sure you can imagine the fate of the woman, as there's really only one thing she can do, right?

As this page notes,

The movie was released sometime after Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's Housedebuted in Japanese-occupied Korea, when debates about "New Women" were particularly rife. As such, it reflects popular attitudes regarding New Women at the time. Ae-soon's unconvincing insistence on buying the most expensive items at a department store and the sudden castigation she is subjected to for the purpose of emphasizing maternal responsibility appear to be forced moves that were introduced into the unfolding narrative in an attempt to reductively portray the controversial New Woman as licentious, vain, and immoral.

This looks more closely at the concept of the 'modern girl.'

In colonial Korea, the "modern girl" became another name for new woman. It was also an imaginary location where all the "bad" elements of emulation congregated, and was used as a term that effectively expresses the "vanity" and "shell" of a new woman. The elements included fascination with new goods and customs symbolized by bobbed hair and western-hybrid dresses, and the awakening to bodies and sexual desires. The Korean modern girl was a new woman as the object of envy, scorn, or voyeurism. But such objectification was ambivalent. On the one hand, bodies, sexuality, and modern customs were criticized as decadent and corrupt, but on the other hand, they were fascinating. A Cartoonist An Sokju denounced the modern girl phenomenon for immorality, depravity, and capitalist commodification, yet his art reveals his own desire, fascination, and fetishism.

Here's an example of An's work (more can be seen here):

I can't help but wonder how the concept of the 'modern girl' of the 1920s and 1930s compares to the more recent concept of the doengjang nyeo:

What is a "Doenjang Girl," you might ask? Definitions differ, but tell-tale signs include the following: using a lot of high-priced scents and makeup; wearing luxury one-piece dresses and handbags; eating at expensive "family restaurants" like TGI Friday's and posting photos of the food on your homepage; frequent window shopping at major department stores; imitating "New Yorkers," or at least as they appear in "Sex and the City," a favorite "Doenjang Girl" program. Oh, and the most obvious symptom---walking around with a cup of Starbucks coffee in your hand.( SEOUL magazine. 2006/08/16)

The Chosun Ilbo explains further:

One Netizen's satirical account of a day in the life of a doenjang-nyeo runs as follows. "Gets up at 7:30 a.m. to the sound of the cell phone alarm, even though her first class doesn't start till 10, and heads for the bathroom. To give her hair the Jeon Ji-hyun-look, she refuses to use cheap shampoos... she can't eat breakfast because she’s too busy doing her makeup, so she heads for the Dunkin Donuts in front of her school.

"For diet reasons, she orders a straight Americano -- no sugar, no cream -- but then eats donuts crammed with jam and sugar. Same for lunch. Because the doenjang-nyeo knows how precious she is (just like the L'Oreal commercials, she says to herself, 'Because I'm worth it!') she can never be seen eating with the rest of the students at the cafeteria or the student center. The three just don’t mesh.

“The doenjang-nyeo blows in one sitting the amount a regular student spends on food for a week.”

Certain aspects of this are also looked at in this Joongang Ilbo article.

I wonder what contemporary movie could be used to illustrate the concept of the doenjang nyeo? And what is there to say when such similar attitudes exist towards these women 80 years later?

New word for the day

2009-11-22T13:54:00.005+09:00

애처롭다

1.pitiful, pitiable, piteous, touching, pathetic, sad, plaintive, deplorable.

Such as, "홀로 있는 모습 애처로워", or 'her lonely figure is pitiable,' in reference the netizen reaction to this photo:

Naver's response to the Vandom letter?

2009-11-20T17:56:00.002+09:00

On Wednesday, the Korea Times reported on Andrea Vandom's letter to NHN regarding Anti-English Spectrum:

Korea's No.1 Web portal Naver has started to look into a letter of complaint from a foreign English lecturer over a blog that many Western English teachers called "xenophobic." NHN, the operator of Naver.com told The Korea Times Wednesday they were examining whether the blog "Anti-English Spectrum" posted material that violated the company's user agreement. [...]

While looking into the case, the Naver operator made it clear that the company is free from any kind of valuation. "For example, if somebody posts that you are a molester and you want to delete the posting. Then, we can remove it, even if you really are a molester," said Won Yoo-sik, a spokesman for the company. "Also, if the poster writer is unhappy with this and requests us to restore the posting, we could do so."

He noted that group complaints would carry more weight, adding in this case an individual complained about posts regarding native English teachers, and said he was unsure whether the company would do something in response.

So the spokesman "noted that group complaints would carry more weight," which seems like a suggestion to me.

Suddenly, a day later, the Korea Times, in a classic Kang Shin-who article, tells us that "Naver has rejected a request by native English teachers to remove what they call derogatory and racial postings on a blog known as the “Anti-English Spectrum.”

The money quote:

“Our monitoring team examined cases stipulated in the request and concluded that Andrea Vandom’s claim doesn’t merit any corrective action,” said Kim Hyun-chang, Naver’s PR official.

The article features crowing by Anti-English Spectrum, testiness from ATEK, a smiling picture of NHN's CEO which is hard to interpret as anything but a taunt from the KT, and this bizarre ending:

Meanwhile, immigration authorities tried to summon Vandom, who refused to undergo an HIV test but still got her E-2 visa extended through a mistake made by a Suwon visa official. Kim Kwang-tae, an official in charge of the case at the Suwon Immigration Office, said Vandom was still being sought, adding that her visa status was no longer valid. Last January, Vandom filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court against E-2 visa regulations that require English teacher applicants to undergo AIDS/HIV and drug tests.

Benjamin Wagner was contacted for his opinion, but refused to give a quote for the article unless he was given a concrete statement from Naver to comment on - which he wasn't.

Keep in mind the article was written by a reporter who has persisted in writing articles pushing a certain angle even after being corrected, and most recently was said to have misquoted the president of Seoul National University of Education.

Benjamin Wagner commented on another post and what he said is worth repeating. In response to a comment saying, "Naver just told all of us to screw off," he replies:

I don't think that is the case. I think that's the reaction that the KT and Kang Shin Who is trying to provoke.

In fact Naver has acknowledged that content is racially discriminatory. And has said directly that group complaints would help to motivate Naver to do more (hardly surprising).

Foreigners should avoid being baited and provoked by the KT. They should be the ones who decide the proper outcome of this issue, not Kang who spends 15 minutes on a fake article.

Foreign English teachers aren't the only ones the KT and Kang Shin Who are trying to provoke.

Notice that the article marks Vandom as a fugitive who is "still being sought" with a "visa status...no longer valid." (Even though the letter says she is a UC Ph.D student currently living in California.) Notice also that KT and Kang Shin Who posted Vandom's photo (stolen from another article without permission) on the first Naver article that was printed in the papers. Keep in mind that this is all about a group that stalks foreigners.

What you have is encouragement for Vandom (who is "still being sought" by Immigration) to be tracked and found since immigration can't do it - this is where AES has their expertise.

He continued:

You have to remember where that quote was filtered through. This is a paper that starts out with the goal of writing a story that says "foreigners bring another meritless claim."

The same thing was said when Vandom refused to take the AIDS & drugs tests. First, MOJ said "she did indeed submit them, and that's why she got a visa." Then it was proved she didn't and they changed their story to "these tests are completely legitimate and there is absolutely no basis for challenging them." Then a public interest law firm took the case (obviously some merit). Then the Constitutional Court took the case - and they certainly could have refused it. So merit clearly established. Next, the MOJ says we are repealing the AIDS ban for foreigners, but we will wait to see if the Court says E-2 visa are discriminatory.

The whole time the KT was on the side of whoever said the claims were meritless. That's the fixed story: "foreigners make trouble for no damn good reason." That's what you will continue to see.

And now this article. As for that exact quote: "Our monitoring team examined cases stipulated in the request and concluded that Andrea Vandom’s claim doesn’t merit any corrective action."

Are we sure that's what was even said? Goodness knows the KT has had scores of other completely false quotes. Besides we have another extremely well researched article (as opposed to the KT spot piece) where a Naver official says "in this case 'black pig' is definitely a racist comment."

Now that's a quote with some specificity. Contrast that with the KT quote from Naver - assuming that it's even accurate (which is strongly in doubt) what does "cases stipulated in the request" really mean?

Does that mean Naver thinks its alright to say foreigners have AIDS and are actively targeting Korean children to infect them? Of course it doesn't. Those posts will be pulled, in fact are being pulled right now. Same as the "black pig[s]" comment.

But the KT doesn't want to report that and naturally NHN would like to avoid a controversy. So what you get is the manufactured quote we have.

As I said before:

Foreigners should avoid being baited and provoked by the KT. They should be the ones who decide the proper outcome of this issue, not Kang who spends 15 minutes on a fake article.

I suppose contacting Naver - for clarification or to lodge a further complaint against AES (as a group?) - would be helpful, as would checking to see if the problematic posts are still up. Would it really be surprising if the recommendations are quietly being carried out while the KT paints a picture of uppity foreigners being put in their place by Naver and a victorious Anti-English Spectrum?

On a related note, the photo of the building below in the Mok-dong area was recently posted on Anti-English Spectrum as the location of a teacher being 'pursued'.

Criticism of Anti-English Spectrum in the Korea Herald

2009-11-19T20:01:00.001+09:00

In the Korea Herald today are two articles criticizing Anti-English Spectrum. One of them was written by myself, and shouldn't be unfamiliar ground for readers of this blog. The other article, written by Adam Walsh, displays the fruits of his research and interviews. As he notes,

Further involvement in the AIDS public opinion field was the group's successful influencing of foreign visa regulations using false statistics. Bill (3356), which is now at the National Assembly, is designed to allow AIDS testing for any foreigners coming into Korea on working visas. The bill contains a statistic which originates from Anti-English Spectrum, and has been quoted by the group's administrator in the media on numerous occasions. It states that in 2007 the Itaewon AIDS clinic performed 80 percent of its tests on foreign teachers and foreign white collar workers.
Korea AIDS/HIV Prevention & Support Center statistics for that year show that the 80 percent statistic is false. Furthermore, KHAP director Yu Sung-chal told Expat Living that the clinic "moved to Seongbuk-gu in 2006, so it makes no sense to say that the Itaewon clinic sent out these statistics."

I looked at this back in June, pointing out that the statistic first appeared in a Lee Eun-ung-penned Weekly Kyunghyang article in February in almost identical language, but that the 2007 date was wrong, which was noted by Benjamin Wagner here, and confirmed once more above. Another more interesting interview follows:

When Assemblyman Lee Sang-jun, who is behind Bill (3356) was asked by the Herald about the false statistic, he stated that he got the stats from the Ministry of Justice, and that he does not remember who in the ministry he got them from. "I do go over statistics at times. But in this case, since they are not the vital issue here, but rather a reference, I didn't check the facts."

The same dubious statistic can be traced back even further. A petition from AES sent to the Ministry of Justice in 2006 bears the same 80 percent figure. Around this time, Anti-English Spectrum assisted in an online article that alleged the percentage was English teachers, leaving out the mention of white collar workers. The picture included with the article is of a white man giving a blood sample to a nurse -- presumably an English teacher, since the article is about EFL teachers -- with the caption once again mentioning the Itaewon AIDS tests.

As it turns out, the photo was a fake. The picture is of President George W. Bush's former U.S. Global AIDS coordinator being publicly tested for HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia in an effort to fight AIDS stigma. The same picture is on Wikipedia.

