Can someone tell me who this guy is? Guy gets almost 10,000 individual hits a day. Obviously, he’s doing something right.
Actually, I noticed recently some of my stuff and other bloggers’ stuff getting mentioned on Japanese blogs and bulletin boards. This is a good thing, of course — I’m thankful anytime a blogger links to my material. One thing that does concern me, however, is that with Korea-Japan relations at something of a low-ebb and netizens on each side of the East Sea looking for bulletin board material (both in the proverbial and literal sense), there’s always the possibility of one getting caught up in one of those “cyber-imjinwaerans” that break out from time to time. What concerns me in particular is that English-language blogs about Korea may become a prime source of material for Japanese bloggers with axes to grind against Korea, and that certain posts or comments might find themselves cited on certain Japanese sites as “proof” that Koreans are all wackjobs. I’m not referring to any Japanese sites in particular — I don’t read Japanese, and I make use of Japanese sites only with the help of a Korean-Japanese robot translator. I simply wish to state my hope that material found on a particular English-language blog about Korea doesn’t inadvertently spark an Korea-Japan netizen war in which the blogger might find himself or herself caught in the crossfire.
P.S. — No, this does not mean I’m going to stop blogging about Korea-Japan relations. It’s simply a warning that bloggers should make an effort to be aware of where their material is being discussed.
18 Comments
Speaking of Imjin Waeran, were you the one who translated the article about the Japanese displeasure of the KBS drama show, Yi Soon Shin, that appeared in today’s Chosun Ilbo? I thought that was so funny.
I prefer not to mention who translated what. But I did find the piece amusing.
Good idea.
There seem to be many Japanese sites out there with helpful information about Korea, while most of those scouring the net night and day for bad stuff on Korea are just part of an insecure fringe. Japan’s got plenty to be proud of, I don’t know what their problem is. (I’ve wondered if Bae Yong Jun’s popularity with Japanese women has had something to do with it, and indeed you can understand wanting them to know he’s not typical
)
I think a lot of our blogs influence the English speaking world’s perceptions of Korea as well.
Marmot, I share your concern.
My own Corea-versus-Korea post on my blog has been cited (without anyone asking me or telling me) on the Japanese-language Wikipedia site as a reference, as well as here.
If someone were to view only this work, especially if it is a Korea-bashing context, they might conclude I have different views than I actually have, or that I am trying to push some agenda that I’m not, especially if they don’t see the entire body of my blogging work on my own site or here or at AsiaPages, etc.
And from personal experience, I can tell you that some petty people might try to use it to take you down.
i just wanted to add that people should be aware that sometimes, a blogger will take what was translated into japanese and then translate it into korean. this is what happened with one of my english posts and it actually alarmed me as i was worried some things could have been altered in the translation according to the blogger’s personal agenda. in fact, three sites have done this to one of my posts and it has really put me on edge as they generate tons of trackbacks and comments on their own sites and new hits to my site. luckily the translation wasn’t as bad as i feared but it still raised some red flags for me. everyone should be aware of that possibility that what you write in english can be translated into japanese and from japanese into korean which leaves room for anxiety along the way.
Note:Please be aware that my English ability is very limited.
A quotation from his site:
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
(About his negative feelings toward Korea:)”This, does not seem to stem from a simple patriotic desire to draw a favoring picture of your own country. Rather, it seems to resemble the sense of aversion you get when you meet an ignominious person.”
Article:http://meinesache.seesaa.net/article/5413833.html
Yet another quote..
“????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????(???)??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????”
“The abnormality of Korea, is a common knowledge, shared by all foreigners once they get a chance to have anythig to do with them. *snip* The disgust we feel toward Korea, does not stem from our discriminatory sentiments (it’s not that we are racist), nor do we feel it because we are narrow-minded patriots. In the eye of a civilized person, Korea is obviously abnormal.”
Article: “>http://meinesache.seesaa.net/article/4162273.html
I’ve noticed this a little too with the http://www.usinkorea.org site.
For some reason, they (the Japanese who noted on their site) like the video of the mob attack of the 3 GIs where they are chasing 2 of them through the streets…
How bad anti-Koreanism is out there in Japanese cyber space? It sounds very serious.
