week 12

As a conclusive blog, I wanted to sum up by the extensive influence Korea has on a global scale. So far I’ve specifically explored the entertainment influence, food influence and the influence of the film industry, after some thinking and a stroll through Sydney’s own China town in Haymarket, it occurred to me that China town can be found in every major city all across the world, its so popular that its apart of that city, a landmark. So if there’s a china town, is there any Korea towns? And after some browsing and research, I found many from China to Kazakhstan to Singapore then across the world there’s more in Canada, the U.S and even South America.

Korea town in the U.S

Though people have mentioned it as “little Korea” or “little Seoul” instead of Korea Town. From their BBQ restaurants to their infamous karaoke rooms to their supermarkets and the music that has become a reputable genre in its own way, Korea has allowed their culture to be shared and have multiplied across the world in order to show what they’re proud of.

Many international individuals have embraced the culture, by accessing the convenience of the internet and how easy it is to express ones interests and passions in “blog” form, many individuals have posted websites of Korea and what they love about it. For example, I discovered an American couple, Simon and Martina and their website http://www.eatyourkimchi.com/, writing and posting videos of what they love about and discovered of Korea.

Even newspapers and travel advisers in the U.S have highly recommended Korea Town as destinations to visit and enjoy. According to the L.A Times, a lifestyles critic suggested Korea Town to any newcomer, “Koreatown is easy to navigate when it comes to some of its culinary standbys. You probably know your favorite spots…”

Korea’s own street post

As long as different cultural backgrounds can embrace and appreciate one’s differences, by enjoying what other cultures have to offer, what else is there to complain!!

week 11

i wanted to research the extensive range of korean dramas that are out there. why? Because after some research and talking with some different teens, mostly asian teenagers, they are obsessed! Many Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese and Thai girls were very very familiar with the all the korean soaps out there and after watching a few, like all soaps, they are so very cheesy!

Complicated plots with scandalous pregnancies and affairs, wealthy and poor characters falling in love with a happy ending to finish it off. Everything a soap fan demands, its brought to you within the time frame of approximately 30 minutes per episode. These soaps range in every genre, from romantic to medicine to action thriller.

romantic comedy "boys before flowers"

the spy thriller, "iris"

the medical thriller, "sign"

After a few questions with an Indonesian friend, I was able to get a lot of answers in return. I asked, “So I’m assuming you know your Korean soaps, why do you like them? How could you not! They’re so funny and all the stories are so enduring and captivating that you are so desperate to know the end”. “But how is it different to Australia’s Neighbors or Home and away? Why aren’t you obsessed with them?” “Because! They’re so different and plus I think Korean guys are so much more better looking”.

It then hit me as she said that, the characters that act in these soaps have gained an international reputation for sure, specifically males, with their idealistic long swept to the side hair, their manners and the ideology of having to impress a girl. No wonder people love it so much! Of course most of korean dramas are viewed by a majority of females than males, then again most fans are females

week 10

Not to long ago, a korean film festival known as KOFFIA was taken place in Circular Quay where some of the most popular and successful korean produced films were shown to the Sydney public.This would be their second year of hosting the event, and for the first time they decided to not only prepare the event at one location but two, Sydney’s Circular Quay and Melbourne’s federation square. At the beginning of their festivals, they hold an extravagant opening night, where they premiere to the Australian public some of their best work, with box office hits and highly successful short films.

KOFFIA official poster

The festival itself was organised based on 6 eidetic themes based on their films;

1. Crime and Punishment
2. Brothers Divided
3. indie Cinema
4. Bloody Friday
5. Extraordinary Ordinary families
6. riding the dream

The Consulate General Republic of Korea who organised the event, had hoped that by hosting festivals like this one, The bridge and relationship between Koreans and Australians would unite and produce films together, just by understanding each others cultural in differences through film. By creating bonds like these, it would not only just allow them to understand each others culture but bring forth each others creativity, inspiration and resources.

According the official KOFFIA website their goals and purpose for the festival is as follows;

• Generate an interest in Korean Cinema within the local community.
• Raise the understanding of the aesthetics of Korean films throughout the community.
•  Share the virtues of Korean Culture and Tradition.
• Provide support and give opportunity to aspiring Korean filmmakers residing in Australia.
•  Develop relations with Australian artists.

http://filmfestivalsaustralia.org/film-lovers/festival-directory/korean-film-festival-in-australia-koffia/

http://www.koffia.com.au/koffia_2011_about

KOFFIA 2011 – Korean Film Festival in Australia: Program Launch

week 9

This week’s blog, I wanted to explore a specific branch in the korean culture, particularly applying to females and perhaps a small percentage of males too. Its … plastic surgery.

