Korea part 5
The Spring time is many things. A new semester is in full swing! Flowers are back! PEOPLE are back. Festivals at every opportunity!
I returned to Korea just in time to miss the last of the Spring Blossoms, supposedly the most beautiful time of the year. But it was worth it to spend a few weeks at home and attend my sister's lovely wedding. In any case: though I did miss the 'best' blossoms, I was nonetheless quite amazed at how many flowers polluted the city. There were lilacs everywhere, which provided a nice perfume blocking the usual city smells. And many many shades of reds and pinks and purples to be found. It's this kind of colorful stimulus that I love about springtime.
I've now spent about a half of a year in Korea, which is quite long. It's been hard to think of what to write because I feel pretty well adjusted; nothing seems that strange or notable anymore. So I'll try here to think of things that I now take for granted, which would have felt completely strange to me before I came here:
[There is always tissue available at every table of every restaurant]
The reasons for this are various, but they mostly boil down to one thing. Korean food will make liquid emit from you face: out of your nose, eyes, cheeks. And not just _some_ foods. Every meal has some component to it that is designed to do this, something that has just the right spice or spice-like ingredient. Even foreign foods are all modified, in subtle and not so subtle ways, to spice you up --the spaghetti sauce is spiked with pepper, or for some ridiculous reason there is wasabi hidden inside of the pizza crust . And if the main course is too bland, look around. There's probably an accompanying side dish of raw jalapenos or something, or perhaps the soup is deceptively mild-looking but actually packs a bite. Additionally, food will often be served extremely hot (rice served in stone bowls, still cooking as you eat it; soup still boiling; meat sizzling and spitting on the grill in front of you). This allows for yet more kinds of damage to the system. The lesson to take from this: the food here will not sit idly by. There is a culturally agreed upon guarantee that your dinner will inflict some kind of damage on you -be it overtly physical, or simply emotional. The food will transform you.
An accompanying feature is that there are always sweet pickles and kimchi available. The former to cool you down from the spiciness, and the latter to warm you back up.
[the ham is NOT ham]
I went out with some coworkers one night, and they purchased some snacks. One such snack Sungkwon referred to as 'ham'. It was a plastic-wrapped sausage-shaped tube with metal binders on the ends. When opened, the contents were an entirely white cheese-like stick. "It's ham," Sungkwon says. I'm doubtful. "All kids eat this, it's got lots of calcium." It was definitely not ham, I knew that much. After unfortunately consuming one of these treats, I'm fairly certain it's just ground up fish bones.
[people will sell things anywhere]
On the street: there's always little pieces of jewelry or sweatpants, or bootleg dvds or food to buy on the street, outside of any major station. Also, less frequently but still amazing, there will be guys that will walk along subway trains and make very loud sales of whatever it is they happen to be carrying. I've seen guys selling umbrellas, which is pretty clever to do when it's raining. More mysterious items are sold, though, like boxes of 500 bandaids. And there's always a taker too, some guy who knows right then that what he needs is a box of bandaids on the way home. There's also pretty efficient panhandling on the train. The train takes off from a station, and a polite boy will walk up one side of the train car, handing out a little essay to each person. Once he has circled the whole train, he picks up the essays again, and some people pass him money. One of the cleverer operations is on weekend nights, when these ladies make the rounds to all of the bars, and sell flowers. For all of the poor intoxicated fellows who are finding frustration in showing their newfound affection for the other girls in the bar, these flower ladies are just perfect.
[foreigners are all 'friends']
There's a little simple piece of vocabulary I picked up: 'chingu'. It means 'friend'. But shopkeepers will also say to each other when I walk by their stores --here comes a foreigner, it means. Our friend is approaching. My friends explain that they also use it generally to refer to foreigners. And I've also seen it used to refer to people of the same age. I'm sure that there's more negative, complementary vocabulary, but I think that calling foreigners 'friends' is a little funny in a charming way. So, one day I'm walking with Chieun, my korean friend. We are passing an intersection, and she says, hey look, your friends. A glance over and see a dozen or so white people. Haha, I say, always funny, all the foreigners are each others' friends, I get it. Then I look again. I recognize the faces of these people. "Oh hey, Hi guys!" It turns out it's a group of Canadian english teachers I had met and kind of befriended the previous week. "Yeah... those actually were my friends," I say sheepishly.
[Cosmetic stores are one big free-for-all.]
There is a common practice, whereby cosmetic stores pretty much give unlimited free samples to anyone who wants them. I was surprised when Chieun would walk in, put on a layer of lipstick, and leave without paying or shopping at all. But then I looked around, and noticed that all of these cosmetic shops were full of girls doing the same thing --in and out. Pretty convenient I guess.
[Korea has too many special days]
It's hard not to notice all of the special promotions going on everywhere. The convenience stores selling differently-packaged candy. Bakeries selling.... differently packaged cakes. It seemed there was always another promotion going on, so I had to ask my friends about it. We all know the basic made-up commercial holidays by now, starting with the USA's own Valentine's Day on February 14th. A very popular export. Korea, like Japan, gives it the specific definition of 'the day on which girls must give chocolate to either every guy they know, or just some of them'. Japanese and Korean confectionary companies pair this holiday with 'White Day', one month later on March 14th, where it is expected that all guys who received chocolate the previous month must give BACK white chocolate to the girls in repayment. It seems unfair, right? Why should these couples get all of the fun of giving food to each other? Korea answered that concern, with a little holiday called 'Black Day'. On April 14th, singles get together and celebrate their loneliness by eating black noodles. Which is an awesome idea.
