The Korea Times

If Ahn were king?

Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the minor opposition People Party, volunteers to help the treatment of COVID-19 patients at Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital in Daegu, in this March 1, 2021, file photo. YonhapBy David A. TizzardMany Koreans will laugh at you if you bring up the subject of Ahn Cheol-soo in the current presidential election. For all the rational arguments that might be made or the evidence that could be produced, there is simply no getting past that initial sense of ridicule with which one is greeted. Ahn carries a reputation and regardless of how he might have changed over the years, he's still seen as a rather comic figure trying desperately to succeed in Korean politics but always failing. Once your Korean friends have finished laughing about Ahn, they will then turn to the two main candidates. Many find both of these polarizing figures extremely distasteful, evidence that the Korean right and left are pushing each other further to opposing extremes in order to retain a sense of competiveness among the voting public. But, and this is where it gets we

Feb 19, 2022By David A. Tizzard

Smear campaigns reach fever pitch

Opinion

When is 'anti-Chinese sentiment' racism?

Courtesy of Baasir GaisawatBy David A. TizzardWhat's happening in Korea at the moment is real. Statistics and figures will never quite capture the incredibly visceral feeling sweeping through the country as the population directs its anger at China. It's something you see on the news, read on social media, smell on campus and catch at the coffee tables around you. You notice it most when your Chinese friends and colleagues contact you expressing their fears and anxieties about living and working here in the current climate. I do not have a ground-level view of what the atmosphere is like in China but I can only imagine it is similar, with equally-matched venom being directed at the people of Korea. My Twitter was filled with Chinese people last week seeking to correct me for having the temerity to wish the world a happy Lunar New Year with my bowl of rice-cake soup. It was “Chinese New Year” they exclaimed angrily in 140 characters or less. There are a great many historical, cultural and political reasons for Korea to be angry at some of the actions carried out by the Chi

Feb 12, 2022By David A. Tizzard

When is 'anti-Chinese sentiment' racism?

Opinion

K-zombies: Violence, success and culture

A scene from "All Of Us Are Dead" / Courtesy of NetflixBy David A. TizzardI have written before about Korean content and K-content and the differences between them, as well as their reception in different parts of the world. Domestic television here still loves a historical drama and romance story. What makes headlines in the Guardian or the New York Times, however, is when the content is extreme. The Korean dramas that gain the most international traction these days are those that push the violence and gore to the next level, displayed in lush cinematography and presented by the aesthetically beautiful. “Squid Game” is all the rage; “The Red Sleeve” is largely unknown beyond a specific fan base.The reason many fans were attracted to Korean dramas in the first place was, in part, because they provided relief from the sex and violence of Hollywood and elsewhere. They were Disney stories full of innocence, romance and nostalgia. Contemporary princesses, or sometimes actual historical princesses, saved and courted by breathtakingly beautiful and sensitive men. Mo

Feb 5, 2022By David A. Tizzard

K-zombies: Violence, success and culture

Opinion

Metaverses, shamanism and Christianity

Courtesy of Robby McculloughBy David A. TizzardThe contradictions in South Korea run deep. It's one of the world's most technologically advanced societies: hyper connected, Bluetooth for days, metaverses proclaimed everywhere, and yet it still has loads of people who are hooked up to Internet Explorer and using HWP files. And while North Korea continues to flaunt its weapons and disregard for the international community by lobbing explosives into the East Sea this month, the presidential race here has been filled with rumors of shamans, spirits, and the evil eye.Korean shamanism is a traditional belief system: a set of practices that provide answers to the natural world and the order of the things by ascribing events to a multitude of gods inhabiting mountains, people, emotions, time and the heavens. It was heavily connected to the agricultural life of pre-modern Korea and thus predates imported foreign belief systems such as Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity. The shamanist approach is therefore probably the most Korean of them all. It is for that reason that the attacks agains

Jan 29, 2022By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

Planned polarization and the Korean proletariat

Courtesy of JarBy David A. TizzardA great deal of Korean politics over the past few years has revolved around party psychodrama, rumors of shamans, commentary on hand gestures in advertisements, placating communists, attacking communists, and various allegations of corruption and sexual misconduct. Imagine if that energy had instead been concentrated on solving citizens' real-life problems. Where would the country be in that particular parallel universe? Many of us working in the media and engaging in social media are culpable. As a society, we have become too quick to retweet and express outrage at every element of the culture war and political mudslinging that conforms to our existing biases. The success of these stories (measured by user interaction and subsequent advertisement revenue) then tells media companies that deep dives into social issues and think pieces are nowhere near as cash-generating as something with a headline that causes half the population to lose their collective shit while the others boast proudly. This is happening across various mediums and suggests that, c

