Congratulations, Prof. Rhie—not only have you made CNN, you’ve done so being a tool:
The author of a best-selling comic book series intended to teach children about other countries said Monday he would change a chapter on Jews that has been called anti-Semitic and similar to Nazi propaganda.
Rhie Won-bok maintained, however, that his depiction of Jewish control of American media and politics was based on fact and “commonly believed.” [emphasis mine]
“The Jews are the invisible force that controls the U.S.,” Rhie, a professor of visual arts at Duksung Women’s University in Seoul, told The Associated Press. “I wrote the chapter to let people know that you can’t understand the U.S. without knowing the Jewish community.”
[...]
Rhie asserted he is “not at all anti-Semitic” and that he would remove the parts that have drawn offense or write them differently. “The last thing I want is a conflict between the Koreans and the Jews because of my book,” he said.
OK, I guess that answers why he sent his “apology” letter to Korean-Americans rather than the Jewish-American community—he really was apologizing for getting the evil Jews angry at them.
I wonder if Prof. Rhie has ever considered that in some quarters, it’s “commonly believed” that Koreans are dog-eating, finger-chopping, unoriginal, emotionally underdeveloped, rationally challenged, xenophobic misogynists… except for Korean women, of course, who are “commonly believed” by some to be either subservient, half-developed slaves of their men or prostitutes. But just because it’s “commonly believed” doesn’t necessarily make it fucking so!
UPDATE: This story is getting serious play serious play over at Yahoo News. I’m hoping that at some point, Duksung Women’s University will sit the good professor down and read him the riot act before this becomes a bigger mess than it has to be.
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I can never decide if the Korean are the Irish of Asia or the Jews.
Bah. Irish of Asia or the Jews of Asia, obviously. Irish of Jews would make no sense. Clearly I am the Welsh of the Marmot’s Hole.
Well I am not trying to be apologetic for Prof.Rhie and the Koreans but I think in general in East Asia there is a kind of ignorance about the serious problems underlying anti-semitism.
Maybe because you don’t know about Jews and their history in first hand, and also you never face a Jew in your everyday life.
The history of the Jews are only memorized as a victim of a inhumane and illogical crazy and therefore exeptional regime(Nazi) but east asian don’t understand properly the background of anti-semitism or why it is a serious problem in the western history.
That’s why it pops out sometimes in Japan or in China and Korea.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_Marco_Polo
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%.....B%E4%BB%B6
If I were a prominent Korean-American, I’d wash my hands of Rhie Won-bok and his idiocy, which has little to do with Koreans in America and needs to be countered on its own terms without intermediaries. As we have seen here, there is no upside and much embarassment in trying to explain away or defend or justify Rhie.
Rhie’s an *ss plain and simple. And as far as I know, the Korean-American community DOES have nothing to do with him.
He’s just an ignoramus.
So when do they start blaming japan?
#3 6,000,000 Jews murdered in a short period of time using the industrial means of gas and ovens to destroy the bodies…
…You don’t need to know much to get the picture.
Let’s get some REAL feedback here on Mr. Rhee. Why can I give it and many of you others CAN’T:
1) I have ACTUALLY READ Mr. Rhee’s book “Korea Unmasked”
2) My family is Jewish
As far as Mr. Rhee goes I would say he is a very insightful man when it comes to Korea. He was very OPEN to share his insights in English about for all of us. He is a political cartoonist which makes it logical he might lampoon some things. He lampoons Koreans so why can’t we allow him to lampoon other nationalities/races/religions? You are free to have your opinion about him but HE IS FREE TO HAVE HIS OPINION.
Jews are not pure people. I am not ‘technically’ Jewish because Jews are RACIST. My father is Jewish but my mother is not so I am not considered Jewish.
Also, Jews care about themselves centrally. Have you heard about Jews outcrying or sending troops to save other people that are victims of genocide? Hell no you don’t!! They didn’t even lift a finger to protect other Europeans(Serbia) from genocide but they blame the whole damn world for ignoring them. What a bunch of hypocrits.
I am pro-Israeli and have lived in Israel. However, Jews need to have their negative aspects pointed out to them just like everyone else does. They are not holier than anyone else just because they suffered and I wish this otherwise excellent site would stop the cruddy commentary defending this false premise.
