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Jason Lim

Jason Lim is a Washington, D.C.-based expert on innovation, leadership and organizational culture. He has been writing for The Korea Times since 2006.

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Jason Lim

'Grande fishing'

By Jason LimAriana Grande is one of the biggest names in show biz, and she wants to look Asian. She wants to look Asian because she wants to remain cutting-edge and relevant with the latest pop music trend, where K-pop is a hot name, with the likes of BTS and Blackpink. This behavior is referred to as “Asian fishing,” which I gather refers to the practice of non-Asians trying to look like Asians to profit off the image somehow. Supposedly, Grande has done the same before with Black women (Black fishing) and Latina women (Latina fishing).An article in Paper Magazine quotes a sarcastic social media comment: "Ariana Grande rebranding (herself) as Asian makes perfect sense when you realize she got a tan at the height of the reggaeton and latin pop crossover and now K-pop is the new hotness.”From what I gather, this comment is the latest salvo of charges against Grande, based on a photo she posted on social media that has since been deleted. In that photo, she definitely looks Asian with the way she did her eye makeup. In fact, the makeup and dress would fit just right f

Dec 12, 2021By Jason Lim
Jason Lim

The 'Hellbound' question

By Jason LimWhat happens when a true-to-God (pun intended), undeniable miracle occurs on live social media, witnessed by both those onsite and online? How do people react to the truly unexplainable? More interestingly, how does the whole society react when the supernatural becomes real? Those are the underlying questions that I found so fascinating in “Hellbound,” South Korea's latest blockbuster series on Netflix. Originally, I thought that “Hellbound” would be another CG-driven, action-packed drama with heroes fighting against demons in a good vs. evil narrative framework. Simple, nice, and satisfying. I soon realized that this was much deeper and more disturbing than that. The hell demons were tangential to the story. This was about how a society adapts to a fearsome, supernatural miracle simultaneously witnessed by everyone. We all know that humans have a need to explain things within certain framework that we can come to terms with. Most religions and spiritual traditions rose out of this need. Whole sociocultural structures were created based on explaini

Nov 28, 2021By Jason Lim
Jason Lim

Sandworms of 'Dune' and ownership of culture

By Jason Lim“Dune” is one of the defining books of my teenage years. At the end of the 8th grade, as the early summer heat settled oppressively upon the emptying campus on the last day of school, I came across a used book sale in the cafeteria. I saw a paperback with a giant white worm arising out of an orange and yellow desert and thought that it was cool artwork. So I bought the whole three-book set. As I was walking out, a classmate yelled out, “Great book!” after me when he saw what I was carrying. For some reason, I felt particularly proud for having been recognized for my literary choice, which actually compelled me to read the book during that summer. Without that compliment, “Dune” could have become just another paperback gathering dust on my shelf. To be truthful, I barely understood the book. Having grown up on fantasy novels that used action sequences to drive the narrative, I often found the social and political underpinnings of “Dune” to be slow and elusive. But I kept reading because there was an unspoken promise of someth

Nov 14, 2021By Jason Lim
Jason Lim

'Diablo' atrocity and the rise of the digital state

By Jason LimAs I write this, there is a Blue House petition titled, “Reporting Blizzard's Atrocities.” Blizzard is the maker of the popular game, “Diablo.” Over 15,000 Korean citizens have signed onto the petition. Basically, the petition complains that millions of members have paid close to $50 each to be able to play the latest version of the game released on Sept. 21, but that they have been severely hampered in their enjoyment due to frequent server outages and random issues with their game progress being forcibly rolled back to some earlier status. The real outrage stems from the game company's lack of an official position on this matter. In short, the game players feel ignored and discriminated against. So, a South Korean gamer uploaded a petition to the Korean president complaining about the actions of an American gaming company because he felt ignored by the customer service of said American company. It seems odd on the surface, but perfectly normal in this globally digitized world in which our everyday life boundaries are more and more defined by the

Oct 31, 2021By Jason Lim
Jason Lim

Lost in 'Squid Game' translation

By Jason LimAll the controversy around the translation of “Squid Games” got me thinking, for the first time in a long time, about how things really do get lost in translation. As a Korean American who's bicultural, I have been interpreting and translating my share of Korean-English for the last 20 years plus, albeit not professionally. So, I took a natural interest when I saw how the English translation of some of the Korean linguistic features in “Squid Game” triggered an international debate. Indeed, I also came across some points of language that I thought could have been conveyed better. For example, I think using “disqualified” instead of “eliminated,” for when a contestant fails and is shot is a more accurate translation. It also conveys the sense of ironic euphemism that informs the original Korean expression. Having said that, I truly appreciate the art form that Korean-English translation can be. Translation is a recreation of the language arts, not a mechanical transcription. You have to convey a meaning that's necessarily cou

Oct 17, 2021By Jason Lim
Jason Lim

To eat or not to eat (dogs)

