Why Be Critical?

I've noticed a few patterns of argument in many of the comments over the last several weeks, as well as in the occasional posts that actually got some people riled up enough to start some controversy. It seems that certain people seem to have the idea that being critical of Korea is in some way inherently negative and/or out of bounds. Let me dismiss the following typical arguments I've been getting, which are not just limited to this blog:

"We're just a poor, little country."
Well, as the wise old saying goes, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Most Koreans point with pride to having risen out of the ashes of the 1950's to becoming the 11th largest economy in the world, the national coming-out party that was the 1988 Seoul Olympics, being the most wired society in the world, being a leader in the production of semi-conductor chips, and myriad other minor miracles, such as apparently having started a "Korean Wave," or being the "hub of Asia" or the new "hub of stem cell research." Umm, well, scratch the last one. Point is – Korea's got a strong economy, high overall standard of living, and foreign workers who immigrate here to send money back home to countries over there. Sorry, Charlie – you've joined the club – you're an "advanced nation" now, you've reached the ever-so-coveted status of 선진국. Whether by dint of concrete economic markers, public perception, or the inflow of foreign workers come here to get ahead, Korea's officially made it to the status of "developed." Now, it's time to step up to the plate, take responsibility for one's own collective actions, and become open to international criticism because you now constantly demand to be considered (and rightfully so) an international player. Don't go crying "foul" when you get treated as a big playa should, for better or worse. Nobody's buying it anymore.

"Look in your own backyard."
Related to the above argument, critique of Korea is not only bad, but it's ethnocentric and even – let me sit down here – "racist." Or it's tantamount to "Korea-bashing." Sorry, I don't accept that as legitimate, either. I look in my own backyard all the time, and use the same analytical/critical eye to identify problems inherent and endemic to my own society. I am a trained academic, have a complex understanding of American history and society, and have the rhetorical and pedagogical skills to put this all to good use. Yes, I point out a lot of things in Korean society that may be uncomfortable, but given my academic training, my complex understanding of Korean history and society, and those same rhetorical and pedagogical skills, I think I am capable of doing so in a constructive way. Sure, I am still an "outsider" and have to rely on some crutches, but this still doesn't mean I am not able to point out useful things, especially as they have to do with things outsiders are especially good at seeing. So when I bring critical social theory and ethnic studies attitude to the Korean context, it usually adds up to something interesting and productive. To the people who would say that what I'm doing is harmful – I check myself all the time with younger Korean students, undergraduates, and fellow intellectuals. It's also part of the reason I blog. I'll listen to and engage with intelligent debate; poorly articulated comments by identity politics nationalists with a grade-school knowledge of history don't do much for me; and I often wonder to myself just what productive discourse do such people actually believe they're producing, anyway? OK – for example, so there's racism in America. And sexism. And homophobia. Who said there wasn't? I'm not talking about that right now. I'm talking about Korea, in a Korean context, dealing with the issue in terms of the particulars of the Korean situation. If I had been constantly referring to America as the source of my critique, wouldn't I be guilty of true ethnocentricism anyway? Think about what you're saying, people.

"You shouldn't air our dirty laundry."
Sure I should. This is an argument as old as the hills and is not specific to Korea. And it sometimes has a point. There's a time and place for everything. Focusing one the internal political strife within the Black Panthers during the late 1960's probably would not have been a good time to do that. Breaking ranks and criticizing one's political party probably isn't something you want to do right before an election you'd like to see it win. But sometimes – most of the time – this argument is just a bullshit cover for being uncomfortable with challenging the status quo, or just being plain uncomfortable. But embarrassment has its benefits, if you are familiar with history. The treatment of Blacks during the 1960's was embarrassing to the US's image abroad, especially in our Cold War fight with the Soviet Union for the right to look right. Pictures of dogs being sicced on peaceful demonstrators while being picked up off their feet by firehoses were placed on the front pages of Pravda and used to ridiculed America's boast of fighting for "freedom" in the world. That embarrassment led the federal government to want to solve the problem quickly, the sending of federal troops to enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, and was generally responsible for the institutional support of the Civil Rights Movement. I am pretty Hegelian in my belief that progress comes from the inherent clash between thesis and antithesis, one that leads to a better, higher balance between opposing forces. For Korea, now is the time. In a country that has developed and now needs and wants to live up to its own stated principles of "liberal democracy" and "freedom", it's time to put up or get come-upped. Photographers and writers, performers and artists, intellectuals and academicians, politicians and pundits – it's time to air out them dirty secrets and try to get 'em cleaner. And by the way, in an increasingly globalizing economy and world, there's no such thing as any "dirty laundry" that outsiders can't see, anyway. Maybe that was true for a Korea nobody cared about, in which there were no significant numbers of Korean-speaking non-Koreans, in which no one really had any real stakes in this place. But now – we read ya'lls books, newspapers, and watch your television and movies. Isn't that what you wanted? Which brings me back to that cake saying...