But there's more, I learned. Korea has been accumulating strange holidays at an enormous rate. It seems three months of holidays on the 14th was a kind of critical mass, which soon gave rise to a saturation of the whole calendar. Various commercial industries have made quick work of filling every month with a nice consumer holiday on the 14th. Here they are:
January 14th Diary Day -Buy your sweetheart a diary!
May 14th Rose Day - Give them a rose! Or a ROSE CAKE!
June 14th Kiss Day - kiss the person (people? ) who gave you a roses the previous month. OR GIVE THEM A KISS CAKE!
July 14th: Silver Day -Give them something silver. OR GIVE THEM A CAKE WITH SILVER FROSTING!
August 14th: Green Day - for enjoying nature together . Or: A day for drinking Soju (a korean alcohol) outside. OR GIVE THEM A GREEN CAKE!
September 14th: Photo Day - take pictures together! OR... (yes!) GIVE THEM A CAKE WITH THEIR PHOTO ON IT!
October 14th: Wine Day - drink wine together!
November 14th: Movie Day - watch a movie together!
November 11th: (11/11) 'Peppero™' Day, the day during which you are supposed to buy Peppero brand cookie sticks. For your sweetheart, or something.
December 14th: Hug Day - ummm. I'm not sure this one is as easy to sell. But I saw teddy bears on sale, and also heart-shaped piles of boxes of cookies.
It seems a little bit much. But I do appreciate the number of opportunities to eat cake.
[The president is out of his mind]
The reports from my coworkers started coming in more and more frequently. "Charlie, Myongbak did another crazy thing."
Yes, the new President Myongbak, only a few months into his 5 year term, has been very busy.
His main problem seems to be a communication with the press. He says a lot of things that are, according to him, misunderstood. He is plagued by misunderstandings.
For example: he says something in public, like 'there are exactly 50 reasons why X is important.' Meanwhile, there's someone working for him who has to frantically compile this list, after the claim, and publish it in order to back him up. Later, when questioned about it, he denies he ever said it in the first place.
More recently: in defense of his master plan for construction of the National Canal from Seoul to Pusan, he broke into English at one point. The press was questioning him and critical of his ridiculous canal plan, which could prove to be an environmental disaster. After switching to English, he said that it's not actually a canal at all. No, not a canal. It's merely a 'waterway'. Then he switched languages back to Korean. Next question.
He also had some problems when he reorganized the different ministries of the president for his administration. In his new reorganization, there were numerous confusing merges and resulting names. Consider the merging of the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the Ministry of Planning and Budget. Together, they became the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, which is not exactly clear. (Perhaps in Korean the name is better, but the newspapers were even reporting on the bad english names...) Also, there's the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, which is composed of the Commerce, Economy and Industry Ministry and parts of the Information and Communication Industry and the Science and Technology Ministry. 'Ministry of Knowledge Economy?' Not only is it confusing, it's kind of scary sounding.
Then he even made a trip to Japan, where he apparently, in the words of my coworker: 'apologized to Japan for WW2'. More accurately, he apologized for Korea being uppity about Japan's history, in the interest of warming relations. Along with this announcement, he made plans to suspend a kind of political action committee, which had been put into place to investigate companies and people who had profited from cooperating with Japanese occupation so long ago. Judging from Myongbak's background, it might seem that such investigations are against his best interests, and curtailing such investigations as an act of diplomacy is killing two birds with one stone. Certainly, though, the apology is insensitive, to say the least, to many Korean families affected by the war.
Of course, it's not merely misunderstandings that plague the president. He's frequently under investigation for past dubious financial shenanigans in various companies he's presided over.
And his plan to privatize the Korean medical insurance system is not seeing much popular support. He wants the system to be 'more like in the US'. It didn't help things that the movie 'Sicko' was released widely here a few weeks ago, which got people pretty hysterical about the president's plans to ruin their non-broken system. He's also had some plans to privatize other things: the highway system, the water system --basically anything he can get his hands on. These plans are similarly unpopular with most people.
Now, it would be prudent at this point to try to remember why this man was elected to the highest office, if so many people seem to have problems with what he's actually doing. Well, the opposing party was boring, and had been unsuccessful at getting their projects done. Myongbak on the other hand: even if he was kind of crazy, at least 'knew how to get things done'. And as we all know, when there's a choice between a crazy candidate and a boring candidate, democracy seems to favor the latter.
A few weeks ago he visited Camp David and President Bush for some negotiations. Days later, Myongbak returned with an announcement that Korea would lift its ban on US beef imports. (And, it was revealed, would agree to minimal inspection and quality standards.) An angry press responded: "What did you get in return for this 'negotiation'?" Well, that was it. (presumably, some agreement to be 'tough' on North Korea was involved, but that was going on anyways). Pictures appeared of Myongbak yucking it up at Camp David, of him smiling and having what looked like a great time. The government put out an 'embargo' on press coverage of these pictures.