This Wikipedia entry, in fact. So we know that the statistic is from the 2006 Breaknews article about AIDS and English teachers, seeing as the Itaewon clinic didn't exist in 2007, and, as a bonus, we know Breaknews article used a photo of a US government employee taken from Wikipedia. Of course, this is Breaknews we're talking about, so such a lack of professionalism isn't surprising, of course. What is interesting, however, is not only do we know that the commentary on Bill 3356 has a statistic lifted straight from an article penned by a member of Anti-English Spectrum, but according to Rep. Lee Sang-jun, the statistic came from the Ministry of Justice.

I'm sure no one is picking their lower jaw up off the floor upon reading that the Ministry of Justice uses a group like Anti-English Spectrum as a source of statistics, of course, especially considering the way national assembly representatives have been misusing them lately (see here, here, and here).

As noted in this post on Anti-English Spectrum's campaign to turn foreign English teachers into AIDS threats, one of the articles the misused was this September 8, 2006 article at the website of the Korean Alliance to Defeat AIDS:

Kim Ji-young of the AIDS Prevention Center says without hesitation that “Korea’s men are the biggest victims of AIDS.” After seeing the attitude of a foreign English teacher after he/she found out that he/she was infected with AIDS, she says that she was very shocked by the difference in thinking that is still deeply rooted in our society.[...]

"There is too much of a clear difference in the way people view the disease and how they view those who are infected, and therefore it is a reality that people infected with AIDS within our society can only live buried under the shadows. It is now time to pull them up out into the light, and altogether be concerned and find a solution together.[...]

She meant she was shocked at the teacher's positive attitude, but AES used this as grist for their foreign English teacher = AIDS mill. The woman quoted above is also quoted in Walsh's article.

When reached for comment, the director of the AIDS Prevention Center in Daegu did not have nice things to say about Anti-English Spectrum. "I think they are highly nationalistic and they treat foreigners as our enemies ... I do believe in freedom of speech, however, what they are sending out is highly controversial and might send out the wrong perception," said Kim Ji-young.

There are some good interviews in that article - kudos to him for researching and writing it.

There's been some debate about the influence of AES, and while exaggerating it is not a good idea, downplaying it isn't either. As seen in their list of accomplishments, AES has claimed that they have contributed to many news articles and television news programs. While they may be exaggerating these, it's worth noting that there are more than a few articles out there which feature interviews with cafe manager Lee Eun-ung or which mention AES in the articles. And yes, while these include tabloids like Inside Story/Breaknews [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] and Sports Chosun, they also include the Chosun Ilbo, Chosun.com [1, 2,], Weekly Chosun, Donga Ilbo, Weekly Kyunghyang [1, 2], Seoul Shinmun [1, 2], Joongang Ilbo, the Korea Times[1, 2] and LA Times. Also worth noting is that first Chosun.com story from June 30 didn't just make the top of Chosun.com's homepage (as Brian pointed out), it made the top of the Naver.com homepage - an audience of millions.

Along with those AES was also publicly credited for the Pandora's Box TV show and publicly took credit for segments of 그것이 알고싶다 (which, in its irresponsible manner, brought the concept of 'foreign English teacher = child molester' into people's homes a year before Karr or Neil came to light). It's also likely a number of the articles it takes credit for are genuine - AES has a particular style, with either outlandish claims or blanket moral condemnation being readily apparent, that's not easy to miss. But even if AES had done little after forming, that might have been enough. The English Spectrum incident (see here and here) was what started the media representation of foreign English teachers as 'unqualified'. Still, I doubt things have gotten to the point where national assembly members publicly accuse foreign teachers of hidden crimes and speak of a foreign teacher 'problem' without a need to explain what this problem is without a bit of a push from somewhere. As I wrote in the comment section awhile back:

One of the things I find interesting to remember is that when the English Spectrum scandal broke in 2005, Oranckay - who had lived in Korea for almost 20 years at that point - said, "Whoop dee damn doo, this too will pass." But it didn't. Four and a half years later, I can look back over the last six months and find 10 articles or news clips featuring Lee. Before that the media reported on the occasional drug bust, and while you could argue it might be natural to look more closely at qualifications and drug use after the ES incident (though even the actions of the media and immigration (requiring transcripts) were responses to the clamor on the internet caused by the people who formed AES), the propensity for the media over the past few years to delve into the private lives of foreign teachers has been a result of AES feeding a lot of this information to the media. Much of this information has come from ex-girlfriends, which is ironic, considering AES considers such 'white groupies' to be, at best, misguided, and at worst, treasonous whores. In final summation, the shift in public discourse regarding foreign English teachers from 'people we ignore who get arrested for drugs sometimes' to 'unqualified, morally corrupt, permanently stoned, disease-carrying threats to Korean feminine virtue and childhood innocence' is in good part due to the propaganda efforts of Anti-English Spectrum, as well, of course, to the acquiescence of a media and government which is too often willing to believe the worst about foreigners - something the people behind the anti-US and anti-LMB protests in 2002 and 2008 understood and exploited very well.

So then the question is - what do we do about this?

Kushibo has suggested that it is the fact that AES is seen as the 'go to' organization for news media when it comes to getting juicy quotes for stories about foreign teachers, and the fact they seem to have people in the government listening to them, that is the greatest problem, and suggests submitting a complaint to the National Human Rights Commission. It sounds like a good idea to me.

As Tony has pointed out, information on how to file a complaint is here, while the online complaint application is here.

There is a lot of information out there already that could be used in complaints. I'll likely try to compile more in the near future.

Oops!

2009-11-18T19:30:00.003+09:00

Late, absent/ gets money and does a runner/ molestation

The above cartoon is from a August 16, 2006 Seoul Shinmun article titled "Washout Native-Speaking Teacher Problem." Pretty cute.

The article is about the Korean Recruiting Association's blacklist of 'low quality' teachers, something that became news in 2006, and was bolstered by the August 18/19 realization that John Mark Karr had taught in Korea. The blacklist story also made MBC ("Foreign language hagwon, Unbelievable native speaking teachers") and SBS ("English speaking sex criminals openly teach English in Asia"). The blacklist was first brought to light, however, by an August 7 Breaknews story titled "Low quality English teachers: 'Korean women are a source of money and sex partners'" (the paper edition is seen here). The story is mostly full of juicy stories of bastard teachers provided by "Mr. Kim", a member of the "movement against low quality foreign teachers", who, as "Mr.K" provides tips for several Breaknews articles (the first of which extolled the virtues of Anti-English Spectrum)

On October 29, 2006, that BreakNews article was reposted at Anti-English Spectrum, and in the comments, members thanked 'Mr. Kim'. 'M2' - Lee Eun-ung, the manager and public face of the site - coyly wrote "I'm curious about Mr. Kim;..." Regular poster 'jasminhyang' later wrote in a comment "the first letter of Mr. Kim's nickname is 'm'." In a Breaknews article published two days later, Mr. K also makes comments, and is described as "Low quality native speaking teacher deportation site manager Mr. K," also suggesting this is a pseudonym for Lee Eun-ung.

Last night I watched the documentary 'Burden of Dreams,' about Werner Herzog's attempts to make the film 'Fitzcarraldo'. At one point he describes some of his problems with the locals:

They spread rumours we would slaughter them and take the grease out of their bodies and cook the grease and that we would rape their women and that we would do any kind of harm to them

We are necessary as an enemy that can be beaten, because they will not dare to attack the military camps, they will not dare to attack the petrol companies, but since we are small, we may be the losers.

Of course, since this is about the denizens of the Amazon River basin, it really has little to do with Korean news articles, xenophobic groups, or cute cartoons. Oops!

Korean translation of the NHN letter up

2009-11-17T10:31:00.003+09:00

A Korean translation of Andrea Vandom's letter to NHN is now up here.

Update: An article in UC Irvine's newspaper 'New University' is here.

Puff Piece about Anti-English Spectrum

2009-11-16T12:41:00.001+09:00

[Update:
Korea Beat's translation is here.]

NoCut News has a puff piece about Anti-English Spectrum published on November 10 and written by CBS Busan reporter Kim Hye-gyeong, which has a really cute title:

Delinquent foreign instructors, "Freeze!"

Citizens for Upstanding English Education... 100 foreigners caught for drugs, assault, being unqualified

Last May in Busan, K (30) a Canadian who taught English at a hagwon who had lots of marijuana and other drug paraphernalia at his home and habitually took drugs was arrested by police. Mr. K was stoned while teaching his lessons, and had a record of violence in Canada where he was stripped of his teaching qualifications.

Last August in Seoul, G (29), an American who made money from gambling, was among 15 people arrested by police for gambling for years. Among the arrested was someone who habitually did drugs and another who taught at a well-known hagwon on a tourist visa.

It is foreign teachers like these who cause problems like drugs, gambling, violence, and being unqualified that the well known internet cafe ‘Citizens for Upstanding English Education’ relentlessly pursue to bring their crimes to light.

3 years ago, the crimes of unqualified foreign teachers shocked these citizens who spontaneously formed this group, and to this point they have tracked and exposed 100 foreigners who have done drugs, committed assault, or entered the country without a visa, which, after the related authorities have been notified, has resulted in their deportation.

If members discover problem foreign instructors, they use their cafe pseudonym to leave a tip for the manager or send him a note, who then tracks the teachers with others for two to three months on average. The cafe’s method involves relentlessly pursuing them and finally when evidence is secured and the location of the crimes confirmed the police are called.

The people who provide tips come from all walks of life and include parents of children who attend English hagwons, Korean English instructors (co-workers), and employees at bars and restaurants frequented by foreigners.

Cafe manager Lee Eun-ung (39) says "When people suffer abuses such as violence from foreigners, if they directly contact the police, then their identities become exposed and they have to be subjected to investigation, and therefore because of that sense of burden, our members receive counseling through our cafe and they also report such abuse cases (of being victimized)." "Recently, innocent/good foreigners, who are also being harmed because of some other troublesome foreigners, are submitting reports to our cafe immediately whenever they see a troublesome foreigner, as a part of their efforts for self-purification."

The cafe played a large part in the arrest on November 6 of many people who took new drugs with the street names 'skunk' and 'Spice', at clubs in Itaewon and Hongdae.

Members discovered foreign sites openly circulating new drugs last February, and persistently asked related agencies to have them designated as illegal drugs with success.

The cafe mainly monitors those problem foreign instructors in the capital area of Seoul and Gyeonggi-do but is expanding its area of operations.

In places where foreign language classes have a lot of demand teachers are treated in a similar manner as in Seoul but citizens’ observation activities and police crackdowns are not as strong against the activities of unqualified foreign teachers that are surfacing in Busan and Gyeongsangnam-do.

In fact, the foreign teacher community in Busan and Gyeongsangnam-do can work relatively freely without work visas at well-known hagwons and can stay in Korea for long periods on tourist visas.

Though until last year the cafe had almost no tips about cases of inferior foreign teachers in Busan and Gyeongsangnam-do, this year the total number of tips jumped 20-30% and five foreigners were expelled because of tips the cafe received.

In Busan both the Office of Education and the police’s sustained crackdown and the citizens' fervent monitoring activities are pointing out inferior English instructors’ teaching activities, activities outside classes, private lessons, drug-taking and gambling.

----------

Note: It's nice to see a little more information about their stalking activities, though it's troubling (if unsurprising) to see Kim Hye-gyeong and CBS cheering them on. As for Lee's comments about foreigners contacting him as part of their 'self-purification' (similar perhaps to the 'self-criticism' sessions north of the DMZ?), I have to wonder how many foreign teachers would approach a group like AES, which isn't known (in English) as anything other than a xenophobic group of vigilantes, if they're known at all. His comments in other articles about English teachers contacting him for help sound equally as 'truthy'.