"You can't know Korea."
Ah, the argument of cultural essentialism. Resting upon faulty assumptions that "culture" is some magical commodity passed down through the blood, or that a real understanding of Korean history is only available to those possessing Korean surnames, is the idea that foreigners have nothing really useful to say about Korea because foreigners are incapable of really knowing anything about Korea. The seemingly innocuous version of this manifests itself after, for example, having given a complex, highly theoretical conference presentation on changes in the nature of Korean national identity in relation to the growth of the economy in the late 1980's and early 1990's, in which I talked about all sorts of esoteric things that rely on obscure primary sources in Korean – afterwards the Koreans sitting around my table at dinner marveled at the fact that I could order food in Korean. How the hell did you think I did all that research if I couldn't speak Korean? I scream to myself in my mind. The truly irritating flip side of this is when I make assertions about Korean history or offer my informed opinion about some aspect of Korean society and am dismissed by some university undergraduate who has never cracked a textbook that wasn't approved by the Ministry of Education, and wants to point out my American "bias" and how there are some things that "only Koreans can know." Oooook. Just being "Korean" doesn't guarantee a knowledge of Korean history, nor does it mean that person has the right – and certainly not the qualifications – to speak for all Koreans. Too many times, I've heard in heated conversations that "No Korean would ever..." or "You just don't understand how Koreans think" deployed in order to prove a point. In all such cases, I know or know of lots of Koreans who have done just that thing, and I think I do have some sense of how Koreans think, but I just happen to disagree with the speaker's point. Equating me disagreeing with a Korean on a specific issue with "Not understanding Korea" is a rhetorical cheap shot and just plain arrogant. And most of the time, the "No Korean would ever..." argument is easily refuted by simply reading the newspaper. Korea's a big society, with lots of people doing all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons. It's telling that most of the people I've ever heard utter this argument come from sheltered families, probably do not read the newspaper, nor think critically about what it does and doesn't say, and accept state propaganda as fact. Like the female grad student who butted in on a conversation to offer her "expert" opinion that sex work (the topic of much conversation when the government released new statistics at the end of 2002) wasn't like we were anecdotally describing and that we were just weird foreign guys looking at Korea the wrong way. When I irritatingly asked her, "Then do you think they actually give haircuts at barber shops?" she snapped back, "What else would they do there?!" When we told her about the almost universal experience of most foreign guys who walk into these places with the barber sign and quickly learn that there ain't no hair being dealt with in the damp, dark depths of these mostly underground establishments, she was near tears. We decided to change the topic because it's hard to be unplugged from the Matrix against one's will; it's a shock to the system. But for foreigners – especially foreign people who actually know a thing or two (and who were actually relying on the government's own stated conservative statistics in this case) – encountering this kind of argument is really irritiating: "I'm Korean. Don't you think I would know?!" No, actually, I'm saying that being Korean doesn't mean one is automatic "expert."

"Only Koreans can understand certain things."
Well, if there are only certain things that people can know – if there is nothing universal in the pursuit of higher knowledge – I guess we all better stop studying each other's histories, translating great works of literature into other languages, and stop trying to understand different people's views of the world based on their individual experiences and identities. What's the point, eh? Knowledge is too particular for the Other to want to gain it, anyway. Let's leave things to the red-faced, self-assured undergraduates and angry nationalist bloggers to educate the rest of us. After all, "It's an X thang; ya'll wouldn't understand." All irritated complaining aside, I do believe that our experiences and identities allow insiders a point-of-view that is somewhat unique; but I refuse to believe that the nature of human experience itself is so specific that one cannot empathize by affective analogy and sympathetic imagination. Can a man understand being raped? Can a white person understand a black person being called "nigger?" Can a Japanese person understand many Koreans' anger towards them? My answer is a resounding "yes." One might not understand actually having the experience, but every human being is wired to have the same emotions, even if we all don't have the same exact experiences. But the human ability to imagine by analogy, to generalize from the specific, is endemic to the way our brains work, to the way we organize the world, to being what we define as intelligent creatures. And regardless, ghettoization of both identity and the intellect leads us nowhere. At least striving in the other direction – that of empathizing with analogous experience – leads in a positive direction. So when Koreans say that the emotions of "jeong" or "han" are things that foreigners can't know, or that only Koreans could really possess the "soul" to make a traditional instrument sing, I beg to differ.