For the past month or so, even leading up to Myongbak's negotiation with the US, there was rather wide coverage of the US beef industry and their recently publicized infractions and awful standards. Korean news loved covering it, showing those clips of the cows falling over almost every night. They also did behind the scenes reports on how beef raising differs around the world. So, with the public primed and ready in this state of caution and fear toward US beef, Myongbak's negotiation created quite the stir. The public went into full-on protest mode. Within a few days, there were massive protests organized near Seoul city hall.
[more meat problems abound]
There are a number of other factors that make the US beef imports such a hot issue. The biggest concern, however, is Mad Cow Disease. People are downright frightened of it. For good reason, because based on the actions of the government, it would appear under some interpretations that the government WANTS to give them Mad Cow. But here are the facts, as presented from the protesting side, some of which may be dubious (you'll have to forgive me, because I am by no means an expert on any of this):
-The deal reached with the US allowed export of meat from cows of any age. Typically, there is an upper limit to the age of the cows whose beef is accepted. Japan sets it at 20 months, the US consumers and most of the rest of the world limit it to 30 months or so. It decreases chance of the cow consuming or otherwise developing Mad Cow, among other concerns.
-The imported US beef will be one quarter of the price of current beef. Meaning that there will be a very quick changeover by restaurants in order to compete, meaning that for the average person there is no way of avoiding the potentially dangerous meat (unless they give up beef altogether, which is hard to do here).
-Korean cuisine frequently make use of parts of the cow that are most susceptible to prion development, and hence are more likely to get Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human variant of Mad Cow.
-Some even argue that there is some study that shows that Koreans are somehow 'genetically' predetermined to suffer more from Creutzfeldt-Jakob than other humans.
Now, no matter what you think here, one thing is clear in this case: the President completely ruined whatever kind of trust people had for the government. Now, the common opinion seems to be that the government, with the help of the US beef industry, actually actively wants to poison them to death. ('Even China has higher standards for US beef imports!' many claim.)
But that's not the only meat problem. Just the other week, there was a Bird Flu scare in Seoul. After a few days of other measures, they eventually had to kill all poultry in the city to contain the epidemic. The whole area. Dead.
They don't call it Bird Flu. On the news, they only refer to it as 'AI', standing for Avian Influenza. At some point in the past, the poultry industry had sued or somehow otherwise forced the press to stop referring to it as Bird Flu (in korean), and start referring to it only as this mysterious obfuscated 'AI'.
[protesting is hip]
So the Mad Cow protests have become a nearly daily activity here. At least, every weekend there are Mad Cow protests or marches staged. And they are extremely popular, too. Students come from all around the city to spend the night together at the protest, which is run a little differently than I expected.
An area is registered beforehand, and people in adorable cow suits and 'sick' face masks hand out candles to everyone who comes. (The cow suits are identical (sans face mask) to those I've seen promoting beef restaurants.) After receiving their candles and lighting them, everyone finds a place to sit down, and on stage speaker after speaker comes up to savagely shame the government, or tell an amusing story, or tell everyone to get together. And people are cuddling around, napping a bit, but generally are having a good time.
My coworker tells me that a few years ago, another issue was very popular to protest, and many students attended very frequently. He guesses that for a lot of them, it was a very fun time. That maybe, just maybe, this new issue was so popular to protest because they all had a kind of nostalgia for the earlier protests. And hey, if a protest merely entails sitting together on a warm night under candlelight with other young people who share your views, it seems like a nice way to spend time and meet friends.
I've seen a lot of crowd gathering in the last month, in fact. Before this Mad Cow business erupted, I got to see the Olympic torch relay kickoff. I went with my Chinese friend Xingxing to the event, even though she originally had not intended to go. When we arrived at Olympic park, the place was already swarming. Not only was there an impressive gathering of people there, but the Chinese flags were everywhere as well. Girls were draped in Chinese flags, guys had Chinese flags painted on their cheeks, and this one guy was trying to stuff as many miniature flags in his shoes as he possibly could (which fell out after he took one step). After setting off from the Olympic park, the torch snaked its way through town on a top secret route. Eventually I accidentally bumped into the torch again on my way home.
The whole event was pretty strange to me. The majority of celebrants (maybe around half) were Chinese people -students and others- all joining together in some kind of display of national pride, and maybe that other vague positive togetherness feeling that the Olympics invoke. There were chants of 'go china' and such which, as when anything is repeated by a crowd of thousands, sounds a little aggressive. 'China! fighting!'
China and Chinese people seem to be the most popular subject of racism and ridicule in this country, as far as I can tell. They're looked down upon in subtle and unsubtle ways. And of course, in light of this status, seeing such a group of students and other Chinese people together to celebrate the achievement of their nation was pretty... nice, charming, something, to me.
But then there's more to it, of course. The turnout for the event was also more than a little 'defensive'. The opposition groups were in attendance, I noted: Signs claiming "Say no to Chinese propaganda," and "Free Tibet", etc. Though these were not very large or loud protests, at least from what I could see. And the thousands and thousands of Seoul police forces were well-pepared for any assaults on the torch if it came to that. Nevertheless, the huge attendance of Chinese people must have at least been, in part, a reaction to the protests at previous torch-relays across the world. There was more than a little organized motivation for Chinese citizens to go 'protect' the torch. So they come for many reasons, some to defend the ceremony, defend their nation, defend their identity. It's one of those cases where race, culture, language, geography, and politics are mixed together into a singular personal concept, which seems to be not uncommon in this end of the world.