Has anybody said he isn’t free to believe what he believes? The publisher even has “the right” to print what he has the “freedom” to think and say. And people have the freedom to buy it or read it (or even not read it) and freedom to express an opinion about it. Freedoms ringing galore here…
I had no idea that was a premise the site or we were working from either stated or unstated.
I was under the impression his cartoon books were aimed at children and introducing them to the world(perhaps up to the age of teens) – not that his work was targeted to that small group of adults who pay attention to politics and such enough to care about political cartoons???
And would one of those Jewish faults being the subversive control of American mass media and thus the thoughts of American society – and through the industrial/military/money/information power of that nation – the whole of the world – to the detriment of many fine peoples – Koreans being one?
“If I were a prominent Korean-American, I’d wash my h
hands of Rhie Won-bok and his idiocy, ”
It doesn’t matter what Koreans or Korean Americans or whatever you want to call them do, they’ll get flamed anyway.
“that Koreans are dog-eating, finger-chomping, unoriginal, emotionally underdeveloped, rationally challenged, xenophobic misogynists… except for Korean women, of course”
Most here would say that’s an accurate description.
logic,
Jews are not racist because your father is and your mother is not and so you are not. If you want to be Jewish, you should convert. It won’t matter what race you are. There is no race-based elements to converting. I am surprised that no one has pointed this out to you yet.
Your complaint is like saying that you don’t accept Jesus as the son of god and so Christians don’t consider you a Christian and therefore they are racist.
Israel does not have enough soldiers to be able to send people overseas to fight. When a country is really small and there are lots of big and unfriendly countries around it, that country will want to keep their tanks and people close to home. This has nothing to do with being hypocrits. It’s common sense.
Jews think about themselves “centrally.” Yes, they do. No one else does it for them. Haven’t you heard? “If not now, when? If not us, who?”
Do Jews also think “non-centrally”? I pointed out on a different thread that Rabbi Cooper, the rabbi who wrote the letter to the publishers on behave of the SWC, had actually been to Korea before. Why? He was here to talk with North Koreans who had escaped to the South. Also, he had been in Japan to ask the government there to open its records about the Second World War, specifically those records related to “comfort women.” You could also look into the contributions of Jews to the civil rights movement in America.
There are all kinds of things that the Jewish community needs to deal with, but you might want to be more a part of the solution by first figuring out what those things really are.
Good to finally see Rhie saying what he really thinks. Do the usual suspects on this board still wish to stand up for this piece of trash?
why did you delete my post?
“why can’t we allow him to lampoon other nationalities/races/religions? ”
Let’s suppose he was lampooning. Are kids sophisticated enough to take it for what it is? Was it any less offensive? Do the ones who were offended still have the right to protest?
““that Koreans are dog-eating, finger-chomping, unoriginal, emotionally underdeveloped, rationally challenged, xenophobic misogynists… except for Korean women, of course”
Most here would say that’s an accurate description.”
1) Not all Koreans eat dogs, besides, as long as they stay away from humans and endangered species, people can whatever they want. People can eat dirt for all I care.
2) Only a few people have chopped their fingers off. The reason you see it on the news is obvious: most Koreans think they are nuts.
3) Unoriginal? Well, all pop culture is unoriginal, but that’s besides the point. Ever heard of Paik Nam Jun? He created an artform.
4) Emotionally undevelopped…Only some of the politicians they elect ( I mean, they throw shoes at each other in the national assembly).
5) Rationally challenged. Some are (see number 4 and http://www.bluehouse.go.kr), but the same can be said about every countries (see http://www.whitehouse.gov)
6) Xenophobic…Some certainly are, but this is far from being Nazi Germany. Just look at the number of Koreans who marry foreigners.
‘about other countries’. Sorry. Please correct.
cm #10, most people here would not agree with that. Please desist from such nonsense.
I think tomojiro up there has a point. I think anti-Semitism and racism in general are understood differently in East Asia than, per sa, Europe or Anglo-America. Not to say that is necessarily good.
Tbh, I lived outside of Korea more than in Korea (Germany and USA), and … it still doesnt exactly strike home. I guess its sort of like Koreans trying to convince Japanese atrocacies to, per sa, an Egyptian.
logic_dictates—I’m going to ignore the rest of your tripe simply to point out the fact that you’ve read “Korea Unmasked” doesn’t make you qualified to give feedback, particularly since nobody is talking about “Korea Unmasked.” Now, if you’d read the U.S. volume of “먼나라 이웃나라,” I might be more interested in what you have to say on the matter.
pawikirogi—I didn’t delete your post. What did you say about EXPATS this time?