Comments

[Sumiyoshi Pilgrim]

Great post. I don't know how many times I've had to bite my tongue when someone rebutts by arugments with the ever-popular; "You don't understand our culture." excuse.

[jeehyun]

as someone in the higher institution of education in the U.S. studying american lit. i can't agree with you more on the narrow-mindedness and short-sightedness of insiderism.
considering that i get some of that in the relatively progressive discipline of english in a left-dominant U.S. grad school, i can imagine what it would be like "studying" korea in a korean university. am i generalizing too much when i say i think the majority of korean universities and academics are pretty much on the ultra-conservative side of things? the older generation of scholars definitely are.
when it comes to teaching undergrads, though, i think it's worth reviewing the frame of ethnic studies and checking for eurocentrism before taking the knowledge produced within that frame down to undergrads. since the origins and the development of a discipline affect the knowledge produced by the discipline.
i identify as a feminist, but i remember being dissatisfied with and even sometimes angry at western feminism as it came up, often haphazardly and superficially, in my undergrad classes. in korea, of course.
teaching in international settings is challenging. you not only have to translate the knowledge in your head to fit a 19-year-old level of thinking but you also have to be aware of under what context that knowledge has come to take shape.

[The Metropolitician]

Totally agree with you, Jeehyun.

When teaching and researching, I try to strip my Ethnic Studies and critically applied social theory of things that just wouldn't apply wholesale to the Korean context, or I try to adapt it. And there are certain things that are helpful to apply intact. In addition, the society has certain reactions to certain kinds of social theory that one must account for pedagogically as well.

For example, when talking I ease in the idea of social categories as being constructed, what I find is that the undergrads hearing this for the first time – people whose identities are predicated on the "reality" of certain social categories – tend to differ as to what they find difficult to swallow. In the US, I find that young undergrads tend to have the most trouble with understanding race as socially constructed, because it's such a powerful part of identity in that country; however, for Korean undergraduates, they tend to have much more trouble with "nation" and "gender" being social constructions because of the self-consciously nationalist nature of Korean identity, along with the highly gendered social roles that go along with that. But it's a useful, basic tool to bring to the Korean context.

When I teach US history, I always try to provide ways for my younger students to get a grip of the material, a means by which they can get traction with the slippery, bulky content of history and organize the information.

So I talk about the relationship between ideology/structure and the assertion that if you want to understand why ideologies change, the hint is in social practices found in the fiscal economy, state, and other institutions. It's just basic materialist historiography (although I don't use such words, because the kids would freak out).

I also like to focus on the idea of "cognitive dissonance" because it's a useful way to understand the "why" of history, especially for Korean kids who don't live within the American cultural milieau. So many kids ask me variations on "why and how could european settlers be so abusive to native americans right off the boat and bat?" to which I come back with this theory that says people basically psychologically "know" when they are committing wrong, especially when they commit acts that go against their own value systems and that "ideology" comes in to solve the problem, to mitigate the dissonance between one's values and the material necessities that make one want to enslave other human beings, slaughter native american men/women/children, not offer women the right to vote, etc.

It's actually interesting teaching history and sociology in Korea, because there's less taken for granted – as non-Americans, basic concepts taken as given in the American context cannot be assumed to be in effect here; the instructor has to provide a more basic framework to the Korean kids in order to bring them along to a higher level of understanding. What this means is a more well-thought body of teaching, a deeper inspection of one's assumptions, all which makes Jack a better scholar.

[Jason Abraham]

Hello,

My name is Jason Abraham. I am a black American man now living in Japan but coming next week to teach in Yeoju City in high school. I have a Japanese wife and many Japanese friends. I have on occasion seen symbols of racism in Japan. And as you said most can be attributed to ignorance and not being exposed to black people. However, I have taught children who have never seen a black man much less had one standing in front of them teaching them English and they all have come around. I have had no more racial conflicts in Japan than I had growing up in the South. There are women here who date only white guys becasue black guys are scary. There are those who think whites speak English better than their black counterparts. But in the end these encounters have never soured my opinion about Japan. Granted I have never lived in Korea, but is the situation that hopeless and hostile as you have proposed. After reading your blog I have a distinct fear of being followed, attacked maliciously stared at or even arrested on sight from reading your views of Korea. I need to know this before I step on a plane and travel there. If the feeling of isolation will be that great why would anyone bother to even travel there. There surely must be something of beauty in Korea. There surely must be some kind acts from its peole to African Americans. This high school I will work for has seen my qualifications and picture and readily accepted me.