The whole gathering was largely peaceful, from what I saw. Even 'nice' as I said above. But before I went to sleep that night I had seen on tv a clip of some Chinese students in a building (later, around the end of the relay) surrounding and yelling at a man, some of them hitting him with Chinese flags and beating him. A few other cases of violence were also reported, where some Chinese students would get into fights with Korean protestors. So then by the next day, some Koreans responded by saying they felt 'under attack in their own country'. Then there was rumored cases of violent retaliation against Chinese students. The whole ugly mess. Embarrassing for everyone. The defensiveness that both sides feel is understandable, but utterly embarrassing and inexcusable.
[May is nothing but festivals]
But there have been more unambiguously pleasant gatherings as well!
Buddha's Birthday parade, which continued for hours. So many grandmas marching, and contingents of grandpas in wheel chairs, and all flavors of Buddhists well-represented. Colorful floats, including elephants, dragons, and giant inflatable race cars!
There were school festivals too:
My coworker Hyeun wanted to bring me to the neighboring school, Sungkyunkwan University, on the week of their school festival. Which is kind of like a homecoming, but more universal than those that I've experienced elsewhere. The festival even put to shame the campuswide school festivals I saw in Japan. For four days straight the school was in celebration mode. Various school clubs would run games and sell things outside. And the main athletic field of the school was decked out and hosting various bands. And later at night, still more school clubs made up little 'taverns' on a field, and they sold beer and snacks to customers sitting on homemade cardboard box tables in the grass. Which was adorable to me, but I noted with regret that that kind of thing would never play back home. After partaking of such snacks, me and Hyeun made our way to the concert area, because he wanted to catch the currently-popular band 'Wonder Girls' make their stage appearance.
I don't know much about Korean music. What I do know is that there seem to be only about 5 songs played in a random order, no matter where I am. On the street, in a restaurant, on TV, it always seems like the same five songs. There's the one with the girl saying "tell me, tell me, te te te te te tell me", and there's the one where the guy says "tell me that you love me and I...", and there's others with similar hooks that I recognize. So it wasn't SO surprising to me that the third song in the Wonder Girls' concert was... yes, "tell me, tell me, te te te te te tell me". One of the few songs that I could distinguish was in fact by the one band I go out to see randomly. It's a small world.
The next week I was invited to another school festival by my coworker's younger sister Sujin. This festival seemed even bigger, and had another big show going on at the outdoor auditorium. Between bands going on stage and performing, professors from various departments would get on stage and play guitar and sing classic songs, or do a karaoke performance of some pop song, with the students all groaning or cheering them. The bands at this event all seemed to be boy bands though. One notable example was one that Sujin said was named '5 men and a baby'. It sounded suspicious. So five guys get on stage, and proceed to sing a song about... apparently all five of them raising a baby together. Behind them video of the five guys taking care of a child plays. The actual child is nowhere in sight. After the first song... they talk a little bit, and then sing several MORE songs about raising a baby. Warning bells are going off in my brain, and I just hope hope hope that it's not as bad as it seems. It COULDN'T be that bad, but I do hope the baby actually has a real family, besides this randomly created grouping of pop-singers and their corporate producers. But perhaps I'll never know.
And one day I went on a walk with my friend Inhae, and visited the Cheongdeokgung palace, which was staging a historical day. There were actors dressed up in royal fare, Korean dynasty style kings and queens and jesters all dancing and parading and putting on performances. After this, we went across town to check out some music at a related festival, but we got lost and accidentally entered a gathering for a 'free trade' festival. And on the way back from that, we bumped into a more corporate concertgoing on, promoting a new product or something. There was a famous singer there performing. We got a bite to eat, and when we came out again, the equipment for this concert was being taken down, and space was being cleared for ANOTHER even in the same space. The space was being handed over to a Mad Cow protest, of course, made obvious by some cow costumed people and banners asking the president "Why don't YOU eat mad cow?" I walked a few blocks down, and ran into yet another event. Some kind of light and music show, celebrating Seoul. After watching some music, I checked back in with the Mad Cow protest next door.
It was a pretty ridiculous day, and I felt amazed at how much activity takes place here. So many parks, so many people, so many reasons to gather.
The city feels so ALIVE. And I enjoy that. Of course, it's no different than so many other cities. There's always something going on somewhere. But I especially feel it here due to everything being in such close proximity, such easy access. If something big is happening, it will happen in any of less than a dozen places, all of which I could get to by walking for less than half an hour. Perhaps I'm easily impressed, but it feels quite amazing to be part of that. And between the piles of garbage in the streets, and the beautified fountains and parks mere meters away, there is a pleasant range of experience here. Earlier this evening I heard yet another protest marching just outside of my apartment window, demanding new direction in their government. And at work this afternoon, there were two guys yelling loudly at each other in the hall, almost ready to fight --in the dental materials research building on the medical school campus of the nation's most prestigious school. How strange and amazing is that?
And somehow it still feels pretty... normal.
