Scribblings of the Metropolitician

This Is How Much the Korean Media Hates Us

You know, every step of the way, I've been giving the warnings.

People scoffed when I said, years ago, that there was a "pattern" in the media's treatment of foreigners. Now, I doubt anyone can imagine it to be otherwise. You know, being a teacher here in Korea - even a foreign one - used to garner respect. And I'd say the quality of foreigners in Korea was much worse back when the numbers of foreigners wanting to live in Korea was low and the professionalization of the industry was in its infancy.

People actually gave me a lot of shit on this very blog when I warned that this pattern was dangerous and would lead to concrete consequences, such as changes in policy and even the laws. No one doubts that link today.

Yet, I'm the alarmist.

Now, a foreigner in need of obvious help commits suicide, and all the Korean media can do is fit it into the "evil foreigner" trope. Calls for screening alcoholism? Characterizing a man who is no different from the many people in this world, Korean or not, who was so hurt and tortured by something inside that he took to drink and then eventually took his own life as some kind of deviant or miscreant or criminal?

Has the discourse really gone this far? Don't you all see this as the last straw? How much has this discourse categorically dehumanized us so far that a newspaper can publish this kind of thing? A man has an alcohol problem and commits suicide, and he's added to the mental ticker in Koreans' heads of "deviant, criminal foreigners?"

Because there aren't any Koreans with alcohol problem, or killing themselves. 

I actually teared up when I read this, not so much because of the tragic death, to be honest. I'm another product of urban modernity, and my heart has hardened, unfortunately, to the reality of others' pain laid bare in the news.

But what really gets me -- and adds insult to this man's pain and injury to those who knew him -- was realizing just how MUCH the Korean media hates us, how much people have come to accept their construction of all foreigners as some kind of social monsters. 

It doesn't get any more callous, inhuman, and hypocritical than this.

We've become a social monster -- it's out of control.

I don't know what's worse -- the media's irresponsibility or the willingness of the everyday Korean person to believe the worst and most ridiculous things about us. 

It really is enough to make me stop caring about trying to fix things and just concentrate on becoming more commercially successful in my photography, stop reading the newspapers, and make that scrilla. Just get paid, get laid, and fuck thinking about social issues and problems. 

Maybe that's what happens when one starts bumping up against one's forties, or lived in Korea long enough, or just care too much.Who knows?

I think it's time to think more about making lots of money and buying bright, shiny things that will keep me distracted from the people in the world who obviously want to leave the place a shittier place than when they found it. 

Because, as you travel through life, you realize that there's nothing you can do about those people, and they're going to win in the end. Time to go make that money and meet more honeys. In the end, that's the only way to be comfortable, gain real power, not to mention regular health care.

Fuck it. I'm done.

You win, evil people in the world.

What a Dumbass, Racist Blog!

English Teachers Out -- how original.

With pictures that apparently draw a link between being an English teachers and being an interrogator at Abu Graib.

Riiiight.

Go over to the site, leave a piece of your mind (be smart and don't seem like whom they stereotype us to be), and let the warm sunshine of reasonableness and the truth be their own downfall. In other words, let their hyperbole and indignation-based-in-ignorance-and-racism be their own downfall.

Stupid people don't suddenly act smart when confronted by intelligent people. At best, they hem and haw themselves into irrelevant reasonableness (feigned as it may be) or they just break down into hysterics.

What they're going to do is come into my blog and try to find some choice post that they think they can exploit to embarrass me. Let them. It'll probably be some piece of sarcasm that they'll misinterpret. Or they'll simply try to paint me into one of their stereotypes of foreigners, which I don't fit, but that doesn't mean they won't try.

I doubt, however, they have anything meaningful to say about "English teachers" other than false accusations based in faulty or fraudulent statistics, or based in obvious racist motivations such as "the white men are dishonoring our sacred, Joseon maidens" or that we "spread AIDS" or...

...torture Korean children much like the prisoners of Abu Graib?

