According to Yonhap (Korean), the photo work for the jacket of her upcoming fifth album was shot at the Ojukheon in lovely Gangneung, Gangwon Province. She also did some music videos there.
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40 Comments
I don’t really care for BoA, and there’s something somewhat ghostly about here appearance in this photo.
But I just wanted to post a comment. Activity on the Marmot’s hole has been extremely quiet these last 24 hours or so. What’s going on? Have commenters worn themselves out bitching and moaning about Shelton’s valiant and underappreciated attempts at fitting in here? Is everyone just busy with the workaday grind?
Er, those are rhetorical questions, by the way, especially the second-to-last one….
Don’t worry, I’ll craft some particularly inflammatory flame bait to get things rolling.
Ah, is that what we’re missinga good troll or two!? Hah hah hah……oh, dear.
Boa is very plain-looking, methinks.
Never mind about what she looks like, what about her music?
You mean that annoying background noise when she’s dancing?
Is this woman on a starvation diet or what (maybe she is a member of the diet) very bad composition, no hands, no hard firm body , no feet. Is this someone’s idea of great art photography? Hopefully she can sing better than she photographs!
It’s definitely the hanbok (is that a hanbok?) that gives her that ghostly look. It’s part see-through!
Yeah, that’s a hanbok. No, it’s just that from this angle, she looks extremely thin. (Is she? I’ve actually never seen any other picture of her, if you can believe it.)
But maybe that’s it. I actually didn’t notice you could see her arms until you pointed it out. Something subliminal happening there….
Boa is very plain-looking, methinks.Well, I wouldn’t chew my arm off the next morning.
The photographer did an wonderful job! It is, without a doubt, the best photo I’ve seen here yet. I wonder who shot it?
I agree it is an excellent photo, in terms of technical quality. I’m just not a big fan of the subject (sorry, BoA fans).
The woman speaks excellent Japanese and runs her career in a way that, prior to her actual rise in popularity, would have had many people advising her not to go in that direction (either because they themselves were anti-Japanese or they were fearful of a backlash from those who were).
That alone earns her kudos from me.
Oh, absolutely no doubt she’s probably made a tremendous contribution to the interest young Koreans and Japanese have in each other’s culture. So for that I too definitely give her kudos. It’s just that there’s something vaguely je ne sais quoi about that photo that’s a bit spooky somehow….
A little bird told me that Korean women who speak Japanese (or vise-versa) can make twice as much money in certain professions.
Wasn’t sure at first where to post this link for the Marmot crew, but BoA (always reminds me of Bank of America) speaking Japanese made me think here is as good as anywhere:
http://uqmgp.hp.infoseek.co.jp/
Korea needs therapy.
Korea needs teachers who don’t try to indoctrinate hatred in kids like that.
There are some serious psychological problems when teachers preach hate to children, anywhere, anytime. It’s also schizo to brag about a Korean singer’s popularity in Japan and wish the country’s destruction. (With the usual caveats, no I’m not referring to all Koreans, etc.)
Those serious psychological problems seem all too common inside and outside Korea. Most countries seem to have some form of bogeyman, and many/most folks in their respective countries find nothing wrong to demonize them. Not that I don’t agree with your point, but, let’s face it, when we get down to it, it’s a common human condition/nature, isn’t it.
If you’d like, I’ll list some examples (once I sover up a bit and remember to check back here).
Btw, the girl’s hot. What’s this “BoA” stand for? I thought it referred to Bank of America before I clicked on this post.
Troll, I agree it’s a common condition, but what disturbs me is that some teachers in the public school system (apparently) are promoting this.
Such hatred should come from the press, movies, and television programs, not the public school system.
Btw, the girl?€™s hot. What?€™s this ?€œBoA?€? stand for? I thought it referred to Bank of America before I clicked on this post.
It’s her actual name - Kwan Bo-Ah.
“Such hatred should come from the press, movies, and television programs, not the public school system.” Kushibo, a little sarcasm? (Where’s the little emoticon when you need it?) I’m not singling out Korea for any other reason than that I live here. Sorry Mr. Troll, but certainly it’s difficult to think of another country outside of maybe Cuba or North Korea that would have teachers villifying another country to children. I’m talking about institutionalized bigotry, not media images or whatever.
btw, were/are you (MM) or were/are you not singling out Korea? cut this “i don’t mean to x, but x” bs.
“evil pinko commies” came pretty handy in the US (including her public school system) before the soviets collapsed.
thanks, sysclick. see, some people actually provide info/answers questions, instead of rambling on about god knows what’s in their head.
My comment was very clear, Troll, unlike your?€œevil pinko commies?€?non sequitur. Why don’t you actually provide information, that is proof that was taught in US public schools, and cut your BS?
Also, you and Kushibo are conflating ideology with race–being against the Soviet Union is not at all like expressing hate for Japan and its people.
