WARNING: Do not read this with anything around you that might damage your computer should you feel the sudden urge to chuck it at your monitor. Those with weak stomachs may wish to have a barf bag handy.
If you can’t sell it at inflated prices, you might as well not eat it, I guess:
Eleven Koreans and one Japanese protester charged with unlawful assembly after clashing with police during the World Trade Organization meetings have started an "indefinite hunger strike" in an attempt to gain an early release from Hong Kong.
They launched the action because they say they are being held as "political prisoners" in Hong Kong, according to a statement released Thursday.
Two others, a mainlander and a Taiwanese, arrested with the group are not participating, said Elizabeth Tang, director of the Hong Kong People’s Alliance on WTO.
Tang said, however, that her group cannot corroborate charges made by the Koreans that they were victims of police brutality during the round-up of protesters on December 18, following a violent protest in Wan Chai.
The 14 protesters are out on bail awaiting trial scheduled for Wednesday, but if they are not released then, they will likely have to stay in Hong Kong for at least two more months until the trial is finished.
"We are worried about them. One suffers from diabetes and another from asthma," said Tang, who also heads the pro-democracy Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions.
The hunger strike is part of a series of attempts to build local and international support seeking the protesters’ early release, she said.
But fear not–Korea’s Hannyu (Korean Wave) stars are coming to the rescue! Actors Ahn Sung-ki, Lee Young-ae and Lee Byung-heon–feeling as only they can the pain of the Korean working class–are scheduled to head to Hong Kong on Wednesday to hand a petition to both the Hong Kong court handling the protesters’ case and the local media.
An official with the Coalition for Cultural Diversity in Moving Images said, "Given how the three actors who signed the petition and will visit Hong Kong have played major roles in the Korean Wave, we expect their petition to have a good impact on the court."
And in case you wanted to read the petition, here’s the translation:
We pay our respect to the Hong Kong government and police, who are working hard to promote democracy in Hong Kong.
Korea’s workers, farmers and all segments of society are experiencing much pain under the shadow of globalization. We understand the protesters came to Hong Kong to convey their protests to the WTO ministerial meeting, which claims it is leading globalization.
We know that as the Korean anti-WTO delegation, which was composed of workers, farmers and civic groups, conveyed its position, an untoward incident occurred, even though the group did not desire friction between it and the Hong Kong government and police. About that incident, we are very regretful.
We earnestly plead that the Hong Kong government and police take into consideration the hellish existence they [the protesters] lead and the pain they are suffering in Hong Kong and deal with them so that they can quickly return to Korea and live with their families.
I guess the screen-quote people are right–apparently, Hollywood’s cultural influence really does cut deep.
I’m sure the Hong Kong authorities will lend a sympathetic ear, understanding as they do the horrors of free trade and globalization.
21 Comments
Let ‘em starve. The whole reason they got in trouble in the first place is rioting, now they think that doing the same thing that got the in jail in the first place again is their ticket to get out? It’s like the murderer killing all the witnesses as his grand plan to prove his innocence.
The best part is the 11 Koreans and 1 Japanese are being showed up by the mainland Chinese guy. He’s the only one that’s got any sense in him — That’s gotta hurt the pride. However he’s not arguing that he was right to riot, he’s arguing that he was never rioting in the first place, so that’s probably got something to do with his more… non-stupid reaction. (Does anyone know a smart person word for ‘non-stupid’? I couldn’t think of anything. meh..)
And now actors want to get involved and they think they’ll actually make a difference because they’re popular in HK? Didn’t these people see Team America? Actors act, politicians politic, and the rest of us express our idiot-ness on The Marmot’s Hole. Next think ya know these two will be running for public office. A sad trend that is not limited to only California, but happens all too much in Taiwan and Japan too..
I think I’ll write a letter and personally deliver it to HK myself too.
I’m trying to imagine the global blacklash if Tom Cruise, BRad Pitt, and Julia Roberts jetted of to a foreign country to use their influence to help free a group of American sitting in a foreign jail for breaking local laws.
It’s not easy…
does HK utilise the death penalty?
and NO…….actually i was thinking it would be useful for dealing with a few visiting starsof the korea wave.
I say “leaniency” for t he hunger-striking farmers!
What kills me is that they were warned way before they ever put their feet in Hong Kong. Did they listen to the warnings and the pleadings for non violence? Nope. Hong Kong must make an example out of them and teach them a lesson they’ll never forget - 20 years in jail for plotting, attacking and attempted murder on police officers would be nice.
This is great. These so-called farmers’ representatives, many of whom are Korean Commies, go against HongKong government that is controlled by Chinese Communist Party. These Commies do not know whom they are fighting against.
I hope HK government screw them to the max. Throw them to the worst jail in the city. Let their starving faces fill Korean newspapers every day. Then, Koreans will realize that the Chinese and the Americans are not the same kind of people.
The Chinese are poor and vicious. They look down on Koreans just as much as the Japanese do. As China digs herself out of poverty, her ChungWha(The Chinese rule the world) spirit will wage war against Japan, even against the US.
