The Korea Times

Daoist lessons for modern life

Courtesy of Eleonora AlbasiBy David A. TizzardMy niece is crying at the dinner table. This is not necessarily a bad thing but it has interrupted my drinking. She finished second in the race for class president and is upset that she didn't win: This was a world crumbling before her eyes. Buoyed by cold beer, I decided to test out a bit of Daoism. The story of the poor farmer whose horse runs away is well known. Basically a melodramatic series of events unfold and at every turn the man's neighbors either congratulate or commiserate him. When the horse runs away, they console him; when it returns with 3 other horses they praise him; when one horse breaks his son's leg, they offer sympathy; and when the soldiers recruiting for war pass by his injured son, they extol his fortunes. But despite the neighbors' continuing rollercoaster of moods, the farmer greets every incident with a stoic remark: Is it good news or bad news? Who knows? Sometimes things seem like the best or worst things in the world, but in the long run we don't really know how it will affect us or our lives. To see things

Aug 8, 2021By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

K-retrowave and AKMU

Courtesy of Jrwooley6By David A. TizzardK-pop dominates the news with its schizophrenic approach to genre-bending and dizzying choreography. Yet despite this assault and insistence on heavily trained idol music, many find solace elsewhere. Amongst everything else, lo-fi, vaporwave, chillwave, retrowave and their various subgenres have all become popular over the past decade, providing the hypnagogic soundtrack for those stuck behind computers, cash registers, and crosstown traffic. The styles were a logical progression and extension of the filtered French house that preceded it. That trend relied heavily on 1970s disco samples and gave us Daft Punk's “Discovery,” Pete Heller's “Big Love,” Fantom's “Faithful” and which in K-pop could be found on EXO's “Lucky One,” Fromis_9's “Feel Good,” and Lee Su-hyun's “Alien.” It was a similar juxtaposition between old and new that gave birth to the analog nostalgia of retrowave. It comes in various forms, but retrowave (used here to point to all the associated genres and sub-

Aug 1, 2021By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

Korea's vaccine failure?

People queue in line to get a coronavirus test at a makeshift testing site in Seoul, July 16, while holding umbrellas to avoid the heat. AP-YonhapBy David A. TizzardThe tenth biggest economy in the world, its boy band crushing the U.S. Billboard all summer, and companies like Samsung as genuine powerhouses in the international arena, Korea is truly a cultural and economic phenomenon that has successfully transitioned from a post-colonial military dictatorship to a thriving democracy in a tough part of the world. Last year, it boasted of its “K-quarantine” program as a model that others could follow as it saw relatively low infection rates while much of Western Europe and North America was shellacked by the virus. It certainly implemented a lot of good top-down habits, but we should forget that mask-wearing and non-physical greetings such as bowing (rather than handshakes and kisses) were already the norm here in Korea. In his third inaugural speech in 2020 President Moon Jae-in said, “We have already become a country leading the world in epidemic prevention and cont

Jul 24, 2021By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

Hegemony and K-pop

Courtesy of Rosa MenkmanBy David A. Tizzard“We don't want to change our identity or our genuineness to get the number one. Like if we sing suddenly in full English, and change all these other things, then that's not BTS,” said RM of Korea's world famous pop group in a 2019 interview with Time magazine. But things do change. Opinions shift. And new and exciting opportunities present themselves. Two years ago, BTS were wondering if they would get a Billboard number one. They've now had multiple number ones and continue to break records as they do. Their video releases have become genuinely global events commented on by the World Health Organization and beyond.More than just this, however, they continue to inspire and bring love to fans all over the world. BTS are more than just music: they're a movement. They have brought together people of all ages and cultures to share in an experience that is both life-affirming and life-changing at the same time. And what makes something valuable in our present age is not the material object itself but rather the idea and feelings that

Jul 17, 2021By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

Korean gender equality

Courtesy of Tim MossholderBy David A. TizzardAfter gaining its independence in 1948, Korea's newly-established constitution introduced legal equality between the sexes, prohibiting political, economic, and social discrimination on the basis of sex, religion, or social status. It is interesting to note that whereas in other countries such rights were fought for, in Korea the legal rights were largely given. And at the legal level at least, this produced a fundamental change in the way society was supposed to operate. The Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897) was one characterized by its emphasis on distinction: distinction between subjects, between family members, between members of a social “caste” system, and between men and women. The term for this is “byul” and relations between men and women were guided by the idea that men and women should remain distinct from each other. This distinction to be adhered to was both physical as well as cultural. Korean men adopted the public sphere and so in order to maintain the distinction, Korean women were thus pushed into the pri

Jul 11, 2021By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

Kim Jong-un: Prisoner in his own castle?