Jan 22, 2022By David A. Tizzard

Planned polarization and the Korean proletariat

Opinion

Korean civilization: Birth and death

Courtesy of GodinoBy David A. TizzardYou can't read about the development of Korea without coming across the names of Park Chung-hee, Chung Ju-yung and Lee Byung-chull. For better and for worse, these three men have imprinted their personalities on the country, at times bending it to their will. They were forces of nature: unique, irreplaceable and capable of creation and destruction in seemingly equal measure. Park was the youngest of seven brothers and sisters. Lee was the youngest of four. Conversely, Chung was the eldest of seven. Family sizes were much bigger in the past for a variety of reasons that have been well-documented. As recently as the 1970s and 1980s, however, the Korean government embarked on promotions and programs to encourage citizens to have fewer children in order to maintain economic growth and better control demographics among the growing population.Fast-forward a few decades and Korea now has the lowest birthrate in the world, and it's shrinking. While a trip to the mall won't necessarily prove it, looking at the actual data, hardly anyone is having children

Jan 15, 2022By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

Grief tourism and the laptop class

Courtesy of Jason MatthewsBy David A. TizzardModern education and meetings involve being sat at a computer, staring at a filtered version of yourself, listening to people talk, and trying hard not to look at your phone or open another browser. We are provided a slew of new words to describe this bum-numbing phenomenon: “untact,” hybrid, meta. It's a fourth industrial revolution of which we should all be proud. The signal of a new dawn heralded by the shots in our arms, the masks that cover our frowns, the QR codes on our phones, and a host of politicians that no-one really wants or even knows how they got here. It's the way we have to wear a mask to enter or exit a restaurant but can then sit there inside for hours talking, eating, and drinking with our faces free and blowing in the oral wind of others. And it's working. Just look at the rising national GDP. Korea's is now $1.82 trillion. Samsung stocks were around the 50,000 won mark when the pandemic hit; they're now around 78,000 won. Their biologics department has gone from 400,000 won to 838,000 won. Naver's have ris

Jan 8, 2022By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

'The Silent Sea': Not bad out of 10

A scene from "The Silent Sea" / Courtesy of NetflixBy David A. TizzardWhile acknowledging the genuine popularity and success of hallyu products around the world over the last couple of years, I've often had a slightly different take on some of the biggest hits. Despite the welcome inclusion and representation of a transgender character and a Ghanaian-Korean, I thought Itaewon Class had a ridiculous plot and lost its way heavily in the mid-point of the series, if not earlier. BTS are the world's biggest boyband at the moment, but their recent all-English hits (“Butter” and “Dynamite”) purchased from western songwriters seem to be reinforcing occidental hegemonic cultural power rather than challenging it with anything particularly new or Korean. And I often wonder if many of those caught up in the controversy surrounding the new drama, “Snowdrop,” have actually watched it and realized it's a teen romance, more akin to a Disney feature than anything pretending to present an authentic and accurate portrayal of real Korean history and democracy. In sayi

Jan 1, 2022By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

Is Korean law fair? (Part two)

Courtesy of David Geitgey SierralupeBy David A. TizzardFor the last few months, the television, newspapers and social media have been dominated by the lives and scandals of Korea's political elite. Back and forth they go, making accusations, reveling in each other's misfortunes, and using the law as a means to serve their own goals rather than to protect citizens. As if it weren't enough that more and more stories reveal how the country's top lawmakers have personal and family histories that often fall well short of the legal and moral standards required of everyone else, we have been given an extra treat to talk about this Christmas with the release of a host of “political prisoners.” Former lawmaker Lee Seok-gi, former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook and former President Park Geun-hye have all benefited from amnesty over the past few days. There is talk of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk's wife and former President Lee Myung-bak being afforded similar treatment. Releasing people like them a few months before an upcoming election is clearly political. It's all designed to

Dec 26, 2021By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

K-Hitchens and North Korea: A decade of death and dictatorship

Courtesy of Kai SchreiberBy David A. TizzardThis week marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Christopher Hitchens, columnist, orator and public intellectual famed for his drinking, charm, wit and polemics. Hitchens was human: fallible and emotional, yet at the same time kind, poetic and capable of great artistry with the English language. God was certainly not on his Christmas card list, neither were the Clintons, Mother Theresa or Princess Diana. But he was principled and stood by many people, including former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.Hitchens spent time with the former president in the United States and then accompanied him back to South Korea in 1985 despite the repeated threats, murder attempts and suffocating presence of a brutal military dictatorship led by Chun Doo-hwan. Hitchens described Kim as a rare man, unwilling to compromise his principles to preserve his own safety. He closed out an article in Mother Jones saying, “Kim never resorts to anti-Japanese rhetoric, though his grievances against the Japanese authorities are genuine… At the slight r

Dec 18, 2021By David A. Tizzard

David A. Tizzard

Read more

If Ahn were king?

When is 'anti-Chinese sentiment' racism?

K-zombies: Violence, success and culture

Metaverses, shamanism and Christianity

Planned polarization and the Korean proletariat

Korean civilization: Birth and death

Grief tourism and the laptop class

'The Silent Sea': Not bad out of 10

Is Korean law fair? (Part two)

K-Hitchens and North Korea: A decade of death and dictatorship

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