@logic_dictates:
The book in question is NOT Korea Unmasked but a children’s comic book about US history replete with conspiratorial accusations that Jews control America and therefore the world, visually supported with offensive cartoons that demonize Jewish people and treat the Star of David as a symbol of evil.
As for your Jewish identity. Jews are both an ethnic/cultural group and a religious group. You can, like anyone with non-Jewish parents, convert to Judaism. This is not much different than Christianity. No one is born a Christian. One must undergo baptism to become one and may be required to take classes and undergo a conversion process if one embraces Christianity as an adult. Even though both my parents were Catholic, I had to be baptized and later confirmed in order to be recognized as a member of the faith.
According to Jewish law, you are not a member of the Jewish faith, but fellow Americans of Jewish ancestry would recognize you as having Jewish roots. What the heck does “racial purity” have to do with Jewish identity anyway? It’s the Koreans, not the Jews, who have traditionally expressed pride in being racially homogeneous. Many other nationalities, from the Han Chinese to the French, have long had diverse roots.
I actually have a copy of the book in question along with three other volumes on Japan and Korea; the cartoons are not lampooning. Professor Rhie uses what he considers humorous words and images, but he believes in what he writes and believes his books portray accurately the histories and cultures of other nations.
I want to assure the good folks here that I, as a kyopo, have read the incriminating cartoons and I feel absolutely no urge to shave my head, or paint svastikas on synagogues, or beat up helpless jewish kids, or anything of the sort.
Wait, the administrators of the site can just delete pawikirogi’s posts? Why aren’t we doing that?
logic_dictates: “Also, Jews care about themselves centrally. Have you heard about Jews outcrying or sending troops to save other people that are victims of genocide? Hell no you don’t!!”
That’s probably because they need their troops to stay home to protect them from another genocide, something pretty much all of their neighbors would be happy to help with. And the fact that most of the countries in need of said help have significant muslim population. Needless to say the sight of Israeli soldiers would not be very welcome.
“They didn’t even lift a finger to protect other Europeans(Serbia) from genocide but they blame the whole damn world for ignoring them. What a bunch of hypocrits.”
I seem to remember Serbia was the one doing the genocide. Besides, if Serbia’s neighbors (the EU) didn’t lift a finger, why would the Israelis, thousands of miles away?
Oh, and let’s not forget that the people being slaughtered were, you guessed it, Muslims. Read above.
Two things…
1) If you’ve really read Korea unmasked, you would have noticed that it’s full of the same kind of gross essentializations and fanciful charactertures that pervade the book in question.
2) I may have said this before, but has anyone in the press mentioned the fact that the good Prof is actually an expert in graphic design and not history? The guy is Korea’s Chomsky and needs to stick to his core competency.
Tomojiro does have an insight into why there might be anti-semitism and racism in Asian countries. Also, Japanese and Korean nationalists (in pre-colonial times) patterned their rhetoric after European fascists to develop a sense of identity in the two countries as nation-states, and a lot of these discredited racial tropes live on (e.g., the “pure blood” fetish in Korea).
It is a kind of national immaturity even though many people in Korea consciously reject it nowadays. Rhie is not representative of all Koreans but unfortunately he has a lot of influence through his idiotic cartoons if as his publisher claims, basically every family in Korea owns at least one of his book. A lot of his cartoon series goes to extraordinary lengths (I’ve looked through a few volumes) to set Korea and Koreans a few notches above everybody else, using spurious examples and childish reasoning. Once Koreans in general get over their “I win, you lose” mentality, books like Rhie’s won’t be bestsellers.
logic_dictates is a Korean troll–it’s obvious from the phrasing and inability to put a space between a letter and the paranthesis, a dead giveaway, believe me.
LOL. Don’t give away all our secrets, now.
Admittedly logic_dictates is a decent writer for a troll, but he’s still a twat.
“Korea Unmasked” was a load of codswallop. Sure, Korea has the hottest food on earth. I’m sure the Thais and Indians wouldn’t have any trouble with that generalization.