I am not trying to criticize but your blog is full of all of the wrong things in Korea. Let me tell you America is not always apple pie and Oprah. Jus tbe honest. Am I going to 1920 Alabama or 1975 Georgia. I can deal with the latter but I have a family to think of if I am going to the former.

I hope to get some response from you and maybe we can meet up when I get to Korea, because I would really like someone to show me around.

Sincerely,

Jason Abraham

[Scott S.]

I love how you are one of the first people to just "come out and say it." This post is one that I enjoy more than any of your others. You hit the nail on the head with your topics this time. It does seem as though Koreans are surprised when you know ANYTHING about them, their culture, their way of life, or their language. They seem to have, as Jeehyun put it, "Insiderism." And it is not just that some of them shoot you down when you talk as if you know about their culture, but some of them also shoot you down for trying to understand it. I love how you hit on this with how some Koreans say certain things "only Koreans could understand." It is so frustrating when I want to learn something and a Korean friend of mine just tells me it is too complicated for me to undersand. I just want to tell them, "Well, if it is too complicated, that is an even better reason for me to try and learn about it. That will give me more motivation and more strive to learn about it."
I am so glad you discussed these topics. Pardon my language, but you have more balls than I do when it comes to confronting situations and problems.

Also, when are you going to do the next podcast?

[The Metropolitician]

Scott – podcast's coming within the next couple days.

Jason – Hmm. It's hard to know how to answer you because I don't know enough about walking the streets of Japan to meaningfully say much about what it means to walk the streets of Korea. I'm also a light-skinned black man (mom's Korean) who often gets mistaken for Filipino, Mexican, or Pacific Islander, depending on the person.

So what can I tell you? I can tell you that I have black friends who have lived here for a good while and are making the most out of their experience here and seem to like being here. I know a few black folks who came to really despise this place and left intending never to return.

Concretely, I can say that I've heard the term "nigger" in Korean just a few times directed at me, and heard the term "nigger" in all it's original English glory directed at an African-American friend of mine back in 1996. The ironic thing was that the guy – after she rightfully slapped the shit out him and the police came, whereupon he tried to claim that she started it – had lived in LA for 10 years.

So do I feel like I am living under a state of siege? No. Do I feel like people see me as a human being and not a foreigner? Sometimes, if I get to know them. Do I have to try, as my family always said about living in white society back home, that I have to try and do twice as hard in order to get the same respect? Definitely.

But are there sweet exceptions to the rule, in which cool, open-minded younger people (they tend to be younger) actively try to fight against the close-mindedness and racism of more conservative, often older people? Surely.

So in everyday life, I think you'll get the same stares and occasional irritating questions/treatement related to you foreignness and your blackness. You might also catch hell for being with an (apparently) Korean woman (I know she's Japanese, but tell that to a drunk ojisan); but for all that, I also think that a lot of the nastier, more focused and deliberate prejudice takes place within Seoul, and it's no surprise to me that you were hired by a place outside the big city. As a person who cut their teeth on 2 years spent on Cheju Island as my first major experience with Korea, I've found (as you might have inJapan) that as much as people are superficially ignorant about certain things in small towns, there are also much less crusted-over and entrenched pre-conceived notions to get past as well.

So I'm sure you'll have a nice, comfortable life once you get adjusted to the rhythms of the day here. But I'd also say don't be surprised (as I'm sure you haven't been up to now) if that's punctuated by the occasional temper-raising incident in the subway or in other public places. There's ignorant people everywhere, and their behavior comes out more often when a "Korean" woman is present. Perhaps that will be mitigated by the presence of kids, but I could also see them provoking some ig'nant fool out there. I'd say keep a close eye on them and what kind of adults they'll be exposed to.

And I'll just give you my rule of thumb – I don't take the #1 if I can help it, and I will never get on it on a weekend night alone, and certainly not with a "Korean" woman with me. If you get in a situation, speaking Korean in a loud voice tends to defuse it if you are against a wall – learning how to say "Please stop it" (haji-ma-seyo!) and a couple other key phrases of your choosing might be helpful.