It's just stuff like that that means these guys will implode under their own sheer size, since there isn't much to the blog other than tired, old racist blowharding.

Let's blow 'em up and watch the fur fly, feeble arguments fall.

Oh, and let's see if the author has the cojones to sign his names to what he says. Or if he's like the rest of the cowards who populate the Internet with venom and vitriol...

The security blanket of anonymity, when taken away, generally reveals only rats and other vermin scurrying into the safety of darkness. 

My name's Michael Hurt and my email address is at the top right of this page.

English Teachers Out -- what are YOUR names?

Can you stand behind what you say? Are you proud of what you say?

I doubt it.

To the writer: you're a fucking coward.

Now, put me on blast in the Korean blogosphere and to Korean netizens, bitch.

I'll love it.

Shoot a Korean Supermodel!

Learn studio and general photography with a Korean supermodel!

Kang Minyoung.

When else on God's green earth are you going to have a chance to a) learn studio photography, b) shoot an actual supermodel, and c) display your work after the class finishes?

I'm a working fashion photographer, have many industry contacts, and was lucky enough to find the right people with whom to do this class. It's about the coolest thing I've ever organized.

If you want to up your photo game, this is the time and way to do it!

Movie Star Kkobbi Flowerain Kim Is a Faddict!

 

Behind the Picture: Lie Sang Bong

This was one of the hardest pictures I've ever had to take. It's not because of the technical aspects of the picture so much, but the fact that it was a defining moment in my time as the photographer. I've come a long way since been a street and documentary photographer, then going into fashion, but mostly on the street still. I've been practicing studio photography with an obsession for the last nearly two years, but you don't realize how far you come until you've been put to the test. And that's what happened on the day I shot Lie Sang Bong.

This was a moment that I shot probably the most famous and prominent fashion figure alive on the scene today in Korea, and also a figure who's been shot nearly to death. Many people have taken pretty good pictures of this guy. Now, I was expected to not only take a good picture, but one that stood out above the rest. At least, that was my expectation for myself. And that's a tall order.

On the day I was to arrive, I was running extremely late because of trouble getting my equipment together by myself, because the schedule didn't allow for anyone to assist me. Everybody was concentrating on the interview with the designer, who generally doesn't grant, I'm told, interviews longer than about 20 min. This loan ended up lasting about three hours. Since our magazine is started with the help of prominent fashion designers and figures, they were able to roll like that. The problem is, very little time is given for pictures. It's not like they were going to give me three times the normal amount of time given to other photographers. It's just like, "okay, now it's time take your silly little pictures. Hurry up and get it over with." So there was no time to sit and get to know the guy, get a feel from his personality, and all that other stuff. The basic expectations was to take the picture and end the entire day with him.

The problem was, that on the top floor of his design studio building, it says that there is a production studio. Well, there's nothing wrong with that. Here's the problem: the so-called studio is actually used as his personal office in one corner, and seemingly a storage space for all of the knick-knacks he's collected over the years, with the rest of the space being full of clutter, aside from a couple cramped seats for interviews in another part. But there are no backgrounds, lights, or any other kind of equipment. It was a good thing I brought everything myself.

And this is where of my years of experience, both in and out of the studio, and self-confidence kick in, which I had gained from that said experience. How to take a compelling and interesting portrait of a guy with no sold background and no natural background against which to do it? I had wanted to studio style portrait, but didn't have the seem the ability to make one.

So, with my friend and assistant Sylvia's help, we started looking at the many pictures of his store on the floor against the walls, mounted on foam board, many with white or black or gray backs. So I continued to draw upon the experience of one of my favorite photographers, Platon, who often shoots and just this situation, in which he has no prep, no real help in making the picture.

So I had the designer sit down in a large wooden chair and also had Sylvia bring over the largest mounted picture and slide it behind the designer's back in the chair. That provided a dark gray background, and I decided to shoot like Platon says he does, with a single soft box placed directly in front of the subject and pointing down at their head. It provides a very interesting and slightly stark light.

