Media Today (Korean) takes a good look at Thursday morning’s papers coverage of the Virginia Tech incident. I don’t have time to translate it, but to borrow its summary, unlike Wednesday’s papers, which focused on the shooter’s Korean identity, Thursday’s papers were fairly united in stressing that the killer’s crimes and his nationality were two separate things. The difference, however, was that certain papers (like the leftist Hankyoreh and Kyunghyang dailies) focusing on the alienation of 1.5 generation Koreans (with the Kyunghyang, in particular, running the [ill-advised, IMHO] headline “Alienation of 1.5 Generation Brought on Tragedy”), while others (the rightist Chosun, Dong-A and JoongAng dailies) were focusing on the Korea-U.S. relationship (namely, how this incident mustn’t affect Korea-U.S. ties).
-
English Books on Korea... and More!
-
Visit My Brother's Film Review Site
49 Comments
“Alienation of 1.5 Generation Brought on Tragedy” Ill-advised is an understatement. I know plenty of 1.5 Koreans in California who would be deeply offended by that shallow generalization.
No doubt will be used for ammunition by guys like this.
LOL Marmot where did you dig that up?
I just meant the Koreans I knew/know in Cali run the gamut from average-guy worker to running very successful businesses, and none exuded “alienation” in any way. I know that’s anecdotal but I doubt any Korean paper has specific evidence to the contrary.
It is certainly true that there’s a curious difference in the media reaction to the role of identity regarding the Bosnian kid who shot up the mall and the VT kid. Especially when one considers that the Bosnian kid was reported as having been a near-victim of Srebrenica and a recent immigrant…
I don’t want to speculate on it. Identity is far too fluid to assign to anyone else, isn’t it? How generous of newspapers on both sides of the Pacific to take it upon themselves to do it for this particular dead douchebag.
It’s reminiscent of how the Korean press enjoys putting a similar angle on stories of adopted Koreans, almost all of whom seem well-adjusted and grateful, rather than alienated and discriminated against.
It’s also reminiscent of how the Korean press avoids the real issue, mental illness, which is hardly ever discussed in Korea by the media.
Well, that is only one of the major headlines. It’s hardly representative of the Korean media at large. In the interest of being fair and balanced, I’ll translate the other major headlines.
Chosun - Tragedy in Virginia Korea’s Heart Weeps Along
Dong-A - Virginia’s Tears We All Share the Pain
Hanguk - We Share America’s Sadness
Joong-ang - Let’s Go, Hokies. We’ll Overcome This Sadness.
Hankyoreh - From a One-Room Rental to the Brink Of the American Dream to a Senseless Tragedy
Looking forward to the day I read this: “Thursday’s papers were fairly united in stressing that [insert famous kyopo here] accomplishments and his/her nationality were two separate things.”
But I won’t be holding my breath.
So in addition to the backlash hysteria demonstrating KA ignorance of their own adopted country, we also have KOR-US ties hysteria demonstrating Korean media/political ignorance of their most important strategic/trading partner. For a country that obsesses so thoroughly about the United States, Koreans have proven beyond a doubt that obsession has no correlation with understanding.
By the way, if you read only one link today, make sure it’s this one:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....02824.html
Devastating.
“Alienation of 1.5 Generation Brought on Tragedy”
WTF! What kind of message are they trying to give? That is offensive.
Well, since you ask:
I haven’t read the entire article, though. Just the part cited by Media Today.
Shouldn’t be surprising, though. It is the Kyunghyang Shinmun, so you’d have to figure it and the Hankyoreh, perhaps more than most given their political leanings, would eventually take an interest in examining the “social roots,” so to speak, of the tragedy. But like I said, I haven’t read the full stories (or checked whether the Cho-Joong-Dong are going in the same direction).
“WTF! What kind of message are they trying to give? That is offensive.”
One point I want to make, it’s difficult to get the best and most accurate overall picture of what is going on by just relying on translations and interpretations from one source.
Excellent point.
Just read the original yourself then.
Well, I guess this means US authorities need to put all of the 1.5-generation Koreans in the US on a Watch List.
I think all of this 1.5-generation talk in the Korean media is just Korea’s attempt to shift the blame away from a nutcase Korean. And isn’t it suspicious that so many in the Korean media are proposing the 1.5-generation theory at the same time?
I live in Korea, and I have three or four Korean guys in my classes just this semester who remind me of Jo Seung-hui. I think there are a lot of nutcases in Korea, and all they need is a gun to show just how nutty they are.
The United States is full of minorities, yet how many of them are going on premeditated killing sprees?
This is my favorite theory from Chosun Ilbo’s, “Young Koreans in America: a Generation on Edge”:
Well not all Korean media outlets are putting a racial/political spin on this tragedy.
So far, KBS and MBC news broadcasts are more or less focusing on the facts in hand, instead of reverting to their usual method of sprinkling a dose of opinion in each of their news stories.
Well, you may continue to focus on handful of articles in question but articles like below encourages me that Koreans are learning a lesson on multi race relations.