Courtesy of Loco SteveBy David A. TizzardFew of us can claim the experience of living and working in Pyongyang for eight years, but that is exactly what German Ambassador Thomas Schafer has done. Following his retirement from the Foreign Office and a career that took him to China, Hong Kong and Venezuela, Schafer has written a book on his time in North Korea ― a collection of memories, experiences and various interactions with the officials and citizens of the country.The newly-released “From Kim Jong-il to Kim Jong-un: How the Hardliners Prevailed,” contains fascinating insights into life inside what is normally termed, “the world's most secretive state,” by Vice journalists and the like. It's an easy yet informative read for those of us looking for some respite from the minutiae of missile technology or the Leninist communist sympathizer “tankies” on Twitter. But while we normally associate diplomatic practice with softly spoken niceties, Ambassador Schafer does not hesitate to draw attention to the dangers of the regime. Let's recount, for examp

Jun 27, 2021By David A. Tizzard

Kim Jong-un: Prisoner in his own castle?

Opinion

Youth and Korean politics

Courtesy of Angga KusumaBy David A. TizzardSpeaking of the French Revolution, the English poet William Wordsworth remarked, “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive. But to be young was very heaven.” The youth are a vital part of a functioning society and creating a vibrant and effective democracy. Young people are capable of overturning authoritarianism and enacting changes in power.If they become disenfranchised or disengaged from politics, if their voice is lost, it is society as a whole that suffers. If young people feel that their voices are neither being heard nor taken seriously, they will often walk away from political conversations. The problem then becomes circular if politicians feel there are no votes to be won from that section of the population because they will not seek to engage them or speak to their concerns and desires. Yes, some in society are distrustful of youth, believing them to be idealistic, impetuous, radical, and lacking the sagacity that comes with wrinkles, stiff knees, and grey hair. The same stereotypes and reservations, however, could just a

Jun 19, 2021By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

The new normal

Courtesy of Simon EvansBy David A. TizzardThe “new normal” is reading about a sex crime in South Korea, seeing the lenient sentence, and then sighing as you realize that there will be another one to get equally as exasperated about in a week's time. The new normal is constantly refreshing the app on your phone in a desperate attempt to track down an unwanted vaccine in your neighborhood, only to see it disappear before your finger reaches the screen. The new normal also wonders why workers at conglomerates get preferential treatment over “regular” citizens.The new normal, however, is looking at South Korea's accelerated vaccination rate and thinking the end might be in sight soon because the new normal is also flexing your first vaccination shot in an Instagram story.The new normal is that instead of it being racist to say that that the COVID-19 “might have” started in a laboratory, some people with Ph.D.'s and U.S. President Joe Biden are now considering it a real possibility. The new normal is certain media outlets going back and redacting their

Jun 13, 2021By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

Ethnocentric Korean politics

gettyimagesbankBy David A. TizzardI've just finished teaching a six-week course on Korean history and culture to a group of young visiting scholars from Wellesley College, Massachusetts. One of the most important things I tried to stress was that to understand Korea, they must try to see it through Korean eyes. Not easy! Perhaps not actually possible either, especially in such a short period of time. Yet the point remains: Korean history and culture is not American history and culture. We avoid ethnocentrism wherever possible. That should make sense to anyone. What culture actually is however gets a little trickier. Clifford Geertz suggested it is dynamic, made of interpreted symbols, and essentially “the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.” So we try and understand how people see the world from their perspective and using their own language and imagery. A candle in a paper cup, a box of Pepero, or a yellow ribbon are more than just that in this part of the world, just as an eagle or a raised fist are elsewhere. They mean something beyond their physical or monetary

Jun 5, 2021By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

Taiwan is a country

People walk past a poster for the movie "Fast & Furious 9" at a shopping mall in Beijing, May 26. WWE star and actor John Cena apologized after calling Taiwan a country in promotional interviews for his upcoming film "Fast & Furious 9." AP-YonhapBy David A. TizzardIn the summer of 2009, we boarded a flight for Taiwan. During our time there, we ate, drank and partied with the locals while taking in as much of what the country and people had to offer as we could. The vacation still remains one of my favorite trips and the memories are a source of constant conversation among those who went. I looked over the photos again while writing this article and had to smile.Fast forward a decade and, having lost a lot of hair and gained a couple more graduate school degrees, I now occasionally get asked by Chinese state media to discuss sociological and cultural issues live on their televised news. They've always treated me fairly, never censored any of my opinions (which are generally liberal and focused on trying to improve the lives of the downtrodden and oppressed) and they pay me, I

May 29, 2021By David A. Tizzard

David A. Tizzard

Read more

Daoist lessons for modern life

K-retrowave and AKMU

Korea's vaccine failure?

Hegemony and K-pop

Korean gender equality

Kim Jong-un: Prisoner in his own castle?

Youth and Korean politics

The new normal

Ethnocentric Korean politics

Taiwan is a country

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