Speaking of forged degrees, Dongguk assistant professor Shin Jeong-ah claims that accusations that she forged her degree from Yale are LIES, ALL LIES! [Munhwa Ilbo, Korean] She flew to the US today to discuss with lawyers and Yale a legal response to the “conspiracy” against her, even as the Gwanju Biennale Committee prepares to sue her. [Korea Times]. I have no idea what she’ll say to Yale, which appears to have made its position on the matter quite clear. [Dong-A Ilbo, English]
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For someone who is:
1. Not listed in the Yale Alumni Database (which has the name of everyone who had anything to do with Yale, including postdocs, visiting profs, not to mention undergrads, and, oh yeah, grad students_
2. A complete unknown to Ms. Shin’s alleged adviser, Professor Christine Mehring. The professor who gave the initial “tip off” last year, Yoon Dong-chun of Seoul National took the trouble of emailing Dr. Mehring who said she’d never heard of Ms. Shin.
3. A complete unknown to several of the Ph.D candidates in the History of Art department at Yale. Professor Chang Chin-sung of Seoul National, who actually received his Ph.D in art history from Yale attended the school from 1997 to 2005, almost an exact overlap with the years of Ms. Shin’s claimed attendance. Never heard of her. Odd, considering that Yale takes 8-12 students per year and that the department requires all students to be in residence in New Haven for at least 3 years.
4. Has a completely bogus diploma. The faxed “copy” not only got the name of the Yale president and secretary wrong, but one of the lines is off center and the spacing is completely discrepant to that of a real Yale diploma. Ms. Shin should have at least taken the trouble of ordering a copy of a Yale diploma from years past from the library. Or made sure that she knew the president was named “Richard Levin.”
It’s gonna be interesting seeing how she tries to argue her way out of this one….family fun all around.
…and it took this long for the sham to be exposed?
Hasn’t she been working in the arts sector in Korea since 1997? I didn’t see anywhere that she claimed to have gotten her BA, MA, and PhD through distance education. Where did she find the time to fly between Korea and the US while she was holding full time jobs?
many Koreans have unique abilities
Whispers around the gyopo BBSes says she had connections to a former pres, and that’s why she was skyrocketed. Mom also comes from a predominate gyongsang-do family….But these of, course are
groundlessrumors that the Korean press likes so much….Well, I’d prefer to wait until all the facts are in before making a final judgment, although it certainly doesn’t look good.
Someguy — The rumors around Ms. Shin’s bogus credentials have been floating around since she started claiming status as a Yale Ph.D candidate. As the head of the Yale Club in Korea, the chairman of the Kumho Group (and the owner of the Kumho Museum where Ms. Shin formerly worked) found out about this, and asked her to resign. But none of this was made public, and those that did ask for full investigation, like Chang Yun, a monk on Dongguk University’s board of directors, were immediately sacked, hushed up, or told that *they* were lying (a wonderful illustration of the lovely Korean proverb “chokbanhajang”). The weird question about all of this is who the heck would take all the trouble to make sure Ms. Shin was in power? Just sounds like a dumb thing to do.
Sanshinseon — True, true. Ms. Shin is the “Azia Kim” of the Korean art world. http://www.ocregister.com/ocre.....707838.php
But Ms. Shin is a superhero! Let’s look at her arsenal of superhero skills:
1. She was chosen by God to lead our people out of the cultural desert! Her chosen email handle is “Shindarc,” which she once claimed was a reworking of “Joan d’Arc”. She survived Sampoong! Buried under rubble for 24 hours, she was rescued out of the darkness!
2. She is a Renaissance woman ! She, in various stages of life, majored in inkbrush painting, oil painting, printmaking, business, and advanced basketweaving!
And she got an MBA too, almost directly out of undergrad!
3. She can be in two places at once! She managed to get a Ph.D from Yale without having done the three years’ residence that Yale requires all its Ph.D students in art history to fulfill *while working full time as a curator in Korea*!
KimcheeGI: If you check out this month’s Wolgan Chungang, there’s a very interesting report on her family. Doesn’t seem like big fish to me; mom lives in a small temple, dad used to run a taxicab company/gas station. She may, however, have been friends with Kim Daejung’s illegitimate daughter, but it was Ms. Shin’s uncanny ability to suck up to the right people that made her such a golden child.
The Marmot — Well, if both the registrar and the President of Yale have sent in hard-copy letters confirming that Ms. Shin was never enrolled at Yale, I think the only thing to do is to wait for the criminal prosecution to begin…now that should make for some good copy.
She lied. Leave her alone.
Do you want to read that she killed herself?