Actually, the dimensions for the board was wrong, and the chair was too long, so it didn't sit up enough by itself to be a background. So Sylvia was actually holding the foamboard background while I composed down below, in front of the designer. I used a wide-angle lens, and had him look down at me. This makes him look bit larger-than-life, and powerful. After that, I made a few passes of special effects, most importantly with the sharpen filter, along with a vignette, and then it was done.

All in all, I probably shot the designer for no more than a few minutes, but was happy with what I had. The final picture is sweetened up a little bit in Photoshop, with basic exposure effects and what not, so I feel it's very honest. The Photoshop helped the picture because I think the original had something to it, rather than most of the stark effect or feeling coming from the Photoshop.

Many pictures came out of this quick session. I chose this one because the expression is so in between other expressions. There's a slight sense of self-satisfaction, power, and yes, elegance. He's smiling a bit, but isn't. His expression shows his confidence, that that's how he rolls, he's got it like that.

Actually, that's the thing I learned from studying and listening to a lot of famous portrait photographers. What I've learned to do and what I will continue to try to do better is to bring out character from the subject, instead of trying to place something onto the subject from my end. I think that's the key to good portraits. They convey something that you probably didn't know about the person, or have fun with that person's real personality.

I was really nervous before going that day, and arrived with none of the expected equipment support present, and absolutely no concept as to how to shoot this famous designer, who's been shot a bazillion times before. But I was able to pull it together from the equipment and materials at hand, and come up with a good picture. And mean not freaking out comes from a mix of confidence and experience That I don't even think you can get in school. And for me, that was the real test. It was not about whether I can make a good exposure, or take a halfway decent picture, but about making something was feeling literally on spot and without preparation. I don't like feeling that I'm prepared, but sometimes it's going to happen. And for me, this picture means I passed the test.

In very real terms, it was put up or shut up, "Give me a picture." It wasn't about excuses, or even blaming others, who could've told me that there was no equipment in his studio and that none of the expected basic items we thought were there actually weren't. In the end, you leave with a picture that works or you don't. It was cool to know that I was able to pull it off.

Are You a Faddict?

I've become the lead photographer for a new fashion magazine about to come out in Korea, called Faddict. I've been shooting Korean designers and celebrities like mad these days, and been cleared to release a few as part of a campaign designed around the question, "Are you a faddict?"

Designer Lie Sang Bong.

Well, are you?

Hehe. I've got a LOT of cool stuff coming up, photo project-wise, but I'm not allowed to talk about most of it. Let's just say it's big bidniss and it leads me to think that 2011 is the year that it all starts to really come together.

Fighting!

The Leftovers of Japanese Colonialism (Easy English Series)

The Easy English Series is created for English teachers based in Korea who need 1) compelling content to encourage discussion, 2) content that is somewhat Korea-specific, yet places Korea and Korean culture into an international context, and 3) is written at a level designed for middle and secondary school students. This content was the result of a textbook project I was doing for a large hagwon company, and the initial passages published here are part of a chunk of the project for which I was unpaid. But since I like to make lemon meringue pie out of my lemons, I created this "Easy English Series." New entries will go up about once a week, and you should feel free to use and distribute the passages at your convenience, so long as proper attribution is given. You might throw out a link or merely acknowledge me as the author. Just don't plagiarize and simply give credit where credit is due.

I know how hard it is to get Korean middle/high school students to even speak, let alone voice their opinions or think critically. I hope that this Korean-specific content, which is not afraid to court controversy and disagreement, helps you in your teaching, lesson planning, and in being a real teacher who can change minds and offer a meaningful intellectual experience to one's students, rather than simply be a cog in the soul-crushing, dream-demolishing machine of death that is the English education industry here. Hardworking English teachers of Korea, I salute you!