Many new pictures available at:
http://chookbobberki.110mb.com/CharlieKoreaWeb5/
I returned to Korea just in time to miss the last of the Spring Blossoms, supposedly the most beautiful time of the year. But it was worth it to spend a few weeks at home and attend my sister's lovely wedding. In any case: though I did miss the 'best' blossoms, I was nonetheless quite amazed at how many flowers polluted the city. There were lilacs everywhere, which provided a nice perfume blocking the usual city smells. And many many shades of reds and pinks and purples to be found. It's this kind of colorful stimulus that I love about springtime.
I've now spent about a half of a year in Korea, which is quite long. It's been hard to think of what to write because I feel pretty well adjusted; nothing seems that strange or notable anymore. So I'll try here to think of things that I now take for granted, which would have felt completely strange to me before I came here:
[There is always tissue available at every table of every restaurant]
The reasons for this are various, but they mostly boil down to one thing. Korean food will make liquid emit from you face: out of your nose, eyes, cheeks. And not just _some_ foods. Every meal has some component to it that is designed to do this, something that has just the right spice or spice-like ingredient. Even foreign foods are all modified, in subtle and not so subtle ways, to spice you up --the spaghetti sauce is spiked with pepper, or for some ridiculous reason there is wasabi hidden inside of the pizza crust . And if the main course is too bland, look around. There's probably an accompanying side dish of raw jalapenos or something, or perhaps the soup is deceptively mild-looking but actually packs a bite. Additionally, food will often be served extremely hot (rice served in stone bowls, still cooking as you eat it; soup still boiling; meat sizzling and spitting on the grill in front of you). This allows for yet more kinds of damage to the system. The lesson to take from this: the food here will not sit idly by. There is a culturally agreed upon guarantee that your dinner will inflict some kind of damage on you -be it overtly physical, or simply emotional. The food will transform you.
An accompanying feature is that there are always sweet pickles and kimchi available. The former to cool you down from the spiciness, and the latter to warm you back up.
[the ham is NOT ham]
I went out with some coworkers one night, and they purchased some snacks. One such snack Sungkwon referred to as 'ham'. It was a plastic-wrapped sausage-shaped tube with metal binders on the ends. When opened, the contents were an entirely white cheese-like stick. "It's ham," Sungkwon says. I'm doubtful. "All kids eat this, it's got lots of calcium." It was definitely not ham, I knew that much. After unfortunately consuming one of these treats, I'm fairly certain it's just ground up fish bones.
[people will sell things anywhere]
On the street: there's always little pieces of jewelry or sweatpants, or bootleg dvds or food to buy on the street, outside of any major station. Also, less frequently but still amazing, there will be guys that will walk along subway trains and make very loud sales of whatever it is they happen to be carrying. I've seen guys selling umbrellas, which is pretty clever to do when it's raining. More mysterious items are sold, though, like boxes of 500 bandaids. And there's always a taker too, some guy who knows right then that what he needs is a box of bandaids on the way home. There's also pretty efficient panhandling on the train. The train takes off from a station, and a polite boy will walk up one side of the train car, handing out a little essay to each person. Once he has circled the whole train, he picks up the essays again, and some people pass him money. One of the cleverer operations is on weekend nights, when these ladies make the rounds to all of the bars, and sell flowers. For all of the poor intoxicated fellows who are finding frustration in showing their newfound affection for the other girls in the bar, these flower ladies are just perfect.
[foreigners are all 'friends']
There's a little simple piece of vocabulary I picked up: 'chingu'. It means 'friend'. But shopkeepers will also say to each other when I walk by their stores --here comes a foreigner, it means. Our friend is approaching. My friends explain that they also use it generally to refer to foreigners. And I've also seen it used to refer to people of the same age. I'm sure that there's more negative, complementary vocabulary, but I think that calling foreigners 'friends' is a little funny in a charming way. So, one day I'm walking with Chieun, my korean friend. We are passing an intersection, and she says, hey look, your friends. A glance over and see a dozen or so white people. Haha, I say, always funny, all the foreigners are each others' friends, I get it. Then I look again. I recognize the faces of these people. "Oh hey, Hi guys!" It turns out it's a group of Canadian english teachers I had met and kind of befriended the previous week. "Yeah... those actually were my friends," I say sheepishly.
[Cosmetic stores are one big free-for-all.]
There is a common practice, whereby cosmetic stores pretty much give unlimited free samples to anyone who wants them. I was surprised when Chieun would walk in, put on a layer of lipstick, and leave without paying or shopping at all. But then I looked around, and noticed that all of these cosmetic shops were full of girls doing the same thing --in and out. Pretty convenient I guess.
[Korea has too many special days]
It's hard not to notice all of the special promotions going on everywhere. The convenience stores selling differently-packaged candy. Bakeries selling.... differently packaged cakes. It seemed there was always another promotion going on, so I had to ask my friends about it. We all know the basic made-up commercial holidays by now, starting with the USA's own Valentine's Day on February 14th. A very popular export. Korea, like Japan, gives it the specific definition of 'the day on which girls must give chocolate to either every guy they know, or just some of them'. Japanese and Korean confectionary companies pair this holiday with 'White Day', one month later on March 14th, where it is expected that all guys who received chocolate the previous month must give BACK white chocolate to the girls in repayment. It seems unfair, right? Why should these couples get all of the fun of giving food to each other? Korea answered that concern, with a little holiday called 'Black Day'. On April 14th, singles get together and celebrate their loneliness by eating black noodles. Which is an awesome idea.