My comment was very clear, Troll, unlike your?€œevil pinko commies?€?non sequitur. Why don?€™t you actually provide information, that is proof that was taught in US public schools, and cut your BS?
Having been educated in both systems, I can say such bigotry was not was taught in the US. But, in Korea, we have the most primal form of “nationalism” - nation in the sense of race. Our intense need to feel persecuted stems from a deep-seated sense of inadequacy that seeks victory in moral indignation over the imagined racism of other nations. The fact that the world is not and could never possibly be as racist as we Koreans want to imagine it is beyond the scope of our comprehension as we are too steeped in racial consciousness to know any better.
By the way, Boa is hot.
so the anti-communism credo in the US doesn’t fall into the category of bigotry? if it wasn’t “institutionalized”, how was McCarthy witch-hunting possible? you think the US schools taught the kids that communists are good people just like us, just bit misguided? Didn’t Reagan, the holder of the presidency no less, call USSR the evil empire?
yeah, it’s disturbing that teachers apparently endorsed and encouraged the little kids in that sorta drawings, and i agree (as i wrote before) that this is pretty ugly, but widely accepted bigotry of one form or another are far too common everywhere, as are your “serious psychological problems.”
Ok, Mr MM?
MizarV wrote:Having been educated in both systems, I can say such bigotry was not was taught in the US.It wasn’t taught in the US school system (at least not in Orange County).
But it wasn’t promoted through media in other forms? How about movies like “Red Dawn.” Tagline (courtesy IMDB): “In our time, no foreign army has ever occupied American soil. Until now.”
This popular film (with Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen) was designed to whip up scare and anger about the Soviets, at a time when Reagan was calling them “the Evil Empire.”
And yeah, BoA is hot.
By the way Troll, why steer this into what might have been taught in the U.S. in the 1950s? That’s irrelevant to me–I was disturbed by what is apparently being taught right now in Korean schools. I think Mizar5 touched on what might be behind this bigotry (or not, it’s just his opinion), but it’s disturbing all the same. Here’s even more pictures from kids attacking Japan/Japanese people:
http://aog.2y.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=1558
I commented on it here because the media goes on about how BoA and Yonsama and crew are loved in Japan, while the schools preach hate of Japanese…it’s just screwy.
So when young students were once taught to regard North Koreans as the enemy, that was political (not racial), but when the same tactic is used toward Japan, that is racial, not political?
Thank you for clearing that up. I had thought both instances of promoting hatred toward another country were political.
You’re shifting the goalposts here–Americans vs Soviets has just mutated into N. Koreans vs ? I guess S. Koreans, because you don’t specify. Again, encouraging schoolchildren to draw pictures that say “fuck you” to Japan (in English) is racist, not ideological, because both are ostensible democracies. And it’s based on Koreans’ collective nationalistic insecurity, with a little political veneer if that makes you feel better. And the pictures are displayed in public in a subway station. That’s really pathetic.
MichaelMichael wrote:You?€™re shifting the goalposts here?€“Americans vs Soviets has just mutated into N. Koreans vs ? I guess S. Koreans, because you don?€™t specify.South Koreans.
South Korean children were taught to do virtually the exact same thing vis-??-vis the North Koreans that these kids apparently have been taught to do toward Japan. The source is political motivation.Again, encouraging schoolchildren to draw pictures that say ?€œfuck you?€? to Japan (in English) is racist, not ideological, because both are ostensible democracies.It has racist overtones, yes, but it is primarily political. Ideological, too, if fanatical opposition to perceived expansionism of a former colonizer is an ideology.And it?€™s based on Koreans?€™ collective nationalistic insecurity, with a little political veneer if that makes you feel better. And the pictures are displayed in public in a subway station. That?€™s really pathetic.Yes, it is. I want to know what subway station this is. I think everyone should write a letter to the subway station and to the subway station corporation and several newspapers explaining why this is morally abhorrent behavior for public servants (schoolteachers).
I doubt elementary school children embody “fanatical opposition to perceived expansionism of a former colonizer,” but sure, the “adults” might. The kids are just being used, they’re not old enough to understand the situation. Slice it up whatever way you want, it’s very offensive, and I’d say the same if the actors were reversed. Write letters if you’re serious about it….
Just to answer you and be done with this, the pictures are apparently on display at Gyulhyeon Station in Incheon.
http://www.urbanrail.net/as/inch/incheon.htm
I agree with everything you just now said, MichaelMichael.
If someone tells me what subway station this is (the letters on the pic of the poster were too small to be legible), I will not just write letters, but I will go over and complain in person.
You’re my new best friend
Gyulhyeon Station in Incheon according to the guy who took pics of it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m having a great time in Korea, I know the background to it, I’m sympathetic to a point, but shizzle like this exasperates me to no end. It’s not cool to use children to wage your battles.