I really like Mike Breen’s last column in the KT… the only problem, I can’t tell if he’s taking the piss or not. Admittedly, I’m a bit slow on the uptake.
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‘No Contempt for Koreans’
This entry was written by Robert Koehler, posted on July 4, 2008 at 10:50 am, filed under Ministry of Barbarian Affairs, ROK-US Issues. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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26 Comments
Simply pathetic. Even Breen has internalized the Korean apologist routine.
Of course, the whole op-ed could’ve been tongue-in-cheek, but if so, it wasn’t such a sharp piece as a caricature.
“They’re just letting them have their spasm.”
The “Group hug” was pretty good, too.
Mr. Breen was on a roll until he put on the brakes with “It’s hard, but it is not right.” Maybe he added the second half to avoid nutizen attacks
He is spot on.
I remember on my last day at my company in Seoul before being transferred, one of the colleagues mentioned after a few drinks that he will miss me but he (and some other staff) think I look down on Korea and sometimes say negative things.
I was the only foreigner in the company that actually spoke Korean and made the effort to learn the language, culture and history etc and that was not on expatriate contract. So was bit miffed at his comments.
Sometimes people in all countries make negative comments more than positive ones, hec I complian about so many issues in my home country all the time.
Koreans are ultra sensitive and a random negative comment about a small insignificant thing is a comment against Korea. I already knew that but it is hard to mind or filter your comments and opinions everyday.
Yes, Breen is feeling the heat. But he is right about one thing: Korean identity is racial, not national (Koreans don’t even have a nation; what they have is a northern Chinese colony facing a southern U.S., Japanese, and Chinese colony — militarily, economically, and culturally, that is). All modern societies based on race are fascist. The Koreans we witness every day in the streets, for example, are not leftists. Not even close, though they employ some of the obligatory rhetoric. If there is anything radical about them it is their extreme enthnocentrism. If you think this is mere stereotyping, well, go wallow in your blissful ignorance.
I took the part after “he’s right” to be about 30-40% sincerity.
Or, perhaps, that he was extending his hand to the percentage of Koreans that aren’t typical of the society as a whole — while spending the most part of the article giving that part the back of his hand hard to the face.
Jesus, I took a piss on a wall stumbling home pie-eyed one night and my chica took it as an anti-Korean gesture. Sometimes, just sometimes, it’s not all about the uri nara.
Once I was told I was being disrespectful of Korea because I didn’t neatly fold a chon won before I shoved it into my pocket. AND that I should put it in my wallet and make sure that it didn’t have any wrinkles or folded corners … When I asked if this person was joking, they looked at me as if I had slapped them in the face.
#8
I’ve seen drunk guys (of all shapes, sizes and colours) in Korea and non drunk cabbies pissing anywhere, no worries on that front.
She just used it as a petty reason to start a fight…maybe you were looking at some other hot chica’s earlier in the evening.
That is true about the money. I had it explained to me
that if you wrinkled it, you won’t have enough money
later (as in bad luck). Shamanism, Buddhism, local beliefs
are fine, but the superstitiousness can get a little
tedious (when they don’t understand where it comes from
especially)!
I thought the article is well written for Korean readers!!!
“It’s hard, but it is not right” is good touch giving face to Korean readers who might easily tick off. The apologetic routine is typical way to put a humble face of writer..very confucious Asian but ineffective in English or western language writing.
Taking a piss in the street in the company of your girlfriend. Pure Class!
I see Ryan has misspelled ‘crass’ as ‘class’ again.
Mike Breen’s awesome. Love his editorials. BTW, if you’re reading this, that part about ‘lived here and paid taxes for many years…’ come on, you know there’s no extra credit for that.
#14 I’ve done that on a first date once..and it wasn’t even in Korea!
Baek du boy… maybe that’s why you’re single a desperate!!!
I think most expats know all of this already. I am careful at work to never express any non-glowingly-positive opinion about Korea at any time. It jars sometimes, but it has led to me being popular with everyone there. If I complain, even if it is 100% justified, I’ll be less popular, my days will be harder, and I won’t enjoy my job as much - so what would be the benefit to me?
The much-noted Korean inadequacy/superiority complex and ethnocentrism mean that comments from foreigners are not sought or welcomed - so why fight to give them? Korea will change gradually, and when it wants to, and no amount of whining from me will speed up that process. Instead, I bite my tongue, take my paycheck, and concentrate on the things I love about this country. It’s just pragmatism.
#6 I wasn’t aware ‘Korean’ classified as a race (pet peeve), and I don’t see it meaning the alternative since they discriminate more against, say North Koreans and Chinese, than they do against any sort of white or black foreigner. I learned English in the UK though, so perhaps the term is more general in American English? Definitely your concept of nation and colony is quite off, or you haven’t really been around town, yeah?
I would also like to apologize for my decade or ridiculing fan death, baldness-via-acid-rain, anti-SOFA protesters, and Hanchongyeon.
It was not right.
#19 - Too right. Koreans are as much a ‘race’ as natives of the British Isles are, a 5000 year old mix-match of early-settlers, invaders, conquerors, traders, hoarders and the offspring that rabble produced.
Judging by looks alone, I can spot a range of phenotypes of varying degrees not dissimilar to those found in Japanese, Chinese, Pacific Islander, Mongolian, Caucasian populations. They’re a nation of mongrels, just like we all are, myself included.
