Nov 28
By Rahn Kim
Being different had never been a foreign concept, even back when I was still “homegrown.” Teased for my height at my piano school by a short, insecure boy, my education of othering began at age four, the moment I sent a satisfactory kick into his unsuspecting nuts. This was my protest, my hidden potential, and my victory: the pure unadulterated resilience of a child. Too young to care about the consequences, I ignored the commotion that ensued. I ignored the little boy’s enraged mother and I ignored my own mother’s calm and collected, kind advice:
“Be careful baby. If you destroy his nuts, you’ll make him sterile.”
Seven years old, much taller and a little chubbier, the world remained as cruel as ever, and the burden on my shoulders had become a little heavier. A “big-boned” first grader daring enough to take on the older boys, I went head-to-head with the neighborhood third graders.
Nov 28
By Marie Kulik
The friendly looking disciplinarian robots, three of which are set to roam the halls of a prison in Pohang from March 2012, are programmed to notice suspicious, violent or suicidal behaviour and report it to the humans. So sneaking around a corridor before head butting someone and then having a bit of a cry, is going to bring you a robot friend.
Whilst that may sound harmless, if slightly creepy, the progress of the technological sector in the last handful of years is leading to something of a game changer, socially and militarily.
The idea of building a machine to do something that a human can do in a limited capacity is nothing new. One must however see a difference between the first solid weaving machine rocking the world in 1812, leading to a major shift in freeing up man-power and what is coming.
South Korea is unquestionably attempting to lead a robotic revolution, along with everyone else who has realised that robot personnel are the way forward.
Nov 28
By Mizaru
In the sun cased morning Sokcho is just like it’s supposed to look. The pretty blue colors on the main Yeonggeumjeong promenade offer a seaside recharge led by aquamarine everything and everywhere. Sea Women were friendly and demonstrated the accretions of a poetic life way outside the pale of fashion. Getting more familiar with the blind alleys and parallel main roads of Sokcho and its start and stop blocks of development, the overall feel for it portrays a unique place where the sea came in, picked it up and when she was finished with it, put it back wherever the waves coming in dropped it. It’s as if Sokcho was a place on the peninsula where compasses would spin out of control and nobody bothered to detect it.
Nov 28
By Stella Jang
Every time there is an important election, campaigns are held all over the country in order to encourage youths to vote. This kind of apathy towards politics is considered a serious problem since the very group of people from which some will have to be political leaders and the others will have to determine the country’s future by either supporting the leaders or criticizing them is alienating itself from reality. This way, only a few people who are deeply concerned about politics will take up the role, and the world of politics will become polarized by these extremists.
However, in order to get young people to vote and be interested in politics, politicians themselves must prove that the world of politics is not a place of incessant senseless battles. One of my friends pointed out that politicians must stop waging a war between the conservative and the progressive, but seek actual solutions to problems in reality such as the unemployment crisis or financial difficulties.
Nov 28
By Jen Lee and 3WM
It’s nearly December and the notorious Korean Mosquitoes or mogee continue to infiltrate apartments and pester occupants late in to the night. This year’s wacky weather led to a great absence of the pests in September thanks to all the flooding that basically washed them and their pools of eggs away.
Then, in November, we had some chilly weather and it seemed that they were gone for good until, over the past few days, the temps headed for the balmy range, hitting 16 degrees Celsius (60 degrees Fahrenheit) Sunday and Monday. Now they’re back and buzzing around in ninja mode.
Nov 21
Read part 1.
By Joe Lee
I remember going to the window every day and staring out at the street. It’s one of the worst experiences of my life, knowing that I was locked up and couldn’t leave if I wanted to. I wanted to leave very badly. That’s one of the things that keeps me taking my medication on a daily basis to this day—I never want to be in that situation again. And I had almost no one to talk to because I can speak only rudimentary Korean. It was the worst kind of isolation I could imagine.
Life in a Korean insane asylum is not fun. The more sane I got, the scarier things became.
Nov 21
By Yi Nam-hui
Translation by Gabriel Sylvian
Editor’s note: This is the second of several parts of Yi’s short story. Read the translator’s overview of the author here.
Read part 1.
Time Out was as different from Heaven Dust as the dirty back streets of Seoul Station are from the ritzy Apgujeong District. If Heaven Dust was a café atmosphere with natural wood flooring and plastered walls, Time Out was absolutely filthy from the first step down its front stairs. The walls of the stairwell were covered with a dizzying array of spray-painted graffiti and a mesmerizing criss-cross of slogans that recalled Rimbeau or the Surrealists: “Just gotta be modern!” “I’m an anarchist at heart!” “Kick out the zombies!” Inside, it was like walking on moon craters—your feet never completely touched the floor and every step made a rustling sound. A young man with yellow hair gelled up into large spikes was seated on the landing collecting entry fees.