Korea apparently upholds a reputation as the cosmetic surgery super power, in comparison to many celebrities specifically the Asian dominance, koreans have a high profile status of undergoing many physical procedures in order gain “fame and beauty”. Although even regular people have under gone the knife in order to believe they will look “prettier”. Some of the most common procedures are lips, noses and eyelids, why? In order to “westernize” their looks by inflaming the lips to create a pout, to raise nose ridges so eliminate flat noses and enlarging the eyes by cutting and tucking away some of the eyelid.

eyelid surgeries, the before and after

According to a reliable source, approximately “…50% of Korean women have tried some kind of plastic surgeries in their 20’s.”. It has become so common that even korean girls in Australia fall to peer pressure, Korean general practitioners in Australia have developed many practices that offer these surgeries. Although quite commonly, girls decide to just fly over to korea and get the procedures done there. After a brief interview with a Korean exchange student, I asked her what her opinion was,keeping in mind that she has been in Australia for only 4 months.

“There’s nothing wrong with a girl changing her looks in order to make herself feel better, its not different to putting on makeup or buying expensive clothes, they make you feel happier so whats wrong with surgery.” “Yes but surgery is permanent, of course its different to make up! you can get rid of it at the end of the day”. “True but again, if they want it and know the risks then by all it means, go for it.” “How common is it amongst your circle of friends?” “Oh very! When we graduated from high school, most of my friends got plastic surgery as a gift from their parents, if we’re lucky sometimes we can get them on our birthdays!”.

the massive transformations

Despite being deemed as the “cosmetic superpower”, Korea has had a lot of negativity for it as well, even the infamous talk show host, Oprah Winfrey did a segment in 2004 stating negative claims against plastic surgery amongst koreans. This sought of cultural understanding could be misinterpreted between Australians and Koreans, creating friction within their communities.

a typical korean girl physique, the body and looks most hope for.

Oprah’s plastic surgery comment sparks uproar in Korean-American community

week 8

I wanted to explore Korean stereotypes and social expectations from other cultures.

It is a general assumption that Asian cultures are much more conservative and disciplined than western cultures. For Koreans there’s a certain custom both males and females “should” follow throughout their life, obviously for either eastern or western cultures it is expected for parents to care and provide for their children however, most Australian families have very natural upbringings where children are allowed to decide their career path or make their own decisions by the time they’re teenagers. There is no such option for Koreans as students are expected to learn as much as they can from the beginning and by the knowledge they gain, they are expected to earn a great living from it in the future.

If we were to compare the education system between the two, you could definitely conclude the two couldn’t be more different. In Australia the very option to discontinue high school in Year 10 and go on to a profession or apprenticeship is something not to be expected in Korea. Korean parents have always implemented a disciplined study and work ethic on their children; this is applied since primary school. Schools in Korea encourage competition amongst students by providing ranks to every student in every class which are displayed publicly. By gaining a strong conscience on competition, Korean parents believe this to be beneficial as it ‘pushes’ children to apply their best at all times, which is how most Koreans or even all Asians in general have gained the stereotype as “nerds”.

some korean kids just don't know when to stop studying

In a nuclear family household, the husband or eldest male remains as the dominant member of the family and as that is expected in most cultures, Koreans express this more “apparently”, The wife is expected to set the breakfast and dinner table before her husband awakes, always make sure theres a variety of side dishes for him to enjoy and to ensure he’s prepared for work. However even when the husband is the one bringing home bacon, its the wife who tends to the his earnings.

I conducted several interviews with both Koreans and Australians in order to gain more objective opinions on Koreans in general;

• “Koreans are quite shallow and vain”
• “They’re very old fashioned and almost too conservative, they need to evolve to the 21st Century”
• “Their social relationships are very hierarchical, having to always respect someone who’s older than you even if they’re a month older”
• “They’re very verbally aggressive”
• “They’re hardworkers and very good at math”
  

Most Korean families still uphold the same customs and traditions older generations have had for decades, which makes them that much more conservative, moderate, traditional or even “backward”.

references:

http://angieparkupdates.blogspot.com/2011/01/your-two-cents-stereotypes-about.html

http://asianfanatics.net/forum/topic/646004-81-stereotypes-for-korean/

 

week 7

This week, I would like to analyse and explore the Korean pop culture and how much of an impact it has had on a global scale.

K-Pop fans

K-Pop fans as far as london, waiting impatiently.

