Goong: A Fairy Tale for All

Soo Hee Park’s manga, The Royal Palace Goong, portrays a young girl who obtains a twisted fairy tale in real life. Goong is about how a high school girl must marry the crowned prince of Korea. Crowned prince of Korea? This may sound a bit awkward for Korea, today, has a republic, not a monarchy. However, Park spins a tale of fantasy where an everyday girl has a chance to become royalty. The main character, Shin Chae Kyung, finds out in her senior year of high school that she must marry the rude crowned prince, Lee Shin, who also attends her high school. At first she downright refuses for she overhears him proposing to another girl and she also realizes that he has a repulsive personality. However, after realizing that her family is in a swirling amount of debt, she agrees to marry the prince. Then what about the prince? Doesn’t he like another girl? However, the prince also agrees to marry her for he states, “Why would I subject a girl I like to a life living like a doll in the palace?” Chae Kyung replies, “What about me?” Shin then answers by saying nonchalantly that he agreed to this marriage for he doesn’t care about her. The story progresses from there. The wedding is set and Chae Kyung is to become the next royal princess of Korea by marriage. This manga created a huge sensation in all of Korea, it appealed to not the typical young girl, but also to adults, even grandparents. I believe that this manga appealed to such a variety of ages for it appeals to the aspect of a normal, everyday girl experiencing a fairy tale of where she becomes a princess, just like Cinderella. However, this storyline possesses a twist, for where this is not a marriage out of love. It is a symbiotic relationship in which marriage will give both characters a source of benefit. Chae Kyung’s family will no longer be in debt. Prince Shin will obtain a wife who he does not care about in the least, but will be protecting the girl he likes and at the same time, preserve the royal bloodline for the generations to come. However, though this marriage is first spun out of complete apathy for one another, involving no romantic feelings, their relationship begins to blossom as they both realize that there is much more underneath than what meets the eye.

Chun Hyang: Im Kwon Taek vs. Clamp

Unlike, Im Kwon Taek’s movie, Chun Hyang, Clamp’s manga, Legend of Chun Hyang, portrays Chun Hyang as a woman and heroine of strong independence and skill. In Im Kwon Taek’s movie, Chun Hyang, she is portrayed as a passive and docile woman, who only stands up for herself when she must preserve the dignity of her husband. However, within Clamp’s version of Chun Hyang, she is an extremely independent woman, who does not ever depend on men. She possesses extreme martial arts skills that frequently defeat men in combat. She is almost so strong-willed to the point of being frequently “violent.” For instance, Mong Ryung, her “companion,” would always say, “I keep asking you, if you’re going to use violence, you really have to warn me” (Clamp 95). I believe that these two differ extremely as a result of the difference in time period and target audience. By Im Kwon Taek staying true to the folk tale of Chun Hyang, he portrays the tale within the time period of the 18th century. During this time period, Korean women were very subservient to men for Korean was predominantly patriarchal society. I believe that Im Kwon Taek did not have a specific target audience. I believe that he tried to appeal to the older and younger generation. By creating a historical drama, it would tend to appeal to the older generation. However, by also incorporating teenagers as the main characters, it would also attract the younger generation. Clamp is a manga that targets young girls, such as teenagers. If Clamp stayed true to the original Chun Hyang, a person who tends to be very docile and subservient would not appeal to young girls. Therefore, they create a drastic change in Chun Hyang’s personality. She is a fighter who is very independent. She is a heroine who defeats evil with good and avenges her mother’s death. Also, she frequently rescues the villagers from the tyrannical rule of the yang-ban, a person sent by the government who is to become ruler of that certain location. I believe that it is these characteristics that appeal to young girls and make Clamp so successful, for it is the ideal idea of independence from men that is so alluring, for the majority of societies today are mainly patriarchal.

Keeping the Culture Alive

Up to this point, many of the blogs posted thus far have dealt with matters, theories, and topics that we have studied in class and read in the books. Therefore, I thought it’d be interesting to share with a post that is a little different. What is happening today in the Korean news? What is the culture like today? As I was browsing the news, I was surprised to discover a number of articles that were relevant to the things we discussed in class.