Quite interesting is Lee's comment attempting to legitimize their vigilante function by proposing himself and his posse as a solution to the pressures felt by those who would go to the police. Why bother with the police when it comes to foreign English teachers (whose undisclosed crimes in Busan are rising, don't you know) when a bunch of vigilantes can simply assume their powers instead?

Andrea Vandom's letter to NHN

2009-11-16T09:15:00.003+09:00

Andrea Vandom's letter to NHN regarding Anti-English Spectrum, mentioned here, can be read in its entirety here.

Also, the Korea Times has an article about ATEK's statement regarding the letter.

Another win for Kim Yuna

2009-11-16T09:01:00.000+09:00

Kim Yuna set a new record at Skate America yesterday for her short program:

I just watched her long program a couple hours ago, in which she fell once and flubbed two other jumps, and though she came in second in the long program she still managed to come out on top and win the competition, making this seven consecutive grand prix titles, according to this article. I suppose it's a good thing she won, what with all the pressure on her. When she came in third after falling in her long program at the 2007 World Championships, every photo I saw on portals was of her on her ass on the ice - talk about fair weather support from the media.

Hash bust in Ulsan

2009-11-14T11:30:00.001+09:00

[Update: Corrections made. Mental note: Don't blog when half asleep. Sorry about that.]

According to NoCut News and Yonhap (who have a video), foreign hagwon and university English teachers were among several people arrested on November 5 in Ulsan for using and selling hash. According to NoCut News, 11 people were booked, including two Americans, 20-year-old office worker J and 26-year-old university teacher W, and a total of six ~~university gyosu* and~~ foreign hagwon English teachers were arrested. Apparently J had 200 grams worth 20,000,000 won at his residence. Another office worker named K (44) was arrested, and Yonhap says he was American.

Yonhap also says that only K ~~and J~~ were arrested and detained, while ten more were booked without detention. The hash was smoked, police say, between January and October in their homes and 'foreigner clubs' in places like Seoul, Chungcheong-d0, Gangwon-do, and Daegu. The investigation is to be expanded.

[So we have a total of eleven foreigners, among them two office workers, a university teacher, and six foreign (hagwon) English teachers.]

*Note: There's a discrepancy in the numbers in the two articles - NoCut News says there were a total of 11 arrested, and Yonhap says 2 were arrested and ten were booked. Note that NoCut News says that foreign hagwon English teachers were arrested along with University gyosu or professors, but it doesn't say specifically whether the gyosu who were arrested were foreign, other than W.

ATEK on Andrea Vandom's letter to NHN Corp.

2009-11-13T11:48:00.009+09:00

[The letter available in English or Korean]

[Update - changed the title of the press release as per ATEK's request; the letter in question does not ask NHN to 'pull the plug' on AES]

ATEK released this today:

ATEK: Naver Should Remove Offensive Material
from the Anti English Spectrum

The Association for Teachers of English in Korea (ATEK) is pledging support to recent calls for NHN, the parent company of Naver.com, to take action against the online community of the Anti English Spectrum (AES), a race hate group that advocates vigilante tactics against foreign teachers that operates on Naver.com.

Letters were posted to the NHN Corporation, both in Korea and in Irvine, California, where the company's US branch is located. In the letters, written by Andrea Vandom, a PhD student in International Relations at the University of California, it is explained that the racist material on the Anti English Spectrum's page violates Naver's user agreement.

On the page it is suggested that AIDS infected foreign teachers are purposely spreading the disease, while molesting children, raping Korean woman and consuming large quantities of narcotics. These accusations have also been printed onto calling cards and distributed on streets of Seoul.

In her letters to the NHN Corporation, Vandom stated:

"This group’s highly defamatory statements violate Article Ga-4 (Defamatory Posts) of Naver cafe’s terms of service agreement and rise to the level of violations of the Korean criminal code."

Vandom also pointed out that Article 4 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), which the Republic of Korea fully supports, states that the promotion of racial hatred, such as in posters used by the Anti English Spectrum on their Naver page, is illegal. By hosting these posters Naver is in effect assisting racist activities, which under Article 4(a) of the ICERD, is an offense that Korea has declared "punishable by law".

With regards to the letter's Vandom mailed to NHN, ATEK president Greg Dolezal stated,

"The Anti English Spectrum is attempting to sabotage multiculturalism in Korea with their xenophobic accusations that are aimed at foreign English teachers who are innocent of the crimes the group describes."

Despite the implausibility of the group's claims Dolezal stressed,

"ATEK cannot accept such harmful material relating to foreign teachers being spread in the public domain, especially when it could skew perceptions of foreign teachers and harm our members. Therefore we whole heartedly support these letters and urge the NHN Corporation to honor Naver's content policies and remove the offensive material from the group's page"

The city of Irvine recently elected Sukhee Kang as its mayor. Kang was born and raised in the Republic of Korea, immigrating to the USA with his wife in 1977. A successful businessman and father of two, Kang made the history books by becoming the first Korean-American to serve as the Mayor of a major U.S. city. Earlier this week Vandom met with the mayor to get his support in persuading the NHN Corporation to remove all of the offensive material from the Anti English Spectrum's Naver page.

The NHN Corporation incorporated Naver.com in 1999 and launched the search portal “Naver.” Naver.com has grown to be the fifth most used search engine in the world and the Naver name has gone global with affiliates in Japan, the US and China. In 2006, both of NHN’s original founders, Kim Beom-Su and Moon Tae-Sik, relocated to the United States in order to learn more about the US market.

ATEK, a support group for over a thousand foreign teachers in Korea, wishes to give its full support to Vandom and her letters to the NHN Corporation. Consequently we expect NHN to enforce their user policies and remove all offensive material from the Anti English Spectrum's Naver page.

----

More on Anti-English Spectrum's past activities can be found here, a look at the messages they've been spreading can be found here, and a closer look at their campaign to link foreign English teachers to AIDS can be found here.

Remembrance Day

2009-11-11T20:08:00.004+09:00

While today is Pepero Day in Korea, in Canada it's Remembrance Day. It's the first time in nine years I've been home for it, and it's been in the news a lot. [Apparently there has been much more interest in it in recent years than in the past, due to the fact that Canadian troops are in Afghanistan.] At this very moment I can hear on TV the story of a soldier killed in Afghanistan, leaving behind his wife and infant daughter. So it goes.

My father has done research into our family history for over two decades, and I've tried to do my part as well, especially by scanning photos and getting oral history down. There are lots of interesting stories of family members' involvement in past wars, even as far back as the War of 1812. A March 10, 1848 petition for land by my great. great, great, great uncle states that

Your petitioner enlisted in the late Glengary Light Infantry on the 1st April 1812 and was regularly discharged at Adolphustown on the 1st April 1815 and served part of his time under Captain James Fitzgibbon of the late Glengary Light Infantry Fencible.

He was also

...wounded in the arm in May 1813 at the taking of Fort George in the late American war with the U. States and again wounded in the ankle joint on the 25th July 1814 at the Battle of Lundies Lane by a musket ball lodged in the ankle joint and remaining there for 32 years and 1 month causing your petitioner much pain and from said last wound has been a cripple ever since.

Your petitioner suffering so much pain was compelled to call upon a surgeon and have his foot taken off on the 25th August 1846.

He was, however, denied the land he wished for 'free from fees', which makes the final paragraph of this history of the Glengary Light Infantry Fencibles a bit of a joke:

[W]hen the regiment was disbanded, the non-commissioned officers and privates receiv[ed] grants of land in various parts of the Province of Upper Canada.

Most of the material I have is of a more recent vintage (which fits in with Remembrance Day better, I guess, as I heard on the news today it is to remember those who fought in World War I and after, and not in wars that determined such meager things as [Upper and Lower] Canada's continued existence).

A few years ago, I went through a box of photos and documents that belonged to my great grandfather Albert Stuckey (my mother's mother's father) and found several letters written during World War I from someone named Harold Harvey, and after some digging, I found on the 1891 census that my great grandfather and his grandmother had shared a house with Harold's family in Toronto. From the letters, it's clear Harold had been working for my great grandfather in his shoe pattern shop prior to the war. After arriving in England, he 'strained a cord in his stomach' while lifting a 525 pound case of clothing with another soldier, which left him out of action for several weeks, after which he had to restart training. The letters give some idea of what it was like for someone in England waiting to go over to France.

Jan 27, 1917
I’ll be glad when it’s all over, and I can get back home again. Of course, I don’t want to come back until I’ve done my bit, and I hope that’s pretty soon. I’m getting sick of England.

Feb 23, 1917
You say in your letter, if you were me, you wouldn’t be very anxious to go across to France. But if you were on this side of the water, you would get the fever to, the same as I’ve got. Once on this side, and you are never satisfied. You want to be on the go. Some don’t, but the majority does. They say, it will take at least four years to demobolized. So you see, if I go across now, and do my bit, and most likely get a Blighty* one, well, I’ll be home to see the end, as I was in the beginning. But I got along ways to travel yet, before I get home again. And to see all the wounded, well, that don’t change my mind, because I know I’ve got it to go through.

[*A 'Blighty' was a wound which was not serious to kill or maim, but bad enough to get you sent home - and about the best thing a soldier could hope for.]

April 22 1917
[He describes the joys of making rabbit stew from a rabbit caught in a snare, noting that] there’s one thing about this life, it’s learnt me to cook. That is, in a rough kind of a way. But we’d eat anything from an ant to an elephant these days. They half starve us over here, but it’s no use kicking, although they tell us that is a soldier’s privilege.

May 27 1917
I’ll be on the first draught going, I hope. I hope I don’t go to the 75th, because I want to go to the third. All my pals are in the third, and naturally I want to go there.

June 10, 1917
I guess by the time you receive this letter of mine, I will be in France. I am in a draught hut at present, and expect to be put on a draught any time now. They say France and the trenches are awful places, but to my estimation they can’t beat what I have already gone through. And the place I am at present would be alright but for the N.C.O.s and officers.

He obviously didn't enjoy training very much. This form letter is dated July 15, and may be from France.

In a letter dated August 7, 1917, my great grandfather writes that he hadn't written in awhile because he had

been waiting to see if you had gone to France. Albert [Harold’s brother] was in and told me you had gone to France and that you were in the 75th Batt. Well Harold old boy, keep your heart up, for something tells me that you will come back safe and sound.

I am sending a sample of some new binding and it is ok. I wish you were home so that you could help me out. But never mind it as hope it won’t be long before you are back again.

He never made it home. The reason my great grandfather had possession of this letter is because it was returned to him. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website, Harold Harvey died on August 18, 1917. A look at the history of the 75th battalion puts him at the Battle of Hill 70, where, in addition to rifle, machine gun, and artillery fire, the Germans employed mustard gas and flamethrowers. He was one of 1,505 Canadians killed in the battle.

In the letter my great grandfather sent, he wrote, "We are sending you a box, let me know if you get it. Lizzie Fulton is sending two pairs of socks in it." In a letter from my great grandfather's cousin Frank, dated August 9, 1931, he apologizes for not writing for so long and writes

I would like you to tell your wife that I received two of her parcels that she sent her brother when in France during the war. I got them through her name being the same as mine. After her brother was killed they were sent to me about 10 months after his death and they was in good order and I sure appreciated them at the time. I had been in the line then about 17 months, half starved and half frozen at the time.

No record of my great grandmother having an older brother exists, but I realized the other day that these might have been packages for Harold that he received. I know little about Frank Stuckey's involvement in the war other than what his attestation papers show - that he signed up in January 1916 at the age of forty-six.

