Comments on: Professor analyzes Joseon beauties, likens P’yang gisaeng to Choi Ji-woo

By: whitey

whitey — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 13:36:34 +0000

Whenever I hear Koreans, like this “professor”, analyzing facial features in a creepy way, I get a funny feeling like I’m listening to Nazis talking about eugenics.

By: SomeguyinKorea

SomeguyinKorea — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 13:32:50 +0000

jonnyh,

It’s a matter of socio-linguistics.
Words enters our lexicon because they meet a need. People who live in two different societies will have disctinct needs from one another, and therefore certain words and concepts will be more common in society than the other.

People who live in multicultural societies rely on a set of physiognomic traits that greatly vary from one individual to other–such as hair and eye colour–to describe someone. Koreans live in much more homogenous society, therefore many share the same hair and eye colour. As a result, Koreans must rely on different facial characteristics to set one person appart from the other…which explains why many Koreans know what a ‘philtrum’ is and most Westerners don’t.

By: jonnyh

jonnyh — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:18:16 +0000

Mr. Marmot sir,
I was intrigued by your mention of the philtrum. The reason it interests me is because it’s a part of the anatomy whose name is virtually unknown to most English-speakers, but it seems all Koreans know the Korean word for it. I’ve been asked what it is in English more than once by Koreans. Any idea why the name is commonly known in Korean but not in English?

By: SomeguyinKorea

SomeguyinKorea — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:12:18 +0000

“Much pompous nonsense, I agree. Rather, let’s hear it from the real experts of hookers. Do expound upon the topic at hand.”

Oh, please. That one was so easy, I didn’t think anyone would even bother.

“My complaint with this yet another dubious “professor” is the notion that any group of faces can have“regional particularities,”not the womens’ profession. He’s talking regional particularities about a land area the size of a thumbtack. You could make a case for dialect distinctions, but facial features?”

Exactly. Korea is not the largest country in the world, nor were Korean living in one region fully isolated from the ones living in another, especially not those living in large urban centers.

By: Sperwer

Sperwer — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 08:09:23 +0000

Query: The painting is “presumed” to have been done by the named painter. He died in 1941, and the state of scholarship is such that the provenance is unknown?

By: michael

michael — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 08:03:01 +0000

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090305/

By: Zonath

Zonath — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:45:15 +0000

This inspires me to do my own painting, the theme of which will be crack whores in all 50 states.

By: michael

michael — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:38:02 +0000

If Marmot would post more hot chicks (preferably nekkid) we wouldn’t have any discussions at all–I think that’s worthwhile right there

By: Sperwer

Sperwer — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:37:33 +0000

The head of Jeonju National Museum noted that Jo’s analysis had provided objective material to study Joseon-era concepts of beauty

Yeah, a handful of painterly interpretations of such a statistically meaningful sample population.

Objectivity! Mansei!

By: Sine qua non

Sine qua non — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:32:29 +0000

I didn’t intend this post to spark serious discussion of the state of Korean academia.

I was pretty sure of that.

You have been successful at fostering interesting and informative (and occasionally intelligent) discussions in a few earlier threads. Keep it up!