In the first article I read was titled “A Life Dedicated to Pansori”. I immediately noted the “pansori” in the title and so I was drawn into the article. The article followed a woman named Ahn Sook-sun, who committed her life to practicing and perfecting pansori beginning from the age of nine. The article about Ahn Sook-sun depicted her immense love for the art of pansori. The article listed the extensive music al background which Ahn Sook-sun came from, which included a second cousin, who played the daegeum, an uncle who mastered dongpyeonje, as well as an aunt who mastered gayageum. The article also described the enormous amount of practice that Ahn Sook-sun undertook. In order to perfect the sound of Korean classical music, Ahn Sook-sun took extreme measures. She recalls memories of practicing so much until the point where even her physical well-being was in jeopardy. Ahn dropped to a mere 39 kilograms (about 86 pounds) and at her first encounter with the gagayeum, Ahn played until her fingers bled.

In another article that was posted on joongangdaily.com,I read about a man named Kwon Moo-suk who had also dedicated himself to a practice: Korean archery, also known as gakgung. Similarly to Ahn, Kwon grew up with a background in gakgung. Kwon is part of the 17^th generation of a bow-making family. However, Kwon is different from Ahn in that he did not plan on doing gakgung; gakgung was not his original passion and he refused to learn the skill at a young age. Kwon held a job as a government official before he dedicated his life to gakgung. Kwon decided to give up his former life as a government official when his brother announced at a family gathering that he would be the last bow-maker in the family since his children refused to learn the skill of bow-making. What is most notable and admirable in these two articles is Ahn and Kwon’s extreme dedication and commitment to their art. Ahn expressed that she “felt as if the sky had fallen in if I wasted just one hour without practicing pansori”. Kwon, too, demonstrates great dedication by the act of giving up his previous life and job.

One thing I noticed through the articles about the lives of Ahn Sook-sun and Kwon Moo-suk was the fact that long-established traditions like pansori, other forms of Korean classical/traditional music, and gakgung, were kept alive by the passing them down through the family line. (This could perhaps be correlate with the scene of Im Kwon Taek’s Sopyonje where the father is critiquing and training his children in the ways of Korean traditional music.) We can see that any tradition can be a vital aspect of a country’s identity and so, it is certainly crucial to keep these traditions alive and well, the way Ahn and Kwon clearly have done. Their efforts have paid off. Various aspects of traditional culture and tradition can be spot in the news and media. An example of this could be seen in the obvious fact that articles have been written to highlight the lives of Ahn and Kwon. This could be considered as proof that there is appreciation and respect for Korean culture and tradition, as well as to those who have kept it alive throughout history. We can also see Korean culture alive and well through the various renditions of Chun H’yang seen on TV dramas and through plays, numerous renditions of the life of Lee Sun Sin in a countless number of books, and mangas and dramas about the fantastical life of the royal family.

(I have no idea...how it got this long. Sorry guys)

Pop Culture Establishing a New Reality

I recently came across an article entitled, "Blood Type B Unlucky for would-be Korean Romeos," written by Jon Herskovitz, revealing that men with B blood types are being discriminated against in the dating scene in South Korea. Lee Sung-san, a 24-year old South Korean male with a B-blood type says, " 'I have had women tell me flat out they don't date blood type-B guys. They say we are selfish and hot-headed' " (Herskovitz).
In Korea and many other Asian countries, one's blood type is thought to reveal something about one's personality and the compatibility between two people. For example, people who have type-B blood are considered "goal oriented and strong minded individualists" and are compatible with other type-Bs or type-ABs. This phenomenon of blood-typing personalities is said to have originated in Japan in the early 20th century. However, it is only recently that that Type-B men are being discriminated against. In his article, Jon Herskovitz places blame for this new trend on Korean popular culture where Type-B men are portrayed as selfish, fickle and absolutely useless as caring and devoted boyfriends. They are seen as the "bad boys"--fun, but not suitable for long term commitments.
Kim Nang's book, "Dating a Type-B Man" is a guide for women of all blood-types on how to deal with the "pitfalls and pleasures of striking up relationships with type-B men." The 2004 song "Type-B Men," sung by Kim Hyun-jung, is about a woman who has a boyfriend with blood type B. From the lyrics, one concludes that Type-B men are "quick to get angry and quick to make up, but in the end, they will break your heart." The 2005 movie, "B-Hyeong Namja Chingu" or "My Boyfriend is Type-B" is a romantic comedy in which a Type-A woman and a Type-B man "meet by accident after a row over him ruining her cellphone. She believes they were destined to meet, but the problem is, he has blood-type B, making him spontaneous and emotional but unreliable" (www.imdb.com/title/tt0452972) .
Although the correlation between one's blood type and personality has been disproved, many still believe in the validity of this practice. This lead me to question, how can popular culture override a proven fact?
I think this could be explained by Dominic Strinati's "An Introduction to the Theories of Popular Culture." The mass consumerism of the book "Dating a Type-B Man," the movie, "My Boyfriend is Type-B," and the song, "Type-B Men" shows their appeal to the mass culture, which "celebrates trivial, sentimental, immediate, and false pleasures . . . preferring the undemanding ease of fantasy and escapism" (Strinati 14). This phenomenon also falls under Strinati's theory of postmodernism, where popular culture and mass media, ". . . govern and shape all other forms of social relationships" (Strinati 224). The reality of how we define ourselves and the world around us can become distorted through how the masses perceive the reality presented to us through popular culture (Strinati 224). Essentially, these forms of popular culture have shaped their view of male B-blood types and seems to have strengthened the idea of the blood-type personality theory into the consciousness of South Koreans.