It was probably about nine years ago that my father's mother went to the Legion and signed out the World War I memoir that her father, Norman Hipson, had written, and which she had donated after his death. Titled "Memoirs of a Camouflaged Civilian," it contained this photo, taken in Italy, in which he is standing:

My father just received a copy of the 1911 census the other day showing that at 14 my great-grandfather was already working underground in a coal mine (and after he came to Canada, he worked in a mine until the day before he died). According to his memoir he enlisted on April 16th, 1918 (on a dare from his brother, my grandmother told me), and left England at the end of August. Unlike many British soldiers, he wasn't headed for the western front, but for Italy, where British troops reinforced the Italians after their defeat at Caporetto in late 1917, and where he arrived in September. As he describes his experiences,

On Sept. 14th we left Padova to join the 12th D.L.I. [Durham Light Infantry] whom we found on Sept. 16 at Carriola. In Reserve on the Alps. After doing a few days on the mountains we were relieved by the Italians[.] [...]

[Then he went to] Padova where we arrived about midnight on Oct. 9th. At this place we had further training and we were also transferred to the 48th Division of the Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Batt. [...]

[T]he morning of the 25th of Oct. when we marched or rather climbed the Alps once more, we did as reinforcements in the afternoon of Oct 25th. Joined the Bucks at Malga Fassa Fort. The reserve position and three days after we went “Over the Lid” which ended in a slaughter of our fellows, over a hundred casualties.

After the “stunt” was finished we returned to Malga Fassa Fort and stayed there until 3:00 am Nov. 1st when we were ordered to get our kit on and away we went. Lined up just N of Asiago and at 5:45 am we started the advance which led to the route of the Austrian Army and the end of the war. At 10:00 am the same morning we had successfully stormed Mounte Catz After being held up we reached the summit. Here we were shelled for three hours, after this we met with little or no resistance. Next day Nov 2 we advanced along the Val D'Assa Pass.

As his battalion marched into Austria, he became one the few British soldiers to enter enemy territory in Europe (troops on the western front never entered German territory). When I first read this, nine years ago, it was difficult to find much information about the British forces in the Italian campaign (or much about the Italian campaign in English at all), but by a few years ago there were many more resources on the internet (including a trench map of the area he fought in). I used Google Earth to make this map using the places listed in his memoirs:

He made it out of the war in one piece, but his future wife's brother was less lucky. Francis Bradford disappeared and was not heard from for years. This photo of him is in the background of another photo.

It wasn't until after the war ended that he appeared at his family's doorstep one day. He was little more than a skeleton as he had been a POW in Germany and had been forced to work in a salt mine, living on little more than potato peels. His parents, during that time, had had no idea if he was alive or dead. One can only imagine their reaction when he finally came home.

In World War II, my grandmother's brother, Bill Hipson, enlisted as his father had before him. The photo below (he's on the right) was sent home from England. (That dog appears in another photo as well.)

As a clipping from the local paper described it,

He enlisted in the Signal Corps on August 10, 1942 shortly before his 19th birthday and shortly afterwards transferred to the RCAMC [Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps]. He arrived in England on June 24, 1943, and was sent to France on D-Day.

The 23rd Field Ambulance was attached to the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and with them he travelled through France, Belgium, Holland and into Germany. […] He said the Ambulance was the busiest between their stay at Caen and the closing of the Falaise pocket.[…]

“We had a hard time getting the German SS to take our transfusions. Some held out altogether. They didn’t want to take our blood. They felt like they were better heroes not to take it.”[...]

Asked where he spent V.E. Day he replied, "In Aurich, Germany." The Germans he said were so downhearted over their defeat that it affected any great celebration on the part of the Canadians, but when they got back to Holland the folk there went crazy about Germany’s surrender and showed the way to celebrate.

The article notes that he had volunteered for the Pacific theatre and would be going to Kentucky to train.

As for the celebrations in Holland, I remember in university a foreign student from India who'd put a Canada flag patch on his jacket. He told me that when he was in line at immigration after flying into the Netherlands, a woman working at the desk called him forward from the back of a line, asking him about his patch. In his estimation the Dutch still felt very kindly towards Canadians (as it was Canadian troops who liberated the Netherlands).

My father's cousin also fought in the war, but did not come home:

When she went to visit his grave in Italy at some point after the war, his mother was happy to see how well-maintained the cemetery was.

On my mother's side, all of the men in or married to my grandparents' families enlisted. My grandfather's brother, my grandmother's brother, her sister's husband, and my grandfather all served, but I only really know details about my grandfather. My grandmother's brother enlisted in the army, and she said her father - perhaps remembering how Harold Harvey had died - wasn't very happy that he did so. Her brother wrote her a letter dated Feb. 25, 1945, which gives some idea of how exhausted he was:

I expect to get a bit of leave soon but it’s not to travel around, I just want to go somewhere and catch up on some warm sleeping quarters. After the war is over I think I’ll build a house with a fireplace in my bedroom so I can wake up nice and warm in the morning. […] I expect to spend an awful lot of time at the cottage when this thing is over just relaxing.

I believe he and my grandfather's brother served in the army, but as my grandmother told me her brother never talked about the war. Her sister's husband was involved with radar overseas. One of the ironic things is that those who died can be searched for on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and then their unit's history can be traced, and all of this can be done online in a matter of minutes. For those who survived the war - as luckily everyone on my mother's side of the family did - learning about where they served is more difficult.

My grandfather, Donald Berry, had often talked about his service in the Royal Canadian Air Force. I heard his stories many times, about how he had failed a Latin exam when he was sixteen and his mother (a teacher, who on the back of a postcard dated 1911 showing a photo of her students wrote, "These are some of the little gaffers I've knocked around during the past year.") told him to retake the test or get a job. My grandfather was incredibly bright, but, as he told me about Latin, "I had no use for it." So he did what his mother couldn't have imagined - he asked his neighbour if there were any jobs available at the law office he worked at, and soon my grandfather was employed there, much to his mother's chagrin. It was because he had dropped out that he needed to take classes after he enlisted to catch up on his studies (mostly math, I imagine). As my grandmother noted recently as I was scanning photos, the soldiers who were married during the war wore their uniforms at their weddings; my grandfather was no different:

Their wedding had to be moved to an earlier date, due to his leave, which is why they ended up being married on April Fool's Day, 1943. While there is a military document saying he had permission to marry, apparently he was not given enough time off. His father waited outside Toronto's Initial Training School to drive him to the wedding, and then they went to London, Ontario, for their honeymoon. He was actually Absent Without Leave, and when he went to St. Catherines to begin his flight training, he was asked, "What's your excuse?" When he said he'd gotten married, the officer replied, "Best excuse I've heard all day," and didn't punish him.

I'd known that he was at Summerside air base in P.E.I., and had assumed (actually, I think someone mistakenly told me) that he didn't finish his training before the war ended. Most of his stories took place there. Like the time he followed a river inland to its source and marked its location on a map so he could go fishing there. Or the guy he talked to who'd returned from England who'd told him he'd fallen asleep on top of barracks, missed a call for everyone to go inside, and saw a plane, he swore, that flew without propellers. Or seeing a beluga whale nurse its young in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. Or seeing a U-boat slipping into the water near shore. Or the time he chartered a plane so the other pilots could go off the island to buy booze (P.E.I. was dry at the time, and only, if I remember correctly, pregnant women could get it with a 'script' (prescription)). Or my grandmother remembering flying from Toronto to return to P.E.I. after the birth of my aunt, and having to land and warm up a bottle of milk in a hangar. Or how my grandfather bought a car in P.E.I. and with friends drove it back to Toronto through the U.S. (Canadian roads weren't very good at the time), where, being in uniform, they were well treated by the Americans they met, who were so happy the war was over.

So it was with interest that I picked up Ted Barris's book Behind the Glory when I was at my grandparents this summer, and started flipping through it. The book is about the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and especially focuses on the instructors who trained around 200,000 pilots, navigators, wireless radio operators, air gunners, flight engineers and ground crew in Canada during WWII. My mom or dad made an offhand remark about my grandfather having been an instructor, which amazed me. How could I have heard these stories over the years and not known that? This book was very useful in helping me decode and understand another book: my grandfathers flight log. Basically, reading it, I can see what he did almost every week he was enlisted. At the back is his service record:

Enlisted 1942.06.24
Central Tech, Toronto 1942.07.31 - 09.21
#1 Manning Depot, Toronto 1942.09.25 - 1943.01.23
#6 Initial Training School, Toronto 1943.01.24 - 04.03
#9 Elementary Flying Training School, St. Catherines 1943.04.04 - 05.28
#16 Service Flying Training School, Hagersville 1943.05.30 - 09.15
#1 General Reconnaissance School, Summerside 1943.10.02 - 1945.09.18

This page of the flight log describes his fourth week at #9 Elementary Flying Training School in St. Catherines; you can see on April 22 he had his first solo flight, after about nine and a half flying hours training in a Tiger Moth.

A newspaper article shows him (D.F. Berry) learning to identify enemy planes:

He received his wings as an Air Navigator in September 1943 and served as a flight and navigation instructor for almost two years at Summerside in P.E.I. Here's a list of what instructors had to teach:

I can remember him describing dropping three buoys into the water and viewing them through a sight which could then judge how far they had moved and could be used to calculate wind speed which was then used to correct the course being plotting. It sounded quite complicated. He flew Ansons, which were reliable twin engine planes used to prepare pilots for flying large planes like Lancaster bombers. As the page linked to notes, the Anson was "dubbed "Faithful Annie", inspiring this poem which lauds the Anson's superiority over the Cessna Crane:

Oh, the Crane may fly much faster
Inside she may be neat,
But to me the draughty Anson
Is very hard to beat.
Her plywood may be warping,
Her window glass may crack,
But when you start out in an Anson.
You know that you'll come back.

-Andy, No. 7 SFTS (Fort Macleod) 1943"

I found these photos awhile ago. I'm not sure if my grandfather took them or not:

Pretty neat. My grandfather told me that the war had been pretty good to him. He'd gotten to learn how to fly, and then got to keep flying as a flight instructor. His flight log has him down for a total of 1300 flying hours, with over 1000 of them as an instructor (I have no idea how many pilots and navigators he trained). I'd imagine the reason he told me all the stories he did was because he looked back on that time so fondly.

My grandfather with his father.

In the photo above you can see the headgear and goggles he is wearing, and I can remember as a child putting them on and playing with them and trying (and failing) to imagine what it must have been like for him to wear them when he was flying. As years went by, his stories, and, much later, photos and his flight log have helped give me some inkling. It's a dark irony that as I became more interested in these stories, Alzheimer's Disease was robbing him of his memory.

He passed away six weeks ago, so it's to him I dedicate this.

The number of foreigners in Korea

2009-11-11T17:31:00.000+09:00

It can be difficult to discern foreign population statistics because the figures released by KIS in previous years listed only documented foreigners residing in Korea for over 90 days. Thus short term visits or tourists (B and C series visas) were not included; nor were undocumented migrant workers. The media announcements in mid 2007 declaring that Korea had passed 1,000,000 foreign residents were in fact incorrect, though that link does point out that it's more than residents:

The number of foreign residents in Korea surpassed one million as of last Friday, the Ministry of Justice said. There are 1,000,254 foreigners in Korea including illegal residents, long term residents and those staying for less than 90 days, the ministry said.

The 'One Million' figure was certainly bandied about in the media and used to justify calling Korea a 'multicultural society'.