And remember the old saying – and this is true for any foreigner, but especially for "us" – "if the nigger starts to win then we all jump in!" If and when the police come, it's assumed to be your fault unless you have proof/Korean-speaking witnesses that say otherwise.

I just play it safe – I don't have any major problems here. But it's also because I play it safe and know how to defuse them well before they start and avoid the places where they crop up the most. If you read about the major skirmishes that get into the newspaper, they generally happen in certain places and contexts; I just steer clear of them.

[Aaron]

Right on, as usual. Oddly, I get the "You wouldn't understand because you're not Korean" argument from some Korean Americans too. A guy I was friendly with in one of my Korean language classes once tried to convince me that I would never be able to research recent Korean history properly, because if I did interviews my subjects wouldn't tell me things that they would reveal to a Korean (by which he meant someone with Korean ancestry). I tried to argue that the categories of "insider" and "outsider" are never absolute, but he didn't buy it, and at that point I was still an undergrad who had only been to Korea once (for six weeks) so I wasn't confident enough to continue the argument.

The "But look at America!" argument also drives me crazy. That popped up at a recent NYU conference on North Korean human rights, when a certain "progressive" participant basically shouted down everyone who challenged her own rosy picture of North Korean society, and couldn't stop talking about the "vast Gulag of American prisons full of black men." Dude, I acknowledge the U.S. has terrible problems, but I shouldn't have to preface all research I do on Korea with boilerplate denunciations of my own country. That kind of mindset doesn't make sense to me.

Your point about Korea needing to take responsibility for its arrival as a developed country is also well argued. Korea is still routinely called a 약소국가 or 약소민족 (small and weak nation) in its own press, which totally baffles me.

The "Only Koreans can understand certain things" trope unfortunately creeps into Korean language teaching to foreigners both in Korea and abroad. It's an easy cop-out when the teacher can't come up with practical explanations for certain grammar points or "culturally specific" vocabulary words. (Granted, English teachers sometimes do it too in reverse, such as arguing that only a native speaker can use articles properly.) Fortunately I've been able to avoid this problem almost completely in my formal studies thanks to excellent teachers.

[Lew]

Great essay! Not 성진국 but 선진국, though. Thank you again.

[Noah Body]

So why is the subway line No. 1 so full of cranks? Does it only go through crappy neighborhoods? Or does its shape, as it snakes through the guts of the city, actually map out some evil hanja character? The No. 4 line, I understand (it goes by the race track... no fun being on the light blue when all the drunk gamblers are going home). But the ugliness of the No. 1 is a mystery to me.

[elle]

Those ignorant, racist you've managed to come across, they would react to a seeminly odd misfit male/female koreans, as stereotyped by the society, just as they have toward a foreign white/black person. I certainly hope that there are more positive experiences in korea from a foreigners' perspective, and from you as well, why else would you have stayed in Korea as long as you have and eager to expose, both good and bad, i hope, and learn about korea.

Words are powerful and blogging just as well. Bad experiences are shared and spread more often than good experiences. And to someone who's never been to korea, some of your blogging may seem "scary" and cast an unfortunate "negative stereotype" of korea, image permanently implanted in their brain.

I believe, koreans make the reference "look into your own backyard" to make the point that your criticism of korea are not distinct (it happens all around the world) and perhaps you and other foreigners in korea denote it as if they are especially intolerable in korea, which certainly is not the case, i'm sure.

Constructive criticisms are good but to extrapolate from experiences from here and there should not be the basis for denouncing Korea in whole. There exit "badness" because there are "goodness."

I hope non-native koreans can manage to share their "positive" experiences in korea just as well.

[88]

Korea is China, apparently. Just substitute "China" for "Korea" in your post and you understand China. It's nice to get a glimpse into the Korea blogosphere and compare it to the China blogosphere...great post and interesting blog.

[Colleen]

Hey no offense (you seem to parade your superior mentality and intellect quite handily)
but you seem to bash Korean an especial lot

Why not bash the Chinese, Japanese, Armenian, Indian mindsets as well?

You DO realize all countries and cultures carry a native superior mentality (sorry to reuse that word)

This seems to be an awful lot of bias created from what, bad personal experiences?

Sure you don't have to be a certain culture to understand that culture...I mean look at America, best example of all. Anyone can be American if they truly consider this country their home.

