[INTERVIEW] British YouTuber captures 'real' Korea in short documentaries

Daniel Bright, a 29-year-old British YouTuber, poses during an interview with The Korea Times near his office in Mapo-gu, Seoul, Sept. 11. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

By Park Ji-won

Sharing a meal with others is a key part of social outings in Korea. Meals are considered to be so important that Koreans often use "Have you eaten?" as a greeting and substitute "Goodbye," with "Let's get something to eat sometime!"

This type of greeting is something Daniel Bright, a 29-year-old British YouTuber who has been running the channel "Dan and Joel" since 2017, has adopted. He says asking "Have you eaten?" is an expression of affection.

"It is more of a greeting. They don't think I am going to buy them a meal. It is like me saying I am interested in you and I care about you. There are different ways of expressing it. It doesn't matter the country or the language," Bright said during an interview with The Korea Times near his office in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on Sept. 11.

His understanding of Korea and Korean culture is reflected in the roughly 150 videos uploaded to his YouTube channel. Teaming up with his business partner Joel Bennet, they explore Korea to shoot mukbang, have casual discussions about Korea-related topics and create short documentary-style videos. Those videos aim to show the real Korea, starring Bright's neighbors and other ordinary people he meets. As of Thursday, "Dan and Joel" has some 272,000 subscribers.

The channel is not Bright's first YouTube experience. He and Bennet appeared in videos on the popular YouTube channel "Korean Englishman," run by their friends Josh Carrott and Ollie Kendal, and became known to some internet users. "Korean Englishman" has 3.94 million subscribers.

Daniel Bright, a 29-year-old British YouTuber, poses during an interview with The Korea Times near his office in Mapo-gu, Seoul, Sept. 11. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Bright has been interested in Korea for years. He majored in Korean studies at SOAS, part of the University of London, and first visited the country in 2011. For two years he worked at the Korea Trade Center in London before moving to Seoul to start "Dan and Joel" in 2017.

When he was thinking about how to differentiate the channel from others, especially from "Korean Englishman," he said the moment came to him when he met with a Korean man drinking soju alone in a local market.

"I'd come from Korean Englishman when we started doing that. But we realized that we don't have the differentiation from the channel… After a while, our channel was going quite well and we basically filmed in Gwangjang Market. We were doing that fun and the market exploration but it doesn't really have a specific theme… But we saw an old guy eating some seafood and drinking soju on his own. This makes you melancholy and sad and beautiful…. That moment in some ways has kind of become definitive of our channel because I talked to him. We didn't have a deep conversation, but there was something beautiful at that moment."

The chance meeting left him hungry for more content that allowed him to hear people's stories.

One of these videos featured an elderly woman in his neighborhood who makes a living collecting cardboard off the street. After more than a year greeting her with "Have you eaten?" they had developed a friendly relationship and he decided to make a video featuring her. He said he was initially curious about why elderly people work so hard to collect cardboard because it is something that is not seen in the U.K.

The video titled "a meal with an elderly lady who collects cardboard," released last Dec. 10, received a positive reaction from internet users, attracting more than 590,000 views. It was simply a video of the two having a meal together, but people left comments saying that they felt some warmth and were inspired to do more to help others. Another video, "a meal with a homeless man," also attracted more than 410,000 views.

Bright asserts that his intention to film the conversation with those people is not to lecture anyone or make any particular statements about social issues. Rather, he thinks it is more important to document people's lives as they are, because the stories of individuals are precious.

"Especially when you come from the Western world, they come in and say 'They don't have a good social system.' My mind doesn't go to those things. It doesn't necessarily show I am going to solve these problems. It's just this is what's going on here… Ultimately we value people as individuals…We believe everyone has a precious story," he said. "Why do I think people feel more hope through our videos? Because we're trying to show that hope."

His upbringing may have had some effect on his video content. "It wasn't a new thing for me to go and talk," he said. His parents shared their home with refugees for several years and they volunteered to give food to homeless people.

Bright, who is now married to a Korean and has a two-year-old son, stressed that sharing food is one of the most beautiful things people can do. "I love it when my son is eating something and then he goes and brings you some and he's sharing with you. It is a beautiful trait in any human being in my opinion." He also added that it is something important for Korean people as well. "If you go to the countryside of Korea, then you know if you walk 30 meters, you will see a little local restaurant selling Korean food at quite low prices, which is nice. It shows what people value even subconsciously about their lifestyle. In the U.K., you just don't have that."

A lady who attends church and collects cardboard by the Forest Path in Yeonnam-dong, Seoul Photo by Daniel Bright

This appreciation for sharing food and exploring different sides of Korea has inspired Bright to invest his time in additional projects. He held photo exhibitions in 2018 and 2019 showing pictures of old restaurants in Morene Market, a local market which is about to disappear because of a redevelopment project, and of old people who collect cardboard. They formed part of the work for his master's degree in photojournalism at University of the Arts London, which he took online. He graduated in 2019.

Bright has also written a book in Korean called "I am a Mapo resident," which documents some of his experiences.

He is planning to donate all the money from sales of his latest book to help families suffering from financial difficulties.

"I've struggled financially on my own… At the moment, I have got a job, my wife got a job, and we are just about okay. We were struggling until we got jobs… What if I give this to all people who are really practically in need? Once you have thought that, how can you not do it?"

When asked about his plans for the future, he didn't rule out the possibility of leaving Korea, but is going to stay for the meantime. Bright said he is also aiming to film more long documentary stories and publish books in Korean. More than anything else, he wants to be a good dad for his son.

"The default is actually being in Korea. It just makes sense to be here for almost every practical reason… Legally I'm allowed to be here, my wife and my son live here… Seoul is one of the safest capital cities in the world. It has got really good infrastructure. But it's not the main reason I live here. It's about where you're at psychologically and who you're around. People that surround me at the moment. I'm really inspired by the good people I live around. (Also, I want to) have loads of tattoos, eat a lot of Korean beef, and be a great dad."