As of the end of 2008, there were 1,158,866 foreigners in Korea, but only 854,007 were considered people staying over 90 days (compared to 40,519 in 1980 [link] 536,627 in 2006 and 722,686 at the end of May 2007 [link]). Since the number of even E-2 visa holders was lower under the resident statistics, it suggests that even those who are on long term visas but who haven't yet passed the 90 day mark are not considered residents as such (or at least that seems to be the logical conclusion - unless 'residency' is connected with receiving one's alien registration card). It seems likely that the number of 90 day+ residents may exceed one million this year.

Here's what I've been able to compile so far (KIS statistics prior to 2007 list only legal residents, and aren't included).

1990 100,000 [link]
1995 269,000 [link]
1997 386,972 [link]
2000.08 478,435 [link]
2000.10 500,591 [link]
2001.10 546,000 [link]

2007.08 1,000,254 [link]
2008.12 1,158,866 [link]

There's a bit of a gap between 2001 and 2007. Does anyone else have statistics for that time period?

A list of legal and illegal migrant workers over the years can be found here, for comparison.

The "undisclosed crimes" of potential child molesting foreign English teachers

2009-11-10T19:20:00.002+09:00

On this list may be 21,000 E-2 visa holders,
who are "especially potential child molesters"! *

Two weeks ago I noted that two National Assembly representatives had made irresponsible statements about foreign English teachers. One of these representatives was a GNP Rep. from Busan (and SNU graduate) Lee Joo-young, who, according to the Korea Times, said:

In the inspection, Rep. Lee Joo-young of the ruling Grand National Party urged the ministry to tighten the rule on E-2 visa issuance, arguing it’s so lax that many convicted foreigners attempt to cross borders with legal residential status. The legislator did not disclose the exact number of foreigners caught for the violation.[...]

"Many foreigners have been caught attempting to pass through the immigration process with forged documents, indicating rules should be intensified further,” Lee said.

This was in an article about how the Ministry of Justice said it would "revise immigration rules to ban foreigners found guilty of raping Korean children from re-entering Korea permanently." Why such a revision would be needed is a mystery. As Benjamin Wagner pointed out,

The MOJ has pointed out time and time again that they have absolute discretion under the Immigration Act (art. 11) to exclude anyone they like.

"[P]ersons deemed likely to cause danger and harm to the public health . . ." (Art. 11(1)1)

"Persons deemed likely to commit any act detrimental to national interests of the Republic of Korea or public safety . . ." (Art. 11(1)3)

"Persons deemed likely to commit any act detrimental to economic or social order or good morals . . ." (Art. 11(1)4)

It seems immigration can keep out almost anyone they like, and this certainly covers foreign rapists, but creating a new 'revision' makes it sound like something is being done to protect children, especially from foreigners living in Korea, who have such a sex crime rate that's five times less than the Korean sex crime rate.

But let's return to Lee Joo-young's statements.

Yonhap provides more information about what he said (and a Yonhap TV news report can be seen here.):

In connection with blocking entry to foreign criminals who have sexually abused children, GNP Rep. Lee Ju-yeong pointed out that “Measures to prevent child molestation by foreign native speaking teachers are insufficient."

Assemblyman Lee said, "When conversation teaching (E-2) visas are issued, criminal background check reports, AIDS test reports, drug test results are required to be submitted, but it has been confirmed that such relevant documents are easy to fake and change," and emphasized that inspection processes needed to be strengthened.

"[I]t has been confirmed that such relevant documents are easy to fake and change." Really? By who? What would he propose beyond getting criminal record checks notarized, or receiving an Apostille, and being verified by the Korean Embassy or receiving an affidavit from the teacher's embassy? It's easy to suggest that foreigners are a threat and are going to fake documents so they can come to Korea and, judging from Lee's comments, commit crimes, spread AIDS and do drugs, but how about suggesting some solutions beyond the tired 'Let's strengthen the verification process'?

Wait. It gets better.

According to Asia Today [here via Google cache],

On this day, at the parliamentary inspection of state administration, GNP Rep. Lee Ju-yeong said "Of foreigners, native speaking teachers are especially potential child molesters" and "Immigration denies [document] falsification is possible but documents needed to receive E-2 visas, such as criminal background check reports, etc, can be easily falsified in places like Itaewon."

"Of foreigners, native speaking teachers are especially potential child molesters". Lovely. Is there any proof of that? For example, in Benjamin Wagner's NHRCK report, this table lists sex crimes by foreigners from the seven English speaking countries which can receive E-2 visas.

Compare this to the English teacher sex crime statistics recently released:

So, out of 37 sex crimes (of all types) by 'English speaking' foreigners in 2007, 2 were English teachers. Of 39 (to October) in 2008, 7 were English teachers. Comparing English teacher sex crime figures to all foreign sex crime for those years would result in a tiny percentage. To back up his assertion that "native speaking teachers are especially potential child molesters", Rep. Lee offers us... nothing.

He also tells us that "criminal background check reports ... can be easily falsified in places like Itaewon." I guess he must have read this article. When making policy recommendations, it never hurts have Choi Hui-seon-penned Sports Chosun articles around, I guess.

The article continues:

In fact, on October 16, 2008, a foreign teacher molested an elementary school first grader in an English classroom at a residents’ center in Seoul’s Seong-dong gu,

I'm not certain if the example of molestation used above was provided by Lee or Asia Today. What should be noted is that it's a bad example, since the teacher had the case dropped for lack of evidence.

But wait. It gets even better:

Assemblyman Lee pointed out that "When considering the fact that schools and hagwons try to hide the sexual crimes committed by these foreign teachers, then the number of undisclosed crimes would be a whole lot more."

Well, there we go. No wonder he doesn't have to prove his "native speaking teachers are especially potential child molesters" remark. There are unseen crimes which make statistics unnecessary! How useful for him! In other words, regulations for issuing E-2 visas must be strengthened because of crimes that are not confirmed to have happened, and though he can’t be sure how many crimes – if any – have been hidden, Rep. Lee assures us that the number is ‘a whole lot more.’ How many more, Rep. Lee?

(Photo from here)*

Okay, that many.

At any rate, just how many children had been molested by these undisclosed sex criminals was not disclosed by Rep. Lee. One wonders if tightening the visa process would weed out these undisclosed criminals, as Rep. Lee did not disclose how many of these undisclosed cases involved foreign teachers who had faked their criminal records checks, allowing them to move into a position in which would offer ready access to child victims due to the fact that their criminal past remained undisclosed.

It seems we can now extend to Rep. Lee the title of ‘Korea’s Donald Rumsfeld’, as it seems for Rep. Lee that the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.

This is not to say that such things don't happen, mind you. There is one confirmed case that I've mentioned before:

On May 4 and 5, 2008, Yonhap, Financial News, and the Maeil Gyeongje reported that Seoul police had noted that a teacher they arrested for teaching illegally had at one point worked at a high school illegally, molested a male student there, and was fired after working there for three months. It appears he was not arrested for this.

If there are schools and hagwons which are allowing any teachers to get away with molestation at their schools because instead of instead of being charged by police they've been fired in order to preserve the school or hagwon's reputation, then does the fault for these molesters - foreign or Korean - being able to find employment around children again not fall upon the schools and hagwons? Obviously, those to blame for such unproven undisclosed crimes would be the hagwon owners who hide such crimes, if they do indeed exist. At a time when Korean society is searching for ways to prevent and punish sex crimes, you'd think these schools and hagwons would be scrutinized for such lack of action.

On the other hand, foreigners are obviously much more of a threat to Korean children and women than their fellow Koreans, right? I mean, it's been on TV!

And as the great Sohn Hak-gyu once said, “Public perception is no less important than rational judgement.”

*There are no E-2 visa holders on the paper in the first photo, and both photos are unrelated to his foreign sex crime comments. The first photo is from here.

'You Die!' The Pervasiveness of anti-Japanese imagery

2009-11-09T11:10:00.001+09:00

At the hagwon I used to work at, among the story books on the shelves in the kindergarten play room were two sets of books telling the stories of famous people. One set had stories about famous western people (like Einstein) and the other had stories about famous Koreans. Among the Koreans were people from the distant past like King Sejong, and Yi Sun-shin, as well as people from the 20th century like Kim Ku, Ahn Jung-geun, Yu Gwan-sun, and Yun Bong-gil. In the latter books, we find pictures depicting the following events:

The murder of Queen Min by Japanese assassins:

The torture of Yu Gwan-sun by Japanese police:

The suppression of the Samil protests by Japanese police:

In response to the murder and torture of (mostly female) Koreans at the hands of the Japanese, the stories present the following images of justified revenge. Among the acts of what was then perceived as assassination and terrorism that are depicted include the assassination of D.W. Stevens in 1908:

The assassination of Ito Hirobumi in 1909:

Yun Bong-gil's bomb attack which killed or wounded five Japanese officers or dignitaries in 1932.

All of these images are reminiscent of comic books, and would do well with some 'BLAM!'s or 'BOOM!'s added, as well as speech balloons saying 'DIE!' and 'ARRGH!' These aren't sophisticated in the least, but then, when aimed at children under ten (they're available for children under seven at the hagwon), they don't need to be. Showing these images to children who are too young to critically evaluate them does nothing but inculcate hatred for Japan.

Mind you, this is just one of many ways children are exposed to such images. Seodaemun Prison Museum presents these images to visiting children:

An April 2005 Ohmynews article describes a photo exhibition at Woninjae Station in Incheon which displayed photos of the colonial period such as this:

One wonders how the children viewing these photos felt:

Of course, this took place during the '2005 Korea Japan Friendship Year' that wasn't. This article by James Card gives a good overview of the 'diplomatic war' that took place that year after Shimane prefecture government declared 'Takeshima Day' on February 22 on the 100th anniversary of the islets' incorporation into that prefecture. As Card describes it,

In South Korean classrooms, all levels were taught in special classes about South Korea's sovereign rights over Dokdo with lesson plans supplied by the Korea Federation of Teachers' Associations.

Among the things even first-graders learned was the catchy 'Dokdo is our land' song.

Two months after the exhibit at Incheon's Woninjae Station, another station on the Incheon line, Gyulhyeon Station, displayed photos about Dokdo drawn by students at nearby Gyeyang Middle School (which can be seen here and here):

'Dokdo is whose land?' 'Ko...rea's...land'

I'm reminded of the student who, when asked 'when' he would like to go if he had a time machine, answered 'Hiroshima in 1945, so I can see Japan get bombed.'

On Thursday the Korea Herald (via Brian) reported that a 37-year-old man was caught trying to break into the Japanese Embassy Wednesday night with plans to set it on fire and take embassy staff hostage. He also planned to hold a press conference about Dokdo and Japanese textbooks. With the announcement that "Investigators were looking into his medical records to determine whether there is any history of psychiatric treatment," it's clearly being suggested that he may be mentally unstable.

This raises a question, however: If someone has spent their entire life surrounded by images of Japanese atrocities and has thus vicariously relived a narrowly defined version of Korea's colonial experience and has also been told repeatedly that Japan has done nothing to apologize for these outrages, instead whitewashing or justifying them, and in fact is attempting to steal cherished Korean territory once again, would burning down the Japanese embassy not be a justifiable response, especially considering the example provided by gun-and-bomb-wielding Korean nationalist heroes?

The dystopian world of Boys Over Flowers

2009-11-06T18:33:00.006+09:00

[Update: I finally tracked down Gord Sellar's post looking at a later episode.]