But there's more, I learned. Korea has been accumulating strange holidays at an enormous rate. It seems three months of holidays on the 14th was a kind of critical mass, which soon gave rise to a saturation of the whole calendar. Various commercial industries have made quick work of filling every month with a nice consumer holiday on the 14th. Here they are:
January 14th Diary Day -Buy your sweetheart a diary!
May 14th Rose Day - Give them a rose! Or a ROSE CAKE!
June 14th Kiss Day - kiss the person (people? ) who gave you a roses the previous month. OR GIVE THEM A KISS CAKE!
July 14th: Silver Day -Give them something silver. OR GIVE THEM A CAKE WITH SILVER FROSTING!
August 14th: Green Day - for enjoying nature together . Or: A day for drinking Soju (a korean alcohol) outside. OR GIVE THEM A GREEN CAKE!
September 14th: Photo Day - take pictures together! OR... (yes!) GIVE THEM A CAKE WITH THEIR PHOTO ON IT!
October 14th: Wine Day - drink wine together!
November 14th: Movie Day - watch a movie together!
November 11th: (11/11) 'Peppero™' Day, the day during which you are supposed to buy Peppero brand cookie sticks. For your sweetheart, or something.
December 14th: Hug Day - ummm. I'm not sure this one is as easy to sell. But I saw teddy bears on sale, and also heart-shaped piles of boxes of cookies.
It seems a little bit much. But I do appreciate the number of opportunities to eat cake.
[The president is out of his mind]
The reports from my coworkers started coming in more and more frequently. "Charlie, Myongbak did another crazy thing."
Yes, the new President Myongbak, only a few months into his 5 year term, has been very busy.
His main problem seems to be a communication with the press. He says a lot of things that are, according to him, misunderstood. He is plagued by misunderstandings.
For example: he says something in public, like 'there are exactly 50 reasons why X is important.' Meanwhile, there's someone working for him who has to frantically compile this list, after the claim, and publish it in order to back him up. Later, when questioned about it, he denies he ever said it in the first place.
More recently: in defense of his master plan for construction of the National Canal from Seoul to Pusan, he broke into English at one point. The press was questioning him and critical of his ridiculous canal plan, which could prove to be an environmental disaster. After switching to English, he said that it's not actually a canal at all. No, not a canal. It's merely a 'waterway'. Then he switched languages back to Korean. Next question.
He also had some problems when he reorganized the different ministries of the president for his administration. In his new reorganization, there were numerous confusing merges and resulting names. Consider the merging of the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the Ministry of Planning and Budget. Together, they became the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, which is not exactly clear. (Perhaps in Korean the name is better, but the newspapers were even reporting on the bad english names...) Also, there's the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, which is composed of the Commerce, Economy and Industry Ministry and parts of the Information and Communication Industry and the Science and Technology Ministry. 'Ministry of Knowledge Economy?' Not only is it confusing, it's kind of scary sounding.
Then he even made a trip to Japan, where he apparently, in the words of my coworker: 'apologized to Japan for WW2'. More accurately, he apologized for Korea being uppity about Japan's history, in the interest of warming relations. Along with this announcement, he made plans to suspend a kind of political action committee, which had been put into place to investigate companies and people who had profited from cooperating with Japanese occupation so long ago. Judging from Myongbak's background, it might seem that such investigations are against his best interests, and curtailing such investigations as an act of diplomacy is killing two birds with one stone. Certainly, though, the apology is insensitive, to say the least, to many Korean families affected by the war.
Of course, it's not merely misunderstandings that plague the president. He's frequently under investigation for past dubious financial shenanigans in various companies he's presided over.
And his plan to privatize the Korean medical insurance system is not seeing much popular support. He wants the system to be 'more like in the US'. It didn't help things that the movie 'Sicko' was released widely here a few weeks ago, which got people pretty hysterical about the president's plans to ruin their non-broken system. He's also had some plans to privatize other things: the highway system, the water system --basically anything he can get his hands on. These plans are similarly unpopular with most people.
Now, it would be prudent at this point to try to remember why this man was elected to the highest office, if so many people seem to have problems with what he's actually doing. Well, the opposing party was boring, and had been unsuccessful at getting their projects done. Myongbak on the other hand: even if he was kind of crazy, at least 'knew how to get things done'. And as we all know, when there's a choice between a crazy candidate and a boring candidate, democracy seems to favor the latter.
A few weeks ago he visited Camp David and President Bush for some negotiations. Days later, Myongbak returned with an announcement that Korea would lift its ban on US beef imports. (And, it was revealed, would agree to minimal inspection and quality standards.) An angry press responded: "What did you get in return for this 'negotiation'?" Well, that was it. (presumably, some agreement to be 'tough' on North Korea was involved, but that was going on anyways). Pictures appeared of Myongbak yucking it up at Camp David, of him smiling and having what looked like a great time. The government put out an 'embargo' on press coverage of these pictures.
