This should teach those Japanese provocateurs!

This is probably more productive than sticking a knife in your gut. Or at least less destructive. But not by much:

bee_attack2.jpg

On Tuesday morning at Hangang River Park in Seoul’s Yeouido, beekeeper Ahn Sang-gyu does a “bee attack” performance by covering himself with about 180,000 bees and jumping from a 60cm podium onto the red circle of the Japanese flag (Yonhap)

Now see how it’s done:

bee_attack1.jpg

Remember, children—don’t try this at home.

21 Comments

  1. Posted May 2, 2006 at 4:10 pm | Permalink

    Is the last photo supposed to be a gag? It looks as if he exploded into a swarm of bees on impact.

  2. Posted May 2, 2006 at 4:11 pm | Permalink

    The Dokdo Riders don’t look so stupid now, do they?

  3. Remort your flag
    Posted May 2, 2006 at 4:24 pm | Permalink

    Yes, this was a fantastic idea of a publicity stunt. Now, nobody will believe that South Koreans are xenophobic, racist, backward and isolated by having desecrated the Japanese flag yet again. Geez. What happened to making fun of Canadians?

  4. snow your flag
    Posted May 2, 2006 at 5:12 pm | Permalink

    All of these public temper tantrums against Japan must be pretty ‘impressive’ to any outsiders looking at Korea.

  5. gbnhj your flag
    Posted May 2, 2006 at 5:18 pm | Permalink

    Bees are good, but how about ants? They’re really scary sometimes, you know. Or spiders, or worms - some people get freaked out by worms. I guess they could just check with Joe Rogan.

  6. Posted May 2, 2006 at 5:41 pm | Permalink

    Yep, when you live in South Korea, blogs do write themselves sometimes.

    The best antidote for this kind of behavior would be for every TV station in the world to show this on prime time, with the reporters in tears from laughing their @ss off. Then, the local media here could complain how the hub’s “image” took yet another beating.

  7. aletheia your flag
    Posted May 2, 2006 at 6:06 pm | Permalink

    This is the Korean media’s equivalent to the American media’s hiring of retired general’s for their analysis of Iraq.

  8. Posted May 2, 2006 at 6:43 pm | Permalink

    The beeman will send his bees to protect the magic Isles!

  9. jd your flag
    Posted May 2, 2006 at 6:44 pm | Permalink

    i like to think that these sorts of things are high performance art. like, this guy is not being nuts, he’s making fun of nuts people while at the same time sort of being one. someone with an MFA could do a better job of running through all thte different levels of meaning, but i think we should all of us at least admit that multiple levels of meaning exist.

    like, the word for honey in korean sounds like the english word for a type of monster.

  10. Wedge your flag
    Posted May 2, 2006 at 7:01 pm | Permalink

    We are now entering the theater of the absurd. To all you nationalistic nutters: Thanks for keeping this place unboring!

  11. Seth Gecko your flag
    Posted May 2, 2006 at 7:24 pm | Permalink

    CLASSIC! The guy reminds me of Spider-man’s enemy, “Swarm”.

    He was made of bees.

    http://images.google.com/imgre.....38,DVXA:en

    (Sorry, don’t know how to link)

  12. Posted May 2, 2006 at 7:58 pm | Permalink

    1. Has anyone checked with the ASPCA?

    2. Thanks for clarifying that it was bees. When I first looked at the picture I thought this knucklehead had taken a shit bath and was fixing to unleash a shit storm. Wait, maybe I shouldn’t give anyone any ideas …

  13. Brendon Carr your flag
    Posted May 2, 2006 at 8:43 pm | Permalink

    My days of not taking these guys seriously are certainly coming to a middle.

  14. michael your flag
    Posted May 2, 2006 at 9:49 pm | Permalink

    This is no less absurd than Roh declaring “diplomatic war” over the little rocks–in fact, the bee man gets more points for originality.

  15. R. Elgin your flag
    Posted May 2, 2006 at 11:16 pm | Permalink

    This is the Korean media’s equivalent to the American media’s hiring of retired general’s for their analysis of Iraq.Oh my word, I choked with laughter to read such!

    This incident did make it into the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asi.....964512.stm

    “The honeybee dares to abandon its life when enemies are attempting to attack, to protect its own home. From now on, I hope these bees will contribute to protect our Dokdo”, Ahn Sang-Gyu said.

    I like my honey without tasteless politics . . .

  16. Sonagi your flag
    Posted May 3, 2006 at 3:10 am | Permalink

    What’s the Japanese media coverage of this like? This beekeeper’s stunt is even funnier than the Tokyo flag muncher.

  17. McSnack your flag
    Posted May 3, 2006 at 6:19 am | Permalink

    His fingers are all there, aren’t they? His left hand looks awfully red.

  18. snow your flag
    Posted May 3, 2006 at 2:58 pm | Permalink

    “His fingers are all there, aren’t they? His left hand looks awfully red.”

    Maybe he wanted to cover all bases in this protest. Cut up hand (maybe he didnt cut off any fingers, but the blood adds to the effect) and jump on a Japanese flag in a swarm of bees. What’s next? Lighting himself on fire? Cutting off his own head?

  19. Zonath your flag
    Posted May 3, 2006 at 3:22 pm | Permalink

    Cutting off his own head? Like with a sword? That would be some trick.

    I have to admit, this is kind of impressive, although I have to wonder about the motivations of the individuals who do this sort of thing. Are they really trying to make a real statement, or just being plain old media whores in a new and interesting way? Today, he’s jumping onto a Japanese flag with a swarm of bees on him, tomorrow he’s spending a week covered in bees, allowing them to feed him with their sweet, sweet nectar. Hell, I bet if he did that, some American network would pay him a truckload of money and give him his own special, like the Uberwhore of all media, David Blaine.

  20. thorin your flag
    Posted May 3, 2006 at 10:21 pm | Permalink

    The bee man made the 5/2 Daily Show “moment of zen”.

  21. jd your flag
    Posted May 4, 2006 at 12:02 pm | Permalink

    McSnack,

    if you watch the video linked at lost nomad, you can see the bee man cut himself with what looks like a utility knife. he never tries to remove a finger, just get enough blood to “sign” his poster.

    the video is really worth watching, because you can hear all the reporters laughing just before the guy jumps onto the flag, followed by some polite clapping once he lands. it sounds like there were no more than five people there watching.

5 Trackbacks

  1. [...] Thanks to the Marmot for digging up this story. [...]

  2. [...] First, the nutjob bee man from last November has resurfaced to show that Japanese warmonger claims against Dokdo are no more than barking at the moon (DPRK-speak via NK News), by once again covering himself in thousands of bees – but this time he follows by jumping on a Japanese flag! Pure genius. [...]

  3. [...] First, the nutjob bee man from last November has resurfaced to show that Japanese warmonger claims against Dokdo are no more than barking at the moon (DPRK-speak via NK News), by once again covering himself in thousands of bees – but this time he follows by jumping on a Japanese flag! Pure genius. [...]

  4. [...] UPDATE: WOAH - this story is way cooler than I imagined – this guy wasn’t just standing around in a bee suit – he did a full-on cannonball on the Japanese flag covered in bees! [...]

  5. By Bee man - the video at Lost Nomad on May 3, 2006 at 7:06 pm

    [...] Recently, The Marmot posted about Ahn Sang-gyu, the man who covered his body in bees and jumped on a Japanese flag in order to protest the whole Dokdo debacle.  Well, here’s the video for your viewing pleasure.  What will they think of next? [...]

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