From January to March this year, the show that all the young people were talking about was '꽃보다 남자' ('Boys Over Flowers') (which can be watched here). It was based on the Japanese manga 'Hana Yori Dango', which had been made into an anime and live action TV series in Japan (and a live action TV series in Taiwan as well). When I went through an anime phase years ago, someone had suggested Hana Yori Dango, which I ended up watching a few episodes of before realizing shojo manga-style anime was not for me. The live-action Japanese series (which can be watched here) begins with the main character already in class at a high school for the rich. The Korean version, on the other hand, does not, and how the main character, a dry cleaner's daughter named Jan-di, ends up going to the most elite school in Korea is actually pretty interesting. I only managed to get partway through the second episode before giving up on the series, though from what I've read, the rest of the series does not live up to the series' introduction. In that introduction, we see the history of an alternate reality Korea in which seemingly all of Korea's economic power is centralized in a single corporation and the rich have even more privilege in the realm of education. We're shown how one person challenges this, how the common folk react in support of her, and how the powers that be co-opt her and end the rebellion - all in about ten minutes. (The quotes below come from subtitles provided by WITH K-drama subbing squad.)

The opening of Boys Over Flowers makes reference to events from the previous year, in addition to perennial concerns in Korea. It begins with a Korean news anchor telling us that

The Korean Corporation Shinhwa Group has been selected to be the largest corporate sponsor in the 2011 London Olympics.

Suddenly many other anchors appear in other countries reporting the same news.

Portraying all the broadcasters of the world talking about Korea’s economic accomplishment in the same sentence as Olympics may betray a wish for recognition. Or a feeling of superiority: 'Korea's number one! Korea's number one!' While I'm sure this plays extremely well to the domestic audience, I'm not so sure about its reception in the other countries in Asia its producers hope to export it to. I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but it's interesting to remember the effect the omnipresent NBC had on the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. Or maybe it's just a way, for Korea to fictionally influence the Olympics after Pyeongchang failed to get the winter Olympics... twice. At any rate, before the Olympics have even begun, Korea is already on top. The Korean newscast continues:

And therefore in the global-wide recession... South Korea's economic growth started, it has maintained the status of the best company, and kept growing and growing and then reached the level of a multinational renowned corporation, its name is Shinhwa. Electronics, oil, automobiles, distribution, and telecommunications. If you are a citizen of South Korea, you know the two letters of Shinhwa before you know the president's name, and have created a kingdom and therefore is Korea's largest conglomerate.

A series of scenes make clear that Shinhwa (신화 in Korean means 'myth' - actively suggesting, perhaps, that it's not real, like Thomas More's Utopia, a place that is 'no place'?) is a super jaebol, or conglomerate, appropriating images of other companies such as Hyundai...

...Shinsegae...

...Emart (Shinsegae again, actually)...

...and SK.

As if these conglomerates didn't have enough control of the economy and life in general in Korea already, the series proposes a Korea in which one conglomerate has taken over them all, realizing a world in which, as Jon Stewart once put it, 'we're all going to be fired by the same person.' But then it becomes clearer what the point of this alternative reality where centralization and monopoly have come to their logical end is:

On a day where they had managed to increase their imports by one trillion Won, and were sent to the Blue House, the founder of this company instead of receiving a medal said, "Sir, please allow me to build a school where my grandchildren could attend."

And who is this president?

The ‘president’ shown in the photo is Park Chung-hee, who “even went to make special laws to accommodate the school,” making him responsible for what occured next:

And then, there it was, Shinhwa School. The first school in the history of Korea to be backed by the president, who believed that economic advancement was more important than education, and even went to make special laws to accommodate the school. And now there is a saying, if you do not have Shinhwa School on your resume, don't even bother applying. It is a School made for the 1%, attended by the 1%, and fit for the 1% and therefore has maintained the reputation of the best elite school. Most common people, even if they apply when they are born, they cannot get in to the Shinhwa Kindergarten, but when accepted, then you have the way paved nonstop for Elementary, Middle and High school, and even University. It is subject of jealousy and awe for the rest of the nation's students, and parents who suffer from the hard admissions to universities.

Not unlike More's Utopia again, which used Amerigo Vespucci's accounts of the new world to create a fictional if concrete representation of Plato's Republic, we see the show's writers creating Shinhwa school - pictured above as a sprawling complex which includes Shinhwa Kindergarten, Elementary, Middle and High Schools, and University, as a metaphor for what is known in Korean discourse on education as 'Gangnam' and 'SKY' (the top three universities, Seoul National, Korea, and Yonsei). In Gangnam, the top kindergartens, hagwons, schools and even Seoul National University can be found, and a residential game of musical chairs is played by parents wanting to move to the area to get their children into these institutions.

One imagines many (most?) Koreans would see this aspect of the Boys Over Flowers universe as dystopian, however, as its amalgam of the SKY universities and the schools and hagwons of Gangnam is even more elite and self perpetuating, starting with kindergarten (as in the image of kids painting above) and working up to university, highlighting the unfairness of the entire Gangnam-oriented hagwon and school system which rewards wealth and seemingly makes it possible for students to have the way “paved nonstop” to university (except that the denizens of the real 'Gangnam' have to take exams). The advantages of the elite in the Shinhwa schools especially provoke envy, and the ability to escape the college entry exam, like the past and present ability of people of means to dodge the draft, is particularly galling. The fact that it's run by the all-encompassing Shinhwa Corporation means, of course, that the school supplies those that will fill many -if not all - of the management jobs in the company. As it says, " [I]f you do not have Shinhwa School on your resume, don't even bother applying." But then it gets worse:

However, in this Shinhwa High School, a school for the chosen, something unimaginable was happening.”

What's interesting is that in this show aimed at teens, we see such violence, as bullies - in fact the entire school - terrorizes one student, beating him until he's bloody. He fights back, until he reaches the roof, and decides to kill himself.

Until, that is, our plucky heroine, Jan-di, who is delivering his uniform from the dry cleaning business her family runs, finds him and has a chat with him.

-Why [do you want to kill yourself]? You go to such a great school.

-No, this isn't a school, it's hell.

-Excuse me? Real hell is outside of this building. Have you heard of admissions hell?

-Have you heard of F4?

-F... F...what? F4? What is that?

-The moment you get a red card from them, you become a prey for the entire school.

With this, the audience is introduced to the plot line of Hana Yori Dango, but the violence is much harsher than in the Japanese version, which lacked the brutal beating and blood. Not that such violence is absent from Japanese schools, of course; films there like All About Lily Chou Chou or Blue Spring have dealt with the brutal violence of students, but Hana Yori Dango did not. In this Korean version, we get brutal bullying and the recording of the anticipated suicide scene on students' phones. Phones have been used by students in the past both to record beatings by teachers and bullying by students, to encourage it, or used them as a tool with which to humiliate or coerce their victims. It's likely one of these phone cameras that captures Jan-di saving the boy as he tries to jump, which then makes the news.

"Brave Seomin High School girl, Who is She?

Aristocratic Elite School Shinhwa High School's Murder?"

The incident goes beyond internet, however, as we see in the next scene on a subway:

"Today's News : [What is] Aristocratic Elite School, Shinhwa High School's Real Identity?
Shinhwa High group bullying savior is a seomin wonder girl."

In fact, there are various ways in which this news is spread:

"Shinhwa High's group bullying savior is a seomin wonder girl.
What is going on in the best educational high school, Shinhwa High? The brave seomin high school girl, who is she?"

The boy on the left below seems to lack access to such media, but no fear - to his left is a man reading the newspaper...

"Who saved the student being severely bullied by his school at Shinhwa High is not rich nor comes from a family with a title" [Or so the subtitles read, if not this screenshot].

...and to his right is a woman reading a magazine:

"Brave seomin high school girl, Who is She?
The truth about aristrocratic, elite Shinhwa High School."

First, the class term seomin should be explained. As Antti Leppänen describes it,

seomin are those who besides being less well-off, having difficulties acquiring decent housing, living from hand to mouth, are also politically unmotivated and unconscious and do not act out of common political interests but individual or familial economic interests.

Seomin are different from minjung, which refers to politically conscious masses. This term is used to position Jan-di and her family, who run a dry cleaning shop, against the filthy rich students who attend Shinhwa High School. In declaring her a seomin hero, however, the media (portrayed here as monolithic and not ideologically divided - utopian indeed!) seem to be appealing to readers to identify with her in a class conscious way while decrying the abuses of the upper class attending the elite school.

While the scene on the subway may seem to be a showcase of Korea's technology and the extent of cell-phone penetration made to show off to foreign audiences, or could be interpreted as the pervasiveness of what Guy Debord termed 'the spectacle' in Korean life, it also works in connection with the following scenes.

In a cleverly done scene, we see the development of the online conversation about this incident, which has focused attention on the rich students of Shinhwa schools and how unfair the system is. Online discussion moves beyond the media's criticism of the abuses of the upper class attending Shinhwa and decries their privilege. Each internet user above is zoomed-in on as they contribute their opinions:

"There is only so far a special privilege can go, Shinhwa Group confess!"

"As mother with a child, this is something that is unforgivable. Starting from tomorrow, let's not go to Shinhwa Mart."

Those who have to take the university entrance exam, such as the girl above, are especially angered by the Shinhwa students' privilege, with the girl above describing them as "The children of god who are exempt from entrance exams."

One result of all this online attention is media interest. It is soon found out that Jan-di works part-time at 'Bom Juk' (instead of Bon Juk) and reporters try to interview her there.

This results in more exposure.

The other result of all the online grumbling about Shinhwa?

A candlelight protest, of course!

'Help us, wonder girl!'

(Not that wonder girl)

I'm sure the use of the term 'wonder girl' has been noticeable, showing that the influence of the Wonder Girls has spread from the days of spreading the 'Tell Me' dance across the nation, to the application of the term 'wonder girl' to people like Kim Yu-na (In her transition period from 'figure yojeong' to 'figure queen'), to Boys Over Flowers. Actually, I suppose it's not surprising, this use of 'wonder girl', considering that in the Tell Me video, Sohee, as 'Wonder Girl', rescues babies, fights a babari man, and finally defeats a bunch of bullies:

As for the Candlelight protest, we hear the opinions and slogans of people attending the rally.

-"Shinhwa Group, Abolish special education!"

-"I am here where people are protesting against the Shinhwa Group and the special educational system. Let's hear some opinions from the citizens. Hello, why are you out here today for the candle protest?"

-"My friend was also heavily bullied and he dropped out of school, we can say that because of the unbearable stress of the entrance exams, but they have no hardship whatsoever don't you think so?"

A guy in army uniform speaks out:

I mean, is that school a school for the gifted? It's not even a foreign language school or a science high school, like it states, it's a school for the rich. And isn't Korea a republic?

It should be obvious that this -

- is meant to conjure this...

... the first candlelight protest at Cheonggye Plaza in May 2008, which set off months of mad cow protests, which ended less than six months before Boys Over Flowers first aired. The memory of these protests - which may have been taking place as the series was being written - surely influenced the following speech:

- Right now, the PR team is working busily with the press to-

- Do you know why the public is scary? Because they are dumb. If they start getting crazy for a cause then it's impossible to stop them. It cannot be dealt with through reasoning and sense.

That is a pretty obvious reference to the mad cow protests - or at least the right wing view of them. The person these lines are given to is the CEO of Shinhwa (or the director of the school, I forget), a woman who looks more than a little similar to Park Geun-hye, the daughter of Park Chung-hee, the former president who allowed Shinhwa school to be created.

She decides, after seeing a magazine interview with Jan-di, that "The one who started the fire should be responsible for extinguishing it," figuring that the media and netizens will cool down if she allows Jan-di to enroll in Shinhwa school. Her family is thrilled, and sing and dance around the house, deliriously happy that their daughter will attend an elite school, and though she refuses, they browbeat her into going.