For the past month or so, even leading up to Myongbak's negotiation with the US, there was rather wide coverage of the US beef industry and their recently publicized infractions and awful standards. Korean news loved covering it, showing those clips of the cows falling over almost every night. They also did behind the scenes reports on how beef raising differs around the world. So, with the public primed and ready in this state of caution and fear toward US beef, Myongbak's negotiation created quite the stir. The public went into full-on protest mode. Within a few days, there were massive protests organized near Seoul city hall.
[more meat problems abound]
There are a number of other factors that make the US beef imports such a hot issue. The biggest concern, however, is Mad Cow Disease. People are downright frightened of it. For good reason, because based on the actions of the government, it would appear under some interpretations that the government WANTS to give them Mad Cow. But here are the facts, as presented from the protesting side, some of which may be dubious (you'll have to forgive me, because I am by no means an expert on any of this):
-The deal reached with the US allowed export of meat from cows of any age. Typically, there is an upper limit to the age of the cows whose beef is accepted. Japan sets it at 20 months, the US consumers and most of the rest of the world limit it to 30 months or so. It decreases chance of the cow consuming or otherwise developing Mad Cow, among other concerns.
-The imported US beef will be one quarter of the price of current beef. Meaning that there will be a very quick changeover by restaurants in order to compete, meaning that for the average person there is no way of avoiding the potentially dangerous meat (unless they give up beef altogether, which is hard to do here).
-Korean cuisine frequently make use of parts of the cow that are most susceptible to prion development, and hence are more likely to get Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human variant of Mad Cow.
-Some even argue that there is some study that shows that Koreans are somehow 'genetically' predetermined to suffer more from Creutzfeldt-Jakob than other humans.
Now, no matter what you think here, one thing is clear in this case: the President completely ruined whatever kind of trust people had for the government. Now, the common opinion seems to be that the government, with the help of the US beef industry, actually actively wants to poison them to death. ('Even China has higher standards for US beef imports!' many claim.)
But that's not the only meat problem. Just the other week, there was a Bird Flu scare in Seoul. After a few days of other measures, they eventually had to kill all poultry in the city to contain the epidemic. The whole area. Dead.
They don't call it Bird Flu. On the news, they only refer to it as 'AI', standing for Avian Influenza. At some point in the past, the poultry industry had sued or somehow otherwise forced the press to stop referring to it as Bird Flu (in korean), and start referring to it only as this mysterious obfuscated 'AI'.
[protesting is hip]
So the Mad Cow protests have become a nearly daily activity here. At least, every weekend there are Mad Cow protests or marches staged. And they are extremely popular, too. Students come from all around the city to spend the night together at the protest, which is run a little differently than I expected.
An area is registered beforehand, and people in adorable cow suits and 'sick' face masks hand out candles to everyone who comes. (The cow suits are identical (sans face mask) to those I've seen promoting beef restaurants.) After receiving their candles and lighting them, everyone finds a place to sit down, and on stage speaker after speaker comes up to savagely shame the government, or tell an amusing story, or tell everyone to get together. And people are cuddling around, napping a bit, but generally are having a good time.
My coworker tells me that a few years ago, another issue was very popular to protest, and many students attended very frequently. He guesses that for a lot of them, it was a very fun time. That maybe, just maybe, this new issue was so popular to protest because they all had a kind of nostalgia for the earlier protests. And hey, if a protest merely entails sitting together on a warm night under candlelight with other young people who share your views, it seems like a nice way to spend time and meet friends.
I've seen a lot of crowd gathering in the last month, in fact. Before this Mad Cow business erupted, I got to see the Olympic torch relay kickoff. I went with my Chinese friend Xingxing to the event, even though she originally had not intended to go. When we arrived at Olympic park, the place was already swarming. Not only was there an impressive gathering of people there, but the Chinese flags were everywhere as well. Girls were draped in Chinese flags, guys had Chinese flags painted on their cheeks, and this one guy was trying to stuff as many miniature flags in his shoes as he possibly could (which fell out after he took one step). After setting off from the Olympic park, the torch snaked its way through town on a top secret route. Eventually I accidentally bumped into the torch again on my way home.
The whole event was pretty strange to me. The majority of celebrants (maybe around half) were Chinese people -students and others- all joining together in some kind of display of national pride, and maybe that other vague positive togetherness feeling that the Olympics invoke. There were chants of 'go china' and such which, as when anything is repeated by a crowd of thousands, sounds a little aggressive. 'China! fighting!'
China and Chinese people seem to be the most popular subject of racism and ridicule in this country, as far as I can tell. They're looked down upon in subtle and unsubtle ways. And of course, in light of this status, seeing such a group of students and other Chinese people together to celebrate the achievement of their nation was pretty... nice, charming, something, to me.
But then there's more to it, of course. The turnout for the event was also more than a little 'defensive'. The opposition groups were in attendance, I noted: Signs claiming "Say no to Chinese propaganda," and "Free Tibet", etc. Though these were not very large or loud protests, at least from what I could see. And the thousands and thousands of Seoul police forces were well-pepared for any assaults on the torch if it came to that. Nevertheless, the huge attendance of Chinese people must have at least been, in part, a reaction to the protests at previous torch-relays across the world. There was more than a little organized motivation for Chinese citizens to go 'protect' the torch. So they come for many reasons, some to defend the ceremony, defend their nation, defend their identity. It's one of those cases where race, culture, language, geography, and politics are mixed together into a singular personal concept, which seems to be not uncommon in this end of the world.
