As I watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s and write this post I can’t help but think about our readings and discussions of the relation of a text and image. What exactly happens when we bring a piece of literature to the screen or television? Do we lose or do we gain? And what remains of the literature that was adapted?
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Asian Images
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Breaking Down Goong as Pop Culture
Throughout watching and reading Goong, the answers that came up in class regarding the question “What is pop culture?” proceeded to turn up in my mind. The mediums in which Goong is presented not only are forms of current Korean pop culture, but the very plot itself can be thought of as a result of pop culture.
We identified pop culture as something that is mass produced, and accessible to the general population. The forms of comic and television drama in which Goong is presented are clear mediums that are examples of this. We also defined pop culture as something that is directed toward a specific age group or group of people. My guess is that Goong is most appealing to the pre-, adolescent, and young adult populations, as the characters fashion current styles and use certain contemporary lingo and slang. And Goong is most definitely a work that evokes pleasure and a realm of escapism, as the story starts off with the creator allowing us to imagine a modern Korea with a monarchy. “Yes, let’s imagine… …Instead of an empty, cold palace… …One that is made vibrant by the lives of the royal family” (Park 3).
I guess what intrigued me the most, regarding the works of Goong being pop culture, was applying Raymond William’s definition of culture- defined as “a particular way of life of people or period of group”- to Goong. The story of Goong includes a historical culture of the Korean monarchy, and it’s interesting to see how the writer/creator incorporated this “particular way of life” into a modern time setting. For example, such traditions as the queen’s quarters being separated from the king’s quarters, and the formal discourse and language style used by the royal family are kept within the plot. But contemporary dress is combined with traditional dress, as the men seem to consistently wear suits, while the royal women are in tradition clothes. This merge of folk/historical culture and modern culture gave me a clearer idea of what pop culture could be defined as. If taking William’s definition into the context of Goong, it could be seen as taking a historical way of life and merging it with a contemporary way of life that creates a certain fusion that could be called pop culture. .?(Or am I stretching it a little too far?)
On another note, did anyone else have a hard time getting through High-Pop, “Style and Perfection of Things”? I really struggled with the text... hopefully we’ll cover it in class?
Goong: Gender, Tradition, and "Koreanness"
In the television version of Goong, it is true that both Prince Shin Lee and his cousin have long hair, but in appearance, they do not exude the same kind of femininity as they do in the comic book; however, it is still interesting to examine how some of the male characters act. Chae-Kung’s father is the most gender-bending character in the show. He wears a flowery apron, pink cleaning gloves, and is domineered by his over-bearing wife. The fact that his wife is supporting the family and he is the one who is responsible for their debt exhibits un- stereotypical gender roles for television. Goong the television show is very much female-centered, and has many powerful female characters. Chae-Kung’s mother leads the family, and only empresses rule the palace (excluding the Princes, all of the male royalty is dead). In the comic, Chae-Kung’s grandfather is alive and involved in the marriage arrangement, but his character is absent from the television show. Maybe this change reflects modernity- where as historical monarchies were usually very male centered, this monarchy reflects modern Korea and women's emerging power?
This leads to thoughts about “Koreanness.” Although Chae-Kung’s father is depicted as a bumbling, silly character on the television show, both versions of Goong express the traditional Korean value of filial piety. The reason for the Prince and Chae-Kung’s marriage is to honor a promise made by their grandfathers; yet, simultaneously, Goong also exhibits the idea of changing Korean values. Doobo Shim, in Hybridity and the Rise Of Korean Popular Culture in Asia, writes, “The fact that Seo Taiji was a high school dropout but managed to earn a social respect and succeed financially influenced parents’ ideas about stardom. In a country where the average family viewed university entrance examinations for children as being of utmost importance, stardom came to be considered a new option for success” (37). This phenomenon is reflected in the fact that in both the comic and the television show, Chae- Kung is a very poor student, and in the television show, she attends an arts school for those wanting to be artists, fashion designers, dancers, and filmmakers.
- Melanie Lubin
Populist-Elitist Paradox
While reading An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture by Dominic Strinati this fall break, I began to wonder if the theories of populism and elitism are not a contradiction, but instead a paradox in constructing popular culture. The author describes that through populism, popular culture is not viewed as “an imposition, but as a more or less genuine expression of the voice of the people” (234). Populism understands popular culture gives the public what they are asking for. On the contrary, elitism is one theory that perceives the public as powerless to the influence of the media and popular culture. Strinati states “[elitism has] often seen audiences as full of passive unthinking dupes, open to manipulation and ideological control by the mass media and the culture they spread” (236). Through the elitist lens, there is a shift of power from the public to the media. Now we are amidst a battle – who is in charge of popular culture?