Since the early 1990’s like any other country or culture, koreans have had their own highly recognized entertainment industry, where certain groups or individuals have the proven skill to gain a strong national reputation and even overseas. In the past decade there has been a large turnover in scouting and sponsoring new bands and actors, a decade ago, only very few talent agencies would be able to sponsor one band at a time however until recently, more and more agencies have been able to bring several bands and actors to the public. The more agencies, the bigger the entertainment industry grows, such agencies in korea like YG entertainment, DSP entertainment, SM entertainment and JK entertainment have brought in more talent than the public can catch up with.

The biggest entertainment industry in Korea is Korean pop or ‘K-pop’ as it has now become known nationally and internationally from Japan, United States, Thailand, China, Philippines, France and Australia.  As a  hybrid of  hip hop, techno and pop music it has been able to captivate their audience with their unique sound. One of the main aspects to its success is the combination of strict choreographed dances and singing, by combining the two it has become a more entertaining unit as the audience can also follow the dances.

Nowadays, it is very difficult to find single artists as there has been a huge outbreak of ‘groups’ from 2 to 10 members. Some of the biggest K-pop successes are girl bands; girls generation, Kara, 4 minute, f(x) and 2NE1 then there are the boy bands like; 2PM, super junior, SHINee and TVXQ.

Youtube Video from (2pm, 2011, 2PM – HANDS UP, [VIDEO] retrieved 28/09/2011 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgrB2KBZws4)

Ideal korean boy band, “2PM”

Youtube Video from (sment, 2010, Girls Generation – Run Devil Run, [VIDEO]. retrieved 28/09/2011 from http://youtu.be/q_gfD3nvh-8)

Korea’s golden girls, “girls generation”

One example K-POP’s international fame is their many concerts one being held here in Sydney, Australia on the 12/11/2011 at ANZ Stadium.

1. K-POP concert advertisment

1. http://www.soompi.com/news/kpop-coming-to-australia

week 6

From E. W. Gordan’s ‘Ch.5 Community’ in Net Locality: Why location matters in a networked world’, the paper explains how the word ‘community’ has been redefined and has lost its original integrity because of how the internet has become such a dependent source for everyday life. Gordon argues that it requires more than a keyboard to develop a friendship, in summary any negative implications between human relationships are caused by any source of technology. “Televisions were blamed for isolating people, as they converted the living room into a private public sphere(Spigel, 1992; Meyrowitz, 1985), and the web was blamed for making it far too easy for people to connect with those outside of their locality (Kapor, 1993).” 

In relation to the korean community, I cannot help but agree with his argument as Koreans from what I have personally and objectively experienced have developed relationships with one another based on the social expectations of meeting each other in public spaces, such as cafes, restaurants, and retail stores. Although it is determined on age groups as well, older generations do not require the use of technology as they obviously do not prefer it. More so in order to communicate with one and other, Korean communities have even started magazine businesses that operate as marketing groups, providing advertisements to different businesses like “yellow pages” By initializing these sorts of branches of business it provides and gives Korean families the convenience and communication in order to remain a cultural unit within a foreign land.  Such examples are;

1. example of a korean advertising magazine

2.another example of a korean advertising magazine

In hindsight, Gordon makes a valuable insight to the technological obsession that many communities are enchanted with every day. It has become such a dependent source of entertainment and need that it has come to the point where manual forces of labour is no longer required, nowadays mobile phones are just miniature computers and computers have become smarter than human and so on and so forth. Conclusively, in relation to the korean community, this dependency to technology has become a blanketed issue, one that affects many but in a cultural sense, it hasn’t become such a reliable and dependent source of everyday living rather a tool that only helps.

1. own photo

2.own photo

week 5

In slight relation to Ian’s lecture, all I could think about was pizza. From that I pondered on the origin of pizza finally I came to the conclusion that the food culture in Sydney has such a diverse range that it is a value to be highly appreciated whether you’re a native or a visitor. Some of the many branches in the food culture tree that stem from the Asian orient is the infamous pad thai, mongolian lamb, sushi, udon and many more. Although nowadays, korean cuisines have become some what reputable with their dishes such as the doted spicy cabbage side dish, kimchi, D.I.Y BBQs and bibimbap.

Originating from the Eastern part of world, Asians have always used spicy ingredients in their food which has allowed them to develop a tolerance to it. Koreans made kimchi, which is the staple side dish that is usually served in every meal.

1.korean’s kimchi

The most well known of korean restaurants are the “Do it yourself BBQ restaurants” where customers would be served raw marinated meat and they would then grill it themselves on top of a bbq that’s been made into the table.

