The Marmot’s Hole

I’m a little tired tonight, so I’ll leave you with a couple of links of rather interesting foreign press pieces I’ve run across over the last couple of days.

First, we have this little number from the NYT on the den of evil that apparently is LA Koreatown. A teaser:

Few areas in Los Angeles, if any, have as lively a night life, as many after-hours spots or as much energy in the wee hours as this ethnic enclave between Hancock Park and Echo Park, not far from Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles. Police officials estimate there are more than 500 night-life establishments within the loosely defined boundaries of Koreatown, the highest such concentration in the city.

The district, which encompasses roughly a 20-by-20-block area, has the feel of a mini-Seoul: it is dotted with all-Korean signs and menus with no translations; smoking is tolerated everywhere ??? outdoors, indoors, sometimes right under the “No Smoking” sign. Though it is against the law, a sizable number of businesses serve liquor after 2 a.m. A visitor gets the impression that in Koreatown, after dark, different rules apply.

Unfortunately, the Fun Nazis appear to be on the prowl there, too:

And, he added, “I’ve seen more people smoke indoors than I’ve seen in Vegas.” Smoking indoors is illegal in California, but a sizable minority of Koreatown businesses flout the law either because “they don’t care” or do not know what the law is because of a language barrier, said Officer Jason Lee, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department. The district is not a high-crime area, he said, but alcohol violations are a big problem, particularly sales after hours, to minors or in clubs where hostesses ask patrons to buy them drinks.

“That’s a style of drinking that may be legal in Korea but here it’s illegal,” said Officer Lee, a Korean-American who has held educational sessions for Korean-speaking business owners.

Thank God I live in Korea.

From the Financial Times, we have a heartwarming piece on how teen sensation BoA is helping to bridge the gap between Korea and Japan. If you have a subscription, the original can be found here. Otherwise, check out the Chosun Ilbo’s take on the piece here. Money shots (courtesy the Chosun):

FT reported that Korean music, films and TV dramas are winning fans in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Cambodia and added that while many older Koreans still have painful memories of Japan’s occupation of the Korean Peninsula, Korea’s younger generation does not follow the older generation’s views of Japan.

Last April, ahead of a concert in Osaka, BoA had an interview with FT and said, “Older people still have some bad feelings but among young people attitudes are changing. We like Japanese animation and games. Hopefully my success in Japan will help improve relations further.”

17-year-old Japanese girls coming to the concert said, “The only thing I knew about Korea before BoA was spicy food. I would like to go there to find out more,” while a 27-year-old teacher said, “Japanese people see in Korean music and drama something that has been lost from their own culture. We feel that Korea is a more pure and passionate country. That is why Korean music and dramas are becoming popular.”

Personally, I’m not sure what to make of the piece. Not to take anything away from BoA, but this could have easily been a piece on how either Bae Yong-jun or the Sony Playstation was improving bilateral relations. Moroever, I’m not really sure that the theme — that younger people “like” Japan more than the older generation — is particularly valid. Sure, the piece pointed to a survey in the Segye Ilbo that claimed that only 1 in 4 Koreans “dislike” Japan, but anecdotal evidence would suggest otherwise. Anyway, if you’ve got hard data on generational views on Japan, my comments section is open.

Finally, we have this beauty from the LAT on how the successes of biracial entertainers in Korea like Lee Yu Jin, Sonya (whose nude saga we’ve been covering feverishly here at the Marmot’s Hole) and Jennifer Young Wisner have helped erode some of the biases against biracial individuals in Korea. A snippet:

For years, Lee Yu Jin kept her secret.

Whenever anybody asked ??? and they did all the time as her celebrity as an actress and model spread ??? she simply denied the rumors. No, she was not a foreigner. She was Korean.

Finally, last year, Lee called a news conference and tearfully acknowledged that her father was an American GI. As her fans had long suspected from her 5-foot-9 stature, she was of mixed race.

“People ask why didn’t I come out earlier and why this is such a big deal,” the 27-year-old said. “It wouldn’t be anywhere else, but Korea is still a closed society where people like to talk about the purity of the race.”

With her acknowledgment, Lee raised the curtain on what has become a phenomenon in the South Korean entertainment industry. Once considered a national embarrassment, a number of biracial entertainers have become famous in the last few years. Many of them, like Lee, have American fathers.

Sonya, a popular singer who goes by only her first name, has landed starring roles in the South Korean stage versions of the musicals “Fame” and “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Jennifer Young Wisner, a bilingual 20-year-old who grew up in North Carolina, has a television show on the English-language Arirang channel and will release an album this year. Another biracial South Korean, Kim Dong Kwang, is a well-known basketball coach.

In a country that prides itself on the homogeneity of its population, these success stories have helped to erode long-standing prejudices.

One of the things it pointed out that the experiences of biracial individuals can differ widely depending on family situation — needless to say, there are likely to be significant differences in the life stories of Amerasian military babies abandoned by their dads at an early age and biracial expat babies from two-parent homes who end up going to prestigious foreign schools. Anyway, read the thing on your own.