TIPS FOR USE: The long passage defines the main theme and sets the stage, and often provides background information. The short passages are related, but usually present smaller cases and/or specific examples that illustrate the larger theme. I try to keep the sentence structure simple, but do pepper in harder vocabulary words. Also, since I hate wishy-washy content that encourages equivocation and lame discussion, the material makes reasonable assertions and doesn't confuse fairness with simply not having a real opinion. By adding stats and facts to the discussions and having the students properly disagree with assertions, but demand that they back up their reasons for doing so, the passages can help you not only educate, but also destroy myths, fallacies, and the habits of non-rigorous thinking. I apologize in advance for typos. Please note them in the comments section and I will correct them in the post.

LONG PASSAGE
The Trouble with the Colonial Period
History and emotion are not a good mix. History requires being calm, logical, and objective. Of course, because we are human, being 100% objective is impossible. But we must try to be as much as possible. Because when we write history, we must look at the facts first, then make our conclusion second. And sometimes, the conclusions we find are not what we want. But that does not mean they are untrue.

So, good historians must be brave. When studying a sensitive topic, sometimes a historian will come to an unpopular conclusion. And if it is very unpopular, a professor can lose his job, the media can attack her, or netizens may make them a target.

For Koreans, the colonial period is probably the most sensitive historical topic there is. Koreans are ashamed of being colonized, and don't like to think about Japanese influence on Korea. This is understandable. Every country has embarrassing history. The US murdered millions of Native Americans and enslaved Africans as part of building its country. The Japanese did horrible things when it was an empire. So did the Germans, when the racist Nazis were in power. Korean soldiers in Vietnam were infamous for their brutality. But the question is -- how do we handle our embarrassing history?

The Germans highlighted it. The mass murder of the Jews and others -- called "the Holocaust" -- is taught in all history textbooks. During high school, German students learn about just the Holocaust for an entire year of history class.

In the US, there has been a lot of emphasis on slavery, Native Americans, and the Vietnam War since the 1960's. Before that, American historians were very conservative. Nowadays, many Americans demand to be included in the story, so textbook companies are sensitive to that. American history textbooks are not written by the government, but are written by private textbook companies. They are not perfect, but they must respond to the demands of the audience. Many blacks, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans now demand proper balance in the textbooks.

In Japan, embarrassing history is generally covered up. This has led to some historical arguments between Japan and Korea, as well as Japan and China. But Korea's attitude towards embarrassing history is not so different. If something is embarrassing, or too sensitive, people want to skip it, or just not talk about it.

Korea's behavior in Vietnam, the government's treatment of laborers, or some issues during the colonial era -- Koreans have trouble looking at these issues objectively, too. But looking at these kinds of "secret histories" can be quite interesting, actually. And you can learn a lot from having a healthy debate about them.

SHORT PASSAGES
The Myth of Blood Types and Personality
Many Koreans believe that one's blood type is related to one's personality. For example, there is a Type A man, Type B woman, etc. Many people in Taiwan and Japan believe the same. This is because this bad science was only spread in the Japanese empire. It all started in 1927. Takeji Furukawa was a professor who published a paper called "The Study of Temperament [Emotion] Through Blood Type." The government liked his idea, so it assigned him to study the Taiwanese. The government wanted to show that the Taiwanese and other groups were inferior, or lower, than the Japanese. Furukawa "proved" this with his blood type research. But the public soon forgot about blood types and personality. This idea became really popular again in the 1970's in books by Nomi Masahiko. He wrote several books about the link between blood type and personality. They were all bestsellers. But remember, this silly idea about blood types all started as a part of racist Japanese science. And no other countries in the world believe in it, besides those in Japan's former colonies, Taiwan and Korea. Do you still believe in the results of racist Japanese science?