I think a certain notre dame football coach-to-be got off easier than her. I can’t even remember his name or face.
Come WJK, she sounds too egotistic to do that.
It’s interesting as a story about academia, if it’s true.
I shouldn’t be slinging shit on my own household, but I think I will.
When I was at the age of fifteen, my mother revealed something to me that I never knew. I think she told me because we talk, and I’m the eldest son.
My father has five brothers. One’s a psychiatrist from SNU. My pop with a degree from Koryo. #3 got a back-door education from Dong Guk. Yes, that Dong Guk. #4 came out of the same place as Park Chung Hee. He retired an ROK colonel. #5 came out from SNU as a pharmacist.
You see, the paternal family just couldn’t allow 1 of the five sons to not have a college degree. Thus, what I mean by back door, is they paid Korean Won in substantial amounts to buy admission into Dong Guk University.
My mother’s side. Another one that claims there are too many fake Park’s, Lee’s and Kim’s in Korea. #1 is a female. #2 is a male. Both went back-door into a Korean higher ed University in Seoul that I won’t name because I don’t remember.
#3 would be my mother. Sook Myung Univ.
#4 would be my uncle. Koryo Univ. My father’s hubae.
#5 would be my aunt. Ee-mo. Pharm Degree from a ji-bang univ.
#6 would be my aunt. Ee-mo. Art degree from a Seoul univ.
#7 would be my uncle. I look the most like him. Architecture degree from a Seoul univ.
You see, though, #1 and #2 paid cash into their admissions.
I suspect that many families in Korea did this if they had the means.
Now, I don’t know. But, then, no matter what my kid had to graduate from a university.
I’m sure I’ll sound like an idiot. But I think it’s a relic of Japanese colonialism over Korea.
Ok, I’m an idiot.
LOL “I think it’s a relic of Japanese colonialism over Korea.” It’s always Japan’s fault, isn’t it?
Bribery was a part of court life in Korea long before Japan took over. Also, why is it pervasive in Korean society but not so much in Japanese society? If anything, I’d trace the tradition to big brother China.
It’s hardly a uniquely Korean trait. I’ve seen a US Army Reserve Colonel commanding a Reserve Special Forces Group who turned out to be a phony (false combat ribbons and combat and qualification badges). A Regular Army colonel whose career was based on two falsified Silver Stars (his only “punishment” was that they struck his name from the US Army War College plaque of graduates for his year, and allowed to retire). A female Army officer whose commission was based upon BA, MA, and PhD degrees obtained from diploma mills. A US Army lieutenant who wrote himself up for, and received, as Soldier’s Medal for actions that someone else performed. A highly placed Command Sergeant Major whose Vietnam combat service as a clerk in the Air Force was reworked to make him a field first sergeant in an infantry battalion, with a ficticious second tour in a combat aviation battalion, all attested to by a DD-214 that he had used his command influence to have so annotated. (He was retained in his position despite an IG investigation confirming all charges.) A “four war Marine” “retired Colonel” veteran and two time Medal of Honor winner who was Commander of a VFW post in Mexico City, who turned out to be a non-war 4 year only former Marine whose highest rank had been Lance Corporal. (Had his security contract with the U.S. Embassy cancelled after the ambassador learned of it.)
Yep, hardly a uniquely Korean trait at all.
Well no one is claiming it’s uniquely Korean, just as it’s not “a relic of Japanese colonialism.”
Oops Lirelou, thought you were referring to bribery…excuse me sir.
#11.
A guy I knew who was a complete moron…and a commissioned officer in the reserves. Daddy was a colonel.
The thing that pisses me off about Ms. Shin and the rest of the Korean media is that they don’t give two sh**ts about the fact she cheated her way to the top. “She lied. Big deal, so what.” — that kind of amoral thinking has been going on here for far too long. Ms. Shin has shown zero remorse or guilt and to “let her alone” is unconscionable. But then again, this is Korea…
# 15.
Whenever somebody gets caught lying, stealing, or whatever here, a friend of mine likes to comment, “There is no feeling of guilt, only shame.” Sadly, I think he’s right.
Another thing that disturbs me is whenever somebody manages to pull of some scam or otherwise make a lot of money in a less-than-honest way, is the tendency for some people to lament the fact that they didn’t think of it first, weren’t better connected themselves, etc. Instead of being reviled as they should be, some of these liars and crooks are envied or even admired.
WJK made a false accusation against Japan. Gosh!
My (rather indirect) experience tells to me that most Koreans returning from USA were fishy.
#17,
Michael with all due respect, and .~*, with all due respect,
Japan IS to blame.
