By Deauwand Myers
A few months ago, I sent this letter to the BIE, the organization that decides which city will host the World Expo event. I share it with readers of The Korea Times now as an example of some of the challenges foreigners face in Korea, and the difficulty Korea is having with itself as it endeavors to become ``international.'' I'm not a bitter foreigner, and I like Korea fine enough. But the issue isn't whether foreigners (often informed by racist and Westernized views of other cultures in which they find themselves) ``like'' Korea, but whether Korea is seriously engaging the problems of internationalization that occurs in a modern society.
BIE Committee, Et al,
My name is Deauwand Myers, and I'm a writer and educator. Currently, I am a university lecturer and curriculum advisor at Chonnam National University, in Yeosu City. I have a master's degree in English literature, and at 28 years of age, have been teaching English my entire adult life. In that time, I have lived for three years in Japan, one year in China, and now live in Yeosu, Korea.
As an African-American citizen, I understand, quite pointedly, the problems of marginalization, ethnocentrism, xenophobia and racism that form part of the foreign national's experience in living abroad. China, Japan, and Korea can all present great excitement, enrichment, and serious challenges to the outsider.
Last year, I received a lectureship at Chonnam National University. The university, the Language Education Center, and the students are wonderful, kind, warm, engaging, and intelligent. The city of Yeosu has some establishments that distrust and fear foreigners. Several dance clubs (a venue that those in their 20s, upon visiting the Expo, may want to explore) refused the entrance of some colleagues and myself simply because we were not Korean. I had a Korean student with me, who translated what one particular bar manager was saying. The manager said that ``we were foreign, and that we frightened Korean patrons,'' ``that our presence may encourage future visits by foreigners,'' and that ``we were not allowed to talk to other Koreans, male or female, because we were not Korean.''
I eventually called the police, who forced the club to let me in, since the club's reasoning behind their prohibition of foreigners was illogical and overtly racist.
These are not isolated incidents. Several entertainment establishments in Yeosu do not allow foreigners, or look very poorly upon their existence, and have said, quite openly, as much. Yeosu's geographic isolation from other major Korean cities ― like Seoul, Busan and Daegu ― has allowed it to maintain a kind of cultural stagnation, like a poor city in the Deep South of the United States. Restaurants, hotels, and entertainment venues, as of 2007, are far from being of a sophisticated level, and even transportation out of Yeosu to other cities is problematic. (There is no train line from Yeosu to Busan, for example, and Yeosu is not on the KTX line, so express service via train to other cities isn't possible from Yeosu at present).
However, transportation infrastructure, accommodation, and venues can be created and upgraded rather easily (if not expensively). The mindset of the people of Yeosu, or some citizens and organizations thereof, is a different matter. I have found, in general, that Korea wants to claim internationalization and sophistication for the economic and national pride benefits that such things bring, but does not want to seriously engage its own biases, racisms, xenophobia, and ethnocentrism that impede the said internationalization and sophistication. The labor of becoming a welcoming, international city is not merely or mainly a physical uplift of the community, through new roads, rails, and hotels. The labor of internationalization is most importantly an intellectual and spiritual endeavor.
Yeosu, in particular, and Korea, in general, has not seriously done the intangible work necessary to be considered international in scope or sophisticated in view. I fervently protest Yeosu as a viable candidate for the 2012 Expo, in the hopes that future foreigners, law-abiding, well-educated, and well-meaning, are not traumatized by Yeosu's lack of true acceptance and tolerance of other people's racial and ethnic backgrounds. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
The writer is lecturer and curriculum advisor at Chonnam National University, Yeosu Campus, in South Jeolla Province. He can be reached at deauwand@gmail.com.