BeTheReds
11-20-2002, 08:34 PM
Always open season on Americans in the Korean media
Korean popular culture has always been for Korean eyes only. The foreign media carry very few stories on Korean pop music, movies and television shows. Americans in Seoul have their Star TV, AFKN and high speed Internet connections and are only vaguely aware of what happens on the Korean channels.
While not very cultrally adventurous, this state of affairs is probably a good thing, as Americans would not be able to stomach a week of Korean television given its bigotry and sharp anti-American bent.
I have the misfortune of understanding Korean. I got to hear a KBS newscaster snipe just a few hours after terrorists flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Center towers on September 11th, "And this is the same country that suspended the code sharing of Korea Air for its lack of safety."
I was shocked by Korea's outrage at Jay Leno's crack that Kim Dong-song was so angry after his disqualification in Salt Lake that he went home and kicked his dog and ate it. Koreans are relentless in making nasty and tasteless jokes about Americans. When Leno returned the favor, I expected nothing more than a simple, "Touche!"
But instead Koreans practically were organizing lynch mobs. A foriegn reader of the JoongAng Ilbo wrote a letter to editor reminding Koreans that in their top-rated family drama one character is refered to as "whitey" and "foreign bastard" because he has "sullied himself" by making friends with several foreigners. The reader pointed out that the characters who cast the epithets are not cast as villians, but rather as well-meaning friends of the "odd" American-loving Korean.
One of the more shocking and severe bastions of anti-Americanism in the Korean media is in of all places on the local equivalents of MTV. In fact, in Korean music these days, you are nobody until you have made a really nasty America-bashing video.
Mind you, the videos never take issue with American policies, say Nogun-ri reparations or trade disputes, but rather play on the worst racial and cultural stereotypes of Americans.
Foreigners in Korea have reported shock and outrage over the latest video of S.E.S., Korea's top girl band, in which "arrogant" Americans are fed to dogs, ridden like horses and beaten and thrown off buildings.
But the most shocking thing about the video is that it is mild compared to others that have proceeded it.
Take for instance the latest video by the soft rock band 4U. The plot is simple. A really handsome Korean man is driving across America with his collection of model airplanes. He meets a beautiful Korean woman who is enthralled by his airplanes.
But alas, the Korean women is married to an abusive white American man who beats her for smiling. The American man is bald, old and ugly. After much weeping and tugging at heartstrings, however, the Korean man rescues the Korean women and they drive off into the sunset together.
This video appears to have been inspired by the epic video "I Love You" by the ballad singer who calls himself Position.
In this video, which also created a stir on expat web sites in Korea last year, white Americans are constanly tormenting the three innocent Korean protagonists. One kind Korean boy gets shoved down a glacier by a gang of white American snowboarders and is nearly killed. Another Korean man is beaten by an American cowboy several times. And the female character is date-raped and beaten by her suave American boyfriend after she refuses to have sex with him.
This video has a happy ending too: the Korean being bullied by the cowboy rams into him with his car and kills him.
And the anti-American hits just keep on coming. In a video by rapper Yoo Sueng-joon, an innocent Korean is gunned down by the LAPD and Yoo himself takes out several police officers along away. Guess who are the villians? Hint: Don't bet on the cops.
Many Korean videos would be more offensive if they weren't so funny. One famous Korean epic video is about a nice Korean-American boy who is shanghied in LA and forced to join a gang of African-American and Hispanic bycycle thieves. All of the members in the gang were old enough to drive, but stick with bikes, I guess, out of their commitment to the environment.
My point in harping on these sick videos is simple: Those who tell you that anti-Americanism in Korea is a political phenomenon that springs solely from the "sins" of American foreign policy are either incredibly naive or they are trying to keep a very ugly secret from you.
Anyone who takes the time to wade through Korean pop culture will find that anti-Americanism here is mostly about overblown stereotypes, racist fear mongering and insecurities about Korean women dating "big-nosed foreign bastards." Or maybe, and this is really scary, it is just cool.