Nov 21
By Peter Ward
The Korean-American Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was first mooted and drafted under the presidency of former President Roh Moo-hyun. There are many things said about Roh: he was corrupt, he was a human rights lawyer with great oratory skills, a crusader against exploitation, an idiot (바보) in the good sense of the word—i.e., a noble idiot. One thing that was emblematic of his premiership and what came before it—and what is more broadly a part of the left in South Korea—is an economic and to a certain extent politically critical posture towards the United States. To be honest this is fairly justifiable in some regards. The United States has in the past made it its own business to intervene in a country’s political system in order to install interests (often rather unpleasant to the locals) friendly to Washington.
Nov 21
By 3WM
Thousands of young adults pass through South Korea each year, teaching English in private schools that together make up one of the country’s largest industries. Korea, long isolated by culture and geography, with a complex language and set of social mores, can be a difficult place to call home. Chris Tharp has begun to make a name for himself as a travel writer, and in this gruff but affectionate memoir, explains why Korea can be both hard to like and hard to leave. He navigates his way through the timeless alleys and neon streets of Korea’s cities, painting a picture of a society that is at once ancient and utterly modern; he serves in the trenches of the English teaching industry, working his way from the private, for-profit academy to the university; he treks through the peninsula’s mountain valleys and rides deep into the country’s rural soul on the back of his motorcycle; he also explores the internal geography of Korea, from nearly being deported over a comedy performance, getting caught in the middle of a street riot, to staring face-to-face with North Korean soldiers along the DMZ.
Nov 21
By 3WM
Be at the Rocky Mountain Tavern at least 1 hour before your set, or come down at 9 p.m. to enjoy the entire 5 hour program
This year there will be a public guitar raffle– $2 to enter or KRW2,000. Also drink specials add $1 to your drink and enter the Raffle.
Giveaways for the artists include, Olympia Strings and straps, Samick guitar, studio rehearsal time as well as cash prize.
A total 1 million is up for grabs.
Nov 14
Eventually, my behavior grew so outlandish in public that I got picked up by the Korean equivalent of the guys with butterfly nets. I think the thing that got me picked up was that I was on my knees at some random place in Seoul yelling, “This is real! This is real!” at the top of my lungs. I think that’s what happened. All I know is the next thing I knew I was in the back of a Seoul hospital van.
Only later did I learn that somehow the American Embassy got involved and someone from there met me at the emergency room. While I waited to be admitted, I proceeded to follow a “crack in time” that had developed in the universe. The embassy official was obviously concerned but, as I found out later, they don’t have the immediate ability to escort someone who’s mentally unstable out of the hospital, back to the embassy where travel itinerary back to the U.S. will be scheduled. It is beyond their control. They could only notify my family and try to ensure that I wouldn’t be thrown into some rusty basement.
Nov 14
By Jake Reed
Six years after first moving to Asia and I find myself becoming lazy. Lazy in my desire to care about China’s track record with respect to abusing human rights, purposely manipulating its currency and just about everything Fox News blames China for. The laziness comes out in my compliance at being on the outside looking in. Getting stared at, being cut in line, and putting up with jeering from way too serious local coworkers have become part of my 9-5. I’ve become indifferent to the expensive foreigner markets, the special foreigner price at most restaurants and the local girls ephemeral charms that hide evil intent. Despite all this and heaps more, I still choose People’s Square as the place where I close my eyes and open them to the ever-present Shanghai grey.
Take a walk anywhere and eventually you’ll run into landscapes where run-down buildings meet novel, haste-induced architecture. Building materials decorate half-finished constructions. A Chinese friend once laughingly told me that the haste and lack of quality in the construction biz is done in order to insure future jobs.
Nov 14
By Simon Phillips
On December 4, a motley crew of academics, explorers, and journalists will pioneer a journey which has been about five years in incubatio—following in the footsteps of the ancient Korean monk Wonhyo across the Korean Peninsula.
The pilgrimage is the first one of its kind ever undertaken in honor of Korea’s best-known Buddhist hero, who found enlightenment in Dangjin in the 7th Century while attempting to sail to China.
It will start from Gyeongju—former capital of the Buddhist Silla kingdom where Wonhyo lived, and end in Dangjin, on the west coast of South Chungcheong Province (south of Incheon). The pilgrims will travel mostly on foot along provincial roadways and mountain-trails.
Nov 14
By Scott Freeman
Marvin Smith is a legend within the Northern Soul and Soul Circuit. (Yes, I do use the present tense to describe him because in so far as I know he is still with us.) I could give you his full resume, but you can easily Google his name to find out that information.
Suffice it to say that he was a fixture throughout the 60s Chicago soul scene and most noted for his involvement with “The Artistics,” a soul group that put out a handful of LPs and 45s on local Chicago labels (Okeh and Brunswick).
The 45 you see before you is the second to last 45 that Marvin ever cut. This soul gem is on the Mayfield label, another Chicago label owned by the one-and-only Curtis Mayfield. (The influence of Curtis Mayfield on the soul scene, past-present-future, is undeniable. You will surely see him mentioned in future Funky Seoul Corners…) If you look at the 45 closer, you will also see Mayfield’s name listed as both the producer and the writer of the featured track, “You’re Really Something Sadie.”
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