The Origin of "Minjok"
It may sound hard to believe, but Koreans didn't use the word "minjok" until 1898. Of course, the Chinese characters for "min" (people) existed, as well as the Chinese character for "jok" (family). However, they were never used together as a single word meaning "race" or "people. " All that started in the Hwangseong News. Many Korean nationalists wrote for this newspaper. At the time, many Korean thinkers and writers were getting new ideas about national identity from Japanese books and intellectuals. They wanted to use these concepts to help think about Korean identity. So, this began the belief in "one nation, one race, one people." For the Japanese, these ideas made people feel like one, and therefore, easier to control. Also at that time, Korean nationalists weren't following the Japanese model. Many Korean features and intellectuals looked up to Japan. Before the 1900s, many Koreans thought of Japan like a big brother, and a good model of development to copy. Who could know that Japan would turn around and colonize Korea only a few years later?

The Irony of History
Shin Chae-ho is Korea's greatest historian and most famous nationalist writer. It may be shocking to hear, but he was also an eager supporter of Japan before the 1900s. When Japan was colonizing Taiwan from 1895, Shin and another Korean intellectuals gave the Japanese great praise. Shin praised Japan for making a "backwards" Taiwan into a modern nation. He praised Japan for building schools, railroads, and many other modern things for Taiwan. This is very ironic. What we can see is that even Korean nationalists supported Japan before the 1900s. Actually, this makes sense. It was only in the early 1900s that a hardliner [conservative or harsh] group developed in Japanese government that wanted to just conquer Korea. Before that, most Japanese planners looked at Korea as a sort of junior partner. Most thought, "Why conquer Korea? They are already mostly cooperating with us." But after Ahn Chung-geun's assassination of Ito Hirobumi in 1909, the hardliners won. In 1910, Korea was no more. Of course, Shin was no traitor. Rather, politics between Korea and Japan changed amazingly fast. Who could know how quickly Japan would change its mind?

Korean Tourism Media Campaign: "Come Home to Korea"

I like to put my money where my mouth is, so here's a real set of 4 commercials that illustrate my point that Korean cultural promotion can be much more effective by touting EXPERIENCE-based narratives, rather than the standard hodge-podge of fan dances, palaces, and strings of random imagery united by nothing other than the common theme of being somehow "Korean" in the simplistic, nationalist sense.

With this kind of marketing, you have to get right to the USP, but also tell the viewer "this is what you will get or experience if you come here." You have to tell the viewer why they would plunk down thousands of dollars to come all the way across the world to KOREA, specifically. Just because Koreans are a proud people have 5,000 years of history - in short, because Koreans WANT you to come? How selfish, on a certain level. And totally uncompelling.

I'm not saying THESE particular spots or this campaign is the one. It is here to illustrate my point and show directly what I am talking about. Hopefully, it might act as a good tool for discussion, perhaps someone at STO or KTO might read this and find it useful. My point is that this style of campaign is more in line with what the target audience needs, as opposed to what Korean suits have been giving them, and wasting millions of dollars of Korean taxpayers' money. I and a few others could make these videos for a pittance.

This campaign will work because:
-- it tells a story, which good ads do
-- it doesn't suffer from "Korean myopia," i.e. Koreans showing foreigners what Koreans want to show them, as opposed to what they might WANT TO SEE
-- it does it serially and non-linearly so it can be told across a range of media
-- it presents lesser-known aspects of Korean culture for an "ahhh" feeling, while also working with some things people already know about Korea
-- it appeals to anyone from the open-minded backpacker who might add Korea to a trip to Asia or visit a friend there, to the middle-aged European couple who might bring the entire family and tour Asia for six weeks in the summer
-- it presents what Korean promotions never do: the "unique selling proposition" of Korea vs. other places
-- it presents Korea's strengths without nationalistic bragging
-- it doesn't present false superlatives that disappoint and offend (in being both untrue and inherently denigrating)
-- use of imagery is tight and controlled, not a hodge-podge of confusing codes and standards
-- it will be in a western "friendly/casual" tone, not the Korean "officious/formal" one

"COME HOME TO KOREA" Campaign (4 varied short films, have the potential to go viral, especially the comedic one.

