I was so excited when opening up the "Cranes" reading to finally read something that's more in my wheelhouse after trying to make sense of the dense Robinson texts and so many other historic/economic texts that I don't have the context/preexisting knowledge to fully make sense of. I'm so glad that we're getting to consider how the writers of the time sought to make sense of the changing world around them. 

I was really struck by the timing of the story. It's interesting that Hwang Sunwon chose to write about the Korean War in 1953 while the events were still so current. It seems like nothing of the present time is often immediately written into literature, so I appreciate his timely response to what was his reality at the time. The story's really beautiful in its brevity and somewhat vague ending. It's so natural to sympathize with the narrator, but when the narrator contrasts his own decision to leave his father and chilren behind when the North Korean forces arrive against his childhood friend's decision to stay in their town in order to care for his father, it's clear that his friend is the more honorable and heroic of the two. It's interesting that hearing of his friend's loyalty seems to be what inspires the narrator to take the risk to set his friend free at the last moment. 

The title of this short story also reminded me of an essay I love from The Paris Review that's adapted from a Japanese folktale. It's mostly Western, but still has some link to Japanese (not Korean), and it's a BEAUTIFUL read (if anyone's interested): https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/07/16/the-crane-wife/

I found this story interesting. Dr. Lee is never going to be my best friend, but his sense of survival is “Adapt or die”. We often hear stories of people leading rebellion against their captors, dying bravely in battle or fighting a guerrilla war against the occupiers. This story is about a man who reads a situation and tries to find a way to live through it. No hero stuff here. Even in his personal life, he gives into the situations with his children or his wife dying. He’s a rule follower, no matter who is making the rules. If put into a tough, unknown situation, he will read the propaganda text and find a way to use it. When he spots something that may help his situation, he will file it away until it’s time to use it. Obviously, his skill as a doctor helped him through these tough times, but his chameleon-like skill at adaptation is what saves his neck many, many times.

"Cranes" was a well written piece showing the conflicting emotions of two childhood friends who end up on opposite sides of the Korean conflict.  An officer chooses to escort his friend, now turned enemy, to another location where he most likely will be executed.  As they walk, he angrily asks his friend how many he has killed in the conflict.  During this conversation, he can't help but recollect their time as boys climbing a chestnut tree and capturing a crane as a pet.  He recalls how close they had become (his friend pulling chestnut burrs out of his rearend!).  He also recalls the compassion he had for the crane they had captured.  Even though they had captured it and kept it bound, when they knew it was in danger of dying, they immediately set it free.  The ending is open to interpretation, but I like to think that as he recounts the compassion they had for an injured bird, he realizes he should have compassion on his bound prisoner/childhood friend.  

Cynthia, I too find Dr. Kim interesting and am also enjoying her incentives and ways of keeping student's attention. I was also happy to know she is one of the teachers at the Korean Cultural Center for the language program. There are Koreans everywhere, the slide of the diaspora showed this. 

It was new learning for me to see that older males and brides from vietnam and phillipines are hooking up. Korean women will not mary rural men because it is a lot of work, hence they have to bring in women from other countries that will. Further, upon learning about sex workers, Korean women prefer more upscale clients and have left the american bases to filipino women.

Further, upon discussing famine in North Korea I was able to see how party kids (children of politicians workers) were more nourished than non party kids, yet they all go to the same school I am sure this may cause some resentment that goes unvoiced.  Additionally,  I learned that children are blond when malnourished.

Iris, I wanted to respond to your comment about how older males having to bring women from other countries to marry them. A lot of times, these women come to South Korea for find work for example house keeping. And in order to stay in Korea, they find husbands in order to keep their visas and live in Korea. I wonder if these women come to Korea to find refuge and somehow realized that the easiest way to get a visa is by marrying Korean older males. I remember there were several dramas showing this happening in Korean society where these women, who have darker skin and bigger eyes, live in korean households and serve the family and it leads to affairs and etc. Anyways just wanted to share some things to add on to what Professor Jung mentioned tonight. 

Cynthia, I totally agree! I am a fan of any presenter that uses Choco-Pies as an incentive! I too was very surprised that the Soviets granted the North Koreans so much autonomy and both the Soviets & Americans spent so much time cracking down on suspected "sympathizers" of captialism/communism, respectively. The map that Dr. Jung Kim used I also found very enlightening in explaining the constant shifting of power and how "destined" the war was, with all the factors at play. I think an effective lesson would be having students work to debate who truly was "to blame" for the Korean War (the U.S. for dividing Korea? the USSR for advancing socialism? Korea itself for not forming a coalition government in 1948?). It would help students break their illusion of America constantly being a "benevolent" force in global relations, by revealing America's great instances of ignorance. (A powerful example would be sharing how the U.S. slaughtered a ton of Korean civilians, simply because they couldn't distinguish between North & South Koreans.)

One of the features of Professor Jung-Kim's lecture that I found most fascinating was the explanation of the procession of Presidents at the beginning of South Korea's "road to democratization." I think it would be fascinating to have students compare a list of the South Korean Presidents to a list of America's own Presidents and have students compare/contrast the styles of presidencies. Also, having students evaluate Syngman Rhee would be fascinating, by asking students to perform their own research on his mysterious misdeeds (the 1956 execution of his opponent, the ballot-stuffing in his VP election, etc.) Also it might be interesting to have students analyze how the student revolutions in April 1960 & 1980 had an impact on the SK government and have high school students identify what student protests in the United States have had a similar profound effect. Even having students analyze the value of SK's yearly candelight vigil (that started back in the term of Myung-bak) would be a learning activity that required critical thinking. Asking questions to stimulate student thinking might be: "Are there any annual vigils that occur in the U.S.? What might America be able to learn from the culture of South Korean civil resistance?" I think the more students compare/contrast their own culture to another's, the more students may begin thinking of themselves as global citizens...