Americans Show Understanding Over Koreans’ Backlash Worry
By Korea Times Reporters
Koreans and Americans appear to have different views on the causes of the Virginia shooting spree as the Korean fear of backlash was returnedx overcome by an American outpouring of compassion and help.
Koreans, especially those living in America, are still fearful that the recent Virginia Tech tragedy would spawn an anti-Korean backlash but Americans in general have extended their hand of support to Koreans, claiming that this incident had nothing to do with race.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/
As I wrote many times, Cho’s 1.5 generation experience did contribute to this terrible outcome. Some do well in this “transcultural implantation” while others including Cho failed miserably.
I personally know two or three cases. They went bonkers.
You ex-pats, if you feel you cannot take one more day of Korean madness, just take a trip. No, don’t go out and punch an old Korean lady in the subway station. No, don’t curse a Korean kid in your neighborhood.
Just take time out and make a short trip back to your homeland. Go back and re-establish your frame of mind and when you can cope then come back. Do not let this rage against Koreans built up inside you. And, start damning all Koreans as evil people.
Just take time out.
Cho should have done that.
“I think there are a lot of nutcases in Korea, and all they need is a gun to show just how nutty they are. ”
Once again, gbevers finds an excuse in the news to slam Koreans. And despite how he feels about Koreans, he chooses to live in Korea for decades! What does this say about his own mental state if he thinks Koreans are so “nutty”?
At least he’s not going on endlessly about Dokdo. Thank goodness for small blessings.
“In some cases, the situation can lead to crime. New York Police estimates that a significant number of crimes in the Queens Flushing Koreatown are committed by ethnic Koreans under 18.”
It’s not as if there aren’t any bad apples here. I estimate that the vast majority of crimes in the area between Baekdu Mountain and Cheju Island are committed by ethnic Koreans under the age of 100.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....h_shooting
oops, my opnion starts from “I am concenred”…ends with new one.
shaku, most of your stuff on this event is tabloid and I dare to say you seem to be enjoying most of it.
Diversity, heh?
You’re truly a despicable idiot.
actually, my opinoin starts with “Although”…sorry
http://www.breitbart.com/artic....._article=1
Isn’t this kind of an insult to all 1.5-gen Korean Americans, saying that the unique social circumstances of 1.5-geners was an underlying cause? Great. Way to cast your uri minjok brothers and sisters in bad light, lefties!
He was mentally disturbed. What happened is horrible, but all these putative causes or circumstances—class envy, social pressure, romantic problems, what have you—even mixed up together in the same combination—add up to nothing in 99.999% of the population. It was his particular mental illness that is the underlying problem. If only there had been some way to help him before it came to this. (There were interventions and awareness of his condition, but sadly, it didn’t translate into meaningful action to prevent something like this from happening in the first place.) This is the angle the mainstream American media seems to be pursuing, because this is what may eventually—we pray to God—shed light on what was going through Cho’s mind, and how we can prevent such occurrences in the future.
Richardson, thanks for the link. Classmates’ bullying—or even ostracism—of Cho in high school would seem to fit into the overall picture that’s emerging of him.
I could be that racism could be an underlying factor—the sort of racism that often shows itself up in subtle ways. But on the face of it, underdeveloped socialization skills seem to have been a bigger factor.
At the same time, maybe if someone had twigged on back when he was a teenager, that he not right mentally, then perhaps those around him could have shown more compassion, or he could have received the proper health care—maybe he could have gone on to become a better-adjusted young adult. It seems like maybe things just started spiralling out of control until by the time people did start doing something about his condition, he’d passed a point of no return.
“Classmates’ bullying—or even ostracism—of Cho in high school ”
I think as 1.5 gens, most of us went through all that too. Many of us were bullied, often told to go back to “China”, and got laughed at. I remember my early years as particularly hard times of a youth struggling to be accepted by my peers. Depite this, 99.9999% of 1.5 ’s don’t go around killing people. But it takes mental and family stability to overcome these types of adversities. But Cho wasn’t stable from the beginning. He couldn’t cope with his shyness. He didn’t have the personality nor the skill to fit in. Finally he snapped.
This incident had little to do with 1.5 generation Korean, racism, gun control, etc.
The kid had obvious mental issues and gave plenty of warnings. He was properly diagnosted by mental health professions as a threat to himself and others, but did not receive treatment.
Here in Los Angeles, had Cho had been taken in to the Department of Mental Health, he’d have been evaluated and, assuming he’s not being physically violent, they have to release him after 72 hour observation.
This is a very touchy issue, because most people don’t like the idea of involuntary commitment to a mental ward and forced treatment. At least half of the mentally ill exhibit diagnosable signs of trouble by age 14, but try imposing mandatory psychological evaluations on every kid at school and you’d see the parents in an uproar.
When I was younger, I swallowed hook, line, and sinker the progressive position that people with mental illnesses should be institutionalized as little as possible. Scandals at some institutions (like Riverview Hospital in the Vancouver area back in the 80s or early 90s) and budgetary cutbacks made reduction of institutional beds attractive to governments as well.
Since then, I saw the benefit of care a friend of mine with schizophrenia received when he was institutionalized (due to a psychotic episode—it was basically like going to a mental health ICU). He was chomping at the bit to leave the hospital, however, and as soon as he did he was off his meds and back doing the drugs that had precipitated the psychotic episodes that had got him into the hospital in the first place.