By Jason LimWhen I lived in Korea in the late 1990s, I remember visiting the city of Jeonju in central Korean, famous for its bibimbap, and walking through a local market lined with dog meat butchers. They had dogs ― fairly large ones ― in cages lining the market street, and would actually be butchering them for customers for specific orders, not unlike the fish in aquariums that you see in seafood markets. I remember espying a large dog's carcass basically halved across the torso and lying bloody on the floor of the butcher shop's waiting to be carved out. A dark mass of brown and red in the dirt. I had to quickly look away, but the scene has remained with me.Then again, I have to confess that I was once a dog eater. I was convinced to go to a rundown restaurant in northern Seoul and eat dog meat. The menu offered several kinds from roast and soup to stew. I think I ate the stew with sesame leaves. Not that this feeling absolves me from any K-9 sins, but I recall not liking it. Dog meat was too gamey for me. Also, I think dog meat was meant to be eaten with soju or makgeolli, which

Oct 3, 2021By Jason Lim
Jason Lim

Metaverse is the Matrix

By Jason LimA recent Wall Street Journal article headlined, “Digital Addictions Are Drowning Us in Dopamine,” has an interesting subtitle: “Rising rates of depression and anxiety in wealthy countries like the U.S. may be a result of our brains getting hooked on the neurotransmitter associated with pleasure.” It's basically talking about the surge of games, social media, and other behavioral addictions facilitated by the proliferation of smart phones, tablets, and, in Korea's case, cheap PC-bangs. The COVID lockdown of the last 18 months didn't help, of course. This is nothing new. We are suckers for constant stimulation and recognition. We loved it when we went to high school and wanted to fit in and were noticed by everyone. Now that social interactions have moved online, the speed by which our needs are craved and being met has accelerated beyond the ability of our brain to maintain a healthy equilibrium. The sheer velocity of familiar social media pings and “Katalk's” of the world is ubiquitous, immediate and overwhelming. The young, whose brain

Sep 22, 2021By Jason Lim
Jason Lim

Hurrah for tasty cultural appropriation

By Jason LimA recent AP article titled, “New Asian American bakeries find bicultural sweet spot,” tells the story of Asian-American bakeries innovating on traditional American cookies with ingredients from their cultural culinary traditions. For example, the article highlights a “Dimsum Cookie” that's infused with sesame seeds and red beans.But if you lived near a “Korea Town” in well-known center with a Korean population, bakeries that sell traditional Korean baked goods next to American staples infused with ethnic flavors is nothing new. At least in the Northern Virginia area where I live, Korean bakeries seem to have a large and ever growing following among non-Asian Americans for offering new, interesting, and tasty treats for the whole family.This is a natural phenomenon that happens when cultures come together in the same space. Adding this culture to that one, mixing them together, and producing something new is a natural evolution of people and traditions colliding in a largely friendly way. It's food production as a means to new identity p

Sep 5, 2021By Jason Lim
Jason Lim

A token, but not tokenized

By Jason LimI grew up in NYC in the 1980s, but went to a school that was largely devoid of Asians. In a class of a little over 100 students, I had one Korean kid who stayed for a year and another Japanese kid who stayed for two. At the same time, I had my own clique with good buddies belonging to the nebulous grey area between jocks and nerds. Despite the absence of others who looked like me, I felt as if I belonged. We are talking about the era of badly dubbed Saturday afternoon Kung fu movies (“Five Deadly Venoms,” anyone?), “Karate Kid” and “Sixteen Candles.” Inevitably, I had friends run up to me with an outrageous Mr. Miyagi accent, asking me to “Wax on” or “Wax off,” and to do the crazy crane-on-one-leg move. Most of the time, I actually obliged because, seriously, which high school kid doesn't appreciate attention? If it was meant to be disparaging, I didn't feel it. And looking back, I don't think my classmates meant it to be disparaging either. It was just a curiosity that they associated with me because some Asian

Aug 22, 2021By Jason Lim
Jason Lim

Korean men triggered by pinch symbol

By Jason LimAn San, a member of the Korean women's archery team, won three gold medals in the Tokyo Summer Games. You would think that would earn her unconditional acclaim from all Koreans, especially since she achieved them in Japan. Apparently, however, her short haircut, attendance at a women-only university, and specific expressions used in her past social media posts drew suspicions of her as a potential feminist, attracting online attacks from presumably young Korean men. These suspicions quickly devolved from there into a surreal fight between those supporting An and petitioning the Korean Archery Association not to force An to apologize for being a feminist and those who were accusing An of being a feminist and demanding that she apologize or renounce her gold medals.If you are wondering when being a feminist became something that you had to apologize for, then welcome to the club. However, for some men in South Korea, the term carries radical anti-men connotations that rub particularly young Korean men the wrong way. And it seems that lots of seemingly innocuous things rub y

Aug 8, 2021By Jason Lim
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