Korean popular culture has always been for Korean eyes only. The foreign media carry very few stories on Korean pop music, movies and television shows. Americans in Seoul have their Star TV, AFKN and high speed Internet connections and are only vaguely aware of what happens on the Korean channels.
While not very cultrally adventurous, this state of affairs is probably a good thing, as Americans would not be able to stomach a week of Korean television given its bigotry and sharp anti-American bent.
I have the misfortune of understanding Korean. I got to hear a KBS newscaster snipe just a few hours after terrorists flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Center towers on September 11th, "And this is the same country that suspended the code sharing of Korea Air for its lack of safety."
I was shocked by Korea's outrage at Jay Leno's crack that Kim Dong-song was so angry after his disqualification in Salt Lake that he went home and kicked his dog and ate it. Koreans are relentless in making nasty and tasteless jokes about Americans. When Leno returned the favor, I expected nothing more than a simple, "Touche!"
But instead Koreans practically were organizing lynch mobs. A foriegn reader of the JoongAng Ilbo wrote a letter to editor reminding Koreans that in their top-rated family drama one character is refered to as "whitey" and "foreign bastard" because he has "sullied himself" by making friends with several foreigners. The reader pointed out that the characters who cast the epithets are not cast as villians, but rather as well-meaning friends of the "odd" American-loving Korean.
One of the more shocking and severe bastions of anti-Americanism in the Korean media is in of all places on the local equivalents of MTV. In fact, in Korean music these days, you are nobody until you have made a really nasty America-bashing video.
Mind you, the videos never take issue with American policies, say Nogun-ri reparations or trade disputes, but rather play on the worst racial and cultural stereotypes of Americans.
Foreigners in Korea have reported shock and outrage over the latest video of S.E.S., Korea's top girl band, in which "arrogant" Americans are fed to dogs, ridden like horses and beaten and thrown off buildings.
But the most shocking thing about the video is that it is mild compared to others that have proceeded it.
Take for instance the latest video by the soft rock band 4U. The plot is simple. A really handsome Korean man is driving across America with his collection of model airplanes. He meets a beautiful Korean woman who is enthralled by his airplanes.
But alas, the Korean women is married to an abusive white American man who beats her for smiling. The American man is bald, old and ugly. After much weeping and tugging at heartstrings, however, the Korean man rescues the Korean women and they drive off into the sunset together.
This video appears to have been inspired by the epic video "I Love You" by the ballad singer who calls himself Position.
In this video, which also created a stir on expat web sites in Korea last year, white Americans are constanly tormenting the three innocent Korean protagonists. One kind Korean boy gets shoved down a glacier by a gang of white American snowboarders and is nearly killed. Another Korean man is beaten by an American cowboy several times. And the female character is date-raped and beaten by her suave American boyfriend after she refuses to have sex with him.
This video has a happy ending too: the Korean being bullied by the cowboy rams into him with his car and kills him.
And the anti-American hits just keep on coming. In a video by rapper Yoo Sueng-joon, an innocent Korean is gunned down by the LAPD and Yoo himself takes out several police officers along away. Guess who are the villians? Hint: Don't bet on the cops.
Many Korean videos would be more offensive if they weren't so funny. One famous Korean epic video is about a nice Korean-American boy who is shanghied in LA and forced to join a gang of African-American and Hispanic bycycle thieves. All of the members in the gang were old enough to drive, but stick with bikes, I guess, out of their commitment to the environment.
My point in harping on these sick videos is simple: Those who tell you that anti-Americanism in Korea is a political phenomenon that springs solely from the "sins" of American foreign policy are either incredibly naive or they are trying to keep a very ugly secret from you.
Anyone who takes the time to wade through Korean pop culture will find that anti-Americanism here is mostly about overblown stereotypes, racist fear mongering and insecurities about Korean women dating "big-nosed foreign bastards." Or maybe, and this is really scary, it is just cool.