The whole gathering was largely peaceful, from what I saw. Even 'nice' as I said above. But before I went to sleep that night I had seen on tv a clip of some Chinese students in a building (later, around the end of the relay) surrounding and yelling at a man, some of them hitting him with Chinese flags and beating him. A few other cases of violence were also reported, where some Chinese students would get into fights with Korean protestors. So then by the next day, some Koreans responded by saying they felt 'under attack in their own country'. Then there was rumored cases of violent retaliation against Chinese students. The whole ugly mess. Embarrassing for everyone. The defensiveness that both sides feel is understandable, but utterly embarrassing and inexcusable.
[May is nothing but festivals]
But there have been more unambiguously pleasant gatherings as well!
Buddha's Birthday parade, which continued for hours. So many grandmas marching, and contingents of grandpas in wheel chairs, and all flavors of Buddhists well-represented. Colorful floats, including elephants, dragons, and giant inflatable race cars!
There were school festivals too:
My coworker Hyeun wanted to bring me to the neighboring school, Sungkyunkwan University, on the week of their school festival. Which is kind of like a homecoming, but more universal than those that I've experienced elsewhere. The festival even put to shame the campuswide school festivals I saw in Japan. For four days straight the school was in celebration mode. Various school clubs would run games and sell things outside. And the main athletic field of the school was decked out and hosting various bands. And later at night, still more school clubs made up little 'taverns' on a field, and they sold beer and snacks to customers sitting on homemade cardboard box tables in the grass. Which was adorable to me, but I noted with regret that that kind of thing would never play back home. After partaking of such snacks, me and Hyeun made our way to the concert area, because he wanted to catch the currently-popular band 'Wonder Girls' make their stage appearance.
I don't know much about Korean music. What I do know is that there seem to be only about 5 songs played in a random order, no matter where I am. On the street, in a restaurant, on TV, it always seems like the same five songs. There's the one with the girl saying "tell me, tell me, te te te te te tell me", and there's the one where the guy says "tell me that you love me and I...", and there's others with similar hooks that I recognize. So it wasn't SO surprising to me that the third song in the Wonder Girls' concert was... yes, "tell me, tell me, te te te te te tell me". One of the few songs that I could distinguish was in fact by the one band I go out to see randomly. It's a small world.
The next week I was invited to another school festival by my coworker's younger sister Sujin. This festival seemed even bigger, and had another big show going on at the outdoor auditorium. Between bands going on stage and performing, professors from various departments would get on stage and play guitar and sing classic songs, or do a karaoke performance of some pop song, with the students all groaning or cheering them. The bands at this event all seemed to be boy bands though. One notable example was one that Sujin said was named '5 men and a baby'. It sounded suspicious. So five guys get on stage, and proceed to sing a song about... apparently all five of them raising a baby together. Behind them video of the five guys taking care of a child plays. The actual child is nowhere in sight. After the first song... they talk a little bit, and then sing several MORE songs about raising a baby. Warning bells are going off in my brain, and I just hope hope hope that it's not as bad as it seems. It COULDN'T be that bad, but I do hope the baby actually has a real family, besides this randomly created grouping of pop-singers and their corporate producers. But perhaps I'll never know.
And one day I went on a walk with my friend Inhae, and visited the Cheongdeokgung palace, which was staging a historical day. There were actors dressed up in royal fare, Korean dynasty style kings and queens and jesters all dancing and parading and putting on performances. After this, we went across town to check out some music at a related festival, but we got lost and accidentally entered a gathering for a 'free trade' festival. And on the way back from that, we bumped into a more corporate concertgoing on, promoting a new product or something. There was a famous singer there performing. We got a bite to eat, and when we came out again, the equipment for this concert was being taken down, and space was being cleared for ANOTHER even in the same space. The space was being handed over to a Mad Cow protest, of course, made obvious by some cow costumed people and banners asking the president "Why don't YOU eat mad cow?" I walked a few blocks down, and ran into yet another event. Some kind of light and music show, celebrating Seoul. After watching some music, I checked back in with the Mad Cow protest next door.
It was a pretty ridiculous day, and I felt amazed at how much activity takes place here. So many parks, so many people, so many reasons to gather.
The city feels so ALIVE. And I enjoy that. Of course, it's no different than so many other cities. There's always something going on somewhere. But I especially feel it here due to everything being in such close proximity, such easy access. If something big is happening, it will happen in any of less than a dozen places, all of which I could get to by walking for less than half an hour. Perhaps I'm easily impressed, but it feels quite amazing to be part of that. And between the piles of garbage in the streets, and the beautified fountains and parks mere meters away, there is a pleasant range of experience here. Earlier this evening I heard yet another protest marching just outside of my apartment window, demanding new direction in their government. And at work this afternoon, there were two guys yelling loudly at each other in the hall, almost ready to fight --in the dental materials research building on the medical school campus of the nation's most prestigious school. How strange and amazing is that?
And somehow it still feels pretty... normal.
Many new pictures available at:
http://chookbobberki.110mb.com/CharlieKoreaWeb5/