Hear me out.
Or read me out.
Let’s see.
Can you deny that the South Korean system of going to college is NOT based on the Japanese system?
Hmm?
Well, hail coloniams, Kyung Sung Jae Guk univ, and Lt. Okamoto for continueing Japanese influence beyond coloniams for 30 more years or so.
3 years of high school, moon kwa, ee kwa, and those with no aspirations for college, go to trade high schools.
Then, you go thru this 9:1, 15:1 competition for entrance into your desired area, primarily based on ONE exam.
Until recently, that is.
what the fuck is an undeclared major in South Korea? Probably doesn’t exist, even today.
Who gives a damn about your high school gpa?
Everyone takes the national exam once, and that’s how the game is played.
Then, you have what is called a Il ryu dae hak, and a sam ryu dae hak, and this tag follows you wherever you go.
True, things have changed somewhat, but there is no such thing as a dude doing bad in highschool, going to junior college, working hard, and squeezing in with merit into a top tier univ or what not.
My father says in his days, when he went for a job interview, they would say
Seoul.
Then, they call for Koryo, Yonsei.
Then, they tell everyone else to go home.
It kinda helped he had the Koryo tag with him for eternity.
http://news.joins.com/article/.....l?ctg=1500
here’s one dude who’s coming clean about something similar, probably not totally unrelated to Ms. Shin.
He was prof of Sae Jong Univ, his uncle was a commy, high school was his highest degree.
He is best known for Wae In Goo Dan.
@adynata:
Is that the August edition? the on-line version has July’s edition, but I guess you have to be a subscriber for access to the latest….
Charlie,
The KimcheeGI
#18
Actually, the people to blame are the foreign educated Koreans who returned to Korea in the 1960’s, the ones who could have made a difference, but instead locked themselves in the ivory towers of academia and left the policy making to functionaries who, not knowing any better, stuck with what they knew: the Japanese system.
There’s a fairly detailed English-language account published just yesterday in the HK-based online magazine Asia Sentinel: The Rise and Fall of a Korean Success Story.
For those of us not living in Korea, it sounds like this has quickly become THE big story?
An even longer and more detailed article from The Independent from last Friday: The talented Ms Shin
WJK, there’s no way on earth I can appeal to common sense with you, so this is probably futile, but you were specifically referring to bribery in Korean society related to college admissions, and in historical accounts of Korea I read, bribery was rampant in Korea long before Japan colonized it, so the practice was already established in Korea. End of story.
Your comments that always assign blame to Japan for some problems in Korean society lead to the conclusion that Koreans absorbed their failings from Japanese rule and are too weak to rid themselves of these, since 60-plus years later they are still “under the influence.” Isn’t that a bit absurd?
no, no, no, Michael.
Japan is to blame for many, many things !
Not just bribery.
Korea uses the Japanese system for countless things.
As we speak, we have Korean people on a business trip in Japan, specifically to check out what’s the latest in Japan, and upon returning they find a way to sell Japanese products, copied, and unlicensed in the Korean market, announcing this product as their new creation!
Actually, I’m not sure if Japan is to blame. Koreans should blame themselves for their choices…on certain things.
Happy ?
●~*, I understand your skepticism, but not all are like this woman. My sister-in-law is in a doctoral program at Rutgers University. It’s been a great challenge for her, especially teaching in quiz sections for undergrad courses (where most students are native-speakers of English), but her confidence and abilities have increased substantially. I don’t know whether she’ll return to Korea. She tells me that many Koreans who go to school in the States end up staying.
But not all do. According to my sister-in-law, many Koreans who end up staying in the States either get jobs or start businesses that, while profitable, are considered ‘lower-class’ by their families (e.g., dry cleaners and supermarkets). For those who can’t conscience that cultural slide, and are unable to get a sufficiently-high-status job in the US, returning to the Korean job market is probably preferable.
●~*, you’ll find liars in every profession; Korea can lay no special claim to that, so don’t be too suspicious of everybody who has studied in the States and returned.
As #16 notes above, the Korean reaction to exposure of this type of lie is said to be one of shame and embarrassment, but not guilt. ●~*, what’s your take on that?
WJK, if I show you a way to cheat on your tax form so you don’t pay the government money you owe, and you go ahead and cheat, I am not to blame for your actions, you are. You freely chose to cheat.
Likewise, Japan is not to blame for whatever failings Koreans have, and you have no solid proof to the contrary.
Korean businessmen going to Japan to copy products and sell them here is not “Japan’s fault,” it’s simply Korean businessmen acting like weasals.
Anyway, yes, I’m happy
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