I love to jab my gf every now and then when she indicates that she buys that “pure Han race” baloney. Her father’s roots are from Haeju, north of the 38th parallel, and I reckon he’s got a fair share of Chinese, Mongol and possibly even some Caucasian ancestry; whereas her Mum’s family are from Jeonju and I’m certain she’s got a fair share of Chinese ancestry judging by appearance (not the most scientific methods of determining ancestry, that said).
It’s a tough job getting a local to whole-heartened admit to this though given the strict regime of indoctrination from infancy.
As far as I can tell, citizens of the republic here classify foreigner discourse into two categories; praise and insult. I may be making critical arguements about some Korean issue of such originality, cleverness and humor, Mark Twain would smile in his grave. Were I to do that, however, I’d be verbally accosted. You’re just a loser racist shouldn’t be in Korea no how, know nothing bigot teacher, they’d think. Ah, but if I say, “Boy, kimchi sure are good.” I get my comments posted in the Korea Times, and TV stations ask to be in my house in hopes of understanding why foreigners think Korea is so grand.
To #19 and #21: I said “Korean identity is racial,” obvious to any firsthand observer, but I wasn’t implying that Koreans were actually racially pure, or even a distinct race. How could they be, after enduring thousands of foreign invasions (as we are constantly reminded, and as one excuse for all the rabid enthnocentricity)? Be that as it may, biologists now regard the concept of race as a toxic fiction. See http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/amp60116.pdf. Korean culture is fundamentally fascist because it is based on race, delusional or otherwise.
Recall this exchange (copied from Brian from ChollaNamdo):
Last Wednesday, major-generals from North and South Korea were chatting before a second day of tough talks on border security. The North’s Major-General Kim Yong-chul noted that farmers must be hard at work. Indeed, replied South Korea’s Major-General Han Min-gu. But since the rural population is falling, many are marrying women from Mongolia, the Philippines, Vietnam and elsewhere.
That did not go down well. According to the Seoul daily Chosun Ilbo, Kim grimaced and snapped that “our nation has always considered its pure lineage to be of great importance.”
Far from challenging him, Han replied that this is “but a drop of ink in the Han River.”
Kim was unmollified: “Not even one drop of ink must be allowed to fall into the Han river.”
Koreans are not a pure race, of course (or even a race, other than members of the human race), but they sure as heck think and act as if they were. It would be an understatement to say that this is not good at all.
#23 - I misinterpreted your initial comment, though agree wholeheartedly with the statements you made.
Here’s hoping with increased trade and contact with non-Koreans, and with God-forbid, some of the ‘ink being spilled into the Han’, Koreans will adapt a more accommodating approach to the issues of race, ethnicity and identity.
#6: “Yes, Breen is feeling the heat. But he is right about one thing: Korean identity is racial, not national (Koreans don’t even have a nation; what they have is a northern Chinese colony facing a southern U.S., Japanese, and Chinese colony — militarily, economically, and culturally, that is).”
The comments I read from non-Koreans about Korea on the blogosphere are ironically very reminiscent of comments made by some earlier Western visitors to Korea in the first part of the 19th century.
Well, the above simply echoes what colonialists were saying prior to violating Korea’s sovereignty. Only in this case I think it just comes from built up resentment from living here for a while (understandable, but simplistic). I mean, in that case the US is a rip-off of European thought and society. The Enlightenment is just an imitation of medieval Islamic philosophy. Societies borrow, they influence, and they clash.
It sort of begs the question, though: is it that Korea has fundamentally not changed in its character? Or, rather, that non-Koreans continue to fail to understand what is essentially a very different and equally complex society? I think one thing is true: there is a tendency to measure Korea to certain standards that ultimately Korea will not live up to, simply because it is a different country, with a radically different history that has produced an outlook that is offensive, challenging, dynamic, and on the whole no better or worse than any other.
On the other hand, it’s hard not to dismiss these comments. especially when you look around and see them proved day in and day out. Bulguksa, the temple in Gyungju, was restored by the Japanese, who said Koreans simply let their historical legacy fall to waste. I look around and see this type of neglect very often here in Korea.
Also, I remember once reading a comment about how, during the Tonghak rebellion, Koreans were seen by Westerners as simply walking by starving or rotting corpses, oblivious to the suffering around them. This too I see in Korea today. Whether it’s bus-drivers who could give a shit about the fact that you’ve got a child and a stroller while trying to balance on the bus. Or drivers who’d as soon run you down on the road as stop for you. And the homeless woman I pass daily who seems so alone in a sea of youngsters more concerned about their Converse than the fact that someone’s grandma is rotting in front of them.
I see this, and yet I know the same is true for the US, Europe, or any other modern society. Hell, I walk by devouring my morning toast without as much as a glance these days.
Oh, brother! You pulled out the “foreigners just don’t understand Koreans” card a little too soon. As your homework read “Japan Unmasked,” by De Mente, and you can substitute the word Korean for Japanese. On the cover there is this quote: “The Japanese are probably the most knowable and predictable people on Earth.” — George H. Lambert. Koreans ranks a very close second. Read especially Chapter 5: “Beware of Using Logic in Japan.” What has this got to do with Korea? Everything.
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