"WHERE THE REAL FUN BEGINS"
[Grandiose, sweeping view of the Great Wall.]
"When you come to Asia, you have to visit the Great Wall of China..."
[Drum beat cues us to fade in of MT. Fuji]
"...and you cannot miss the majesty that is Japan's Mt. Fuji..."
[Fade to black.]
"But once you've done the tourist thing..."
"Let the REAL fun begin!"
[Explosion of images of night club dancing, clinking soju glasses, roasting meat, fashion show runway, traditional festival in the city, movie shoot, fashionable kids in the street waving, getting a massage, all punctuated to fast-moving, edgy music.]
"When you come to Asia, come home to Korea." [by the end]
[Snappy graphic and final, upbeat voiceover]
"Korea. Where the REAL fun begins."

"GO DEEPER"
[Slow-moving visuals of the open spaces of 경복궁, 창덕궁, 덕수궁, reed flute, Oriental sounds]
[ This is a detailed, interesting presentation of why Korean palaces are different from other places in Asia.]
"They are defined by their open spaces and emptiness as much as the buildings. They concept of feng shui guides their construction and channels spiritual energy into them. In a Korean palace, what you don't see is as important as what you do."
[We pull back into the air from a lone foreign figure, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath with a smile, all the way out to the entire palace, swoosh through a city, into the graphic.]
"Experience Korea, go deeper."

"FEEL THE STILLNESS"
[Cuts from popular films showing monks, both silly and solemn, from meditating ones from 'Kung Fu' to the Shaolin monks of the '39 Chambers']
"You've seen temples. You've seen monks."
[Popular shot of shirtless Bruce Lee]
"You probably know what focused concentration can do for your body."
[More serious long shot starting on a single monk meditating, pulling back to reveal an entire room or even field of people doing something the same, group exercise, meditation]
"Maybe you've even tried mediation to clear your mind and clean your soul."
[Stunning shot of Korean mountains, temples on the hills]
"Now come home to Korea, which has the most mountains and temples in Asia!"
[Zooming in on a large group of Korean monks meditating, ends on a close shot of a single, obviously non-Korean, young person mediating along with the rest]
"In a Korean temple stay, you don't have to just watch. Come be one with the monks, one with the mountains. Be a monk for a day. Or a week. Feel at home."
[Fade out on meditating tourist-monk.]
[Slow fade-in on logo]
"Come to Korea and feel the stillness."

"WE USUALLY BREAK THE BOARDS'
[Shot inside Taekwondo hall, large and traditional, wooden floor, big Taegukki in the back, students practing forms in unison. We cut to a small group gather reed around the master, looking serious and poised in front of a stack of concrete blocks]
[British-accented male voiceover, very David Attenborough]
"9th-degree Taekwondo and 7th-degree hapkido grandmaster Hong-Seok Kim, coach for the Korean national team during the 1988 Olympic games and author of the martial arts bestseller "Way of the Tiger," will channel his Ki energy into breaking 3 concrete blocks, which according to physics calculations, would require 3000 foot-pounds of perfectly-directed force to even crack."
[Master Kim has been meditating, measuring the block with his hands and head, solemnly preparing his Ki energy during this extremely long voiceover. Now, he prepares for the decisive head thrust.]
"Ki-yaaaap!"
[Master Kim's head makes violent contact with the blocks, at which point he rears back and falls to the floor in agony, curls into fetal position, moaning. His assistants and official suits rush to his aid. We kinda saw this coming, but were taken in by the serious tone.]
[Now-discombobulated narrator haltingly finishes the commercial as shaky-cam resets to final shot of the hall, and we fade to the official logo.
"Umm...Korea! Where we usually...ahem...break the blocks...most of the time...
[quietly, as if off-mike, in lower-class Brit accent]
"THAT look like it bloody hurt? Is he bleeding...?"
[Simple fade out.]