Japan’s Fuji TV has “sparked controversy,” as they say, by broadcasting images of Korean teens breaking shit at Lotte World because they couldn’t get in. The Fuji TV morning program “Tokudane,” reporting on the recent stampede at Lotte World, played a 20-second video containing a very angry interview with some Busan teens along with footage of other teens smashing property outside the park. The Busan teens, whose faces were not blotted out, bitched about how they’d taken the KTX all the way from the southern port, but were ultimately denied access. “I want to smash everything,” they said. And for good measure, Fuji TV edited in some footage of teens going wild on benches, flower pots, signs and the like.
Needless to say, Japanese netizens are having a field day with it. One netizen from the Land of Hello Kitty said, “Koreans are really stupid, breaking property even though the camera is rolling.” Another said, “Korea is the only nation in the world where crowds riot because they can’t get into a free event.” Another said, “Ah, Korea’s national character is still low.”
Making matters worse in terms of PR, the video found itself on a famous foreign humor site (doesn’t say which one). The video was apparently watched some 6,300 times in just one day, with–gasp!–foreigners less-than-complementary comments about Korea. And for what it’s worth, the piece linked above is the most-looked at over at Naver.com, with 8,022 comments and counting.
(Would appreciate it if someone linked the video below)
14 Comments
What a disappointment, when I saw the title I was expecting to see a Korean version of “Girls Gone Wild”
somebody please put up a video link. I want to see
I poked around 2ch but couldn’t find it. Although I did find this:
http://f17.aaa.livedoor.jp/~ka.....tsu015.jpg
Check out masamania’s latest….hilarious.
korea deserves it’s nasty reputation. a country predicated on expressions of anger always get a bad rap that’s earned. though korea can no look no further than themselves, they might take a look at a few muslim countries that also seem to resort to violence when anger erupts.
koreans want the respect of the world but thye are mistaken if they think that all it takes is becoming wealthy. this is also about knowing how to get along with others whose respect you crave. unfortunarely, koreans have no social skills when dealing the outside world because they’re too busy letting their emotions all hang out. that’s something that’s frowned upon here in the west. people who show anger are sanctioned. just like korea is sanctioned for being a society based on confrontation.
here’s an actual conversation i had today with a stewerdess for a large airline:
lady: ‘i go to beijing, tokyo…the chinese are just filthy spitting everywhere but i like the japanese… they’re clean and don’t make noise.’
pawi: ‘do you go to seoul?’
lady: ‘i don’t care for the koreans but seoul is a great place to shop…’
i didn’t think it would be right for me to bait her and besides, the koreans deserve their nasty reputation; it’s earned.
one comment about Japan being more Europe like, clean, people make lines, keep lines, don’t cheat, stay honest, etc.
Well, they are the most European like country in East Asia !
They’ve been so since the 1800’s !
What you people complain about Korea isn’t really a Korean problem. Did you know that?
Did YOU know that?
You go to Mexico, China, Korea, Russia, and Eastern European country…people will cheat, lie, not make lines, cross the street on a red light, drive nasty, be very uncourteous, etc.
Do YOU want to know why?
These people grew up POOR !
It’s more of luxury to have a culture where you display good behavior in public. It’s a survival skill to get ahead whenever one can. Cross the street ahead of other people, lie for money, lie for contracts, dishonor contracts, just stay alive, etc.
You don’t believe me?
I display the case of the nouveau rich and the rich folk with some long history.
Who has better social manners?
See my point?
Of COURSE South Koreans are in need of MANY improvements. But, they’re not inherently evil people. That’s all I have to say. They’ll catch up in about 20 more years.
Remember, even in 1985, these people were restricted from foreign travel, in order to save dollars in Korean circulation. I don’t know if that makes any sense to you guys, but it was a real economic reason. South Korea was nowhere near West Europe in economic prosperity at the time. Close, but not on par.
in fact it was pretty poor that most US citizens would not have considered living and working in South Korea. You certainly would been financially better off, much better off, working in the US.
i don’t know if anyone can recall a similar time and experience, but during 1989-1991, the following economic transition actually took place.
My father made 100 manwon as his monthly wage. That was considred a good wage. Nowadays, probably you guys would imagine that we were dirt poor.
People’s wages stayed what it was from 1986-1988 levels. But, imported goods were priced and sold at the price they were sold in the US.
Take for example, Guess jeans. I’m not a girl, but I’m just using it as an example, because my sister tried to convince my parents to buy these.
They were at least 5 manwon.
Would anyone spend 1/20 = 5% of their monthly income to buy jeans?
Some people in South Korea did. And wore them around almost everyday of the week, but that’s another matter.
My point is, income wise, and culture wise, South Korea came to be so fairly recently. Give them a break. Although there is a valid point that a lot of the negatives have to do with inherent Korean qualities.
If they would just lay off the arrogance once in awhile, we would. But they can’t seem to help themselves.
Bingo.
dogbertt, I gather you’ve never hung around Itaewon?
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/.....hp?t=54727
“korea deserves it’s nasty reputation”
While Koreans certainly aren’t as as placid as Japanese, I wouldn’t go quite that. Korea is safer and less volotile than half of the west.
Saying this, it does look very bad to Japanese viewers, and is certain to fuel false ideas that Koreas are ‘backwards hotheads’, and to give Korea an undeservedly bad reputation.
I bet Ko Bunyu and his fellow neo-Japanese wannabes are busy writting this into “Hating the Korean Wave” Volume 2 as we speak.
Still, if a group of Japanese teens were to smash up a venue like that, with a Korean TV crew near by, then its just plain fair that it gets aired on Korean TV too.
The problem with this theory is that most younger generation Koreans did NOT grow up poor.
“The problem with this theory is that most younger generation Koreans did NOT grow up poor.”
Good point, but there are learning from those that did.
Poor behaviour is just that. There are no excuses and I’m sure having their pictures put on the internet is rich justice in that these people can not hide from such.
The Lotte World people were idiots for staging such a poorly managed event too!