Anyways, I sense a great deal of pent up frustrations...drink some tea
...and the fact that you wrote this was thoughtful
(it gave me something to mull over for 10 minutes)
You prove no point to me against what others will accuse you of "Korea Bashing"

To put it simply, you're just making a whole lot of crap to please yourself and your inherent racism..
Although TRUTHFULLY not to blame you, EVERYBODY in the whole world is racist, no matter how small it may be. EVERYBODY in the world carries bias.

I despise when people address a race or culture as a whole. You with your "Koreans say..." or even people I know SINGLING out an ENTIRE COUNTRY or culture from the few they have met. I don't care if you live there. Have you met EVERY FRICKEN Korean in the world? nope right?
The Norm is that the Bad of a group stand out more than the Good.

Maybe I've gotten a little riled up because you, a person who appears to be an intellectual, is wasting their time and effort on one of the things I despise about the world.

It is personal for me, as a HUMAN BEING.

[The Metropolitician]

Wow - did you even read this? Because every single one of your arguments is pretty much already covered.

Yes, there's bad everywhere, there's racism in other parts of the world, we're all human beings.

So how does that help us solve problems in the world TODAY? How does that help people RIGHT HERE and RIGHT NOW?

Women are being trafficked. Students are being bilked out of real educations. Stars are committing suicide left and right. The rate of depression in Korea is out of control.

"Everybody in the world is racist." "Everyone in the world is carrying bias."

Whatever.

I'm trying to leave the world a better place than I found it. It that means Korea, fine. If that means China, fine. If that means Armenia, fine.

But right now, I don't live in China or Armenia - or even America.

I live in Korea. I work in Korea. I care about Korea. I pay taxes and teach and write and eat and shit and watched Lord of the Rings in Korea. That's where I am and that's where my concerns lie. It's where I sleep and buy computers and raise a cat. It's where I should be able to speak my mind, just like anyone else here.

So basically, you're telling me to shut up and just say good things? As if that will really help?

Frankly, I'd rather have someone live in any society that was concerned enough to be angry and try to do what they could, rather than just throw their hands up in the air and say, "Well, there's bad people everywhere. What can you do?"

Tell me, Colleen. What do YOU do that helps better society?

Yeah, I'm a snide intellectual. I'm arrogant and elitist. But at least I'm not just sitting on my ass doing nothing about the things I see wrong with the world in front of me.

And you say "no offense" but I took quite a bit, actually.

Don't tell me to "go drink some tea" and stop "bashing" Korea, as if this was the only way for me to vent my "frustrations."

Your tone is the one that's truly condescending and dismissive, as if you somehow know better than me the motivations to do what I do. I simply say up front what I think my strengths are and don't apologize for it, which some call arrogance.

However, your attitude is the truly condescending one, the one that ignores the bad things in society and dismisses them with "well, it's the same everywhere" and actually ENABLES them with passivitiy and non-analytical ignorance like your own.

While elementary school students jump off buildings, as an educator and an academic, my response is, "Well, we're all just human beings?"

There IS responsibility and accountability in any society. There ARE roots to problems. It's up to responsible citizens to confront them. And just because I have a blue passport doesn't give me the moral pass to ignore problems as I see them.

If you are Korean – and God, I hope not – I would rethink what your idea of "patriotism" is. Is it just to love the good and ignore the bad, while social inequalities and just plain unfairness continues? Like the old 60's saying goes, "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."

Colleen, everyone's a HUMAN BEING. But unfortunately, you're also "just a woman" or a "nigger" or a "kike" or an "untouchable" or come from a "poor neighborhood" or "don't have a good background."

If everyone in the world – and in Korea – were TRULY the same and were treated fairly, there wouldn't be blogs like this.

And why do you care so much? There are 100 blogs promoting "Dynamic Korea" and "The Hub of Asia" and whatever. If you want to believe Korea is a perfect place, above reproach, why don't you spend your time at their web sites?

I think your Mickey Mouse world view would fit in better over there, don't you?

Have a real nice day.

[The Marmot]

How is it that you get accused of being an anti-Korean racist more than any other blogger I know? In a way, it's fascinating.

[The Metropolitician]

그러게 말이야.

I don't know. I continue to marvel at that fact myself.

I know I can get pretty harsh there, but it's all outta love, baby, all outta love. I think you have to love a place to be that irritated with certain things and yet stick around.

And I'm not being flip when I say that blogging keeps me sane. Umm...er, does it?

Hehe.

[Colleen]

I actually agree with many of your posts and though I came across this site today, find it very interesting, informative and your comments humorous.

The aspect of your blog I do NOT enjoy, is your attempt to cover up, or justify any remarks that may seem anti-Korean to other people.