It’s those communist Jews in the Vatican that I worry about.
apologies. i must not have posted it.
btw, here’s a funny english clip about kim from some korean ministry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5zd3QkD30Y
kim should read kimchi. hilarious!
As to the Jews not carrying about other genocides, there is not much to say about that other then you are just wrong. Jews continue to be a driving force behind trying to stop existing genocide. The Save Darfur campaign is heavily promoted by Jewish Congregations in the US. The Holocaust Museum devotes extensive resources to informing people about genocides currently taking place in the world.
“The guy is Korea’s Chomsky and needs to stick to his core competency.”
Chomsky is yesterday’s news in Linguistics. Is greatest achievement was not his theories, many of which have been proven to be, at best, simplistic, but rather how he steared the field away from the established dogma.
Darn it. His…
bluejives, re: #20: LOL!!
bluejives wrote:
“I want to assure the good folks here that I, as a kyopo, have read the incriminating cartoons and I feel absolutely no urge to shave my head, or paint svastikas on synagogues, or beat up helpless jewish kids, or anything of the sort”
Well, I just got done reading So Far from the Bamboo Groves, and I want to assure everyone here that I, as a European-American, feel absolutely no urge to attack Korean or Korean-American men, unless they look like Cha In-pyo, Won Bin, Jang Dong-gun, or Kwon Sang-woo.
I don’t know what Koreans or what most Asians learn about Jews or anti-Semitism in school, but I’m guessing they haven’t been taught that ideas like those expressed in Rhie’s book were responsible for the Holocaust. They obviously should. Anyone know if the kids read The Diary of Anne Frank?
When I attended grade school in Korea it was a required reading. So pretty much everybody in school read it(Diary of Anne Frank). Unfortunately though almost all attention was paid to the tragic circumstances of the girl almost like a soap opera meant for kids rather than teaching some historical context at that time. Although I understand that the subject might have been too traumatic for kids.
I’ve told several people about this already and will say it again. I think Mr. Rhie’s books are extremely dangerous especially because all parents and educaters alike recommend the series to kids as ALL historical FACTS. A conservative estimate would be: 75% facts and 25% Mr. Rhie’s opinion disguised as facts. Too bad my teachers were one of them thus brain washing me in early age
Now I wouldn’t wipe my ass with his irresponsible rubbish.
That’s precisely how it started in Germany in the 1930’s, Estebanko. That kind of scapegoatism. “Just when the average German citizen is about to rise up and gain their rightful place in this world they run into the Jew who controls all the money.”
This sort of crap is how it begins. It seems innocuous. Yet slowly it breeds resentment which festers over years, decades. Add a depression and watch out! Who are they going to choose to be the human cockroaches?
Luckily, the Korean economy is fairly strong but this type of thinking doesn’t have to produce pogroms to hurt. It manifests in more subtle ways sometimes.
What I find hopeful is the number of Koreans I’ve talked to who are quite amazed by this and do not share his views. What I find discouraging is the number who have become Prof. Rhie’s spin doctors.
I can’t believe somebody didn’t get to him in time and tell him to shut his pie-hole. The University should have been doing damage control and advising this guy that his odor is stinking up the place.
It wouldn’t suprise me if the Diary of Anne Frank isn’t taught with much historical context in South Korea if they teach the book.
We pay attention to that in the West because the Holocaust is one of the darkest moments in our history. There is a collective sense of shame for several reasons some of which are: we knew from the start that Germany was not the only place in which anti-semiticism was openly held by significant portions of the people. It was common across Europe and in the US. We also knew the the cultures that made up Western Europe (and then America) had a very long history of anti-semiticism going back centuries.
So, we take the lessons of the Holocaust to heart much more than what you probably find elsewhere in the world.
The publishers came out in the fish-wrap yesterday and said that the misunderstanding were a result of poor English skills. They apologized and they named a target for their apology. That has nothing to do with inadequate communication abilities. If they had wanted to apologize to the Jewish community they would have said so in whatever language they had chosen.
Whose poor English skills?
If Mr. Lee’s, then he certainly has no business writing a book explicating American society to Koreans.
If the publisher’s, it has no business printing books in English at all.
Professor Rhie’s comments seem academically weak, rather than mean-spirited. They are not appropriate for children to learn about the US.
Robert’s commnts are mean-spirited.
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