The new idea is that both, ordinary people and the influencing media are equally powerful but perhaps each group vests their interests in different aspects of popular culture. Strinati argues in a postmodern world, “we increasingly consume images and signs for their own sake rather than for their ‘usefulness’ or for the deeper values they may represent” (207). As a whole style and aesthetic appeal have become more and more important, swaying the public in what they choose to consume or not to consume. Possibly in packaging is where the “voice of the people” is being heard and represented. We want beautiful, thin, flexible pop stars. In our favorite television dramas, the characters are well-dressed and live in equally trendy apartments. The packaging has embodied exactly what we would want for ourselves. But as Strinati questioned earlier, what about the content?
As the public has created and satisfied itself with a lovely sense of style, I suggest that the mass media and larger institutions of power (government, churches, etc) have been able to fill are beautifully crafted vessels with whatever they choose. Popular culture in
The populist-elitist paradox is maybe nothing more than supply and demand. It will be interesting to see whether the public takes complete control of popular culture, fully realizing the populism theory, to demand more than good-looking outer appearances.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Modern Concepts and Traditional Views - Personal Contemplation
As I read this statement in Jim Collins’s High-Pop, I immediately thought of G.O.D.’s music video of their song To My Mother. As Im Kwon-Taek used Sopyonje to acknowledge and modernize p’ansori, it seems that G.O.D. is using their music and popularity to keep Korean tradition alive. The song’s undertones of Confucianism, a defining part of Korean culture over the centuries, mixed in with the very urban, hip sounding music results in a unique Korean ‘high-pop’ sensation.
Contrast that with H.O.T.’s Candy. It obviously has no cultural significance, only aesthetic appeal… Right? I may be looking too far into this, or giving the boys more credit than they deserve, but I think that they’re almost a rebellion—straying as far from the cultural norm as acceptably possible (they don’t want to be too extreme, though, that would lose them their audience). First, take a look at the group members. Do any of them look masculine at all? No. One of the most appealing features of H.O.T. is their androgyny. Even the female that appears in the music video for Candy looks somewhat androgynous, with a curve-less body and a masculine jaw structure. Not to mention the western origins of the woman. It seems to me that Candy’s music video is the antithesis of translation tradition, nationalism, etc. in Korean culture.
With that in mind, I find it slightly ironic that H.O.T. and G.O.D. were rival boy bands. It’s almost as if the bands represented different political standings of that decade’s youth. G.O.D., the slightly conservative conformists, and H.O.T., the rebellious counter culture.
Differing Definitions of Nationalism in the Global Age
The Korean nationalism described in “Sopyonje: Its Cultural and Historical Meaning” runs in a direction that is both diametrically opposite yet strangely similar in its ideology. The movie Sopyonje inspired “nostalgia for ‘our culture’” (p. 140) in Koreans at a time, the 1990’s, when the Korean movie and television industry had experienced a decline (p. 137). However, with this nostalgia comes the temptation to define one’s culture in ethnocentric terms of what the West does not have (p. 142-143). In this way, one still allows culture to be controlled by the Other. If all Korea can aspire to be is what the West lacks, then there can hardly be any room for original development and Korean identity becomes merely a silhouette of opposition to the West. Furthermore, what about all of the positive technological advances being imported from the West? Are they to be shunned by the Korean population? Doing so perhaps implies that technology and modernization are distinctly Western in character and cannot be comprehended by Koreans, rather than that Westerners merely invented some tools first which can then be expanded upon by Koreans.
In essence, it seems that a culture must be developed in independence of but not isolation from those of other cultures. A country should not try to instate an identity based on the denigration of other countries, especially those that share commonalities with it. Doing so merely implies that the Western identity is the more favorable one and that only the “fittest” Asian culture is worthy of that identity. A country also must not define itself in opposition to the West as that also gives Western ideals hegemony, in that they dictate what is not allowed in Eastern cultures. Ultimately, a culture should strive to see itself not in terms of what is Eastern or Western about it, but rather try to harmonize between modernization and tradition, retaining what it prizes while shifting to accommodate progressive changes that will benefit its people economically and technologically.