Clearly, not all people with mental illness need to be hospitalized, and forced hospitalization is an unpalatable idea on the face of it. Nor should most folks be locked up in rubber rooms or subjected to any number of the cruel treatments people used to (and hopefully don’t still) receive in mental hospitals 50 or 100 years ago. But if there were a system of state-of-the-art mental hospitals that provided advanced, compassionate care to its patients, then forced institutionalization therein for those who suffer the worst problems and/or show resistance to treatment (treatment that is necessary), might be the best option.
Richardson,
Thanks for supplying the part of the quote that WJK conveniently abbreviated.
By the way, I also have had to threaten many of my Korean college students with failing grades in participation to get them to participate in class or even answer a simple question. Many college freshmen in Korea remind me of sit-in-the-back-of-the-class, high school goof-offs back in the US.
I think the problem is that many of the Koreans who go to college in Korea shouldn’t be going there. There are just some people who are not suited for college study, but because Korean parents and Korean society are so insistent that their kids go to college, Korean college classrooms end up being polluted by large numbers of unmotivated goof-offs who learned diddly in high school. That is one of the biggest problems with higher education in Korea because Korean colleges and universities are then forced to come up with all kinds of silly grading gimmicks to help these unworthy students graduate.
By the way, I am not talking about Korea’s better universities; I am talking about the hundreds of third-rate colleges and universities in Korea who will graduate anyone who has the money to pay the tuition.
“By the way, I am not talking about Korea’s better universities; I am talking about the hundreds of third-rate colleges and universities in Korea who will graduate anyone who has the money to pay the tuition.”
I gather you work in one of these? Once again, Cho was mentally ill. The problem was his and his only. It had nothing to do with him being a goof off Korean college student. Even most goof off Korean students don’t going around killing 32 people then blow their brains out.
“I gather you work in one of these?”
LOL!
here’s something lifted from a blog that happenned this morning in the US East Coast
It exists, man. Most people here are good people. Great people. Especially on this Marmot’s Hole.
But, I didn’t lie about anything or make anything up regarding my concerns.
It would be extremely illuminating to get first-hand insight on this line of thinking from 1.5ers — especially from those who do not see any need to prioritize defending Korea and Koreans over informing their readers. (And no speaking in tongues from baduk or childish slobber from wjk, either, sorry/thanks!) I’m asking for an informed view and not a discussion of 1.5ers’ situation and its dubious application to Cho’s unique and probably irrelevent case.
“A wey irrun ill i ilanase uri jaemidongpo rl goiropina! Jo, Michin saeki. Bidio nun wae mandeni? Jookglnamyen, ji na jukgi. Ae ga min ha ni? Gae sae ki.”
–Baduk speaking in tongue, 19 Apr 2007
wjk,
We should be glad that average Americans still can not tell us apart from real Chinese. We can hide behind the word, Chinks.
Things will quiet down two days from now. Some expats and the Japanese call Koreans to be “boiling pots” who get hot really quick but cool down way to soon, but it is the same for Americans as well.
People will get tired about VT and Cho real soon. Some media companies are already started self-imposed diet on airing Cho’s videotapes.
I am already thinking about something else - like Sanjanya getting eliminated from American Idol. Finally!
“Jookglnamyen, ji na jukgi”
Yes I agree on it, Baduk.
baduk, I’m with you.
Baduk, this is what Koreans say about themselves!!! It’s a famous idiom.
Quit projecting, already! Damn!
That’s funny. I understood everything of what Baduk wrote except the sentence that JiMong and WJK picked up on.
It’s not speaking in tongues if it’s your native language…except that deciphering Baduk’s customized romanization was harder than reading ancient Aramaic!
wjk,
I’ve been the victim of prejudice here and back home in Canada (more often here than there, may I point out). Again, don’t fall into the trap that many young Koreans are falling into here in South Korea. Do not use the tragedy as a pretext to fan anti-Americans because now they supposedly all hate Koreans (I trust you’re smart enough to know the truth).
Disregard the emoticon. I forgot there the avatars have been disabled, so any visuals at all jump out on the screen. I was just trying to make light of a side-issue, since this blog desperately needs some levity right now in the midst of all the heated rhetoric.
someguyinkorea,
I don’t know what you’re reading but wjk has never once tried to fan “anti-Americanism.” If you wanna criticize wjk, fine…just make sure it’s for something he actually did.
I don’t know what you’re reading into, but that’s not what I was suggesting. I was telling him to be cautious, which may or may not have been necessary (you apparently didn’t notice my last comment).
In #42, someguyinkorea wrote:
“Again, don’t fall into the trap that many young Koreans are falling into here in South Korea. Do not use the tragedy as a pretext to fan anti-Americans because now they supposedly all hate Koreans”
I didn’t see wjk doing that. Besides….he’s American.
And you once again ignore this “(I trust you’re smart enough to know the truth)”. As I was saying, I was just telling him to be cautious.
But can Baduk not speak in tongues?
He speaks with a forked tongue.