As with many Korean dramas, I really find the acting to be grating, mainly because of the way it is stylized, which is not at all to my taste. In one scene, I believe on the roof before Jan-di saves the student from jumping, she replies in confusion - and with a really dumb look on her face - to a question, "W-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-what?" Arrgh. But I digress. And to digress further, her mom is played by Im Ye-jin, who was a teen movie star in the 1970s (and acted in 25 movies in 5 years, which must have been tiring, perhaps explaining her 20-year hiatus), starring in such dramas as 'I Really, Really Like You' (1977, below).

From there, Jan-di starts school, watches the sickening way F4 (a quartet of the school's richest and most powerful boys) act like gangsters but are treated like super(junior)stars, and is either ignored or picked on until she gets a red card from F4, after which the entire school gangs up on her, and when she resists further, a member of F4 sends his minions to gang-rape her, ~~something I don't think was in the Japanese version, and may be a specifically Korean addition.~~ [It seems it is in Hana Yori Dango]. Thus ends the first episode:

It's okay, though, since they fall in love and are together at the end of the series, or so I've read.

The show's concept of Shinhwa Corporation and the Shinhwa Schools acting as symbols of both Korea's Jaebol and the failings of the education system, as well as its depiction of the way in which people organized in order to criticize perceived abuses made for an interesting first ten minutes, but it's too bad this fictional world couldn't have been explored in depth in order to comment further on Korean society. That such a promising beginning turned into such shallow schmaltz shouldn't be surprising, however, considering the source material, so the question remains: Is the inclusion of this very Korean alternate reality at the beginning a disappointment because it inevitably ended so quickly, or is it worthy of admiration for being broadcast at all, especially at the beginning of such innocuous fluff aimed at the youth market?

Fun fact:
Jack London wrote what is considered the first modern dystopian novel, The Iron Heel, in 1908, four years after he visited Korea. Coincidence? Probably. His short story "A Nose For The King", written in 1904, does however depict the arbitrary power of officials in Korea, albeit in a humorous manner.

Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?

2009-11-05T20:42:00.003+09:00

I had just finished the last post and the title popped into my head, based on this poem by Francois Villon (arguably France's best medieval poet, who seemed equally happy making allusions to classical figures as writing about his exploits in bars and brothels, and also someone who escaped the gallows for murder and theft). Translated, the line 'Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?' means 'But where are the snows of bygone years' (quoted in such different places as Tennessee William's Glass Menagerie and Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds). The point? After writing the title and posting the post, I looked outside.

I'm sure what's fallen in the last hour will be more than Seoul will get all year, unfortunately. Because hey, if it's gonna be cold, you might as well have snow. As it turns out though, Seoul's lack of snow isn't anything new. As Percival Lowell wrote of his visit to Seoul in 1884:

Owing to the latitude of Soul, thirty-seven and a half degrees north, the sun's power there, even in midwinter, is so great that the snow at the sea-level never lies deep upon the ground. After a heavy snow-storm, the evening before, it is surprising to those accustomed to more northern latitudes to notice how quickly it vanishes in places exposed to the sun. If it were not for repeated additions, there would be very little even in the depth of winter; and as the season advances and the days lengthen, you may trudge homeward some night through a heavy fall of snow, to find on the next afternoon no trace of it left. You have therefore, almost simultaneously, the coming of snow, like a snow-storm in New York, with a disappearance of it worthy of Virginia ; and yet it may be far colder on the day it vanishes than on the day it appeared.

I guess the lack of snow explains why people my age remember using spent yontan to roll into snowballs to make a snowman when they were young...

Mais où sont les 골목 d'antan?

2009-11-05T11:05:00.013+09:00

Back in December I posted photos of Gindeung Maeul, an older neighbourhood near my house that was mostly abandoned, where I had enjoyed riding my bike through the maze of paths and streets. One of the ways I figured out where some of the paths connected was watching kids play one day. As I took photos in one spot, I'd see the kids run down a street in front of me, only to reappear behind me a minute or two later. It was kind of like injecting radioactive dye into the streets to see where they flowed.

I also posted photos of the neighbourhood's progressive destruction, and now that Google Earth has a new map, we can see what it looks after the demolition of most of the planned redevelopment area:

Before:

After:

What's interesting is that if you look at the satellite photo above and a panorama I took below, they look rather similar:

The same pathways through the soil, the same two excavators. Also, a building in the center, near the top (in the distance) is still standing. The photo above was taken on October 19, while the photo below was taken November 23 (with the distant building gone).

At any rate, it seems the Google Satellite Map for the area new Gimpo Airport dates from late October last year. Here's another photo from January 17 of the area, with no change.

I took the photo below on May 26. I had no idea if the people living in the house in the center above were still there, but it was easy to see that the people living in the building below had left, and they were one of the last families to leave. I remember sitting on the now overturned platform in front of the 'Supeo' or corner store below and talking to some of the few remaining families back in June of last year, prior to the start of demolition. As they shared watermelon with me and chatted, you could still get a sense of the community (dwindling as it was) that had once existed there, similar in some ways to the alleyways depicted in Kim Ki-chan's photos (such as in the excellent book 그 골목이 품고있는 것들 (The things the alley embraces).

'Happy Corner Store'

There aren't many alleys now, though.

"Gendered Multiculturalism" and visa statistics

2009-11-04T16:58:00.009+09:00

An article about Scott Burgeson's new book appeared in the Korea Times today, and mentions that

On Nov. 5, he is giving a lecture titled "Notes on Multiculturalism in Korea" at Kium, an annex of Kyobo bookstore inside [Shin] Nonhyeon subway station, Gangnam.

As he described it to me,

"[T]he point of the lecture is to deconstruct the myth of "multiculturalism" in Korea, address the Korean media's continued stereotyping and demonizing of Western expat males here, especially ESL teachers, and offer an alternative formulation of multiculturalism here based not on ethnicity, since Korea will remain overwhelmingly homogenous ethnically speaking for the next several decades (reaching only 10% in 2050), but rather based on alternative values transcending race and ethnicity, which will ideally help Koreans better tolerate differences and diversity among themselves."

Here is the opening:

These days we often hear in the South Korean media and from the South Korean government that Korea has entered a "New Age of Multiculturalism." The reasons for what I will call the Korean establishment's promotion of this idealized notion are complex, and for now I can only offer two primary causes or motivation here: First of all, the old national ideals of "Danil Minjok" and "Han Bando" (i.e., Reunification with the North) have come under widespread questioning in the past few years, and are no longer seen as realistic or desirable by many Koreans, and so a "Multicultural Korea" offers a positive alternative identity as the nation seeks to "rebrand" itself in today's globalized world. More to the point, this is simply a "good" international marketing strategy, as South Korea aims to attract more "multinational companies" and "international investment" here.

A second reason is driven by what we might call "gendered multiculturalism," specifically in response to the many "foreign brides," mostly from China and Southeast Asia, who have been coming to Korea since the late 1990s to marry Korean men, often older men in the countryside. These bicultural families, which presently number over 100,000, have in turn been raising a new generation of bicultural children, prompting the South Korean government to introduce a number of laws and policies in the past few years in support of such "multicultural families." Of course, from the 1950s and well into the 1990s, tens of thousands of "bicultural children" were born of Korean mothers and U.S. military service members, and quite a few more as the result of marriages between South Korean women and male native ESL teachers from Western countries, who have been coming to Korea in large numbers since the 1990s. However, the South Korean government traditionally felt no need to support such "multicultural families" at the official level, and the reason is fairly obvious: Gendered multiculturalism has only recently been embraced by the Korean establishment because it serves the interests of Korean men, which is to say the patriarchal structure here. This becomes even more apparent when we consider that the number of male migrant workers here from Southeast Asia and China is roughly four times that of "foreign brides" from these same countries, and yet the South Korean government continues to make it difficult for male migrant workers from developing countries to obtain permanent residency or citizenship here, and often they are deported in large numbers. Clearly, "multiculturalism" has a rather narrow meaning as far as official Korea is concerned, which is why I call it "gendered multiculturalism" in the service of Korean patriarchy.

It sounds like an interesting lecture, and as he points out at his site, it's at 7pm.

Scott asked me to confirm some immigration statistics, so I thought I'd post the fruits of those findings here (the numbers are rounded, not exact).

The Korea Immigration Service's statistics for 2008 can be downloaded by clicking here. You may end up with a file called '2008'; if so, you have to rename it '2008.zip'. In the zip file are many excel files. “2장_Ⅱ_체류외국인현황” has the end-of-2008 statistics for all foreigners in Korea by country and visa type. Helpful in determining the different visa types is this List of South Korean visas.

For migrant workers, we can find them under three visa types:

D-3 (industrial trainee (which I thought had been discontinued?))
Male 26,000
Female 8,800

E-9 Employment Permit (migrant workers)
M 192,400
F 24,000
(They are all Asian, but only 7000 are Korean Chinese)

H-2 (Korean Chinese working visit visa)
M 161,000
F 137,000

If you include H-2 Korean Chinese workers there are 549,000 migrant workers.
M 379,400 69%
F 169,800 31%

Without the H-2 Korean Chinese migrant workers, the total runs
M 218,400 87%
F 32,800 13%

So including the Korean Chinese in the total migrant worker figure, we see that there are are twice as many males as females.

F-2 (Marriage residency - total 123,000)
M 15,300 12.2%
F 108,000 87.8%

Most of these are Asian, but 5,000 are not.
M 3,000
F 2,000

F-5 (permanent resident - Total 19,000)
(An F-2 prior makes it easier to get this, but is no guarantee of marriage)
M 7,800
F 11,400

If we only look at the F-2 figures as an indicator of marriage migrants, we see there are seven times as many females as males, though among non-Asian marriage partners we see 50% more males. Interesting. Also interesting is the fact that it was only, I believe, in the last decade that foreign men married to Korean women could get an F-2 visa. Prior to that it was only for foreign wives of Korean men, something else pointing in the direction of '"gendered multiculturalism" in the service of Korean patriarchy.'

Those statistics are well worth downloading and looking through (quite a few of them have English translations, at least in part) if you want to kill an hour or two...

In the Korea Herald about foreigners and sex crimes

2009-11-03T08:07:00.004+09:00

I wrote an article about the place of foreigners in the current debate over punishment of sex crimes against children prompted by the 'Na-yeong Incident' which was published in the Korea Herald today.

In researching this, the most interesting thing for me was digging up statistics breaking down foreign residents by age. It was always clear there weren't many foreign children or elderly here, but it's nice to have it quantified (they only make up 8.2 percent of the foreign population, compared to a similar demographic making up 27.6 percent of the Korean population). Not taking that difference into account makes Korean crime rate seem more favourable than it is. Needless to say, E-2 visa holders have no children and likely no elderly among their numbers, so this approach to the Korean crime rate should also be applied when making comparisons with E-2 visa holders.

Thanks to Matt Lamers for publishing the article despite its last-minute nature, and to Benjamin Wagner for suggesting the overseas crime connection.

Matt asked for my sources, and since they're all compiled, I'll post them here for the curious:

Korea Herald article on Rep. Woo Yoon-Keun's statements.
KIS document 2장_Ⅱ_체류외국인현황:

SPO stats from the Wagner report page 20
CIA Korean population stats
KIS Document 2장_Ⅲ_2.국적및연령별 등록외국인현황

Korea Times article on banning foreign pedophiles
Marmot's Hole post on 2006 National Assembly Committee on Gender Equality study
Joongang Ilbo article on National Youth Commission findings about Kiribati
Chosun Ilbo article mentioning 2003 National Human Rights Commission survey
Korea Times article by Justice Minister Lee Kwi-nam

SNUE president Song was misquoted by the Korea Times.