It’s not serious, kimbob. We are frequently assured that Japanese don’t care about Korea.
It??s not serious, kimbob. We are frequently assured that Japanese don??t care about Korea.
Its about to get much, much worse.
How bad anti-Koreanism is out there in Japanese cyber space? It sounds very serious.
It’s extreme. 2ch (the most prominent bulletin board in Japan) for example, is almost entirely hostile.
But it seems to be relatively confined in certain social groups (at least for now).
For some reason, people who’re currently (very) active in Japanese cyber space tend to possess radical anti-Koreanism.
Why, I dunno. But these active groups are frequently associated with keywords such as: 2ch, anime, “social withdrawal sufferer”, otaku, cherry boy. (I’m not making this up)
But I don’t know how true that is.
Anyway, there is a huge gap between the cyber space and the real world here.
(I meant no offence, and I’m sorry if somebody got offended!)
One of the many unprofessional and inflammatory things I’ve noticed about “real” (i.e newspapers) Korean media is their habit of treating anonymous web flamers as if they’re meaningful news sources. While I really don’t read Japanese newspapers I do hope that they are professional and developed enough not to engage in this practice.
BTW, as far as the out of context blog scrounging, do you mean actual posts or do you mean scavenging in the comments section?
BTW, Chewie, it’s bad form to constantly and obtrusively try to shill your blog to us. If it really merits attention it will get it. You’re like an ADHD child constantly trying to direct all attention to yourself. Take your ritalin already.
JYC wrote:One of the many unprofessional and inflammatory things I??ve noticed about ??real?? (i.e newspapers) Korean media is their habit of treating anonymous web flamers as if they??re meaningful news sources. I also find it disturbing that they do that. It’s very unprofessional. If anything, it panders to the extremists, who are then in an arms race of sorts to say the most outrageous thing.
To parhaphrase an old adage, “If it’s screeds, it leads.”
In terms of non-journalistic journalism, though, I don’t see this as too far removed from CNN’s reporting on on-line opinion polls, where people who are interested in an issue will click on to the poll, and where people who want to voice their opinion more strongly will vote multiple times.
This is different from reporting “scientific polls” as news (which itself is too often made a news story), because it can easily be manipulated.
Marmot,
Couldn’t find your email address link on the blog, so I posted this here….
Did you cover this GI event? I checked, but didn’t find anything on it…
http://search.hankooki.com/vie.....tmmedia=hk
My zainichi friend reports that things have completely changed in Japan as to how Japanese people look at Koreans. I think maybe if we look at the past 3 year period anti-korean sentiment has risen, but if we look at past 10 year period, it’s probably opposite. If we look at 20 or 30 or 40 year period… well, I think those intervals are probably the more accurate and representative sampling…
Virtual Wonderer,
Sometimes it seems Koreans want the US and Japan to hate them?
Well GBevers,
No doubt that Korea has a large number of fascist kids running around taught by equally fascist adults. But I have ran into a quite a bit of pro-american and even pro-japanese people to know better. I’ve said this before, but my grandparents for example, always liked Japanese people. My grandfather was positively pro-japanese. I might have a jaundiced view on this given my social circles, but most Koreans I know are pro-americans. Once in awhile these Koreans get caught up in the hype of Dokdo or armoured vehicle accidents. But sometimes in the case with Armoured vehicle, things do dissipate… The reason it takes so long for such thing to dissipate, I think, is the echo-chamber effect. (i.e. I heard the GIs were sociopaths. Oh really? I heard they loved killing korean kids.) It just takes a looooong time. As for the case for Dokdo, my feeling is that Korean people will never back down on that issue, and probably will forever be an issue. Dokdo issue just seem like a “he said, she said” type of dispute, and frankly, I nor the vast majority of Korean or in fact, Japanese public really care about the details.
But, I do see, in my small circle of social network, more korean people seeing Japan with more nuanced and enlightened point of view.
The social phenomena of Demo-Dongaree is really complex and I don’t think i’m really qualified to talk about that.