2.typical korean bbq

Many cultural dynamics travel to the korean dominated communities such as Eastwood, Strathfield and Campsie in order to discover and experience the culture, particularly the food. Usually operated in small confined spaces, it is always loud, lively and busy. After interviewing an Australian customer, their direct quote was, “Never judge or question a  korean restaurant  by its looks, walk in and try something and you’ll always be suprised.” 

In a particular dinner table setting, korean families would provide 2 to 10 side dishes,depending on the number of members in the family, with a bowl of rice and mostly with a soup to aid digestion. Main dishes usually consist of a fish or meat delicacy or even a stew (ji-gae) in the middle for all to share. Older members of the family would be typically seated in the most convenient spot where they can have all access to the food with ease. Pictured below is a small example of a typical korean dinner setting where fish is the main, bowls of rice and 5 side dishes to eat with it.

3. example of dinner table orientation

1. http://flickr.com/photos/jqn/289049822/

2. Korean « Life Sparkles. 2011. Korean « Life Sparkles. [ONLINE] Available at: http://sabinec.wordpress.com/category/food-sparkles/korean/

3. own photo.

week 4

For this week’s blog I wish to explore the combination of ideologies from my last blog post and Jacquie’s lecture this week where she talked about the different ethnic minorities in Sydney. It was explained to us how we need to understand that valuing diversity is a resource to Australia’s cultural and ultimately economical expansion, which I believe is completely factual.

The more the merrier, as the saying goes.

Australia has become a host to a variety of cultures, each becoming more dominant in certain districts of Australia’s cities. Koreans for example have established their own communal hubs in some of Australia’s major cities, e.g. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. With them they brought their culture and their food which can only contribute to expanding Australia’s horizons. Coming in as early as the 1970s, they were known to be situated in Sydney’s Canterbury and Bankstown area, now they’ve expanded as far as inner Sydney, northern suburbs, hills district and north shore. Where in each area, they’ve developed their own line of businesses. You can expect many restaurants, tailors, retail stores even medical practices in  some of these Korean dominant neighborhoods.

It was in Jacquie’s lecture where “entrepreneurship and innovation” become advantages in order to nourish the Australian economy. By expanding more foreign businesses, they also introduce more labour, more trades and more academics that will ultimately revitalize Australia on a global international scale. It would provide Australia with a refreshed and new appreciation to the different cultures that arrive here.

Despite the difference in culture and language which depicts a vast space between foreigners and natives, it is by 1.”respecting differences that creates a platform for sustainable growth in Australia’s economic and cultural growth”.

2. “worldliness – it situates us in a condition of equality and diversity of ideologies and emotions”

1. Jacquie’s lecture week 2.
2. Jacquie’s lecture week 3.

week 3

I wish to address the increasing issues of how the Australian Government has dealt with asylum seekers.

This collective of traumatized individuals, whether they are with family, friends or complete strangers have all shared an experience that no other could understand. Unified by fear, anger and hope, they have fled what they called ‘home’ in search of a haven or even a government that they could trust and protect them but most importantly provide a second chance. Asylum seekers may have survived their journey but they have lost their identities, their homes or just themselves in order to stay alive. What most  Australians take for granted is what refugees desire most, a residence, a home, or just a lifestyle that doesnt’t require them to cringe from abuse or the sound of gunfire.

Currently it seems the Australian Government have denied access to incoming refugees, though in light of the situation, the Austrlian High Court has granted a new assessment on the situation. In a website posted by Ken Parish, he states, 1. “It always seems to be two steps forward and then two back with Australia’s asylum seeker policy.  In the wake of the High Court’s M61/M69 decision, DIAC has apparently begun offering all offshore asylum seekers who have been refused refugee status a renewed assessment and presumably merits review if necessary. They really didn’t have much choice because, as I suggested in a previous post, every single “offshore” asylum seeker assessment is affected by the fatal errors of law identified by the High Court.”

2.

Australia recognises and is aware that in comparison to other parts of the world such as Europe and the United States, the magnitude of asylum seekers in Australia is minimal, thus excuses to deny survivors and those who need aid should come at no cost.

1. (The hard headed realist’s case for abolishing universal detention of “boat people”. 2011 Available at http://clubtroppo.com.au/2010/11/22/abolish-universal-detention-of-boat-people/ accessed 16 August 2011).

2. (asylum seekers 2011. Available at http://clubtroppo.com.au/files/2010/11/asylum-seekers1.jpg accessed 16 August 2011).