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Dokdo is our watermelon
This entry was written by Robert Koehler, posted on August 5, 2005 at 12:50 am, filed under South Korea. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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16 Comments
Pretty talented.
That’s fairly sad. Really, come on now, give it a rest Korea.
Pathetic.
why?
Wow. Amazing!
The carving is nice.
I wonder if anyone has any sand sculpture competitions in Korea. I’ve seen some wonderful work at other competitions though it is all just sand.
I wonder if anyone has any sand sculpture competitions in Korea. I??ve seen some wonderful work at other competitions though it is all just sand.
There used to be (still is?) a competition on Busan’s Haeundae Beach. Check with the Westin Chosun Beach Hotel for more info.
Nationalism crap
And speaking of countries with a heavily dichotimized population vis-a-vis their attitudes toward Japan, Dong-a TV (the so-called “????? channel” which plays reruns of “Friends” and “Sex the City”) is showing this program called “Cinderella Dream” where these average-looking young women go through a process of receiving loads of plastic surgery to look, well, better. The surgeon doing it is a Japanese guy, speaking with subtitles, and the young women then receive etiquette lessons while dressed in kimonos and learn Japanese-style flower arrangement and that kind of stuff. The end result is that they look like Japanese pop stars.
Okay.
Uhm, I’m not sure what you mean with this post (though I suppose there’s a connection to be made somehow with ‘melon-carving’). Seriously, I’ve never seen that show - are the women Korean or Japanese?
The women are Korean.
Kushibo : hey, you’re not watching the show. You’re talking about just a bit of the program. And if so, isn’t it a good news for some Koreans to feel closer towards Japanese through this show? I don’t understand why you’re trying to cast some cynical tone on your comment about it therefore. And the real thing is that this show obtained its idea from a western show with similar programs - surgery and etiquette lessons, etc. Instead of claiming that Korean women are eager to become like Japanese pop star, put your blame on the PD who stole the idea from a western country - U.S. or U.K.
And what I can assure you is that many Korean people(not most, I mean
) appreciate the culture of tea and flowers from Japan. It’s true and I hope you not to twist this fact to claim that “most” Korean people want to become Japanese nationals. It’s just a culture topic and on that subject your culture has something to be appreciated, I know. Just leave it in the area where it should be.
Kleintage (#13), I was watching it when I wrote that, and I agree it’s a good thing. I didn’t mean to have any cynical tone.
Wait, no I was trying to be cynical… on this blog (and others) people put love to focus on Korea-Japan animosity, of which there is a lot, but the fact is that a lot of Koreans and Japanese don’t really feel that way. Many people like Japan and find it fascinating and enjoy meeting people from there. Vice-versa is also true.
I don’t blame the producer for the show. I think it was rather interesting that he or she chose to have the Korean “cinderellas” do their stuff in Japan, which wouldn’t be necessary for the show to go forward.
Not having seen the show, I don’t know about any loving or loathing, but it is a bit odd if it’s true that a Japanese doctor isn’t just operating on Korean women, but is making them look more Japanese. Learning the arts of a culture in order to experience it is one thing, but permanently restructing one’s face as a way of experiencing a culture is something else entirely.
Should be restructuring (not ‘restructing’).
(You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him read a preview of it)
Making them look like Japanese pop stars is my value judgement. They were probably just going for pop star looks, but they happened to be in Japan. Still, the kimonos and the Japanese etiquette stuff was all right there.