Thoughts?

You can find the article at http://www.natashatynes.org/newswire/2005/04/blood_type_b_un.html

Heaven's Soldiers 2

As I watched “Heaven’s Soldiers” I was reminded of some of the material we read earlier this semester. In “The Past Within Us”, the author mentions “in Southeast Asia, the start of the twenty-first century has seen a boom in the popularity of movies depicting formative moments in national history,” while Thai historian Charnwit Kasetsiri states that there is “mass public enthusiasm for these popular representations of historical consciousness”. While Lee Soon Shin is not a formative moment in Korean history, he is a famous historical figure and thus “Heaven’s Soldiers” plays into this new wave of Korean films. As Jim Collins puts it in the introduction to High-Pop, it is “making culture into popular entertainment”.

As Malika mentioned, there is also the idea of national identity and national pride, and I think “Heaven’s Soldiers” has plenty of that as well. Lee Soon Shin is a national hero and by bringing him to a popular film and therefore a younger generation, his story continues to be passed on, but in a way that teenagers would probably find more interesting than a textbook reading in school. It is made additionally entertaining by the spin on the movie, where the viewers are seeing Lee Soon Shin before he is famous and when there is a possibility that he may never be, based on the interactions between him and the time-travelers from the future. However, the director does not take for granted that all viewers of the film would already know the story of Lee Soon Shin, as you can tell from some of the script (such as when the character says his name, that he did not pass the military test, etc. and the modern-day characters dramatically gasp and exclaim, “Lee Soon Shin has that family name and did not pass his military test either!” for the viewers who don’t know that already and might be so slow that they haven’t guessed it yet.) Or perhaps they are just putting lots of emphasis on the historical details so it is really drilled into the heads of the audience.

That being said, I think it would be interesting to look at the gender roles in this film. From my point of view the only woman in the movie was a comical character based on her actions and expressions and was kind of whiney, although she was also the smart one who figures out when the comet will return. I feel like the men, on the other hand, have a sort of male honor and bravery thing going on where in the end they all return to fight with Lee Soon Shin and die in a spectacular battle against evil. Any thoughts?

Heaven's Soldiers

Watching Heaven's Soldiers was an interesting insight into the Korean perception (though I'm not rushing to assume that all Koreans think this way) of Korea: North Korea, South Korea, and Korea as a united country.

The North Koreans in this movie were often portrayed as sometimes blind, but staunch and admirable followers of their leader (as exemplified by one of the North Koreans' ignorance of who Lee Soon-Shin was), whereas the South Koreans are portrayed as more friendly and humane. For instance, when the North Korean leader is attempting to weasel out the information from Lee Soon-Shin, they were clearly going to use violence, whereas the South Korean leader steps in and uses more humane tactics to persuade Lee. However, in the end, they all ended up fighting and dying together, which perhaps shows the underlying desire of "all" Koreans to finally have a united Korea.

Another thing I realized after watching the film was how nationalism is passed on to newer generations. Throughout the film I found myself laughing at many parts, and was often confused by the genre switching - from a war film to sci-fi to comedy and back to a war film again, but I enjoyed the experience. There wasn't any point in the film where I felt that I was watching a documentary or something "educational" - it felt like pure entertainment to me. However, I did feel a very strong sense of nationalism/pride emanating from the movie. If nothing else, I could at least understand that Lee Soon-Shin was a national hero who symbolized a united and strong Korea against a powerful and intimidating enemy. The director utilizes pop culture in order to inspire a new generation to be proud and fond of this legendary figure and to make him their "own" Korean hero - instead of him being an unreachable, detached figure in the distant past.

What do you guys feel about the images portrayed in Heaven's Soldiers? Or how nationalistic pride was shown in the movie?