Koreans will serve their old master.
“They look down on Koreans just as much as the Japanese do.”
Not so, Chinese tend to admire Koreans and always tend to categorize themselves with them while Japanese wish the best for Koreans.
My vote goes to the “Let ‘em starve” group. I have no sympathy.
“They look down on Koreans just as much as the Japanese do.”
Not so, Chinese tend to admire Koreans and always tend to categorize themselves with them while Japanese wish the best for Koreans.
I think you’re misinterpreting Chinese motives. Many Chinese may like Korean cultural products and electronics and everything, but that does not change the Sinocentric view with which they have long been indoctrinated.
?? (the “middle kingdom”) is how they call themselves and — surprise of surprises — how they view they’re country: Korea and Japan are, in the 5000 years of cultural scheme of things, upstarts that are historically juniors, and whom China will eventually surpass economically.
Yes, Korea and Japan, like all others, are looked down upon by Chinese. The fact that Japan and Korea are, in terms of per capita GDP, far richer and also that they buy up so much of China, makes the antagonism all the worse.
The only advantage Korea has over Japan, in terms of the Chinese view, is that Korea did not invade China. China hypocritically criticizes Japan for historical amnesia while at the same time ignoring how it teaches its own people that South Korea invaded North Korea.
Katz, China’s love of Korea is ephemeral. Korea and Japan need to resolve the current historical disagreements in the spirit of the 1998 Obuchi-Kim Daejung agreement so that the two countries that are so close sociologically, economically, and especially politically and democratically, can move forward.
China, as it now is, is a friend of neither. Latching on to them will not change them. Seoul, Tokyo, and Taipei should all stand together to push Beijing to change.
“They launched the action because they say they are being held as “political prisoners” in Hong Kong…” One tactic Koreans North and South have in common: first be the aggressor, then play the victim.
It would be a wise move for South Korea to move closer to Japan, than China.
Yeah, Kushibo, I know the current situation that they are trying to steal our history and land. I forgot to write that the fact that Chinese tend to categorize themselves with Koreans irritates me. And yes, Kimbob, I always thought like what you wrote.
“Korea’s workers, farmers and all segments of society are experiencing much pain under the shadow of globalization.”
are you fucking kidding me? three asshat korean entertainers whose luxury condos and beamers are paid for by hallyu (or as it’s otherwise known - globalization) are going to sit there with a straight face and cry about the pain suffered by koreans under the shadow of globalization?
guess why anyone in hong kong knows your faces and names? GLOBALIZATION!
this is a level of stupidity and hypocrisy reserved only for koreans. holy sheep shit.
how about pledging every penny you three dumbfucks earned off the “shadow of globalization” to the families of those farmers? christ, if you’re going to feed off the trough of globalization, you may want to avoid blabbering on about the hellish toll it’s taking on your fellow countrymen.
a shiny new nickel for anyone that finds a link to a korean media outlet that highlights the overwhelming hypocrisy of this bullshit.
i expect to hand out none.
Nice to know it’s not only U.S. actors who are political naifs prone to shooting off their mouths.
I would love to see how quickly the actors shut up if they realize this activism puts a dent in their sales abroad.
Asia bows before hallyu:
http://english.chosun.com/w21d.....70003.html
Apparently Chinese women even want to resemble the master race:
Learning Korean has become increasingly popular in many Asian countries, as have Korean food, fashion and cosmetics. Ms. Leung says in China the craze has even meant more people undergoing plastic surgery, as she noticed during a research trip last year.
“I found that there were more and more younger girls and also older women wanting to go through plastic surgery,” she said. “They would be visiting these hospitals which stress this kind of Korean-style cosmetic technology. This is not too much of a question of wanting to look more Korean, but I think in mainland China the audience might have been affected by Korean TV dramas and that they want to look more beautiful.”
That’s creepy. Especially the part about Chinese women wanting to “look more beautiful” after they’ve been “affected” by Korean dramas, which indeed implies they want to look “more Korean.”
Not too many women anywhere look as beautiful as Ziyi Zhang and Gong Li, in my opinion.
It’s too bad no one in Korean media is fisking this offensive bullshit and castigating the ones who produce it.
That’s creepy. Especially the part about Chinese women wanting to “look more beautiful” after they’ve been “affected” by Korean dramas, which indeed implies they want to look “more Korean.”
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
You mean they want to look like women in Korean dramas. Which, let’s face it, is not what most pre-surgery women in Korea look like.
Kudos to everyone for finding evil in the Hallyu Korean wave. We are facing the prospect of a wave of leftist governments in Latin America, increasing anti-Western animosity in the Middle East as the war in Iraq drags on, the on-going nuclear threat of Iran and North Korea, human rights abuses in China, North Korea, Burma, etc., the specter of war between a surging China and a wishing-to-remilitarize Japan, etc., etc., but by golly it’s the Hallyu (!) that’s got everyone in a tizzy.
It’s too bad no one in Korean media is fisking this offensive bullshit and castigating the ones who produce it.