All it shows is that you yourself realize how anti-Korean you seem.

If you really didn't care, you wouldn't have written this nauseatingly long post and reply to my comment. However thank your for such an expedient response.

What I'm telling you to do is not pull a bunch of BS of all the reasons you aren't Anti Korean and the evil which stir within the depths of that country is secretly against you and sneaks poison into your breakfast rice. (trying to be poetic)

Don't put up pointless posts like these which irk some (like me), won't convince stubborn Koreans, and basically show off how well you write. (Everyone is oh so proud)
Just continue writing, whatever your opinions are.

Oh yeah, I am Korean. Or Korean American. Or American with a Korean Background. Whatever.

One of those who ended up having identity issues, growing up so torn between the customs of two very different cultures. (I know everyone has those)

In the end, though I could never fit into a truly Korean lifestyle, it is a culture I thoroughly respect.

Maybe it is different for me.
The few visits I have had were mostly surrounded by death and bad experience but I know spending a few weeks can't tell you about a place.

I've had role models in my life tell me of so many bad things about Korea yet still talk with such love and lingering pride.

Basically, what you see as a "Mickey Mouse world view" is what I have come to understand of the world.

Basically, I'm liberal

Basically, I enjoy cynicism, but to the point where of self-realization.

What do I do? I don't go and commit suicide, make Korean Pride Blogs, try not to pollute the world, vote democrat, socialize, and enjoy life.
Oh, and I write.

Maybe I'm a hippy but hey, my post was either stupid enough (probably to you) or smart enough to make you sit at your keyboard and respond. Pointless or not, the same goes for you.

[HanComplex]

Bravo, Michael, for your reply. I'm guessing you'd be used by now with all these people who equate criticism of Korea as being anti-Korean. Many kyopos, like Colleen, seem to have a rose-tinted view of Korea and any negative portrayal of their beloved culture/heritage is considered a personal attack of sorts. Nothing really new here, actually. If you've visited many an expat's blog where even the slightest criticism or less-than-rosy depiction of Korea/Koreans is written, you'll have Koreans (many kyopos) expressly or subconsciously raised on "Korean Pride" viciously attacking the blogger. A common thread among these attackers/trolls is that they can't argue intellectually, only emotionally. So the Metropolitician is in good company.

But oh, never mind that there are far more Korean websites out there dedicated to anti-Japan or anti-US hatred, or of Korean groups like VANK who engage in cyberterrorism to "raise the profile of Korea," or of government-sponsored anti-Japanese education in Korean elementary schools. Oh no, all of these are irrelevant. Korea is the real victim here. They are just other countries, who cares? What is important is that nothing less than flattering should ever be written about the superior Korea or her Han race, even if it's so-called constructive criticism. Anyone who does so is unquestionably racist and anti-Korean. Because we are superior we don't need to look in our own backyard. It's that simple, really.

[Colleen]

I give up, not much of a debater.

BUT!

What the hells a kyopo?

Sorry I don't frequent Korea based, pro-korea, anti korean blogs and have yet to have heard the term.

I fell upon this most WON-derful blog by accident and neither regret doing so or anything I've said.

:)

[Charles]

A kyopo (or gyopo) is someone of Korean ancestry residing abroad. Although the term is used quite often on Korea blogs, it is not limited to them, and I'm kind of surprised that you've never heard it before (seeing as you are one ;)). Maybe you didn't recognize the Romanization?

[Joe]

"Anyone who (criticizes) is unquestionably racist and anti-Korean. Because we are superior we don't need to look in our own backyard."

Han, if you can make such a pointed assumption on Colleen (and other bloggers) based on the posting above, you are either exceptionally gifted at reading people, or you are just as slanted and bitter as those you are trying to criticize.

That said, I am definitely not a diehard Korean nationalist or anti-american/japanese -- I think it would be premature to assume Colleen is as well. I think what makes Michael's postings difficult to digest for Colleen and other Korean Americans isn't the string of cultural criticisms, it's that they are endless (relentless?), yet well thought out for the most part (early, pre-fact postings on VT shooter might be an exception). There is a lot of truth to what's written in his entries, and sometimes the truth hurts. that goes doubly for partial truths.