2009-11-02T19:20:00.004+09:00

As I noted Friday, the Korea Times reported that Seoul National University of Education president Song Kwang-yong said the following about foreign English teachers:

Song also stressed that Korean teachers should replace native English-speaking teachers as soon as possible. "Currently, only 20.5 percent of native English speaking teachers (at schools) have teaching licenses (according to data from the Education Ministry, November 2008), so it is urgent for us to foster teachers who have excellent English proficiency," Song said.

"The native speakers are not qualified and are often involved in sexual harassment and drugs."

According to Benjamin Wagner, who contacted President Song's office this morning by phone and sent him questions by email:

President Song was good enough to make a personal call in reply to the email.

He was misquoted by the KT. President Song explained that while problems with foreign teachers as covered in the press were mentioned in passing, he did not say "The native speakers are not qualified and are often involved in sexual harassment and drugs."

President Song said the focus of the discussion was the need for more qualified teachers because his school is responsible for training them.

So the source of this quote defaming foreign English teachers in Korea would appear to be Kang Shin-who, so that is who complaints should be directed to - or the person who should be complained about. As Scott Burgeson noted in a comment, the Korea Times can be reached by phone here:

Political Desk : 02-724-2343
City Desk : 02-724-2346
Editorial Room : 02-724-2859

Kang Shin-who's email is here: kswho@koreatimes.co.kr

If you have any other contacts or suggestions, leave a comment.

The Housemaid Remaid

2009-11-01T12:13:00.000+09:00

I finally watched Kim Ki-young's 1960 film The Housemaid, which was released on DVD a few months ago. It's long been considered a classic (or at least since his work was 'rediscovered' at the 1998 Pusan International Film Festival) and more than lives up to its reputation. Basically, a middle class family moves into a new, two story house, and, due to the wife's pregnancy, hires a maid.

(The film is notable for having a young Ahn Sung-gi play the son.)

The maid, however, is a little odd...

... and she proceeds to wreak havoc on the household.

To say more would ruin the fun, but it's an amazing film which never stops surprising you. Imagine a mix of the Harold Pinter/Joseph Losey collaboration The Servant and Takeshi Miike's Audition. Go watch it. Now.

Or soon, at any rate, before the remake is released. I just saw this, which reveals that The Housemaid will be remade starring Jeon Do-yeon and directed by Im Sang-soo (best known for The President's Last Bang and Good Lawyer's Wife). While part of me wonders why such a great film - so recently re-released on DVD - is being remade, the other part is intrigued by such a director - actress pairing and is looking forward to it. One hopes they'll find a part for Ahn Sung-gi. It's to start filming in December for a May release.

Club bust and AES update

2009-10-31T16:13:00.006+09:00

Yonhap reports that there was a drug bust on Thursday which uncovered 53 drugs users who had attended drug parties in clubs and at a Gapyeong resort.

Twelve people were arrested were arrested for smuggling ecstasy from China and other drug offences included Gangnam club owner Mr. Kim and Itaewon club DJ Mr. An, while 41 were booked without detention. The drugs involved included ecstasy, meth, and pot. The drug taking took place in clubs in Gangnam, Itaewon, Hondae, and Gapyeong resort. Most parties involved 2-300 people, but one in Gapyeong had 4-500 people attending. Most of the people involved were affluent types from Gangnam, employees of places of entertainment (like clubs) and foreign students. Police found out about a party in Itaewon in August and after three months of undercover work made the arrests. They expect the investigation to expand.

While this has nothing to with English teachers, at Anti-English Spectrum, the cafe's manager (엠투) offers several comments on the story, the first being:

Wooshi (Damn)... I hope that they don't overlap with the people that we are trying to track down... ㅠㅠ

The second comment reads:

Right now our group is really in a mess... trying to track down drug-using teachers. It makes me sigh that this good news will just make the suspects [that we are searching for] hide further underground...
But it is still good news.

In another post the AES leader reports he is very tired and very busy tracking foreigners. Yesterday he went to Yangju, Gyeonggi-do, to stakeout a foreign teacher and then to Yangcheon-gu, where another member followed the teacher they suspect of smoking and selling in a taxi to Mok-dong and to a club with lots of foreigners.

Yes indeed, these people really have no lives.

[Hat tip to Benjamin Wagner]

The source of the Kaneko-Park photo

2009-10-31T09:00:00.000+09:00

The photo above was posted a few years ago at the Marmot's Hole when Robert wrote about the location of Japanese anarchist and nihilist Kaneko Fumiko's grave in Mungyeong. The photo of her with her husband (their marriage was registered in prison), Korean anarchist Park Yeol drew attention in the comments to that post to how affectionate the pose is (circa 1925), and this posting by Brother Anthony noted that it was taken while they were in Prison. I looked more closely at their case here. One thing I didn't know was that it was apparently Uiyeoldan - a group that would have been called a 'terrorist' group back then - that Park Yeol was hoping to get a bomb (or bomb making materials) from.

Kaneko Fumiko (from here)

I've been reading Treacherous women of imperial Japan: patriarchal fictions, patricidal fantasies by Hélène Bowen Raddeker, or at least what is available of it at Google Books ($195 is a bit steep for me). The book looks at the experiences of Japanese anarchists Kanno Suga - executed in 1911 in a case of 'judicial murder' - and Kaneko Fumiko and their collisions with state power, and reveals something quite interesting:

It's fascinating the freedom they were given while in prison and on trial for plotting to kill the emperor (though it's pointed out Kaneko may have had nothing to do with it, but accepted responsibility anyway). What's also interesting is that it was this judge who asked her to write an autobiography/confession, and who eventually passed it on to her lawyer (also an activist), and thus it's partly because of him we know so much about her. Her confession is available in English. Apparently Park wrote one as well, but it's not available in English, and I'm not even sure if it's available in Korean. Raddeker's book delves into a great deal of material beyond the confession, including her letters and court documents. Park and Fumiko were found guilty and sentenced to death, but this was commuted to life in prison by Imperial pardon. Kaneko responded by tearing up the pardon and saying:

You toy with people’s lives, killing or allowing to live as it suits you. What is this special pardon? Am I to be disposed of according to your whims?

In prison, authorities made sure to watch her so that she didn't commit suicide, because, essentially, the Emperor had ordered that she must live. Strangely enough, the work the women were to do in prison was weave hemp into rope. She refused at first, but one day asked to do the work.

She worked hard that day, and the next morning the guard on duty looked in on her at 6:30 to find her diligently twisting the rope; yet when she was checked some ten minutes later, she was found hanging limply from the same rope now attached to bars at the window. [...] [The doctor’s] report expressed amazement at the ‘determined, carefully premeditated, and calm manner of suicide.'

Reading one of the poems she wrote in prison, her course of action doesn't seem surprising:

One's limbs
may not be free
and yet—
if one has but the will to die,
death is freedom.

One wonders about the urge for martyrdom that drove patriotic assassins like Ahn Jung-geun or Yun Bong-gil to their actions - which they must have clearly known would result in their executions. What's interesting about Kaneko is that it appears she was only vaguely involved in the plan to import explosives but chose to implicate herself. Some have tried to suggest that she had a 'death wish' or that she wanted to be with her lover; she told him "I'll never let you die alone" but only he walked out of jail in 1945 (and 'went north' during the North Korean invasion in 1950, apparently dying in 1974). She was 23 when she committed suicide, and while my knee jerk reaction is to consider her suicide tragic, consider what she wrote to the judge:

So I say to you: ‘It’s a joke to admonish a person who doesn’t want to live to want to live. It’s a real joke to turn a person not content with life and tell him his life is very happy.’

For me life has no value. Value comes through a person’s having joy in life. Everything about humans is individual, but nothing is more coloured by individuality than the issue of life and death.

In the end, who am I to judge the final act of someone who had such a strong belief in the power she alone had over her life and death?

My multicultural society does not include foreign English teachers!

2009-10-30T09:57:00.004+09:00

A reader linked to an article titled "SNUE Takes Lead in Quest for Multicultural Society."

With the growing number of interracial families in Korea, schools need more teachers who are well-trained in taking care of multicultural children, educationalists say. Changing the education environment for a multicultural society needs to start from elementary schools, they add.

Seoul National University of Education (SNUE), a higher education institute that specializes in fostering primary school teachers, has taken the lead in creating various programs to deal with the surge of mixed children into elementary schools.

Song Kwang-yong, president of the university, explained the school's "Triangle Partnership" program, which centers on setting up a successful multicultural education environment at primary schools.

"Interracial children are rapidly increasing and elementary schools are the first to be affected by this trend. Our university should be the first to change, and our school is the first to introduce multicultural education programs among Korean universities," Song said in an interview with The Korea Times at his office last Thursday.[...]

Under the programs, teachers receive orientation on how to take better care of children from interracial households, and bilingual teachers are being taught how to efficiently communicate with children from immigrants.[...]

According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the number of children from multicultural families in Korea has more than tripled over the past three years up to 18,778 last year from 6,121 in 2005.

Many of the children have difficulties adapting to schools while around 15 percent of them stop attending schools and instead opt to give up their studies. With this problematic situation, the ministry has allotted about 5.8 billion won ($4.6 million) to the project this year.

It's nice to see the president of what is considered to be Korea's best teacher's university planning for the future and preparing for the challenges that mixed race children will face. Mind you, it seems foreign children don't seem to get the consideration mixed-race Korean children do:

According to the Education, Science and Technology Ministry, 1,402 of 17,000 children of migrant workers attend school – 981 in elementary, 314 in middle, and 107 in high school. This means that most of the children are being left uneducated.

As the Korea Times continues,

Song also stressed that Korean teachers should replace native English-speaking teachers as soon as possible. "Currently, only 20.5 percent of native English speaking teachers (at schools) have teaching licenses (according to data from the Education Ministry, November 2008), so it is urgent for us to foster teachers who have excellent English proficiency," Song said.

"The native speakers are not qualified and are often involved in sexual harassment and drugs."

Before reacting to this, it's worth considering a few things. In September of last year, Song was also quoted in an article titled "The role of universities is important for regional development," saying that he was thankful for the help provided by native speaking teachers employed in Seoul schools but that Korea couldn’t rely only on native speaking teachers. He also said that it would be more efficient to invest in SNUE’s teacher training than in bringing in native speaking teachers. There's no mention of unqualified teachers and their sexual harassment and drug use.

Most importantly, it should be noted that the article was written by Kang Shin-who. I've written about him before, looking at how he repeatedly made incorrect assertions that managed to drive a wedge between E and F visa holders. I also mentioned these two cases:

It may be worth noting that Brian in Jeollanam-do has reported that statements attributed to Park Nahm-sheik in an article by Kang from April ["Some English speakers don't have much affection toward our children because they came here to earn money and they often cause problems''] were said to have been mistranslated or taken out of context, according to people close to Park. I wasn't surprised when I read Brian's post, as I had not had any luck finding his statements in Korean.

Another article by Kang from March this year has the supervisor of the Incheon education office, Koo Young-sun, on record saying that, "Many foreign teachers lack teaching methodology and some of them are not ethically qualified to treat children." A Yonhap article on the same topic (in Korean) has no mention of these controversial statements from the supervisor.

He also took a press release by ATEK about the election of their new president and turned it into a platform for Anti-English Spectrum. Another more creative look at his body of work is here.

I don't know if ATEK or anyone else feels like taking it up, but I think it would be worth checking with SNUE president Song's office to see if he actually said these things. If he did, he should be criticized for it, and if he didn't then Kang Shin-who should be made accountable for it.