Thoughts about Korea (rant) - Page 3

On November 25 2009 01:23 Southlight wrote:
Well, I'm Japanese/Korean so I find myself always looking at an awkward situation :/

My friend (Japanese) points out that there're two movements in Korea. The first is that the Japanese Pokke was "stolen" about two years after it was established in Japan, and now the Koreans are selling their derivative (forget what it's called) and calling it the "real" one, despite apparent (I have no idea, never bothered looking, so I'd take his statement with a grain of salt, too) documentation proving the Japanese one came first. Plus I notice most Korean stores in my area sell Pokke, instead of the Korean one, too, so...

Also the Koreans are trying to push for an olympic sport, which is so blatantly a rip off of kendo. But they're calling it a Korean thing, and actually even defending it, arguing that samurai and bushido come from Korea (wtf).

Personally I find it preposterous that Korea's trying to pull this stuff (presumably out of national pride/hatred of Japan), while at the same I find it bizarre Japan's not really defending themselves about this stuff either. I dunno, weird stuff going on.

On November 25 2009 03:16 Chef wrote:
My grandparents are all from different places (New Zealand, France, Scotland, Canada) and I never find it awkward.

On November 25 2009 03:47 koreasilver wrote:

Oh come on, New Zealand, France, Scotland, and Canada all do not have anything close to the historical animosity between the Koreans and the Japanese. The animosity has been around since the Imjin Wars, which happened a long time before the end of the Chosun dynasty and the Japanese Occupation era.

On November 25 2009 05:08 Chef wrote:

So? It's still absurd and shameful. It's still losing personal identity to adopt impersonal mob-mentality.

On November 24 2009 14:53 GTR wrote:
netizens could form a political party and rule korea with an iron fist.
thats how much power they have over one country.

who would have thought a single piece of technology (internet) manages to pretty much control a country of 40m+ people.

On November 24 2009 14:34 Athos wrote:


Exactly what they sound like.



Anyways, a very insightful and interesting post. While I was aware that Koreans are very prideful and nationalistic, I didn't know that netizens carried so much power. Are Korean celebrities so prideful that they allow forum posts they read on the internet to influence how they live there lives? It seems a stark contrast to Western culture, where statements like this have little to no effect on the lives of the people who make them. I feel like I need a better look at how cyberized Koreans actually are.

As for the statement itself, I see no reason for this man to be so heavily criticized. However, I also see nothing wrong with old fashioned slap-stick humor. I don't care what culture it is, it's always fun to watch somebody make a fool out of themselves. Are the antics of these Korean comedians in New York really that different from those of Borat? I don't think so, but then again, I haven't seen the clip yet.

On November 25 2009 05:17 ghostWriter wrote:


Are you kidding me? There's no such thing as a personal identity. You are only deluding yourself if you believe that anything you do is original; almost everything you do, think or say comes from another source and you are a product of the mass media culture that pervades society (if you are an American, or you are a product of your religious culture that determines your thinking, actions and way of life, or...). Your entire identity can be attributed to whatever group you believe that you identify with, whether it be a religious group, a political group, etc.

On November 25 2009 07:52 stack wrote:

problem with threads like this one is that westerners can form a skewed opinion on a foreign culture and cultivate prejudice opinions from then on.
and western celebrities arent affected by criticism? Like all those female-singers going on the famous heroin-diet in order to be slim and hot, the countless surgeries plastic and otherwise, marketing companies farming the young and beautiful and weeding out the old and homely. I get your point was on the netizens in general but I just wanted to add this opinion.

On November 25 2009 05:17 ghostWriter wrote:


Are you kidding me? There's no such thing as a personal identity. You are only deluding yourself if you believe that anything you do is original; almost everything you do, think or say comes from another source and you are a product of the mass media culture that pervades society (if you are an American, or you are a product of your religious culture that determines your thinking, actions and way of life, or...). Your entire identity can be attributed to whatever group you believe that you identify with, whether it be a religious group, a political group, etc.

On November 25 2009 03:09 Luddite wrote:
Basically I agree with Susie. If you grow up in a 1st world nation, then chances are that things have generally been pretty good in your country over the last 100 years. There's lots of good stuff in our country that we can be proud of, so we don't have to obsess over any one thing. At the same time, growing up in the US, we always have to hear about the bad stuff that our country has done to other countries, and I'm sure in Germany it's like that but even more so. Where as Korea has never really done bad stuff to other countries (well, maybe Vietnam), but instead had all this garbage done to them by everyone. So now that it's finally emerged as a first world nation, I guess it's natural that people will be crazy proud of anything there that's number 1 in the world, even if it's as silly as k-pop or figure skating or whatever. It's like, finally they have something they can be proud of, and there's no shame about the past to hold it back. I dunno, that's just my take on the matter.

On November 25 2009 04:45 Foucault wrote:
The only reason people like GTR likes k-pop is because it's korean, not necessarily because of the GIRLS.

On November 25 2009 05:08 Chef wrote:

So? It's still absurd and shameful. It's still losing personal identity to adopt impersonal mob-mentality.

On November 25 2009 04:48 kaizenmx wrote:
Modern Korean culture is heavily influenced by japanese culture. No doubt about it, since japan COLONIZED korean peninsula for more than 60 years.

On November 25 2009 08:02 lOvOlUNiMEDiA wrote:


Well, if that is true than the only reason you are saying that is a result of your upbringing -- so you can't claim your statement is true -- instead, you can claim that you say what you say because you had to.