I can't say I know for sure what Michael's objective was in starting this blog. If it's to raise awareness on the unchecked uglyside of Korean culture, or a direct f___ you to some transparently ignorant korean nationalist website, then I understand fully. on the other hand, if it was meant to be an evenhanded account of korean culture, exposing the ugly, while uncovering the occasional good, I think we're hearing only a part of the story. Michael -- you noted in your previous entries that you would like some good to come of this blog -- I would love to read your insights coupled with the latter approach, as it would only boost the impact of your overall message.

Either way, I appreciate the depth and sincerity of your writing and intend to read your future posts.

[ifelse]

many of the comments here and elsewhere may not be racist explictly in intent but nonetheless have that import. statements or arguments may tend to a certain careless generalizing nature or may be excessively negative, generalizations that may not be about mere political or cultural issues and which can have a more fundamental, genetic, import. and that's where the danger and the sense of racism come in.

of course, quite simply, sometimes some statements are racist and are directly intended to be offensive. these statement are not neccesarily posted in the entries but they may exist regularly in the comments sections of these pages or blogs in general. there is a distinct impression of racism that one can get about these blogs that one shouldn't account for with strawmen like "criticizing doesn't make me a racist" as if the issue at hand were always so simple.

if there's a fine line here, many people cross these lines either because they lack the refinement to appreciate what they are doing or saying or because, bottom line, they simply are racist and don't give a crap about being decent and would rather spend a large portion of their time demonizing ("criticizing") a people, and giving into and propogating hatred on the net -- and lots of that do go around; the defensiveness on the part of koreans that i see, myself included, is not without substance, and if there's any real crap going on, a lot of it can seem particularly concentrated in expat blogs like these.

[The Metropolitician]

So show me an example, instead of talking on and on about "expat blogs", for which I obviously don't have any responsibility. So you say there COULD be racist comments...so where's the example of my apparent racism against the Korean people?

[Bruce]

I challenge anybody to prove that Michael has an underlying tone of superiority in his writing, a nuance that casts him as some under-educated Orientalist drunk on the power of Western knowledge. Go on, show that he is just another expat living on the fringe of mainstream Korean society that lacks the ability to drop his cultural baggage and question what he has been taught. Where on his blog does he write freshman-grade essays cloaked in the phrasing of intellectuals, but devoid of any demonstration of comprehension of analytical skills beyond name and term dropping?

Where does he perpetuate white constructs of the Other through his writing? Just because he struggles with writing about stuff that he has yet to understand does not make him a racist. It may make him appear pretentious, or a poor communicator, and that could unwittingly make him appear a racist, but he's not.
How could he be racist if he spends half his time writing about racial issues?

I will donate a prize to any who can provide such evidence.

[The Metropolitician]

Well, thanks for the sarcastic "defense," Bruce.

I guess you're implying that spending half my time writing about racial issues makes me "racist." OK.

As for the Other, maybe you'd like to read what I actually wrote about that very subject would make you see that I try not to fall into that very trap.

As for being pretentious, snarky, snappy, and downright elitist when it comes to dismissing stupidity outright - guilty.

And I consider the names I use signs that I am specific, don't speak out of my ass, and generally know my shit. You call it "name dropping." OK.

Still, have yet to see examples. Why don't you take the time to actually show some of the things you talk about, instead of just accusing and running?

I never claimed to be perfect, nor right all the time. I do happen to think I'm right most of the time. Otherwise, I wouldn't put anything down on paper. I'm just up front about my assumptions, and I'm not afraid to lay them out for criticism. Too bad most of the critics are doing a pretty poor job of engaging, and simply drop the bomb of supposed "racism" and then run away, or simply complain about how snooty I am or arrogant I am.

OK. Whatever. Most of the critics are too lazy to actually dig deep, respond in a way that show they actually read what I say (I know many are long, but if you didn't even listen to what I was saying, then why start hackin away at the keyboard?), nor do they even provide the examples of this alleged hatred I have for Korea past being pissed about some post that offends one's sense of blind nationalist defensiveness about criticizing aspects of Korean society.

To that, I say, "Whatever."

[Say Park]

I don't think you are racist, ignorant, or arrogant of Korean ways. I think you are informative, factual, and true. I hope to read on more about your stories and opinions on life in Korea. It has, in a way, opened my eyes about life in Korea, things of which my parents never told me. Though I know for truth that just like in any other "developed" nation there always is some form of hatred against certain groups of people at certain given times, but hopefully going through this now might change our ways of living to one day create a "star trek" type of society. I can only hope. But for now, keep on writing, keep on informing, and don't be let down when another Korean gives you shit about who you are (I won't let that happen to me as a Korean in America or at least I try not to let that happen). Take care. Good day.