The other day, a Korean told me, “Korean movies suck! Why would anyone besides Koreans pay money to see them?”
I don’t agree with the person at all (his impressions were based on movies about five to ten years ago), but I don’t think the love for Hallyu products in Korea is universal, and if I’m right, it would stand to reason that it’s not correct that “no one in Korean media is fisking this offensive bullshit.” I mean, if MBC could take the plunge to fisk the erstwhile national hero Dr. Hwang Woo-suk, someone’s gotta be doing the same with this other sacred cow.
Of course, I don’t read every single thing that comes out of the Korean media, so your contention, no doubt from an exhaustive review of all Korean media on Hallyu, may in fact be correct.
Kushibo, Kushibo, Kushibo, it’s Sunday morning, relax, grab a cup of coffee…. I live in Seoul, I check out a blog about Korea when I’m bored at work–which is always, we have a lot of downtime–and I comment on the silliness I find in this country. I’m not in a tizzy, I’m quite chilled for having to goddamn work on Sunday, goddamn it….
I actually do read/watch an exhaustive amount of Korean media, it’s part of my job. I know many Korean journalists. You think any of them are going to write something like “Hey, let’s rein in this hallyu stuff, it’s getting out of hand…” Uh-uh. Hwang was totally different, a “scientist” faking research, spending gov’t funds for god knows what. It takes an altogether different attitude, somewhat like the writing in Slate or Salon, a cultural criticism that is absent here.
These reports are just embarrassing at best, and offensive at worst with the racial superiority they imply. I wish individual Koreans every success overseas–but the collective massive head egotism is really old.
I’m not in a tizzy, I’m quite chilled for having to goddamn work on Sunday, goddamn it….
Um, the tizzy remark wasn’t really directed so much at you as the larger picture of the echo chamber griping about it (hence the word “everyone”). Sorry for the confusion.
I actually do read/watch an exhaustive amount of Korean media, it’s part of my job. I know many Korean journalists. You think any of them are going to write something like “Hey, let’s rein in this hallyu stuff, it’s getting out of hand…” Uh-uh.
Well, people might ask, “Is it really as popular in such-and-such country as it’s being made out to be?” I’ve been involved with news people who have done that, and I doubt they are the only ones. Sure, it may be a 95%/5% split, or maybe even a 99%/1% split, but “no one”? I don’t think so.
Hwang was totally different, a “scientist” faking research, spending gov’t funds for god knows what.
Hwang was found to be a scientist faking research, etc. But when MBC did their expose, they were taking shots at a national hero. Yes, my point is, the Korean media (of which I have long been a strong critic), is not universally the one-dimensional Korean cheerleaders that they are often portrayed to be.
It takes an altogether different attitude, somewhat like the writing in Slate or Salon, a cultural criticism that is absent here.
Mostly absent, I would tend to agree.
These reports are just embarrassing at best, and offensive at worst with the racial superiority they imply.
I agree that some of them go overboard, especially with the racial superiority stuff. But I also have heard Korean-Koreans criticize some of this stuff. The Korean monolith is also a myth.
I wish individual Koreans every success overseas–but the collective massive head egotism is really old.
What country doesn’t have a collective massive head egotism? The light of democracy does. The purveyors of cultural enlightenment do. The middle kingdom certainly does. The leaders of Asian prosperity do, too, to a lesser degree.
Someone writes on my site that his friends used to say about Korean cars, “A Korean car? Do they even have roads in Korea?” Yeah, that M*A*S*H image lingers in the collective mind of the world, seeing Korea as a decrepit backwater.
Koreans felt beaten up for most of the past half century since the war, and so when there finally is some success, people want to bask in these accomplishments. Other than when it spills over to racial superiority stuff (which, let’s face it, Korea is not alone in thinking here in East Asia) or something similarly egregious, I say let the people enjoy it for a while.
Yeah, I agree let them enjoy it, it’s just tiring when the media cranks it up to 11. I realize Koreans are not monolithic.
Still, the media here is fairly one-dimensional. They went after Hwang on only one program initially, and remember that the show was then cancelled for doing so.
In the States, at least on either coast, Koreans are very well known–check out the L.A. Times or the Village Voice, there’s often something positive being written about Korean food or movies or cars or Samsung.
As for “Koreans felt beaten up for most of the past half century since the war,” I think they really didn’t feel much of anything, they were nose to the grindstone making the “Miracle on the Han,” and now maybe Korean society is finding its place in the world. I’m all for that. But just as you don’t take Brad Pitt’s box office success to be an indication of U.S. superiority (you don’t, right?) and neither does the U.S. media, the success of Yonsama or other Koreans should not be an occasion for collective gloating.
Again, it’s when you read the sillier accounts of hallyu that you hope there won’t be a backlash against it in other countries that hear all the crowing.
Well they are just waking up from feeling inferior to the rest of the world. Inferiority complex does that to you. Give them time to mature as a nation state and a group of self governing citizen. Korea may have a long history, but as a modern nation, and esp. as a democratic state, it is still relatively a newbie.